Tag: Russian collusion

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Facebook Sold $100K Of 2016 Election Ads To Russian “Troll Farm”

The folks at Facebook took a closer look at ads sold during the 2016 presidential election cycle and have realized $100K worth of ads can be traced back to Russia

From the Washington Post:

Representatives of Facebook told congressional investigators Wednesday that the social network has discovered that it sold ads during the U.S. presidential campaign to a shadowy Russian company seeking to target voters, according to several people familiar with the company’s findings.

Facebook officials reported that they traced the ad sales, totaling $100,000, to a Russian “troll farm” with a history of pushing pro-Kremlin propaganda, these people said.

A small portion of the ads, which began in the summer of 2015, directly named Republican nominee Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton, the people said, although they declined to say which candidate the ads favored.

Most of the ads, according to a blog post published late Wednesday by Facebook’s chief security officer, Alex Stamos, “appeared to focus on amplifying divisive social and political messages across the ideological spectrum — touching on topics from LGBT matters to race issues to immigration to gun rights.”

The acknowledgment by Facebook comes as congressional investigators and special counsel Robert S. Mueller III are probing Russian interference in the U.S. election, including allegations that the Kremlin may have coordinated with the Trump campaign.

Watch the report from Washington Post below:

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Legal Jeopardy: President Trump Dictated Misleading “Russian Attorney Meeting” Statement Issued By Don Jr.

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

According to the Washington Post, President Trump himself dictated the statement his son Donald Jr. would initially release regarding his meeting with a “Russian government attorney.”

Whether it is criminal or not, it never looks good when someone who is being criminally investigated works to hide information or mislead. To release this statement under the guise of coming from Don Jr. was an organized effort to mislead the public.

Worse, the Donald’s own lawyer twice denied the president’s involvement in drafting the statement.

From the Washington Post:

Flying home from Germany on July 8 aboard Air Force One, Trump personally dictated a statement in which Trump Jr. said that he and the Russian lawyer had “primarily discussed a program about the adoption of Russian children” when they met in June 2016, according to multiple people with knowledge of the deliberations. The statement, issued to the New York Times as it prepared an article, emphasized that the subject of the meeting was “not a campaign issue at the time.”

The claims were later shown to be misleading.

Over the next three days, multiple accounts of the meeting were provided to the news media as public pressure mounted, with Trump Jr. ultimately acknowledging that he had accepted the meeting after receiving an email promising damaging information about Hillary Clinton as part of a Russian government effort to help his father’s campaign.

The extent of the president’s personal intervention in his son’s response, the details of which have not previously been reported, adds to a series of actions that Trump has taken that some advisers fear could place him and some members of his inner circle in legal jeopardy.

As a refresher, this is the message that Donald Trump dictated for his son to release:

“It was a short introductory meeting. I asked Jared and Paul to stop by. We primarily discussed a program about the adoption of Russian children that was active and popular with American families years ago and was since ended by the Russian government, but it was not a campaign issue at the time and there was no follow up.

“I was asked to attend the meeting by an acquaintance, but was not told the name of the person I would be meeting with beforehand.”

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Senate Judiciary Committee Issues Subpoena To Former Trump Campaign Manager Paul Manafort

Paul Manafort

It looks like former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort tried to play hardball with the Senate Judiciary Committee and lost.

After negotiations for a voluntary interview broke down, the Senate panel investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election has issued a subpoena requiring Mr. Manafort’s attendance at a hearing.

From USAToday:

Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, the Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the panel’s ranking Democrat, confirmed the action Tuesday in a joint statement, saying that a Manafort offer to provide “a single transcribed interview” to Congress, which would not be made available to the Senate panel, was unacceptable.

The Senate and House Intelligence committees also are conducting parallel inquiries into possible coordination between the campaign and Russia.

“While the Judiciary Committee was willing to cooperate on equal terms with any other committee to accommodate Mr. Manafort’s request, ultimately that was not possible,” the panel leaders said.

The subpoena was issued late Monday night and demands Manafort’s appearance at a Wednesday hearing.

“As with other witnesses, we may be willing to excuse him from Wednesday’s hearing if he would be willing to agree to production of documents and a transcribed interview,” the senators said.

Here’s the full statement from the Senate Judiciary Committee:

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Special Counsel Expanding Investigation Into Trump’s Business Transactions

President Trump told the New York Times yesterday that it would be improper for Special Counsel Robert Mueller to expand his current investigation into the Trump’s business dealings, but that’s exactly what Mueller is now doing.

Via Bloomberg:

The U.S. special counsel investigating possible ties between the Donald Trump campaign and Russia in last year’s election is examining a broad range of transactions involving Trump’s businesses as well as those of his associates, according to a person familiar with the probe.

FBI investigators and others are looking at Russian purchases of apartments in Trump buildings, Trump’s involvement in a controversial SoHo development in New York with Russian associates, the 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow and Trump’s sale of a Florida mansion to a Russian oligarch in 2008, the person said.

