Tag Archives: Russia

NBC News reports: John Bolton, President Donald Trump’s new national security adviser, chaired a nonprofit that has promoted misleading and false anti-Muslim news, some of which was amplified by a Russian troll factory, an NBC News review found. The group’s authors also appeared on Russian media, including Sputnik and RT News, criticizing mainstream European leaders like French President Emmanuel Macron. …

The Washington Post reports: Attorney General Jeff Sessions recently told the White House he might have to leave his job if President Trump fired his deputy, Rod J. Rosenstein, who oversees the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, according to people familiar with the exchange. Sessions made his position known in a phone call to White House counsel …

Mediaite reports: The Trump campaign has responded to the lawsuit filed by the DNC against the Trump campaign, Wikileaks, and Russia. In a Trump campaign press release, Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale said, “This is a sham lawsuit about a bogus Russian collusion claim filed by a desperate, dysfunctional, and nearly insolvent Democratic Party. With the Democrats’ conspiracy theories against …

Well, this should generate quite an enraged tweetstorm: The Democratic National Committee filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit Friday against the Russian government, the Trump campaign and the WikiLeaks organization alleging a far-reaching conspiracy to disrupt the 2016 campaign and tilt the election to Donald Trump. The complaint, filed in federal district court in Manhattan, alleges that top Trump campaign officials conspired …

The Hill reports: President Trump was displeased with his short-lived national security adviser Michael Flynn last year after Flynn failed to tell him for several days that he had received a congratulatory phone call from Russia’s Vladimir Putin, according to memos written by former FBI director James Comey. Comey claims in memos released Thursday that Trump was unhappy with his …

“President Putin could not say such a thing and did not say it to President Trump, taking in to account that they had never communicated before Trump became President. As for the main content of the book, I do not presume to judge. We did not read it.” – Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, in a statement released today.  The Comey …

Bloomberg reports: Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s interest in former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort stemmed in part from his suspected role as a “back channel” between the campaign and Russians intent on meddling in the election, a Justice Department lawyer told a judge. The disclosure by U.S. prosecutors came Thursday during a hearing on whether Mueller exceeded his authority in …

CNBC reports: President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will hold a joint press conference Wednesday amid Abe’s visit to Trump’s golf club in Florida. The pair of leaders will likely address efforts to deter North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs. Earlier Wednesday, the president confirmed CIA Director and Secretary of State nominee Mike Pompeo met directly with …

The Washington Post reports: President Trump seemed distracted in March as his aides briefed him at his Mar-a-Lago resort on the administration’s plan to expel 60 Russian diplomats and suspected spies. The United States, they explained, would be ousting roughly the same number of Russians as its European allies — part of a coordinated move to punish Moscow for the …

Mediaite reports: Kellyanne Conway appeared on Good Morning America Monday, and took a grilling from George Stephanopoulos over her objections to James Comey’s 20/20 interview. Conway started off by trashing the former FBI director, who was fired by Trump last year, for discussing the size of the president’s hands and the length of his tie. “That’s really gutter,” Conway lamented. …

Reuters reports: The United States is “locked and loaded” to strike again if Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad’s government again uses chemical weapons, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley told the Security Council on Saturday. “We are confident that we have crippled Syria’s chemical weapons program. We are prepared to sustain this pressure, if the Syrian regime is foolish …

ABC News reports: President Donald Trump tweeted Saturday saying that the U.S. led military strikes in Syria Friday night were successful. The strikes were in response to a suspected gas attack on the rebel-held city of Douma last weekend. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said Saturday strikes would increase Syria’s resolve to “fight and crush terrorism in every inch” of the …

McClatchy reports: The Justice Department special counsel has evidence that Donald Trump’s personal lawyer and confidant, Michael Cohen, secretly made a late-summer trip to Prague during the 2016 presidential campaign, according to two sources familiar with the matter. Confirmation of the trip would lend credence to a retired British spy’s report that Cohen strategized there with a powerful Kremlin figure …

NBC News reports: Congressional Democrats blasted President Donald Trump on Friday night for circumventing Congress in authorizing U.S. strikes against Syria, calling it “unconstitutional” and questioning the strategy. Many Republicans, on the other hand, applauded the president’s move. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., who has pushed Congress to pass a new authorization for the use of military force, deemed the president’s …

The Associated Press reports: The United States, France and Britain launched military strikes in Syria to punish President Bashar Assad for an apparent chemical attack against civilians and to deter him from doing it again, but also stirred up angry responses from Syria’s allies and ignited a debate over whether the attacks were justified. Russian President Vladimir Putin denounced the …

The New York Times reports: President Trump said on Friday he had ordered strikes on Syrian targets, seeking to punish President Bashar al-Assad for a suspected chemical attack near Damascus that killed more than 40 people. Mr. Trump said Britain and France had joined the United States in the strikes. The strikes risked pulling the United States deeper into the …

The New York Times reports: President Trump phoned his longtime confidant, Michael D. Cohen, to “check in” on Friday as lawyers for the two men went to court to block the Justice Department from reading seized documents related to Mr. Cohen’s decade of work for Mr. Trump, according to two people familiar with the call. It is not clear what …

Bloomberg reports: Former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe lacked candor on four different occasions regarding his role in providing information to a news reporter about the FBI’s investigation into the Clinton Foundation, according to a Justice Department inspector general’s report. The inspector general also found that McCabe didn’t inform then-FBI Director James Comey that he had authorized disclosure of the …

USA Today reports: The Russian military says that an alleged chemical attack in Syria was staged and directed by Britain. Volunteer first responders and activists claimed a chemical attack by the Syrian government killed over 40 people in the town of Douma, which drew international outrage and prompted Washington and its allies to consider a military response. Moscow warned against …

Trump’s furious tweets about Comey this morning came exactly 12 minutes after Kellyanne Conway appeared on State TV where she talked about the pee tape. Fox & Friends played a clip of Comey asking “what kind of marriage” the president has with wife Melania, given the impression he got from Trump that she might believe the salacious allegations. “He’s a …