Tag Archives: Vladimir Putin

The New York Daily News reports: Retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn is reportedly the first member of the Trump administration to garner the probing eyes of intelligence and federal law enforcement agencies for communications with Russia. Details of the six-agency investigation was first reported by the Wall Street Journal on Sunday, hours after Trump and Vice President Pence appointed Flynn …

Vox recaps: So it’s safe to say Trump won’t be happy with Saturday Night Live’s cold open. The show opened with a message from Beck Bennett’s Vladimir Putin speaking to the American public about how he rigged the election, quipping that America was the “most expensive thing we’ve ever bought.” But the sketch quickly shifted into Putin trolling Trump, by …

The New York Times reports: American law enforcement and intelligence agencies are examining intercepted communications and financial transactions as part of a broad investigation into possible links between Russian officials and associates of President-elect Donald J. Trump, including his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, current and former senior American officials said. The continuing counterintelligence investigation means that Mr. Trump will …

Gosh, hearing about this when it started totally could have affected the election. McClatchy reports: The FBI and five other law enforcement and intelligence agencies have collaborated for months in an investigation into Russian attempts to influence the November election, including whether money from the Kremlin covertly aided President-elect Donald Trump, two people familiar with the matter said. The agencies …

Bloomberg reports: Russian President Vladimir Putin said he doesn’t believe that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump met with prostitutes in Russia, calling the accusations part of a campaign to undermine the election result. Unsubstantiated allegations made against Trump are “obvious fabrications,” Putin told reporters in the Kremlin on Tuesday. “People who order fakes of the type now circulating against the U.S. …

Yeeeeah. New York Magazine reports: On the same day that President Obama expelled 35 Russian diplomats from the U.S. and imposed other sanctions in retaliation for the Kremlin’s alleged attempts to influence the presidential election, Donald Trump’s incoming national security adviser, Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, spoke on the phone several times to Russia’s ambassador to the U.S, Washington Post columnist …

The Hill reports: Garry Kasparov, an outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin, likened President-elect Donald Trump’s press conference Wednesday to ones held by leaders in the Soviet Union. “That reminded me of a Soviet press conference. More speakers than questions, more flags than answers,” Kasparov, the former world chess champion, wrote in a tweet during the press conference. Kasparov, the chairman …

Well, this should prove VERY entertaining: President-elect Donald Trump is facing his most important day since the election. His news conference, Trump’s first since winning the election, was already looming as a significant rite of passage for someone who is undergoing a transformation from rabble-rousing candidate to the next American President. But new allegations involving Russia are sure to inject …

Politico reports: Republican National Committee Chairman and incoming White House chief of staff Reince Priebus said Wednesday morning that President-elect Donald Trump was never briefed on unverified intelligence suggesting that the Russian government possesses compromising information about him and his campaign, contradicting a CNN report to the contrary. Reports that Trump and President Barack Obama were briefed on that unverified …

The hearing starts on 9AM Eastern. The Guardian reports on what to expect: Rex Tillerson was a surprise pick for secretary of state, having had no previous government experience. He worked for more than 41 years for just one company, ExxonMobil, the last 10 years as chairman and chief executive officer. He emerged as an outside candidate only in the …

The Hill reports: President-elect Donald Trump’s top aide Kellyanne Conway on Tuesday said that Trump was not briefed on a summary of an unsubstantiated but explosive dossier that claims Russia collected compromising info on him. CNN on Tuesday reported that the Intelligence Community briefed the president-elect and President Obama last week about the allegations by appending a two-page synopsis, based …

And we can bet that Trump knows what they know. Hence, the Putin love affair. CNN reports: Classified documents presented last week to President Obama and President-elect Trump included allegations that Russian operatives claim to have compromising personal and financial information about Mr. Trump, multiple US officials with direct knowledge of the briefings tell CNN. The allegations were presented in …

Hair Furor Highway? CNN reports: The incoming U.S. president is popular in Russia, in part for his praise of Vladimir Putin, and one town is looking for a way to honor Donald Trump. Many in the town of Ryazan, about 150 miles outside Moscow, are hoping for a thaw in U.S.-Russian relations and pinning those hopes on President-elect Trump. Sergey …

Former Fox News host Greta Van Susteren launched her new MSNBC show tonight with John McCain and Reince Preibus as her first guests. Watch below as McCain discusses the need to protect against more cyber attacks from Russia during the Trump administration and slams Obama for “talking like a high-schooler” when discussing his conversations with Vladimir Putin.

The International Business Times reports: The Russian Embassy in the United Kingdom posted a tweet Monday featuring the image of an odd cartoon frog, which, at first glance, would seem harmless enough. But that frog, in internet parlance, has become a meme employed by white supremacists and is defined as a hate symbol by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). Wrote Russia’s …

Mediaite reports: Fox News host Sean Hannity tweeted his enthusiastic agreement Sunday when someone tweeted at him that Americans should work together to “make Russia great again.” Hannity was responding to a tweet from an account called “Donnie L’il Hands,” which he apparently did not realize was mocking him and Donald Trump. Hannity has come under fire in recent days …

Business Insider reports: President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming chief of staff accepted on Sunday that Russia was behind last year’s hacking and leaking of internal emails from top officials at the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s campaign. In an interview on “Fox News Sunday” with Chris Wallace, Reince Priebus acknowledged that Trump “accepts the fact that this particular case was …

The Hill reports: Incoming White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign did not need WikiLeaks to convince Americans they Hillary Clinton was an unlikable candidate. “We didn’t need WikiLeaks to convince the American people that they didn’t like her, didn’t trust her, didn’t find her to be honest,” Conway told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. …

Last night Rachel Maddow called Donald Trump an outright liar over and over again. It was a beautiful thing. Mediaite recaps: What really got the MSNBC host’s blood boiling is that it was apparent that “our new president will flat out lie to us.” Her basis for that statement was over Trump’s declaration following the meeting that Russian efforts to …

The Hill reports: Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a widespread influence campaign intended to help elect Donald Trump, the Intelligence Community (IC) said in a declassified report released Friday afternoon. “Russia’s goals were to undermine public faith in the U.S. democratic process, denigrate Secretary [Hillary] Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency. We further assess Putin and the Russian …