The investigation also has absorbed a money-laundering probe begun by federal prosecutors in New York into Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort.

The president told the New York Times on Wednesday that any digging into matters beyond Russia would be out of bounds. Trump’s businesses have involved Russians for years, however, making the boundaries fuzzy.

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Trump Lawyer Blames Secret Service For Not Vetting Russian Lawyer, Secret Service Claps Back

In an interview with ABC News’s George Stephanopoulos, Trump attorney Jay Sekulow attempted to shift the blame for Donald Trump Jr.’s now-infamous meeting with a “Russian government attorney” to the U.S. Secret Service saying the USSS didn’t properly vet the visitor.

“Well, I wonder why the Secret Service, if this was nefarious, why the Secret Service allowed these people in. The president had Secret Service protection at that point, and that raised a question with me.”

Secret Service spokesman Mason Brayman clapped back at Sekulow with this statement: “Donald Trump, Jr. was not a protectee of the USSS in June, 2016. Thus we would not have screened anyone he was meeting with at that time.”

President Trump continued to defend his son’s meeting telling Twitter today, “Most politicians would have gone to a meeting like the one Don jr attended in order to get info on an opponent. That’s politics!”

Actually, it’s quite unusual to agree to take a meeting with a foreign national who tells you in advance they have dirt on your opponent from an enemy of the U.S.

A new ABC/WaPo poll out over the weekend reports 63% of people think the meeting was inappropriate.

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Former “Russian Counterintelligence Officer” Attended Trump Junior’s Trump Tower Meeting

Donald Trump Jr. and Donald Trump Sr.

NBC News is reporting that there was yet another person – yes, Russian – at June 9, 2016, meeting at Trump Tower where Donald Trump Jr. expected to receive dirt on Hillary Clinton from a “Russsian government attorney.”

From NBC News:

The Russian lawyer who met with Donald Trump Jr. and others on the Trump team after a promise of compromising material on Hillary Clinton was accompanied by a Russian-American lobbyist — a former Soviet counterintelligence officer who is suspected by some U.S. officials of having ongoing ties to Russian intelligence, NBC News has learned.

The lobbyist, who denies any current ties to Russian spy agencies, accompanied the lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, to the June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower attended by Donald Trump Jr.; Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law; and Paul Manafort, former chairman of the Trump campaign.

The Russian-born American lobbyist served in the Soviet military and emigrated to the U.S., where he holds dual citizenship.

The Associated Press identified the lobbyist as Rinat Akhmetshin, and said he acknowledged attending the meeting, though he said it was not substantive. “I never thought this would be such a big deal, to be honest,” he told the AP.

Alan Futerfas, the attorney retained by Donald Trump Jr., told NBC News two other people accompanied Veselnitskaya to the meeting — someone Futerfas described as a translator and someone he described as a “friend of Emin [Agalarov]’s and maybe as a friend of Natalia [Veselnitskaya]’s.”

Futerfas said he has talked with that individual. “He is a U.S. citizen. He told me specifically he was not working for the Russian government, and in fact laughed when I asked him that question.”

So, a full year of “Russian” whispers and accusations regarding a Trump campaign/Russia connection, and total denials from Team Trump the whole way.

“There was NO contact between anyone in the campaign and any Russians.”

“There was NO contact – except those calls between Michael Flynn and the Russian ambassador.”

“There was NO contact – except those calls, and Jeff Sessions’ contact at that gala event last year.

“There was NO contact – except those calls, and Sessions’ gala contact, oh – and that meeting about Russian adoption with Junior at Trump Tower.”

“There was NO contact – except those calls, and Sessions’ gala contact, and Junior’s meeting with the “Russian government attorney,” oh – and her friend she brought along who spoke Russian and it turns out used to be “a former Soviet military counterintelligence officer.”

No. This doesn’t look sketchy at all.

By the way, this was Don Jr. on July 11th – “This is everything. This is everything.”

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Donald Trump Jr. Tweets Email Chain With “Russian Government Attorney” Promising Dirt On Hillary

Donald Trump Jr.

Holy collusion, Batman!

After being told that the New York Times had his emails and were preparing to release them, he jumped and released himself.

Donald Trump Jr. tweeted out what he says constitutes the email exchanges involved in his June 9, 2016, meeting with a “Russian government attorney” that promised to provide incriminating information on Hillary Clinton.

In other words, Junior attended a meeting that he was told would be with a Russian operative who was offering dirt on his dad’s opponent.

From the New York Times:

The June 3, 2016, email sent to Donald Trump Jr. could hardly have been more explicit: One of his father’s former Russian business partners had been contacted by a senior Russian government official and was offering to provide the Trump campaign with dirt on Hillary Clinton.

The documents “would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father,” read the email, written by a trusted intermediary, who added, “This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.”

If the future president’s elder son was surprised or disturbed by the provenance of the promised material — or the notion that it was part of a continuing effort by the Russian government to aid his father’s campaign — he gave no indication.

