Trumpublicons: Foreign Influence/Grifting in '16 US Election

[seemslikeadream]

By JIM AXELROD CBS NEWS February 15, 2017, 7:09 PM
Former adviser to three GOP presidents questions Trump's motivations on Russia

Peter Wehner CBS NEWS
But he’s seemed to bend over backward to avoid criticizing Vladimir Putin.

“Obviously there is something going on here,” said Peter Wehner, and he wants to know why.

Wehner worked for Ronald Reagan and both Bush administrations writing speeches and generating policy ideas. Wehner is now with the conservative Ethics and Public Policy Center.

“There is smoke here and there is fire. We just don’t know the nature of the fire,” he said.

Part of it could be financial entanglements between Mr. Trump’s real estate empire and Russia, Wehner said. He pointed to the words of Donald Trump Jr. in 2008.

“Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets,” he told a real estate conference in 2008. “We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia.”

Trump's White House plagued by Russia connection

“I think it could explain a lot,” Wehner said. “I don’t think it explains everything but it certainly is an indication out of the mouth of the son of the president that they have huge financial ties to Russia.”

There are now new allegations of Russia’s meddling in the presidential election. CBS News correspondent Jeff Pegues reports that Trump campaign aides are at the center of an FBI investigation.

The investigation is in part looking at a specific allegation in a dossier compiled by a British spy that there was a “well developed conspiracy ... managed on the Trump side” by aides Paul Manafort and Carter Page, Pegues reports.

Both Manafort and Page deny any inappropriate contact with Russian officials to CBS News.

Russian dossier on Trump gaining credibility

“If there was collusion, we don’t know, but if there was, this is a titanic story and it could lead to the ruination of the Trump presidency,” Wehner said. “That is a big statement, but this is a big story. It’s a story we have never seen before, it’s unprecedented”

Then there’s Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s relationship with Putin when he ran ExxonMobil, as well as Page’s ties with Russian energy companies when he was a banker and Manafort’s job advising Putin ally Victor Yanukovych in Ukraine.

Democrats have been raising questions about all of this since before the election. But as more and more information emerges, the question has become how many Republicans, like Whener, will add their voices to the chorus?
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/former-advi ... on-russia/

[seemslikeadream]

Russia: The problem Trump can't escape
By Angela Dewan, CNN
Updated 4:57 PM ET, Wed February 15, 2017

(CNN)The first month of a US presidency is usually one of optimism -- a fresh face with a clean slate appoints a Cabinet and maps out a vision for the next four years.

But US President Donald Trump's first few weeks have been overshadowed by mounting Russia-related problems, which came to a head Monday when the President's top security adviser, Michael Flynn, resigned. Flynn stood down after it became public that he had misled Vice President Mike Pence over his phone calls with a Russian diplomat
Here's a rundown of the latest Russia issues that just won't leave Trump alone.

THE DOSSIER
US officials corroborate aspects of dossier

US officials corroborate aspects of dossier 05:51
Just over a week before Trump was sworn in, CNN reported that Trump and then-President Barack Obama were briefed on the existence of a dossier making damning but unsubstantiated allegations, including that Russian operatives had compromising information on Trump.
On Friday last week, US investigators said they had corroborated some details in the 35-page document, compiled by a former British intelligence agent, through intercepted communications, giving some weight to the veracity of at least parts of the document as other allegations are investigated.
Investigators did not confirm some of the more salacious allegations, but did detail around a dozen conversations between senior Russian officials and other Russian individuals mentioned in the document, multiple US officials with direct knowledge of the briefings told CNN.
The two-page synopsis originally presented to Trump and Obama included allegations of a continuing exchange of information during the campaign between Trump surrogates and intermediaries for the Russian government, according to two national security officials.
The White House has denied the allegations made in the dossier and dismissed them as "fake news." Russian President Vladimir Putin also shrugged off the allegations as "rubbish."

An ongoing investigation into Russia's activities in the US -- following the country's alleged interference in the 2016 US election -- has opened up a Pandora's box for the Trump administration.
On Monday, Flynn, Trump's top security adviser, resigned over phone calls he had with Russia's ambassador to Washington, Sergey Kislyak, in December before Trump took office. Flynn's calls were being scrutinized by US investigators as part of the broader investigation, law enforcement and intelligence officials told CNN.
The Washington Post first reported that Flynn had made several calls to the ambassador in December before Trump took office, including some on the same day that the Obama administration placed fresh sanctions on Russia over the alleged election meddling. Law enforcement and intelligence officials also told CNN that the calls were made that day.
McConnell: Probe of Flynn is 'highly likely'

McConnell: Probe of Flynn is 'highly likely' 01:46

If Flynn discussed detailed policy with the Russian envoy, he could have theoretically infringed the Logan Act that prevents private citizens negotiating with foreign governments over their disputes with the United States.
The Trump administration has denied anything illegal took place, but the President asked Flynn to step down anyway for failing to notify then Vice President-elect Mike Pence on the full details of the calls, or for giving "incomplete information," as Flynn himself put it Monday.
But the investigators' net has been cast wider, and on Tuesday evening, law enforcement and administration officials told CNN that high-level advisers close to Trump were in constant communication with Russians known to US intelligence during the campaign period.
Among them were Flynn and then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort.
In an interview, Manafort emphatically denied that he was in contact with Russians known to US intelligence, saying it was "100% not true."
The officials who told CNN of the allegations said the frequency of communications and the proximity to Trump of those involved "raised a red flag" with intelligence and law enforcement.

Both Trump's team and Russian officials had called for better relations between the old Cold War adversaries, and Trump and Putin openly exchanged compliments during the campaign.
Despite the Kremlin's calls for warmer relations, Russia has made a string of provocative moves since Trump took office. On Tuesday a senior military official told CNN that Russia had deployed a cruise missile in an apparent treaty violation.
The Kremlin on Wednesday denied that it had violated the treaty.
Moscow has also positioned a spy ship off the coast of Delaware and carried out flights near a US Navy warship, concerning American officials. The US administration has not officially drawn any links between the three events.
The ground-launched cruise missile seems to run counter to the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, the military official said. The New York Times first reported is deployment.


Graham vows fight to last breath for sanctions 01:58

While declining to speak on intelligence matters, a spokesman for the US State Department said that Russia was in violation of the treaty.
Acting spokesman Mark Toner said in a statement Tuesday that Russia was obliged "not to possess, produce or flight-test a ground-launched cruise missile with a range capability of 500 to 5,500 kilometers, or to possess or produce launchers of such missiles."
He said the White House had "made very clear our concerns about Russia's violation."
Russia is believed to have tested one such missile in 2014.
Last week on Friday a US Navy warship in the Black Sea had three encounters with Russian aircraft Friday that were deemed to be unsafe and unprofessional because of how close the Russian planes flew to the US, according to a senior defense official.
Moscow pushed back on the allegation Tuesday, with Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov telling state media "there has been no incident on February 10th involving flybys of Russian military planes in the Black Sea next to USS Porter."


THE TENSION OVER CRIMEA

Russia conducts military drills in Crimea 02:08

The Trump administration and the Kremlin have already found themselves in back-and-forth commentary over Russia's annexation of Crimea.
As scrutiny over the Trump administration's ties to Russia grows, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said Tuesday that Trump had on the contrary been "incredibly tough on Russia."
"He continues to raise the issue of Crimea, which the previous administration had allowed to be seized by Russia. His ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, stood before the UN Security Council on her first day and strongly denounced the Russian occupation of Crimea," he told reporters at a press briefing.
He said that Trump had made it clear he expected the Russian government to "deescalate violence in the Ukraine and return Crimea," while at the same time pursuing better relations with Russia.

Trump had previously buoyed the Kremlin's claim on Crimea.
The Kremlin shot back at Spicer's comments early Wednesday. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Russia was "not returning our territory. Crimea is part of the Russian Federation."
Russia annexed Crimea, a territory in the former Soviet republic of Ukraine, in March 2014 following tensions with its neighbor. The US, the European Union and several other Western countries placed sanctions on Russia over the annexation.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/15/politics/ ... ia-issues/

Donald Trump's ties to Russia go back 30 years
Oren Dorell , USA TODAY Published 3:54 p.m. ET Feb. 15, 2017 | Updated 4 hours ago


Here are the important dates detailing Michael Flynn's relationship with Russia that led to his resignation. USA TODAY NETWORK

WASHINGTON — President Trump’s decades-long ties to Russia are back in the spotlight after his national security adviser, Michael Flynn, was forced to resign this week over his failure to disclose phone conversations with the Russian ambassador about U.S. sanctions imposed on Moscow.

'NYT': Intercepted communications show Trump associates, Russians in contact
Trump’s long-standing ties to Russia might explain why his policy is “noticeably weaker on Russia than on anything else,” said John Herbst, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine and Uzbekistan under presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.

Trump told The Times of London in January he'd consider lifting U.S. sanctions on Russia for its military involvement in eastern Ukraine and alleged meddling in the U.S. presidential election to help Trump in return for a new nuclear arms reduction accord. In addition, Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed in a phone call last month possible collaboration in the fight against Islamic State and ways they might restore trade and economic ties.

Herbst said Trump's conciliatory comments about Russia are out of character for a businessman who prides himself as a tough negotiator. “He talks about driving hard bargains, and here he’s offering concessions right off the top,” Herbst said.

Trump denied in recent tweets "conspiracy theories" about his ties to Russia.

White House under siege over probe into Russian contacts with Trump campaign

Why does Donald Trump like Russians? Maybe because they love his condos
Here is a timeline of Trump’s known connections to Russia:

1987: Trump was invited to Moscow by the Soviet ambassador to the United States to discuss luxury hotel developments. Trump later told Playboy magazine that his plans to build hotels in Moscow failed because the country “was out of control and the leadership knows it.” Four years later, on Christmas Day, the Soviet Union officially dissolved, and Russians who had been allowed to buy state-owned enterprises amassed enormous fortunes.

1996: While wrapping up a series of bankruptcies in New York, Trump talked of building a replica of his Trump Tower in Moscow and traveled there to discuss renovating the Moskva and Rossiya hotels, according to Bloomberg News. The bankruptcies led to a change in Trump’s business model: Instead of building projects from the ground up, he signed licensing agreements that in some cases gave him an ownership stake in properties that bore his name without putting up any of his own money. The Trump Organization continued to seek wealthy investors in Russia.

Dozens of condominiums in Trump World Tower in midtown Manhattan were bought by Russians in the late 1990s, said Dolly Lenz, a real estate broker who sold many of the units. Many buyers sought an audience with Trump, whose business acumen they respected, Lenz said.

Early 2000s: The Trump Organization developed several projects abroad, many of them involving Russian money.

