Tag: Trump campaign

Roger Stone Sold Himself to Trump’s Campaign as a WikiLeaks Pipeline. Was He?

Senior Trump campaign officials have told investigators that they viewed Roger J. Stone Jr. as a conduit to WikiLeaks during the 2016 campaign. Credit: Jenna Schoenefeld for The New York Times

WASHINGTON — When the WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, appeared on a video link from Europe a month before the 2016 presidential election and vaguely promised to release a flood of purloined documents related to the race, the head of Donald J. Trump’s campaign, Stephen K. Bannon, was interested.

He emailed the political operative Roger J. Stone Jr., who had been trying to reach him for days about what Mr. Assange might have in store. “What was that this morning???” Mr. Bannon asked on Oct. 4.

“A load every week going forward,” Mr. Stone replied, echoing Mr. Assange’s public vow to publish documents on a weekly basis until the Nov. 8 election.

View the complete November 1 article by Sharon LaFraniere, Michale Schmidt, Maggie Haberman and Danny Hakim on the New York Times website here.

Drama builds around Stone in Mueller probe

Robert Mueller continues to zero in on Roger Stone as speculation builds that the special counsel could take a major overt step in his Russia investigation following the midterm elections next week.

Stone, a longtime adviser to President Trump who briefly worked on his campaign, is viewed as central to the question of what, if anything, members of the Trump campaign knew in advance about Democratic emails hacked by Russian operatives and then released by WikiLeaks.

Legal analysts say Mueller is likely interested in determining whether the campaign helped coordinate the document dump, and views Stone as key to making that judgment.

View the complete November 3 article by Morgan Chalfant on The Hill website here.

Text Messages Show That Roger Stone Sought Presidential Pardon for WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange

Roger Stone is busted.

Credit: Screenshot, Raw Story

Mother Jones is reporting that on January 6, Roger Stone—veteran Republican Party operative and an advisor to President Donald Trump—sent a series of text messages to comedian/activist Randy Credico stating that he was actively seeking a presidential pardon for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

“I am working with others to get JA a blanket pardon,” Stone wrote in a January 6 exchange of text messages obtained by Mother Jones. “It’s very real and very possible. Don’t fuck it up.” And in a separate text written 35 minutes later, Stone added, “Something very big about to go down!”

The 66-year-old Stone is among the many Trump associates who has become a focus of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia-related investigation. And although Assange hasn’t been charged with any crimes in the U.S., Mueller’s office has been examining Stone’s efforts to secure a blanket presidential pardon for the Wikileaks founder. Prosecutors for the U.S. Justice Department have been keeping an eye on Assange since 2010, when more than 250,000 diplomatic cables were released by WikiLeaks.

View the complete October 25 article by Alex Henderson on the AlterNet.org website here.

Rick Gates Sought Online Manipulation Plans From Israeli Intelligence Firm for Trump Campaign

Rick Gates, a top Trump campaign aide, expressed interest in an Israeli company’s proposal for a social media manipulation effort in 2016, documents and interviews show. Credit: Damon Winter, The New York Times

WASHINGTON — A top Trump campaign official requested proposals in 2016 from an Israeli company to create fake online identities, to use social media manipulation and to gather intelligence to help defeat Republican primary race opponents and Hillary Clinton, according to interviews and copies of the proposals.

The Trump campaign’s interest in the work began as Russians were escalating their effort to aid Donald J. Trump. Though the Israeli company’s pitches were narrower than Moscow’s interference campaign and appear unconnected, the documents show that a senior Trump aide saw the promise of a disruption effort to swing voters in Mr. Trump’s favor.

The campaign official, Rick Gates, sought one proposal to use bogus personas to target and sway 5,000 delegates to the 2016 Republican National Convention by attacking Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, Mr. Trump’s main opponent at the time. Another proposal describes opposition research and “complementary intelligence activities” about Mrs. Clinton and people close to her, according to copies of the proposals obtained by The New York Times and interviews with four people involved in creating the documents.

View the complete October 8 article by Mark Mazzetti, Ronen Bergman, David D. Kirkpatrick and Maggie Haberman on the New York Times website here.

Mueller threat to Trump grows with Manafort deal

Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort’s deal agreeing to cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller poses a new danger to President Trump and his inner circle by providing prosecutors with additional inside information they previously would not have had, legal experts reacting to the news told The Hill.

Even voices that have been deeply critical of Mueller’s actions said it is definitely a big win for the special counsel to have secured cooperation from Manafort, though they cautioned that is remains unclear exactly what Manafort has.

“Potentially, [Manafort’s guilty plea] opens up lots of doors that probably haven’t been opened before,” Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, who has frequently defended Trump over Mueller’s probe, said during a Friday appearance on MSNBC.

