Tag: Trump campaign

Senate GOP wary of ending Russia probes, despite pressure

The following article by Alexander Bolton was posted on the Hill website December 18, 2017:

© Greg Nash

Senate Republicans are showing no signs they will wrap up their Russia investigations soon despite pressure from the White House.

They’re also pushing back on the prospect that President Trump will fire special counsel Robert Mueller, which they fear would spark a backlash that could hurt the GOP in next fall’s midterm elections.

“Everybody knows that if Trump fired Mueller it would be interpreted by everybody who writes about this as evidence that he’s done something wrong,” said a strategist close to the Senate GOP leadership. Continue reading “Senate GOP wary of ending Russia probes, despite pressure”

FBI warned Trump in 2016 Russians would try to infiltrate his campaign

The following article by Ken Dilanian, Julia Ainsey and Carol E. Lee was posted on the NBC News website December 19, 2017:

WASHINGTON — In the weeks after he became the Republican nominee on July 19, 2016, Donald Trump was warned that foreign adversaries, including Russia, would probably try to spy on and infiltrate his campaign, according to multiple government officials familiar with the matter.

The warning came in the form of a high-level counterintelligence briefing by senior FBI officials, the officials said. A similar briefing was given to Hillary Clinton, they added. They said the briefings, which are commonly provided to presidential nominees, were designed to educate the candidates and their top aides about potential threats from foreign spies. Continue reading “FBI warned Trump in 2016 Russians would try to infiltrate his campaign”

Special counsel has thousands of Trump transition emails: report

The following article by Max Greenwood was posted on the Hill website December 16, 2017:

Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III is shown testifying before a 2013 Senate Intelligence Committee hearing when he was FBI director. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)

Special counsel Robert Mueller’s team of investigators is in possession of tens of thousands of emails from the Trump transition team, Axios reported Saturday.

Those emails include messages belonging to President Trump‘s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, as well as other members of the transition team’s political leadership and the foreign policy team, according to Axios.

Mueller’s prosecutors reportedly used the emails to question witnesses, and are also looking to the messages to confirm information and follow new leads. Continue reading “Special counsel has thousands of Trump transition emails: report”

Music promoter dangled possible Putin meeting for Trump during campaign

The following article by Rosalind S. Helderman and Tom Hamburger was posted on the Washington Post website December 14, 2017:

British music promoter Rob Goldstone in 2015 suggested a meeting between Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. (Bastien Inzaurralde/The Washington Post)

About a month after Donald Trump launched his presidential bid, a British music promoter suggested his Russian pop-star client could arrange for the new candidate to meet with Russian President Vladi­mir Putin, according to an email obtained by The Washington Post.

The July 2015 offer by publicist Rob Goldstone came about a year before he set up a meeting for Trump’s eldest son with a Russian lawyer who he said had incriminating information about Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

Goldstone’s overture came as he unsuccessfully urged Trump to travel to Moscow later that year to attend a birthday celebration for his client’s father.

“Maybe he would welcome a meeting with President Putin,” Goldstone wrote in a July 24, 2015, email to Trump’s longtime personal assistant, Rhona Graff. There is no indication Trump or his assistant followed up on Goldstone’s offer.

The invitation is the latest example to emerge of efforts to broker a meeting between the Kremlin and Trump Tower during the campaign. The timing of Goldstone’s offer served as a reminder of the high-level contacts that Trump had in Russia as he ramped up his White House run.

The email exchange is among thousands of pages of internal Trump documents that have been turned over to investigators examining Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Scott Balber, an attorney for the pop star Emin Agalarov, said Agalarov asked Goldstone to invite Trump to his father’s party but was not aware that the publicist dangled the possibility of meeting with Putin.

“It is certainly not the case that Emin Agalarov can arrange a meeting with Vladi­mir Putin for anybody,” Balber said.

Goldstone’s attorney, Robert Gage, declined to comment, as did Alan Futerfas, an attorney for Graff.

