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| This Tiny Arctic Town Loves Visitors, Unless They're Automotive Spies | ||||
In the Northern Swedish village of Arjeplog, where auto makers test secret prototypes on iced-over lakes, car photographers are considered a public nuisancethey claim to have been blacklisted from hotels and run off the road by locals. The most wanted, heinous criminals.  | ||||
| Navy SEAL Killed Fighting Militants in Somalia | ||||
A U.S. Navy SEAL was killed while fighting an al Qaeda-affiliated militant group in Somalia.  | ||||
| For Arab Gulf States, Israel Is Emerging as an Ally | ||||
Sunni monarchies, led by Saudi Arabia, increasingly see the Jewish state as a partner in a common struggle against Shiite Iran.  | ||||
| Can Le Pen Close the Election Gap? | ||||
Marine Le Pen must capture large blocs of voters who supported candidates eliminated in the first round of Frances presidential elections to stand a chance of winning the May 7 runoff against Emmanuel Macron.  | ||||
| 1. US Security from mikenova (70 sites): fbi - Google News: FBI, NSA directors testify in closed House committee session - The Seattle Times | ||||
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| The Many Scandals of Donald Trump | ||||
Senators want to see the communications of several former aides to Donald Trump with Russians.
The Senate Intelligence Committee, which is one of several bodies investigating Russian interference in the election, sent letters to Carter Page, Paul Manafort, Roger Stone, and Michael Flynn, among others, requesting their emails and records of other communications with Russians in government and the private sector, The New York Times reports. The committee could, and reportedly will, issue subpoenas if the recipients do not comply. Page, who was briefly a foreign-policy adviser to the Trump campaign, has extensive business contacts in Russia. In 2013, Page passed documents to a Russian spy, and the U.S. government believed that Russia was attempting to recruit him as a spy, BuzzFeed previously reported. In 2016, the FBI sought and obtained a secret warrant to surveil Page, The Washington Post reported. Although the Trump White House has tried to claim that Manafort “played a very limited role for a very limited amount of time,” he was the Trump campaign’s chairman for a tumultuous span over the summer of 2016. Previously, he worked for a Kremlin client who was president of Ukraine; allegedly received millions in off-the-books payment from that leader’s party; and signed a $10 million per annum contract to boost Vladimir Putin’s reputation globally. Manafort, who has worked for a series of unsavory leaders, also received millions in mysterious payments. In April, he belatedly filed as a foreign lobbyist for past work. He says he did nothing wrong. Stone is a colorful former aide to Richard Nixon who has been an on-and-off confidant of Trump’s for years. Though not formally associated with the Trump campaign, he reportedly speaks with the president frequently. He is known to have communicated via Twitter message with a hacker known as Guccifer 2.0, whom U.S. intelligence agencies believe was really a Russian state front. Stone, Manafort, and Page are all subjects of an FBI investigation into Russian meddling. Flynn was forced to resign as national security adviser in February, after it became clear he had lied to Vice President Pence about his pre-inauguration conversations with the Russian ambassador to the U.S. He also recently registered as a foreign agent, acknowledging lobbying work for the Turkish government in 2016. In addition, the chair and ranking member of the House Oversight Committee last week accused Flynn of breaking the law by failing to seek permission for, or disclose, payment from the Russian and Turkish governments. Flynn has sought immunity in exchange for testifying about Russian ties. The documents the Senate committee seeks could help to resolve the many questions about the Trump campaign’s ties with Russia. There is now consensus that Russia interfered in the election, but the president has denied any collusion in those efforts. However, multiple Trump aides have ties to Russia, and Attorney General Jeff Sessions was forced to recuse himself from investigations after admitting he failed to disclose to Congress a meeting he had with the Russian ambassador in July. Donald Trump entered the White House as one of the most scandal-tarred presidents in American history—what his imbroglios may have lacked in depth, they made up in variety, encompassing legal, ethical, and sexual controversies. (In a twist, one of Trump’s few competitors for the crown was his rival, Hillary Clinton.) They ranged from race discrimination to mafia connections, from petty hypocrisies to multimillion-dollar alleged frauds. The Many Scandals of Donald Trump: A Cheat Sheet Now that Trump is president, some of those controversies have continued to shadow him. But the presidency has also occasioned a whole new set of disputes. Looming largest is the question of whether his campaign colluded with Russian agents to interfere in the election, a question being investigated by the FBI as well as panels in both houses of Congress. They also include ethical and legal questions surrounding members of his cabinet, his allegation that Barack Obama spied on him before the election, and various conflicts of interest. In the spirit of our logs of Clinton and Trump scandals during the presidential campaign, this article will track those controversies, sorting out the legal, ethical, and moral questions and separating the facts from the fury. The list will be updated regularly as there are new developments. Who: Flynn, a retired three-star general and Trump’s first national security adviser The dirt: Flynn cut a controversial figure on the campaign trail as an outspoken Trump surrogate. On November 17, shortly after Trump was elected, Flynn was named his national security adviser. Problems soon emerged. His son had to be fired for spreading bizarre, baseless conspiracy theories. There were also reports that Flynn had spoken with Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak prior to Trump’s inauguration about sanctions on Moscow, which Flynn denied. On April 25, the leaders of the House Oversight Committee said they believed Flynn had failed to seek permission (as he had been warned to do) to receive money from the Russian and Turkish governments in 2015 and 2016, and omitted some of them from required disclosures. The upshot: Flynn was fired on February 13, after it became clear he had lied to Vice President Pence about his conversations with Kislyak. However, Trump reportedly knew about those lies as early as January 26, raising questions about why Flynn’s firing took so long. More questions have emerged since, especially with Flynn’s disclosure that he lobbied for the Turkish government without declaring it prior to his White House appointment. If Flynn failed to seek permission for payments from Russia and Turkey, and to disclose it, he would have committed a crime. More details about Flynn are expected: Through a lawyer, Flynn—who in 2016 said that someone who asks for immunity has probably committed a crime—has reportedly reached out to various investigative bodies to offer immunity in exchange for testimony. So far, no one is known to have granted it. Read more: The Atlantic, (2), (3) Russian Interference in the 2016 ElectionWho: Paul Manafort, former Trump campaign chair; Michael Flynn, former national security adviser; Carter Page, former Trump adviser; unknown othersThe dirt: The fact of Russian interference in the election to hurt Hillary Clinton and aid Trump is the subject of consensus in the U.S. government, but whether there were connections between the Trump campaign and those efforts remains unknown. The most explosive allegations were laid out in the infamous unconfirmed dossier a former British intelligence officer prepared. FBI Director James Comey said on March 20 that his agency is “investigating the nature of any links