The following article from the Voice of America was posted on the National Memo website December 7, 2017:
Donald Trump Jr. refused to answer questions from lawmakers Wednesday about conversations he had with his father, then-presidential candidate Donald Trump, about his controversial Trump Tower meeting with Russian operatives in June 2016.
Trump Jr. avoided reporters and entered the Capitol through a back door before facing more than eight hours of questions from the House Intelligence Committee.
The committee is investigating possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Attorney-client privilege cited
The committee’s top Democrat, California’s Adam Schiff, said the younger Trump answered most of their questions, but claimed attorney-client privilege when declining to comment about the meeting he had with the Russians. Continue reading “Trump Jr. Rebuffs Questions At House Hearing”
The following article by Karoun Demirjian and Rosalind S. Helderman was posted on the Washington Post website December 6, 2017:
Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) said Donald Trump Jr. did not answer some questions in a closed hearing on Dec. 6. (The Washington Post)
Donald Trump Jr. met behind closed doors for roughly seven hours Wednesday with the House Intelligence committee, fielding extensive questioning about contacts he had with Russians during the 2016 campaign.
The following article by Rosalind S. Helderman and Spencer S. Hsu was posted on the Washington Post website December 4, 2017:
Paul Manafort, President Trump’s former campaign chairman, arrives at the courthouse on Nov. 2. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
Federal prosecutors asserted Monday that a longtime associate of Paul Manafort, the former chairman of President Trump’s campaign, has been “assessed to have ties” to Russian intelligence — the first time the special counsel has alleged a Trump official had such contacts.
The statement came as prosecutors working for special counsel Robert S. Mueller III withdrew their support for a joint bail deal filed last week that would have released Manafort from home detention and GPS monitoring while he awaits trial on charges including money laundering and fraud.
The following article by Nicholas Fandos was posted on the New York Times website December 3, 2017:
Donald J. Trump, then the Republican presidential nominee, speaking at the National Rifle Association convention in Louisville, Ky., in May 2016. Credit Ty Wright for The New York Times
WASHINGTON — A conservative operative trumpeting his close ties to the National Rifle Association and Russia told a Trump campaign adviser last year that he could arrange a back-channel meeting between Donald J. Trump and Vladimir V. Putin, the Russian president, according to an email sent to the Trump campaign.
A May 2016 email to the campaign adviser, Rick Dearborn, bore the subject line “Kremlin Connection.” In it, the N.R.A. member said he wanted the advice of Mr. Dearborn and Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, then a foreign policy adviser to Mr. Trump and Mr. Dearborn’s longtime boss, about how to proceed in connecting the two leaders.
Russia, he wrote, was “quietly but actively seeking a dialogue with the U.S.” and would attempt to use the N.R.A.’s annual convention in Louisville, Ky., to make “ ‘first contact.’ ” The email, which was among a trove of campaign-related documents turned over to investigators on Capitol Hill, was described in detail to The New York Times. Continue reading “Operative Offered Trump Campaign ‘Kremlin Connection’ Using N.R.A. Ties”
The following article by Michael S. Schmidt, Sharon LaFraniere and Scott Shane was posted on the New York Times website December 2, 2017:
Michael T. Flynn, right, on Feb. 10, three days before he was fired as national security adviser. Credit Doug Mills/The New York Times
WASHINGTON — When President Trump fired his national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, in February, White House officials portrayed him as a renegade who had acted independently in his discussions with a Russian official during the presidential transition and then lied to his colleagues about the interactions.
But emails among top transition officials, provided or described to The New York Times, suggest that Mr. Flynn was far from a rogue actor. In fact, the emails, coupled with interviews and court documents filed on Friday, showed that Mr. Flynn was in close touch with other senior members of the Trump transition team both before and after he spoke with the Russian ambassador, Sergey I. Kislyak, about American sanctions against Russia.
While Mr. Trump has disparaged as a Democratic “hoax” any claims that he or his aides had unusual interactions with Russian officials, the records suggest that the Trump transition team was intensely focused on improving relations with Moscow and was willing to intervene to pursue that goal despite a request from the Obama administration that it not sow confusion about official American policy before Mr. Trump took office. Continue reading “Emails Dispute White House Claims That Flynn Acted Independently on Russia”
The following article by Aaron Blake was posted on the Washington Post website December 2, 2017:
President Donald Trump, in his first comment on Michael Flynn’s guilty plea to lying to the FBI, said there was “absolutely no collusion” between his campaign a (Reuters)
Update: The Post is now reporting that the tweet was authored by Trump’s personal lawyer, John Dowd, according to two people familiar with the situation. The fact that Dowd authored the tweet could limit its salience to the investigation, but the White House still hasn’t publicly corrected anything.
