Reporters Barred from China Event Seeking Investment in Kushner Project by webdesk@voanews.com (Reuters)
Organizers barred journalists on Sunday from a publicly advertised event in Shanghai to attract Chinese investment in a U.S. real estate project linked to the family of President Donald Trump's son-in-law in exchange for immigrant visas. The two-tower luxury apartment complex in New Jersey, One Journal Square, is being developed by KABR Group and the Kushner Companies, which until recently was headed by senior White House advisor Jared Kushner, the husband of Trump's daughter Ivanka. The developers are seeking to raise $150 million, or 15.4 percent of funding for the project, from investors through the EB-5 visa program, according to marketing materials posted by the event's organizer, immigration agency Qiaowai. The controversial EB-5 program allows wealthy foreigners to, in effect, buy U.S. immigration visas for themselves and families by investing at least $500,000 in certain development projects. "Sorry, this is a private event," said a man stopping journalists from entering a function room on Sunday afternoon at the Four Seasons Hotel in Shanghai. Guests at the event said Kushner's sister, Nicole Kushner Meyer, spoke for about 10 minutes, including about her family's humble roots. According to the New York Times, Meyer attended a similar event in Beijing on Saturday and told the audience of about 100 people the project "means a lot to me and my entire family". Jared Kushner, whose White House portfolio includes relations with China, sold his stake in Kushner Companies to a family trust early this year. His lawyer said in a statement in March that Kushner was fully complying with ethics rules, removing himself from active participation in his prior businesses and divesting assets. A Kushner Companies spokeswoman declined to comment in a New York Times article about the Beijing event published on Saturday. The Times story said Meyer did not respond when asked if she was concerned about possible conflicts of interest facing her brother. Journalists from the Times and Washington Post were removed from Saturday's Beijing event, the newspapers reported. Popular with wealthy Chinese One potential investor, Sophie Xing, said a "very important" factor in her decision to attend Sunday's event was the fact that the project was a Kushner Companies investment and that Trump's son-in-law's sister would be showing up in Shanghai. "Actually I really don't know how close they are but I felt that this was a pretty good project," she said. In a promotional text message seen by Reuters, Qiaowai made note of Meyer's relationship to Trump and called her the event's "heavyweight honored guest". Qiaowei representatives at the event declined to answer questions from journalists, and calls to its listed phone number went unanswered. Qiaowei is also known as QWOS. Its promotional materials for the project, which it also calls Kushner1, advertise the prospect of putting money in under the federal EB-5 program. The program is popular among wealthy Chinese looking to shift assets abroad or move overseas, but it has come under fire in the United States. Some U.S. lawmakers have called for changing or abolishing the EB-5 program, but the scheme was recently renewed by Congress until Sept. 30. Potential investor Xing said a Kushner representative who spoke on Sunday stressed that EB-5 rules could change after September to raise the minimum required investment. Another person who attended Sunday's event, Liu Guoqi, was mindful of the potential rule change. Liu said he had been to previous pitches for EB-5 investments but had concerns about the risks. "The whole thing may change later this year so we feel that there isn't much time left," he said. In the United States, the EB-5 program has also sparked concerns about possible scams. Some immigrants have been burned by misrepresentations made about the program by promoters, both inside and outside the United States. Many have lost not only their money but their chance at winning U.S. citizenship. Trump has vowed to clamp down on illegal immigration. In addition to Beijing and Shanghai, the road show for One Journal Square was scheduled to hit the Chinese cities of Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Wuhan, according to Qiaowai's marketing materials online. It calls the Kushner family a "famous real estate clan", and touts EB-5 immigration as "peace of mind". Qiaowai's Chinese-language marketing material describes the project as "supported by the government, created by a star developer", and says the project is its 87th EB-5 !!br0ken!!
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Война как травма и игра by SvobodaRadio
Зачем нужен Рейхстаг в Подмосковье, сколько стоит форма союзника времен Второй мировой и для кого устраивается парад 9 мая рассказывают философ Елена Петровская, студентка-историк Ирина Архангельская, немецкий историк Гудрун Вольфф, американский журналист Майк Экель и члены клуба военно-исторической реконструкции «505». Ведут программу Тамара Ляленкова и Александр Гиринский.
Little Being Left to Chance for Trump's Saudi Visitby webdesk@voanews.com (Jamie Dettmer)
It isn't the first time a new U.S. President has promised a fresh start in American-Arab relations. Eight years ago Barack Obama promised a beneficial reset in a speech delivered in Cairo entitled "A New Beginning." The speech honored a campaign pledge Obama made to give a major address to Muslims from a Muslim capital during his first few weeks in office.Obama hoped it would mark the start of "a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect." The speech raised expectations of a new era in U.S.-Arab relations, but disappointment quickly followed with the Arab world increasingly critical of the Obama administration's handling of the Syria conflict. Frustration deepened also with the lack of tangible progress on a Palestinian-Israeli peace deal.And for Arab leaders in the Gulf, the Iranian nuclear deal heralded a dangerous shift, as far as they were concerned, in the balance of power in the region, away from the Sunni monarchies and in favor of their diehard foes, the Shi'ite mullahs in Tehran. Aome Arab praise for Trump Now Donald Trump, who a few weeks ago was being blasted for his proposed travel restrictions on visitors from several Muslim-majority countries, is receiving gushing reviews in much, although not all, of the Arab media, as well as praise from many of the region's leaders. First for his enforcement of a "red line" on the use of chemical weapons by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, as well as his tough criticism of Iran, and then for picking Saudi Arabia to be the first stopover on his maiden international trip as U.S. president, before visiting the Vatican and Israel. Saudi leaders have dubbed Trump's scheduled visit "historic." And hopes are high among them that Trump and they will continue to track each other when it comes to confronting Iran and restraining Iranian expansionism. "It's a clear and powerful message that the U.S. harbors no ill will toward the Arab and Muslim world," Saudi Arabia's foreign minister Adel al-Jubeir said after last week's trip announcement. Earlier this year Arab and Muslim reaction to Trump's proposed travel ban was fierce. The 57-nation and Saudi-based Organization of Islamic Conference denounced the ban, warning it would embolden extremists. In the Emirates-based National newspaper in February, James Zogby, Arab American Institute president, cautioned, "It would be a grave error for this administration to fail to understand the connection between how it treats, and is perceived to treat, Arab and Muslim people and its ability to achieve its broader policy objectives in the Middle East," he cautioned. But the leaders of the Gulf states noticeably muted their criticism of the travel restrictions as public outrage swept the region, the Saudi government didn't even comment officially on the ban. And that reticence appears to have paid off. Not only with a presidential visit, but a likely a multi-billion dollar arms deal, which could include the sale of four multi-mission surface combatant ships suspended by the Obama administration because of Saudi Arabia's military campaign in Yemen. For the Saudis and other Arab Gulf leaders there's relief the Trump administration appears as determined as them to clip Iranian wings. In March, Saudi Arabia's deputy crown prince described Trump as a "true friend of Muslims," dismissing the argument his controversial immigration ban targeted Islam. Arab youth not convinced While Saudi leaders have repeatedly said they do not view Trump as being anti-Muslim, that isn't the view of most Arabs, who, especially the young, remain wary of Trump. Almost half of young Arab men and women view the United States as a foe, according to a poll released last week, which surveyed 3,000 Arabs in 16 countries across the Middle East and North Africa. According to the annual Arab Youth Survey, 49 percent of those polled said they think of the United States as somewhat of an enemy or a strong enemy, up from 32 percent in the same poll last year.The number who view the United States as an ally has fallen from 63 percent last year to 46 percent. Eighty-three percent of 18 to 24 year olds told pollsters they viewed Trump unfavorably, far worse than Barack Obama, who scored a 52 percent unfavorable rating and George W. Bush at 77 percent. Overall, 70 percent of young Arabs said Trump is anti-Muslim.Arab public opinion over time will impact how the region's governments interact with the Trump administration.The honeymoon with the region's leaders could also end quickly, if there's not some progress towards an accommodation between the Israelis and Palestinians.