But Futerfas expressed concern that material provided to investigators has been shared with the media.

“We are disappointed that documents continue to be selectively leaked from confidential investigations,” said Futerfas, who last week called for an investigation into the leaking of information provided to the House Intelligence Committee.

Trump’s relationship with Emin Agalarov and his father, Aras, a wealthy Moscow developer, dated to 2013, when they licensed the Trump-owned Miss Universe pageant and brought it to Moscow. During Trump’s visit to Moscow for the event, he appeared in a music video for an Emin Agalarov song that was filmed at the Ritz-Carlton hotel. Following the pageant, Aras Agalarov discussed a possible real estate development deal with Trump in Moscow, but the project never materialized.

Emin Agalarov is an Azerbaijani singer who moved to Moscow and is at the center of the latest controversy to hit the Trump administration. (Victoria Walker/The Washington Post)

Goldstone, a publicist for Emin Agalarov, reached out several times to Trump’s inner circle during the presidential race. In early 2016, he sent an email to Donald Trump Jr. to discuss the idea of setting up a page for Trump’s campaign on VK, the Russian equivalent of Facebook. Later in the year, he brokered a meeting between Trump Jr. and Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya.

Congressional investigators have sought more information about his interactions with the Trump Organization. Goldstone was interviewed Thursday, according to people familiar with the session. Continue reading “Music promoter dangled possible Putin meeting for Trump during campaign”

Trump Junior’s Privilege Claim Recalls Failed Effort To Shield Marcos

The following article by Joe Conason was posted on the National Memo website December 10, 2017:

Long before Donald Trump, Jr. claimed “attorney-client privilege” to avoid answering questions before the House Intelligence Committee, that claim was tested and wisely rejected by Congress. Appropriately enough, that prior case also featured a real estate executive who was summoned to testify about suspected connections with a foreign dictator — and tried to avoid questions in a Congressional hot seat.

Appearing on December 6 before the intelligence committee, the president’s eldest son specifically declined to answer questions about a crucial conversation with his father. That chat occurred last July, when the two Donalds discussed how to cope with the release of a series of emails that showed Junior had met with Russians offering “dirt” on Hillary Clinton during the 2016 campaign. Continue reading “Trump Junior’s Privilege Claim Recalls Failed Effort To Shield Marcos”

As Russia probes progress, one name is missing: Bannon’s

The following article by Darren Samuelsohn was posted on the Politico website December 11, 2017:

People close to the probe say the former campaign and White House strategist will be a key witness for prosecutors and Hill investigators.

Steve Bannon’s name has surfaced a handful of times in the special counsel and congressional investigations of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. | Drew Angerer/Getty Images

As special Russia counsel Robert Mueller wraps up interviews with senior current and former White House staff, one name has been conspicuously absent from public chatter surrounding the probe: Steve Bannon.

President Donald Trump’s former White House chief strategist and campaign chief executive played critical roles in episodes that have become central to Mueller’s probe as well as to multiple Hill investigations.

Bannon was a key bystander when Trump decided to fire national security adviser Michael Flynn, who pleaded guilty earlier this month to lying to federal investigators about his contacts with foreign officials. He was among those Trump consulted before firing FBI Director James Comey, whose dismissal prompted Mueller’s appointment — a decision Bannon subsequently described to “60 Minutes” as the biggest mistake “in modern political history.” Continue reading “As Russia probes progress, one name is missing: Bannon’s”

For Trump adviser at center of Russia probe, a rapid rise and dramatic fall in his ancestral land

The following article by Griff Witte was posted on the Washington Post website December 10, 2017:

Greece’s defence minister Panos Kammenos (3rd from left) and Russia’s president Vladimir Putin review an honor guard during an arrival ceremony at the Athens Airport. (Alexei Druzhinin/TASS)

ATHENS — A brass band played, fighter jets streaked the clear blue sky and a red carpet adorned the airport tarmac on the day in May 2016 when Vladimir Putin came to Athens for a visit.

