Tag: Trump campaign

CNN broke news in the Russia probe. Roger Stone’s resulting rant got him yanked off Twitter.

The following article by Avi Selk was posted on the Washington Post website October 29, 2017:

Roger Stone, one of President Trump’s former campaign advisers and a longtime Republican operative, was suspended from Twitter after tweeting insults and attacks against CNN anchor Don Lemon and New York Times columnist Charles Blow on Oct. 27. (Reuters)

Roger Stone didn’t tweet anything worse at CNN’s Don Lemon than he has said to someone else before.

“Piece of s—,” Stone wrote to the anchor mid-rant on Friday night, after CNN told viewers of an indictment in an investigation into Russian involvement in the 2016 election, which Stone helped President Trump win.

But Stone has said that to many on Twitter — most recently Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-Va.), whom he called a “closeted piece of s—” in September. Continue reading “CNN broke news in the Russia probe. Roger Stone’s resulting rant got him yanked off Twitter.”

Fired US attorney: Watch how Trump reacts to Mueller charges

The following article by Brett Samuels was posted on the Hill website October 29, 2017:

Former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said Sunday it will be important to see how President Trump reacts to the first charges in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

“We know from history in recent months that the president of the United States has strong reactions to public events. Even events that have been caused by his own actions,” Bharara told CNN’s Jake Tapper, explaining he expects Trump could react in two ways to charges potentially against an ally.

Bharara said the public should ask, “Is he sending a message of intimidation in some way through himself or his cohorts suggesting people should not be talking and people should keep their mouth shut?” Continue reading “Fired US attorney: Watch how Trump reacts to Mueller charges”

Scrutiny mounts for Trump digital operation

The following article by Morgan Chalfant was posted on the Hill website October 27, 2017:

Credit: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

Scrutiny on the digital side of President Trump’s 2016 campaign is mounting after revelations that the head of Cambridge Analytica, a data mining and analysis firm that worked for the campaign, contacted WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange about Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s emails.

The Daily Beast reported Wednesday that Alexander Nix, Cambridge Analytica’s CEO, told a third party that he reached out to the WikiLeaks founder last year about the emails that Clinton deleted from the server she used while secretary of State.

The Trump campaign paid Cambridge Analytica millions during the 2016 presidential race. In the aftermath of the Assange revelations, aides have raced to distance the campaign from the firm.

Continue reading “Scrutiny mounts for Trump digital operation”

Trump campaign data firm ‘approached WikiLeaks during US election for Hillary Clinton’s deleted emails’

The following article by Jeremy B. White was posted on the Independent website October 25, 2017:

Julian Assange in May at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. Mr. Assange confirmed on Twitter that he had been approached before the 2016 election by the chief executive of Cambridge Analytica. Credit Peter Nicholls/Reuters

A political data firm employed by the Trump campaign sought to work with WikiLeaks, publisher Julian Assange has said.

The proposed partnership was first uncovered by the Daily Beast, which reported that Cambridge Analytica approached the anti-secrecy organisation in an effort to locate the 33,000 emails deleted from Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s private email server.

The Trump campaign effectively found an ally in WikiLeaks during the campaign when the organisation published thousands of internal emails from Democratic Party operatives, moving Donald Trump to proclaim “I love WikiLeaks” in response to one disclosure. Continue reading “Trump campaign data firm ‘approached WikiLeaks during US election for Hillary Clinton’s deleted emails’”

Assange Says WikiLeaks Rejected Request by Data Firm Tied to Trump

The following article by Nicholas Confessore was posted on the New York Times website October 25, 2017:

Julian Assange in May at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. Mr. Assange confirmed on Twitter that he had been approached before the 2016 election by the chief executive of Cambridge Analytica. Credit Peter Nicholls/Reuters

The WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said on Wednesday that he had rebuffed a request for help last year from the head of a data firm that worked for Donald J. Trump and is now facing congressional scrutiny.

On Twitter, Mr. Assange said he had been approached before the 2016 election by Alexander Nix, the chief executive of Cambridge Analytica, which worked for Mr. Trump during the final months of the campaign. Mr. Assange did not disclose what kind of help Mr. Nix sought, only that he had declined the request.

“I can confirm an approach by Cambridge Analytica,” Mr. Assange wrote, “and can confirm that it was rejected by WikiLeaks.” Continue reading “Assange Says WikiLeaks Rejected Request by Data Firm Tied to Trump”

Trump’s former lawyer huddles with House investigators in Russia probe

The following article by Karoun Demirjian was posted on the Washington Post website October 24, 2017:

Michael Cohen, a former attorney for President Trump’s business, departs from a House Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill on Oct. 24. The committee is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

Michael Cohen, President Trump’s personal lawyer and a former lawyer for his business, met with the House Intelligence Committee for almost six hours Tuesday in what one committee Democrat called a “contentious” exchange.

