Tag: 2017 Special Counsel investigation

"They do want people who launched this investigation, on a false premise, they do want them held accountable," he said on "Cavuto Live." He pointed to the infamous Steele dossier which informed the FBI's suspicions surrounding President Donald Trump and the Russian government. "We know that took place and we do need to get to the bottom of that because it's never supposed to happen in this country." Justice Department leadership also said there wasn't enough evidence to accuse Trump and his associates of either collusion or obstruction of justice. But Democrats like Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., who serves on the House's investigatory committees, thought the report contained enough troubling information to continue probing the president's conduct. Swalwell, while appearing on Fox News on Friday, said the Obama administration didn't owe the Trump campaign an apology because Mueller's report showed suspcioius behavior and "laid out a multiplicity of contacts between the Trump campaign and Russians." Democratic leadership has signaled the Russia controversy was far from over as Trump declared victory and some speculated the issue could hurt Democrats' chances in the 2020 election. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., has already subpoenaed the unredacted version of Mueller's report and some in his party, like Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., pushed impeachment. While Democrats go on offense, Republicans like Jordan could leverage that focus to attack Democrats for their involvement with the dossier. Jordan, however, indicated that his party wanted to focus on issues like immigration which a Fox News poll showed as the top concern among registered voters.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Friday sentenced Republican political consultant Samuel Patten to 36 months of probation, 500 hours of community service and a $5,000 fine in a case spun out of U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe. Patten, 47, pleaded guilty in August to communicating with U.S. lawmakers and news media organizations on behalf of a Russia-aligned political party in Ukraine called the Opposition Bloc without disclosing that work to the Justice Department, in violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), among other offenses. Patten is a former business partner of Konstantin Kilimnik, a Russian national indicted by Mueller and accused of having ties to Russian intelligence. In Patten’s guilty plea he also admitted to arranging for a U.S. citizen to act as a straw purchaser to pay $50,000 for four tickets to the inauguration of Republican President Donald Trump on behalf of a Ukrainian oligarch, who reimbursed Patten through a Cypriot account. Patten, who spoke briefly at the hearing, said he “fully recognized” that he committed serious criminal conduct. U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson said Patten’s violation of FARA was “not a mere technicality” and undermined the democratic process. You didn’t try to justify them, and you didn’t try to blame them on anyone else,” Berman Jackson said to Patten, adding “that doesn’t happen everyday in this courtroom.” Berman Jackson said the acceptance of responsibility was one reason Patten received a much lighter sentence than former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort. Patten’s lawyer had asked for a sentence of probation, saying his case was unlike other FARA prosecutions, which have typically involved a lobbyist attempting to conceal the identity of the client and the source of funds. Federal prosecutors in Washington, who started investigating Patten after receiving a referral from Mueller, said in a court filing on Monday that Patten met or spoke with government investigators on the phone nine times. Patten’s case has sparked interest in Washington amid a widening crackdown by the Justice Department on undisclosed lobbying.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Friday sentenced Republican political consultant Samuel Patten to 36 months of probation, 500 hours of community service and a $5,000 fine in a case spun out of U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe. Patten, 47, pleaded guilty in August to communicating with U.S. lawmakers and news media organizations on behalf of a Russia-aligned political party in Ukraine called the Opposition Bloc without disclosing that work to the Justice Department, in violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), among other offenses. Patten is a former business partner of Konstantin Kilimnik, a Russian national indicted by Mueller and accused of having ties to Russian intelligence. In Patten’s guilty plea he also admitted to arranging for a U.S. citizen to act as a straw purchaser to pay $50,000 for four tickets to the inauguration of Republican President Donald Trump on behalf of a Ukrainian oligarch, who reimbursed Patten through a Cypriot account. Patten, who spoke briefly at the hearing, said he “fully recognized” that he committed serious criminal conduct. U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson said Patten’s violation of FARA was “not a mere technicality” and undermined the democratic process. You didn’t try to justify them, and you didn’t try to blame them on anyone else,” Berman Jackson said to Patten, adding “that doesn’t happen everyday in this courtroom.” Berman Jackson said the acceptance of responsibility was one reason Patten received a much lighter sentence than former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort. Patten’s lawyer had asked for a sentence of probation, saying his case was unlike other FARA prosecutions, which have typically involved a lobbyist attempting to conceal the identity of the client and the source of funds. Federal prosecutors in Washington, who started investigating Patten after receiving a referral from Mueller, said in a court filing on Monday that Patten met or spoke with government investigators on the phone nine times. Patten’s case has sparked interest in Washington amid a widening crackdown by the Justice Department on undisclosed lobbying.

