7:58 AM 1/30/2019 - Russians are leaking Trump scandals to remind the US president they have leverage over him | US intel chiefs say North Korea, Russia are top threats... | Maduro claims that US President has ordered his assassination | The Shadow Of The Sphinx: "FBI was not able to find a motive" - this is the more accurate description. - M.N. | Is the US intelligence community at odds with President Trump?
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Intel chiefs challenge Trump's national security claims - ABC News
America's top intelligence officials on Tuesday appeared to challenge some of President Donald Trump's most prominent claims about global national security issues, warning lawmakers that ISIS is still a serious threat to U.S. interests around the world, acknowledging that Iran has -- at least temporarily -- abandoned its efforts to build nuclear weapons, and insisting that North Korea is "unlikely to give up" its own nuclear arsenal.
New Abwehr and Germany’s Strategic Repositioning as top security risk - Google Search
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| New Abwehr and Germany’s Strategic Repositioning as top security risk - Google Search | ||
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Reverse Psychology 101: Don't announce that you're using reverse psychology.  | ||
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UPDATE 5-U.S. spy chiefs break with Trump on many threats to the U.S. DevdiscourseChina and Russia pose the biggest risks to the United States, and are more aligned than they have been in decades as they target the 2020 presidential election ... | ||
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The "Late Show" host and former New Jersey governor go at it over shots of tequila.  | ||
| The New Abwehr wants to turn America into a third world country by installing the third world and the third rate (if not the Z rate) leaders for America! - Google Search | ||
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| The New Abwehr wants to turn America into a third world country by installing the third world and the third rate (if not the Z rate) leaders for America! - Google Search | ||
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| "putin and trump" - Google News: Russians are leaking Trump scandals to remind the US president they have leverage over him: MSNBC panel - AlterNet | ||
Russians are leaking Trump scandals to remind the US president they have leverage over him: MSNBC panel AlterNetRussian President Vladimir Putin may outmaneuvered President Donald Trump on the world stage once again, panelists on MSNBC's “All In” with Chris Hayes ... | ||
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US intel chiefs say North Korea, Russia are top threats, not border WFMYNews2.comThe heads of U.S. intelligence agencies made no mention of a crisis at the border when giving their annual threat assessment, contrasting President Trump. | ||
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Maduro claims that US President has ordererd his assassination Cyprus MailBy Vivian Sequera. Speaking to Russian state news agency RIA on Wednesday, President Nicolas Maduro said that President Trump had ordered the ... | ||
| In The Shadow Of The Sphinx: "FBI was not able to find a motive" - this is the more accurate description. - M.N. - 2:10 AM 1/30/2019 trumpinvestigations.blogspot.com/2019/01/mn-fbi… | ||
In The Shadow Of The Sphinx: "FBI was not able to find a motive" - this is the more accurate description. - M.N. - 2:10 AM 1/30/2019 trumpinvestigations.blogspot.com/2019/01/mn-fbi…
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Is the US intelligence community at odds with President Trump? Yahoo NewsIntelligence chiefs assess national security challenges; reaction and analysis from the 'Special Report' All-Stars. | ||
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| Cliff Sims: the ex-Trump staffer who wrote 'Team of Vipers' - The Washington Post | ||
 Cliff Sims, left, with Kellyanne Conway and Sean Spicer. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP) Yes, the book reportedly contains the kind of salacious behind-the-scenes details about Trump’s most controversial moments that have come to characterize this very specific genre. But Sims also presents himself as a supporter of the president and his politics and has spoken on his press tour about his own personal failings. “I was ruthless. I was a coward. I was self-serving. … Sometimes I didn’t speak up,” he told “Late Show” host Stephen Colbert of his time as a staffer. Sims doesn’t have the name recognition of other former staffers who have gone on to write books, such as Sean Spicer or Omarosa Manigault Newman. But after Tuesday morning, anyone who follows Trump on Twitter knows his name. | ||
| Intel chiefs challenge Trump's national security claims - ABC News | ||
By Mike Levine and Lee FerranJan 29, 2019 5:40 PM ET
Intel chiefs challenge some of Trump's national security claims
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WATCH | Intel chiefs challenge some of Trump's national security claims
By Mike Levine and Lee FerranJan 29, 2019 5:40 PM ET
America's top intelligence officials on Tuesday appeared to challenge some of President Donald Trump's most prominent claims about global national security issues, warning lawmakers that ISIS is still a serious threat to U.S. interests around the world, acknowledging that Iran has -- at least temporarily -- abandoned its efforts to build nuclear weapons, and insisting that North Korea is "unlikely to give up" its own nuclear arsenal.
The testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee coincided with the release of the U.S. intelligence community's latest "worldwide threat assessment," which noted that even "some U.S. allies and partners are seeking greater independence from Washington in response to their perceptions of changing US policies on security and trade." "In many respects, it is a rebuke to the political rhetoric from the administration," John Cohen, a senior Homeland Security official focusing on threat-related intelligence under the Obama administration, and an ABC News contributor, said. "[It's] striking in some respects." Last year, Trump removed the United States from the international deal reached with Iran during the Obama administration, claiming the deal would only provide a cloak for Iran to continue its nuclear development. More recently, the Trump administration has touted its operations against ISIS, with Trump himself tweets last month that ISIS had been "defeated" in Syria. "Iranian officials have publicly threatened to push the boundaries of [the international deal's] restrictions if Iran does not gain the tangible financial benefits it expected from the deal," Coats added. Cohen, the former Homeland Security official, said that "what is striking about this detailed assessment is what it doesn't say." "The report does not reinforce or support recent claims by the administration of a national security crisis at the southern border," Cohen said. In his opening remarks, Coats framed "migration flows" as a "challenge" to U.S. interests, saying Mexican authorities are not able to "fully address" drug cartels. He also said "[h]igh crime rates and weak job markets will continue to spur U.S.-bound migrants from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras." Coats told lawmakers his opening remarks were intended "to provide you an overview of the national security threats facing our nation." He was the only one to give opening remarks, as he was speaking on behalf of those seated beside him: CIA Director Gina Haspel, FBI Director Christopher Wray, National Security Agency Director Gen. Paul Nakasone, Defense Intelligence Agency Director Gen. Robert Ashley and National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency Director Robert Cardillo. "Threats to U.S. national security will expand and diversify in the coming year, driven in part by China and Russia as they respectively compete more intensely with the United States and its traditional allies and partners," the newly-published 2019 Worldwide Threat Assessment warns. "At the same time, some U.S. allies and partners are seeking greater independence from Washington in response to their perceptions of changing US policies on security and trade and are becoming more open to new bilateral and multilateral partnerships." The chairman of the Senate panel, GOP Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, echoed those sentiments, warning, "The objective of our enemies has not changed -- they want to see the United States weakened, if not destroyed. They want to see us abandon our friends and allies. They want to see us lessen our global presence. They want to see us weak and divided." FBI Director Wray said the nation's use of economic espionage was so widespread that most of the FBI field offices had an open investigation linked to China. "I would say China writ large is the most significant counter-intelligence threat we face," Wray told lawmakers. Coats said that China's "pursuit of intellectual property, sensitive research and development plans, and U.S. Person data, remains a significant threat to the US government and private sector." Wray said, however, that he was "encouraged" that the American people, from those in business to academia, are "now sort of waking up" to the understanding of the blurred lines between Chinese firms and the government and threat that that relationship poses. American allies are starting to rethink their economic and business relationships with the Chinese government and Chinese companies, he said. Meanwhile, the officials said an economically weakened Russia is working to sow discord in Western institutions and to "undermine the post-WII international order," as Coats put it. The officials said Russia has continued the social media influence campaign that was so prevalent ahead of the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The NSA's Nakasone indicated that some actions of his agency, which handles much of the intelligence community's cyber work, diminished Russian capabilities ahead of the 2018 midterm elections. But the threat has hardly gone away, the officials said. "We assess that foreign actors will view the 2020 U.S. elections as an opportunity to advance their interests," Coats said. "We expect them to refine their capabilities and add new tactics as they learn from each other’s experiences and efforts in previous elections." When questioned by Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris of California, about whether the intelligence community had a single strategy document for combating foreign influence online ahead of the 2020 election, Coats said that one document wouldn't make sense in such a "fluid" environment, but attempted to assure Harris that it was a top priority for the intelligence community. Rounding out what Coats called the "Big 4" threats, in addition to Russia and China, the officials fielded questions about Iran and North Korea, mostly about their nuclear aspirations. Despite President Trump's optimism that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un would denuclearize his nation, the threat assessment said North Korea is unlikely to do so, as it views nuclear weapons as vital to the survival of the regime. Still, the CIA's Haspel said that North Korea had frozen nuclear testing and that ongoing dialogue between North Korean and U.S. official was "positive," something of value to North Korea. Coats told lawmakers that when it comes to North Korea, the U.S. intelligence community was going into the topic with "eyes wide open." Haspel also testified that Iran was "technically" in compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal, even if the regime appeared to have taken some steps that might better position the nation should it decide to withdraw from the deal. There were ongoing discussions in Tehran about whether it was worth adhering to the accord's requirements, she said. Echoing the recently released National Intelligence Strategy, the threat assessment also touched on the dangers of emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, 5G networks and deep fakes, and how they could be utilized by adversary nations. "All four of these states – China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran – are advancing their cyber capabilities, which are relatively low-cost and growing in potency and severity," Coats said. "This includes threatening both minds and machines in an expanding number of ways, such as stealing information, attempting to influence populations, or developing ways to disrupt critical infrastructures." The threat assessment warned that both China and Russia currently have the ability to hit "localized" sections of American critical infrastructure -- perhaps interrupting a local electrical grid for a few hours or interfering with a natural gas pipeline for days. In discussing the terrorist organization ISIS, Haspel said that while the group had lost virtually all of its physical territory in Iraq and Syria, the group still commanded thousands of fighters and said it was "still dangerous." DNI Coats said it was a threat that wasn't going away anytime soon. "While we have defeated the caliphate except for a couple little villages," he said, the U.S. should not "underestimate" the ability of terror groups like ISIS to live on in different places or through their ideology. "ISIS will continue to be a threat to the United States," he said. "The composition of the current threats we face is a toxic mix of strategic competitors, regional powers, weak or failed states, and non-state actors using a variety of tools in overt and subtle ways to achieve their goals," Coats said. "The scale and scope of the various threats facing the United States and our immediate interests worldwide is likely to further intensify this year. It is increasingly a challenge to prioritize which threats are of greatest importance. " | ||
