Tag: Russia

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Report: Trump Took Interpreter’s Notes After Private Meeting With Russian President

Trump called into Fox News last night during the Judge Jeanine show. Jeanine Pirro, referencing the recent New York Times report that indicates the FBI became concerned whether Trump was acting on Russia's behalf after firing FBI director James Comey, asked Trump point blank “are you now or have you ever worked for Russia.”

According to a new report by The Washington Post, Donald Trump took his interpreter’s notes after a one-on-one with Russian President Vladimir Putin and told the translator not to reveal what had transpired to other officials in his own administration.

President Trump has gone to extraordinary lengths to conceal details of his conversations with Russian President Vladi­mir Putin, including on at least one occasion taking possession of the notes of his own interpreter and instructing the linguist not to discuss what had transpired with other administration officials, current and former U.S. officials said.

Trump did so after a meeting with Putin in 2017 in Hamburg that was also attended by then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. U.S. officials learned of Trump’s actions when a White House adviser and a senior State Department official sought information from the interpreter beyond a readout shared by Tillerson.

The constraints that Trump imposed are part of a broader pattern by the president of shielding his communications with Putin from public scrutiny and preventing even high-ranking officials in his own administration from fully knowing what he has told one of the United States’ main adversaries.

As a result, U.S. officials said there is no detailed record, even in classified files, of Trump’s face-to-face interactions with the Russian leader at five locations over the past two years. Such a gap would be unusual in any presidency, let alone one that Russia sought to install through what U.S. intelligence agencies have described as an unprecedented campaign of election interference.

Bolding is mine.

The result of Trump’s actions is there are no records of his five face-to-face discussions with Putin.

In related news, Trump called into Fox News last night during the Judge Jeanine show.

Jeanine Pirro, referencing the recent New York Times report that indicates the FBI became concerned whether Trump was acting on Russia’s behalf after firing FBI director James Comey, asked Trump point blank “are you now or have you ever worked for Russia?”

Trump never directly answered the question, but responded with, “I think it’s the most insulting thing I’ve ever been asked.”

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Trump Lawyer Michael Cohen Pleads Guilty To Lying To Congress About Trump/Russia Deal

Former Donald Trump lawyer, Michael Cohen

Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, pleaded guilty this morning in a New York court to lying to Congress regarding a Moscow real estate project that Trump and his company pursued during the months he was running for president.

Trump repeatedly said during the 2016 campaign he had no deals, interests or financial ties in or to Russia.

From The Washington Post:

In a nine-page filing, prosecutors laid out a litany of lies that Cohen admitted he told to congressional lawmakers about the Moscow project — an attempt, Cohen said, to minimize links between the proposed development and Trump as his presidential bid was taking off.

Cohen falsely said efforts to build a Trump-branded tower in Moscow ended in January 2016, when in fact discussions continued through that year, the filing said. Among the people Cohen briefed on the status of the project was Trump himself, on more than three occasions, according to the document.

Trump has repeatedly said that he had no business dealings in Russia, tweeting in July 2016, “For the record, I have ZERO investments in Russia” and telling reporters in January 2017 that he had no deals there because he had “stayed away.”

Tom Winter of NBC News was in the court room and reports on what Cohen testified to:

Trump immediately told reporters that he could have pursued the deal in Russia and there would have been nothing wrong with that, but he didn’t.

He went on to say the man who was his personal lawyer for years and years is “a weak person.”

Trump has suddenly decided to cancel meetings with Russian President Putin at the G20 summit. Coincidence? Or just avoiding bad optics?

One more thing – don’t forget this email from Felix Sater to Michael Cohen in 2015 saying, “Buddy, our boy can become president of the USA and we can engineer it.”

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Trump Reverses Course (Again) On Putin Proposal

Donald Trump (L) and Russian President Putin (R)

During the Donald Trump/Vladimir Putin press conference on Monday, Trump praised Putin’s ‘offer’ to allow Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team to travel to Russia to ‘observe’ interrogations of the 12 indicted Russian military officers as ‘incredible.’

In exchange, however, Putin wants to question Americans including our former Ambassador to Russia who was critical of the Russian president.

Danger Will Robinson, danger.

Via Politico:

Trump called the idea an “incredible offer” during the news conference. And on Wednesday, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that the president would “meet with his team” on Putin’s proposal, setting off a Russia-related backlash against the Trump administration for the third straight day.

By Thursday, as the Senate prepared to formally rebuke Trump, the White House reversed course.

