Сделаем Америку снова великой! Trump - Russia megathread

[Skjellyfetti]

Trump asked intelligence chiefs to push back against FBI collusion probe after Comey revealed its existence

President Trump asked two of the nation’s top intelligence officials in March to help him push back against an FBI investigation into possible coordination between his campaign and the Russian government, according to current and former officials.

Trump made separate appeals to the director of national intelligence, Daniel Coats, and to Adm. Michael S. Rogers, the director of the National Security Agency, urging them to publicly deny the existence of any evidence of collusion during the 2016 election.

Coats and Rogers refused to comply with the requests, which they both deemed to be inappropriate, according to two current and two former officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private communications with the president.

Trump sought the assistance of Coats and Rogers after FBI Director James B. Comey told the House Intelligence Committee on March 20 that the FBI was 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.”

Trump’s conversation with Rogers was documented contemporaneously in an internal memo written by a senior NSA official, according to the officials. It is unclear if a similar memo was prepared by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to document Trump’s conversation with Coats. Officials said such memos could be made available to both the special counsel now overseeing the Russia investigation and congressional investigators, who might explore whether Trump sought to impede the FBI’s work.

In addition to the requests to Coats and Rogers, senior White House officials sounded out top intelligence officials about the possibility of intervening directly with Comey to encourage the FBI to drop its probe of Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser, according to people familiar with the matter. The officials said the White House appeared uncertain about its power to influence the FBI.

“Can we ask him to shut down the investigation? Are you able to assist in this matter?” one official said of the line of questioning from the White House.

The new revelations add to a growing body of evidence that Trump sought to co-opt and then undermine Comey before he fired him May 9. According to notes kept by Comey, Trump first asked for his loyalty at a dinner in January and then, at a meeting the next month, asked him to drop the probe into Flynn. Trump disputes those accounts.

Current and former officials said either Trump lacks an understanding of the FBI’s role as an independent law enforcement agency or does not care about maintaining such boundaries.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/na ... 9e5681f974

[Ibanez]

[Skjellyfetti]

Senate Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr is not ruling out holding Michael Flynn in contempt of Congress as President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser continues to stonewall lawmakers.

Flynn’s lawyer informed the Intelligence panel Monday that Flynn would not honor a subpoena for a list of his interactions with Russian officials in the run-up to last year’s presidential election. And the North Carolina Republican said his committee has “plenty” of options to respond.

“You’ll just have to wait and watch. [Contempt is] certainly one of the avenues that we could pursue,” Burr told three reporters on Monday evening. “It does us no good to have people insist on pleading the Fifth if you’re out trying to get information. The only thing I can tell you is immunity is off the table.”

Burr said Flynn’s denial of his request is nonsensical.

“All I’ve asked him for is documents. I don’t know how you can plead the Fifth on a document request,” he said.

Burr and ranking Democrat Mark Warner of Virginia will make the decision in tandem. Warner told reporters they are keeping “all options on the table.”

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/05/2 ... ate-238694

[Ibanez]

Trump asked intelligence chiefs to push back against FBI collusion probe after Comey revealed its existence

President Trump asked two of the nation’s top intelligence officials in March to help him push back against an FBI investigation into possible coordination between his campaign and the Russian government, according to current and former officials.

Trump made separate appeals to the director of national intelligence, Daniel Coats, and to Adm. Michael S. Rogers, the director of the National Security Agency, urging them to publicly deny the existence of any evidence of collusion during the 2016 election.

Coats and Rogers refused to comply with the requests, which they both deemed to be inappropriate, according to two current and two former officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private communications with the president.

Trump sought the assistance of Coats and Rogers after FBI Director James B. Comey told the House Intelligence Committee on March 20 that the FBI was 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.”

Trump’s conversation with Rogers was documented contemporaneously in an internal memo written by a senior NSA official, according to the officials. It is unclear if a similar memo was prepared by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to document Trump’s conversation with Coats. Officials said such memos could be made available to both the special counsel now overseeing the Russia investigation and congressional investigators, who might explore whether Trump sought to impede the FBI’s work.

