Tag Archives: Russia

The HuffPost reports: Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) attempted to school career federal prosecutor Sally Yates on the law, and it did not go well. While the hearing was focused on Trump and his associates’ alleged ties to Russia, some senators, including Cruz, instead focused on Yates’ refusal to defend the president’s executive order. While questioning that decision, Cruz, also a …

Scheduled to start at 2:30PM Eastern. CNN reports: Former acting Attorney General Sally Yates is expected to deliver long-awaited testimony Monday afternoon before a Senate subcommittee investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election. Yates was thrust into the national spotlight after she broke with President Donald Trump over the enforcement of his travel ban, an action which led to her …

The Independent reports: A Russian tabloid has quoted a description of the new President of France, Emmanuel Macron, as a psychopath who hates his country, and made derogatory allusions to homosexuality around him and his campaign. An article in Komsomolskaya Pravda, refers to a picture of a topless Mr Macron as he poses for a magazine with the title “coming …

The Washington Examiner reports: Golf writer James Dodson claims Eric Trump told him in 2014 that all the funding for Trump golf courses comes from Russia while the two were at one of the family’s clubs. “As we were setting off, I said, ‘Eric, who’s funding? I know no banks — because of the recession, the Great Recession — have …

Deutsche Welle reports: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday said he supports an investigation into the reported torture and murder of gay men in Chechnya, days after German Chancellor Angela Merkel pressed him on the issue. Putin said he would personally ask the chief prosecutor and the interior minister to cooperate with human rights ombudswoman Tatyana Moskalkova in an investigation …

CNN reports: When asked whether Russia is involved in the Macron email hack, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said,”These, like other similar accusations, are based on nothing and are pure slander.” Russian officials have vehemently denied interfering in elections and have said they have no preferred candidate in the French vote. But Russia has good reasons to support Le Pen over …

Politico reports: The Congressional Periodical Press Gallery committee has denied Sputnik, a Russian state-owned news website, a permanent congressional press pass. Sputnik has the opportunity to appeal the decision, said Senate Periodical Press Gallery Director Justin Wilson. According to the gallery rules members must not “act as an agent for, or be employed by the Federal, or any State, local …

Reuters reports: A large trove of emails purporting to be from the campaign of French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron was posted online late on Friday, 1-1/2 days before voters go to the polls to choose the country’s next president in a run-off with Marine Le Pen. Some nine gigabytes of data were posted by a user called EMLEAKS to Pastebin, …

CNN reports: Susan Rice, President Barack Obama’s former national security adviser, on Wednesday declined Sen. Lindsey Graham’s request to participate in a judiciary subcommittee hearing next week on Russian interference in the US election, CNN has learned. A letter obtained exclusively by CNN from Rice’s lawyer, Kathryn Ruemmler, outlines the grounds for her decision not to appear. It was addressed …

CBS News reports: Questions concerning Russian meddling in the 2016 election are expected to come up when FBI Director James Comey testifies before a Senate committee. Comey’s testimony comes after President Donald Trump fired off series of overnight tweets, blasting former rival Hillary Clinton for comments where she blamed the FBI director, Russia, and herself for losing the presidential race. …

You knew Trump wouldn’t be able to resist blowing up at Hillary Clinton over yesterday’s election. The Washington Post reports: In a thought spanning two tweets, sent 15 minutes apart, Trump claimed Comey actually helped Clinton during the election and said Democrats used Russian hackers as a scapegoat for their loss. A president implicitly lashing out at his own FBI …

The Independent reports: Angela Merkel has publicly raised concern over the reported prosecution of gay men in Chechnya with Vladimir Putin, following wide-ranging talks. The German Chancellor raised the alleged capture and torture of more than 100 people at a joint press conference with the Russian President in Sochi. The Kremlin has backed the Chechen government’s denials over the brutal …

The Independent reports: Russian police have detained LGBT activists attempting to raise awareness about the persecution of gay men in Chechnya. The demonstration was held during a May Day march in St Petersburg, with a group of around 10 protesters arrested near the Anichkov Palace in the centre of Russia’s second city. Images shared on Twitter showed activists lying on …

The Washington Post today reports on how the American right is increasingly turning to Russia. They write: Growing up in the 1980s, Brian Brown was taught to think of the communist Soviet Union as a dark and evil place. But Brown, a leading opponent of same-sex marriage, said that in the past few years he has started meeting Russians at …

More excuses: Attorney General Jeff Sessions says that “you don’t catch everything” when vetting government officials like former national security adviser Michael Flynn. “I’m comfortable that they’re working hard to do vetting,” he said Friday on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “It’s obvious that oftentimes you don’t catch everything. There might be a problem. Maybe there’s an explanation for it. I …

Patch reports: The White House is currently facing questions about former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn and his ties to Russia. At the same time, the administration is immersed in heated debates over a tax reform, a health care overhaul and preventing a government shutdown — so there’s surely a lot to discuss.

Politico reports: The Pentagon’s inspector general is now investigating Michael Flynn over payments he received from foreign governments after retiring from the Army, according to documents released Thursday by the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee. The documents also show the Defense Intelligence Agency warned Flynn after his 2014 retirement as the agency’s director that he was barred from …

Chris Johnson reports at the Washington Blade: Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) denounced on the Senate floor Monday the ongoing reports of anti-gay arrests and detention in Chechnya, blaming Russian President Vladimir Putin for allowing them to happen. Rubio, who previously denounced the alleged atrocities on Twitter, called on the U.S. government to “do more to ensure that all people are …

“The situation is unprecedented. Never in American history has a man so close to the president, on his cabinet, the national security advisor no less, been accused of committing a crime by taking money from a foreign entity, much less one connected to the Russians. At the core of all this is the Russians interfered with our elections. General Flynn …

The Hill reports: Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Tuesday said that the House Oversight Committee’s latest findings that former national security adviser Michael Flynn might have broken the law “may be just the tip of the iceberg.” “The disturbing news that General Flynn may have violated the law in connection with his security clearance may be just the …