WASHINGTON — Even as the White House claims vindication from the summary of special counsel Robert Mueller’s findings in the Russia probe, the American public does not see a clear verdict about whether President Donald Trump has been cleared of wrongdoing. But a third of Americans — 31 percent — say they’re not sure if Trump has been cleared. In February, Trump’s approval rating stood at 46 percent, but this month’s shift is within the poll’s margin of error. Warning signs for Trump for 2020 — and some Democratic presidential candidates, too While the poll did not find a significant shift in the president’s approval rating, it showed some continued weak spots as he prepares to run for re-election. A combined 58 percent of voters are either uncomfortable (37 percent) or have reservations about (21 percent) Bernie Sanders’ 2020 bid. For Joe Biden, who has yet to formally announce a presidential bid, a combined 47 percent are either enthusiastic (17 percent) or comfortable (30 percent) with him as a candidate, compared with 48 percent who say they’re either uncomfortable or have reservations. A combined 73 percent of Democrats say they’re either enthusiastic (33 percent) or comfortable (40 percent) with Biden as a candidate, while just 25 percent either have reservations (19 percent) or are uncomfortable (6 percent). For Warren, 23 percent of Democratic primary have reservations, and 10 percent are very uncomfortable. But a significant chunk of Democratic voters — about one in five — don’t know enough about those candidates to express an opinion. Among all Americans, 23 percent have a positive opinion of her, while 34 percent have a negative one.

It painstakingly documented Russia’s criminal meddling in our election and led to the conviction of several of the president’s closest advisers and enablers. And it hardly provided the “complete and total EXONERATION” that the president claimed in a characteristically inaccurate tweet, as the report left open whether Trump obstructed justice. Still, for those who saw Mueller moving up the chain, closing in on the president and his family, the report – or at least what we know about it – must disappoint. It's too soon for that | Andrew Gawthrope Read more How are we to make sense of the disappointment? And while congressional Republicans might be too craven to place restraints on the president, not so federal prosecutors and judges. The Mueller investigation lulled us, then, into hoping that Trump’s essential unfitness for office would find objective confirmation by our system of criminal justice. The mistake, of course, was to seize on evidence of criminality as the standard by which to measure unfitness for office. For while proof of serious criminal actions may suffice to demonstrate a president’s unfitness, the opposite hardly is true: absence of clear criminality hardly resolves the question of fitness. But neither is American democracy. Alas being unfit for office is not a crime.

“The witch-hunt is over,” Papadopoulos said. Declassification of surveillance material is paramount.” Alexander Downer's secret meeting with FBI led to Trump-Russia inquiry – report Read more Papadopoulos was one of Mueller’s first prosecutions. The 31-year-old from Chicago pleaded guilty last year and was sentenced to 14 days’ prison for lying to the FBI about his contact with Russian nationals and Maltese professor Joseph Mifsud. Downer, in an interview with The Australian newspaper last year, claimed Papadopoulos had told him Russia might use “damaging” material they had on Trump presidential rival Hillary Clinton in the lead-up to the election. Downer said he passed the information back to Canberra “the following day or a day or two”. Papadopoulos’s book, Deep State Target, will be released on Tuesday and details his account of dealings with Downer, Thompson, Trump and others. In September last year Trump wrote on Twitter “key allies” had asked him not to release classified FBI documents related to the probe into Russian influence. “While the (Mueller) report is likely mired in classified material, and most will likely never be revealed to the public, I do hope what is public is what Alexander Downer’s and Erika Thompson’s roles were and why Downer has become so protected,” Papadopoulos said. Downer, Thompson and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade was contacted for comment on Papadopoulos’s claims. Downer has previously shrugged off Papadopoulos’s spying accusation, telling BBC radio last year: “I’m not going to get into these sort of allegations.”