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Russian opposition leader Aleksei Navalny has left Moscow for Barcelona for medical treatment, Moskovsky Komsomolets reported on May 7, despite warnings from officials that he should not leave the country.
Some 200 people protested on May 7 before the parliament in Chisinau against changes to the country's electoral system. Demonstrators called for the withdrawal of proposals from Moldova's Democratic and Socialist parties' that were voted on May 5 in parliament. One proposal seeks to introduce a uninominal system while the other calls for a mixed electoral system. Protesters chanted slogans such as "Down with the government!" and "We don't want to replace the...
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У Путина с акцией "Бессмертный полк" доходят до абсурда ...
Обозреватель-May 5, 2017
Российская акция "Бессмертный полк", превращенная властями РФ из ... в инструмент пропаганды, дошла до абсурда: ее распространяют даже на ... Он уже охватил и ближнее зарубежье, и дальнее зарубежье.
Блогер - о том, к каким последствиям привело огосударствление ...
Город-812-May 5, 2017
Акцию «Бессмертный полк», которая пройдет перед 9 мая по всей России и ... оно тут же превратилось в предмет спекуляций, пропаганды и торга – теперь и на ... Что у российской, что у таджикской – без разницы.
Акция «Бессмертный полк» прошла почти в двух десятках ...
Радиостанция ЭХО МОСКВЫ-8 hours ago
Акция «Бессмертный полк» прошла почти в двух десятках .... "кговавым гежимом" на деньги российских пенсионеров))). 7 ... Но создается впечатление что и там все это делается не по зову сердца а в следствии пропаганды! ... tanber: Просто и в США обычно акции проводятся за деньги из ...
В России зарождается новая религия «Победобесие»
Экономические известия-May 6, 2017
То что Поклонская притащила икону на Бессмертный Полк это симптом (то есть, ... тоталитарной пропаганды и фальшивого рейтинга Путина. Они ... Тем не менее, “более половины россиян затруднились назвать ...
Published on May 7, 2017
Подпишитесь на канал Россия24: https://www.youtube.com/c/russia24tv?...
Акция "Бессмертный полк" прошла сразу в двадцати американских городах. В шествии приняли участие в общей сложности четыре тысячи человек. Все они помнят своих дедов и прадедов, с гордостью рассказывают об их подвиге.
Последние новости России и мира, политика, экономика, бизнес, курсы валют, культура, технологии, спорт, интервью, специальные репортажи, происшествия и многое другое.
Официальный YouTube канал ВГТРК.
Россия 24 - это единственный российский информационный канал, вещающий 24 часа в сутки. Мировые новости и новости регионов России. Экономическая аналитика и интервью с влиятельнейшими перс
Акция "Бессмертный полк" прошла сразу в двадцати американских городах. В шествии приняли участие в общей сложности четыре тысячи человек. Все они помнят своих дедов и прадедов, с гордостью рассказывают об их подвиге.
Последние новости России и мира, политика, экономика, бизнес, курсы валют, культура, технологии, спорт, интервью, специальные репортажи, происшествия и многое другое.
Официальный YouTube канал ВГТРК.
Россия 24 - это единственный российский информационный канал, вещающий 24 часа в сутки. Мировые новости и новости регионов России. Экономическая аналитика и интервью с влиятельнейшими перс
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Published on May 7, 2017
What's written on the most powerful whiteboard in America? Jake Tapper take a look on this week's State of the Cartoonion
Started streaming on Feb 9, 2017
Published on May 6, 2017
On this edition for Saturday, May 6, French youth voice their opinions on this weekend’s presidential election runoff as centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron faces a hacking attack. Later, what’s next for congressional Republicans’ health care plan. Hari Sreenivasan anchors from New York.
Published on May 7, 2017
Moscú (Rusia), 7 may (EFE/EPA).- (Imagen: Maxim Shipenkov) La capital rusa se prepara para la celebración del desfile militar del Día de la Victoria. El próximo 9 de mayo, Rusia celebrará la victoria del Ejército Rojo, de la entonces Unión Soviética, sobre la Alemania nazi en la Segunda Guerra Mundial.
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Published on May 7, 2017
Greg Palkot reports from Paris
Published on May 7, 2017
French presidential candidates, centrist Emmanuel Macron and anti-immigration nationalist Marine Le Pen, voted on May 7 in the second round of the French presidential election. (AP)
Originally published at - https://www.rferl.org/a/france-presid...
Originally published at - https://www.rferl.org/a/france-presid...
Bampumim Teixeira. (Twitter)
A man with a criminal history of robbing banks is accused of slitting the throats of two well-liked doctors who were found in their $1.9 million South Boston condo.
Bampumim Teixeira engaged in a gun battle with police who arrived at the scene, Boston police say. Authorities then discovered the bodies of Linda Bolanos, 38, and Richard Field, 49, who were engaged anesthesiologists who had traveled the world together.
Lina Bolanos and Richard Field. (Facebook)
The suspect was shot, but he is expected to survive. He knew the victims, police said, although they haven’t specified how. Nor have they revealed a motive. The scene was grisly with bizarre aspects to it.
Here’s what you need to know:
1. The Suspect Had Worked as a Security Guard & Made an Odd Comment to His Former Girlfriend Before the Slayings
Richard Field and Lina Bolanos. (Facebook)
Teixeira had a recent criminal history – robbing banks. He was from Chelsea, Massachusetts, WBUR-TV reports.