| Today's Headlines and Commentary - Lawfare | ||
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| Trump Russia probe: Who's involved, where it stands | ||
President Donald Trump has characterized investigations into Russian meddling in his election as a "witch hunt." Photo by Zach Gibson/UPI | License Photo
 U.S. intelligence agencies announced in October 2016 that they agree Moscow was responsible for hacking Democratic National Committee computers as well as those of other Democratic figures and organizations. The hackers forwarded the information they obtained to WikiLeaks, some of which was seen as damaging to campaign of Trump rival Hillary Clinton. What role, if any, Trump or his associates played in the alleged interference has prompted four investigations -- one by the FBI, one in the House and two in the Senate -- which collectively Trump has labeled a "witch hunt." Attempts to answer the question have also prompted a new one -- whether Trump has obstructed investigations into the matter. Here are the key players and how they're involved: President Donald Trump Trump has characterized allegations that his campaign colluded with Russian efforts to meddle in the election as a "witch hunt." Though he said he wasn't involved in the DNC hacking, in July 2016, Trump said he hoped Russia would find 30,000 emails missing from Hillary Clinton's private email server during her time as secretary of state. "Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing," he said during a press conference in Doral, Fla. Trump later tweeted that if Russians did have the emails, they should share them with the FBI. Clinton's campaign accused Trump of actively encouraging "a foreign power to conduct espionage against his political opponent." Trump said he was only joking. Though he often praised Russian President Vladimir Putin during his campaign, Trump repeatedly denied meeting with him prior to their first official face-to-face at a G20 summit in Berlin in July 2017. Prior to his campaign for president, Trump had numerous business dealings with Russian companies. About one-third of the units on the most expensive floors of Trump Tower in Manhattan were sold to people or companies connected to Russia and neighboring states by 2004. Just before ground broke on the building, Russia defaulted on $40 billion in domestic debt, the ruble plummeted and many Russian millionaires invested in U.S. real estate as a safe place for their money. Trump and his children have traveled to Russia a number of times for business deals, and though he applied for trademarks there, he never purchased any real estate or opened hotels in Russia. Trump and members of his press team have said he has no financial or business connections to the country. In a September 2015 interview on The Hugh Hewitt Show, Trump said he made contacts with powerful people in Russia. "I was with the top-level people, both oligarchs and generals, and top of the government people. I can't go further than that, but I will tell you that I met the top people, and the relationship was extraordinary," he said. Some members of Congress have questioned whether Trump obstructed the FBI's Russia probe when he allegedly asked former director James Comey to drop the investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn. Meanwhile, Trump's personal lawyer dealing with the Russia investigation, John Dowd, unexpectedly resigned from his role in March 2018 after disagreements with the president. Michael Flynn 
File Photo by Mike Theiler/UPI
The plea could indicate Flynn is cooperating with the special counsel investigation. Trump forced Flynn to resign as his national security adviser Feb. 13, 2017, for misleading Vice President Mike Penceabout a meeting he had with Kislyak during the transition period. In his resignation letter, Flynn said he may have discussed policy matters and potential sanctions by the Obama administration with Kislyak, topics he later told Pence were not discussed. Trump said he only fired Flynn because of the lack of disclosure to Pence, and supported his national security adviser's contacts with Russians during the transition. Comey testified in June that Trump implied he wanted the FBI to "let go" of its investigation into Flynn. Trump has denied the allegation. In December 2015, Flynn sat at a table with Putin at a gala for Russia's state-owned news outlet, RT, and made an appearance on the television network. He made $65,000 that year from companies linked to Russia, but omitted the payments on his security clearance renewal paperwork in January 2016. In April, Flynn filed revised financial disclosure forms revealing payments from three Russian companies with ties to the Kremlin shortly before he joined the Trump campaign. After initially invoking the Fifth Amendment, Flynn said he would comply with a Senate intelligence committee subpoena for personal and professional documents related to his dealings with Russia. James Comey 
File Photo by Dennis Van Tine/UPI
Later, Trump attributed the dismissal to the active FBI investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russian efforts to sway the presidential election. Days before he was fired, Comey asked the Justice Department for more resources and staff for the investigation. "When I decided to just do it, I said to myself, I said, 'You know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story,'" Trump said in an interview at the time. On June 8, Comey testified before the Senate intelligence committee and said he wrote detailed memos after every discussion he had with Trump. Comey said that shortly after Trump fired Flynn, the president asked him to stop the Flynn investigation. "I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go," Comey testified that Trump said. Comey said he didn't interpret that to mean that Trump wanted the entire Russian investigation dropped. Jeff Sessions 
File Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI
During his confirmation hearing on Jan. 10, 2017, Sessions said he was not aware of anyone affiliated with the Trump campaign communicating with the Russian government. "I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and I didn't have -- did not have communications with the Russians, and I'm unable to comment on it," he said. Sessions later said his meetings were part of the normal course of duty for his job as a U.S. senator and he never discussed campaign-related matters. To avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest, he stepped away from the investigation, a move Trump has since criticized. "Jeff Sessions takes the job, gets into the job, recuses himself, which frankly I think is very unfair to the president," Trump told The New York Times in July. "How do you take a job and then recuse yourself? If he would have recused himself before the job, I would have said, 'Thanks, Jeff, but I'm not going to take you.' It's extremely unfair -- and that's a mild word -- to the president." Mueller's team interviewed Sessions in January 2018, the first time the special counsel team spoke to a member of the president's Cabinet about the case. Sessions resigned as attorney general at Trump's request in November 2018. Robert Mueller 
Former FBI director Robert Mueller attends James Comey's swearing-in in 2013. File Pool Photo by Alex Wong/UPI
Donald Trump Jr. 