In addition to the requests to Coats and Rogers, senior White House officials sounded out top intelligence officials about the possibility of intervening directly with Comey to encourage the FBI to drop its probe of Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser, according to people familiar with the matter. The officials said the White House appeared uncertain about its power to influence the FBI.

“Can we ask him to shut down the investigation? Are you able to assist in this matter?” one official said of the line of questioning from the White House.

The new revelations add to a growing body of evidence that Trump sought to co-opt and then undermine Comey before he fired him May 9. According to notes kept by Comey, Trump first asked for his loyalty at a dinner in January and then, at a meeting the next month, asked him to drop the probe into Flynn. Trump disputes those accounts.

Current and former officials said either Trump lacks an understanding of the FBI’s role as an independent law enforcement agency or does not care about maintaining such boundaries.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/na ... 9e5681f974

I'm starting to detect a pattern of behavior here.....


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Skjellyfetti]

Justice Department ethics experts clear Mueller to lead Russia probe

Justice Department ethics experts have concluded that newly appointed special counsel Robert S. Mueller III can oversee the investigation into possible coordination between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin during the 2016 presidential election — even though his former law firm represents several people who could be caught up in the matter, authorities announced Tuesday.

In an email, Justice Department spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores said ethics officials had reviewed the case and “determined that Mr. Mueller’s participation in the matters assigned to him is appropriate.” She said the officials had considered Mueller’s professional obligations and those imposed by government ethics regulations.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/na ... d4ad82778c

[Skjellyfetti]

Former CIA Director John Brennan said on Tuesday that he had concerns that Russian officials may have successfully recruited aides from Donald Trump’s campaign to help in the Kremlin’s efforts to influence last year’s presidential election.

"I encountered and am aware of information and intelligence that revealed contacts and interactions between Russian officials and U.S. persons involved in the Trump campaign that I was concerned about because of known Russian efforts to suborn such individuals," he told lawmakers. "And it raised questions in my mind again whether or not the Russians were able to gain the cooperation of those individuals."

By the time he stepped down as CIA director on Jan. 20, he added, “I had unresolved questions in my mind about whether or not the Russians had been successful in getting U.S. persons, involved in the campaign or not, to work on their behalf, again, either in a witting or unwitting fashion.”

“Therefore,” Brennan added, “I felt as though the FBI investigation was certainly well founded and needed to look into these issues.”

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/05/2 ... ign-238719

[Skjellyfetti]

Brennan also confirmed Cyprus as a key location of Russian money laundering.

See: Manfort and Wilbur Ross.

https://apnews.com/d43ef4166da6400ab451 ... aign-chief
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/201 ... -secretary
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/manaf ... ag-n739156

FinCEN fucked.

[Ivytalk]

Brennan also confirmed Cyprus as a key location of Russian money laundering.

See: Manfort and Wilbur Ross.

https://apnews.com/d43ef4166da6400ab451 ... aign-chief
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/201 ... -secretary
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/manaf ... ag-n739156

FinCEN ****.

You actually expect FinCEN to work? Farm out the tasks to the private sector.

[Skjellyfetti]

Two new subpoenas for General Misha's businesses

The Senate Intelligence Committee is issuing two new subpoenas to compel Michael Flynn to turn over documents about his contacts with Russian officials, committee leaders said Tuesday. President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser has invoked his Fifth Amendment rights in response to the committee’s previous subpoena attempt. Committee leaders are directing the new subpoenas at his businesses, believing they can't invoke the Fifth.

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/05/2 ... ena-238725

[Skjellyfetti]

You actually expect FinCEN to work? Farm out the tasks to the private sector.

FinCEN is brutal and is the best investigator of money laundering on earth. It's the tool the US used to shut down Al Qaeda financing, for example.

Paraphrasing from Billions: "If a cop follows you for 500 miles, you'll eventually be caught speeding."

