Tag Archives: Russia

The Washington Post reports: Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III has been investigating a period of time last summer when President Trump seemed determined to drive Attorney General Jeff Sessions from his job, according to people familiar with the matter who said that a key area of interest for the inquiry is whether those efforts were part of a months-long …

The Independent reports: President Donald Trump has mounted a fresh attack on his attorney general, questioning his judgement on a federal investigation in a rambling tweet. The president lashed out at Attorney General Jeff Sessions over his decision to appoint the Department of Justice inspector general to probe allegations of FBI surveillance abuse. Mr Sessions had announced the day before …

The New York Times reports: Hope Hicks, the White House communications director, told House investigators on Tuesday that her work for President Trump, who has a reputation for exaggerations and outright falsehoods, had occasionally required her to tell white lies. But after extended consultation with her lawyers, she insisted that she had not lied about matters material to the investigations …

The Atlantic reports: On March 17, 2017, WikiLeaks tweeted that it had never communicated with Roger Stone, a longtime confidante and informal adviser to President Donald Trump. In his interview with the House Intelligence Committee last September, Stone, who testified under oath, told lawmakers that he had communicated with WikiLeaks via an “intermediary,” whom he identified only as a “journalist.” …

This will likely be on the menu today: Three hours into her scheduled testimony before the House Intelligence Committee, White House Communications Director Hope Hicks appears to be answering some of the committee’s questions, according to multiple members, though Democrats and Republicans on the committee differed on how useful those answers were. Asked how the interview with Hicks was proceeding, …

The Hill reports: Former Trump campaign aide Carter Page praised Fox News host Sean Hannity for his coverage regarding the Russia investigation. “You have been the Edward R. Murrow of this whole process,” Page told Hannity during an interview late Monday. “It’s been so completely out of control, going back, really a year-and-a-half now.” Hannity, a strong support of President …

Via Mediaite: President Donald Trump’s TiVo was working overtime on Tuesday morning, as it seemed he was catching up on last night’s episode of Martha McCallum’s Fox News show. Former judge Andrew Napolitano was reacting to Trump’s remarks in an interview with Jeanine Pirro from the weekend, in which he called on “you know who” — ostensibly Attorney General Jeff …

Bloomberg reports: White House communications director Hope Hicks is scheduled to be interviewed privately Tuesday by the House Intelligence Committee, which is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election, according to two House officials familiar with the matter. Her appearance before the committee is scheduled for 10 a.m., said the officials, who asked for anonymity to discuss the plans. On …

Newsweek reports: President Donald Trump mangled a quote from a Fox News anchor in an attack on Representative Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. In a tweet late Saturday, Trump claimed to have quoted a Fox News report by Molly Line, who was describing a Democrat memo rebutting GOP claims of surveillance abuses by Justice Department …

Politico reports: The FBI team investigating the 2016 Trump campaign’s contacts with Russians had already opened inquiries into multiple people connected to the campaign when it received a controversial dossier alleging illicit ties between then-candidate Trump and the Kremlin, a Democratic memo released by the House Intelligence Committee revealed Saturday. The dossier, compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele, wasn’t …

The New York Times reports: A former top adviser to Donald J. Trump’s presidential campaign pleaded guilty on Friday to fraud and lying to investigators in the special counsel inquiry into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election and will cooperate with the investigation. The adviser, Rick Gates, is a longtime political consultant who once served as Mr. Trump’s deputy campaign …

NBC News reports: Federal investigators are probing whether former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort promised a Chicago banker a job in the Trump White House in return for $16 million in home loans, two people with direct knowledge of the matter told NBC News. Manafort received three separate loans in December 2016 and January 2017 from Federal Savings Bank for …

Gizmodo reports: Twitter suspended thousands of accounts overnight and conservatives on the platform aren’t happy about it. Twitter has yet to make a public statement about the issue, but right-wing users believe that they’re being targeted in a mass purge of suspected Russian bot accounts. Conservative Twitter has even started a hashtag called #TwitterLockOut to talk about the purge, with …

CNBC reports: President Donald Trump slammed the attorney general on Wednesday, calling on his more than 48 million Twitter followers to “ask Jeff Session” why the Obama administration is not the focus of the special counsel’s Russia probe. Trump has used his Twitter account to attack Sessions before, particularly since Sessions recused himself from investigating matters relating to the 2016 …

Mediaite reports: White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders insisted to reporters today that President Trump has accepted that Russia meddled in the election. The first question of the press briefing, from NBC News’ Kristen Welker, concerned whether President Trump finally accepts that Russia meddled and influenced the 2016 election. “One of the places where you guys seem to get …

Bloomberg reports: An attorney who worked for a prominent law firm was charged with making false statements to federal authorities as part of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe of Russian collusion in the 2016 presidential election. Alex Van Der Zwaan was charged Feb. 16 in federal court in Washington with lying to investigators about conversations related to a report he …

The Wrap reports: President Donald Trump was watching “Fox & Friends” on Tuesday, tweeting out his gratitude to the Fox News morning show over a segment focusing on President Obama’s handling of the Russia threat. Trump added an attack on Obama, pulled word for word from the “Fox & Friends” line up. The tweets came after show co-hosts Steve Doocy, …

The New York Times reports: One hour after news broke about the school shooting in Florida last week, Twitter accounts suspected of having links to Russia released hundreds of posts taking up the gun control debate.  “This is pretty typical for them, to hop on breaking news like this,” said Jonathon Morgan, chief executive of New Knowledge, a company that …

Jaws dropped on Twitter this afternoon when CPAC published the full agenda for this week’s convention, revealing that French fascist Marion Le Pen will speak from the main stage immediately after Mike Pence. Marion, you may recall, is the even worse niece of National Front leader Marine Le Pen and in 2012 at age 22 became the youngest person ever …

The Associated Press reports: President Donald Trump is again attacking his predecessor on Twitter, asking why he didn’t do more to prevent Russian election meddling. Trump raised similar questions over the weekend, after an indictment from special counsel Robert Mueller charged 13 Russians with a plot to interfere in the U.S. presidential election. President Barack Obama in late 2016 defended …