Tag Archives: Russia

Reuters reports: President Donald Trump’s former chief strategist Steve Bannon will meet behind closed doors on Tuesday with a U.S. House of Representatives committee that is probing whether Russia meddled in the 2016 presidential election. The interview with the House Intelligence Committee comes after Bannon’s public falling out with the president over comments Bannon made to author Michael Wolff for …

Politico reports: The suspected Russian hackers accused of breaching the Democratic National Committee and meddling in France’s presidential election are now targeting the U.S. Senate, according to new research. Since last June, the hacking group known as “Fancy Bear” has been setting up fake websites mimicking the Senate’s login server, hoping to trick Senate staffers into entering their credentials there, …

Talking Points Memo reports: A Russian billionaire and Putin ally sued former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his longtime deputy Rick Gates Wednesday, alleging that the two men “siphoned for themselves millions of dollars” as part of a Ukrainian investment scheme that was paid to their “alter ego companies.” The complaint — filed by Surf Horizon Limited, a company …

Yet another Fox & Friends fueled furor: President Donald Trump suggested the FBI used the Russia dossier to “spy on the Trump campaign” and “influence the Election” in an early morning tweet sent out Thursday. He also threw out some speculation in his tweet, asking whether the “Dems or Clinton” paid Russians, of the location of “hidden and smashed DNC …

Politico reports: In a gesture aimed at the Kremlin, the D.C. City Council has voted unanimously to rename a street in front of the Russian Embassy after Boris Nemtsov, the slain opposition leader and prominent foe of President Vladimir Putin. The 13-seat council, comprising 11 Democrats and two independents, approved a measure Tuesday to label a portion of Wisconsin Avenue …

The Hill reports: President Trump said Wednesday it is “unlikely” he will have to sit down with special counsel Robert Mueller for an interview, arguing that there was “no collusion” between his campaign and Russia. Trump repeatedly dodged whether he would submit to an interview with Mueller by citing his claim there was no collusion during the 2016 presidential election. …

Vox reports: Yesterday Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) ignored the objections of her Republican colleagues on the Senate Intelligence Committee and released the full transcript of Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson’s extensive congressional testimony about Christopher Steele’s famous dossier on Donald Trump and Russia. Today, President Trump woke up angry and tweeting about the situation — pretending that there’s something illegal …

Bloomberg reports: Donald Trump’s personal attorney Michael Cohen sued Buzzfeed Inc. on Tuesday for defamation over allegations about him in a dossier the news organization published that was commissioned in 2016 by the president’s political opponents. Cohen said he also filed a second defamation suit against political intelligence firm Fusion GPS, which compiled the dossier, in federal court. Buzzfeed published …

CNBC reports: Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., on Tuesday released the full transcript from Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson’s testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. “The innuendo and misinformation circulating about the transcript are part of a deeply troubling effort to undermine the investigation into potential collusion and obstruction of justice,” Feinstein said …

Mediaite reports: Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said on Monday that more convictions and indictments can be expected from Robert Mueller’s special investigation into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia. Appearing on Morning Joe, the Connecticut Democrat predicted that President Donald Trump will have a face-to-face interview with Mueller (to be a fly on that …

The Los Angeles Times reports: Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III has recalled for questioning at least one participant in a controversial meeting with a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer at Trump Tower in June 2016, and is looking into President Trump’s misleading claim that the discussion focused on adoption, rather than an offer to provide damaging information about Hillary Clinton. Some …

Bloomberg reports: Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt has told associates he would be willing to lead the Justice Department, should the position become available, according to two people familiar with the matter. The former Oklahoma attorney general has discussed the matter in recent days amid perennial speculation about the tenure of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, said the people, who …

The New York Times reports: President Trump gave firm instructions in March to the White House’s top lawyer: stop the attorney general, Jeff Sessions, from recusing himself in the Justice Department’s investigation into whether Mr. Trump’s associates had helped a Russian campaign to disrupt the 2016 election. Public pressure was building for Mr. Sessions, who had been a senior member …

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 …