According to The Boston Globe, the suspect was “a former security guard whose ex-girlfriend said had just gotten out of prison for robbing a bank.” Universal Hub reports that, according to the District Attorney, Teixeira “pleaded guilty on Sept. 15 of last year to two counts of unarmed robbery of a bank” and was sentenced to nine months in jail.
Teixeira told his ex-girlfriend that he was “born in Guinea-Bissau and raised in Cape Verde by an aunt, with whom he moved to the Boston area when he was in his 20s… After a falling out with the aunt, he lived in shelters,” The Boston Globe reported.
He had recently reached out to the ex, told her he wouldn’t live long, and commented, “I’m not a good person,” according to the newspaper.
CBS Boston reported that the suspect’s criminal record was for “thefts.”
“According to a statement from the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office, Teixeira will be arraigned on Monday. He had previously been convicted of two larcenies, both involving passing notes demanding money at the same bank. No weapons were used in these previous incidents,” NBC Boston reported.
2. The Suspect Engaged in a Gun Battle With Police, They Say
A photo on Richard Field’s Facebook page. (Facebook)
Police encountered the suspect after responding to a call of a man with a gun. Then, they discovered the bodies of the two doctors in the condo. WCVB reports it was a luxury apartment.
The urgent call came in about 8:38 p.m. on Friday, May 5, 2017, when “officers assigned to District C-6 (South Boston) responded to a call for a person with a gun in the area of 141 Dorchester Avenue in South Boston,” Boston police said in a news release.
“On arrival, the officers made entry to the building and observed a male suspect armed with a firearm,” the release says. “Upon seeing the officers, the suspect immediately began firing at the officers, causing them to return fire.”
Lina Bolanos. (Facebook)
According to Boston Police, during the exchange, “the suspect was struck by the officers and after a violent struggle, placed in custody and transported to an area hospital for treatment of non-life threatening injuries as a result of gunshot wounds.”
No police officers were struck by gunfire but “several were transported to area hospitals for treatment of non-life threatening injuries,” police said. The Boston police SWAT team than conducted a “protective sweep” of the building and discovered the two victims dead at the scene from “traumatic injuries,” Boston police said.
The police commissioner said the suspect was discovered in the apartment. “They opened up the door and shots were fired at them,” he said. “I mean, you have a guy here who just killed two people and he had nothing to lose.”
3. Field Sent a Frantic Text Message Before He & Bolanos Were Found With Their Throats Slit
Richard Field and Lina Bolanos in Amsterdam. (Facebook)
The last moments of the doctors were horrific. Field made a last-ditch, frantic effort to get help by texting a friend.
According to the Boston Globe, Field “managed to send a last text message from his luxury apartment in South Boston on Friday night: a plea to a friend for help.”
However, when police arrived at the couple’s 11th floor condo, they discovered them dead with their throats slit, the Globe reported. The exact wording of the text message has not been revealed. WCVB also reported: “Sources tell WCVB the victims had their throats slashed.”
The police commissioner said, according to WCVB, “(For) someone to come here, go up to the 11th floor, to the penthouse, we got to believe that somehow there was some type of knowledge of each other.” The television station added that the floor, the 11th, could only be accessed with a key.
Police have not yet specified a motive. According to Universal Hub, Field owned the condo where the couple was found, and they were engaged.
Lina Bolanos. (Facebook)
The scene was a particularly bloody and horrific one.
The murderer tied up the doctors’ hands, and then cut up the doctors’ photos throughout the condo, the Globe reported.
He also left “a message of retribution” on the wall, although it wasn’t clear what it said, and there was blood on the condo’s walls, according to the newspaper.
4. Bolanos Was an Anesthesiologist Described as Being ‘in the Prime of Both Her Career & Life’
Lina Bolanos. (Facebook)
Bolanos worked for Massachusetts Eye and Ear, which released a statement saying she was in the prime of her career and life.
Her Facebook page indicates as much, although it provides a glimpse into the doctor’s personal side. She posted photos of herself with family members, with Field, and on exotic vacations.
The organization where she worked released a statement, describing Bolanos as “an outstanding pediatric anesthesiologist and a wonderful colleague in the prime of both her career and life. We will do all we can to support their families and our staff members who are processing this senseless tragedy and grieving an enormous loss.”
According to US News, she was “an anesthesiologist in Boston, Massachusetts and is affiliated with Massachusetts General Hospital. She received her medical degree from Universite libre de Cali Faculty of Medicine and has been in practice between 11-20 years. She is one of 309 doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital who specialize in Anesthesiology.”
5. Field Was Known for His ‘Tireless Devotion’ to His Patients & Traveled the World With His Fiancee
Richard Field. (Facebook)
Field’s Facebook page says he was a former anesthesiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, who was from London. He had posted many photos of himself with Bolanos. They traveled throughout the country and world, from New Orleans for Mardi Gras to Amsterdam to the rain forest.
Field’s employer, North Shore Pain Management, also released a statement praising his work.
“It is with profound sadness and heavy hearts that we inform you of the tragic loss of Richard Field, MD. Dr. field was a guiding vision at North Shore Pain Management and was instrumental in the creation of this practice in 2010,” the statement read.
Doctors Lina Bolanos and Richard Field. (North Shore Pain Management/Massachusetts Eye and Ear)
“Prior to his time at NSPM, he was an anesthesiologist and pain management specialist at Beverly Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Dr. Field was noted for his tireless devotion to his patients, staff, and colleagues. He was a valued member of the medical community and a tremendous advocate for his patients. His tragic and sudden passing leaves an inescapable void in all of us. Our deepest thoughts are with his friends and family.”
According to Universal Hub, “Field helped start the Beverly practice in 2010. Before then, he was an anesthesiologist and pain specialist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Beverly Hospital. He had also served as an instructor in pain management and anesthesia at Harvard Medical School.”
