Tag: Russia

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Trump: “Fake News” Reporting Of Secret Putin Chat Is “Sick”

Another morning, another Twitter rant from Donald Trump.

The New York Times reported yesterday that the president had an hour long previously undisclosed conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G20 summit earlier this month.

According to reports, the impromptu discussion included only Putin, Putin’s translator, and Trump. No one other staff from the U.S. was present.

The hourlong conversation in Hamburg, Germany, took place at a private dinner of the world leaders at a conference hall on the banks of the Elbe River during the Group of 20 economic summit meeting. It followed a more than two-hour formal meeting earlier in the day between the two presidents that included their foreign ministers and featured a fraught discussion about Moscow’s attempts to interfere in the 2016 elections.

In the earlier meeting, Mr. Trump questioned the Russian president about his role in the American elections, Mr. Putin denied his involvement, and the two men agreed to move beyond the dispute in the interest of finding common ground on other matters, including a limited cease-fire in Syria.

But the intimate dinner conversation, of which there is no official United States government record is the latest to raise eyebrows. Foreign leaders who witnessed it later commented privately on the oddity of an American president flaunting such a close rapport with his Russian counterpart.

John Kirby, a diplomatic military analyst, told CNN, “While smaller pull-aside meetings are common, it is strange that a pull-aside with someone like Putin — especially Putin — would not include at least another national security official and a translator.”

But this morning Trump took to his Twitter account to admonish the media for reporting the meeting and described the “fake news” as “sick” and “dishonest.”

While the Trumpster tweeted that the media characterized the dinner as “secret,” that isn’t what news outlets were reporting. The dinner itself, and Trump’s attendance were well known.

What wasn’t apparent was an hour long chat between the two world leaders. And with no American aide to take notes, no one knows what was discussed.

The first volatile tweet read, “Fake News story of secret dinner with Putin is ‘sick.’ All G 20 leaders, and spouses, were invited by the Chancellor of Germany. Press knew!”

That was followed by, “The Fake News is becoming more and more dishonest! Even a dinner arranged for top 20 leaders in Germany is made to look sinister!”

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President Trump: My Son’s Meeting With A Russian Lawyer Is “Standard” In Politics

At a press conference in Paris today with French President Emmanuel Macron, President Trump defended his son, Donald Trump Jr., for taking a meeting last June with what he expected to be a “Russian government attorney” who said she had dirt on Hillary Clinton from the Russian government.

President Trump says meetings with foreign nationals who offer to help in a campaign “standard.”

“My son is a wonderful young man. He took a meeting with a Russian lawyer. Not a government lawyer, but a Russian lawyer. It was a short meeting. It was a meeting that went very, very quickly; went very fast. Two other people were in the room. I guess one of them left almost immediately. And the other one was not really focused on the meeting.

“I do think from a practical standpoint most people would have taken that meeting. It’s called opposition research, or even research into your opponent. I’ve only been in politics for two years and I’ve had many people call up and say “Oh gee, we have information on this factor or this person. Or, frankly, Hillary. That’s very standard in politics. Politics is not the nicest business in the world, but it’s very standard where they have the information and you take the information.”

Trump added, “Zero happened from the meeting.”

It’s actually against the law for a campaign to accept anything of value (including information on your political opponent) from a foreign national.

By the way, if you watch below, catch how Trump tries to blame former Attorney General Loretta Lynch for Don Jr’s decision to meet with the Russian goverment lawyer.

In related news, senators from both the Senate Judiciary and Intelligence committees are asking Don Jr. to testify under oath about the June 9th meeting.

Watch Trump answer the question below.

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Donald Trump Jr. Changes Story Twice, Admits To Meeting Russian Lawyer “To Hear Info About Opponent” Hillary Clinton

Donald Trump Jr.

President Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., has now changed his story twice regarding a meeting that took place last summer at Trump Tower with a Russian lawyer who has ties to the Kremlin.

Initially, Don Jr. said he never met with anyone with Russian ties.

