Tag: Russian investigation

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Trump Calls House Chairman Investigating Him A ‘Political Hack’

Donald Trump complained again today about so-called 'presidential harassment' when he was asked about the House Intelligence Committee moving forward with investigations into his finances and possible Russian ties.

Donald Trump complained again today about so-called ‘presidential harassment’ when he was asked about the House Intelligence Committee moving forward with investigations into his finances and possible Russian ties.

The ‘presidential harassment’ thing reminds me of the character in Mean Girls who keeps trying to get her invented catch-phrase to become popular. It’s not going to work.

Calling the new chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif), a ‘political hack,’ Trump added, “It’s just presidential harassment and it’s unfortunate and it really does hurt our country.”

Schiff announced Wednesday his committee would undertake a broad investigation “beyond Russia” into whether President Donald Trump’s financial interests are driving his actions.

The committee voted today to fulfill another priority of Schiff’s: releasing the transcripts of all witnesses before the House investigation to Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

The full, un-redacted transcripts will give Mueller the chance to ‘compare notes’ with his own interviews of Trump allies. Should he find discrepancies, Trump’s friends could be in big trouble. Lying to Congress is a felony.

For his part, Schiff issued his own statement saying, “I can understand why the idea of meaningful oversight terrifies the President. Several of his close associates are going to jail, others await trial, and criminal investigations continue. We’re going to do our job and won’t be distracted or intimidated by threats or attacks.”

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Trump Adviser, Roger Stone, Arrested On 7 Counts

Roger Stone, a longtime close adviser to Donald Trump, was arrested shortly after 6am this morning at his home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on multiple charges stemming from the ongoing investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
Roger Stone

Roger Stone, a longtime close adviser to Donald Trump, was arrested shortly after 6am this morning at his home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on multiple charges stemming from the ongoing investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

From The New York Times:

In an indictment unsealed on Friday, the special counsel disclosed evidence that a top campaign official in 2016 dispatched Roger J. Stone, a longtime adviser to President Trump, to get information from WikiLeaks about the thousands of hacked Democratic emails. The effort began well after it was widely reported that Russian intelligence operatives were behind the theft, which was part of Moscow’s broad campaign to sabotage the 2016 president election.

The indictment makes no mention of whether Mr. Trump played a role in the coordination, though Mr. Mueller did leave a curious clue about how high in the campaign the effort reached.: A senior campaign official “was directed” by an unnamed person to contact Mr. Stone about additional WikiLeaks releases that might damage the Clinton campaign, according to the court document.

Mr. Stone was charged with seven counts, including obstruction of an official proceeding, making false statements and witness tampering.

You can read the full indictment here.

A reporter from CNN, David Shortell, had been staking out Stone’s house due to recent activity by the Special Counsel investigation.

According to neighbors, CNN has had a truck out in front of Stone’s house Thursday-Saturday since the midterm elections.

And last week, the investigation was negotiating an appearance by Jerome Corsi’s stepson. His legal team was told to pick a day for grand jury testimony “just not Friday.”

Donald Trump took to Twitter angry that CNN was there to capture the early morning arrest. The Trumpster alleged the Special Counsel’s office had tipped off the media so they could embarrass Stone.

As Stone left his indictment hearing, he struck a Nixon-like pose. Reminding the American people of a disgraced president who lied would seem to be an ‘interesting’ strategy.

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Rudy Giuliani: I Never Said There Was No Collusion Between Trump Campaign And Russia

In a stunning reversal, Donald Trump's legal eagle Rudy Giuliani told CNN's Chris Cuomo last night that he never said there was "no collusion" between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russian agents.

I think this is what we call “moving the goalposts.”

In a stunning reversal, Donald Trump’s legal eagle Rudy Giuliani told CNN’s Chris Cuomo last night that he never said there was “no collusion” between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russian agents.

From The Washington Post:

President Trump’s legal spokesman Rudolph W. Giuliani on Wednesday night appeared to grant the possibility that members of Trump’s campaign did, in fact, collude with the Russians during the 2016 presidential election campaign.

And in the process, he contradicted dozens of previous denials that both the Trump team (and Trump himself) have offered.

“I never said there was no collusion between the campaign or between people in the campaign,” Giuliani told CNN’s Chris Cuomo, before getting cut off.

“Yes, you have,” Cuomo said.

Giuliani shot back: “I have not. I said ‘the president of the United States.’”

Now, perhaps Giuliani never said the exact words “no one from the Trump campaign ever communicated with Russian interlopers,” but that has been the clear message from Donald Trump regarding his team and the alleged Russian interference during the 2016 presidential race.

“No collusion” has been the Trumpster’s mantra over and over again.

This is first time anyone connected to Trump has opened the door to the idea that someone associated with Trump colluded with Russian forces without his knowledge.