“Mr. President, welcome to Greece,” the Greek defense minister, Panos Kammenos, said in Russian as he smiled broadly and greeted a stone-faced Putin at the base of the stairs from the plane.

Kammenos, a pro-Russian Greek nationalist who bragged often of his insider Moscow connections, would receive a second key visitor that day, but with considerably less fanfare.

Not yet 30 years old, George Papadopoulos had been unknown in Greece — and everywhere else — only two months before. Continue reading “For Trump adviser at center of Russia probe, a rapid rise and dramatic fall in his ancestral land”

House Dem: ‘We’ve seen a lot of contact’ between Trump campaign and Russians

The following article by Mallory Shelbourne was posted on the Hill website December 10, 2017:

© Greg Nash

Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) said Sunday that the House Intelligence Committee has “seen a lot of contact” between President Trump’s campaign and Russia during the course of its investigation.

“You know, we’ve seen a lot of contact. We’ve seen a desire to get dirt, a desire to work with the Russians, a desire to contact the Russians,” Himes told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

“The question is — was there some form — and it is a question, I don’t want to prejudice the outcome — was there cooperation?”

Himes, who sits on the panel, said it matters if there was “follow up” between Donald Trump Jr. and the Russian lawyer who promised damaging information about Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

“So the question before us now is what happened afterward. Was there follow up?” Himes said.

Himes said Trump Jr., who met with the House Intelligence Committee last week as part of its investigation into Russia’s election meddling and any potential ties between Trump campaign staff and the Kremlin, was “forthcoming” in the meeting.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the ranking member of the committee, said Trump Jr. refused to answer questions about his conversation with the president about the meeting with the Russian lawyer. Trump Jr. invoked attorney-client privilege, claiming there was a lawyer present, Schiff said.

View the post here.

Paul Manafort says he edited Ukraine op-ed, is silent on colleague’s alleged ties to Russian intelligence

The following article by Spencer S. Hsu was posted on the Washington Post website December 7, 2017:

Paul Manafort, President Trump’s former campaign chairman, arrives at the courthouse on Nov. 2. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)

Attorneys for former Trump campaign chairman Paul Man­afort acknowledged Thursday that he edited an opinion piece for a Ukraine newspaper but did not publicly address allegations by special counsel prosecutors that he drafted it with a former colleague with ties to Russian intelligence.

Manafort’s defense argued in a court filing to a federal judge in Washington that Manafort’s work on the op-ed piece for an English-language newspaper in Kiev defending himself did not violate a court gag order because it would not likely bias potential jurors in any U.S. trial.

Manafort, 68, and his longtime deputy, Rick Gates, 45, have pleaded not guilty to criminal charges filed Oct. 30, the first in the probe by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III into Russian influence in the 2016 presidential election. Continue reading “Paul Manafort says he edited Ukraine op-ed, is silent on colleague’s alleged ties to Russian intelligence”

Russian social media executive sought to help Trump campaign in 2016, emails show

The following article by Rosalind S. Helderman, Anton Troianovski and Tom Hamburger was posted on the Washington Post website December 7, 2017:

Russian social media site VK is seen on a smartphone screen. (Natalia Seliverstova/Sputnik/Associated Press)

An executive at a leading Russian social media company made several overtures to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in 2016 — including days before the November election — urging the candidate to create a page on the website to appeal to Russian Americans and Russians.

The executive at Vkontakte, or VK, Russia’s equivalent to Facebook, emailed Donald Trump Jr. and social media director Dan Scavino in January and again in November of last year, offering to help promote Trump’s campaign to its nearly 100 million users, according to people familiar with the messages.

“It will be the top news in Russia,” Konstantin Sidorkov, who serves as VK’s director of partnership marketing, wrote on Nov. 5, 2016. Continue reading “Russian social media executive sought to help Trump campaign in 2016, emails show”