Jessica McBrideis a Heavy contributor. She was a crime, government, and breaking news reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and reporter for the Waukesha Freeman newspaper. Her award-winning work has appeared in numerous magazine, newspaper, and online publications. She has also appeared as a crime reporter on Investigation Discovery Channel, History Channel, and Oxygen Channel. She can be reached by email at <a href="mailto:jessica.mcbride@heavy.com">jessica.mcbride@heavy.com</a>.May 7, 2017 12:48 am
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Voice of America: Moscow Protest Marks Five Years Since Bolotnaya Crackdown by webdesk@voanews.com (RFE/RL)
Thousands of Russian opposition activists held a rally in Moscow on May 6 to mark five years since the 2012 Bolotnaya Square antigovernment protest in Moscow. Moscow authorities approved the rally on a section of Sakharov Avenue in the city center. But city authorities refused to allow an opposition march toward Bolotnaya Square itself. Alec Luhn, a correspondent for The Guardian, tweeted that at least seven protesters were detained at Bolotnaya Square on May 6 after they held up placards with photographs of people who were jailed for taking part in the 2012 protest. The latest May 6 protest in Moscow was named by the organizers: For Russia, Against Arbitrary Practices And Reprisals. Participants chanted slogans like "Russia without Putin!" and "Putin is a thief!" Organizers claimed as many as 10,000 protesters took to the streets for the anti-Putin rally. Independent observers estimated that about 3,000 people took part. According to Russia's Interior Ministry, about 1,000 people attended the rally, with participants listening to speeches and music. "The police and Russian National Guard are ensuring public order and security," the ministry said. Sakharov Avenue was closed for traffic, while those entering the rally area had to walk through metal detectors. Delay to protest Meanwhile, the start of the demonstration was briefly delayed when municipal authorities and police tore down banners from a stage that had been set up for rally speakers. Those banners contained slogans like "'The Case Of May 6," "Shame On Russia," and "Enough With Kadyrov, Enough Despotism" -- referring to Ramzan Kadyrov, the pro-Putin head of Russia's Chechnya region. Russian journalist Aleksandr Ryklin, a moderator of the rally, said municipal officials alleged that the banners were "subversive" and tore them down "because they believe that they contradict the purpose of our rally." Meanwhile, demonstrators carried Russian flags, posters, and other banners. Many participants wore badges and ribbons reading: "Five Years Since The Bolotnaya." An 81-year-old rally participant named Alla told RFE/RL that she is "worried sick" about the things happening in Russia since Putin came into power. "I became anxious since the very beginning when Mr. Putin came to power and the first thing he did was to shut down [independent] NTV," Alla said. "It was very scary. Then I remember [the sinking of] the Kursk submarine. Then I remember Beslan [school siege]. I remember everything. I am doing everything [I can] to have this government changed." Another protester, who identified herself as Tatyana, told RFE/RL that the longer Russians accept living in an "isolated country, the harder our life will be in the future." Once the demonstration was under way, Russian opposition activist and former State Duma deputy Gennady Gudkov told the crowd that Russia has become "internationally isolated" because of Putin's policies. "The country is in a deep economic and -- actually -- systemic crisis," Gudkov said. "The system of our governance is good for nothing. The country is getting involved in ever new armed conflicts. We lost 42 million [people] during World War II. Do we want to risk our lives, the lives of our family members and loved ones, the future of our children again?" Russian Yabloko Party leader Sergei Mitrokhin said "the main danger for Russia today is a weak, cowardly, and dangerous government." On May 6, 2012, several thousand Russians demonstrated on Bolotnaya Square in Moscow against Putin's reelection, and there were clashes with police during the event. Between 400 and 700 people were detained. Dozens have been prosecuted and many have spent time in pretrial detention or been sentenced to prison. Some remain behind bars. Fearing persecution, several other people, who had not yet been officially accused, left Russia and were granted asylum in Spain, Sweden, Lithuania, Estonia, and Germany. 2012 protest Participants in the 2012 protest blame police for the violence and say that the severity of the charges laid against demonstrators has been grossly disproportionate to their actions. The reaction of Russian authorities after the 2012 demonstration also included a crackdown against the country's opposition leaders. Nikolai Kavkazsky, an opposition activist who was jailed after the 2012 Bolotnaya Square protest and only recently was released, told the Moscow rally on May 6 that "Kadyrov has been de facto waging genocide in Chechnya." "Should we allow this to happen, it will begin in other [Russian] regions as well, because Chechnya is a certain testing ground of totalitarianism," Kavkazsky said. "Russia may be transformed into one big Chechnya in the future. I believe we must resist. We must help political prisoners. We need to stand up against all sorts of repression." This report contains information from Interfax, Reuters and Tass.
Voice of America
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Two candidates facing off this weekend in the French presidential election runoff offer starkly different visions for the country. Centrist Emmanuel Macron supports immigration and the European Union, while the far-right nationalist Marine Le Pen wants to curb immigration and pull France out of the EU. Special Correspondent Christopher Livesay reports from France.
Here are the top stories for Saturday, May 6th: French election officials respond to a hacking attack; A bus crash in Tanzania kills 35; A white Texas officer faces a murder charge in the killing of a black teen; Thousands of women protest in Caracas.
Stay up to date with daily round ups: http://smarturl.it/APTopStories
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AP’s commitment to independent, comprehensive journalism has deep roots. Founded in 1846, AP has covered all the major news events of the past 165 years, providing high-quality, informed reporting of everything from wars and elections to championship games and royal weddings. AP is the largest and most trusted source of independent news and information.
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On this edition for Saturday, May 6, French youth voice their opinions on this weekend’s presidential election runoff as centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron faces a hacking attack. Later, what’s next for congressional Republicans’ health care plan. Hari Sreenivasan anchors from New York.
As French voters prepare to head to the polls, presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron confirmed he had been the target of a “massive hacking attack,” with campaign emails and financial documents posted online. Macron's campaign said that authentic documents were released alongside fake documents. Reuters reporter Eric Auchard joins Hari Sreenivasan via Skype from Berlin.
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“We remain committed to working with the F.B.I. as they continue their investigation to ensure that no stone is unturned,” the lawmakers said in a joint statement.
It has been more than six weeks since Mr. Comey’s extraordinary confirmation to the committee that the F.B.I. is investigating possible ties between Mr. Trump’s associates and Russia. That hearing, the inquiry’s first, was the committee’s last moment of public comity.
Less than two days later, Mr. Nunes, who was leading the investigation, plunged it into disarray with his assertion that Mr. Trump or his associates may have been incidentally caught up in surveillance of foreigners conducted by American spy agencies. Mr. Trump seized upon the news as vindication of his unfounded claim that Trump Tower in New York was wiretapped by former President Barack Obama.
The investigation, still in its infancy, ground to a halt. After it was revealed that Mr. Nunes obtained his information on White House grounds from White House staff members, Democrats called on him to recuse himself from the inquiry. He eventually did, but only when it emerged that he was under investigation by the House Ethics Committee for possibly leaking classified information. Mr. Conaway, the most senior Republican on the committee, took over.
The encore appearance before the committee by the heads of the F.B.I. and N.S.A. has proved a sticking point. After Mr. Nunes scuttled the public hearing with Ms. Yates and other officials in favor of another round of questions for Mr. Comey and Admiral Rogers, Democrats accused Mr. Nunes of bowing to White House pressure. A series of letters between Ms. Yates’s lawyer and the White House counsel showed that administration officials had tried to block her from testifying before Congress, an accusation the White House spokesman, Sean Spicer, later denied.
Last month, the House committee extended a new invitation to Ms. Yates; James R. Clapper Jr., the former director of national intelligence; and John O. Brennan, the former C.I.A. director.