Then, after the New York Times brought up meeting with a lawyer named Natalia Veselnitskaya on June 9, 2016, the younger Trump suddenly “remembered” a couple of details.

Junior said he took the appointment not knowing who the meeting was with, and he invited Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner and campaign chairman Paul Manafort.

Two things worth noting there:

• How many meetings does someone like Donald Trump Jr. take without knowing who he’s meeting?

• Why would he invite high-ranking campaign advisers like Kushner and Manafort if he didn’t know who or what he was meeting about?

More from the New York Times:

When he was first asked about the meeting on Saturday, Donald Trump Jr. said that it was primarily about adoptions and mentioned nothing about Mrs. Clinton.

But on Sunday, presented with The Times’s findings, he offered a new account. In a statement, he said he had met with the Russian lawyer at the request of an acquaintance from the 2013 Miss Universe pageant, which his father took to Moscow. “After pleasantries were exchanged,” he said, “the woman stated that she had information that individuals connected to Russia were funding the Democratic National Committee and supporting Mrs. Clinton. Her statements were vague, ambiguous and made no sense. No details or supporting information was provided or even offered. It quickly became clear that she had no meaningful information.”

Remember, all of this revolves around the U.S. intelligence community concluding with “high confidence” that Russia interfered with the election to help Trump win.

In March, Don Jr. denied participating in any campaign-related meetings with Russian nationals. Speaking to the New York Times, he said, “Did I meet with people that were Russian? I’m sure, I’m sure I did. But none that were set up. None that I can think of at the moment. And certainly none that I was representing the campaign in any way.”

In all this time, all this talk about “Russian collusion,” Don Jr. forgot a meeting with a Russian lawyer two weeks after his father became the Republican nominee for president? A meeting with a Russian lawyer with ties to the Kremlin where the lawyer offered “opposition info” about Hillary Clinton? He forgot that meeting?

This morning, Don Jr. admitted via Twitter that he took the meeting knowing it was to receive info about Hillary Clinton.

That is literally the definition of “collusion.” He met with a Russian lawyer who offered to provide damaging info on Hillary Clinton. That is “collusion with Russia.”

It is certainly normal for political campaigns to gather information about opponents. But not from hostile countries like Russia. Campaigns don’t collect dirt via Moscow.

As political consultant Stuart Stevens reminded today on Twitter, “When Gore campaign was sent Bush debate brief book, they called FBI. If foreign interests offer you info on former Secretary of State, you call the FBI.”

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Trump Distorts Former Homeland Security Secretary’s Testimony

President Trump lied yet again in this early  morning tweet claiming “Former Homeland Security Advisor Jeh Johnson is latest top intelligence official to state there was no grand scheme between Trump & Russia.”

First of all, Johnson was Homeland Security Secretary, not “Advisor.”

Second, that’s not at all what Johnson said in testimony yesterday. What Johnson told the House Intelligence Committee yesterday was:

“In 2016, the Russian government, at the direction of (President) Vladimir Putin himself, orchestrated cyberattacks on our nation for the purpose of influencing our election. That is a fact, plain and simple.”

At no time in his testimony did Johnson ever state that there was no collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign.

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Former Homeland Security Secretary: A “Plain And Simple Fact” That Putin Ordered Cyber Attack On 2016 Election

Speaking before Congress today, former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson left no doubts regarding Russia’s hacking of the Democratic National Committee and interference that was meant to disrupt the 2016 presidential election.

“The Russian government, at the direction of Vladimir Putin himself, orchestrated cyber attacks on our nation for the purpose of influence our election,” he said. “That is a fact, plain and simple.”

From Raw Story:

President Donald Trump has regularly hedged in public when asked if he believes Russia interfered in the 2016 election. White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer on Tuesday claimed that he had not spoke with the president about his views on Russia’s role in disrupting the election, and would not confirm if Trump actually believed Russia was behind the hacks of the DNC and former Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta.