He replied within minutes: “If it’s what you say I love it especially later in the summer.”

Four days later, after a flurry of emails, the intermediary wrote back, proposing a meeting in New York on Thursday with a “Russian government attorney.”

Donald Trump Jr. agreed, adding that he would most likely bring along “Paul Manafort (campaign boss)” and “my brother-in-law,” Jared Kushner, now one of the president’s closest White House advisers.

On June 9, the Russian lawyer was sitting in the younger Mr. Trump’s office on the 25th floor of Trump Tower, just one level below the office of the future president.

The emails reference “the crown prosecutor of Russia.” The NY Times clarifies:

There is no such title as crown prosecutor in Russia — the Crown Prosecution Service is a British term — but the equivalent in Russia is the prosecutor general of Russia.

That office is held by Yury Yakovlevich Chaika, a Putin appointee who is known to be close to Ms. Veselnitskaya.

Natalia Veselnitskaya was the Russian attorney Junior, Manafort and Kushner met with on June 6, 2016.

Below are the images of emails the Don Jr. tweeted out today. Click the images to enlarge.

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Donald Trump Jr. Lawyers Up After Meeting With Russian Lawyer Comes To Light

Donald Trump Jr. has agreed to speak to the Senate Intelligence committee but not before lawyering up after the revelation that he met with a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Maybe he should have done that before giving different statements about his June 9th meeting last year with Natalia Veselnitskaya?

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Trump Contradicts Secretary Of State, Plans “Cyber Security Unit” With Russia

Now that he’s back on American soil having returned from the G20 summit, Donald Trump took to Twitter this morning to thoroughly confuse the world with messages that contradict each other.

First, Trump says he “pressed President Putin twice about Russian meddling in our election. He vehemently denied it. I’ve already given my opinion…”

Not sure if that means he takes Putin at his word that he didn’t order election interference (when our intel community says he did) or not. The Russian Foreign Minister told press that Trump was “satisfied” by Putin’s denials. No top White House aide has disputed that claim.

Trump goes on to say he “discussed forming an impenetrable Cyber Security unit so that election hacking, & many other negative things, will be guarded and safe.”

So, he’s going to team up with Putin to make sure election hacking will be guarded and safe? Or does he mean “guard against” election hacking?

And why would you team up with the guy who cyber-hacked our elections?

Isn’t that like the FBI asking the Mafia to form an anti-crime unit?

And finally, Trump says “sanctions were not discussed.” But this contradicts Tillerson, who told reporters sanctions were discussed between Trump and Putin.

Just another day in this wacky, tacky Trump world.

Of course, folks were inclined to chime in:

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Poland: Trump Criticizes U.S. Intelligence Agencies & Obama During Press Conference

At a joint press conference with Polish President Andrzej Duda today, Donald Trump broke with a longstanding tradition of not criticizing U.S. leaders or institutions while abroad.

Asked to definitively answer whether or not he believed Russia interfered in the 2016 elections, Trump attacked U.S. intelligence organizations and Barack Obama.

Via CNN:

Trump, asked about the fact the United States intelligence community has said it was Russia, compared that assessment to the eventually debunked claim that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction in the lead-up to the Iraq War.

“I think it was Russia but I think it was probably other people and or countries. I see nothing wrong with that statement,” Trump said. “Nobody really knows. Nobody really knows for sure.”

He added, “I remember when I was sitting back listening about Iraq, weapons of mass destruction, how everybody was 100% certain that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. Guess what? That led to one big mess. They were wrong and it led to a mess.”

Trump slammed former President Barack Obama’s handling of Russian interference as he stood next to Duda, arguing that the former president “did nothing” to combat the interference.

“Why did he do nothing about it? He was told it was Russia by the CIA … and he did nothing about it,” Trump said. “They said he choked. I don’t think he choked. Well, I don’t think he choked. I think what happened was he thought Hillary Clinton was going to win the election and he said let’s not do anything about it. Had he thought the other way, he would have done something about it.”

NBC News fact-checked Trump’s response regarding whether Obama did “nothing” about the Russian intervention:

On Oct. 7, 2016, the Department of Homeland Security and Director of National Intelligence issued a statement explicitly saying that Russia was behind the election hacks. (“The U.S. Intelligence Community (USIC) is confident that the Russian Government directed the recent compromises of e-mails from US persons and institutions, including from US political organizations.”)

And two, the Obama administration sanctioned Russia for its interference. (“President Obama struck back at Russia on Thursday for its efforts to influence the 2016 election, ejecting 35 suspected Russian intelligence operatives from the United States and imposing sanctions on Russia’s two leading intelligence services,” the New York Times wrote on Dec. 29, 2016.)

Now you can legitimately argue that Obama didn’t do ENOUGH or EARLY ENOUGH against Russia. But you can’t say he did nothing.

Watch Trump’s response below. I’m sure he was dying to get out and answer the question for himself.