Private sector is helping - but, mainly by way of informing the public (NYT, WaPo, WSJ)

[Skjellyfetti]

American spies collected information last summer revealing that senior Russian intelligence and political officials were discussing how to exert influence over Donald J. Trump through his advisers, according to three current and former American officials familiar with the intelligence.

The conversations focused on Paul Manafort, the Trump campaign chairman at the time, and Michael T. Flynn, a retired general who was advising Mr. Trump, the officials said. Both men had indirect ties to Russian officials, who appeared confident that each could be used to help shape Mr. Trump’s opinions on Russia.

Some Russians boasted about how well they knew Mr. Flynn. Others discussed leveraging their ties to Viktor F. Yanukovych, the deposed president of Ukraine living in exile in Russia, who at one time had worked closely with Mr. Manafort.

The intelligence was among the clues — which also included information about direct communications between Mr. Trump’s advisers and Russian officials — that American officials received last year as they began investigating Russian attempts to disrupt the election and whether any of Mr. Trump’s associates were assisting Moscow in the effort. Details of the conversations, some of which have not been previously reported, add to an increasing understanding of the alarm inside the American government last year about the Russian disruption campaign.

Continue reading the main story
The information collected last summer was considered credible enough for intelligence agencies to pass to the F.B.I., which during that period opened a counterintelligence investigation that is ongoing. It is unclear, however, whether Russian officials actually tried to directly influence Mr. Manafort and Mr. Flynn. Both have denied any collusion with the Russian government on the campaign to disrupt the election.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/24/us/p ... ipad-share

[Skjellyfetti]

Attorney General Jeff Sessions did not disclose meetings he had last year with Russian officials when he applied for his security clearance, the Justice Department told CNN Wednesday.

Sessions, who met with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak at least two times last year, didn't note those interactions on the form, which requires him to list "any contact" he or his family had with a "foreign government" or its "representatives" over the past seven years, officials said.

The new information from the Justice Department is the latest example of Sessions failing to disclose contacts he had with Russian officials. He has come under withering criticism from Democrats following revelations that he did not disclose the same contacts with Kislyak during his Senate confirmation hearings earlier this year.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/24/politics/ ... index.html

[BDKJMU]

Attorney General Jeff Sessions did not disclose meetings he had last year with Russian officials when he applied for his security clearance, the Justice Department told CNN Wednesday.

Sessions, who met with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak at least two times last year, didn't note those interactions on the form, which requires him to list "any contact" he or his family had with a "foreign government" or its "representatives" over the past seven years, officials said.

The new information from the Justice Department is the latest example of Sessions failing to disclose contacts he had with Russian officials. He has come under withering criticism from Democrats following revelations that he did not disclose the same contacts with Kislyak during his Senate confirmation hearings earlier this year.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/24/politics/ ... index.html

So what. Sessions as a member of the Armed Services committee would have had literally hundreds of contacts with foreigners, from dozens of countries, weekly, even daily, over the previous 7 years. Probably are lots that he didn't disclose because it would be impossible to remember them all.

[Skjellyfetti]

He does have a hard time remembering, you're right. Same with Kushner, Manafort, and Flynn. Odd.

Got Sessions recused from Russian investigation. No special counselor if he was still overseeing it.

[BDKJMU]

He does have a hard time remembering, you're right. Same with Kushner, Manafort, and Flynn. Odd.

Got Sessions recused from Russian investigation. No special counselor if he was still overseeing it.

Could you name every person you met over the last 7 years? Because that's literally the equivalent. Hundreds of people..

[∞∞∞]

He does have a hard time remembering, you're right. Same with Kushner, Manafort, and Flynn. Odd.

Got Sessions recused from Russian investigation. No special counselor if he was still overseeing it.

Could you name every person you met over the last 7 years? Because that's literally the equivalent. Hundreds of people..

Sessions met with the Russian ambassador...twice...once privately...within a few months time frame...less than a year before his Senate confirmation.

It's not unreasonable to expect he remembers.

[Ibanez]

http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/24/politics/ ... index.html

So what. Sessions as a member of the Armed Services committee would have had literally hundreds of contacts with foreigners, from dozens of countries, weekly, even daily, over the previous 7 years. Probably are lots that he didn't disclose because it would be impossible to remember them all.