File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI
Eight people attended that meeting, which started with an email from British music publicist Rob Goldstone to Trump Jr. In it, Goldstone offered to arrange a meeting between Trump Jr. and Natalia Veselnitskaya, whom he described as a "Russian government attorney." Goldstone said she wanted to give Trump Jr. information about Clinton as "part of Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump." Trump Jr. agreed to go, saying, "If it's what you say, I love it, especially later in the summer." Trump Jr. later said Veselnitskaya made "vague" and "ambiguous" statements that "made no sense" related to alleged information she had that individuals connected to Russia were funding the Democratic National Committee in support of Clinton. He said Veselnitskaya's "true agenda" was to discuss the U.S. adoption of Russian children and the Magnitsky Act. In addition to Trump Jr. and Veselnitskaya, six others were at the meeting: Goldstone; Ike Kaveladze, the vice president of a Russian real estate company; Paul Manafort; Jared Kushner; Rinat Akhmetshin, a Russian-American lobbyist who served in a counterintelligence unit of the former Soviet military; and Anatoli Samochornov, a former State Department employee acting as a translator for Veselnitskaya. On Sept. 7, Trump Jr. had a private meeting with the Senate Committee on the Judiciary. He said he attended the Trump Tower meeting because Veselnitskaya promised "information concerning the fitness, character or qualifications of" Clinton. Jared Kushner 
File Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI
In June 2016, he was one of eight people in attendance at the meeting between Trump Jr. and a Kremlin-linked Russian lawyer. In December 2016, he met with Kislyak and Flynn at Trump Tower in Manhattan. The White House said they spoke about "potentially establishing a more open line of communication in the future." The same month, he also met with Sergey Gorkov head of Russian state investment bank Vnesheconombank. On July 24, 2017, Kushner testified before the Senate intelligence committee that his meetings with Russians the year before were "proper" and not an attempt to collude with them to win the election. Kushner has come under scrutiny for not disclosing the meetings on his SF-86 questionnaire, which he submitted as part of his security clearance. He said his assistant submitted the form before he had a chance to review it. Paul Manafort 
File Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI
The guilty plea averted a second trial. The D.C. indictment, filed in October 2017, charged Manafort with conspiracy, money laundering, tax fraud, failure to file reports of foreign financial assets, serving as an unregistered foreign agent and giving false and misleading statements under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Witness tampering charges were added in June 2018 and named an accomplice -- Konstantin Kilimnik. Prosecutors reduced the set of charges against Manafort on Sept. 14 from seven to two. On the second indictment -- filed in Virginia in February 2018 -- a jury found him guilty on Aug. 21 of five tax fraud charges, one charge of hiding foreign bank accounts and two counts of bank fraud. The verdict came after four days of deliberations during which the panel of six men and six women indicated it had difficulty reaching a consensus on 10 counts. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis III declared a mistrial on those 10 charges. The indictment -- filed in Virginia in February 2018 -- accused him and business associate Rick Gates of lying to banks about their business income in order to get more than $20 million in loans. The February 2018 indictment says Manafort and Gates passed the money they received from Ukraine through foreign bank accounts to conceal it from the Internal Revenue Service. Manafort has been in jail since June 15, 2018, when a federal judge in Washington, D.C., revoked his $10 million bond in the first indictment he faced. U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson initially put him on house arrest after he pleaded not guilty to the charges. Manafort resigned as Trump's campaign chairman in August 2016 after The New York Times reported a Ukrainian government corruption probe found Manafort received nearly $13 million off the books from a pro-Russian Ukrainian political party. In June 2017, when Manafort registered as a foreign agent after the fact, he reported making more than $17 million from the Party of Regions. Within the first month of Trump's presidency, U.S. intelligence agencies said they were investigating intercepted phone calls between Manafort and Russian intelligence agents. Manafort said he didn't realize they were intelligence agents. Manafort also was one of eight people in attendance at a meeting between Trump Jr. and a Kremlin-linked Russian lawyer. Manafort was scheduled to testify before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary in July 2017, but the committee dropped its subpoena after he spoke with members of the Senate intelligence committee and gave them documents on July 25. On Jan. 3, 2018, Manafort sued the Department of Justice, saying Mueller didn't have the authority to investigate his lobbying dealings in Ukraine. The Department of Justice asked for the suit to be dropped, saying Manafort misinterpreted Mueller's appointment as allowing him to investigate crimes "uncovered for the very first time during his investigation." On May 15, 2018, a federal judge rejected Manafort's suit. They said he can prosecute crimes the Justice Department knew about. Rick Gates 
File Photo by Leigh Vogel/UPI