The following article by Michael Kranish was posted on the Washington Post website December 2, 2017:
Then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks to supporters at his primary election night event at his Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Fla., on March 15, 2016. At right is his son, Eric Trump, and at left is campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. (Gerald Herbert/AP)
Elton John blares so loudly on Donald Trump’s campaign plane that staffers can’t hear themselves think. Press secretary Hope Hicks uses a steamer to press Trump’s pants — while he is still wearing them. Trump screams at his top aides, who are subjected to expletive-filled tirades in which they get their “face ripped off.”
And Trump’s appetite seems to know no bounds when it comes to McDonald’s, with a dinner order consisting of “two Big Macs, two Fillet-O-Fish, and a chocolate malted.”
The scenes are among the most surreal passages in a forthcoming book chronicling Trump’s path to the presidency co-written by Corey Lewandowski, who was fired as Trump’s campaign manager, and David Bossie, another top aide. The book, “Let Trump Be Trump,” paints a portrait of a campaign with an untested candidate and staff rocketing from crisis to crisis, in which Lewandowski and a cast of mostly neophyte political aides learn on the fly and ultimately accept Trump’s propensity to go angrily off message. Continue reading “Trump’s campaign: Big Macs, screaming fits and constant rivalries”
The following article by David L. Phillips was posted on the AlterNet website November 21, 2017:
Another chapter in the Trump administration’s foreign collusion.
Then-national security adviser Michael Flynn at the White House in February. Credit: Carolyn Kaster, AP
When he started investigating General Michael T. Flynn, Special Counsel Robert Mueller concentrated on his income and undisclosed contacts with Russian officials. Now, however, Mueller’s investigation has broadened to include Flynn’s business with Turkey. Flynn faces possible fraud and money-laundering charges for failing to disclose a payment of $530,000 from the Turkish government. (The Foreign Agent Registration Act, FARA, requires disclosure of work for foreign governments, including details about compensation.) Flynn could also face conspiracy and kidnapping charges for allegedly negotiating a payment of $15 million to deliver to Turkey Fethullah Gülen, an Islamic cleric and political foe of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Gülen has lived in exile in the United States since 1999; he was granted permanent residence in 2008. The Turkish government accuses him of orchestrating the coup attempt in July 2016 and imprisoned thousands of his followers.
If indicted on these charges, Flynn could end up in jail for a long time. (Lawyers for Flynn have denied the kidnapping allegations, which were first reported by The Wall Street Journal.) Alternatively, Flynn and his son, Michael Flynn Jr., who works with him at the Flynn Intel Group, a lobbying firm in Virginia, can avoid jail time by becoming cooperating witnesses in Mueller’s investigation. Flynn was an integral part of the Trump campaign and briefly served the Trump administration as national security adviser. If the Trump campaign colluded with Russians—for example, to coordinate the release of hacked emails embarrassing to Hillary Clinton and a social media campaign to influence voters—Flynn would probably know. Mueller has already brought charges against Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, his associate Rick Gates, and a campaign foreign policy adviser, George Papadoupoulos. Flynn may be next. Continue reading “How Michael Flynn Subverted Our Democracy”
The following article by Michael Kranish, Tom Hamburger and Carol D. Leonnig was posted on the Washington Post website November 27, 2017:
The Washington Post’s Carol D. Leonnig and Michael Kranish explain why House Democrats have questions about a trip Michael Flynn took the Middle East in 2015. (Video: Jenny Starrs, Bastien Inzaurralde/Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort took at least 18 trips to Moscow during his time as a political operative in Ukraine, McClatchy reported Thursday.
Manafort was also in frequent contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s allies for nearly a decade during his time working for pro-Russia political parties in Ukraine, according to the report.
Donald Trump Jr. refused to answer questions from lawmakers Wednesday about conversations he had with his father, then-presidential candidate Donald Trump, about his controversial Trump Tower meeting with Russian operatives in June 2016.