2007: Trump debuted his Trump Super Premium Vodka at the Millionaire’s Fair in Moscow. Large orders for the gold-glazed spirit followed, but the brand fizzled by 2009, according to The New York Times.

2008: Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., told investors in Moscow that the Trump Organization had trademarked the Donald Trump name in Russia and planned to build housing and hotels in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Sochi, and sell licenses to other developers, the Russian daily Kommersant reported. “Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets,” Trump Jr. said at the time. “We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia."

Trump Jr. traveled to Russia a half-dozen times in 18 months looking for deals, but none materialized. He said there were plenty of investment opportunities, but the business environment was dangerous and trustworthy partners hard to find. “It really is a scary place,” he said, according to eTurboNews, an online business publication.

2010: Trump’s next big U.S. project, the Trump SoHo in New York, was built with partner Bayrock Group, founded by Tevfik Arif, a former Soviet official.

2013: Trump brought the Miss Universe Pageant to Moscow, funded by $20 million from Russian billionaire Aras Agalarov. The venue was Agalarov’s Crocus City Hall on the outskirts of Moscow. Trump took part in a music video with Agalarov’s son, Emin.

2016: Trump's presidential campaign manager, Paul Manafort, resigned in August amid reports that he worked on the political campaign of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who had been forced to flee office because of his pro-Russian stance.

Carter Page, a former Merrill Lynch investment banker in Moscow, was a Trump campaign foreign policy adviser until August, when Yahoo News reported that U.S. intelligence officials were investigating whether he had been communicating with Russian officials about lifting U.S. sanctions if Trump became president.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/worl ... /97949746/

5 times Donald Trump’s team denied contact with Russia
By Aaron Blake February 15 at 9:08 AM

Russian President Vladimir Putin. (Alexei Druzhinin/Sputnik, Kremlin pool via AP)
The New York Times and CNN are both reporting that members of Donald Trump's campaign spoke with Russia frequently during the campaign.

It's worth noting that their reporting includes significant caveats. Most importantly, it's not clear these discussions involved the campaign. The Times says the contacts were with “Russian intelligence officials,” while CNN says it was with “Russian nationals known to U.S. intelligence.” And, as the Times notes, “it is not unusual for American businessmen to come in contact with foreign intelligence officials, sometimes unwittingly, in countries like Russia and Ukraine, where the spy services are deeply embedded in society.”

So basically, conclusions that this proves collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government are premature. That claim is based on the preponderance of evidence rather than any real, conclusive — and even anonymously sourced — reporting.

But importantly, the new reports do seem to contradict claims the Trump campaign and now the Trump White House have made about their lack of contact with Russia. They have said in various ways that there was no contact, on multiple occasions, and as recently as Tuesday afternoon.

Trump reportedly denied any campaign-season contact between those close to him and Russia after a mid-January news conference. After being asked about it at the end of the conference, he didn't answer the question. Reporters chased him down afterward, at which point, according to CNN's Jim Acosta and ABC's Cecilia Vega, Trump flatly denied any contact between his associates or his campaign and Russia.



White House press secretary Sean Spicer was asked Tuesday — before the explosive reports came out — if that was still the company line. He didn't amend it:

QUESTION: Back in January, the president said that nobody in his campaign had been in touch with the Russians. Now today, can you still say definitively that nobody on the Trump campaign — not even General Flynn — had any contact with the Russians before the election?

SPICER: My understanding is that what General Flynn has now expressed is that during the transition period — well, we were very clear that during the transition period, he did — he did speak with the ambassador.

QUESTION: I'm talking about during the campaign.

SPICER: I don't have any — I — there's nothing that would conclude me that anything different has changed with respect to that time period.

Spicer denies Trump campaign communicated with Russia before election Play Video1:16
White House press secretary Sean Spicer told reporters that the Trump campaign did not have contact with Russian officials before the election, during his daily briefing on Feb. 14 at the White House. (The White House)
White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said this back in a December appearance on “Face the Nation” with John Dickerson:

DICKERSON: Did anyone involved in the Trump campaign have any contact with Russians trying to meddle with the election?

CONWAY: Absolutely not. And I discussed that with the president-elect just last night. Those conversations never happened. I hear people saying it like it's a fact on television. That is just not only inaccurate and false, but it's dangerous and it does undermine our democracy.

There was also then-Vice President-elect Pence, during Jan. 15 interviews in which he also passed along Michael Flynn's faulty information about Flynn not having discussed sanctions with Russia's ambassador to the United States. Speaking to “Fox News Sunday's” Chris Wallace, Pence also denied any contact between the campaign and the Kremlin:

WALLACE: I’m asking a direct question: Was there any contact in any way between Trump or his associates and the Kremlin or cutouts they had?

PENCE: I joined this campaign in the summer, and I can tell you that all the contact by the Trump campaign and associates was with the American people. We were fully engaged with taking his message to make America great again all across this country. That’s why he won in a landslide election.

(CROSSTALK)

WALLACE: -- if there were any contacts, sir, I’m just trying to get an answer.

PENCE: Yes. I — of course not. Why would there be any contacts between the campaign? Chris, the — this is all a distraction, and it's all part of a narrative to delegitimize the election and to question the legitimacy of this presidency. The American people see right through it.

And here he was the same day on "Face the Nation":

DICKERSON: Just to button up one question, did any adviser or anybody in the Trump campaign have any contact with the Russians who were trying to meddle in the election?

MIKE PENCE: Of course not. And I think to suggest that is to give credence to some of these bizarre rumors that have swirled around the candidacy.

Spicer's comments Tuesday don't seem to double down on Trump's words, so much as not want to say anything new. So he let Trump's comments stand.

Conway was responding directly to a question about contacting “Russians trying to meddle with the election.” The new reports don't indicate that the contacts were specifically with such people, so much as Russians tied to intelligence more generally.

And Pence was asked specifically about contact with “the Kremlin or cutouts they had.” Again, the reports don't indicate direct contact with the Kremlin — only Russian intelligence officials or Russians known to U.S. intelligence (whose status might not have been known to the Trump campaign team, per the Times).

But these denials take a pretty hard line against the idea of any contact between the Trump campaign and Russia, involving a whole lot of people. And as we get more specific details, we'll see how well they hold up.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the ... ade3cb5681

[seemslikeadream]

Donald Trump and the Russia connections: From president's 'bromance' with Putin to 'campaign's intercepted calls with Moscow spies'

Traditional Russian wooden dolls depict Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin CREDIT: AP
Chris Graham
16 FEBRUARY 2017 • 11:36AM
Less than a month into his tenure, Donald Trump's White House is embroiled in scandal as questions swirl about links between his campaign staff and Russian officials.

So far, the controversy has claimed one political scalp, with the resignation of Michael Flynn as National Security Adviser on the grounds that he misled the vice president about his contacts with a Russian ambassador.

Some senior Republicans have issued their boldest challenge with a vow to get to the bottom of the matter, while Democrats have demanded an independent probe.
Yet even from early on in the Republican's bid to be president, Russia and its leader Vladimir Putin have loomed large.

From warm words between leaders to a salacious dossier compiled by a former MI6 agent, here are the links to Russia that have overshadowed both Mr Trump's candidacy and his presidency.

The Trump and Putin 'bromance'

It was in the midst of the Republican primaries, with Mr Trump's place as the party's frontrunner for the nomination far from assured, when eyebrows were raised at the warm words exchanged by the Russian leader and the Republican presidential candidate.

Speaking after an annual televised press conference in December 2015, Mr Putin said the Republican candidate was "a very outstanding man, unquestionably talented".

"It's not up to us to judge his virtue, that is up to US voters, but he is an absolute leader of the presidential race," he added.

In quotes | The Trump - Putin relationship
Putin on Trump:
“He is a very flamboyant man, very talented, no doubt about that… He is an absolute leader of the presidential race, as we see it today. He says that he wants to move to another level of relations, to a deeper level of relations with Russia. How can we not welcome that? Of course we welcome it.” - December 2015
Trump on Putin:
“It is always a great honour to be so nicely complimented by a man so highly respected within his own country and beyond.” - December 2015

“I think I would just get along very well with Putin. I just think so. People say what do you mean? I just think we would.” - July 2015

“I have no relationship with [Putin] other than he called me a genius. He said Donald Trump is a genius and he is going to be the leader of the party and he’s going to be the leader of the world or something. He said some good stuff about me… I think I’d have a good relationship with Putin, who knows.” - February 2016

“I have nothing to do with Putin, I have never spoken to him, I don’t know anything about him, other than he will respect me.” - July 2016

“I would treat Vladimir Putin firmly, but there’s nothing I can think of that I’d rather do than have Russia friendly as opposed to how they are right now so that we can go and knock out Isis together with other people. Wouldn't it be nice if we actually got along?” - July 2016

“The man has very strong control over a country. It’s a very different system and I don’t happen to like the system, but certainly, in that system, he’s been a leader.” - September 2016

“Well I think when [Putin] called me brilliant, I’ll take the compliment, okay?” - September 2016

Asked how he how felt about the praise coming from "a man who kills journalists, political opponents and invades countries", Mr Trump said: "He’s running his country, and at least he’s a leader, you know, unlike what we have in this country."

The following month, Mr Trump defended Mr Putin after a British public inquiry found the Russian president "probably" sanctioned the assassination of Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko in London. Mr Trump waded into the case saying he had seen "no evidence" of Mr Putin's involvement, adding: "They say a lot of things about me that are untrue too."

The bromance continued after Mr Trump won the Republican nomination, suggesting in July he would be open to forming a partnership with Mr Putin to tackle the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isil).

"When you think about it, wouldn't it be nice if we got along with Russia...Wouldn't it be nice if we got together with Russia and knocked the hell out of [Isil]?" he said.


A protester holds a sign of Putin kissing Trump CREDIT: BARCROFT MEDIA
Mr Trump made headlines again in September when he compared Mr Putin favourably to Barack Obama. "The man has very strong control over a country," Mr Trump said of the Russian leader. "It's a very different system and I don't happen to like the system, but certainly, in that system, he's been a leader, far more than our president has been a leader."

Mr Trump said he felt he could get along with the Russian president, and was glad to have received a compliment from him. "Well I think when he called me brilliant, I'll take the compliment, okay?" Mr Trump said. "Look, it's not going to get him anywhere. I'm a negotiator."

Having won the election in November, the then president-elect continued to woo his Russian counterpart, praising Mr Putin as "very smart" for not engaging in a tit-for-tat row with the US over the expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats accused of espionage.

