Tag Archives: Russia

The Cohen raid continues to freak him out: President Trump on Wednesday blamed tensions between the U.S. and Russia on special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election. In a tweet, Trump ripped into Mueller and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, the official at the Department of Justice with the authority to dismiss Mueller, saying both …

The Hill reports: President Trump said Wednesday that America’s relationship with Russia is “worse now than it has ever been,” after Russia stymied efforts to investigate an alleged chemical attack in Syria. The president in a tweet implored Russian President Vladimir Putin to “stop the arms race.” Trump’s remark comes just hours after Russian officials blocked a resolution at the …

Reuters reports: Russia has warned that any U.S. missiles fired at Syria over a suspected chemical weapons attack on a rebel enclave would be shot down and the launch sites targeted, raising the possibility of a U.S.-Russian confrontation. Issuing the warning on Tuesday evening, the Russian ambassador to Lebanon also said such a clash should be avoided and Moscow was …

NBC News reports: The lawyer for adult film star Stormy Daniels said he “feels sorry” for Donald Trump’s personal attorney, branding him the president’s “scapegoat” after it was revealed that the FBI on Monday raided Michael Cohen’s office and hotel room. “I think when push comes to shove he’s going to fold like a cheap deck of cards, I really …

“President Trump, I’m speaking to you directly. Do not take the same mistake that President Obama had made. The action that you had taken to take out the air base, that was important, that was strong — that was a very strong message. What we need to do right now is to take out Assad’s air force. If we ground …

The BBC reports: The US and Russia have traded barbs at a UN Security Council meeting on the alleged chemical attack in Syria. Russian envoy Vassily Nebenzia said the incident in Douma was staged and that US military action in response could have “grave repercussions”. US Ambassador Nikki Haley said Russia had the “blood of Syrian children” on its hands. …

Slate reports: The House Energy and Commerce Committee released Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s prepared introductory remarks on Monday. Zuckerberg is expected to testify before the committee on Wednesday. He will also appear before the Senate Judiciary and Commerce committees on Tuesday. Zuckerberg expresses regret for both the Russian interference and the Cambridge Analytica scandal at the beginning of his testimony: …

Axios reports: Christopher Wylie, the former Cambridge Analytica employee who sounded the alarm on the firm illicitly obtaining user data from Facebook, told Meet the Press’ Chuck Todd that Steve Bannon “absolutely wanted to use [the data] for Republican candidates … [and] alt-right candidates in the United States.” Wylie also said he’s been contacted by American authorities — both from …

Reuters reports: The United Nations Security Council is likely to meet Monday afternoon over the recent chemical attack in Syria at the request of the United States and several other members, diplomats said on Sunday. A joint statement by the medical relief organization Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS) and the civil defense service, which operates in rebel-held areas, said 49 …

Politico reports: Lawyers for former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort are arguing that what could be key evidence against him should be kept out of court because the FBI violated his Constitutional rights by illegally entering a storage locker belonging to Manafort’s firm. The FBI first got into the Alexandria, Va. storage unit last May with the assistance of an …

CNN reports: Corey Lewandowski had a blunt message for Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee: He wasn’t going to answer their “fucking” questions. Lewandowski, President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager, was the final witness in the yearlong House investigation that descended into vitriol and back-biting — ultimately resulting in two separate partisan reports that will leave the American public no …

Axios reports: South Carolina Republican Trey Gowdy, who is retiring from Congress this year, told Vice News’ Michael C. Moynihan that he felt being in Congress was largely a waste of time, as it was bogged down by “ineffectiveness.” And asked what he makes of the Republican party in 2018, he said “the goal is to win” — that’s it. …

Reuters reports: The Kremlin on Thursday said Facebook’s removal of accounts controlled by various Russian media was a hostile move that smacked of censorship. Facebook said on Tuesday it had deleted hundreds of Russian accounts and pages associated with a “troll factory” indicted by U.S. prosecutors for fake activist and political posts in the 2016 U.S. election campaign. When asked …

CNN reports: Special counsel Robert Mueller’s team has taken the unusual step of questioning Russian oligarchs who traveled into the US, stopping at least one and searching his electronic devices when his private jet landed at a New York area airport, according to multiple sources familiar with the inquiry. A second Russian oligarch was stopped during a recent trip to …

The Washington Post reports: Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III informed President Trump’s attorneys last month that he is continuing to investigate the president but does not consider him a criminal target at this point, according to three people familiar with the discussions. In private negotiations in early March about a possible presidential interview, Mueller described Trump as a subject …

The Hill reports: President Trump on Tuesday argued he has been tougher on Russia than any of his predecessors, despite frequent criticisms from lawmakers over his relationship with Russia and Vladimir Putin. “Ideally we want to get along with Russia. Getting along with Russia is a good thing, not a bad thing. Maybe we will maybe we won’t,” Trump told …

The Chicago Tribune reports: Embattled Fox News host Laura Ingraham has found some unlikely allies: Russian bots. Russian-linked Twitter accounts have rallied around the conservative talk-show host, who has come under fire for attacking the young survivors of the Parkland school shooting. According to the website Hamilton 68, which tracks the spread of Russian propaganda on Twitter, the hashtag #IstandwithLaura …

The Daily Beast reports: President Trump has reportedly invited Vladimir Putin to the White House for a visit, according to a statement from the Kremlin. According to an Agence France-Presse reporter, a senior U.S. official did “not deny” that Trump “floated the idea of a White House summit,” noting that “no planning has begun as yet.” This comes after Trump …

Last week Fox News analyst Ralph Peters quit the network with a scorched-earth statement declaring that he was ashamed to have ever worked for their “propaganda machine.” Peters goes even farther today in an op-ed for the Washington Post: You could measure the decline of Fox News by the drop in the quality of guests waiting in the green room. …

The Daily Beast reports: Two former aides to Donald Trump waged a war of words against each other this week, using cable news and social media as their battlefields. Roger Stone, a longtime confidant of Trump’s, took to his personal Instagram page on Thursday to call fellow ex-aide Sam Nunberg, a man who once viewed Stone as a mentor, a …