“It is a proposal that was made in sincerity by President Putin, but President Trump disagrees with it,” Sanders said in a statement. “Hopefully President Putin will have the 12 identified Russians come to the United States to prove their innocence or guilt.”

The Senate voted 98-0 for a resolution denouncing the idea that we would hand over our foreign diplomats, past or present, to Russian agents for interrogation.

By the way, a new poll by SurveyMonkey shows 79% of Republicans approve of how Trump handled the Monday press conference.

Compare that with 91% of Democrats who disapproved and 62% of Independents who disapproved.

Overall, the numbers fell pretty much in line with Trump’s usually polling – 58% disapproved and 40% approved.

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Hillary Clinton Asks ‘What Team’ Donald Trump Plays For

After Donald Trump's disastrous press conference where he sided with Russia rather than the United States regarding Russian meddling in the 2016 election, Hillary Clinton wondered on Twitter which team Trump plays for....?
Hillary Clinton

As Donald Trump headed into his much-anticipated meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Hillary Clinton tweeted congrats to the World Cup finals players as well as a question for her former presidential campaign rival.

“Do you know which team you play for?” she tweeted.

Monday evening following the summit, Clinton followed-up: “Well, now we know.”

Trump received broad criticism from Democrats and Republicans for his feckless comments about Putin and the US intelligence assessment of Russian interference in the 2016 election.

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LGBTQ Activists Put Pride Flag On Parade Hidden In Plain Sight – “The Hidden Flag”

LGBT activists are parading the banned rainbow flag around Russia during the World Cup by hiding the flag in plain sight

Since Russia has a ban on ‘gay propaganda’ – which would include even a simple rainbow flag – these LGBTQ activists have undertaken a subversive mission to share the colors of pride.

Calling themselves ‘The Hidden Flag,’ they are proudly parading our Pride colors around Russia in plain sight.

Clever, kids, clever 🙂

From the official website:

We have taken advantage of the fact the country is hosting the World Cup at the same time as Pride Month, to denounce their behaviour and take the rainbow flag to the streets of Russia.

Yes, in the plain light of day, in front of the Russian authorities, Russian society and the whole world, we wave the flag with pride.

How? In a way that no one would ever suspect. Football shirts.

Spain, The Netherlands, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina and Colombia. Six countries. Six brave LGBT activists, that together, form the flag that toured around iconic sites in Russia, traveling to every corner to fight against a struggle that will never be silenced.

In a scary moment, one member of the group was detained at the airport as he was leaving Russia. But after 15 hours, he was allowed to continue home.

Mateo Fernandez told Gay Star News, “When we were doing it, I was scared shitless.”

But added, “It was completely worth it.”

Head over to the Hidden Flag website for lots more photos.

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Trump Lies About “Winning” Court Case Against ‘Democrat Crazies’

Donald Trump lied on Twitter again saying he "won" a lawsuit proving his campaign didn't collude with Russians on the 2016 presidential campaign. In reality, the case was dismissed for being in the wrong jurisdiction.
Donald Trump

Donald Trump took to Twitter today to, yet again, lie and contort facts.

In his post, the Trumpster seems to be gloating that he “Just won lawsuit filed by the DNC and a bunch of Democrat crazies trying to claim the Trump Campaign (and others), colluded with Russia.”

“They haven’t figured out that this was an excuse for them losing the election,” he added.

Now, there was a court case filed against Trump, but that’s about the only nugget of truth in his tweet.

The case was not brought by the Democratic National Committee but by two DNC donors and a former staffer.

The trio allege that Trump’s 2016 campaign conspired with Russian agents and WikiLeaks to publish emails hacked from the Democratic National Committee.

Trump didn’t ‘win’ the case, it was dismissed by federal Judge Ellen Huvelle on the grounds that, in her opinion, the case belonged not in federal court but in New York state courts where alleged meetings between campaign staffers and Russian agents are said to have taken place.

The judge pointedly wrote that her ruling was “not based on a finding that there was no collusion between defendants and Russia during the 2016 presidential election.”

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Donald Trump Sides With Russia On 2016 Election Interference

Donald Trump continues to believe Vladimir Putin's assertion that Russia did not interfere in the 2016 elections
Donald Trump

Donald Trump sided with Russia yet again today via Twitter when the president tweeted, “Russia continues to say they had nothing to do with Meddling in our Election!”

The Trumpster then immediately pivoted to – what else? – email servers and Hillary Clinton.

He continued, “Where is the DNC Server, and why didn’t Shady James Comey and the now disgraced FBI agents take and closely examine it? Why isn’t Hillary/Russia being looked at? So many questions, so much corruption!”