Gates, along with Manafort, faced one of the first indictments approved by a grand jury in the Mueller probe. A judge placed him on house arrest Oct. 30, 2017, after he initially pleaded not guilty to a series of charges including conspiracy, money laundering, tax fraud, failure to file reports of foreign financial assets, serving as an unregistered foreign agent and giving false and misleading statements under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. He posted $5 million bond. Gates is accused of transferring more than $3 million from offshore accounts. Though Manafort was ousted from the Trump campaign in 2016, Gates stayed on and had a role in the president's inaugural committee. He also was part of a lobbying group to help push Trump's agenda, but he was forced out in April amid questions over his role in the Russia probe. Gates faced a second indictment in February 2018 accusing him and Manafort of financial crimes. Alex Van Der Zwaan In April 2018, a federal judge sentenced prominent New York-based Dutch attorney Alex Van Der Zwaan to 30 days in prison after he pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI. His was the first punishment related to the Mueller investigation. The indictment from Mueller's team accused him of making false statements regarding his work with a law firm on behalf of Ukraine's Ministry of Justice in 2012 to prepare a report on the trial of Ukrainian politician Yulia Tymoshenko. Van Der Zwaan also communicated with Gates and Manafort. In addition to the prison sentence, the judge ordered van der Zwaan to pay a $20,000 fine and serve two months of supervised release. George Papadopoulos 
File Photo by Ken Cedeno
Court documents show Papadopoulos worked to create a relationship between the campaign and the Kremlin after Trump secured the Republican nomination. Carter Page 
Carter Page speaks in Moscow on December 12, 2016. File Photo by Yuri Kochetkov/EPA
Various U.S. intelligence agencies, including the CIA, NSA and FBI, have investigated him for alleged contact he has had with Russian officials under U.S. sanctions. He distanced himself from the Trump campaign in September 2016 while under scrutiny. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court issued a warrant to allow the Justice Department to surveil Page in the summer of 2016 based on evidence he was working as a Russian agent. In March 2017, before news of the FISA warrant became public, Page sent a letter to the Senate intelligence committee saying he may have been wiretapped during the time he spent at Trump Tower for the campaign. A pair of dueling memos about the FISA warrant became the focus of attention for the House intelligence committee in January and February 2018. One written by the direction of committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., accuses top law enforcement officials of relying on an unsubstantiated dossier by former British spy Christopher Steel to get the FISA warrant. Trump OK'd the release of that memo in early February. Trump declined to release another memo by ranking member Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., a rebuttal of the Nunes memo. The president said there were security concerns with some of the information in that memo. Roger Stone 
Photo by Gary I Rothstein/UPI
He previously said he communicated with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in order to obtain information on Clinton. The Mueller team also said Stone attempted to intimidate Randy Credico, another witness interviewed in the probe. Federal agents arrested him Jan. 25, 2019, at his Fort Lauderdale, Fla., home. In March 2017, Stone also acknowledged communicating with Democratic National Committee hacker Guccifer 2.0, which U.S. intelligence agencies believe is a handle used by Russian intelligence. He answered questions from staffers of the House intelligence committee Sept. 26, 2017, saying he was unaware WikiLeaks planned to publish Clinton's emails. He said he only knew about it beforehand "by reading about it on Twitter." In February 2016, U.S. intelligence agencies said they were investigating whether Stone had any contact with Russian officials during the time he was involved in Trump's campaign. During his Sept. 26 interview, he said neither he nor anyone involved in the Trump campaign colluded with Russia. Michael Cohen 
Photo by John Angelillo/UPI
The Justice Department charged Cohen for telling House and Senate committees last year that a plan to build a Trump Tower in Moscow ended in January 2016. But prosecutors said development continued after that date. Trump said multiple times he had no business dealings in Russia -- and Cohen told lawmakers he never contacted anyone in Russia about the real estate project. The indictment said Cohen, in fact, spoke on the phone with a Russian intermediary for help with the development. Cohen also admitted to discussing the deal with Trump. The other charges -- separate from, but stemming from information uncovered by the Mueller probe -- include five counts of tax evasion and one each of excessive campaign contribution, unlawful corporate contribution and making false statements to a bank. The campaign finance charges stem from his involvement in making payments in 2016 to two women -- Stormy Daniels, also known as Stephanie Clifford, and Karen McDougal -- who claimed affairs with Trump. Prosecutors said they were intended "to influence the election from the shadows." Vladimir Putin 
Russian President Vladimir Putin denies accusations of Russian meddling in the U.S. election. File Photo by Yuri Kadobnov/Pool/EPA
In July 2017, when he met with Trump for the first time, he again denied the accusations. During the 2016 campaign, Putin lauded Trump as a "really brilliant and talented person," and Trump called Putin a "strong leader." The relationship between the two countries, though, has been strained over U.S. sanctions on Russia first imposed by the Obama administration and continued under Trump over alleged election meddling. Sergey Kislyak 
Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak attends a ceremony at NASA Headquarters on December 2, 2016. File Photo by Joel Kowsky/NASA