Donald J. Trump ✔@realDonaldTrump
Do you think Putin will be going to The Miss Universe Pageant in November in Moscow - if so, will he become my new best friend?
10:17 PM - 18 Jun 2013
60,879 60,879 Retweets 46,316 46,316 likes

Instead of taking retaliatory action, Mr Putin said: "Further steps towards the restoration of Russian-American relations will be built on the basis of the policy which the administration of President D. Trump will carry out."

Paul Manafort

Hired in March to shore up Mr Trump's primary campaign team, Mr Manafort only lasted until August and was a divisive figure from the start.

However, it was his business dealings in Russia and Ukraine that ultimately led to his resignation as campaign chairman.

The Associated Press reported in August that Mr Manafort helped a pro-Russian Ukrainian political party secretly move $2.2 million to two major Washington lobbying firms. The transfers were reportedly set up using a non-profit organisation - to obscure the Ukrainian party's attempts to influence US policies.


Paul Manafort, in May last year CREDIT: EPA
US law requires lobbying firms to register and report in detail to the Justice Department any ties to foreign political parties or leaders.

Furthermore, the Ukrainian National Anti-Corruption Bureau claimed a secret ledger showed Mr Manafort had been earmarked $12.7 million in off-the-books cash payments from the pro-Russian political party of Viktor Yanukovych, Ukraine's former president.

Mr Manafort called the allegations "unfounded, silly, and nonsensical". Yet the damage was done.

The former MI6 spy's dossier

Arguably the most explosive reports concerning Mr Trump's dealings in Russia was a dossier compiled by a former MI6 agent that emerged in January, shortly before he was due to enter the White House.

The file was compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele and was initially funded by anti-Trump Republicans, and later by Democrats.

The 35-page document alleges the Kremlin colluded with Mr Trump’s presidential campaign and that the Russian security services have material that could be used to blackmail him, including an allegation that he paid prostitutes to defile a bed that had been slept in by Barack and Michelle Obama.

Watch | Five things you need to know about the Trump dossier
02:20
Mr Trump said the publishing of the report was "something Nazi Germany would have done" and called the dossier "fake news" and "phony stuff".

It also meant his already strained relationship with the intelligence community deteriorated further. "I think it was disgraceful, disgraceful that the intelligence agencies allowed any information that turned out to be so false and fake out there," he said.

Carter Page

A foreign policy adviser to Mr Trump during the campaign, Mr Page resigned in September after a number of reports about his links to Russia.

The former adviser to Gazprom, Russia's state gas behemoth, raised eyebrows last July when he blasted the United States for showing "hypocrisy" towards Russia, during an address in Moscow. Page said the US and other Western countries unfairly vilified Russia for its problems, including corruption, which he said was just as easily found at home.

The New York Times has reported that FBI agents examined last summer numerous possible links between Russians and members of Mr. Trump’s inner circle, including Mr Page and Mr Manafort, as well as computer activity between the Trump Organisation and an email account at a large Russian bank, Alfa Bank.

Donald Trump's campaign explicitly denied a claim the Trump Organisation used a private server to communicate with Alfa Bank.

Michael Flynn and the lifting of sanctions

In the biggest blow to Mr Trump's nascent presidency, his National Security Adviser Michael Flynn resigned after it emerged he held secret talks with Russia before entering the White House.

Mr Flynn admitted in his resignation letter he took several calls with the Russian ambassador to the US before entering the White House, which is potentially illegal under the 1799 Logan Act.

Mr Flynn, who has argued for closer ties with Russia, has acknowledged being paid to give a speech and attend a lavish anniversary party in December 2015 for the state-controlled RT television network in Moscow, where he sat beside Mr Putin. But he hasn't said who wrote the check or for how much. An RT video from the Moscow event showed Mr Flynn rising during a standing ovation following the Russian leader's address.

Profile | General Michael Flynn
CREDIT: AP PHOTO/CAROLYN KASTER
Former United States National Security Advisor
Born:December 1958 (Age 58)
From:Rhode Island, USA
Education:BSc in management from University of Rhode Island; Master of Business Administration in Telecommunications from Golden Gate University; Master of Military Art and Science from the United States Army Command and General Staff College; Master of Arts in National Security and Strategic Studies from the Naval War College
Military career
2004–2007 – Director of Intelligence for Joint Special Operations Command, with service in Afghanistan and Iraq
2007–2008 – Director of Intelligence, United States Central Command
2008–2009 – Director of Intelligence, Joint Staff
2009–2010 – Director of Intelligence, International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan – 2012 – Director of Defence Intelligence Agency, appointed by President Barack Obama
2017 - Resigned as National Security Advisor after less than one month in office following reports that he had misled Vice President Mike Pence about his contacts with Russia
General Flynn retired in 2014, a year earlier than was expected. Reportedly he clashed with superiors over his belief that toppling the regime of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad posed too great a threat of strengthening ISIL in the region.

According to the Washington Post, Mr Flynn "privately discussed US sanctions against Russia with that country’s ambassador to the United States during the month before President Trump took office."

As president-elect, Mr Trump suggested he scrap the sanctions - imposed by the Obama administration in late December in response to Moscow's alleged cyber attacks - if Moscow proves helpful in battling terrorists and reaching other goals important to Washington. "If you get along and if Russia is really helping us, why would anybody have sanctions if somebody's doing some really great things?" he told the Wall Street Journal.

Trump campaign's 'contacts with Russian spies before election'

Phone records and intercepted calls show that members of Mr Trump's presidential campaign and other Trump associates had repeated contacts with senior Russian intelligence officials in the year before the election, the New York Times reported, citing four current and former US officials.

US law enforcement and intelligence agencies intercepted the communications around the same time they were discovering evidence that Russia was trying to disrupt the presidential election by hacking into the Democratic National Committee, three of the officials said, according to the Times.


The intelligence agencies then sought to learn whether the Trump campaign was colluding with the Russians on the hacking or other efforts to influence the election, the newspaper said. The officials interviewed in recent weeks said they had seen no evidence of such cooperation so far, it said.

However, the intercepts alarmed U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies, in part because of the amount of contact that was occurring while Mr Trump was speaking glowingly about Mr Putin.

Donald J. Trump ✔@realDonaldTrump
The real scandal here is that classified information is illegally given out by "intelligence" like candy. Very un-American!
7:13 AM - 15 Feb 2017
25,532 25,532 Retweets 106,714 106,714 likes

Mr Trump tweeted on Wednesday morning that the accusations were "merely an attempt to cover-up the many mistakes made in Hillary Clinton's losing campaign".

He added: "Information is being illegally given to the failing @nytimes & @washingtonpost by the intelligence community".
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/0/donal ... campaigns/

US lawmakers push for answers on Trump team's Russia ties

A crisis over the relationship between President Donald Trump's aides and Russia deepened on Wednesday as a growing number of Trump's fellow Republicans demanded expanded congressional inquiries into the matter.

Trump sought to focus attention on what he called criminal intelligence leaks about his ousted national security adviser, Michael Flynn.

Trump forced Flynn out on Monday after disclosures he had discussed U.S. sanctions on Russia with the Russian ambassador to the United States before Trump took office, and that he later misled Vice President Mike Pence about the conversations.

The drama of Flynn's departure was the latest in a series of White House missteps and controversies since the Republican president was sworn in on Jan. 20.

At a news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday, Trump said Flynn, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant general, was a "wonderful man" who had been mistreated by the news media.

Trump: Papers involving Flynn were illegally leaked Trump: Papers involving Flynn were illegally leaked
18 Hours Ago | 03:14
But Republican Trump critics including Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham voiced fresh consternation. Adding to the pressure were comments by Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, who has been a Trump supporter.

Corker said the Russia issue was threatening Trump's agenda on foreign affairs and domestic matters like healthcare and tax policy. He questioned whether the White House was able to stabilize itself and said Flynn should testify before Congress.

"Let's get everything out as quickly as possible on this Russia issue," Corker told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program. "Maybe there's a problem that obviously goes much deeper than what we now suspect."

Democrats, doubting Trump's Justice Department or the Republican-led Congress will pursue the matter vigorously, have demanded an independent investigation of possible illegal communications between Flynn and the Russian government and any efforts by Flynn or other White House officials to conceal wrongdoing.

The most powerful Democrat in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, said Attorney General Jeff Sessions, a close ally of Trump, must recuse himself from any investigation.

Vice President Pence kept in the dark about Michael Flynn Vice President Pence kept in the dark about Michael Flynn
Wednesday, 15 Feb 2017 | 7:05 AM ET | 00:33
The Republican and Democratic leaders of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee asked Sessions and FBI Director James Comey on Wednesday to send the committee documents and provide a briefing on Flynn's resignation.

Citing reports that both the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Justice Department were involved in events leading to Flynn's departure, Senators Chuck Grassley and Dianne Feinstein said they raised "substantial questions" about Flynn's discussion with Russian officials.

Graham called for a broader bipartisan congressional investigation to be conducted by a newly formed special committee rather than existing committees, if it turns out Trump's presidential campaign communicated with the Russians.

But the top Republicans in the Senate and House of Representatives have insisted the matter be investigated by existing Republican-led committees.

The Senate and House Intelligence Committees and a subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary committee have announced they launched investigations into alleged Russian efforts to influence the election through computer hacking.

U.S. intelligence agencies previously concluded that Russia hacked and leaked Democratic emails during the presidential campaign as part of efforts to tilt the vote in the Nov. 8 election in Trump's favor.

Congressional inquiries into alleged Russian interference in the U.S. elections are gaining momentum as Capitol Hill investigators press intelligence and law enforcement agencies for access to classified documents.

The FBI and several U.S. intelligence agencies are investigating Russian espionage operations in the United States. They are also looking at contacts in Russia between Russian intelligence officers or others with ties to President Vladimir Putin's government and people connected to Trump or his campaign.

The FBI recently questioned Flynn about his telephone contacts with the Russian ambassador in Washington. People familiar with the agency's multiple probes said there was no evidence so far of pre-election collusion between Russians and Trump's campaign, or any evidence of criminal activity by Flynn or anyone else connected to Trump.

Some experts expressed concern the White House could curtail or divert probes into Flynn and Russian involvement in the election unless Congress becomes more aggressive by holding hearings and appointing an independent commission or special prosecutor into whether Trump's team violated federal laws in their contacts with Russia.

Intelligence agencies now overseen by Trump may not be ideally suited to the job, they added.

"It's not, at the end of the day, the job of the intelligence community to regulate the White House - and it shouldn't be," said Stephen Vladeck, a University of Texas law professor who focuses on constitutional law and national security.

'Very Un-American'

In Twitter posts on Wednesday, Trump called the reported Russian connection with his campaign team nonsense and said the leaks were the "real scandal."

