Tag Archives: Russia

Because just cutting off his WiFi wasn’t enough. Australia’s News Corp outlet reports: Electronic jammers have been placed inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London to prevent WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange having access to the internet or social media, sources say. The Ecuadorian government took the measure on Tuesday evening, stopping Assange from tweeting, using the internet or phone. He has …

The Washington Post reports: Former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe on Thursday launched an online fundraiser to help cover the legal costs that might come as he navigates investigations and congressional inquiries and explores whether he will sue over his abrupt ouster from the bureau. McCabe’s team unveiled the legal defense fund, hosted on the GoFundMe website, about 2 p.m. …

The Associated Press reports: Russia’s foreign minister says Moscow will expel the same number of diplomats from the nations that have expelled Russian diplomats over the poisoning of an ex-Russian spy in Britain. Sergey Lavrov said U.S. Ambassador Jon Huntsman has been summoned to the Foreign Ministry on Thursday, where he was given notice that Russia is responding quid pro …

The Guardian reports: Ecuador has cut Julian Assange’s communications with the outside world from its London embassy, where the founder of the whistleblowing WikiLeaks website has been living for nearly six years. The Ecuadorian government said in statement that it had acted because Assange had breached “a written commitment made to the government at the end of 2017 not to …

The New York Times reports: A lawyer for President Trump broached the idea of Mr. Trump pardoning two of his former top advisers, Michael T. Flynn and Paul Manafort, with their lawyers last year, according to three people with knowledge of the discussions. The discussions came as the special counsel was building cases against both men, and they raise questions …

How many lies will she tell today? White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders is set to take questions from reporters on Wednesday afternoon. The briefing follows revelations from the special counsel’s office that former Trump deputy campaign manager Richard Gates communicated with an associate who was a known former Russian intelligence officer. The news briefing is set to begin …

Axios reports: Capitol Hill wants Facebook’s blood, but President Trump isn’t interested. Instead, the tech behemoth Trump wants to go after is Amazon, according to five sources who’ve discussed it with him. “He’s obsessed with Amazon,” a source said. “Obsessed.” What we’re hearing: Trump has talked about changing Amazon’s tax treatment because he’s worried about mom-and-pop retailers being put out …

The Daily Beast reports: Prosecutors working on the special counsel investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election have linked Rick Gates, Donald Trump’s former deputy campaign chairman, to a person with ties to a Russian intelligence service. In a court filing released Tuesday night, prosecutors said Gates and the unnamed person, who had lived in Kiev and Moscow and …

Politico reports: A pair of veteran white-collar lawyers have turned down President Donald Trump’s offer to help lead his defense in the Russia probe, marking another setback for a legal team that’s seen its numbers dwindle over the past week while it prepares for a potentially critical interview between the president and special counsel Robert Mueller. The law firm Winston …

Talking Points Memo reports: The National Rifle Association is acknowledging that it accepts donations from foreign entities, and that it moves money between its various accounts “as permitted by law.” The gun group insists it has never received foreign money in connection with an election. But campaign finance experts say that, since money is fungible, that assurance doesn’t mean much. …

The Washington Post reports: The Trump administration on Monday ordered the expulsion of 60 Russian intelligence and diplomatic officers in New York and Washington and the closure of the Russian consulate in Seattle in retaliation of the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain. Twelve Russian diplomats at the United Nations in New York and 48 at the Russian …

Maggie Haberman reports at the New York Times: As President Trump heads into one of the most critical phases of the special counsel’s investigation, his personal legal team has shrunk to essentially just one member, and he is struggling to find any top lawyers willing to represent him. That lawyer, Jay Sekulow, is a conservative commentator who made his name …

The Associated Press reports: An attorney for President Donald Trump says that two lawyers who planned to join the legal team handling the special counsel’s Russia investigation won’t be taking those positions after all. Trump personal attorney Jay Sekulow says in a statement that Washington lawyers Joseph diGenova and Victoria Toensing have conflicts that won’t allow them to represent the …

Here’s what has Hair Furor raging this morning: President Trump, whose top attorney handling the Russia probe resigned Thursday, is struggling to find top-notch defense lawyers willing to represent him in the case, according to multiple Trump advisers familiar with the negotiations. Some law firms have signaled that they do not want the controversy of representing a divisive and unpopular …

The Washington Post reports: When a Russian news agency reached out to George Papadopoulos to request an interview shortly before the 2016 election, the young adviser to then-candidate Donald Trump made sure to seek approval from campaign headquarters. “You should do it,” deputy communications director Bryan Lanza urged Papadopoulos in a September 2016 email, emphasizing the benefits of a U.S. …

The New York Times reports: The president’s lead lawyer for the special counsel investigation, John Dowd, resigned on Thursday, according to two people briefed on the matter, days after the president called for an end to the inquiry. Mr. Dowd, who took over the president’s legal team last summer, had considered leaving several times in recent months and ultimately concluded …

ABC News reports: Nearly a year before Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired senior FBI official Andrew McCabe for what Sessions called a “lack of candor,” McCabe oversaw a federal criminal investigation into whether Sessions lacked candor when testifying before Congress about contacts with Russian operatives, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News. Democratic lawmakers have repeatedly accused Sessions of …

Politico reports: President Donald Trump on Wednesday criticized his three predecessors in defending his recent congratulatory call to President Vladimir Putin of Russia — a move that’s been widely criticized in the wake of news that Trump was specifically instructed not to congratulate Putin on his reelection. Reports emerged on Tuesday night that briefing materials prepared for Trump’s call specifically …

USA Today reports: Facing growing criticism of his leadership of the social media giant he co-founded, CEO Mark Zuckerberg finally broke his silence on the escalating crisis over how Facebook handles people’s private information. Zuckerberg took responsibility for what he called “a breach of trust between Facebook and the people who share their data with us and expect us to …

Bloomberg reports: President Donald Trump returned to criticisms of the special counsel investigating Russian election meddling Wednesday, this time quoting Alan Dershowitz on Fox News mounting a vigorous attack on Robert Mueller, saying he never should have been appointed and that there was no evidence of a crime. The tweets come as even Republicans in Washington have become concerned that …