The White House on Tuesday denied the House Oversight Committee’s request for documents relating to former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who was fired in February for lying to the vice president. Additionally, the committee’s leaders said Flynn “inappropriately” accepted money from foreign governments. In a letter to the committee’s chairman, Jason Chaffetz, White House…
Centrist independent Emmanuel Macron led the first round of France’s presidential election on Sunday, and will face far-right leader Marine Le Pen in a May 7 runoff. With nearly all of the ballots counted, Macron led the 11-candidate field with just under 24 percent of the vote, followed by Le Pen with 21.4 percent. The…
Democrat Jon Ossoff fell just short of the 50 percent mark in Tuesday’s special election for a House seat in Georgia’s 6th congressional district, an affluent and reliably conservative area in Atlanta’s northern suburbs that has sent Republicans to Congress since electing Newt Gingrich in 1978. Ossoff won roughly 48 percent of the vote in…
New financial records reportedly show that at least $1.2 million in payments listed on a handwritten ledger in Ukraine were received by former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort’s consulting firm in the U.S., the Associated Press reported on Wednesday. Investigators in Ukraine have called the “Black Ledger,” and the listed payments from 2007 and 2009,…
Former national security adviser Susan Rice denied on Tuesday that she was responsible for “unmasking” the names of top Trump officials, as was claimed in reports on Monday. “I leaked nothing to nobody, and never have and never would,” Rice said on MSNBC. Rice denied that she or any Obama administration official “used intelligence for…
The crown prince of Abu Dhabi helped arrange a clandestine meeting in the Seychelles islands between Blackwater founder Erik Prince and a Russian close to President Vladimir Putin nine days before President Trump’s inauguration, several U.S., European, and Arab officials told The Washington Post, in an apparent attempt to establish a backchannel between Putin and…
Two Democratic senators — Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota — said Thursday that they would vote to confirm President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch. Manchin, who frequently crosses the aisle to side with the GOP, said he found Gorsuch to be “an honest and thoughtful man,” and that…
This morning Trump tweeted in support of former White House National Security Adviser Mike Flynn just one day after it was reported that he would be willing to be interviewed about the Trump campaign’s potential ties to Russia in exchange for immunity from prosecution. Early Friday morning, he wrote: “Mike Flynn should ask for immunity…
According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, Mike Flynn, the former national security adviser for President Donald Trump, has informed the FBI and the House and Senate intelligence committees that he is willing to be interviewed in exchange for immunity from prosecution. Flynn was privvy to information about foreign policy deliberations and was…
The Senate Intelligence Committee is holding open hearings Thursday on Russian interference in the U.S. election through technology and disinformation, with a slate of academic and cybersecurity experts scheduled to testify, including former NSA director Gen. Keith Alexander. The hearing will explore the various ways Russia tried to influence the U.S. presidential election and is…
A controversial Russian bank disclosed Monday that its executives met with Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law, in December. The meeting, just weeks before the inauguration, holds significance because the Russian state development bank Vnesheconombank has been under Western economic sanctions after Russia’s invasion of Crimea and forays into Ukraine. Kushner, 36, is now a top…
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) on Friday accused House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) of running a “dead-of-night excursion” for documents on alleged NSA surveillance of Trump associates, keeping the rest of his committee members “in the dark.” Schiff, the ranking member of the intelligence committee, held a press conference an hour after Nunes, and…
A lawyer for Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman, reached out to the House Intelligence Committee to volunteer his testimony before the panel, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) said during a Friday press conference. Manafort has offered to be “voluntarily interviewed” by the committee, but whether it will happen in either open or closed session…
Paul Manafort, President Trump’s former campaign chairman, secretly worked for a Russian billionaire to “greatly benefit the Putin government,” according to documents obtained by the Associated Press. The new report directly contradicts the Trump administration and Manafort, who have both alleged that the former campaign operative never worked on behalf of Russian interests. In his…
FBI Director James Comey and National Security Agency Director Adm. Mike Rogers said on Monday that there is no evidence to support President Donald Trump’s allegations that he was wiretapped by former President Barack Obama. “I have no information that supports those tweets, and we have worked carefully inside the FBI,” Comey said, adding that…
