Tag Archives: Russia

CNN reports: Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman indicted on money laundering and other charges, filed a lawsuit challenging the broad authority of special counsel Robert Mueller and alleging the Justice Department violated the law in appointing Mueller. The suit brought Wednesday in US District Court in Washington where Manafort and another former Trump campaign aide are charged, challenges …

The Guardian reports: Donald Trump’s former chief strategist Steve Bannon has described the Trump Tower meeting between the president’s son and a group of Russians during the 2016 election campaign as “treasonous” and “unpatriotic”, according to an explosive new book seen by the Guardian. Bannon, speaking to author Michael Wolff, warned that the investigation into alleged collusion with the Kremlin …

Josh Israel reports at Think Progress: The head of the self-described “#1 nail art chain in Russia” visited Washington, D.C. on Tuesday morning for a meeting with her country’s new ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Ivanovich Antonov. A photo posted on Movsisyan’s personal Instagram account and on Nail Sunny’s company Instagram page, shows that the meeting took place at …

The New York Times reports: During a night of heavy drinking at an upscale London bar in May 2016, George Papadopoulos, a young foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign, made a startling revelation to Australia’s top diplomat in Britain: Russia had political dirt on Hillary Clinton. About three weeks earlier, Mr. Papadopoulos had been told that Moscow had thousands …

Politico reports: States rushing to guard their 2018 elections against hackers may be on a waiting list for up to nine months for the Department of Homeland Security’s most exhaustive security screening, according to government officials familiar with the situation. That means some states might not get the service until weeks before the November midterms and may remain unaware of …

The Hill reports: President Trump in a new interview denied any collusion between his 2016 presidential campaign and Russia, adding “even if there was, it’s not a crime.” Speaking to The New York Times Thursday, Trump praised lawyer Alan Dershowitz, who has argued that Trump’s firing of former FBI Director James Comey was not obstruction of justice because Trump has …

“Well here is what we know, the DNC and Hillary Clinton were paying people to go and pay Russians to tell lies about the president. And I guess that the best evidence of collusion against Republicans is that Republicans and Russia were all on the same Internet at the same time. It’s ludicrous. Why are we not investigating the real …

McClatchy reports: A jailed Russian who says he hacked into the Democratic National Committee computers on the Kremlin’s orders to steal emails released during the 2016 U.S. presidential election campaign now claims he left behind a data signature to prove his assertion. In an interview with Russia’s RAIN television channel made public Wednesday, Konstantin Kozlovsky provided further details about what …

The Washington Post reports: President Trump’s legal team plans to cast former national security adviser Michael T. Flynn as a liar seeking to protect himself if he accuses the president or his senior aides of any wrongdoing, according to three people familiar with the strategy. The approach would mark a sharp break from Trump’s previously sympathetic posture toward Flynn, whom …

The Moscow Times reports: A Russian senator has warned of the slippery slope that legislators risked taking by passing a law against animal cruelty. The Federation Council struck down a bill on Tuesday that sought to ban cruelty against animals used in the training of hunting dogs and birds. “We treat many western fads with humor, including political correctness, the …

Yahoo News reports: As described by sources familiar with various aspects of the investigation, the Mueller probe is fast approaching a critical crossroads. The president’s lawyers, Ty Cobb and John Dowd, are pressing Mueller to wind down the investigation and exonerate their client, which they have assured the president will happen by early next year. But the sources familiar with …

Business Insider reports: Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on Tuesday accused the US of a “direct interference in our electoral process and internal affairs” following the State Department’s criticism of Russia’s decision to bar opposition leader Alexey Navalny from running in the upcoming presidential election against Vladimir Putin. “This State Department statement, which I’m sure will be repeated, is …

Hair Furor began his day at Mar-A-Lago by watching Fox & Friends and screaming along with them that the Russia dossier is “bogus.” Multiple media figures responded with tweets pointing out that much of the dossier has already proven to be factual: For the first time, US investigators say they have corroborated some of the communications detailed in a 35-page …

The Washington Post reports: Russian officials said Sunday that the U.S. decision to supply Ukraine with lethal weapons to combat Russian-backed separatists will cause new bloodshed, as long-standing tensions between Washington and Moscow escalated over the four-year-old conflict. Moscow’s admonition came shortly after the State Department announced Friday evening that the United States will provide heavy armaments to Ukraine for …

The Associated Press reports: Ukraine will soon have more lethal American-made weapons to help it fight Russian-backed separatists. U.S. officials said Friday that the Trump administration approved a plan to provide lethal weapons to Ukraine, in a long-awaited move that deepens America’s involvement in the military conflict and may further strain relations with Russia. The new arms include American-made Javelin …

Via Fox News Insider: White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders maintained on Thursday that President Trump will not fire Special Counsel Robert Mueller. She was asked by Bill Hemmer about a speech on the Senate floor Wednesday by Senate Intelligence Committee ranking member Mark Warner, who warned of a “constitutional crisis” if Trump moves to end Mueller’s investigation. “In recent days, …

Reuter reports: The U.S. Treasury Department on Wednesday imposed new sanctions on five Russians and Chechens, including the head of the Russian republic of Chechnya, for alleged human rights abuses. The new sanctions blacklisted Ramzan Kadyrov, the Chechen leader and a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Treasury Department said in a statement. U.S. authorities accused Kadyrov of …

Business Insider reports: Republican Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey said that White House senior adviser and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner “deserves the scrutiny” he’s getting from the ongoing Russia probe that has so far ensnared three former Trump aides. “I’m telling you that he deserves the scrutiny, you know why? Because he was involved in the transition …

NBC News reports: The new survey finds that 41 percent of Americans want Congress to hold impeachment hearings to remove Trump from office, including 70 percent of Democrats, 40 percent of independents and seven percent of Republicans. That data largely mirrors the shares within each party that believe that the Trump campaign actively colluded with Russia during the 2016 election. …

Talking Points Memo reports: During a speech on Tuesday night in Palm Beach, Florida, Donald Trump Jr. suggested that there are top officials in the United States government working to undermine the Trump administration, feeding the conspiracy theory pushed by some Trump officials earlier in the year that the “deep state” is working against President Donald Trump. Trump Jr. did …