From early on in his White House bid, Trump said he would like improved relations with Putin, a stance criticized by Democrats and those Republicans concerned about Washington softening its stance after Russia's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine and aggression in Syria.

Only a few Republican lawmakers have supported even the idea of extending any investigation to cover actions by Trump's team in the weeks after the election, when Flynn made his calls.

Some Republicans, including House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, are calling for investigations into leaks to the news media of conversations between Flynn and Russia's ambassador in Washington.

The Trump administration has offered Flynn's former job to U.S. Navy Vice Admiral Robert Harward, said two U.S. officials familiar with the matter. It was not immediately clear if Harward, a former deputy commander of U.S. Central Command, had accepted the offer, according to sources.
http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/16/us-lawma ... -ties.html

Dem senator: Trump tax returns could explain his Russia position
BY MALLORY SHELBOURNE - 02/15/17 09:57 AM EST 254

Dem senator: Trump tax returns could explain his Russia position
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) says an investigation that would produce President Trump’s tax returns could shed light on Trump’s “bizarre positioning” towards Russia.

“Legislation establishing a special Senate committee could theoretically give it the power to get these tax returns. That is fully within the power of the United States Congress,” Murphy told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

Trump did not release his tax returns during his bid for the presidency, breaking with modern-day American electoral tradition.

Murphy's remarks come a day after a New York Times report alleging that Trump associates had "repeated contacts" with Russian intelligence agents during the campaign.

Murphy said “it’s clear” that there is another explanation for Trump’s views of Russia. Trump has previously said that only “stupid people” think it is a bad idea to have a positive relationship with the Kremlin.
“Increasingly it’s clear that there is some alternative explanation for this bizarre positioning, this softness on Russia, this permission slip that Trump has given Russia to act in ways that they have not acted in the last 20 years,” Murphy added.

Murphy said Tuesday that the resignation of national security adviser Michael Flynn was necessary, but added that now there are "way more questions than answers on President Trump's relationship with Russia." Since Flynn's resignation, Senate Democrats have called for a special committee or independent commission to investigate Russia's meddling in the U.S. election and any potential connections between Trump campaign staff and Russian officials.

Flynn resigned earlier this week following reports that he discussed sanctions with Russia’s ambassador to the United States, Sergey Kislyak. Flynn originally told White House officials, including Vice President Pence, that the two did not discuss sanctions in their conversation prior to Trump’s inauguration.

Murphy said Wednesday that “there doesn’t seem to be any normal course of international relations explanation” for Trump’s outlook on Russia, suggesting Trump may have some other ties to the Kremlin.

“And that explanation is either that the Russians have something on Trump, or that there are financial ties that are requiring Trump to behave this way or perhaps the Russians helped him in the election and this is sort of a quid pro quo,” Murphy said.

Last month, the intelligence community concluded in a declassified report that Russian President Vladimir Putin called for an influence campaign, including hacking, to help Trump win the presidency. The report, however, did not assess the impact Russia’s actions had on the election.
http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/3196 ... a-position

[82_28]

Did you cats ever get the lecture that if your friend was caught stealing something or something, you are guilty too? This filth needs to be removed. Entire "administration". But that of course brings in a whole new can of worms. Hijo de la verga.

[seemslikeadream]

it seems it is ok some people here for Russia to elect our president but not ok for the CIA to do it

or should I say they are more comfortable with Putin than the CIA

call me old fashioned but a foreign government electing the president of the U.S. just doesn't sit right with me

will we be changing the look of the flag next?

maybe

Don't tread on my babushka

Trump’s apologetics for Russia have never added up. Demand to know why.

Editorial: Put pressure on for honest probe of Trump and Russia

Sun-Times Editorial Board

Michael T. Flynn, a real cowboy, rode off into the sunset Monday, but this movie is just beginning.

Not for a minute did Flynn’s resignation as national security adviser end the urgent need for Congress, the Justice Department, the FBI and anybody else who wasn’t born yesterday to dig into the Trump administration’s dealings with Russia — before and after Donald Trump was elected president. Flynn is gone, but who else might pose a national security risk?
EDITORIAL


Republicans in Washington would have you believe the movie is over and the credits have rolled. This was a story, they say, about how Flynn lied to Vice President Mike Pence and nothing more, and now Flynn is gone, so let’s turn up the lights and all go home. But that is a calculated deflection by a party putting politics before country.

Flynn misled Pence and other top White House officials about his conversations with the Russian ambassador to the United States prior to Trump’s inaugural. And Trump, it was revealed Tuesday, has known this for weeks. Flynn may have broken the law by discussing American sanctions with Russia in a phone call, and he certainly breached protocol.

But the more pressing question, still to be answered, is whether others in Trump’s inner circle were privy to these conversations, involved in such conversations themselves, or ordered them. Ultimately, the question becomes what Trump knew and did himself.

Don’t count on Congress to look into that. Senators and representatives are always reluctant to hold to account a president of their own party, but this Republican Congress is shaping up as particularly self-serving and cowardly. They have mastered the art of sounding principled while not acting on their principles.

“You cannot have a national security adviser misleading the vice president and others,” House Speaker Paul Ryan impressively intoned on Tuesday, as if that were the only serious concern.

Ryan’s a bright guy. He knows better. He knows Flynn’s actions were entirely consistent with the game of pat-a-cake Trump has been playing with Russian President Vladimir Putin since long before the November election. He knows the real question is whether Flynn was acting entirely on his own or at the behest of Trump or presidential adviser Steve Bannon. He knows, but he won’t go there.

In sounding the depths of this scandal, context is crucial. Sen. John McCain of Arizona, one of the few uncowed Republicans on Capitol Hill, made the point Tuesday.

“General Flynn’s resignation also raises further questions about the Trump administration’s intentions toward Vladimir Putin’s Russia,” McCain said, “including statements by the president suggesting moral equivalence between the United States and Russia despite its invasion of Ukraine, annexation of Crimea, threats to our NATO allies, and attempted interference in American elections.”

Trump himself tried Tuesday to deflect the public’s attention from Flynn by tweeting that the “real story” is the “illegal leaks coming out of Washington.” As if that were a problem. Given Trump’s disdain for a free press, thank God for those leaks.

If there is any chance the Senate, House or Justice Department — now run by a Trump appointee — will take an honest and thorough look at the Trump administration’s dealings with Moscow before and after the November election, it will be because an outraged public demands it. Democrats on Capitol Hill, who are calling for the appointment of a bipartisan special investigative committee, otherwise will be ignored. And the four congressional committees already looking into Russian meddling in the 2016 election will slow-walk their work.

Put the pressure on.

Demand a close examination by legislators of the transcript of Flynn’s conversation with the Russian ambassador. Demand that Flynn be called to testify under oath.

Demand that Congress and the Justice Department get to the bottom of why an American president would defend a murderous Russian autocrat by putting the United States on the same low moral plane, saying, “Our country does plenty of killing, too.”

Trump’s apologetics for Russia have never added up. Demand to know why.
http://chicago.suntimes.com/opinion/edi ... nd-russia/

[seemslikeadream]

Any discussion of Russia is also sure to gather eye-rolling comments on “new McCarthyism,” as if there’s some connection between Putin’s autocratic serfdom and the communist witch hunt of the 1950s.

here's looking at YOU Kazy


sometimes I can not tell if Donald J Trump himself is actually posting here ..the word are exactly the same as I read in the papers and in his tweets

Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump Feb 15
More
This Russian connection non-sense is merely an attempt to cover-up the many mistakes made in Hillary Clinton's losing campaign.
47,377 replies 25,614 retweets 104,415 likes
Reply 47K Retweet 26K
Like 104K

Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump Feb 15
More
The fake news media is going crazy with their conspiracy theories and blind hatred. @MSNBC & @CNN are unwatchable. @foxandfriends is great!

Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump Feb 12
More
Just leaving Florida. Big crowds of enthusiastic supporters lining the road that the FAKE NEWS media refuses to mention. Very dishonest!

Manafort, Page, Flynn, Trump: Russia is the one story that can bring them all down

By Mark Sumner
Tuesday Feb 14, 2017 · 10:13 AM CST

CLEVELAND, OH - JULY 21: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump (L) and his daughter Ivanka Trump (R) work with campaign manager Paul Manafort (2nd R) while testing the teleprompters and microphones on stage before the start of the fourth day of the Republican National Convention on July 21, 2016 at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. Ivanka will introduce her father before he gives his acceptance speech tonight, the final night of the convention. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Donald Trump with Paul Manafort and Kellyanne Conway


When Donald Trump slithered down that escalator in 2015 to announce he was running for president, he brought with him two decades of connections to Russia. By the time the primaries were winding down, he’d acquired a collection of staff and advisers who were not just Russophiles, but fans of autocrat Vladimir Putin. Chief among them were Paul Manafort, Carter Page, and Michael Flynn.

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Manafort was brought on as campaign chair in March 2016. At the time, his most recent political experience was working to put a Russian puppet regime at the head of Ukraine. Manafort arranged fake rallies against NATO (giving Russia an excuse to seize Crimea), and rushed through a treaty on oil and gas access before his puppet leader had to run for Moscow ahead of a real uprising. As it became clear that Manafort might still be on the Russian payroll, and it became clear that Manafort had violated rules against unregistered foreign lobbyists, Trump’s campaign began to take hits. On August 17, Trump said that Manafort was there to stay. Two days later, he accepted Manafort’s resignation.

Carter Page was one of five foreign policy advisers named by Trump in March 2016—the same month Manafort came on board. Page was a frequent guest on Russian state media, a harsh critic of U.S. policy, and had a personal stake in Russian oil and gas interests worth millions if sanctions could be lifted. Page’s multiple appearances in Moscow and his effusive praise of Putin brought public scrutiny, and in September word leaked that the CIA was investigating his Russian connections. Soon after, Page decided to “take leave” of his position in the Trump campaign.

Michael Flynn was forced out of the Defense Intelligence Agency after his overbearing, chaotic management style brought him into conflict with … everyone. He then formed a consulting firm that worked for Turkish autocrat Recep Erdoğan. He began to make regular appearances on Russia’s state-controlled RT and in 2015 went to Moscow and was seated next to Putin at an RT gala. Like Page, Flynn gave a paid talk critical of U.S. policy. In February 2016, two weeks before Manafort took the helm, Flynn joined the Trump campaign as an adviser (and was considered as a running mate). Flynn frequently railed against President Obama and not only led the “lock her up” chant against Hillary Clinton, but tweeted links to fake news stories about Clinton generated by Russian sources. He was named Trump’s nominee for National Security Adviser on Nov. 18, 2016, after which he not only had his now infamous series of discussions with the Russian ambassador, but also met with Austrian neo-nazi leader Heinz-Christian Strache, whose party has signed a cooperative agreement with Putin. In January, acting Attorney General Sally Yates notified Trump that Flynn may have been acting under pressure from Moscow. Trump kept Flynn, and fired Yates. On February 13, Flynn resigned as National Security Adviser.