Meh. He was a US Senator ( which meant, any official contact was documented in some fashion). When I applied for my TS clearance in 2009, I had to track down the names and addresses of college roommates from 2002, list my brothers foreign contacts (he worked for an Israeli company),etc... That isn't an excuse. You fill it out to the best of your ability.

[Ibanez]

He does have a hard time remembering, you're right. Same with Kushner, Manafort, and Flynn. Odd.

Got Sessions recused from Russian investigation. No special counselor if he was still overseeing it.

Could you name every person you met over the last 7 years? Because that's literally the equivalent. Hundreds of people..

Again...there's most likely an official record somewhere. A log, call sheet, day planner.

[Skjellyfetti]

He does have a hard time remembering, you're right. Same with Kushner, Manafort, and Flynn. Odd.

Got Sessions recused from Russian investigation. No special counselor if he was still overseeing it.

Could you name every person you met over the last 7 years? Because that's literally the equivalent. Hundreds of people..

Do I have a team of staff arranging meetings for me?

If it wasn't part of official Senate business, it should be reported. Was the meeting at RNC official Senate business?

[Skjellyfetti]

The hacking spree that upended the presidential election wasn’t limited to Democratic National Committee memos and Clinton-aide emails posted on websites. The hacker also privately sent Democratic voter-turnout analyses to a Republican political operative in Florida named Aaron Nevins.

Learning that hacker “Guccifer 2.0” had tapped into a Democratic committee that helps House candidates, Mr. Nevins wrote to the hacker to say: “Feel free to send any Florida based information.”

Ten days later, Mr. Nevins received 2.5 gigabytes of Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee documents, some of which he posted on a blog called HelloFLA.com that he ran using a pseudonym.

Soon after, the hacker sent a link to the blog article to Roger Stone, a longtime informal adviser to then-candidate Donald Trump, along with Mr. Nevins’ analysis of the hacked data.

Mr. Nevins confirmed his exchanges after The Wall Street Journal identified him first as the operator of the HelloFLA blog and then as the recipient of the stolen DCCC data. The Journal also reviewed copies of exchanges between the hacker and Mr. Nevins. That the obscure blog had received hacked Democratic documents was previously known, but not the extent of the trove or the blogger’s identity.

“I just threw an arrow in the dark,” Mr. Nevins said in an interview, adding he set up a Dropbox account so whoever was using the Guccifer 2.0 name could send large amounts of material. Later, going through what the hacker sent as someone who “actually knows what some of these documents mean,” the GOP consultant said he “realized it was a lot more than even Guccifer knew that he had.”

The episode shows how the hacker’s activities extended to exposing Democrats’ get-out-the vote strategies in swing states and informing a Trump ally of hacked data during the national campaign.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-allege ... 1495724787

[GannonFan]

The hacking spree that upended the presidential election wasn’t limited to Democratic National Committee memos and Clinton-aide emails posted on websites. The hacker also privately sent Democratic voter-turnout analyses to a Republican political operative in Florida named Aaron Nevins.

Learning that hacker “Guccifer 2.0” had tapped into a Democratic committee that helps House candidates, Mr. Nevins wrote to the hacker to say: “Feel free to send any Florida based information.”

Ten days later, Mr. Nevins received 2.5 gigabytes of Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee documents, some of which he posted on a blog called HelloFLA.com that he ran using a pseudonym.

Soon after, the hacker sent a link to the blog article to Roger Stone, a longtime informal adviser to then-candidate Donald Trump, along with Mr. Nevins’ analysis of the hacked data.

Mr. Nevins confirmed his exchanges after The Wall Street Journal identified him first as the operator of the HelloFLA blog and then as the recipient of the stolen DCCC data. The Journal also reviewed copies of exchanges between the hacker and Mr. Nevins. That the obscure blog had received hacked Democratic documents was previously known, but not the extent of the trove or the blogger’s identity.

