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Trump Russia Tag

I watched the Trump-Putin press conference on Monday morning, then spent almost 8 hours in the car with only terrestrial news radio, when available. When I finally arrived and had a chance to catch up on Twitter and replays of cable news, it was obvious that I re-entered a world divorced from the reality that most people hear, which is short news bites while going about their lives.

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announced today that a federal grand jury indicted 12 Russians, all officers with Russia's intelligence agency GRU, for allegedly hacking into the DNC and Hillary's campaign. The most important part of Rosenstein's speech: "There is no allegation in this indictment that any American citizen committed a crime. There is no allegation that the conspiracy changed the vote count or affected any election result."

President Donald Trump questioned Germany's growing dependency on Russian energy supplies and described Berlin as a "captive" of Russia. "They pay billions of dollars to Russia and we have to defend them against Russia," President Trump said. He also criticized Chancellor Angela Merkel's continued refusal to spend enough on Europe's security. The remarks were made today during a meeting with the NATO secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg. Trump is in Brussels to attend the two-day NATO summit.

It's happening! I cannot wait to see how the left and #NeverTrump will behave when President Donald Trump holds a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The two leaders will meet in Helsinki, Finland, on July 16.

Kremlin Foreign Policy Adviser Yuri Ushakov said that President Donald Trump and President Vladimir Putin will hold a summit and details will come out on Thursday. Ushakov said the Russian president "reached an agreement with U.S. national security adviser John Bolton."

Rudy Giuliani's role in the Trump defense against the Mueller onslaught is part lawyer, and a bigger part public perception shaping. About a month ago I wondered what Rudy was thinking when he suggested Trump should have a sit-down interview with Mueller, Rudy’s terrible, horrible, no good idea about Trump sitting for a Mueller interview to speed things up:

A new Politico/Morning Consult Poll shows the public's image of Special Counsel Robert Mueller has hit an all-time low. Now 53% of the public view him "in an unfavorable light." Maybe because the investigation has gone for over a year and all the charges have led to everything but collusion? Maybe because the American people care about the economy more than anything else?

The Department of Justice (DOJ) indicted James Wolfe, the Senate Intelligence Committee's former security director, for allegedly lying to the FBI about possible leaks to three reporters. The FBI investigated how New York Times reporter Ali Watkins "learned that Russian spies in 2013 had tried to recruit Carter Page, a former Trump foreign policy adviser" after she published an article about it at BuzzFeed. Turns out, Watkins and Wolfe had a relationship for three years.

Outgoing Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) caused quite a stir when he said on TV that he found no evidence that the FBI spied on President Donald Trump's campaign after he received a briefing from the DOJ and FBI. Now reports have emerged that Gowdy and others at the meeting did not see any documents or subpoenas they requested.

Whew boy. This has not been a good few days for the "any suggestion the FBI was out to damage Trump is conspiratorial kookery" crowd. Chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Sen. Ron Johnson, requested information from FBI Director Christopher Wray Monday.