between individuals associated with the Trump campaign and the Russian government, and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and Russia’s efforts.” The Senate and House intelligence committees are also both investigating. Attorney General Jeff Sessions was forced to recuse himself from any investigations after admitting he had not disclosed to Congress meetings with the Russian ambassador. Democrats have argued that Sessions lied under oath by doing so. On April 11, The Washington Post revealed that the FBI sought and received a warrant to Carter Page on suspicion of being a foreign agents. Paul Manafort is also the subject of several inquiries, and reports have pointed to mysterious millions flowing his way; he may register retroactively as a foreign agent under federal law. The Senate Intelligence Committee is seeking communications with Russia from several former Trump aides. The upshot: Who knows? If Trump aides conspired with a foreign power to influence the election, it would be the biggest political scandal since Watergate. If Trump himself were involved or compromised, as the darkest liberal observers suggest, it would be a scandal without precedent in American history. Adam Schiff, the Democratic ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, says he has seen “more than circumstantial” evidence of collusion, while Representative JoaquĆn Castro says he thinks people will go to jail. At the moment, however, there’s minimal public evidence to go on, so the whole thing might very well turn out to be mere innuendo. Read more: The Atlantic, (2), (3), The New York Times, Associated Press, The New York Times The Obama “Wiretap”Who: Donald Trump; former President Barack Obama; Fox News analyst Andrew Napolitano; conservative pundit Mark Levin; Breitbart author Joel PollakThe dirt: On March 4, Trump tweeted that Obama “had my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump Tower just before the victory,” calling it “McCarthyism” and “Nixon/Watergate.” There is no evidence to support Trump’s claim, and FBI Director James Comey said under oath that it was not true. It appears that Trump made his claim based on speculation from Andrew Napolitano on Fox News, Mark Levin’s radio show, and a Breitbart piece by Pollak based on the Levin segment. Despite demanding a congressional investigation, the White House has still not produced any evidence. Trump has tried to change the nature of his claim, first saying he merely meant “surveillance” broadly. Later, after the White House claimed (again, with no clear evidence) that Obama National Security Adviser Susan Rice had improperly asked that the names of Trump aides be listed in intelligence reports, Trump claimed, falsely, that he’d been referring to this “unmasking.” The upshot: The debate over Trump’s apparently entirely fictitious claim has now spread out over weeks, sucking in congressional investigations and the FBI. Trump’s refusal to back off his claim has produced a range of peculiar outcomes. Devin Nunes, the chair of the House Intelligence Committee, has been forced to recuse himself from an investigation. The Trump administration set off a brief feud with GCHQ, the British intelligence agency, for claiming the U.K. did the bugging for the Obama administration. The president also made a bizarre, awkward joke about prior surveillance of Angela Merkel during a press conference with the German chancellor. If President Obama did engage in politically motivated spying, it would be Nixonian, but at the moment there’s simply no evidence for that at all, while Trump’s phantom allegations suck up oxygen. Read more: The Atlantic, (2), (3) Devin Nunes and Allegations of Improper “Unmasking”Who: Devin Nunes, chair of the House Intelligence Committee and a Trump transition team member; Ezra Cohen-Watnick and Michael Ellis, White House staffers; Susan Rice, Obama national security adviserThe dirt: On March 22, Nunes, a California Republican, announced he had received mysterious report suggesting vague, inappropriate conduct by Obama administration officials—that Trump transition-team members had been “incidentally collected,” or swept up in surveillance of intelligence targets. When Americans who are not the targets of surveillance are collected this way, their names are redacted, but can be revealed, or “unmasked,” to some top officials at their request. Though Nunes said the surveillance was lawful, he alleged that the Trump officials’ names had been improperly unmasked. Nunes would not say how he obtained the information, did not share it with members of his committee, and rushed to brief the president. A later report from Bloomberg View had Trump officials claiming Susan Rice had requested questionable unmasking. The upshot: Nunes’s refusal to share his information resulted in acrimony with his Democratic counterpart. Meanwhile, the congressman’s account developed a series of inconsistencies and holes, both in substance and in process. Although he insisted he had not received his information from the Trump administration, it became clear that his source was within the White House. Nunes was eventually forced to recuse himself from the House investigation into Russian interference in the election. Rice has denied wrongdoing, and no further evidence that she improperly unmasked anyone has emerged—in fact, some reports suggest just the opposite. Read more: The Atlantic, (2), (3); Eli Lake; CNN Conflicts of Interest and Ethics ViolationsWho: Donald Trump; Ivanka Trump; Donald Trump Jr.; Eric Trump; Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the presidentThe dirt: Donald Trump has still not offered an adequate plan for addressing conflicts of interest between his business. The president said that he would step away from the Trump Organization, as would his daughter Ivanka, while his sons Donald and Eric ran the business. His faux-blind trust was criticized by ethics observers across the political spectrum, and Eric has suggested in interviews that the division is even more porous than it initially appeared. Ethicists say Trump is in violation of the Constitution’s Emoluments Clause, because foreign leaders can funnel money to the president by staying in his hotels. Separately, Trump counselor Kellyanne Conway broke ethics rules by encouraging people to purchase Ivanka Trump merchandise after Nordstrom announced it would drop her line of clothing. (Despite President Trump’s promise that Ivanka was not joining the White House, she has since taken a job in the West Wing.) Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner also appears to have failed to disclose at least $1 billion in loans and stakes in multiple companies. The upshot: The General Services Administration ruled that Trump was not violating the lease on a hotel in D.C., despite a clause saying no government official can be party to the contract. At least one pending lawsuit seeks to have Trump ruled in violation of the Emoluments Cause. The Office of Government Ethics ruled that Conway had broken rules on endorsements and recommended that she be fired, but the White House rejected the recommendation, and OGE has no authority to levy its own punishment. After public outcry, the State Department deleted a blog post promoting Mar-A-Lago, Trump’s Florida estate. Read more: The Atlantic, (2); Jeremy Venook’s full accounting of conflicts of interest; Fortune; The Wall Street Journal The Revolving DoorWho: Marcus Peacock, former budget adviser; Scott Gottlieb, nominee for FDA commissioner; Michael Catanzaro, energy adviser; Chad Wolf, TSA official; Geoff Burr, Labor Department officialThe dirt: During the campaign, Trump promised to “drain the swamp,” proposing a range of rules to limit the revolving door between government and business. Trump’s actions since taking office have been a mixed bag, strengthening some rules and weakening others. (This is not unprecedented—Barack Obama also ended up loosening his own rules.) There are already several worrying case of people moving between the government and major lobbies in both directions.