Trump forced Flynn to resign Feb. 13, 2017, for failing to disclose the nature of a meeting he had with the ambassador before Trump's inauguration. Kislyak met twice with then-Sen. Sessions, who did not disclose the meetings during Senate confirmation hearings to become attorney general. Kushner also met with Kislyak in 2016 and did not disclose it to congressional and federal officials. On May 10, Kislyak met with Trump in the Oval Office along with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. During that meeting, Trump shared classified intelligence information with the Russians. For his part, Kislyak said his interactions with Trump surrogates are part of his job as a diplomat -- to make connections with political figures in the United States. Status of investigations Special counsel On May 17, Rosenstein appointed special counsel Mueller to oversee the FBI's investigation. The team also is considering whether Trump obstructed the FBI investigation into Flynn. Mueller assembled a legal team that includes Andrew Weissman, who once ran the Justice Department's fraud section, Deputy Solicitor General Michael Dreeben, Michael Bowe, John Dowd, and three partners from his former law firm, Aaron Zebley, Jeannie Rhee and James Quarles. The team has the legal authority to issue subpoenas and can use its own discretion whether to inform members of the Trump administration about the investigation's progress. Trump has the authority to fire Mueller, though senators have introduced at least two pieces of legislation to prevent that. Mueller's investigation issued its first charges on Oct 30, against Manafort and a former business associate, Gates. Flynn and Van Der Zwaan also have faced charges. Additionally as part of the Mueller probe, Richard Pinedo of California pleaded guilty in February 2018 to identity fraud for providing online services to circumvent the security features of online payment processors. It allowed Russian nationals -- accused of interference in the U.S. presidential election -- to open 14 PayPal accounts with the stolen identities of people in the United States. On Oct. 10, 2018, a federal judge sentenced Pinedo to six months in prison, six months of home confinement and 24 months of supervised release. Pinedo's guilty plea was connected to an indictment earlier that week of 13 Russian nationals and three Russian entities. The defendants, posing as persons located inside the United States, created false personas and operated social media pages and groups designed to attract American audiences, the indictment said. On July, 13, 2018, the Justice Department announced indictments against 12 Russian intelligence officials stemming from the Mueller probe. The 12 officers in the GRU, Russia's military intelligence agency, were accused of being involved in a cyberattack against Democratic Party organizations as well as the presidential committee of Clinton. The 29-page indictment outlines 12 counts, including alleged interference in the election, aggravated identity theft, money laundering, and computer access without authorization. Rosenstein said two GRU groups were involved, one to "actively steal information" and "another to disseminate it." Two online parties, named DC Leaks and Guccifer 2.0, were the personae by which the Russian hackers operated. Both were previously identified as non-Russian entities, but "were controlled by the Russian GRU." The first sentence related to his probe came April 3, 2018, for Dutch lawyer Alex van der Zwaan, for lying to the FBI. In December, 2019, the Department of Justice said the Mueller probe has cost more than $25 million since it began in the spring of 2017. U.S. Senate The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the Senate Committee on the Judiciary are investigating Russian election meddling. The intelligence committee heard testimony from Comey on his dismissal and interactions with Trump; has subpoenaed documents from Flynn; and has interviewed Manafort and Trump Jr. On May 16, 2018, the panel issued a report saying it agreed Russia meddled in the 2016 election and that the effort was directed by Putin. The judiciary committee in June announced it would investigate whether the Obama and Trump administrations improperly interfered with the FBI investigation into Russia. There are been some disagreement between the two Senate committees on witnesses, and judiciary committee Chairman Chuck Grassley said he would consider subpoenaing Comey and other witnesses. U.S. House of Representatives This House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence was the first body to conclude its investigation -- determining in March 2018 that there was no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia prior to the 2016 election. The committee said it would release the final Republican-authored report on its findings after it is redacted of classified information. Democrats said they do not sanction the report's findings and vowed to continue the investigation. On March 20, 2017, Comey told the committee there was a counterintelligence investigation into Trump. On Sept. 26, Stone said there was no collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian state. In Apri 2017l, the committee's chairman, Rep. Devin Nunes, said he would temporarily step aside from the panel's Russia investigation after he gave wiretapping evidence to Trump before he shared it with panel members. Rep. Mike Conaway, R-Texas, took over the Russia investigation. Impeachment efforts On July 12, Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., introduced articles of impeachment against Trump, though the measure attracted virtually no support, even among Democrats. It had one co-sponsor, Rep. Al Green, D-Texas. Democrats have sought to tamp down talk of impeaching Trump for fear it would backfire among moderates and shift focus away from the ongoing investigations. Sherman's articles allege Trump obstructed justice by firing Comey after Comey refused to end an investigation into Flynn at Trump's behest. Articles of impeachment are the first step on a long path set out in the Constitution for removing a president from office. Given the Republican control of both the House of Representatives and Senate, Sherman's measure has virtually no chance of advancing with the majority necessary in each chamber.
