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Post by Admin on Feb 3, 2018 18:18:54 GMT
The memo is out. Read it here: bit.ly/2nBDLlPThe first is the original Nunes memo. The second memo, written by Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), is a rebuttal to Nunes’s attacks on the FBI. The third memo is actually an edited version of Nunes’s original memo, which he sent to the Trump administration for review. The reason there are three memos is because Nunes’s first memo was flawed — on this point, there’s consensus. The debate is over whether it was flawed fundamentally (Schiff’s position) or in minor ways that required very light edits (if you believe Nunes). Either way, the existence of three memos is seriously complicating the Republican campaign to #ReleaseTheMemo — an effort that, if successful, could have profound implications for special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Trump’s Russia ties and the FBI’s independence more broadly.
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Post by Admin on Feb 4, 2018 18:13:26 GMT
Source E was “an ethnic Russian” and “close associate of Republican US presidential candidate Donald Trump.” This individual proved to be a treasure trove of information. “Speaking in confidence to a compatriot,” the talkative Source E “admitted there was a well-developed conspiracy of cooperation between them [the Trump campaign] and the Russian leadership.” Then this: “The Russian regime had been behind the recent leak of embarrassing e-mail messages, emanating from the Democratic National Committee (DNC) to the WikiLeaks platform.” And finally: “In return the Trump team had agreed to sideline Russian intervention in Ukraine as a campaign issue and to raise US/NATO defense commitments in the Baltic and Eastern Europe to deflect attention away from Ukraine.” Then there was Source D, “a close associate of Trump who had organized and managed his recent trips to Moscow,” and Source F, “a female staffer” at the Moscow Ritz-Carlton hotel, who was co-opted into the network by an Orbis “ethnic Russian operative” working hand in hand with the loquacious Trump insider, Source E. These two sources told quite a lurid story, the now infamous “golden showers” allegation, which, according to the dossier, was corroborated by others in his alphabet list of assets. It was an evening’s entertainment, Steele, the old Russian hand, must have suspected, that had to have been produced by the ever helpful F.S.B. And since it was typical of Moscow Center’s handwriting to have the suite wired up for sound and video (the hotel’s Web site, with unintentional irony, boasts of its “cutting edge technological amenities”), Steele apparently began to suspect that locked in a Kremlin safe was a hell of a video, as well as photographs. Steele’s growing file must have left his mind cluttered with new doubts, new suspicions. And now, as he continued his chase, a sense of alarm hovered about the former spy. If Steele’s sources were right, Putin had up his sleeve kompromat—Moscow Center’s gleeful word for compromising material—that would make the Access Hollywood exchange between Trump and Billy Bush seem, as Trump insisted, as banal as “locker-room talk.” Steele could only imagine how and when the Russians might try to use it.
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Post by Admin on Feb 12, 2018 18:20:51 GMT
Attorney General Jeff Sessions is the highest official from the administration to have been interviewed as part of an investigation into allegations of Russian collusion with Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign, it has emerged.
Justice Department spokesman Ian Prior confirmed on Tuesday that Sessions was questioned last week as part of the investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller, according to AP. He did not provide any further details.
The interview marked the first time Mueller’s office had questioned a member of President Donald Trump’s cabinet.
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Post by Admin on Feb 17, 2018 18:36:23 GMT
Mueller’s office said 13 Russians and three Russian entities, including the notorious state-backed “troll farm” the Internet Research Agency, had been indicted by a federal grand jury in Washington DC. A 37-page indictment alleges that the Russians’ operations “included supporting the presidential campaign of then-candidate Donald J Trump ... and disparaging Hillary Clinton,” his Democratic opponent. The Russians allegedly posed as Americans to operate bogus social media accounts, buy advertisements and stage political rallies. They stole the identities of real people in the US to post online and built computer systems in the US to hide the Russian origin of their activity, according to the indictment. The charges state that from as far back as 2014, the defendants conspired together to defraud the US by “impairing, obstructing, and defeating the lawful functions of government” through interference with the American political and electoral processes.
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Post by Admin on Feb 22, 2018 18:15:58 GMT
Senior White House officials say the Trump administration is looking at additional sanctions against Russia and is on guard for possible meddling in November’s congressional elections.
Republicans and Democrats have criticized President Donald Trump for not imposing Congress-approved sanctions over 2016 election interference.
@presssec to @jonkarl on what Pres. Trump is going to do about the fact that Russia interfered with U.S. elections: "We have spent a lot of time working on cybersecurity, focusing on protecting the fairness on our elections.
Trump has also tried to shift attention from a criminal probe into whether his campaign colluded with the Russians to the Obama administration, which was in power during the 2016 campaign.
Trump is also angry that Sessions removed himself from overseeing the Justice Department’s probe because of his own 2016 contacts with Russia’s ambassador to Washington.
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