Read more: The Wall Street Journal; The New York Times; ProPublica; Bloomberg Tom Price’s Dubious Stock TradingWho: Tom Price, secretary of health and human servicesThe dirt: Price, a doctor by profession, was previously a U.S. representative from Georgia. In 2012, after a series of revelations about members of Congress profiting by trading stocks with inside information about regulation and legislation, the STOCK Act barred trading on non-public information. Price traded more than $300,000 worth of stock in health companies affected by bills he sponsored or argued for. The largest was an investment of $50,000 to $100,000 in an Australian company called Innate Immunotherapeutics, whose largest shareholder is Representative Chris Collins of New York, a close Trump ally. The stock later doubled in price. During confirmation hearings, Price claimed to have received no special information, but The Wall Street Journal found that Price had actually received a privileged offer to buy. ProPublica also reported that Price also bought $90,000 in drug companies the same day he intervened to kill a rule that would have cut into their profits. The upshot: The allegations against Price, if proven, could be very serious, as he could have violated federal law. Democrats have asked that the Securities and Exchange Commission investigate Price. When Preet Bharara, the U.S. attorney for Manhattan was unexpectedly fired in March, he had been conducting an investigation into Price’s trades, ProPublica reported. Price denies wrongdoing and says trades were made by his broker without his knowledge. Read more: The Wall Street Journal, (2); ProPublica, (2) Inciting ViolenceWho: Donald TrumpThe dirt: The president faces a lawsuit from three people who allege they were roughed up at a campaign rally in Louisville, Kentucky, in March 2016. They blame Trump for inciting violence by saying, “Get ’em out of here.” He has also been sued in Alabama in a similar case. The upshot: Trump has offered two defenses in Kentucky. First, he says he was not instructing the crowd, though another defendant, accused of conducting an assault, says he was acting because of the candidate’s statement. (A white nationalist leader has actually sued Trump, saying he assaulted a woman at the candidate’s behest.) Second, Trump says that as president he is immune to civil suits. Trump has also claimed that he has presidential immunity from a sexual-harassment case filed by a former Apprentice contestant. Read more: Politico, (2); The Atlantic | ||||
| Dem Senator: You Know, The Comey Letter Was Just As Bad As The FBI's Wiretapping Of Martin Luther King, Jr. | ||||
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) went on CNN to do what Democrats have been doing for awhile now: complain about FBI Director James Comey. Now, Clinton’s former running mate stopped short of saying that it was the factor that cost them the 2016 election, but touched upon the frustration about the FBI seemingly having two sets of protocols regarding the Clinton probe into her email usage and the investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian intelligence.
Kaine declared that Comey’s decision to inform Congress that they had found additional emails, which turned out to be on the laptop of Anthony Weiner that were forwarded to him by his wife and top Clinton aide Huma Abedin would be one of the low points in the history of the FBI. He said it “will go down as probably the lowest moment in the history of the FBI, probably next to the decision of J. Edgar Hoover to wiretap Martin Luther King.” Now, Democrats are irked by that move since it occurred 11 days prior to Election Day. Hillary Clinton is confident that she would have won if it weren’t for that letter, despite the polls being way off throughout the cycle, with most giving Clinton 70+ (even 90+) percent chances of winning. So, that narrative is fraught with uncertainty. Moreover, Clinton lost because she was an abysmal campaigner, who totally ignored the areas that eventually went for Trump. The Russians and James Comey didn’t tell her to avoid campaigning in the Rust Belt. Second, as some have noted before, Comey was between a rock and a hard place. He could sit on the Weiner development until after the election, but he would be accused of politicizing the investigation for withholding information about a presidential candidate. If he revealed that they would review the new emails 11 days prior, he would face the same accusation. He felt the former would be the more catastrophic choice for the institution. Third, as we know, J. Edgar Hoover deployed grossly unconstitutional surveillance operations while serving as the director of the FBI. The Counter Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO) was one of the most egregious operations run by the FBI. The Comey letter to Congress is not the same thing. It was not illegal. It was not surreptitious. It did not violate constitutional rights. In fact, the legal questions didn’t surround Comey. It was Clinton—who had an unauthorized and unsecure email server from which she conducted all official State Department business. Classified information came through that server, which brought the allegations of mishandling. This was a totally avoidable scenario. And the fault rests totally with Clinton for losing the election no matter how much she whines about Russia, the FBI, or misogyny. She just sucked. | ||||
| Senate Asks Former Trump Adviser for Documents on his Contacts With Russia | ||||
A Senate committee investigating Moscow's interference in last year's election has asked several of President Donald Trump's associates to turn over information about possible contacts with Russian officials or businessmen. Former Trump foreign policy adviser Carter Page responded on Friday, calling the congressional probe a "comically fake inquiry" but pledging to cooperate.
Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, Republican strategist Roger Stone and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort are also among those the Senate intelligence committee has asked for information and documents related to its investigation. Pentagon Probes Flynn Payments![[NATL] Pentagon Probes Flynn Payments](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_vHnPvL9VtsE9OAxL49GLPZI_0keks1g3PTblbeywyE18G4kHuBTXwl3JfvjokOoOGF8rXgkSIRufSOkuwAhOErNWkG2UDErHffPs8sqG7OWcMr5zYUcSMXWIQcArdG82R6FFKCRc8=s0-d)
Michael Flynn, President Trump's former National Security Advisor, is being investigated by the Defense Department to determine whether he failed to get permission to receive payments from a foreign government.
Both the Senate and House intelligence committees along with U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officials are investigating Russian efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election. FBI Director James Comey has said that the FBI probe is exploring the nature of any links between individuals associated with Trump's campaign and the Russian government, and whether there was any coordination between Russia's efforts and the Trump campaign.(Published Thursday, April 27, 2017) The Senate committee would not disclose which individuals it is targeting, but in an email to The Associated Press, Stone said he intended to comply with the committee's requests. "I am eager, indeed anxious, to testify in full public session, have requested no immunity and am ready to go," Stone wrote. He also said that he "rejects" the claim that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and Guccifer 2.0, the unnamed hacker that has taken credit for breaking into the Democratic National Committee servers, are Russian assets. He said the U.S. government has offered no proof to support that assessment. Stone communicated through Twitter direct messages with Guccifer 2.0. Stone has said that he was unaware at the time that U.S. officials believed the hacker had ties to Russia. Flynn Was Warned About Accepting Foreign Payments in 2014![[NATL] Flynn Was Warned About Accepting Foreign Payments in 2014](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_tKSWhFk4bi6esh0jMjZlkpEn-98esX0RxK9whdF0cyWOVPiFFippWOQEHZ3PXYjyZg1tjCeyRYkCYEfvatLTh8G4tSbrnEJERLqsinNAlt8q9M5E0-P6n2NjKrXceLyRl6LigVn5p9uzxCtZ-inrSMyFIU_z4NlA=s0-d)
President Donald Trump's former national security adviser Michael Flynn was warned by the military in 2014 not to accept foreign payments without prior approval, according to documents released on Thursday by Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., the ranking member of the House oversight committee. Separate letters released Thursday show no evidence that Fl
... ynn ever sought that approval.Read more
(Published Thursday, April 27, 2017)
The requests seek information about any contacts that occurred between the day Trump announced his candidacy, June 16, 2015, and his inauguration on Jan. 20. It also asks for information about Stone and Page's financial and real estate holdings related to Russia, including financial securities or holdings they might have sold or divested during that period. In a written response to the committee's request, Page argued that the panel was conducting a "comically fake inquiry." At the same time, Page pledged to cooperate with the committee to "help resolve all of the false allegations which led to this fanciful witch hunt in the first place." The committee also asks that Page and Stone appear for closed interviews with intelligence committee staff. Lawmakers set a May 9 and May 19 deadline for various materials to be provided to the committee. Cheating on the Rise as Competitive Gaming Goes Mainstream![[NATL] Cheating on the Rise as Competitive Gaming Goes Mainstream](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_vmx6PMXUaPXELPPU6L18nGfuRxR7NcH1XeL_S5rwLNwDFnyLsk-3bVOsvvdCoS6UvXHtBXCLghkqNl4MvoeBj4_RZM78enRLs5SixP0_WzdykRLzFiboZ65USDNCm4EP4p7BY=s0-d)
Cheating, or hacking, is an issue as competitive video gaming breaks into mainstream entertainment. Prizes ranging from sponsorships to social media fame to cash rewards are prompting some to seek an edge over the competition.