The panel has not scheduled that public hearing, though Ms. Yates and Mr. Clapper are expected to testify before a Senate panel on Monday.
Days after Mr. Trump took office, Ms. Yates alerted the administration that Michael T. Flynn, then the national security adviser, had misled Vice President Mike Pence and other White House officials about his communications with the Russian ambassador to the United States, and that it could make him vulnerable to blackmail by Russia.
Mr. Flynn, a three-star Army general who was forced out of the administration after less than a month, is now under investigation by the Pentagon’s inspector general over allegations that he failed to disclose payments from a foreign government or get them approved, a potential violation of federal law for a retired military officer.
Thursday was the second visit to the Capitol in two days for Mr. Comey, who testified on Wednesday before senators charged with overseeing the F.B.I. Mr. Comey defended his decision to announce shortly before Election Day that he had reopened the case into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server, saying that while it made him “mildly nauseous” to think he affected the election, he believed he had made the right call.
Representative Tom Rooney, Republican of Florida and a former Army lawyer who is assisting Mr. Conaway in leading the inquiry, said on Thursday that the committee had not finished questioning Mr. Comey.
“It’s going to be a very long process, which is fine,” he told reporters as he left the meeting. “It needs to be done right.”
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12:12 PM 5/6/2017 - France Rushes to Limit Impact of Macron Hack
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12:41 PM 5/6/2017 - » US dismisses Russia’s ban on military aircraft over Syria safe zones 06/05/17 12:24 from Mike Nova's Shared NewsLinks
US dismisses Russia’s ban on military aircraft over Syria safe zones Saturday May 6 th , 2017 at 12:24 PM 1 Share A State Department official on Friday said that the Russian proposal calling to bar U.S. military aircrafts from flying over designated safe ...
US dismisses Russia’s ban on military aircraft over Syria safe zones Saturday May 6 th , 2017 at 12:24 PM 1 Share A State Department official on Friday said that the Russian proposal calling to bar U.S. military aircrafts from flying over designated safe ...
President Trump. Reuters
The modern history of the "deep state" in American politics — real or imagined — starts with real leaks of classified information and ends as a conspiracy theory on popular yet dubious websites.
And how it got there raises serious questions about whether the intelligence community is trying to subvert a new president or whether it's a convenient scapegoat for an administration that's had its share of early foibles.
A deep state is a network of influential members of a government’s agencies or military who operate against a democratically elected government. It might work to undermine an elected president’s authority or legitimacy and has been common in countries such as Egypt and Turkey.
The concern in the US started shortly after Donald Trump took office. In early February, The New York Times and The Washington Post published a series of explosive reports about the intelligence community’s investigations into the Trump campaign’s communications with Russian officials during the 2016 election.
The reports, citing anonymous officials, revealed that then national-security adviser Michael Flynn had discussed US sanctions on Russia with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak before Trump took office, despite Flynn’s claims that he and Kislyak had not discussed anything sensitive during their phone calls.
The next day, The Times broke a story on what it said were "repeated contacts" that Trump associates had with Russian officials during the campaign. CNN published another report that night in which sources said communication between Trump associates and Russian officials during the campaign was “constant.”
Flynn resigned a short time later.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions later had to recuse himself from any Department of Justice investigations into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia after additional leaks revealed that he had also had contact with Russian officials during the campaign.
An American deep state?
The steady drip of classified leaks about President Trump’s young administration has led some to speculate about the beginnings of an American deep state.
The term is derived from the Turkish "derin devlet," which refers to an intricate network made up of government officials, often including those from the military and intelligence communities, whose primary goal is to subvert a democratically elected leader's agenda and ultimately remove that leader from power.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Thomson Reuters
Turkey’s deep state is tethered to the army but consists of elements from the intelligence community, the judiciary, and the mafia. Turkish leaders, like current President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, have waged political campaigns aimed at inciting public anger against the deep state.
In Egypt, less than a year after former Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi was elected into office by the people, Gen. Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, backed by Egypt's military might, detained Morsi and toppled his government. El-Sisi is now Egypt's head of state. El-Sisi’s ascent to power is thought by many to have been the result of an Egyptian deep state’s response to the 2011 Arab Spring.
But experts and former government officials have warned against using the term deep state to refer to rifts between the US president and the intelligence community.
The deep state, as it exists in Turkey and Egypt, has two defining characteristics, Aykan Erdemir, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Business Insider. First, it involves cooperation across multiple government agencies, like intelligence officials, military officials, and often executive branch officials. Second, the execution of the deep state’s agenda often results in bloody outcomes.
"You see dramatic results like assassinations, mass killings, pogroms, bombings — it’s not about tension between the executive and the bureaucracy, it’s not about a failure to work together," Erdemir said, adding that he would recommend "extreme caution" in adapting the term "deep state" from other political cultures and applying it to the US.
"'Deep state' I would never use," Michael Hayden, the former CIA director who served under Presidents Obama and George W. Bush, told MSNBC in March. "That’s a phrase we’ve used for Turkey and other countries like that, but not the American republic."
From the fringe to Washington
But soon after the possibility of the beginnings of an American deep state was first raised by the mainstream media, the idea took hold of the far-right media, quickly reaching a fever pitch.
"The Deep State Bumps off General Flynn. Who's Next?" blared a February Breitbart headline after the resignation of Flynn. The article pointed to the mainstream media as an arm of the deep state, saying that the "ultimate target, of course, is Trump himself."
InfoWars editor at large Paul Joseph Watson recorded a segment posted to YouTube in early March titled "The Deep State War on Trump."
"Purge your administration of this globalist fifth column. There can be no compromise. These people literally want to overthrow a democratically elected government," Watson said.
From the fringe, the idea of a deep state working against the Trump administration made its way to the mainstream conservative media.
Sean Hannity. Paul Zimmerman/Getty Images
Fox News host and ardent Trump supporter Sean Hannity reiterated Watson's words during a segmentthat aired a week after Watson's video was posted on YouTube. "Tonight, it's time for the Trump administration to purge these saboteurs before it's too late," Hannity said, referring to "deep-state Obama-holdover government bureaucrats who are hell bent on destroying this president."
And from there, the fears of an American deep state powered by intelligence leaks, which started out as mild speculation and reached the heights of conspiracy theory, made their way to the halls of Washington.
Trump has repeatedly and emphatically expressed his belief that there has been a concerted effort, fueled by politicians, those within the intelligence community, and the "fake news" media, to undermine his presidency and policy agenda.
He notably accused the former president, without evidence, of personally ordering the surveillance of phones at Trump Tower. Trump likely made the accusation based on a monologue by far-right radio talk-show host Mark Levin and a Breitbart write-up of Levin's belief that there is a "silent coup" underway to overthrow Trump.