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| Facebook Announces 'New Tools' To Help Protect EU Elections - Coda Story | ||
Facebook Announces 'New Tools' To Help Protect EU Elections Coda StoryFacebook has announced it will roll out new tools aimed at preventing election meddling by making political advertising more transparent during upcoming ...  | ||
| Politics: Why did Kamala Harris withhold support for special investigations of police shootings? | ||
Harris said she never took a position on any bill because of her duties as attorney general. But that’s not accurate. Her archived news releases show she took positions on a range of pending bills.    | ||
| 4:21 AM 1/30/2019 - The "Oakland Stuff": FBI, investigate Kamala Harris, and do it now! Kamala Harris: The Next Presidential Disaster In The Making (#3, after Obama and Trump) on the horizon! - Google Search trumpinvestigations.blogspot.com/2019/01/fbi-in… | ||
4:21 AM 1/30/2019 - The "Oakland Stuff": FBI, investigate Kamala Harris, and do it now! Kamala Harris: The Next Presidential Disaster In The Making (#3, after Obama and Trump) on the horizon! - Google Search trumpinvestigations.blogspot.com/2019/01/fbi-in…
Posted by
mikenov on Wednesday, January 30th, 2019 8:30am | ||
| Brookings Register | Evidence piles up: If it looks and talks like a Russian stooge ... | ||
  So the world’s greatest negotiator has taken 800,000 hostages and threatens to shoot himself in the foot unless he gets his wall. Too bad the Democrats can’t subcontract the job of confronting his demands to Vladimir Putin. Faced with the Russian dictator, our bold leader rolls over on his back like a puppy dog.Furthermore, Trump’s been doing it for years. And lying his big, flabby posterior off about it the whole time. For all intents and purposes, the president of the United States is a wholly owned subsidiary of the organized crime syndicate otherwise known as the Russian government. In Moscow, they call them “oligarchs,” fabulously wealthy individuals essentially granted monopoly control over large sectors of the Russian economy in exchange for fealty to Putin. It’s a way of doing business our own would-be strongman has always admired. A coarse blowhard with a taste for golden toilets, Trump fits right in. See, that’s the half-acknowledged reality behind BuzzFeed’s apparent reporting blunder regarding whether Trump told his onetime “fixer” Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about his company’s pursuit of Trump Tower Moscow during the 2016 presidential campaign. BuzzFeed cited two anonymous law enforcement sources claiming that special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigators had emails, texts and testimony proving that Trump instructed Cohen to testify falsely about the would-be Moscow real estate deal. Great excitement ensued on CNN, MSNBC and the rest. “If true,” pundits and editorial writers agreed, then Trump basically suborned perjury – a “high crime” under anybody’s definition. But the reason they all added the disclaimer was that other journalists couldn’t confirm BuzzFeed’s story. Cohen has admitted giving Congress a false timeline, claiming that the Trump organization dropped the Russia deal in January 2016, although negotiations continued right up to the Republican National Convention that June.
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Trump’s TV lawyer Rudy Giuliani has since extended the timeline until the November general election. But he’s not under oath on “Meet the Press.” Maybe Giuliani’s getting ahead of damaging revelations to come, or maybe he’s just a buffoon. Possibly both. Rudy recently told The New Yorker: “I am afraid it will be on my gravestone. ‘Rudy Giuliani: He lied for Trump.’” He insisted that he always tells the truth, but that’s definitely not something you want your attorney to say.)As even Fox News loyalists know by now, Mueller’s office made a rare public statement: “BuzzFeed’s description of specific statements to the special counsel’s office, and characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding Michael Cohen’s congressional testimony are not accurate.” Hmm ... “Not accurate” can mean a lot of things. The special counsel’s statement was both lawyerly and vague. BuzzFeed is sticking by its story. We shall see. But I am not holding my breath. So anyway, let’s get real, shall we? Particularly in view of their long history as fellow con men, Trump didn’t need to tell Michael Cohen to lie. All Cohen needed to do was to follow the master’s example. Trump’s been lying about his dealings with the Russians from the get-go. Virtually every word he’s ever said about the infamous Moscow Trump Tower is provably false. It’s now come to the point where he’s lying about the lying, falsely claiming that everybody has always known about his Russian business interests, and besides, so what? “So what” is that during the presidential campaign, Trump repeatedly and indignantly denied any and all business relationships with Russia and Russians. The Washington Post has published a detailed timeline. On Jan. 11, 2017, for example, he tweeted: “Russia has never tried to use leverage over me. I HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH RUSSIA – NO DEALS, NO LOANS, NO NOTHING!” In a same-day press conference, he repeated: “I have no dealings with Russia. I have no deals that could happen in Russia because we’ve stayed away.” Every word was a barefaced lie. And nobody knew that better than Vladimir Putin. What’s more, the relationship goes back decades. “Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets,” Don Jr. said in 2008. “We don’t rely on American banks. We have all the funding we need out of Russia,” Eric Trump told a reporter in 2014. Forget Moscow prostitutes. Putin understands that Trump’s bigger weakness is his insatiable greed. What’s more, by lying about his relationship with Russia during the presidential campaign, he opened himself to political blackmail. “He has been totally compromised from at least the day he signed a letter of intent to build that tower,” writes Washington Monthly’s Martin Longman. “This is now beyond dispute.”
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Indeed. In short, Trump was Putin’s pawn when he proposed lifting economic sanctions against the Russian regime, when he parroted the Russian anti-NATO and anti-EU line, when he called upon the Russians to hack Hillary Clinton’s emails – basically during every minute of the 2016 campaign.Worse, nothing has changed since inauguration. Arkansas Times columnist Gene Lyons is a National Magazine Award winner and co-author of “The Hunting of the President” (St. Martin’s Press, 2000). You can email Lyons at <a href="mailto:eugenelyons2@yahoo.com">eugenelyons2@yahoo.com</a>. |
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The Operation Trump and The New Abwehr: A Study In Psychohistory by Michael Novakhov – Google Search
| German Intelligence Chief Wilhelm Franz Canaris – The Operation Trump and The New Abwehr: A Study In Psychohistory by Michael Novakhov – Google Search | ||||||
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Trump Investigations.