Page told the committee that the material he has will be "minuscule in comparison to the full database of information" the Obama administration collected during "last year's completely unjustified" secret warrant. Page said law enforcement officials under the Obama administration obtained a sealed order from a secretive intelligence court last summer to monitor his communications to investigate whether he was acting as a Russian agent.(Published Friday, May 5, 2017) Page said the warrant put him under "unscrupulous surveillance for many months" and targeted him for exercising his First Amendment rights both in 2016 and earlier. Page met with a Russian intelligence operative in 2013 and provided him documents about the energy industry, according to court documents from a 2015 prosecution alleging a Cold War-style spy ring in New York. Page, referred to in the filing as "Male-1," is not accused of wrongdoing and said in a statement that he shared "basic immaterial information and publicly available research documents." Little is known about Page's role in Trump's campaign. In March, Trump personally announced that Page was part of a newly minted foreign policy advisory team. But as questions began swirling about Page's ties to Russia, the campaign started moving away from the investment banker. Trump has since said he has no relationship with him. "I originally joined the Trump movement and eventually volunteered for a small, unpaid, informal role in the campaign since I knew our candidate would finally help lead this country and the world toward peace through strength," Page said in his letter to the committee. Flynn, Trump's ousted national security adviser, also received a letter from the committee asking him to turn over information. A person with direct knowledge of the letter's contents confirmed Flynn received it. The person demanded anonymity to discuss the information because of its sensitive nature. Jason Maloni, a spokesman for Manafort, declined to confirm whether Manafort had received a letter from the Senate committee, but a person with knowledge of the letter said he had. The person was not authorized to talk about the letter and spoke only on condition of anonymity. Students Crawl Through Air Duct to Steal Finals Exam: Cops![[NY-NATL] Students Crawl Through Air Duct, Break Into Prof's Office to Steal Finals Exam: Police](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_vRF93TjWd_ppwsuzrJVHKhPsh65OGVh9wwWNs-H0klVGvuJ3QGM9KQmd_n-wLJXqbwrbWwz_wsKs4RGpmxeE40hi4ACxIj_-2xr3y1ecSbRLA9iYFwAaG2_nPSKk-9eT7aVYbFdA=s0-d)
Two University of Kentucky students are facing felony charges after allegedly crawling through an air duct to enter a professor's office and steal a copy of their final exam. WLEX's Conroy Delouche reports.
Lawmakers have said previously that Manafort had voluntarily offered to be interviewed by the House and Senate intelligence committees as part of their investigations.(Published Friday, May 5, 2017) In March, Manafort confirmed in a statement that his attorney had reached out to the House committee with an "offer to provide information voluntarily regarding recent allegations about Russian interference in the election." Associated Press writers Julie Pace, Eileen Sullivan and Chad Day contributed to this report. Super Kids: Blind Piano Prodigy Plays Music With Heart![[NATL-DC] Super Kids: Blind Piano Prodigy Plays Music With Heart](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_vMFFZ0ZpulUUH1MdjV8Wj3PvcamN6p5j9OYssJLo4wDR8zovLqkbl9oRe2w0woI7NPsI1YLIkxKxZA-wglrhDcCbpMpy4rWZfLUUsKdIUxUEcv9ZRWHGXK-4qYjNIFCu90-89b4iW92DPWcss76BE5tql2fOKF=s0-d)
Jose Andre Montano, a 12-year-old jazz piano prodigy from D.C., has already performed at the Kennedy Center and the World Bank. He also happens to be blind.
Published at 1:47 PM EDT on May 5, 2017 | Updated 4 hours ago(Published Friday, May 5, 2017) Copyright Associated Press | ||||
| Senate Committee Asks Carter Page to Reveal Russian Contacts | ||||
The Senate Intelligence Committee has asked former Trump adviser Carter Page to provide a list of his contacts with Russian officials and turn over any emails or other communications with Russians, according to a letter Page provided to NBC News.