Manafort is gone. Page is gone. Flynn is gone.

That leaves one major figure in the Trump regime who has multiple connections to Russia, who has made multiple statements praising Vladimir Putin, who has made multiple visits to Moscow, who has appeared on Russian media, who has strong financial ties to Russia, who has talked repeatedly of lowering the sanctions that would give Russia a windfall of oil and gas profit.

His name is Donald Trump.

From the beginning, there have been those who have hurried to dismiss or even defend Trump’s connections with Russia. Trump is a businessman. Of course he crosses paths with the wealthy and powerful, which certainly includes Russian oligarchs and Vladimir Putin. Any discussion of Russia is also sure to gather eye-rolling comments on “new McCarthyism,” as if there’s some connection between Putin’s autocratic serfdom and the communist witch hunt of the 1950s.

But it’s increasingly obvious that Russia is the only story that frightens Trump. It’s been that way from the beginning. Any time the media has begun to focus too closely on Trump’s association with Russian crime bosses, his previous statements of a personal connection to Putin, or his son’s acknowledgement that a large portion of their funds were coming from Russia, Trump has tossed out a fresh outrage to divert the media.

But Trump has claimed a past personal relationship with Putin, including meeting him in person and speaking with him by phone.

Trump was saved from bankruptcy by an infusion of Russian funds that propped up his failing business and allowed him to maintain a facade of “wealth.” Afterward, Trump lied about the scope of these connections.

Trump has repeatedly praised Putin, expressing admiration for his “strength” and even his actions in Ukraine. Trump’s association with Putin was so great that he equated sanctions against Russia with an attack on Donald Trump.

Trump did intervene in the Republican Party platform to weaken language defending Ukraine against Russian aggression—the only change in the whole platform that Trump’s team made, and one that was said to come personally from Trump.

Trump did directly invite Russian involvement in the campaign, did make extensive use (and distortions) of the Wikileaks material to attack Hillary Clinton, did publicly appeal to Putin to hack Clinton’s email, did repeatedly deny that Russia was involved in the hacking even as he was benefiting from that involvement and even after receiving intelligence reports.

It’s not that Trump is the only one remaining on his team with connections to Russia. Far from it. Among others is Rex Tillerson, an oil company CEO who came out of nowhere to be Trump’s secretary of state. He assumed his role almost entirely on his reputation for making a $500 billion deal with Putin that can only be completed if the United States drops existing sanctions.

And then there’s chief strategist Steve Bannon, whose white nationalist philosophy slots Putin into the role of the Great Leader who will fulfill Bannon’s desire for smashing existing institutions—like NATO—while also protecting white Europe against invasions from Muslims. Bannon’s Breitbart is a hotbed of Putin love.

Trump isn’t quite alone as the last White House Putin fan … but his personal connections to Russia are no longer overshadowed by those of Manafort, or Carter, or Flynn. And the truth is that Trump has been at least as blatant as Manafort, at least as offensive as Carter, at least as deceptive as Flynn. There’s no need to get distracted in going after Tillerson or Bannon or others …

Just get Trump.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/2/14 ... m-all-down

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RF87ugpgnVo

Wondering About Trump

“We do know that Trump’s campaign was talking to the Russians a lot, and ‘the frequency of the communication and the proximity to Trump of those involved “raised a red flag” with U.S. intelligence.’ Yes, intelligence were worried that once he got in the White House, he might raise a red flag.” — COLBERT, recalling some Cold War colors

“Mike Pence is forcing Trump to get his back tattoo of Putin removed. There are consequences! Yeah, that’s a ‘Trump stamp.’” — TREVOR NOAH

“The story is all over cable news, and Trump is not happy about it. In fact he went on Twitter this morning and said that MSNBC and CNN are unwatchable. Then he said, ‘And I know, because I spend all day watching them.’” — JIMMY FALLON

“Here’s the thing: It can’t be both fake news and an illegal leak of classified information. ‘Your honor, I did not murder that man. The real criminal is whoever filmed me strangling him.’” — COLBERT

And Already Joking About a Successor

“Pence apparently was one of the last people to find out that Flynn had lied. According to The Times, Pence was kept in the dark and did not learn that Flynn had misled him about his Russia contacts until reading news accounts late last week. He had to read it in the newspaper. So, that’s comforting. At least our next president reads the newspaper.” — SETH MEYERS


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUa_xD2jugc


“In the middle of all this insanity, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the White House. As a courtesy, Trump asked his staff to put a 24-hour hold on retweeting neo-Nazis. That’s just good manners.” — COLBERT

“We are only one menstrual cycle into this presidency and there is blood in the water.” — SAMANTHA BEE

“We just learned from multiple intelligence sources that Trump aides were in ‘constant touch’ with senior Russian officials during the campaign. ‘Constant touch,’ by the way, is also Trump’s Secret Service code name. ‘I got Constant Touch on the move. Constant Touch is on the move. Constant Touch. Constant Touch is coming backstage — hide the girls.’” — COLBERT


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vp9wIB3pqJg

[seemslikeadream]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EI9A9RI ... fHXinVKGRr

Steven Dennis ‏@StevenTDennis 13h13 hours ago
More
Steven Dennis Retweeted Steven Dennis
MANCHIN expects YATES, FLYNN, MANAFORT to testify before Intel in public, with interviews starting after next week's break.

In total there are 122 users online :: 1 registered, 3 hidden and 118 guests (based on users active over the past 5 minutes)

[seemslikeadream]

THE RIGHT WING
Deutsche Bank Examined Donald Trump's Account for Russia Links

The bank looked for evidence of whether loans to the president were underpinned by guarantees from Moscow, the Guardian learns.
By Luke Harding, Stephanie Kirchgaessner, Nick Hopkins, David Smith / The Guardian February 16, 2017


The scandal-hit bank that loaned hundreds of millions of dollars to Donald Trump has conducted a close internal examination of the US president’s personal account to gauge whether there are any suspicious connections to Russia, the Guardian has learned.

Deutsche Bank, which is under investigation by the US Department of Justice and is facing intense regulatory scrutiny, was looking for evidence of whether recent loans to Trump, which were struck in highly unusual circumstances, may have been underpinned by financial guarantees from Moscow.

The Guardian has also learned that the president’s immediate family are Deutsche clients. The bank examined accounts held by Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter, her husband, Jared Kushner, who serves as a White House adviser, and Kushner’s mother.

The internal review found no evidence of any Russia link, but Deutsche Bank is coming under pressure to appoint an external and independent auditor to review its business relationship with President Trump.

Democratic congressman Bill Pascrell Jr, a member of the House Ways and Means committee, said: “We know that Deutsche Bank is a major lender to President Trump, and the firm is also currently undergoing scrutiny by the Department of Justice for alleged misconduct.

“I think it’s important for the American people to know the extent of the bank’s involvement with the president, and whether there is any Russian involvement in loans made to Mr Trump.”

Pascrell said the bank was under federal investigation for aiding Russian money-laundering - a “troubling potential conflict”. He said he would encourage Deutsche to “shine a bright light” on its lending to the president to “eliminate any speculation of wrongdoing ”. Congress should also be allowed to review Trump’s tax returns in closed session, he added.

A source familiar with Deutsche Bank’s internal review said it came after Trump’s bid to become US president made him a politically exposed person. Under banking regulations, PEPs undergo tougher scrutiny than regular clients because of their proximity to government.

After Trump’s victory in the US election in November the bank “double-checked” its records, the source said. The bank has also fielded numerous media inquiries about recent Trump loans, which were viewed as unorthodox among some bankers familiar with the transactions.

According to an analysis by Bloomberg, Trump now owes Deutsche around $300m. He has four large mortgages, all issued by Deutsche’s private bank. The loans are guaranteed against the president’s properties: a new deluxe hotel in Washington DC’s old Post Office building, just round the corner from the White House; his Chicago tower hotel; and the Trump National Doral Miami resort.

In recent years the disgraced bank has been hit by a series of scandals. Last month the UK and US imposed record fines of $630m. Deutsche failed to prevent money laundering by its Moscow branch involving at least $10bn of Russian cash, regulators found.

Deutsche’s client relationship with Kushner was made public in a 2013 article in the New York Observer, which Kushner owned. Ivanka Trump, who formerly served as an executive in Trump’s real estate business, is also a client of Deutsche. She now works as an unofficial adviser in the White House.

Kushner’s mother, Seryl Stadtmauer, is also a client, according to a person familiar with the matter. The bank’s internal review looked at the president’s accounts as well as his wider family, it is understood.

The bank said it would not be drawn on what had prompted the internal examination, who had undertaken it or what its findings had been.

Deutsche said it would not say anything about whether the review had found any links between Trump’s loans and Moscow. However, two bank sources have told the Guardian that it found no evidence to show the loans had been underwritten by money from Moscow, or any Russian bank.

Deutsche Bank’s says its position is that it will not comment or guide on any stories about Mr Trump’s financial affairs.

Another source familiar with the issue said speculation about possible ties to Russia could be part of a “disinformation campaign”.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, deputy press secretary at the White House, referred queries to the Trump Organisation, which did not respond to a request for comment.

Trump and his businesses have a long history with the German bank, which this month posted its latest net loss, of €1.4bn. It has been the only financial institution willing to lend Trump significant sums. In the 1990s other Wall Street banks, which had previously extended him credit, turned off the tap after Trump’s businesses declared bankruptcy four times.

In November 2008 the German bank took the unusual step of suing Trump after he failed to repay $40m of a $640m real estate loan. Trump countersued. The tycoon argued that Deutsche had contributed to the global recession, which had depressed property prices. He demanded $3bn in damages.

Deutsche’s astonished lawyers described Trump’s lawsuit as frivolous and demanded immediate payment. The two parties settled in 2010.

The bank then quietly re-established its relationship with Trump via Deutsche’s private bank. The private wealth division deals with ultra high-net worth individuals, typically with assets in excess of $50m.

A person familiar with the matter said the relationship resumed because Deutsche Bank hired a group of private wealth bankers including Rosemary Vrablic, who had previously worked at Citigroup and Bank of America and was Trump’s personal banker. Vrablic began working for Deutsche in 2006.

When he was questioned about his bona fides on Wall Street by the New York Times, Trump referred to Vrablic as the “boss” of Deutsche Bank, although she is not the group’s chief executive. A glowing profile of the banker appeared in Kushner’s New York Observer.