The Washington Post breaks down the many evolving positions like this:

1. November 2016: No communications, period

2. February 2017: There were no communications, “to the best of our knowledge”

3. March 2017: There were communications, but no planned meetings with Russians

4. July 8, 2017: There was a planned meeting at Trump Tower, but it was “primarily” about adoption and not the campaign

5. July 9, 2017: The meeting was planned to discuss the campaign, but the information exchanged wasn’t “meaningful”

6. December 2017: Collusion isn’t even a crime

7. May 16, 2018: Even if meaningful information were obtained, it wasn’t used

8. May 19, 2018: There was a *second* planned meeting about foreign help in the election, but nothing came of it either

9. July 16, 2018: Trump couldn’t collude, because Trump didn’t even know Putin

10. July 30, 2018: Collusion isn’t a crime, and Trump wasn’t physically at the Trump Tower meeting

11. January 16, 2019: Trump didn’t collude, but no guarantees on others in the campaign

It’s like quicksand – the more Team Trump fights, the worse off they are.

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Trump: “I Never Worked For Russia”

Donald Trump

Donald Trump finally gave reporters a clear ‘no’ today when asked about the allegations that he’s been trying to conceal his communications with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“I never worked for Russia,” Trump told reporters. “It’s a disgrace that you even asked that question because it’s a whole big fat hoax. It’s just a hoax.”

Trump also said he doesn’t know anything about what happened to the notes taken by an interpreter when he met with Putin last summer in Finland.

White House adviser Kellyanne Conway told reporters today that she believes Donald Trump seized his translator’s notes after a 2017 meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin because the West Wing had been “suffering from a great number of leaks” at the time.

She also admits, however, that she hasn’t discussed the issue with Trump.

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Poll: 62% Of Americans Don’t Believe Trump Has Been Honest About Russian Interference

A new poll by NBC/Wall Street Journal taken after the midterm elections shows a majority of Americans think Donald Trump hasn't been truthful regarding the ongoing investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
Donald Trump

A new poll by NBC/Wall Street Journal taken after the midterm elections shows a majority of Americans think Donald Trump hasn’t been truthful regarding the ongoing investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

• Almost two-thirds (62% of those polled) say Trump has not been honest regarding Russian interference in the last presidential election.

• 33% believe the economy will get worse in the next 12 months versus 28% who believe it will continue to improve.

• Only 38% of those polled would vote to re-elect Trump president.

• Only 33% say Trump ‘got the message’ that voters want a change of direction via the midterm elections; 22% say he got the message but won’t make any changes in his approach to the presidency.

• 56% say the country is headed in the wrong direction.

Check out more from the recent survey here.

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Axios: “We Now Know…”

Donald Trump

In light of this week’s sentencing recommendations from Special Counsel Robert Mueller, plus new details from former FBI Director James Comey at congressional hearings, Axios comes up with this list of “what we know” regarding the ongoing investigation:

We now know several Russian officials reached out to a half dozen Republicans very close to Trump and his campaign, including his eldest son, his closest adviser, his lawyer, and his campaign manager. We now know they took the meetings, often enthusiastically, during and after the campaign.

We now know Russia offered in those chats campaign assistance — “synergy,” they called it. We know now of no one around Trump who alerted the FBI of this effort to subvert our elections.

We now know that 12 Russian intelligence officers were indicted for hacking the DNC and systematically releasing material for the purpose of hurting the Clinton campaign via WikiLeaks.

We know that Trump associates Roger Stone and Jerome Corsi attempted — successfully, in some instances — to get in touch with WikiLeaks and that they are under investigation for whether they had advance knowledge about the email dumps.

We now know Donald Trump, Jr and others took a meeting with Russians promising dirt on Hillary Clinton. We now know Don, Jr., when approached with the promise of dirt, wrote: “If it’s what you say I love it especially later in the summer.”

We now know Trump was negotiating a Trump property in Moscow during the presidential campaign — and hid this from the public and lied about it. We now know Mueller believes, based on his court filing, the “Moscow Project was a lucrative business opportunity that sought, and likely required, the assistance of the Russian government.”

We now know every arm of the US intelligence community concluded Russia sought to systematically influence the election outcome. We now know this was an unanimous conclusion, save one dissent: Trump.

We now know Trump officials continued talking with the Russians during the post-election transition. We now know Jared Kushner and Jeff Sessions failed to initially disclose any contacts with Russians on their government forms.

We now know Jared Kushner suggested a secret backchannel with the Russians, which had it happened, would have been free of US eavesdropping.

We now know Trump soured on FBI director James Comey, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and White House counsel Don McGahn in part over their handling of the probe.

We now know Paul Manafort, who ran the Trump campaign in the summer of 2016, lied about his Russia contacts, was indicted, and is going to jail.

We now know Flynn lied about his Russian contacts, was fired and pleaded guilty, after agreeing to become a key witness in the investigation.

