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Trump Russia Tag

Posted by Mary Chastain on August 03, 2017 35 Comments
Special Counsel Robert Mueller has launched a grand jury in Washington, D.C., for his investigation into alleged Russian influence into our presidential election. The Wall Street Journal reported:
The grand jury, which began its work in recent weeks, is a sign that Mr. Mueller’s inquiry is ramping up and that it will likely continue for months. Mr. Mueller is investigating Russia’s efforts to influence the 2016 election and whether President Donald Trump’s campaign or associates colluded with the Kremlin as part of that effort.

Posted by Mary Chastain on August 02, 2017 9 Comments
President Donald Trump has signed a bill that imposes sanctions on Russia for alleged interference in our presidential election and on Iran and North Korea for their missile programs. However, in a signing statement, Trump called the bill "significantly flawed." From ABC News:
The bill limits the president's ability to lift or waive sanctions against Russia and keeps in place sanctions the Obama administration imposed last year. It also allows the U.S. to deny entry and revoke visas for individuals who have engaged in certain activities, such as selling arms to the Syrian government or abusing human rights.

Posted by Mary Chastain on July 27, 2017 17 Comments
Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told Fox News and CNN that the Senate Judiciary Committee learned from Bill Browder, the CEO and co-founder of Hermitage Capital, that Fusion GPS, the firm behind the dossier that contained false information about President Donald Trump, also worked for the Russians. He said:
"What we learned today is that the Russians were behind the organization that tried to get dirt on Trump. The dossier against Donald Trump was created by Fusion GPS and their organization and, guess what, the Russians were helping them. This man said the Russians were behind Fusion GPS.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 25, 2017 81 Comments
I appeared this morning on the Sandy Rios in the Morning on American Family Radio. I've appeared on Sandy's show before, and I appreciate that she gives me plenty of time. The segment is 30 minutes long. We talked about several topics, all surrounding Special Counsel Robert Mueller, and Trump's related frustration with Attorney General Jeff Sessions for recusing himself from anything related to Russia. Trump's continuing Twitter dressing down of Sessions and rumors Sessions and/or Mueller would be fired, were discussed. In the course of the discussion we touched on the following posts of mine:

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on July 25, 2017 21 Comments
On CNN this morning, Daily Beast editor-in-chief and CNN analyst John Avlon said that President Trump is "trying to back channel the Saturday Night Massacre." That was a reference to the episode during the Watergate investigation in which President Nixon ordered the firing of special prosecutor Archibald Cox, leading to the resignations of the Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General, who refused to carry out Nixon's order.

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on July 24, 2017 34 Comments
Mika Brzezinski was doing her best on today's Morning Joe to undermine the just-released statement by Jared Kushner on his dealings with the Russians. But when Mika tried to tee up former FBI agent Clint Watts to take a shot at the statement, she got what must have come as an unpleasant surprise. Mika put it to Watts that the Kushner statement, rather than explaining away dealings with the Russians, "raise[s] questions." But instead of taking Mika's hint, Watts replied:

"I think Kushner's statement is good. That we get this sort of transparency. And I believe his account of things."

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on July 22, 2017 20 Comments
Glenn Simpson, co-founder of Fusion GPS, is taking the 5th and will not testify to his or his firm's role in the compilation of the discredited Trump-Russia "Dossier." Meanwhile, Paul Manafort and Donald Trump, Jr. have agreed to a closed Q&A with the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Jared Kushner will testify in a closed session before the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on July 21, 2017 22 Comments
Asked by Fox News' Martha MacCallum whether he's bothered by the fact that some of the lawyers hired by special counsel Robert Mueller made donations to Hillary Clinton's campaign, Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein responded:

"At the Department of Justice, we judge by results, and so, my view about that is, we'll see if they do the right thing."

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 20, 2017 99 Comments
The NY Times has published excerpts of its interview yesterday with Donald Trump. While there were several newsworthy comments, most focus is on the criticism of Jeff Sessions recusing himself from the investigation and the resulting appointment of Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Sessions' recusal is the most consequential event of the Trump presidency so far, because it resulted in what appears to be a wide-ranging investigation into Trump. As posted earlier, the Mueller team appears to be larger in size than would be needed for an investigation into Russian meddling in the election, something I pointed out in Mueller legal team approaching size of entire US Attorney’s Office for Rhode Island.

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on July 18, 2017 19 Comments
Give Joe Scarborough credit. Just when we were getting bored with all the Trump/Nazi analogies, Joe has come up with a new one. On today's Morning Joe, Scarborough compared Trump press secretary Sean Spicer to an old Soviet spokesman and propagandist. Scarborough's beef was that Spicer had supposedly said that the meeting of Trump campaign people including Donald, Jr. and the Russians was "just about adoptions." Joe called that a "lie." But have a look at the screenshot below, showing what Spicer actually said.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 17, 2017 53 Comments
The last post I wrote about the Donald Trump Jr. meeting was last Thursday, Trump Jr. and the Russian lawyer: “there’s something very unusual about this whole thing”. Subsequent to that post, NBC News broke the story that there were additional people at the meeting than had been disclosed previously. Nonetheless, I think my Newsmax interview that was the subject of the post has held up pretty well:

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on July 15, 2017 14 Comments
Joy Reid has done it again, shutting down on her MSNBC show this morning yet another conservative guest who tried to get in a word edgewise. This time it was former CIA analyst Fred Fleitz in the unenviable position of trying to make the case that the meeting between Trump campaign aides and Russians wasn't the horror the left is making it out to be. Reid first asked him for his comments, but before he could get started, proceeded to cut him off, launching into her own monologue. When Fleitz asked if he could respond, Reid replied "No. No you cannot, until I'm finished answering the question." Rightly retorted Fleitz: "you asked me a question and now you're responding for me."

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 13, 2017 34 Comments
If there's anything I learned from studying about and in the Soviet Union during college, it was that things were never as they seemed. There always seemed to be a manipulation and deception, whether for a specific purpose or just because they could. Kind of like the Clintons. Which leads me to the Donald Trump, Jr. meeting with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya. My initial thoughts were in my post, Trump Jr. emails show amateurishness, but not “collusion” or illegality.

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on July 13, 2017 30 Comments
Russia, Russia, Russia. We're here to talk about Trump/Russia: get it? Don't go distracting us with talk of the DNC working with Ukraine to dig up dirt on Trump! This morning on CNN, Alisyn Camerota and John Berman co-hosted a segment with Jason Miller, a former Trump campaign aide, and Dem consultant Hilary Rosen. Miller tried to raise this Politico story, which reported that Ukrainian government officials tried to help Hillary, meeting with a DNC consultant to research damaging information on Trump and his advisers.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 12, 2017 12 Comments
I saw the photo in the Featured Image above (without the caption). I'm not sure where, guessing Twitter. When I saw it, my thought was something along the lines of "that's not a good look for Trump, feeds the anti-Trump narrative about Russia." I didn't pay it a lot of attention, but I distinctly remember it and my reaction. It turns out it's a fake. Here is the original Getty Images photo (via Evan McMurry on Twitter)

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 11, 2017 51 Comments
The NY Times has an article today about email exchanges between Donald Trump Jr. and a person setting up a meeting with a Russian lawyer promising damaging documents and information about Hillary Clinton's connections to Russia. In a preemptive move, Trump Jr. published the email exchange on Twitter (here and here) just before the Times published its story. The emails are highly embarrassing and politically damaging, but as usual, the media and other Trump opponents are overstating the case. The media overstating the case and popping the champagne corks are probably the best things Trump Jr. and the Trump administration have going for them.
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