Sources in the banking world have expressed astonishment that Deutsche would continue lending to Trump in the wake of his $3bn 2008 lawsuit. Asked whether this was normal practice, one former Deutsche Bank employee, who worked for the bank in New York, said: “Are you kidding me?”

Another former CEO of a rival investment bank, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: “The idea that a bank would walk away from an enforcement lawsuit on a defaulted loan with a litigious borrower because they hired a banking team is preposterous.”

One person familiar with the matter said there was no interaction between the investment banking department that had originally lent to Trump and private banking. The investment bankers who dealt with Trump’s loans had left the company, the source said.

Possible links with Russia are a matter of acute sensitivity inside the bank, the Guardian has been told. The Trump administration has been fighting accusations contained in a dossier by a former MI6 officer that it secretly colluded before the US election with Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin. Trump has rubbished the claim as fake news.

On Monday the Michael Flynn resigned as US national security adviser after it emerged he had lied to the vice-president, Mike Pence, over his conversations with Russia’s ambassador to Washington. Flynn had discussed the possibility of the incoming Trump administration lifting Russian sanctions.

Citing current and former US intelligence officials, the New York Times reported on Wednesday that three members of Trump’s team had been in contact with senior Russian intelligence officers before the US election.

In January a US regulator, the New York Department of Financial Services, fined Deutsche Bank $425m for laundering around $10bn of Russian money. The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority imposed a £163m fine, its largest ever.

The US Department of Justice is still investigating the Russian scheme. In December Deutsche agreed to pay the department $7.2bn. The fine related to the mis-selling of residential mortgage-backed securities and other activities during 2005-7. The US originally asked Deutsche to pay $14bn.
http://www.alternet.org/right-wing/deut ... ssia-links

[seemslikeadream]

How the Russia saga may ultimately bring down President Trump
BY PAUL SCHIFF BERMAN, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR - 02/16/17 12:00 PM EST 406

The most important under-investigated story of the presidential campaign could ultimately become the greatest political scandal in U.S. history: how the Trump administration may have conspired with top Russian intelligence officials, and perhaps Vladimir Putin himself, to interfere in the election, get Donald Trump elected President, and undermine U.S. foreign policy. As revelations about these Russian contacts slowly leak out, some legal scholars are beginning to suggest that Trump campaign officials might have broken the law or even committed treason.

That sounds like partisan hyperbole, but it may eventually become an inescapable legal conclusion that Democrats and Republicans alike will need to face. Consider what we now know.

According to The New York Times, phone records and intercepted calls show that senior members of the Trump campaign, his transition team, and his associates were in regular contact with Russian intelligence officials throughout 2016. This should not surprise anyone, given that National Security Advisor Michael Flynn is actually the third top Trump staffer who has had to resign because of ties to Russia, following former campaign manager Paul Manafort and campaign advisor Carter Page.

Meanwhile, U.S. intelligence agencies definitively concluded weeks ago that the same Russian intelligence operation that was communicating with the Trump campaign deliberately hacked the emails of the Democratic National Committee and senior members of the Clinton campaign and leaked those emails to the public. Moreover, according to our intelligence agencies, this effort was ordered by Putin himself with the explicit aim of helping Trump win the election.


We also now know that Flynn continued speaking with Russian officials after the election, providing back-channel information to the Russians in order to undermine then-President Obama’s sanctions on Russia for the very same hacking that was orchestrated on Trump’s behalf.

To be sure, there is, so far, no proof that any of these communications happened under Trump’s orders or with his knowledge. Yet, it is hard to believe that so many interactions by such high-level members of Trump’s campaign or his administration could possibly have occurred without Trump’s knowledge or his tacit or explicit consent.

In addition, we now know that when Acting Attorney General Sally Yates reported on Flynn’s illegal conversations, Trump not only did not fire Flynn, he instead fired Yates, four days later. And even now, the White House states that Flynn was fired for being untrustworthy with his superiors, not for breaking the law by conspiring with the Russians in the first place.

These ongoing Russia connections might also help explain other mysteries of the past year. For example, why has Trump continued to refuse to release his financial records? Would those records, as Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) suggested on Wednesday, provide evidence of deep financial ties to Russia, or even direct payments? And why has Trump himself been so strangely unwilling to criticize Putin despite being given many easy opportunities to do so?

We don’t have the answers to these questions. But they clearly require bipartisan investigation and an independent counsel with no ties to Attorney General Jeff Sessions or the administration. After all, if the Trump campaign used back channels to secretly conspire with the Russians to impact the election and undermine the sitting president of the United States, it is not only improper, it is the definition of treason. Moreover, it suggests that this administration might now owe more allegiance to Putin than to the U.S. Constitution it is sworn to protect and defend.

Such an allegation is chilling, particularly at a time when Russia is deploying missiles in violation of its treaty obligations, leaving a compromised Trump administration without a credible response. Indeed, any allegation of treason seems almost unfathomable. Yet, that is the unfortunate state we are in. The fall of Michael Flynn is only the beginning of the slow unraveling.
http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/t ... bring-down

Calling... calling Rory....SLaD is linking to Eichenwald!!!!!!! OH THE HUGHMANATEE!

U.S. ALLIES CONDUCT INTELLIGENCE OPERATION AGAINST TRUMP STAFF AND ASSOCIATES, INTERCEPTED COMMUNICATIONS
BY KURT EICHENWALD ON 2/15/17 AT 2:58 PM
.S.DONALD TRUMPRUSSIA
As part of intelligence operations being conducted against the United States for the last seven months, at least one Western European ally intercepted a series of communications before the inauguration between advisers associated with President Donald Trump and Russian government officials, according to people with direct knowledge of the situation.

Related: President Trump's National Security Adviser Michael Flynn resigns amidst Russia controversy

The sources said the interceptions include at least one contact between former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and a Russian official based in the United States. It could not be confirmed whether this involved the telephone call with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak that has led to Flynn’s resignation, or additional communications. The sources said the intercepted communications are not just limited to telephone calls: The foreign agency is also gathering electronic and human source information on Trump’s overseas business partners, at least some of whom the intelligence services now consider to be agents of their respective governments. These operations are being conducted out of concerns that Russia is seeking to manipulate its relationships with Trump administration officials as part of a long-term plan to destabilize the NATO alliance.

Moreover, a Baltic nation is gathering intelligence on officials in the Trump White House and executives with the president’s company, the Trump Organization, out of concern that an American policy shift toward Russia could endanger its sovereignty, according to a third person with direct ties to that nation’s government.

These sources spoke on condition that they not be identified because they were not formally authorized to disclose the information. While Newsweek was told which allied nations intercepted the communications and are gathering intelligence on Trump associates, the sources did so on condition that the countries not be identified out of concern those governments would incur the president’s wrath.

The Western European intelligence operations began in August, after the British government obtained information that people acting on behalf of Russia were in contact with members of the Trump campaign. Those details from the British were widely shared among the NATO allies in Europe. The Baltic nation has been gathering intelligence for at least that long, and has conducted surveillance of executives from the Trump Organization who were traveling in Europe.

These operations reflect a serious breakdown in the long-standing faith in the direction of American policy by some of the country’s most important allies. Worse, the United States is now in a situation that may be unprecedented—where European governments know more about what is going on in the executive branch than any elected American official. To date, the Republican-controlled Congress has declined to conduct hearings to investigate the links between Trump’s overseas business partners and foreign governments, or the activities between Russia and officials in the Trump campaign and administration—the very areas being examined by the intelligence services of at least two American allies.

Some details about Trump’s business partners were passed to the American government months ago. For example, long before the president’s inauguration, German electronic surveillance determined that the father of Trump’s Azerbaijani business partner is a government official who laundered money for the Iranian military; that information was shared with the CIA, according to a European source with direct knowledge of the situation.

Of equal concern to our allies is Trump’s business partner in the Philippines, who is also the special representative to Washington of that country’s president, Rodrigo Duterte. This government official, Jose E.B. Antonio, is the head of Century Properties, which in turn is a partner with the president’s business in the construction of Trump Tower at Century City in Makati, Philippines. According to people with direct knowledge of the situation, a European intelligence service has obtained the contracts and other legal documents in the deal between the Trump Organization and Antonio. That deal has already resulted in large payments to Trump’s business, with millions of dollars more on the way—all coming from an agent of the Philippine president.

The financial relationship between an American president and the Philippine government comes at a time when the historic alliance between the West and the Southeast Asian country is under great stress. Since the election last year of Duterte, a campaign of slaughter has gripped the Philippines, with death squads murdering thousands of suspected drug users in the streets. The carnage, which intelligence officials have concluded is being conducted with Duterte’s involvement, has been condemned throughout the Western world; the Parliament of the European Union and two United Nations human rights experts have urged Duterte to end the massacre.

Duterte has responded by signaling his government could tilt its alliances away from the West, instead turning to China as its primary ally. Such a move could be devastating, given that the American armed forces maintains large military bases there. The situation with the Philippines “is already an enormous challenge,” one official with direct knowledge of the European intelligence operations said. “President Trump’s business there is a complicating factor that we are trying to assess.”

The information gathered by the Western European government has been widely shared among the NATO allies, although it is not clear how much has been provided to American intelligence officials. One source said that members of British Prime Minister Theresa May’s staff had been briefed on the surveillance findings prior to her meeting last month with Trump and that officials within the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel have also obtained the details.

These intelligence operations against the United States come as a result of allied concern about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s designs to damage NATO and whether Trump intends to follow a policy path that would embolden Russia. In addition, they are apprehensive about whether a newly strengthened Moscow would use its energy weapon—Western Europe obtains almost 40 percent of its natural gas from Russia—to push aggressive policies with little objection from the Trump White House.

Officials in the Baltic states of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania are particularly concerned. Given Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, they fear that, should the Trump administration drop sanctions intended to punish Moscow’s military adventurism, their nations’ futures could also be at risk. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he will "protect" Russian speakers wherever they are; only 17 percent of Ukraine’s population is ethnic Russians. However, ethnic Russians make up 24 percent and 27 percent of the populations of Estonia and Latvia, respectively, according to the Foreign Policy Research Institute, an American think tank. And even though only 6 percent of Lithuania’s population is ethnic Russian, its government brought back military conscription, which had been abandoned seven years earlier, following Moscow’s military invasion of Ukraine.

While nothing improper has been detected, the Baltic nation also launched an investigation by its intelligence service into the relationship between Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and his longtime personal friend, Igor Sechin, the head of the Kremlin-controlled oil company Rosneft. Sechin and Rosneft are on the blacklist of people and entities designated for sanctions following Russia’s incursion into Ukraine. He was Tillerson’s main business partner when he worked as the chief executive of Exxon Mobil and is a powerful figure in Russia who is both a former member of the FSB (the federal security service that is the primary successor to the Soviet Union’s KGB) and the former head of presidential administration in charge of the security services.