Trump’s cold war with the intelligence community
The president has also publicly castigated the media and the intelligence community.
"Leaking, and even illegal classified leaking, has been a big problem in Washington for years. Failing @nytimes (and others) must apologize!" Trump tweeted in February, shortly after Flynn resigned. "The spotlight has finally been put on the low-life leakers! They will be caught!" he said.
In a meeting later with several members of Congress, he added: "We're going to find the leakers, and they're going to pay a big price."
As the media continued publishing classified information, Trump tweeted that "information is being illegally given to the failing @nytimes & @washingtonpost by the intelligence community (NSA and FBI?). Just like Russia."
"The real scandal here is that classified information is illegally given out by 'intelligence' like candy," he continued. "Very un-American!"
Trump’s loyalists quickly followed his lead, pointing to the intelligence leaks as a key piece of evidence they say supports the existence of an American deep state. They’ve also consistently singled out Trump’s chief White House strategist, Steve Bannon, as a source of knowledge on the American deep state.
Bannon is the former head of Breitbart, a largely Trump-friendly outlet that has published a slew of articles asserting the existence of an American deep state.
Steve Bannon. Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
"We are talking about the emergence of a deep state led by Barack Obama, and that is something that we should prevent," Iowa Rep. Steve King told The New York Times. "The person who understands this best is Steve Bannon, and I would think that he's advocating to make some moves to fix it."
Echoing Hannity’s and Watson’s words, King later said that Trump "needs to purge the leftists within the administration that are holdovers from the Obama administration, because it appears that they are undermining his administration and his chances of success."
Trump adviser and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich also believes in the deep state and said he discussed the concept with Bannon. "Of course, the deep state exists. There's a permanent state of massive bureaucracies that do whatever they want and set up deliberate leaks to attack the president," Gingrich told the Associated Press in March.
"This is what the deep state does: They create a lie, spread a lie, fail to check the lie and then deny that they were behind the lie," Gingrich said.
He added that he and Bannon had discussed the idea and that Bannon compared its perils to the plot of the new season of "Homeland," which includes a storyline in which career intelligence officials try to undermine the president-elect.
Though Bannon has never used the term "deep state" publicly, he has repeatedly expressed distrust toward American institutions and the intelligence community.
After he was removed from his post on the National Security Council in April, Bannon said that he was put on the council to "ensure that it was de-operationalized," and added that the NSC has now returned "to its proper function."
'There have always been scandals … this is not new'
Despite the theories and headlines, the leaking of classified information is not all that unusual and not enough to prompt suspicions of a legitimate deep state in the US, according to former intelligence officials.
Intelligence leaks "happened during the Clinton administration, the Bush administration, and long before that," Bob Deitz, a former NSA and CIA veteran who worked under presidents Clinton and Bush, told Business Insider.
"It's possible that they came from directly within the White House, perhaps from people from the intelligence community on loan to the White House," he added. While the classified leaks that have been published in the media have reflected poorly on the administration, "there are a lot of leaks from people in the White House that reflect badly on them. Just look at all the reports of infighting between Bannon and Kushner," Deitz said.
"There have always been scandals," Glenn Carle, a former CIA clandestine services officer and an expert on national security, told Business Insider. "The torture black sites were leaked, the Pentagon Papers were leaked, the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident was leaked. This is not new."
Both Carle and Deitz added that more often than not, leaks of classified information come from the Hill. "It is rare for them to come from the rank-and-file of the CIA" or other intelligence agencies, Carle said.
REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst'If you serve the state, you betray it. If you betray the state, you betray it'
The dangers of a president and his allies believing in the existence of a covert effort to undermine him are profound, experts say, and it has placed those in the intelligence community in a tough position.
"The president has cast doubt on proven truths, undermined the laws, undermined the judiciary, the free press, the intelligence community," Carle said. "He's undermined the very values upon which this society was built. So, what do you do if you're an intelligence official? If you serve the state, you betray it. If you betray the state, you betray it," he continued.
This dilemma, Carle said, has been widely discussed among those in the intelligence community, who have been forced to assess which is the greater threat: Trump’s "authoritarian tendencies" which threaten "the fabric of the nation," or the clear national-security risks posed by a sustained stream of classified information being made public.
In this particular situation, in which the president of the US's campaign surrogates are under an active counterintelligence investigation for their suspected ties to a foreign power, "when leaks come from the intelligence community, it's not to undermine the president or to protect the deep state. It's to protect democracy — it stems from a sense of profound patriotism," Carle said.
Whatever the cause, classified information being leaked on a prolonged basis is treacherous, because it can send a message to the broader US intelligence community and government officials that leaking information is permissible.
"Everybody knows the White House has leaked information in pursuit of various foreign policy objectives throughout American history. When people see that, they might think, 'So, leaks are OK when the White House does it, but not OK if they come from somewhere other than the White House,'" Deitz said. "You lose the moral high ground."
A 'gold mine' for foreign intelligence
There are a number of national-security risks that can result from tension between a president who believes he’s being undermined and the government officials or agencies who find themselves the target of that president’s ire.
"By definition, information is classified because its release could jeopardize national security," Deitz said, adding that while there are instances of over-classification, "people cannot decide for themselves what information is OK to leak and what isn't. It doesn't work that way."
If the administration continues to publicly attack the intelligence community based on the belief that the national security apparatus is working against it, that could also open doors to hostile foreign powers looking to infiltrate American society.
Russian President Vladimir Putin. Adam Berry/Getty Images
"I spent my career exploiting the positions into which foreign officials were placed when they wanted the best for their society and wanted to uphold the oaths they made to their laws, and yet, the actions of their government undermined the very oaths they took," said Carle.
Now, he said, American intelligence officials may well be in the same position.
"This is a gold mine of opportunity for foreign intelligence services," he said.
There are other national-security risks posed by the actions of a president who believes in the existence of a shadow government. In some cases, it has placed intelligence officials in the position of having to determine whether they can share information with their commander-in-chief.
In February, for instance, The Wall Street Journal reported that US intelligence officials had withheld some sensitive information from the president. Though information has been withheld from presidents and congressional members in the past, officials told The Journal none of those past decisions were affected by concerns about a president’s trustworthiness or discretion. This decision to withhold information from Trump highlighted the "deep mistrust" between Trump and the intelligence community.
And if the rift between a White House that believes it’s being undermined by the institutions designed to serve American interests and those institutions themselves continues to widen, the risks to national security could be almost as severe as those posed by a legitimate deep state.
"The deep state does not exist in fact but it exists in the minds of Trump supporters. That’s just as much a threat to society," Carle said.
