Early Monday, Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, released an 11-page statement to the House and Senate intelligence committees detailing what he described as “perhaps four contacts with Russian representatives out of thousands during the campaign and transition,” insisting that he “did not collude, nor know of anyone else in the campaign who…
Special Counsel Robert Mueller has asked White House staff to preserve all documents relating to the meeting Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort had with a Russian lawyer and others last year, CNN reported Friday. The notice reportedly requests the broad preservation of “any subjects discussed in the course of the June 2016…
President Trump may have met with Russian President Vladimir Putin more times than was previously reported at the G-20 summit in Germany earlier this month, according to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Trump and Putin shook hands and then had a scheduled bilateral meeting, both of which were shared with the press at the summit.…
The Russian lawyer who gave Donald Trump Jr. information on the Democratic National Committee previously represented Moscow’s spy agency in court, Reuters reported Friday. Natalia Veselnitskaya was retained by the FSB, the KGB’s successor, in a property dispute between 2005 and 2013, according to court documents seen by Reuters. Veselnitskaya has previously denied any ties…
President Trump and some of his lawyers are actively looking at ways to undermine, discredit, or fire Robert Mueller, the special counsel leading an investigation into the Trump campaign and Russian interference in the 2016 election, including compiling a list of potential conflicts of interest that might be used to force out Mueller, The New…
Stephen Colbert ripped President Trump for having an undisclosed second meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G20 Summit earlier this month. “Really?” Colbert asked. “How stupid can you be? You’re in the middle of what could be the worst scandal in U.S. history. People think you colluded with the president of a hostile…
In an interview with The New York Times on Wednesday, President Trump said that if Attorney General Jeff Sessions had told him he would recuse himself from leading the investigation into Russian election meddling, Trump never would have appointed him. “Jeff Sessions takes the job, gets into the job, recuses himself, which frankly I think…
The U.S. special counsel investigation into possible ties between Russia and the 2016 Trump campaign has expanded its probe to examine transactions involving Trump’s businesses, Bloomberg reported on Thursday. The investigation is reportedly looking into several business deals, including Russian purchases of apartments in Trump buildings, the president’s involvement in a controversial SoHo development with…
The U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday said it’s fining Exxon Mobil Corp $2 million for showing “reckless disregard” for Russia sanctions, the Associated Press reported. Treasury said Exxon subsidiaries signed a deal with Igor Sechin, the chairman of a Russian oil giant, who is on a U.S. blacklist in May 2014. At the time, Secretary…
President Trump decided within the last month to end a covert CIA program that armed and trained anti-government rebels in Syria, a move long sought by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s ally Russia, U.S. officials told The Washington Post. The program began in 2013 as a way to put pressure on Assad to resign, and will…
Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer who met with Donald Trump Jr. following his father’s Republican presidential nomination, said she is ready to testify before Congress in order to calm the “mass hysteria” surrounding the meeting. Trump Jr. agreed to meet with Veselnitskaya because he believed she had damaging information about then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, according…
President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin had a second undisclosed meeting at the G-20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany, earlier this month, the White House confirmed Tuesday. The conversation reportedly occurred at the dinner for heads of state, hours after the two leaders’ formal bilateral meeting. It reportedly lasted for an hour and Putin’s…
Stephen Colbert started ‘Russia Week’ from Saint Petersburg before appearing on Russia’s one late night TV show with an important announcement between vodka shots. “I am so honored to be here right now,” Colbert told host Ivan Urgant after settling into the Evening Urgant guest chair. “You’re the No. 1 show here, and this is…
On Sunday, one of President Trump’s lawyers, Jay Sekulow, tried to bring the Secret Service into the meeting Donald Trump Jr. and other Trump campaign officials had last June with a Kremlin-linked lawyer offering negative information on Hillary Clinton. “Well, I wonder why the Secret Service, if this was nefarious, why the Secret Service allowed…
In an interview with Reuters, President Trump said he was not aware of his eldest son Donald Trump Jr.’s meeting with a Russian lawyer in 2016 until a few days ago. The meeting took place in his son’s office one floor beneath his in Trump Tower, and was attended by Trump’s campaign chairman at the…