“Sechin’s power derives from his relationship with Putin,” according to a 2008 State Department cable sent from the embassy in Moscow. “As Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration in charge of the security services, there was little doubt about Igor Sechin's power. He was widely regarded as a very influential member of Putin's inner circle, perhaps even the most influential, with the requisite FSB background to advance the President's (and his own) agenda.”

That influence, and the role Sechin could play in gaining greater power for Russia through oil sales if sanctions are dropped by the Trump administration, is what made him a primary target in the Baltic state’s intelligence investigation of Tillerson. Yet, back in America, the name Sechin was not even mentioned during Tillerson’s confirmation hearings before the Senate.
http://www.newsweek.com/allies-intercep ... ons-557283

Carl Bernstein Smells a Cover Up

February 16, 2017By Taegan Goddard
Famed Watergate reporter Carl Bernstein told CNN the Trump administration is trying to cover up its ties to Russia.

Said Bernstein: “There has been a real attempt to stonewall the press, to stonewall the FBI to stonewall congressional investigators. That’s what we know so far from people around the Trump campaign, where this goes and the seriousness of it we don’t know in terms of the ultimate disposition and what all the facts are.”

He added: “In this instance what we are finding out is that there appears to be some attempt somewhere to cover up what has occurred and we are trying to penetrate that cover up. Whether or not the cover up involves those closest to the President of the United States, independent operators, former campaign aides, all of that will be determined.”

https://politicalwire.com/2017/02/16/ca ... lls-cover/

[seemslikeadream]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3u-ps1cGUs

[seemslikeadream]

Here’s How Congress is Handling Russia Investigations
by LEIGH ANN CALDWELL

President Donald Trump on controversial reports: 'Russia is a ruse' 3:15

Drama is building on Capitol Hill over current and potential investigations into Russia's alleged interference in last year's election and the pre-inauguration contacts between President Donald Trump's national security adviser and Russia's ambassador.

At the end of a week's worth of new revelations and a resignation, FBI Director James Comey held a closed-door meeting with the Senate Intelligence Committee Friday.

No member entering or leaving the afternoon briefing would say what the meeting was about or whether it was requested by the senators or the FBI.

It was a case of deafening silence from members who emerged refusing to even acknowledge that a meeting was happening — even though reporters saw Comey enter the same room as the senators. Republican Sen. Marco Rubio did send out a tweet that hinted at Russia:

Follow
Marco Rubio ✔ @marcorubio
I am now very confident Senate Intel Comm I serve on will conduct thorough bipartisan investigation of #Putin interference and influence
4:59 PM - 17 Feb 2017
6,559 6,559 Retweets 17,024 17,024 likes

The busy week began with the resignation of Trump's national security adviser, retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, over phone calls with Russia's ambassador to the United States, communications that reportedly involved discussions of sanctions leveled against the Russia during the Obama administration.

It ended with several committees in Congress, some of which were already investigating alleged Russian cyber-attacks and interference in the U.S. election, either broadening their scope or contemplating new inquiries.

But not every committee is created equal. Some committees have more authority on the issue and some have more incentive to investigate.

So, amid the flurry of investigations and calls for investigations, here's a breakdown of how Congress is responding to Flynn and Russia.

Senate Intelligence Committee
The Senate Intelligence Committee has the the most cohesive and robust of an investigation going so far, with both the Republican chairman and the Democratic ranking member similarly minded about its purpose and scope.

The committee opened their probe in early January into alleged Russian interference in U.S. election. At the time, the committee said that part of the investigation would include any contacts between the Trump campaign and the Russians. Committee members have acknowledged that the controversy surrounding Flynn's transition contacts would be a natural extension of the investigation.

Play John McCain: 'This Administration Is in Disarray' Facebook Twitter Google Plus Embed
John McCain: 'This Administration Is in Disarray' 1:19
Sen. Mark Warner, D-Virginia, and ranking member of the committee, has said he wants Flynn to testify before the committee, a move that Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., the top Republican, said could happen "eventually."

Both members have said they would like to see the transcripts of the calls between Flynn and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.

The House Intelligence Committee
The House Intelligence Committee is less bullish about its investigation than its counterpart in the Senate.

While it is investigating Russian interference in the election, Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., is a close ally of Trump's and has been lukewarm about an aggressive probe into Flynn. Nunes said that the ongoing investigation could be expanded to include Flynn if "it all falls under the umbrella."

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi is skeptical of House Republican commitment to investigate.

"They are stonewalling this," Pelosi said. "The speaker is saying it's up to the Intelligence Committee — the chairman of the Intelligence Committee is saying don't look at me, I'm not doing any of this. the American people deserve better."

The Leaks
Like President Trump, congressional Republicans have expressed concerns about the leaks of intelligence to the media regarding Flynn and his phone call with Kislyak. While Nunes, chair of the House Intelligence Committee, has said that those who leak "belong in jail," he has not yet committed to investigating them.

Play Chaffetz on Calls for Russia Investigation: 'That Situation Has Taken Care of Itself' Facebook Twitter Google Plus Embed
Chaffetz on Calls for Russia Investigation: 'That Situation Has Taken Care of Itself' 1:01
House Speaker Paul Ryan, however, said the House Intelligence Committee should look into it.

"What I do worry about, though, is if classified information is being leaked. That is criminal," Ryan said. And so I think there should be an investigation as to the leaks of information leaving, wherever they're coming from."

Trump has focused on the leaks, saying that the leaks are more scandalous than the Flynn controversy.

The top Republicans of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and the Judiciary Committee sent a letter to the Department of Justice inspector general regarding "potential inadequate protection of classified information."

"We request that your office begin an immediate investigation into whether classified information was mishandled here," the letter said.

And the Senate Intelligence Committee is reluctant to open a probe into leaks. Burr said that leaking should be investigating by the FBI because of the criminal component to it, adding that the Intelligence committee doesn't have prosecutorial authority.

Russian Payment to Flynn
In the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Republican Chairman Jason Chaffetz and Ranking Member Democrat Elijah Cummings sent a joint letter to the Department of Defense asking about payments Flynn received from the Russian government for a trip in 2015.

Play Cummings on bill to investigate Russian hacking Facebook Twitter Google Plus Embed
Cummings on bill to investigate Russian hacking 1:11
"We are attempting to determine the amount Lieutenant General Flynn received for his appearance, the source of the funding, and whether he may have received payments from any other foreign sources for additional engagements," they wrote.

Bipartisan Briefing
The top Democrat and Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee have jointly written a letter asking that the FBI brief them on the circumstances leading up to Flynn's resignation.

While the Judiciary Committee does not deal with classified material, both Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, are interested in preservation of documents and to be able to see unclassified version of related materials, potentially opening another investigation from this committee.

While it's not bipartisan, in the House, Democrats are also calling on the Director of National Intelligence to brief them. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Adam Schif, top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said in a letter that they'd like an "immediate briefing on the counterintelligence implications of these alarming actions."

A Bipartisan Commission
While most Republicans are opposed to either a select committee created specifically to investigate the Russia issue or an independent commission, at least one Republican has come out in support of the Democratic idea of a bipartisan commission.

Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., has signed on to a Democratic bill creating a 12-member bipartisan commission. Without the blessing of the Speaker Ryan, however, the bill will likely go nowhere.
http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congres ... ns-n722661

[seemslikeadream]

Maxine Waters: US policies on Russia are being dictated by a ‘Kremlin clan’ inside the White House
Tom Boggioni
19 FEB 2017 AT 15:11 ET


Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) leveled serious charges against the Trump White House on Sunday, saying U.S. policies toward Russia are being driven by what she called the “Kremlin clan” more interested in oil and personal business than U.S. needs.

Appearing on MSNBC with host Alex Witt, the California congresswoman said Trump’s recent attacks on the media are a way to delegitimize their reporting on his Russian connections.

Waters’ claims came just before the New York Times released a bombshell report stating that Trump insiders and associates were working on a plan to blackmail Ukraine President Petro O. Poroshenko in an effort to make the Obama-era sanctions disappear.

“Donald Trump is so outrageous that he thinks he can get away with saying anything,” Waters explained. “And he’s trying to get his supporters to believe that the media is lying on him because the facts are going to come out about him, his involvement with Russia, his involvement with Russia during the campaign and the connection between those around him and Putin and the Kremlin. And he’s trying to get his supporters to believe that when they hear this, it’s going to be a big lie because the media cannot be trusted, that somehow they are against the people.”

According to Waters, Trump is worried his supporters will start to put two and two together as more Russia revelations come out, including those involving the people he has surrounded himself with.

“They see that Flynn, who he had to fire, was talking with Russia about sanctions with the Russian ambassador,” she explained. “I believe that [Secretary of State] Tillerson, who was the CEO of Exxon, has as his highest priority getting rid of the sanctions. Don’t forget, he is the one who negotiated the deal with Russia to drill in the Arctic and that was stopped because Obama placed sanctions on them and they couldn’t proceed with that. And so Tillerson, who has this great relationship with Putin, is going to do everything that he can to lift those sanctions and that’s going to be their Achilles heel.”

Waters then said that Tillerson is just one part of what she calls the “Kremlin clan,” and that it begins at the top with Trump.

“Why does he like Putin so much?” Waters asked. “Why does he defend them? And I think it’s all connected to what I call the Kremlin Klan. All of these people around him that are connected to oil and gas in the Kremlin and Ukraine. It’s all about them. Just think about it. Manafort, his campaign manager, and who had to leave because it was determined that he had connections to the Kremlin and to the Ukraine and whether you’re talking about him or Roger Stone or some of the others, they are all about oil and gas and they thought that if they elected Trump, that somehow they were going to have someone friendly to them that would help lift these sanctions and this Kremlin clan are all going to benefit from it.”

According to the congresswoman, lawmakers need to begin serious investigations into Russia’s deep connections within the Trump White House.

“Follow the dollars and follow the background of all of these people and you’ll find out that they are all connected to Russia and Ukraine,” Waters suggested before asking, “Why? Why is it that you have all of these people around here?”

Watch the video below via MSNBC:
https://www.rawstory.com/2017/02/maxine ... ite-house/

A Back-Channel Plan for Ukraine and Russia, Courtesy of Trump Associates
By MEGAN TWOHEY and SCOTT SHANEFEB. 19, 2017

President Trump on his way to Charleston, S.C., on Friday. Although he has expressed hope that the United States and Russia can work together, it is unclear if the White House will take a privately submitted peace proposal for Ukraine seriously. Credit Al Drago/The New York Times
A week before Michael T. Flynn resigned as national security adviser, a sealed proposal was hand-delivered to his office, outlining a way for President Trump to lift sanctions against Russia.