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11:04 AM 5/6/2017 - This Tiny Arctic Town Loves Visitors, Unless They're Automotive Spies | Navy SEAL Killed Fighting Militants in Somalia | For Arab Gulf States, Israel Is Emerging as an Ally
Saved Stories - None This Tiny Arctic Town Loves Visitors, Unless They're Automotive Spies Navy SEAL Killed Fighting Militants in Somalia For Arab Gulf States, Israel Is Emerging as an Ally Can Le Pen Close the Election Gap? 1. US Security from mikenova (...
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A State Department official on Friday said that the Russian proposal calling to bar U.S. military aircrafts from flying over designated safe zones cannot “limit” the U.S.’s mission against ISIS in the country in any way.
“The coalition will continue to strike ISIS targets in Syria,” the official told The Wall Street Journal. “The campaign to defeat ISIS will continue at the same relentless pace as it is proceeding now.”
A deal hammered out by Russia, Turkey and Iran to set up "de-escalation zones" in mostly opposition-held parts of Syria went into effect Saturday.
The plan is the latest international attempt to reduce violence in the war-ravaged country, and is the first to envisage armed foreign monitors on the ground in Syria. The United States is not party to the agreement and the Syrian rivals have not signed on to the deal. The armed opposition, instead, was highly critical of the proposal, saying it lacks legitimacy.
The plan, details of which will still be worked out over the next several weeks, went into effect at midnight Friday. There were limited reports of bombing in northern Homs and Hama, two areas expected to be part of the "de-escalation zones," activists said. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
It is not clear how the cease-fire or "de-escalation zones" will be enforced in areas still to be determined in maps to emerge a month from now.
Russian officials said it will be at least another month until the details are worked out and the safe areas established.
In the tangled mess that constitutes Syria's battlefields, there is much that can go wrong with the plan, agreed on in talks Thursday in Kazakhstan.
There is no clear mechanism to resolve conflict and violations— like most other previous deals struck by backers of the warring sides.
A potential complication to implementing the plan is the crowded airspace over Syria. The deal calls for all aircraft to be banned from flying over the safe zones.
Syrian, Russian, Turkish and U.S.-led coalition aircraft operate in different, sometimes same areas in Syria. It is not yet clear how the new plan would affect flightpaths of U.S.-led coalition warplanes battling Islamic State militants and other radical groups — and whether the American air force would abide by a diminished air space.
Russia and Iran — two of the plan's three sponsors — are key allies of President Bashar Assad's government and both are viewed as foreign occupation forces by his opponents. Rebels fighting to topple Assad are enraged by Iran's role in the deal and blame the Shiite power for fueling the sectarian nature of Syria's conflict, now in its seventh year.
Turkey, the third sponsor, is a major backer of opposition factions and has also sent troops into northern Syria, drawing the ire of Assad and his government.
Yet troops from the three countries are now expected to secure four safe zones. An official with Russia's military general staff said other countries may eventually have a role in enforcing the de-escalation areas.
Russian Col.-Gen. Sergei Rudskoi told reporters on Friday personnel and formations from Russia, Iran and Turkey will operate checkpoints and observation posts.
He said "security belts" will be created along the borders of the "de-escalation zones" to prevent incidents and fighting between opposing sides. The checkpoints and observation posts will ensure free movement of unarmed civilians and humanitarian aid and will facilitate economic activities, he said.
Rebels have expressed concerns the deal is a prelude to a de facto partitioning of Syria into spheres of influence.
Osama Abo Zayd, a spokesman for the Syrian military factions at the Kazakhstan talks, told The Associated Press it was "incomprehensible" for Iran to act as a guarantor of the deal. A cease-fire is unsustainable in the presence of the Iranian-backed militias in Syria, he said.
"We can't imagine Iran playing a role of peace," Abo Zayd said.
The U.S. sent a senior White House official to the Kazakh capital of Astana, where representatives of Russia, Turkey and Iran signed the deal, but had no role in the deal.
The idea of armed monitors is a new element — observers deployed in the early years of the Syrian conflict, including U.N. and Arab League observers, were unarmed.
But it's difficult to imagine how many boots on the ground would be needed to monitor the yet to be mapped areas or how and where exactly Russian, Iranian and Turkish troops would patrol.
"If that happens, we would be looking at a more serious effort than anything in the past," Aron Lund, a Syria expert wrote in an article Friday.
Lund said that from the outside, the agreement "does not look like it has great chances of success" and seems to "lack a clear mechanism to resolve conflicting claims and interpretations."
Late Friday, a Syrian opposition coalition, the High Negotiations Committee, denounced the deal in a strongly worded statement. The Western, Saudi-backed HNC said the deal lacks legitimacy and seeks to divide the country.
The HNC also said the deal was an attempt to give Syrian government troops military victories they could not achieve on the battleground by neutralizing rebel-held areas. It called on the U.S. and other Arab allied countries, to prevent the implementation of the deal.
A rebel commander in northern Hama said nearly an hour after the deal went into effect, battles raged with government forces. The area, south of Latamneh, is expected to be part of the deal. Jamil al-Saleh, the commander, said government shelling was intense amid an attempt to advance in the area, scene to fierce battles for weeks. "What deal?" he scoffed.
A previous cease-fire agreement signed in Astana on Dec. 30 helped reduce overall violence in Syria for several weeks but eventually collapsed. Other attempts at a cease-fire in Syria have all ended in failure.
The "de-escalation zones" will be closed to military aircraft from the U.S.-led coalition, the Russian official who signed the agreement, Alexander Lavrentye, said Friday. Under the plan, Assad's air force — and presumably Russian, too — would also halt flights over those areas.
In rebel-held Idlib, a protest was held Friday against the plan, denounced as a plot to "divide Syria."
"Any person or state who enters this land to divide it is the enemy of the Syrian people" activist Abed al-Basset Sarout told the crowd.
Some refugees were skeptical.
Ahmad Rabah, a Syrian refugee from Homs now in Lebanon, said he did not trust Assad's forces and going back to so-called safe zones would be tantamount to living in a "big prison."
The Pentagon said the de-escalation agreement would not affect the U.S.-led air campaign against IS.
"The coalition will continue to target ISIS wherever they operate to ensure they have no sanctuary," said Pentagon spokesman Marine Maj. Adrian J.T. Rankine-Galloway. ISIS is an alternative acronym for the Sunni militant group.
Rudskoi also suggested that Syrian government forces, freed up as a result of the safe areas, could be rerouted to fight against IS in the central and eastern part of Syria.
Another question left unanswered is how the deal would affect U.S. airstrikes targeting al-Qaida's positions in Syria.
U.S. warplanes have frequently struck the al-Qaida affiliate in the northern Idlib province, where the militant group dominates.
But under Thursday's deal, the entire province is designated to be one of the four "de-escalation zones."