The Operation Trump and The New Abwehr: A Study In Psychohistory by Michael Novakhov – Google Search | ||
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>> Mike Nova’s Shared NewsLinks Review In Brief
» German Intelligence Chief Wilhelm Franz Canaris
24/01/19 06:17 from Mike Nova’s Shared Newslinks
Michael_Novakhov shared this story from Warfare History Network. Adolf Hitler’s spymaster, Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, was actually a dedicated anti-Nazi who did everything he could to frustrate the Führer’s plans. by David…
24/01/19 06:17 from Mike Nova’s Shared Newslinks
Michael_Novakhov shared this story from Warfare History Network. Adolf Hitler’s spymaster, Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, was actually a dedicated anti-Nazi who did everything he could to frustrate the Führer’s plans. by David…
» Canaris and Heydrich – Axis History Forum
24/01/19 06:16 from Mike Nova’s Shared Newslinks
Michael_Novakhov shared this story . Canaris and Heydrich #1 Post by Ezboard » 29 Sep 2002, 21:37 GFM2001 Member Posts: 55 (8/20/01 12:32:55 pm) Reply Canaris and Heydrich ————————————————————…
24/01/19 06:16 from Mike Nova’s Shared Newslinks
Michael_Novakhov shared this story . Canaris and Heydrich #1 Post by Ezboard » 29 Sep 2002, 21:37 GFM2001 Member Posts: 55 (8/20/01 12:32:55 pm) Reply Canaris and Heydrich ————————————————————…
» Canaris – Heydrich Gay Love Affair – Google Search
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» Canaris – Heydrich Gay Love Affair – Google Search
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» Service record of Reinhard Heydrich
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Michael_Novakhov shared this story . SS- service record cover of Obergruppenführer und General der Polizei Reinhard Heydrich The service record of Reinhard Heydrich was a collection of official SS documents maintained at the SS Pers…
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Michael_Novakhov shared this story . SS- service record cover of Obergruppenführer und General der Polizei Reinhard Heydrich The service record of Reinhard Heydrich was a collection of official SS documents maintained at the SS Pers…
» RUSSIA and THE WEST – РОССИЯ и ЗАПАД: – Командир, ручка от жопы отваливается! | – Ништяк, а мы её стразами укрепим! – 6:10 AM 1/7/2019
24/01/19 05:26 from Mike Nova’s Shared Newslinks
Michael_Novakhov shared this story from RUSSIA and THE WEST – РОССИЯ и ЗАПАД. Monday, January 7, 2019 – Командир, ручка от жоп…
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» 1:55 PM 9/5/2018 – Canaris’ love affair with Reinhard Heydrich, both of whom were at least in part Jewish and Gay… | The Global Security News
24/01/19 05:12 from Mike Nova’s Shared Newslinks
Michael_Novakhov shared this story from The Global Security News. Upon the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Germany, gay men and, to a lesser extent, lesbians, were two of the numerous groups targeted by the Nazis and were ulti…
24/01/19 05:12 from Mike Nova’s Shared Newslinks
Michael_Novakhov shared this story from The Global Security News. Upon the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Germany, gay men and, to a lesser extent, lesbians, were two of the numerous groups targeted by the Nazis and were ulti…
» Amazon.com: Hitler’s Spy Chief: The Wilhelm Canaris Mystery eBook: Richard Bassett: Kindle Store
24/01/19 04:54 from Mike Nova’s Shared Newslinks
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» Heydrich’s homosexuality? – Axis History Forum
24/01/19 04:52 from Mike Nova’s Shared Newslinks
Michael_Novakhov shared this story . Heydrich’s homosexuality? #1 Post by Ezboard » 29 Sep 2002, 19:03 HannahR New Member Posts: 1 (5/26/01 5:43:01 pm) Reply Heydrich’s homosexuality? ————————————————…
24/01/19 04:52 from Mike Nova’s Shared Newslinks
Michael_Novakhov shared this story . Heydrich’s homosexuality? #1 Post by Ezboard » 29 Sep 2002, 19:03 HannahR New Member Posts: 1 (5/26/01 5:43:01 pm) Reply Heydrich’s homosexuality? ————————————————…
» Canaris – Heydrich Gay Love Affair as the source and the engine of German Fascism of 1930-1940-s – Psychohistorical Hypothesis by Michael Novakhov
24/01/19 04:15 from Mike Nova’s Shared Newslinks
Michael_Novakhov shared this story from Trump Investigations. Canaris – Heydrich Gay Love Affair as the source and the engine of the German Fascism of 1930-1940-s Psychohistorical Hypothesis by Michael Novakhov 9:19 AM 9/21/20…
24/01/19 04:15 from Mike Nova’s Shared Newslinks
Michael_Novakhov shared this story from Trump Investigations. Canaris – Heydrich Gay Love Affair as the source and the engine of the German Fascism of 1930-1940-s Psychohistorical Hypothesis by Michael Novakhov 9:19 AM 9/21/20…
» 9:19 AM 9/21/2018 – (Abwehr? Drag?) Queens (Are?) Flushing (With Rage? Shame? Anger? Angst? All of the above? None of the above?) | The Global Security News
24/01/19 03:56 from Mike Nova’s Shared Newslinks
Michael_Novakhov shared this story from The Global Security News. Mike Nova’s Shared NewsLinks Drag Bang Drag, Gala de Eleccion Drag Queen 2015 LPGC – YouTube mikenova shared this story . Drag Bang Drag, Ga…
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