Mr. Flynn is gone, having been caught lying about his own discussion of sanctions with the Russian ambassador. But the proposal, a peace plan for Ukraine and Russia, remains, along with those pushing it: Michael D. Cohen, the president’s personal lawyer, who delivered the document; Felix H. Sater, a business associate who helped Mr. Trump scout deals in Russia; and a Ukrainian lawmaker trying to rise in a political opposition movement shaped in part by Mr. Trump’s former campaign manager Paul D. Manafort.

At a time when Mr. Trump’s ties to Russia, and the people connected to him, are under heightened scrutiny — with investigations by American intelligence agencies, the F.B.I. and Congress — some of his associates remain willing and eager to wade into Russia-related efforts behind the scenes.

Mr. Trump has confounded Democrats and Republicans alike with his repeated praise for the Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin, and his desire to forge an American-Russian alliance. While there is nothing illegal about such unofficial efforts, a proposal that seems to tip toward Russian interests may set off alarms.

Donald Trump’s Connections in Ukraine

Andrii V. Artemenko
Ukrainian politician with a peace plan for Ukraine and a file alleging that its president is corrupt.


Felix H. Sater
Russian-American businessman with longstanding ties to the Trump Organization.


Michael D. Cohen
Trump’s personal attorney, under scrutiny from F.B.I. over links with Russia.


Paul D. Manafort
Former Trump campaign manager with pro-Russian political ties in Ukraine now under investigation by the F.B.I.

The amateur diplomats say their goal is simply to help settle a grueling, three-year conflict that has cost 10,000 lives. “Who doesn’t want to help bring about peace?” Mr. Cohen asked.

Assassins Are Killing Ukraine’s Rebel Chiefs, but on Whose Orders? FEB. 8, 2017
But the proposal contains more than just a peace plan. Andrii V. Artemenko, the Ukrainian lawmaker, who sees himself as a Trump-style leader of a future Ukraine, claims to have evidence — “names of companies, wire transfers” — showing corruption by the Ukrainian president, Petro O. Poroshenko, that could help oust him. And Mr. Artemenko said he had received encouragement for his plans from top aides to Mr. Putin.

“A lot of people will call me a Russian agent, a U.S. agent, a C.I.A. agent,” Mr. Artemenko said. “But how can you find a good solution between our countries if we do not talk?”

Mr. Cohen and Mr. Sater said they had not spoken to Mr. Trump about the proposal, and have no experience in foreign policy. Mr. Cohen is one of several Trump associates under scrutiny in an F.B.I. counterintelligence examination of links with Russia, according to law enforcement officials; he has denied any illicit connections.

The two others involved in the effort have somewhat questionable pasts: Mr. Sater, 50, a Russian-American, pleaded guilty to a role in a stock manipulation scheme decades ago that involved the Mafia. Mr. Artemenko spent two and a half years in jail in Kiev in the early 2000s on embezzlement charges, later dropped, which he said had been politically motivated.

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While it is unclear if the White House will take the proposal seriously, the diplomatic freelancing has infuriated Ukrainian officials. Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States, Valeriy Chaly, said Mr. Artemenko “is not entitled to present any alternative peace plans on behalf of Ukraine to any foreign government, including the U.S. administration.”

At a security conference in Munich on Friday, Mr. Poroshenko warned the West against “appeasement” of Russia, and some American experts say offering Russia any alternative to a two-year-old international agreement on Ukraine would be a mistake. The Trump administration has sent mixed signals about the conflict in Ukraine.

But given Mr. Trump’s praise for Mr. Putin, John Herbst, a former American ambassador to Ukraine, said he feared the new president might be too eager to mend relations with Russia at Ukraine’s expense — potentially with a plan like Mr. Artemenko’s.

It was late January when the three men associated with the proposed plan converged on the Loews Regency, a luxury hotel on Park Avenue in Manhattan where business deals are made in a lobby furnished with leather couches, over martinis at the restaurant bar and in private conference rooms on upper floors.

Mr. Cohen, 50, lives two blocks up the street, in Trump Park Avenue. A lawyer who joined the Trump Organization in 2007 as special counsel, he has worked on many deals, including a Trump-branded tower in the republic of Georgia and a short-lived mixed martial arts venture starring a Russian fighter. He is considered a loyal lieutenant whom Mr. Trump trusts to fix difficult problems.

Photo

Andrii V. Artemenko, a Ukrainian lawmaker, at the Women’s March in Washington last month. He said his peace proposal had received encouragement from top aides to Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin.
The F.B.I. is reviewing an unverified dossier, compiled by a former British intelligence agent and funded by Mr. Trump’s political opponents, that claims Mr. Cohen met with a Russian representative in Prague during the presidential campaign to discuss Russia’s hacking of Democratic targets. But the Russian official named in the report told The New York Times that he had never met Mr. Cohen. Mr. Cohen insists that he has never visited Prague and that the dossier’s assertions are fabrications.

Mr. Cohen has a personal connection to Ukraine: He is married to a Ukrainian woman and once worked with relatives there to establish an ethanol business.

Mr. Artemenko, tall and burly, arrived at the Manhattan hotel between visits to Washington. (His wife, he said, met the first lady, Melania Trump, years ago during their modeling careers, but he did not try to meet Mr. Trump.) He had attended the inauguration and visited Congress, posting on Facebook his admiration for Mr. Trump and talking up his peace plan in meetings with American lawmakers.

He entered Parliament in 2014, the year that the former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych fled to Moscow amid protests over his economic alignment with Russia and corruption. Mr. Manafort, who had been instrumental in getting Mr. Yanukovych elected, helped shape a political bloc that sprang up to oppose the new president, Mr. Poroshenko, a wealthy businessman who has taken a far tougher stance toward Russia and accused Mr. Putin of wanting to absorb Ukraine into a new Russian Empire. Mr. Artemenko, 48, emerged from the opposition that Mr. Manafort nurtured. (The two men have never met, Mr. Artemenko said.)

Before entering politics, Mr. Artemenko had business ventures in the Middle East and real estate deals in the Miami area, and had worked as an agent representing top Ukrainian athletes. Some colleagues in Parliament describe him as corrupt, untrustworthy or simply insignificant, but he appears to have amassed considerable wealth.

He has fashioned himself in the image of Mr. Trump, presenting himself as Ukraine’s answer to a rising class of nationalist leaders in the West. He even traveled to Cleveland last summer for the Republican National Convention, seizing on the chance to meet with members of Mr. Trump’s campaign.

“It’s time for new leaders, new approaches to the governance of the country, new principles and new negotiators in international politics,” he wrote on Facebook on Jan. 27. “Our time has come!”

Mr. Artemenko said he saw in Mr. Trump an opportunity to advocate a plan for peace in Ukraine — and help advance his own political career. Essentially, his plan would require the withdrawal of all Russian forces from eastern Ukraine. Ukrainian voters would decide in a referendum whether Crimea, the Ukrainian territory seized by Russia in 2014, would be leased to Russia for a term of 50 or 100 years.

The Ukrainian ambassador, Mr. Chaly, rejected a lease of that kind. “It is a gross violation of the Constitution,” he said in written answers to questions from The Times. “Such ideas can be pitched or pushed through only by those openly or covertly representing Russian interests.”

The reaction suggested why Mr. Artemenko’s project also includes the dissemination of “kompromat,” or compromising material, purportedly showing that Mr. Poroshenko and his closest associates are corrupt. Only a new government, presumably one less hostile to Russia, might take up his plan.

Photo

President Petro O. Poroshenko of Ukraine in Kiev on Wednesday. Two days later in Munich, he warned the West against “appeasement” of Russia. Credit Gleb Garanich/Reuters
Mr. Sater, a longtime business associate of Mr. Trump’s with connections in Russia, was willing to help Mr. Artemenko’s proposal reach the White House.

Mr. Trump has sought to distance himself from Mr. Sater in recent years. If Mr. Sater “were sitting in the room right now,” Mr. Trump said in a 2013 deposition, “I really wouldn’t know what he looked like.”

But Mr. Sater worked on real estate development deals with the Trump Organization on and off for at least a decade, even after his role in the stock manipulation scheme came to light.

Mr. Sater, who was born in the Soviet Union and grew up in New York, served as an executive at a firm called Bayrock Group, two floors below the Trump Organization in Trump Tower, and was later a senior adviser to Mr. Trump.

He said he had been working on a plan for a Trump Tower in Moscow with a Russian real estate developer as recently as the fall of 2015, one that he said had come to a halt because of Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign. (Mr. Cohen said the Trump Organization had received a letter of intent for a project in Moscow from a Russian real estate developer at that time but determined that the project was not feasible.)

Photo

Michael D. Cohen, second from left, Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer, with Michael T. Flynn, left, and former Gov. Rick Perry of Texas at Trump Tower in December. Mr. Cohen delivered the peace plan to Mr. Flynn a week before Mr. Flynn resigned as national security adviser. Credit Sam Hodgson for The New York Times
Mr. Artemenko said a mutual friend had put him in touch with Mr. Sater. Helping to advance the proposal, Mr. Sater said, made sense.

“I want to stop a war, number one,” he said. “Number two, I absolutely believe that the U.S. and Russia need to be allies, not enemies. If I could achieve both in one stroke, it would be a home run.”

After speaking with Mr. Sater and Mr. Artemenko in person, Mr. Cohen said he would deliver the plan to the White House.

Mr. Cohen said he did not know who in the Russian government had offered encouragement on it, as Mr. Artemenko claims, but he understood there was a promise of proof of corruption by the Ukrainian president.

“Fraud is never good, right?” Mr. Cohen said.

He said Mr. Sater had given him the written proposal in a sealed envelope. When Mr. Cohen met with Mr. Trump in the Oval Office in early February, he said, he left the proposal in Mr. Flynn’s office.

Mr. Cohen said he was waiting for a response when Mr. Flynn was forced from his post. Now Mr. Cohen, Mr. Sater and Mr. Artemenko are hoping a new national security adviser will take up their cause. On Friday the president wrote on Twitter that he had four new candidates for the job.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/19/us/p ... ussia.html

[8bitagent]

So to summarize for those who have been absent the last few weeks...

[quote="seemslikeadream » Thu Feb 16, 2017 12:20 am"][quote]By JIM AXELROD CBS NEWS February 15, 2017, 7:09 PM
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[8bitagent]

[RocketMan]

Yeah... the breathlessly incomplete thread title perfectly captures the tone.

Suddenly propaganda outlets like Time, Washington Post and Fortune are also back in from the cold... It's just frustrating to follow. White noise all over interesting threads.

CONGRESS MUST INVESTIGA!