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News Round-Up: June 14, 2017

Tyson Beckford

Some news items you might have missed:

• International super model (and current celebrity host at Chippendales in Las Vegas) Tyson Beckford covers Vegas Magazine

• Fox News is dropping it’s woefully inaccurate slogan, “Fair & Balanced.” #AboutTime

• New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has broken the record for the worst approval rating (only 15% approval) for any governor in any state surveyed by Quinnipiac University in more than 20 years.

• Terrific article by Matt Baume about the emergence, history and evolution of Queer Proms over the past 20 years. #GreatRead

• Investigators have found evidence of attempted Russian cyber-hacking by in 39 states’ voting software and data.

• Check out Raúl Castillo, before his Looking role on HBO, in the short film 2012 Kiss Me where he played Kid Vargas, a boxer with a secret.

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NSA Document Indicates Russia May Have Attempted To Hack 2016 Voting Systems

The Intercept is reporting that a top-secret National Security Agency document indicates Russian government hackers may have attempted to hack more than 100 local election systems before Election Day 2016.

Russian military intelligence executed a cyber attack on at least one U.S. voting software supplier and sent spear-phishing emails to more than 100 local election officials just days before last November’s presidential election, according to a highly classified intelligence report obtained by The Intercept.

The top-secret National Security Agency document, which was provided anonymously to The Intercept and independently authenticated, analyzes intelligence very recently acquired by the agency about a months-long Russian intelligence cyber effort against elements of the U.S. election and voting infrastructure. The report, dated May 5, 2017, is the most detailed U.S. government account of Russian interference in the election that has yet come to light.

The report indicates that Russian hacking may have penetrated further into U.S. voting systems than was previously understood. It states unequivocally in its summary statement that it was Russian military intelligence, specifically the Russian General Staff Main Intelligence Directorate, or GRU, that conducted the cyber attacks described in the document.

According to Huffington Post, the leaker of the document has been arrested.

A government contractor in Georgia was arrested this weekend after a classified National Security Agency report was leaked on an alleged cyberattack attempt by Russian military intelligence officers on a voting software company and local election officials.

Reality Leigh Winner, a 25-year-old federal contractor for Pluribus International Corp. who had a top secret security clearance and was working at a government agency, was arrested by FBI agents Saturday at her home in Augusta, Georgia, according to the Justice Department.

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Former FBI Director James Comey To Testify On Pressures From Trump To End Russia Investigation

Former FBI Director James Comey

CNN reports fired FBI Director James Comey will definitely be testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee, possibly as soon as next week.

He is expected to confirm the dramatic accounts that have surfaced since his dismissal, including the accusations that Donald Trump asked him to drop the current investigation into ties with Russia.

Final details are still being worked out and no official date for his testimony has been set. Comey is expected to appear before the Senate Intelligence Committee, which is investigating possible connections between the Trump campaign and Russia during last year’s presidential election.

Comey has spoken privately with Special Counsel Robert Mueller III to work out the parameters for his testimony to ensure there are no legal entanglements as a result of his public account, a source said. Comey will likely sit down with Mueller, a longtime colleague at the Justice Department, for a formal interview only after his public testimony.

When he testifies, Comey is unlikely to be willing to discuss in any detail the FBI’s investigation into the charges of possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign — the centerpiece of the probe, this source said. But he appears eager to discuss his tense interactions with Trump before his firing, which have now spurred allegations that the president may have tried to obstruct the investigation.

If it happens, Comey’s public testimony promises to be a dramatic chapter in the months-long controversy, and it will likely bring even more intense scrutiny to an investigation that Trump has repeatedly denounced as a “witch hunt.”

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National Security Adviser “Not Concerned” About Kushner/Russia Communications

So happy together…

Responding to reports that President Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, had talks with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak about setting up “secret lines of communication,” National Security Advisor Gen. H.R. McMaster said he’s “not concerned.”

From Politico:

McMaster told American reporters traveling with Trump at the G7 summit in Sicily that the U.S. frequently sets up backchannels to countries for discreet communications.

“We have backchannel communications with a number of countries,” McMaster said in response to questions.

“What that allows you to do is communicate in a discreet manner so I’m not concerned.”