Tag: Trump campaign

‘Keep coming at me guys!!!’: Donald Trump Jr. meets Russia scrutiny with defiance

The following article by Drew Harwell was posted on the Washington Post website November 23, 2017:

President Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr. communicated with WikiLeaks during the 2016 presidential campaign. Here’s what the messages say. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)

Donald Trump Jr. had just posted a batch of private mes­sages he exchanged with Wiki­Leaks during last year’s campaign, confirming reports that he communicated with the website that published stolen Democratic emails obtained by Russian military intelligence.

“More nothing burgers from the media and others desperately trying to create a false narrative,” the president’s oldest son wrote on Instagram. “Keep coming at me guys!!!” Continue reading “‘Keep coming at me guys!!!’: Donald Trump Jr. meets Russia scrutiny with defiance”

Mueller investigating Kushner’s communication with foreign leaders: report

The following article by Brandon Carter was posted on the Hill website November 21, 2017:

Special counsel Robert Mueller’s team of investigators are looking into White House senior adviser and President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and his contact with foreign leaders, according to a new report.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Mueller’s team is probing Kushner’s involvement in the controversy surrounding a United Nations resolution passed in December 2016 that condemned Israeli settlement construction. Continue reading “Mueller investigating Kushner’s communication with foreign leaders: report”

Alleged Russian Gangster Met With Don Jr.

The following article by Julia Glum of Newsweek was posted on the National Memo website November 19, 2017:

Allegations of collusion continued to pile up against Donald Trump Jr. this week, with the New York Times reporting Friday that the first son went to a May 2016 dinner attended by a top Russian official who was trying to set up a covert meeting with the campaign.

NBC News confirmed Saturday that Donald Trump Jr. talked with Alexander Torshin, a friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin and the deputy head of the country’s central bank, at an event hosted by the National Rifle Association in Kentucky. But the first son’s lawyer insisted the duo didn’t sit together. Continue reading “Alleged Russian Gangster Met With Don Jr.”

Trump and WikiLeaks: Five things to know

The following article by Morgan Chalfant was posted on the Hill website November 18, 2017:

© Getty Images

The revelation this week that Donald Trump Jr. corresponded with WikiLeaks during the presidential campaign has added a new wrinkle to the competing probes into Russian interference.

Legal experts say the development is likely to intensify scrutiny of Trump’s eldest son, who is already under the microscope for a controversial June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower with a Russian lawyer.

Separately, a pair of senators revealed Thursday that Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, had received correspondence about WikiLeaks prior to the election. They said Kushner has not yet turned over those documents to congressional investigators. Continue reading “Trump and WikiLeaks: Five things to know”

Kushner told Congress he did not recall campaign contact with WikiLeaks: report

The following article by Max Greenwood was posted on the Hill website November 17, 2017:

Credit: Reynold/Epa-Efe/Rex/Shutterstock

President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner told congressional investigators in July that he was not aware of any communications between the Trump campaign and WikiLeaks, according to a CNN report on Friday.

That testimony appears to contradict a letter from the Senate Judiciary Committee this week disclosing that Kushner had received an email in 2016 from Donald Trump Jr. about contact the president’s eldest son had with the anti-secrecy website.

According to CNN, a source familiar with Kushner’s testimony in July said he answered lawmakers’ questions accurately and did not recall whether anyone else on the campaign was in contact with WikiLeaks. Continue reading “Kushner told Congress he did not recall campaign contact with WikiLeaks: report”

Robert Mueller Has Subpoenaed More Than a Dozen Trump Officials for Documents Related to Russia: Report

The following article by Chris Sosa was posted on the AlterNet website November 16, 2017:

Credit: J. Scott Applewhite/AP

The Wall Street Journal reports that a source has confirmed investigators under special counsel Robert Mueller subpoenaed the 2016 campaign of then-candidate Donald Trump for documents containing Russia-related keywords.

More than a dozen individuals are included among those compelled to turn over documents.