“I just threw an arrow in the dark,” Mr. Nevins said in an interview, adding he set up a Dropbox account so whoever was using the Guccifer 2.0 name could send large amounts of material. Later, going through what the hacker sent as someone who “actually knows what some of these documents mean,” the GOP consultant said he “realized it was a lot more than even Guccifer knew that he had.”

The episode shows how the hacker’s activities extended to exposing Democrats’ get-out-the vote strategies in swing states and informing a Trump ally of hacked data during the national campaign.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-allege ... 1495724787

Is this how they knew that Clinton was just mailing it in in places like Michigan and Wisconsin? Or did they just pick that up by looking at her travel log and where she was everyday?

I'm confused by the political operative tag and then later consultant - what does that mean? Other than running the HelloFLA blog, did this Nevins guy have any official involvement with anything? Since he was a blogger, does that equate him as a member of the press? Since this was data on House races, were there any real suprises on election night in terms of House elections that went different than what people expected? The vast majority of House races were uncompetitive - either the R or the D that was slated to win would win comfortably. Did this hack flip anything that was considered safe?

[Skjellyfetti]

Aaron Nevins:

Partner at Richardson Partners - Campaign Consulting and Grassroots Organization
Managing Member at Chelsea Road Consulting - Government Affiars, Lobbying & Campaign Consulting
Chief of Staff to State Senator Ellyn Bogdanoff
Senior Legislative Assistant - Florida House of Representatives



I'm not sure I want to get into a semantic debate about what qualifies as a "political operative" or "consultant" - but, you're grasping at straws, man.

[GannonFan]

Aaron Nevins:

Partner at Richardson Partners - Campaign Consulting and Grassroots Organization
Managing Member at Chelsea Road Consulting - Government Affiars, Lobbying & Campaign Consulting
Chief of Staff to State Senator Ellyn Bogdanoff
Senior Legislative Assistant - Florida House of Representatives



I'm not sure I want to get into a semantic debate about what qualifies as a "political operative" or "consultant" - but, you're grasping at straws, man.

I literally just didn't know and I didn't want to research the guy, hence my question, and thanks for answering.

Now with that said, what impact did him having this information, which he shared some of publically in his blog, have on the election, especially with regards to Trump winning Florida (which of all the states he won was not a shocker), or on the election of House members in Florida?

[Skjellyfetti]

Now with that said, what impact did him having this information, which he shared some of publically in his blog, have on the election, especially with regards to Trump winning Florida (which of all the states he won was not a shocker), or on the election of House members in Florida?

I don't know and I don't think anyone knows. I'm not saying Russians stole the election for Trump or Hillary should have won Florida - if not for this guy.

The story is interesting because it shows a GOP operative/consultant/whatever working directly with someone who the intelligence agencies agree is a GRU intelligence hacker.

[GannonFan]

Now with that said, what impact did him having this information, which he shared some of publically in his blog, have on the election, especially with regards to Trump winning Florida (which of all the states he won was not a shocker), or on the election of House members in Florida?

I don't know and I don't think anyone knows. I'm not saying Russians stole the election for Trump or Hillary should have won Florida - if not for this guy.

The story is interesting because it shows a GOP operative/consultant/whatever working directly with someone who the intelligence agencies agree is a GRU intelligence hacker.

But the impact surely plays a big role, no? If Trump was sending e-mails to and from a known Russian intelligence operative (especially if he was known as an operative) and used that to win the election over Hillary, that's a pretty big deal. If some guy in Florida with strong ties to the GOP and people in the GOP got stolen information, didn't even know the guy he got it from was a suspected GRU intelligence hacker (I don't know if political bloggers in Florida are necessarily given intelligence briefings to tell them who and who isn't in Russian intelligence) posted it publicly on a blog that has little circulation or readership, and with that information he impacted no actual political races, does that rise to the same level? That's the thing about political scares, especially the Red Scares we tend to cycle through every few decades - the level of severity is often the first thing to be miscalculated as people never want to be caught underestimating the perniciousness of evil that we're dealing with.