We now know Cohen lied about his Russian contacts, was indicted, and then flipped to become a key witness against Trump.

Axios’ final note – Robert Mueller knows a lot more than just the above.

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James Comey Drops Challenge To Congressional Subpoena In Exchange For Full-Transcript Release

NBC News reports that former FBI Director James Comey has dropped his legal challenge to a Republican congressional subpoena and will agree to closed-door deposition.
Former FBI Director James Comey

NBC News reports that former FBI Director James Comey has dropped his legal challenge to a Republican congressional subpoena and will agree to closed-door deposition.

However, lawmakers agreed to release a full transcript of his testimony within 24 hours, and he will be free to make all or part of it available to the public.

Comey had been subpoenaed by House Republicans to discuss Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server (again) as well as Russian interference in the 2016 election behind closed doors. Comey opposed the private setting in an effort to make sure the American people would be able to know exactly what was discussed.

Comey’s attorneys argued in their challenge to the subpoena that Republicans had “abused their powers with selective leaks” in the past.

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Trump Warns Soon-To-Be Democratic Controlled House On Possible Investigations

Donald Trump

Donald Trump, after seeming a bit more open to ‘playing nice’ in an interview with right-leaning Sinclair Broadcast Group yesterday, was back to the same old Grump Trump this morning.

On Twitter, Trump sent a warning shot to Democrats about possible White House investigations by the soon-to-be Democratic-controlled House as well as renewed his attacks on the Mueller investigation.

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Report: White House Counsel Has Been Cooperating “Extensively” With Robert Mueller Investigation

Donald Trump

According to a new report from The New York Times, White House counsel Don McGahn has been cooperating with the special counsel investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election as well as Donald Trump’s possible obstruction of justice in firing former FBI Director James Comey.

From The New York Times:

The White House counsel, Donald F. McGahn II, has cooperated extensively in the special counsel investigation, sharing detailed accounts about the episodes at the heart of the inquiry into whether President Trump obstructed justice, including some that investigators would not have learned of otherwise, according to a dozen current and former White House officials and others briefed on the matter.

In at least three voluntary interviews with investigators that totaled 30 hours over the past nine months, Mr. McGahn described the president’s fury toward the Russia investigation and the ways in which he urged Mr. McGahn to respond to it. He provided the investigators examining whether Mr. Trump obstructed justice a clear view of the president’s most intimate moments with his lawyer.

Among them were Mr. Trump’s comments and actions during the firing of the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, and Mr. Trump’s obsession with putting a loyalist in charge of the inquiry, including his repeated urging of Attorney General Jeff Sessions to claim oversight of it. Mr. McGahn was also centrally involved in Mr. Trump’s attempts to fire the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, which investigators might not have discovered without him.

The NY Times goes on to say that McGahn “viewed his role as protector of the presidency, not of Mr. Trump.”

McGahn’s full cooperation was apparently motivated by suspicions “that the president had decided to let Mr. McGahn take the fall for decisions that could be construed as obstruction of justice, like the Comey firing, by telling the special counsel that he was only following shoddy legal advice from Mr. McGahn.”

The Trumpster slapped back at the “failing” NY Times saying it was all a lot of nonsense because Trump “allowed him and all others to testify.”

Cue the Twitter rant:

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Report: Trump Was Briefed On Russian Interference Weeks Before Taking Office

The New York Times reports that Donald Trump was briefed, in detail, two week before his inauguration, about Russia's interference in the 2016 election.
Donald Trump

On January 6, 2017, two weeks before taking an oath to defend the United States of America, Donald Trip was briefed by James Clapper, director of national intelligence; John O. Brennan, the C.I.A. director; and Adm. Michael S. Rogers, the director of the National Security Agency and the commander of United States Cyber Command.

Trump was informed, in detail, of the vast amount of evidence that showed Russia had interfered in the 2016 presidential election.

From The New York Times:

The evidence included texts and emails from Russian military officers and information gleaned from a top-secret source close to Mr. Putin, who had described to the C.I.A. how the Kremlin decided to execute its campaign of hacking and disinformation.

Mr. Trump sounded grudgingly convinced, according to several people who attended the intelligence briefing. But ever since, Mr. Trump has tried to cloud the very clear findings that he received on Jan. 6, 2017, which his own intelligence leaders have unanimously endorsed.

The shifting narrative underscores the degree to which Mr. Trump regularly picks and chooses intelligence to suit his political purposes. That has never been more clear than this week.

Also present at the meeting was the-FBI director James Comey. It was after that briefing that Comey privately shared with Trump the now-infamous Steele Dossier.

In other words, Trump has known since before he entered the White House that Putin ordered the disruption.

And he pushed out every top official at that meeting to protect himself.

One day after being shown all of the damning evidence, Trump went on the offense attempting to obfuscate the issue.