Members of the 2016 Trump campaign were reportedly caught off guard, because they’d been voluntarily complying with the investigation up to that point. While Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his associates were subpoenaed in the past, this marks the first time the campaign itself has been subpoenaed by Mueller’s team. Continue reading “Robert Mueller Has Subpoenaed More Than a Dozen Trump Officials for Documents Related to Russia: Report”

Ex-Russian Ambassador: List of Trump Contacts ‘So Long’ I Can’t Name Them All

The following article was posted on the Daily Beast website November 16, 2017:

CREDIT: JOSHUA ROBERTS/REUTERS

Former Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak has said it would take him more than 20 minutes to list all the Trump officials he’s had contact with because the “list is so long.” In an interview aired on Russia’s state-run Channel One television station Thursday, Kislyak dismissed accusations of Russian election meddling as “nonsense” concocted by President Trump’s opponents but acknowledged that he’d had extensive contact with members of Trump’s administration. The list of contacts is “so long,” he said, “that I’m not going to be able to go through it in 20 minutes.” Kislyak, who has been a central figure in the U.S. investigation into the Kremlin’s alleged election interference, declined to give further details on what was discussed with Trump officials but said it was all part of normal diplomatic discourse. Kislyak was recalled as Russia’s ambassador to the U.S. in June. His comments came just a few days after Attorney General Jeff Sessions was grilled by the House Judiciary Committee on his interactions with the Russian ambassador.

Four key takeaways from Jeff Sessions’s memory-lapse-filled congressional hearing

The following article by Amber Phillips was posed on the Washington Post website November 14, 2017:

Attorney General Jeff Sessions raises his hand to be sworn in before the House Judiciary Committee. (Bill O’Leary/The Washington Post)

Meetings he had with the Russian ambassador during the campaign. Campaign-related conversations he had with the Russian ambassador. Shutting down campaign aide George Papadopoulos after Papadopoulos suggested then-candidate Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin get together.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions said he couldn’t remember any of these events — that is until the media or Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation remembered them for him.

That’s the key takeaway from Sessions’s hearing before the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday. What is typically a routine check-in between Congress and the head of the Justice Department got political real fast, largely because of Russia. Continue reading “Four key takeaways from Jeff Sessions’s memory-lapse-filled congressional hearing”

Sessions says he ‘always told the truth’ in describing Russia contacts

The following article by Matt Zapotosky and Sari Horwitz was posted on the Washington Post website November 14, 2017:

Attorney General Jeff Sessions spoke before the House Judiciary Committee Nov. 14. (Reuters)

Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Tuesday that he has “always told the truth” in describing his knowledge of Trump campaign contacts with Russians, although he acknowledged that he now recalls an interaction with a lower-level adviser to Donald Trump who said he told Sessions about contacts who could help arrange a meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladi­mir Putin.

When asked previously about whether he thought that surrogates from the Trump campaign had communications with the Russians, Sessions said, “I did not, and I’m not aware of anyone else that did, and I don’t believe it happened.” Continue reading “Sessions says he ‘always told the truth’ in describing Russia contacts”

Watergate Prosecutors Believe Russia Collusion Evidence Exists

The following article by Chris Riotta of Newsweek was posted on the National Memo website November 14, 2017:

There is definitive proof of whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 election — and it exists in the email inboxes of Jared Kushner, Stephen Miller, Hope Hicks and others.

That’s what several former Watergate prosecutors believe, telling Newsweek that evidence of collaboration between the Kremlin and the president’s top campaign aides could literally be at Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s fingertips. It just has to be uncovered.

“The key difference between this and Watergate is … at the time, you certainly didn’t have computers,” said Nick Ackerman, one of the prosecutors who probed the 1972 break-in at the Democratic party’s Watergate offices. “Rather than use burglars to break into the Democratic National headquarters, they used Russian hackers. … The question is whether that was coordinated in any way with the Trump campaign. Their emails will answer that question, once the special counsel gets its hands on them.” Continue reading “Watergate Prosecutors Believe Russia Collusion Evidence Exists”