The New York Times is reporting that similar letters were sent to former Trump advisers Roger Stone, Michael Flynn and Paul Manafort. Committee officials declined to confirm or deny that report. Manafort's spokesman declined to comment; representatives for Stone and Flynn did not immediately respond to requests for comment. <img class="img-responsive img_inline" src="https://media2.s-nbcnews.com/j/newscms/2017_15/1962216/carterpage_486e070f17cd121d9577945956aa2474.nbcnews-fp-360-360.jpg" alt="Image: FILE PHOTO: One-time advisor of U.S. president-elect Donald Trump Page addresses the audience during a presentation in Moscow" title="Image: FILE PHOTO: One-time advisor of U.S. president-elect Donald Trump Page addresses the audience during a presentation in Moscow" />  The letter to Page was signed by Republican Richard Burr and Democrat Mark Warner, the chairman and ranking Democrat on the committee. It signaled that the committee was stepping up its inquiry into Russian election interference, after spending weeks reviewing intelligence documents. Such requests are commonly made before a formal subpoena for records is issued.At issue is whether any Trump associate colluded with the Russian intelligence operation to hack, leak and plant fake news stories to hurt Hillary Clinton and benefit Donald Trump. In a statement, Burr and Warner called for Page to fully cooperate and turn over the material by the deadlines they set for him. "Should Mr. Page choose to not provide the material requested by those dates, the Committee will consider its next steps at that time," the senators said. Related: Trump Campaign Associate Carter Page Revealed as Target of Russian Spies "Mr. Page has indicated in correspondence to the Committee that he looks forward to working with us on this matter, and that our cooperation will help resolve what he claims are false allegations. For that to happen, Mr. Page must supply the requested documents to the Committee. As our letter indicated, the requested documents must be provided in advance of any interviews the Committee may conduct." Page, Stone, Manafort and Flynn have each drawn FBI attention, though it's not clear whether it all relates to the FBI's counterintelligence investigation into the Russian operation. Manafort's financial transactions with his Ukrainian political clients have come under scrutiny, as have Flynn's unregistered lobbying for Turkish government interests during the election campaign. autoplay autoplay The Senate committee is on track to interview as many as two dozen witnesses, U.S. officials tell NBC News. Separately, former acting attorney general Sally Yates is scheduled to testify publicly May 8 before a Senate judiciary subcommittee about her disclosure to the White House that Flynn had misled officials about his conversations with the Russian ambassador. The House Intelligence Committee, which is conducting a separate but parallel investigation, heard testimony behind closed doors Thursday from FBI director James Comey. Among the House lines of inquiry, one official familiar with the investigation told NBC News, is to what extent Russian money bailed out Trump's real estate empire after the 2008 real estate crash. Related: Carter Page, Adviser Once Linked to Trump Campaign, Met With Russian Ambassador The letter to Page asked him to list any Russian official or business executive he met with between June 16, 2015 and Jan. 20, 2017. It also asked him to provide information about Russia-related real estate transactions during that period. And it seeks all his email or other communications during that period with Russians, or with the Trump campaign about Russia or Russians. Page responded in a letter of his own that he was committed to cooperating with the Senate investigation, but "please note that any records I may have saved as a private citizen with limited technology capabilities will be minuscule in comparison to the full database of information which has already been collected under the direction of the Obama Administration during last year's completely unjustified FISA warrant that targeted me for exercising my First Amendment rights, both in 2016 as well as in years prior." He was referring to reports that the FBI targeted him with a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant after suspecting him of acting as an agent of Russia. He denies that allegation. "I eagerly await your Committee's call to help finally set the record straight following the false evidence, illegal activities as well as other lies distributed by Mrs. Hillary Clinton's campaign and their associates in coordination with the Obama Administration, which defamed me and other supporters of the Trump campaign," Page said in a separate letter to the Senate Intelligence Committee, dated March 5. | ||||
| Carter Page rebukes Senate Russia investigators in letter | ||||
(CNN) —Carter Page brushed back the Senate intelligence committee in a letter Thursday, telling members that if they want details about his communications with Russians, they'll need to ask former President Barack Obama.
The former foreign policy adviser for Donald Trump's campaign, who is being scrutinized by both congressional and FBI investigators, berated the Senate intelligence committee's requests in an April 28 letter provided to CNN for details about his communications and schedule a time to be interviewed by Senate investigators. The Senate panel has also asked for records of former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and former Trump adviser Roger Stone as part of its probe. And the panel, sources said, is prepared to subpoena them for the records if necessary. Instead, Page, who has been strangely outspoken, wrote in his response that he was confident evidence would prove he was a target of surveillance by Obama -- evidence, he said, that would likely induce "severe vomiting" when it comes out. "I suspect the physical reaction of the Clinton/Obama regime perpetrators will be more along the lines of severe vomiting when all the facts are eventually exposed regarding the steps taken by the U.S. Government to influence the 2016 election," Page wrote. Federal investigators believe Page was being cultivated as a Russian asset by a Russian spy -- whether Page knew it or not -- a charge Page has vehemently denied. The Senate letter to Page is the latest sign that its Russia investigation is plowing ahead, now moving to the phase of calling in high-profile witnesses. In his three-page reply, Page wrote that he believed Senate investigators would have better access to his communications than he would because of the alleged surveillance by the Obama administration. "But please note that any records I may have saved as a private citizen with limited technology capabilities will be miniscule in comparison to the full database of information which has already been collected under the direction of the Obama Administration during last year's completely unjustified FISA warrant that targeted me for exercising my First Amendment rights, both in 2016 as well as in years prior," Page wrote. FBI Director James Comey said again this week that Trump was definitely not a target of surveillance by Obama. And House investigators rebutted House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes' claim that Trump aides were victims of incidental collection. The White House has distanced itself from Page since it became clear he was a key target for investigators. But Page clearly did not play a central role in Trump's campaign, unlike other targets including former campaign Chairman Paul Manafort and former national security adviser Michael Flynn. | ||||
| Carter Page rebukes Senate Russia... | ||||
Carter Page rebukes Senate Russia investigators in letter
4029tv - 2 hours ago
Carter Page brushed back the Senate intelligence committee in a letter Thursday, telling members that if they want details about his communications with Russians, they'll need to ask former President Barack Obama. Advertisement. The former foreign ...
US Senate Committee Seeks Information from Trump Aides in Russia Probe
Voice of America - 26 minutes ago
A U.S. Senate committee investigating allegations that Russia interfered in recent U.S. elections has ordered several of President Donald Trump's former aides to turn over information about possible ties with Russians. One of those being scrutinized ...
The Senate sent a revealing list of demands to Carter Page about his Russia ties
Yahoo News - 3 hours ago
The Senate Intelligence Committee appears to have sent Carter Page and other Trump associates a letter on April 28 asking them to provide extensive information about any contact they had with Russian officials or representatives of Russian business ...
Senate committee asks Trump associates for more details on Russian contacts
PBS NewsHour - 5 hours ago
Carter Page, one-time adviser of Donald Trump, addresses the audience during a presentation in Moscow, Russia, in December. Photo by Sergei Karpukhin/Reuters. WASHINGTON — A Senate committee investigating Moscow's interference in last year's ...
Richard Burr and Mark Warner seek records from Trump associates in Russia probe
USA TODAY - 3 hours ago
WASHINGTON — The Senate intelligence committee is asking at least four former Trump campaign associates to disclose any meetings they had with “any Russian official or representative of Russian business interests” by next Tuesday. The committee is in ...
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| Congress, law enforcement officials concerned Russia is trying to discredit FBI probe | ||||
Last Updated May 5, 2017 4:53 PM EDT
By Jeff Pegues, Julia Kimani Burnam and Katie Ross Dominick
CBS News has learned that members of Congress and U.S. law enforcement officials are increasingly concerned that Russia is already trying or will try to discredit the FBI counterintelligence investigation. The probe into whether Trump campaign representatives coordinated with the Russians during the 2016 campaign has been underway for about ten months. Former U.S. intelligence officials and current congressional sources say Russians will try to exploit vulnerabilities and spread misinformation as the investigation unfolds and as the FBI gets closer to a conclusion. Multiple sources say Russian operatives are skilled at planting false information and watching it spread. Just this week, FBI Director James Comey testified on Capitol Hill that he believed the Russians were still meddling in U.S. politics and that he expected more Russian interference in upcoming 2018 elections and beyond. The Senate Intelligence Committee continues its investigation into Russian meddling in the election and recently sent a letter to Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, requesting that he provide them with information including the following:
While he said he was committed to helping the committee in the investigation, Page told the senators that any "records I may have saved as a private citizen with limited technology capabilities" would be "miniscule," compared the information "collected under the direction of the Obama administration during last year's completely unjustified FISA warrant." He advised the committee that their requests "will have been largely completed" by the NSA's surveillance efforts. Page pointed out that he had chosen the National Day of Prayer to respond to their requests because prayer in his church "has remained a core source of support throughout this ongoing comically fake inquiry and the complete lies that precipitated it." In the letter, he also mocked Warner's reading of Russian fiction -- Nabokov and Tolstoy -- which was noted in a New York Times story last month. "A few months ago, Senator Warner was reportedly searching for new sources of insights about Russia," Page wrote. Burr and Warner declined to take up Page's flippant suggestion to gather his information from NSA surveillance data, insisting again in a joint statement that Page himself "must supply the requested documents to the committee." It's not known whether the Senate Intelligence Committee has also sent similar letters to other Trump campaign associates, like former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, former adviser Roger Stone, and former Trump Campaign Chairman Paul Manafort. A representative for Paul Manafort would neither confirm nor deny whether he had also received a letter. CBS News' Andres Triay contributed to this report. | ||||
| Carter Page rebukes Senate Russia... | ||||
 Carter Page rebukes Senate Russia investigators in letter
4029tv - 2 hours ago
Carter Page brushed back the Senate intelligence committee in a letter Thursday, telling members that if they want details about his communications with Russians, they'll need to ask former President Barack Obama. Advertisement. The former foreign ...
