Trump Russia | Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion - Part 24
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Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on March 28, 2017 20 Comments
Tuesday, American Urban Radio Networks White House correspondent, April Ryan, asked White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer how the administration was working to "revamp their image" after two and a half months of bad press. The exchange quickly became a heated one. "With all these investigations, questions of what is is, how does this administration try to revamp its image? Two and a half months in -- you've got this Yates story today, you've got other things going on, you've got Russia, you've got wiretapping..." began Ryan.

Posted by Mary Chastain on March 06, 2017 68 Comments
Former President Barack Obama's Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told Chuck Todd on Meet The Press that evidence between President Donald Trump and Russia do not exist:
We did not include any evidence in our report, and I say, "our," that's N.S.A., F.B.I. and C.I.A., with my office, the Director of National Intelligence, that had anything, that had any reflection of collusion between members of the Trump campaign and the Russians. There was no evidence of that included in our report.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 05, 2017 20 Comments
Donald Trump's accusation that the Obama administration "wiretapped" his phones and/or Trump Tower, continues to reverberate. The accusations have refocused the argument over Trump's alleged Russia ties, which amount at this point only to innuendo, into a discussion of Obama surveillance practices. As discussed in my prior post, which is getting a lot of attention, the focus on the term "wiretap" and whether Obama "ordered" surveillance under FISA, may be a distraction, Some curious language in both Trump’s “wiretap” accusation and Obama’s defense. The media, however, is being dragged into another direction, one focusing on Obama administration surveillance practices. This morning Donald Trump, through Sean Spicer, called for a congressional investigation of Obama administration election surveillance.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 05, 2017 21 Comments
When Donald Trump sent out his series of tweets about alleged "tapping" of his phones and/or Trump Tower by Obama, the instant media reaction was that Trump made the allegation without presenting any proof. As if proof were needed at the time of an accusation for a media that has put Trump on trial for the last 6-8 months based on innuendo about Trump campaign ties to Russia. As pointed out repeatedly, there is zero proof in the public record of such media and Democrat accusations, and no proof was demanded by the media. In fact, Democratic Senator Chris Coons recently suggested there were incriminating transcripts of calls involving Trump or his associates:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 04, 2017 46 Comments
The hot dispute of the weekend is Donald Trump's tweets this morning about alleged "wiretapping" by the Obama administration. Some thoughts below. I don't think you can view today's tweets in isolation. For the past several months (at least) we have lived in a world of non-stop innuendo suggesting that Donald Trump and/or his closest associates are compromised in some way by the Russians There is no proof, just innuendo attributed to the intelligence community, as I explained in The fact-free Intelligence Community-Media trial of Trump by innuendo:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 02, 2017 30 Comments
In a post two weeks ago, I suggested that Trump was being put on trial in the media based on fact-less innuendo, The fact-free Intelligence Community-Media trial of Trump by innuendo:
I don’t know whether Donald Trump or his aides had any improper contacts with Russian Intelligence officers. Neither do you, or the media. The Intelligence Community might know, but they have provided zero facts either officially or through leaks to prove any improper, much less illegal, conduct took place.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on March 02, 2017 19 Comments
I keep thinking one of these days, politicians will remember the internet exists, and along with it, evidence of almost about everything they've said or done while in office (and often outside of the office, too -- just ask David Wu). Alas... As the Trump cabinet targeting continues, Sen. Claire McCaskill stepped in a huge pile by claiming she never had a meeting or call with a Russian ambassador. Recently confirmed Attorney General and former Senator Jeff Sessions became the target of what appear to be trumped-up charges that he lied about his involvement with Russia during confirmation hearings. The political media set, along with federally elected Democrats are having a heyday, demanding Sessions resign.

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on March 02, 2017 92 Comments
Overnight a mass media hysteria developed over Jeff Session's answer to questions regarding contacts with Russians. As detailed in this NBC News report and elsewhere, Sessions was responding to questions regarding contacts in his role as a Trump surrogate:
Attorney General Jeff Sessions denied meeting with Russian officials during the course of the presidential election to discuss the Trump campaign, he told NBC News in exclusive remarks early Thursday. "I have not met with any Russians at any time to discuss any political campaign," he said, "and those remarks are unbelievable to me and are false. And I don't have anything else to say about that." ...

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on January 15, 2017 53 Comments
When it comes to experience in evaluating the quality of leaked allegations, it's hard to beat Bob Woodward of Watergate/Deep Throat fame. So attention must be paid to what Woodward said on today's Fox News Sunday about the so-called Russia dossier on Donald Trump. Woodward called it a "garbage document." For good measure, Woodward said the intelligence chiefs made a "mistake" in briefing on the basis of the dossier, and should "apologize."

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on January 11, 2017 39 Comments
Of all the Morning Joe crew, you might be surprised to learn that it was liberal Dem Mika Brzezinski who this morning took the toughest shots at CNN and Buzzfeed for publishing unverified stories containing salacious allegations regarding Donald Trump's business dealings with, and personal behavior in, Russia. Mika also speculated that the intelligence community might have propagated the story as payback for Trump having insulted them. Brzezinski first wondered whether CNN and Buzzfeed went with the story "because they hate [Trump] so much, or is the intelligence community literally putting the screws to Donald Trump because he insulted them?"