Want to Know More About: The Mueller Investigation

John Avalon: “The Whole Point Of The Trump Team’s Legal Strategy Has Been To Influence The Court Of Opinion, To Run Down Mueller For Months And To Presumably Have Trump Benefit From That. It Does Not Seem To Have Worked.” JOHN AVALON: “I think what’s significant about these piping hot fresh poll numbers is the whole point of the Trump team’s legal strategy has been to influence the court of opinion, to run down Mueller for months and to presumably have Trump benefit from that. It does not seem to have worked. Impressions of Robert Mueller have improved over that period of time on his handling of the Russian probe.That to me is the starkest thing. The stated strategy of the Trump team in playing the public? Not working.” [New Day, CNN, 9/12/18; Video]

John Avalon: “Impressions Of Robert Mueller Have Improved Over That Period Of Time On His Handling Of The Russian Probe. That To Me Is The Starkest Thing. The Stated Strategy Of The Trump Team In Playing The Public? Not Working.” JOHN AVALON: “I think what’s significant about these piping hot fresh poll numbers is the whole point of the Trump team’s legal strategy has been to influence the court of opinion, to run down Mueller for months and to presumably have Trump benefit from that. It does not seem to have worked. Impressions of Robert Mueller have improved over that period of time on his handling of the Russian probe.That to me is the starkest thing. The stated strategy of the Trump team in playing the public? Not working.” [New Day, CNN, 9/12/18; Video] Continue reading “Want to Know More About: The Mueller Investigation”

Papadopoulos sentenced to 14 days in jail in Mueller probe

The following article by Morgan Chalfant was posted on the Hill website September 7, 2018:

George Papadopoulos Credit: Agence France-Presse. Getty Images

Former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos has been sentenced to 14 days in federal prison and one year supervised release for lying to FBI investigators about his Russia contacts.

Papadopoulos, who pleaded guilty in October to lying to FBI agents, is the first Trump campaign official to be sentenced as part of special counsel Robert Mueller‘s probe into Russia’s election interference.

The former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser was also sentenced on Friday afternoon in federal court in Washington, D.C., to 200 hours of community service and faces a $9,500 fine.

View the complete article here.

Want to Know More About: The Mueller-Trump Interview

Mika Brzezinski: “In An Interview With The AP Yesterday Giuliani Said President Trump Will Not Answer Federal Investigators Questions In Writing Or In Person About Whether He Tried To Block The Probe Into Russian Interference In The 2016 Election.” [Morning Joe, MSNBC, 9/7/18; VIDEO]

George Stephanopoulos: “New Developments In The Mueller Investigation. Rudy Giuliani Really Seeming To Be Throwing Down The Gauntlet Saying Now The President Won’t Take Any Questions, Even Written Questions About Obstruction Of Justice.” STEPHANOPOULOS: “overnight new developments in the Mueller investigation. Rudy Giuliani really seeming to be throwing down the gauntlet saying now the president won’t take any questions, even written questions about obstruction of justice.” KARL: “Yeah, extraordinary statements by the president’s lawyer. He says that — he says no questions written or in person.” [Good Morning America, ABC, 9/7/18; VIDEO]

Susan Del Percio: “I Think At This Point Mueller Probably Has Everything Laid Out That He Needs So If The President Responds In Writing Or Not He Has It.” SUSAN DEL PERCIO: “I think at this point Mueller probably has everything laid out that he needs so if the president responds in writing or not he has it. What’s really interesting it’s right after labor day that line in the sand that Rudy Giuliani was saying we can talk about the Mueller investigation and should be suspended. He’s the one, not Mueller’s team, who is talking about this investigation, who is talking about questioning the president. So I think as far as everyone goes we now have to look at it, it’s no longer an issue if you talk about it based on the president’s team.” [Morning Joe, MSNBC, 9/7/18; VIDEO]

‘Yet Another Win for Bob Mueller’: Former Prosecutor Says the New Guilty Plea Shows the Russia Probe Is Not Slowing Down

The following article by Matthew Chapman was posted on the AlterNet website August 31, 2018:

After another week of Russia revelations, Guy Lewis has bad news for Trump: it is not going to stop soon.

On Friday, Sam Patten, a former associate of President Donald Trump’s former campaign chair Paul Manafort, was charged by federal prosecutors in the District of Columbia with failing to register as a foreign agent working on behalf of Ukrainian politicians, and pleaded guilty to illegally diverting foreign funds into Trump’s inauguration and lying to Congress. He has now reportedly secured a cooperation agreement with prosecutors.

While the charges were not directly brought by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who recently secured an eight-count conviction against Manafort himself, the case against Patten originated with a referral from Mueller’s team.

And according to former U.S. Attorney Guy Lewis, who worked with Mueller at the Justice Department, it is a sign that Mueller’s broad-based investigation is not going anywhere.

View the complete article here.

Former Trump adviser Papadopoulos asks judge to spare him jail time

The following article by Spencer S. Hsu and Rosalind S. Helderman was posted on the Washington Post website September 1, 2018:

Trump officials have tried to cast George Papadopoulos as a low-level figure on the campaign, but documents show extensive contact with top campaign officials. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)

Candidate Donald Trump “nodded with approval” when a former campaign adviser suggested a meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladi­mir Putin in 2016, according to a court filing by lawyers seeking a lighter sentence for the adviser, who has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his Russia contacts during the campaign.

The description of the meeting with Trump and then-Sen. Jeff Sessions was revealed Friday in the filing, which argued that George Papadopoulos should be spared jail time because his lies did not hinder the special counsel’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

In the filing, the attorneys asked U.S. District Judge Randolph D. Moss to put Papadopoulos on probation at his sentencing, which is set for Friday. They said claims that his falsehoods impeded prosecutors with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III were “speculative and contrary to the evidence.”

View the complete article here.