 US Senate Committee Seeks Information from Trump Aides in Russia Probe
Voice of America - 32 minutes ago
A U.S. Senate committee investigating allegations that Russia interfered in recent U.S. elections has ordered several of President Donald Trump's former aides to turn over information about possible ties with Russians. One of those being scrutinized ...
 The Senate sent a revealing list of demands to Carter Page about his Russia ties
Yahoo News - 3 hours ago
The Senate Intelligence Committee appears to have sent Carter Page and other Trump associates a letter on April 28 asking them to provide extensive information about any contact they had with Russian officials or representatives of Russian business ...
 Senate committee asks Trump associates for more details on Russian contacts
PBS NewsHour - 5 hours ago
Carter Page, one-time adviser of Donald Trump, addresses the audience during a presentation in Moscow, Russia, in December. Photo by Sergei Karpukhin/Reuters. WASHINGTON — A Senate committee investigating Moscow's interference in last year's ...
 Richard Burr and Mark Warner seek records from Trump associates in Russia probe
USA TODAY - 3 hours ago
WASHINGTON — The Senate intelligence committee is asking at least four former Trump campaign associates to disclose any meetings they had with “any Russian official or representative of Russian business interests” by next Tuesday. The committee is in ...
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| Comey pressed for anti-Trump dossier in classified Russia report, sources say | ||||
FBI Director James Comey considered an anti-Trump dossier compiled by a former British intelligence officer so important that he insisted the document be included in January's final intelligence community report on Russian meddling in the U.S. election, Fox News was told.
Sources would not speak on the record, citing the sensitivity of the matter and its current relevance to upcoming testimony on the unmasking of American citizens as part of the FBI probe into alleged contacts between Trump campaign advisers and Moscow. Asked for a response to the claims, the FBI and Office of the Director of National Intelligence said they could not comment on a classified document. It was reported last month that the unverified dossier was part of the evidence the FBI used to obtain a FISA warrant for Carter Page, a peripheral figure in the Trump campaign. In an interview with Fox News, Page denied the dossier’s central allegations that he was the Trump campaign’s point person for Moscow. The dossier also contained salacious allegations about then-candidate Donald Trump. The classified version of the intelligence report issued at the end of the Obama administration included a summary of the document, as an attachment. Both then-President Barack Obama and President-elect Trump were presented with the findings. In a remarkable exchange Wednesday between Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Comey during a Senate hearing, more questions were raised about the bureau’s relationship with the former British officer who wrote the dossier, Christopher Steele, and his British company Orbis -- and its relationship to Washington, D.C.-based Fusion GPS. Comey said that “I know the name” and “I can’t say” when Graham pressed if Fusion GPS is part of the Russian intelligence apparatus. And when Graham asked if he agreed it “would be interfering in our election by the Russians” if Fusion were involved in preparing the anti-Trump dossier, Comey replied, “I don’t want to say.” Inside the packed hearing room, the committee’s chairman Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, was visibly irritated at the lack of response by the director of the FBI. For months, Grassley has highlighted the bureau’s failure to meet deadlines and respond to his questions, calling it in a recent letter a “pattern of obstruction” on matters related to Steele. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee who also sits on the intelligence committee, told CNN on Wednesday that she does not “at this time” have evidence of collusion between Trump associates and Russia during the campaign. A letter of complaint against Fusion GPS was filed with the Justice Department, alleging the company -- and founder former Wall Street Journal reporter Glenn Simpson -- violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Asked for comment on the complaint’s allegation that Fusion GPS acted as an unregistered agent for Russian interests, attorney Joshua A. Levy told Fox News’ senior executive producer Pamela Browne via email that, “Fusion GPS has complied with the law and was not required to register under FARA. Nor has Fusion GPS ever been a Russian agent. Allegations to the contrary are not true.” Levy went on to deny Fusion GPS lobbied against the Magnitsky Act. “Not true,” Levy stated. He said: “Fusion GPS’ only factual connection to anything in the complaint is the litigation support Fusion GPS provided to Baker Hostetler, a law firm mentioned in the complaint. Fusion GPS did no lobbying work for that law firm or its clients.” The Magnitsky Act, a 2012 bipartisan bill passed by Congress and signed by then-President Barack Obama, was named after Russian lawyer-turned-whistleblower Sergei Magnitsky, who died in a Moscow prison in 2009. The law imposes visa bans and asset freezes on Russian officials linked to the 37-year-old lawyer’s death. Grassley stressed his concerns that “the FBI has relied on the document to justify [Comey's] current investigation. There have been reports that the FBI agreed to pay the author of the dossier, who paid his sources, who also paid their sub sources. Where did the money come from and what motivated the people writing the checks?” During the heated hearing, Grassley also chided the FBI for giving him “materially inconsistent” information and specifically referenced Steele, noting “The man who wrote the dossier admitted in court that it has unverified claims. Does that sound like a reliable basis for law enforcement or intelligence actions?” Fox News also spoke to Steele’s solicitor Nicola Cain in London, who had no comment citing ongoing litigation. A British court document, first reported by The Guardian and signed by Steele, offers a glimpse into his company’s work for Fusion GPS. The document describes "unsolicited intelligence" and "raw intelligence" that “needed to be anlaysed and further investigated/verified.” Fox News has filed a formal request for copies of court documents with the Queen’s Bench Division of the High Court in London. Catherine Herridge is an award-winning Chief Intelligence correspondent for FOX News Channel (FNC) based in Washington, D.C. She covers intelligence, the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security. Herridge joined FNC in 1996 as a London-based correspondent. Pamela K. Browne is Senior Executive Producer at the FOX News Channel (FNC) and is Director of Long-Form Series and Specials. Her journalism has been recognized with several awards. Browne first joined FOX in 1997 to launch the news magazine “Fox Files” and later, “War Stories.” Cyd Upson is a Senior Producer at Fox News in the Investigative Unit and of the acclaimed military history series “War Stories.” | ||||
| Comey pressed for anti-Trump dossier... | ||||
Comey pressed for anti-Trump dossier in classified Russia report, sources say
Fox News - 9 hours ago
FBI Director James Comey considered an anti-Trump dossier compiled by a former British intelligence officer so important that he insisted the document be included in January's final intelligence community report on Russian meddling in the U.S. election ...