Every law enforcement agency in the United States from the CIA to the FBI has confirmed that Russia did, indeed, interfere with the 2016 presidential election.

But Trump’s ego is so fragile any and everything that might take away from his election is seen as a threat.

Meanwhile, those same agencies tell us Russia plans to again meddle in our upcoming mid-term elections, but Trump hasn’t asked anyone to do anything about stopping the Russian interference.

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Trump Calls For Reinstating Russia To The ‘Group Of 7’ Nations

Heading to Canada today for the annual G7 summit,Donald Trump has called for reinstating Russia to the ‘Group of 7’ nations.

Russia was ousted four years ago from the group of leading industrial countries after invading Crimea and they haven’t left.

Why reward Putin and pals for nothing?

From The New York Times:

“Russia should be in this meeting,” Mr. Trump said. “Why are we having a meeting without Russia being in the meeting? And I would recommend — and it’s up to them, but Russia should be in the meeting, it should be a part of it. You know, whether you like it or not, and it may not be politically correct, but we have a world to run and the G-7 — which used to be the G-8, they threw Russia out. They should let Russia come back in because we should have Russia at the negotiating table.”

Russia joined the group in the 1990s after emerging from the wreckage of the Soviet Union, making it the G-8, but its armed intervention in its neighbor Ukraine in 2014 and seizure of the Crimean peninsula angered other major powers. The remaining members, led by President Barack Obama, expelled it in a sign of global resolve not to let international borders be redrawn by force.

Mr. Trump offered no specific reasoning for why Russia should be let back in even though it retains control of Crimea and has not lived up to an international agreement to end its intervention in eastern Ukraine.

Man, Trump sure is loyal to the country that elected him.

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White House Lawyers Admit Trump Dictated Cover-Up Letter For His Son

Don Trump Jr. (L) and Donald Trump (R)

Wow.

In a newly released memo, Donald Trump’s lawyers admitted for the first time that Trump dictated a statement to deceive the public about his son’s June 2016 Trump Tower meeting with a Russian government lawyer.

From CNN:

In a confidential letter to special counsel Robert Mueller in January, President Donald Trump’s legal team acknowledged for the first time that Trump “dictated” the first misleading statement put out about his son’s controversial 2016 meeting with Russians at Trump Tower.

“You have received all of the notes, communications and testimony indicating that the President dictated a short but accurate response to the New York Times article on behalf of his son, Donald Trump, Jr.,” the letter said, according to The New York Times, which published a copy of it. “His son then followed up by making a full public disclosure regarding the meeting, including his public testimony that there was nothing to the meeting and certainly no evidence of collusion.”

Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow, NBC interview, 7/16/17: “The President was not — did not — draft the response. The response came from Donald Trump Jr. and — I’m sure — in consultation with his lawyer. … Let me say this — but I do want to be clear — that the President was not involved in the drafting of the statement and did not issue the statement. It came from Donald Trump Jr.”

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders, daily press briefing, 8/1/17: “He certainly didn’t dictate, but he — like I said, he weighed in, offered suggestion like any father would do.”

The White House has denied any involvement in the misleading statement which originally described the meeting was about child adoption. Instead, emails showed Russian actors were offering dirt on Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Trump Jr. took the meeting after responding, “I love it!”

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Senate Intelligence Committee: Russia Carried Out Putin’s Plans To Interfere In 2016 Election

Donald Trump (L) Vladimir Putin (R)

After a 14-month investigation, the Senate Intelligence Committee has found no evidence to dispute the intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia, on orders from Putin, carried out an unprecedented election interference effort to help the Trump campaign and hurt the Clinton campaign in 2016.

Even Fox News is reporting the news:

Senate Intelligence Committee leaders on Wednesday backed the 2017 intelligence community report that formally accused Russia of trying to interfere in the U.S. presidential election to boost then-candidate Donald Trump.

Their statements followed a final closed-door interview on the matter with top Obama administration officials. The committee, led by Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C., and Vice Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., spoke Wednesday with former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former Central Intelligence Agency Director John Brennan and former National Security Agenda Director Michael Rogers (who retired earlier this year).

“Committee staff have spent 14 months reviewing the sources, tradecraft, and analytic work, and we see no reason to dispute the conclusions,” Burr said in a statement. “There is no doubt that Russia undertook an unprecedented effort to interfere with our 2016 elections. I look forward to completing the Committee’s inquiry and issuing our findings and recommendations to the American people.”