The committee also met for several hours with Trump’s former campaign digital director, Brad Parscale, who said in a CBS interview earlier this month that Trump won the election through use of Facebook advertising.

That meeting comes just one week before House and Senate investigators are expected to speak with Facebook, Twitter and Google executives, in back-to-back public hearings on Nov. 1 to investigate how Russia used social media to try to influence the election. Continue reading “Trump’s former lawyer huddles with House investigators in Russia probe”

Trump campaign legal bills topped $1 million last quarter

The following article by Tom Hamburger and Anu Narayanswamy was posted on the Washington Post website October 15, 2017:

President Trump’s reelection committee spent more on legal fees over the summer as Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III pressed forward with his investigation into Russian medding. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)

President Trump’s reelection committee spent more than $1 million on legal bills last quarter as investigations into Russian meddling in the 2016 election pressed on through the summer, according to a disclosure filed Sunday with the Federal Election Commission.

The filing shows the committee’s “legal consulting” expenditures came to $1.1 million between July and September, including $802,185 paid to the law firm Jones Day, which has represented the campaign. Another $267,000 was paid to attorneys representing the president’s ­eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., in the Russia investigations.

Since the beginning of the year, the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee have spent $2.4 million on legal fees — and the bills appear to be mounting. The latest FEC reports show that the campaign spent more on legal bills over the past three months than it did during the first and second quarters of this year combined. Continue reading “Trump campaign legal bills topped $1 million last quarter”

Manafort Had $60 Million Relationship With a Russian Oligarch

The following article by Aggelos Petropoulos and Richard Engel was posted on the NNBC News website October 13, 2017:

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin speaks with Oleg Deripaska, head of “The base element” company at the International Investment Forum in Sochi on Sept. 19, 2008. ILIA PITALEV / AFP-Getty Images file

LONDON — Paul Manafort, a former campaign manager for President Donald Trump, has much stronger financial ties to a Russian oligarch than have been previously reported.

An NBC News investigation reveals that $26 million changed hands in the form of a loan between a company linked to Manafort and the oligarch, Oleg Deripaska, a billionaire with close ties to the Kremlin.

The loan brings the total of their known business dealings to around $60 million over the past decade, according to financial documents filed in Cyprus and the Cayman Islands.

Manafort was forced to resign from the Trump campaign in August 2016, following allegations of improper financial dealings, charges he has strenuously denied. He is now a central figure in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Investigators have said they are looking into Manafort’s financial ties to prominent figures in Russia. Continue reading “Manafort Had $60 Million Relationship With a Russian Oligarch”

Juan Williams: Trump’s smokescreen on Russia won’t work

The following column from Juan WIlliams was posted on the Hill website October 2, 2017:

© Getty Images

“Are there any Russians in the audience? I don’t see too many Russians,” a defiant President Trump recently told an Alabama crowd.

He finds joy, even now, in ridiculing reports of Russian interference in last year’s presidential campaign.

Speaking to his true believers, he reassured them that “Russia did not help me win” and dismissed reports to the contrary as “the Russia hoax — one of the great hoaxes.”

So, in the self-aggrandizing manner of the president, let me ask — Are there any Russians reading this column right now? Continue reading “Juan Williams: Trump’s smokescreen on Russia won’t work”

‘How do we use [this] to get whole?’: The most intriguing new Paul Manafort-Russia email

The following article by Aaron Blake was posted on the Washington Post website September 20, 2017:

Donald Trump’s then-campaign chair Paul Manafort in July 2016. (Reuters/Carlo Allegri/File Photo)

This post has been updated.

The trouble Paul Manafort is in is still coming into focus. The latest development: emails he sent to a Ukraine-based employee of his consulting business talking about setting up a briefing with a Russian oligarch close to Vladimir Putin.

The Washington Post’s Tom Hamburger, Rosalind S. Helderman, Carol D. Leonnig and Adam Entous just broke that big story, and it comes on the heels of a New York Times report this week that investigators have told Manafort they plan to indict him — apparently in hopes of getting him to flip on President Trump.

For me, though, the most intriguing email in The Post’s report is this one: Continue reading “‘How do we use [this] to get whole?’: The most intriguing new Paul Manafort-Russia email”