President Donald Trump on Monday accused former FBI Director James Comey of illegally leaking classified information to the media, going on the defensive amid reports that during the 2016 campaign his son Donald Trump Jr. met with a Kremlin-connected lawyer who promised him damaging information on Hillary Clinton. Trump claimed Comey “leaked CLASSIFIED INFORMATION to…
Kellyanne Conway on Monday tried to explain why Donald Trump Jr. hadn’t disclosed his confab with a Russian lawyer sooner — and why the pretense of learning damning info on Hillary Clinton wasn’t collusion in the slightest. “No information was received that was meaningful or helpful, and no action was taken,” the top Trump adviser…
After tweeting on Sunday morning about “forming an impenetrable Cyber Security unit” with Russian President Vladimir Putin, President Trump on Sunday night declared that just because he “discussed a Cyber Security unit doesn’t mean I think it can happen.” Following his morning tweet, Trump was mocked by Democrats and Republicans alike, including Sen. Lindsey Graham…
President Trump and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin met for the first time in a highly anticipated encounter at the G20 conference in Germany. Trump and Putin discussed “various things” in a face-to-face meeting Friday that lasted nearly two hours longer than its scheduled 30 minutes. The President, speaking with reporters before the meeting, said there…
“Getting ready to leave for Poland, after which I will travel to Germany for the G-20,” President Trump tweeted early Wednesday, before taking off for his second trip abroad. “Will be back on Saturday.” The White House is expecting a warm reception for Trump in Poland, where he will give a speech in Warsaw’s Krasinski…
Congressional investigators have reportedly turned their attention to Keith Schiller, President Trump’s longtime bodyguard-turned-White House aide, in their probe into Russian meddling, according to ABC News. Schiller now serves as the director of Oval Office operations, and he’s just one of many Trump associates on the witness list for the House Intelligence Committee’s inquiry. Schiller…
In President Trump’s first interview in more than a month, he admitted that he falsely suggested his conversations with former FBI director James Comey were taped to influence Comey’s sworn testimony. Trump acknowledged he didn’t actually make any tapes on Thursday. But speaking to Fox & Friends in an interview that aired Friday morning, Trump…
The FBI is investigating real-estate deals financed by Paul Manafort and his former son-in-law, The New York Times reports. Jeffrey Yohai, the ex-husband of Manafort’s daughter, and Manafort reportedly formed shell companies to buy luxury properties. Manafort, President Trump’s campaign manager who resigned amid reports of back-door financial transactions with Ukrainian and Russian clients, then…
America’s top intelligence officials reportedly told Senate investigators and special counsel Robert Mueller’s team that President Trump asked them to publicly refute allegations of collusion between his 2016 campaign and the Russians, CNN reports. Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers told investigators about their interactions with the president…
Russian government hackers allegedly targeted internet-connected election systems in 21 states last year, a Department of Homeland Security official testified on Wednesday. Samuel Liles, the department’s acting director of the Office of Intelligence and Analysis Cyber Division, told the Senate Intelligence Committee that none of the systems involved in the hacking were involved with counting…
Jared Kushner was a junior at Harvard when an enterprising political operative was drawn into his family’s orbit. His name: Paul Manafort. It was 2002, and, back then, few might have imagined that the two men’s worlds would intersect one day in the figure of Donald Trump. But the Kushners and the Manaforts, it turns…
FBI Director nominee Christopher Wray deleted a reference to his work on behalf of a client under investigation by Russia, his law firm told CNN. The detail was featured in Wray’s biography on King and Spalding’s website from 2009 to January 2017. Wray represented an unnamed “energy company president in a criminal investigation by Russian…
Stephen Colbert ripped President Trump for admitting on Twitter that he was being investigatedon last night show. “Mr. President, do you know the phrase ‘You better lawyer up?’” Colbert began. “That’s short for ‘You better get a lawyer and shut up.” “That would make him the third member of this investigation to be gone after…
President Donald Trump attorney Jay Sekulow claimed on Sunday that the president is not under investigation, despite the president’s tweets this week referring to one as a “witch hunt.” “Let me be clear here,” said Jay Sekulow, a member of the president’s legal team, on NBC’s “Meet The Press.” “The president is not and has…
Russia’s defense ministry appears to have threatened to shoot down U.S. aircraft in Syria. “All kinds of airborne vehicles, including aircraft and UAVs of the international coalition detected to the west of the Euphrates River will be tracked by the Russian SAM systems as air targets,” the ministry said Monday. The declaration comes one day…