Russian Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin said that if implemented the deal will allow for the separation of the opposition from IS fighters and those of the al-Qaida affiliate. He did not elaborate.
Syria's government has said that although it will abide by the agreement, it would continue fighting "terrorism" wherever it exists, parlance for most armed rebel groups fighting government troops.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
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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.
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 Colluded
Now, 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.
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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.
Julian Schreibman, a New York attorney, served at the Central Intelligence Agency and as a federal prosecutor.
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"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.
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
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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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Olbermann said this was all-but “confirmed when FBI Director James Comey” testified before the Senate Judiciary committee,” revealing that the FBI is “coordinating” with “two sets of prosecutors,” including the U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia.
“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:
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When the White House backed off its efforts to dump Sebastian Gorka on another federal agency, the controversial counterterrorism advisor had the president himself to thank, The Daily Beast has learned.
After news emerged last week that the Trump administration was setting the stage to move the British-born national security aide out of the White House, President Donald Trump and his chief strategist Stephen Bannon “personally intervened” to put a halt to Gorka’s White House eviction, two senior administration sources said.
Last Friday, The Daily Beast broke the news that the Trump administration had been actively exploring options to remove Gorka from the West Wing, where he serves as “deputy assistant” to the president, and place him at another federal agency. News of Gorka’s looming departure from the White House came amid security clearance issues and a mounting controversy over his involvement with a far-right Hungarian group notorious for its collaboration with the Nazi regime during the World War II. Gorka also holds fringe, clash-of-civilization views that many have criticized as anti-Muslim and extreme.
Senior administration sources described the situation to The Daily Beast last week as “a pain in the ass,” and said that Gorka—“biding his time” on the federal payroll—had virtually zero substantive duties at the White House or role in its decision-making or national-security policy decisions.
However, Gorka owes his continued presence in the White House to President Trump himself, who views him as a robust communicator of the administration’s anti-terrorism, anti-ISIS policies, particularly on conservative radio and TV interviews.
Gorka and Bannon are close. They worked together at Breitbart News—the far-right Trump-boosting outlet that Bannon once ran as a “dictator,” according to former employees—where Gorka served as national security editor even as he was also a paid consultant for the Trump campaign.
As the White House explored alternative employment for Gorka, staffers there dropped hints to other agencies that he was in Trump’s good graces. According to a senior administration official, who described the comment as a subtle suggestion that Gorka should be given a post in the official’s office, the White House referred to Gorka in those interagency communications “a friend of the president.”
Following The Daily Beast’s initial report last week, rumors swirled that Gorka’s expulsion from the White House was mere moments away. That’s when Bannon stepped in.
“[Bannon] put a stop to it—he’s loyal and a friend’s job was in danger and reputation was getting dragged through the mud,” another Trump administration official said, noting that Bannon had acted “decisively” to lobby for one of his ideological and personal allies in the West Wing. Trump then privately assured Gorka that his job was safe for now.
It was at this point that interagency chatter regarding moving Gorka out of the White House abruptly ceased.
According to multiple administration sources, a White House faction led by Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, isn’t pleased with this development. Kushner, who warred with Team Bannon last month, also co-founded with Bannon the Strategic Initiatives Group, an informal think tank within the White House. Though Gorka was a member of the group, one White House source says Kushner now views him as a “clown” and wants nothing to do with him.
Still, Gorka is sitting pretty this week.
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He told a reporter with Ami Magazine that he had personally met with Trump in the wake of reports of his impending departure, according to a since-deleted tweet from the Jewish publication. The president, Gorka said, assured him that “he’s not being asked to step down.”
But he did not shut the door on a White House departure. “I will be in the White House as long as the president wants me there, and if he needs me to do something somewhere else, I will do whatever he needs me to do,” Gorka told Fox News Radio.
The White House also seemed to leave the door open to a future move. Asked about reports of Gorka’s ouster on Monday, press secretary Sean Spicer said he had “no personnel announcement at the time. I have no belief that he is currently leaving the White House.”
The initial pressure to place Gorka at another agency riled some administration officials who viewed him as a liability—no matter where he was. One official at an agency to which the White House had shopped Gorka saw it as an attempt to offload a staffer with few official duties and mounting public relations baggage without having to upset the president and Gorka’s other White House allies.
For now, Trump’s affinity for Gorka and his ability to communicate administration policy on national security matters means he is staying put, even if his official duties remain sparse.
“The president really likes him and appreciates him as a good spokesperson for the administration, but he isn’t part of the [National Security Council] policy making process,” a senior administration official said of Gorka last month, adding that his contributions to foreign policy have been minimal, with National Security Adviser Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster’s team overshadowing the relevance of his input. Officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive personnel matters.
Gorka ignored questions about his future employment plans after a speech to the Republican National Lawyers Association’s annual policy conference in Washington on Friday morning. He rushed to the elevator as New York attorney and RNLA vice-chair Larry Levy tried to keep a physical barrier between Gorka and a Daily Beast reporter.
“We’re not taking press questions at this time,” Levy said as he attempted to block a hallway at the National Press Club.
Gorka simply asked The Daily Beast on Friday morning if we had emailed the White House press shop. He had previously asked that questions be put in an email to him directly. He hasn’t responded to multiple requests for comment since.
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Court orders State Dept to release Clinton emails on Benghazi attack
RT - 6 hours ago
A Washington DC federal court judge has ordered the State Department to turn over Hillary Clinton's emails that immediately followed the terrorist attack in Benghazi to the conservative watchdog group, Judicial Watch. US District Judge Amy Berman ...
Did Huma Abedin And Anthony Weiner Topple Hillary Clinton's Empire? [Opinion]
The Inquisitr - 3 hours ago
The following article is entirely the opinion of Roz Zurko and does not reflect the views of the Inquisitr. While Hillary Clinton is pointing her election loss finger of blame at anyone who stands still long enough, it looks as though it was an inside ...
Court orders release of Benghazi-related emails from Clinton
Business Insider - 10 hours ago
A federal judge has ordered the State Department to turn over eight paragraphs of redacted materials from Hillary Clinton's emails which are likely to shed more light into what the Obama administration knew about the Benghazi attack two days after it ...
Judge Orders Text Of Clinton Emails On Benghazi To Be Released
Western Journalism - 6 hours ago
The full contents of two Hillary Clinton emails about the Benghazi attack will soon be brought to light in the wake of a federal judge's ruling Friday that the State Department has to share with the American people the contents of two emails sent two ...
Judge Rules State Department Must Release Clinton Benghazi Emails
Independent Journal Review - 6 hours ago
The most famous question of the Watergate hearings was arguably the one asked by the late Tennessee senator, Howard Baker, in reference to President Richard Nixon. “What did the president know, and when did he know it?” The same question has been ...
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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...
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