Report: Senators Pressed FBI's Comey on Russian Dossier
Newsmax - 2 hours ago
Senators pressed FBI Director James Comey this week on an unsubstantiated dossier that intelligence officials included in a classified report to former President Barack Obama days before President Donald Trump took office in January. Sources told Fox ...
Comey insisted on including unverified Trump dossier in official report on Russian hacking
Raw Story - 4 hours ago
FBI Director James Comey found evidence compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele so compelling that he included it in the intelligence community report on Russian interference in the U.S. election completed this past January. Sources told Fox ...
So, That Russian Dossier Might Have Been Funded By The Russians?
Townhall - May 4, 2017
So, remember that Russian dossier that was compiled by a former MI6 operative, which is unsubstantiated though Democrats take it as fact? Well, it could very well be a Russian-funded effort. What we do know so far, going by CNN, is that senior Russian ...
Comey Refuses To Publicly Address FBI Ties To 'Peeing Russian Prostitutes' Dossier
Breitbart News - May 4, 2017
During yesterday's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on FBI oversight, FBI Director James B. Comey repeatedly refused to answer questions about his agency's ties to the controversial, partially discredited 35-page dossier alleging collusion between ...
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| Trump Attacks His Own FBI Director In Late Night Twitter Tirade | ||||
Trump's Twitter rants are boringly repetitive news at this point, but it was a tad unexpected when he threw FBI Director James Comey under the bus Tuesday night.
 Director James Comey and senior FBI executives meeting with community leaders about threats to Jewish institutions. Flickr: FBI If there is anything President Donald Trump can be relied upon for, it's Twitter tirades and blustering attacks on anyone he feels slighted by. On Tuesday night, he took to his preferred social media platform to revisit one of his favorite topics (his 2016 election win) while savaging his favorite victim (Hillary Clinton). However, he also threw FBI Director James Comey into the mess, a typically nonsensical Trump move. His tweets were most likely triggered by Hillary Clinton's comments at the Women for Women International Luncheon just hours earlier. In a conversation with journalist Christiane Amanpour, she said: "I was on the way to winning until the combination of Jim Comey’s letter on Oct. 28 and Russian WikiLeaks raised doubts in the minds of people who were inclined to vote for me but got scared off — and the evidence for that intervening event is, I think, compelling [and] persuasive.”Clinton and Amanpour predicted Trump would respond, and he certainly did, lashing out at the claims on Twitter that same night. It was a low and poorly thought out attack, as he ended up calling the professionalism of his own FBI director into question. While his mention of "bad deeds" raises eyebrows, Trump also raises questions as to why he would choose an FBI director who gives "free passes" to those who commit them. Comey recently said, "It makes me mildly nauseous to think we might have had some impact on the election." Frankly, it's hard to see how he couldn't have. Judging by his tweets, Trump seems just as much in denial. He doesn't seem to have thought out that Comey gave him a free pass when he chose to publicly disclose investigations into Clinton's emails and not Trump's increasingly suspicious ties to Russia. You'd have to be a fool not to realize how that decision would, in some way, impact the vote for the next president of the United States, and Trump is anybody's fool. Another night, another Twitter rant, and another presidential shot in the foot. You'd think we'd be used to it by now, but each time it happens, it just makes us realize how fresh the wound remains.  | ||||
| Comey pressed for anti-Trump dossier... | ||||
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| Trump Campaign Associates Questioned Over Russia Ties | ||||
WASHINGTON—The Senate Intelligence Committee has sent letters to at least four former associates of the Trump campaign asking for information and records about their activities before and after the 2016 election, a sign that the committee’s probe into alleged Russian campaign interference is heating up.
The committee, which carries subpoena power, sent letters to former Trump campaign Chairman Paul Manafort, former national security... | ||||
| WATCH: Keith Olbermann lays out evidence that a Trump-Russia grand jury has already been convened | ||||
WATCH: Keith Olbermann lays out evidence that a Trump-Russia grand jury has already been convened
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Keith Olbermann on Friday set aside his usual “hyperbole” to lay out new developments in the FBI’s ongoing investigation into possible collusion between Donald Trump’s campaign and Russian operatives—including that a grand jury may have been convened on the matter.
Olbermann began his latest installment of GQ’s “The Resistance” by pointing out there is “strong reason to believe there is a grand jury sitting in the Eastern district of Virginia right now. hearing evidence about the connections between Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and the Russians.”
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“I asked the smartest man I know, John Dean—Nixon’s White House Counsel, and the survivor of presidential scandals past—to translate what coordinating could mean,” Olbermann said. “Coordinating with the office of the U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia? John Dean says Comey’s testimony makes it difficult to believe that there is not a grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia,” the GQ host added. Squaring the information provided by Comey with information uncovered by former Clinton White House staffer Claude Taylor, Olbermann argued there were “no hyperboles needed” to draw a conclusion that a grand jury is investigation the Trump campaign. Watch the video below, via YouTube: | ||||
| Senate asks Trump associates for details on Russian contacts | ||||
"I am eager, indeed anxious, to testify in full public session, have requested no immunity and am ready to go," Stone wrote. He also said that he "rejects" the claim that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and Guccifer 2.0 are Russian assets. He said the U.S. government has offered no proof to support that assessment.