FBI Director James Comey confirmed investigation into potential collusion between Russia & Trump camp #ComeyHearing James Comey, the Director of the FBI, has confirmed that the agency is investigating any possible links between people associated with Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and Russia. Mr Comey, appearing before the House intelligence committee, took the usual step of…
On Monday, in advance of the first public hearing related to the investigation of Russian ties to President Trump’s 2016 campaign, the commander-in-chief wrote a series of tweets addressing the “FAKE NEWS” that he said was “made up” by Democrats. “James Clapper and others stated that there is no evidence Potus colluded with Russia. This…
In a Wednesday press conference, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) said officials “don’t have any evidence” that the Obama administration ordered wiretapping of Donald Trump while he was running for president. “Are you going to take the tweets literally?” he asked. “If you are, then clearly the president is wrong.” However, Nunes also…
Democrats in Congress have long argued that the ongoing intelligence committee investigations into Russia’s interference in the presidential election and the Trump campaign’s ties to the Kremlin are unlikely to get to the bottom of the issue. Now a group of “Never Trump” Republicans are planning to pressure GOP leaders to establish a bipartisan select…
The White House on Monday walked back key point of President Donald Trump’s unsubstantiated allegation that President Barack Obama wiretapped his phones in Trump Tower during the 2016 election. Namely, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Trump wasn’t referring to wiretapping when he tweeted about wiretapping. “I think there’s no question that the Obama…
Kellyanne Conway, a senior counselor to President Donald Trump, doubled down Sunday night on claims that President Obama had wiretapped and spied on Trump in the run-up to the 2016 election. As usual, Conway’s comments, which were made in an interview at her home in Alpine, New Jersey, were not supported by any evidence. She…
The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee said Friday that he has “not seen any evidence whatsoever” to support President Trump’s claim that he was wiretapped by the Obama administration during the 2016 campaign. “I think when [White House Press Secretary] Sean Spicer isn’t even willing to talk about it, you know there’s a…
The FBI’s counterintelligence team is still looking into the potential ties between a Russian bank and the Trump Organization—despite a wide public dismissal of the possible connection several months ago, CNN reports. The same team that is looking into Russian interference in the 2016 election is conducting the inquiry on the Trump company and an…
South Korea’s Constitutional Court on Friday permanently removed President Park Geun-hye from office, upholding a vote by lawmakers to impeach her over a corruption scandal. The unanimous ruling came after months of protests and capped a stunning fall for the country’s first woman president. Two people died and about 30 were injured in clashes between…
After President Trump used Twitter over the weekend to accuse former President Barack Obama of wiretapping his phones, FBI Director James Comey asked the Justice Department to publicly reject his claims, senior U.S. officials told The New York Times on Sunday. Comey made the request on Saturday, saying the allegation is baseless and must be…
Former Director of National Intelligence (DNI) James Clapper denied President Trump’s allegation that former President Barack Obama wiretapped Trump Tower during the 2016 election. “If something like that happened, would this be something you would be aware of?” asked NBC News host Chuck Todd. “I would certainly hope so,” Clapper replied. “I can’t say —…
President Donald Trump took to Twitter early Saturday to accuse former President Barack Obama of tapping his phones ahead of the election. “Is it legal for a sitting President to be “wire tapping” a race for president prior to an election? Turned down by court earlier. A NEW LOW!” he wrote. He went on to…
The Senate has confirmed retired neurosurgeon and former Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson as housing secretary. The vote was 58-41. Carson will lead an agency of some 8,300 employees and a budget of about $47 billion. Carson has no government or housing policy experience. Despite that, his nomination cleared a Senate committee in January on…
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi called on Attorney General Jeff Sessions to resign after The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday evening that he spoke with the Russian ambassador during Donald Trump’s campaign. In a statement released late Wednesday, Pelosi said Sessions is “not fit to serve as the top law-enforcement officer…
In a tweet Thursday morning, House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) called for Attorney General Jeff Sessions to “recuse himself” from investigations of the Trump administration’s ties to Russia. Chaffetz also urged Sessions to “clarify his testimony” in light of recent reports that Sessions twice spoke to Sergey Kislyak, Russian ambassador to the United…