Stone communicated through Twitter direct messages with Guccifer 2.0, a hacker who has claimed responsibility for breaching the Democratic National Committee. Stone has said that he was unaware at the time that U.S. officials believed the hacker had ties to Russia. The letters to Stone and Page, which were shared with the AP on Friday, were virtually identical. The committee asked them to provide emails, text messages, letters, phone records or any other relevant information they have about meetings or contacts that they or any other individual affiliated with the Trump campaign had with Russian officials or representatives of Russian business interests. The requests seek information about any contacts that occurred between the day Trump announced his candidacy, June 16, 2015, and his inauguration on Jan. 20. It also asks for information about Stone and Page's financial and real estate holdings related to Russia, including financial securities or holdings they might have sold or divested during that period. In a written response to the committee's request, Page argued that the panel was conducting a "comically fake inquiry." At the same time, Page pledged to cooperate with the committee to "help resolve all of the false allegations which led to this fanciful witch hunt in the first place." The committee also asks that Page and Stone appear for closed interviews with intelligence committee staff. Lawmakers set a May 9 and May 19 deadline for various materials to be provided to the committee. Page told the committee that the material he has will be "minuscule in comparison to the full database of information" the Obama administration collected during "last year's completely unjustified" secret warrant. Page said law enforcement officials under the Obama administration obtained a sealed order from a secretive intelligence court last summer to monitor his communications to investigate whether he was acting as a Russian agent. Page said the warrant put him under "unscrupulous surveillance for many months" and targeted him for exercising his First Amendment rights both in 2016 and earlier. Page met with a Russian intelligence operative in 2013 and provided him documents about the energy industry, according to court documents from a 2015 prosecution alleging a Cold War-style spy ring in New York. Page, referred to in the filing as "Male-1," is not accused of wrongdoing and said in a statement that he shared "basic immaterial information and publicly available research documents." Little is known about Page's role in the campaign. In March, Trump personally announced that Page was part of a newly minted foreign policy advisory team. But as questions began swirling about Page's ties to Russia, the campaign started moving away from the investment banker. Trump has since said he has no relationship with him. "I originally joined the Trump movement and eventually volunteered for a small, unpaid, informal role in the campaign since I knew our candidate would finally help lead this country and the world toward peace through strength," Page said in his letter to the committee. Flynn, Trump's ousted national security adviser, also received a letter from the committee asking him to turn over information and documents related to the committee's investigation into potential ties between Trump campaign associates and Russia. A person with direct knowledge of the letter's contents confirmed Flynn received it. The person demanded anonymity to discuss the information because of its sensitive nature. Watch: Flynn's own feelings about immunity | ||||
| trump investigation - Google Search | ||||
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| Did the Trump Campaign Collude With Russia? Follow the Money | ||||
Among the alphabet soup of federal agencies are many whose existence is never much considered—until they are needed.
No one thinks about the Federal Emergency Management Agency until there’s a hurricane. Right now, we’re in the middle of a political hurricane. And it may be up to the usually obscure Federal Election Commission to see us safely through. Subscribe to Newsweek from $1 per week The hurricane is the unprecedented interference in our democratic election by the Russian government. It’s not controversial that Russia sought to influence our presidential election: seventeen federal intelligence agencies have already confirmed it. Among other things, over the summer of 2016, the FBI and state election agencies detected Russian cyber-intrusion into voter registration systems. That same summer, a Kremlin-linked hacking operation gained unauthorized access to Democratic Party email accounts, and distributed them to WikiLeaks. Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort (right) and Carter Page, a former advisor to the Trump campaign, at Trump SoHo Hotel, June 22, 2016, New York City. Ron Fein and Julian Schreibman write that just as Al Capone was done in by income taxes, the key to the puzzle about whether the Trump campaign colluded with the Russians may lie in campaign finance laws. Drew Angerer/Getty It’s quite possibly the most effective foreign “active measures” operation ever conducted against the United States. What remains to be determined is whether, and how deeply, members of the Trump campaign were involved in the scheme. Perhaps counterintuitively, the best way to investigate that question may not lie in counterintelligence or criminal conspiracy law. Just as Al Capone was done in by income taxes, the key to this puzzle may lie in the mundane obligations of campaign finance laws. That’s where the Federal Election Commission comes in. Created by Congress in 1975, the FEC is an independent commission charged with investigating and enforcing violations of our nation’s campaign finance laws. It has broad investigative powers, including the ability to subpoena witnesses and documents and to compel testimony. Notably, it is both bipartisan (by law, no more than three of its six members may be from the same political party) and independent (its members do not report to the President nor Congressional leaders). Federal campaign finance law prohibits a “foreign national” (such as the Russian government) from spending money to influence U.S. elections. And it also provides that if a political campaign “coordinates” with anyone outside the campaign who is spending money to influence the election, then the campaign would have to treat the outside money as in-kind contributions (which, from a foreign government, are illegal), and report them on federal disclosure forms. In this case, it would violate at least three different campaign finance laws if Trump campaign advisors coordinated with the Russian government. The issue for the FEC is not whether Trump's campaign made promises in exchange for Russian assistance, nor whether Russian activity swayed the election. The questions for the FEC are much narrower: (1) Were Russian-funded campaign communications made at the request or suggestion of the campaign, or (2) did campaign advisors fail to observe a strict 120-day waiting period between working for the Trump campaign and the Russian government? Either would constitute “ coordination ” of campaign communications under campaign finance law. Related: The Russian Plot : How Putin and Trump ColludedNow, two non-partisan watchdog organizations, Free Speech For People and Campaign for Accountability, have filed a complaint with the FEC against the Trump campaign and the Russian government raising exactly these questions. This filing creates a legal obligation for the FEC to analyze whether there is “reason to believe” that there was a violation of federal campaign finance law.The challenge for the FEC is that while the nature of the violation is simple, the extent and nature of the investigation is on a scale far beyond what it has handled in the past. And unfortunately, the FEC has itself been the victim of neglect: it is short by one member (a Democrat), and the other five are serving on a temporary basis, years after their original terms expired. (Four, including both Democrats, were appointed by President George W. Bush; the fifth, a Republican, was appointed by President Obama.) And in recent years it has acquired a reputation for delay, dysfunction and deadlock. Related: Which Trump Aides Were Involved in the Russian Plot ?The alternatives, however, are less than ideal. Although the FBI recently confirmed that its investigation is ongoing, that inquiry is complicated—some would say compromised—in multiple ways, not least by the recusal of the Attorney General himself.In theory, Congress has the resources and credibility to run an independent investigation. But so far it has not had the will. House efforts have fizzled or devolved into partisanship, and the Senate investigation does not even have permanent staff assigned. Related Stories The allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 election, with the potential coordination of Trump campaign advisors, represents the greatest threat to the integrity of our elections that the nation has ever seen. So if the FEC can rise to the challenge, this could be its finest hour. For what may be the most explosive investigation in American history, the FEC may not be the bipartisan investigative body that America deserves. But it may be the one we need right now. Ron Fein is the Legal Director of Free Speech For People. Julian Schreibman, a New York attorney, served at the Central Intelligence Agency and as a federal prosecutor. | ||||
| trump investigation - Google Search | ||||
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| Did the Trump campaign collude with Russia? Follow the money | Opinion https://t.co/CZWnjR99Vq | ||||
Did the Trump campaign collude with Russia? Follow the money | Opinion https://t.co/CZWnjR99Vq
Posted by
 mikenov on Sat May 6 13:21:27 2017. | ||||
| Senate hearing gives a glimpse of political warfare within the FBI - World Socialist Web Site: | ||||
Senate hearing gives a glimpse of political warfare within the FBI - World Socialist Web Site: Senate hearing gives a glimpse of political warfare within the FBI - World Socialist Web Site  The police agency was divided into rival factions, each using media leaks and political provocations in order to influence the 2016 presidential election. |
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