Good Tuesday morning. Here are some of the stories making news in Washington and politics today. _____________________ • President Trump and his Republican allies vowed to pursue and even punish those responsible for the Russia investigation now that the special counsel’s inquiry has concluded without implicating him. Mr. Trump said some of them had done “treasonous” things. • The special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, reached no conclusion about whether Mr. Trump had obstructed justice — it was Attorney General William P. Barr who cleared him of that offense. Democrats seized on that, portraying Mr. Barr’s decision as a hasty, dubious intervention on behalf of the president who installed him. • The tight-lipped Mr. Mueller is poised to return to civilian life, still a figure of mystery and fascination. • The outcome of the special counsel’s inquiry means the 2020 race is likely to revolve around Mr. Trump’s performance in office, not how he won in the first place. • Democrats won control of the House largely by arguing that Congress needs to protect people with pre-existing medical conditions and lower the cost of health care. Today, Democratic leaders are set to unveil an incremental approach to fulfilling those promises.

We spoke with the head of the political science department at Western Carolina University, Chris Cooper, about the latest on the Mueller investigation. For almost two years now, the special counsel's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election has been a constant presence in U.S. politics. "This is the most talked about issue in American politics right now," said Cooper. One of them being the possible political ramifications this report could have on the President or Robert Mueller. "We still don't know exactly what that's going to look like," said Cooper. We also asked Cooper if he thinks just the release of the report energizes the President's already loyal fan base. "Absolutely. His base is going to take this and say, 'hey, look the report's out. That means Donald Trump didn't do anything wrong," added Cooper. "Meadows has come out immediately and said, 'hey, look this shows there really was no fire at all.

Those who spent the last two years pushing the narrative that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 presidential election need to be held accountable, the Federalist senior editor Mollie Hemingway argued Friday. Earlier in the day, the office of Special Counsel Robert Mueller handed in its report on the Russia investigation to the Department of Justice and it was announced that no new indictments would be forthcoming. During Friday's All-Star panel segment on Fox News' "Special Report with Bret Baier," Hemingway -- along with Washington Free Beacon editor-in-chief Matthew Continetti and Reuters White House correspondent Jeff Mason -- weighed in on the breaking news that reverberated throughout Washington. Hemingway began by noting that the “Russia narrative” predates the Mueller probe, having begun circulating during the 2016 election after the creation of the infamous Clinton campaign-funded Steele dossier, which pushed the theory that then-Republican candidate Donald Trump was a “Russian agent.” “We have, for the last three years ... frequently [witnessed] hysteria about treasonous collusion with Russia to steal the 2016 election,” Hemingway told the panel. “The fact [is] that there are no more indictments coming and the fact [is] that all of the indictments that we’ve seen thus far have been for process crimes or things unrelated to what we were told by so many people in the media was ‘treasonous collusion’ to steal the 2016 election.” “If there is nothing there that matches what we’ve heard from the media for many years, there needs to be a reckoning and the people who spread this theory both inside and outside the government who were not critical and who did not behave appropriately need to be held accountable,” she added. "The people who spread this theory both inside and outside the government ... and who did not behave appropriately need to be held accountable." — Mollie Hemingway, senior editor, the Federalist Mason told the panel that there’s likely “some relief” in the White House, particularly from Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law and top adviser. And while he insisted it was “too early” to draw major conclusions, he later added that those who attacked Mueller’s credibility throughout his investigation will have to walk back their hostility if he concludes that there was no collusion, including President Trump. Meanwhile, Continetti suggested that the Mueller report could be the “greatest anticlimax in American history,” and that the entire investigation could be “for nothing” because it was “an investigation without a crime.” He did, however, insist that the “battle will continue” as the White House will fight Congress on transparency of the Mueller findings.

And a series of fresh disclosures on Tuesday show there is every reason for him to feel threatened by the vast shadow it is casting over his life, business and presidency. That prosecutors from the Southern District of New York believe those elements need to be kept out of the public eye suggests that their investigations -- which have already indirectly implicated Trump -- are not over. While a sitting President cannot be indicted, according to current Justice Department guidance, Trump cannot be certain that he will not be prosecuted for campaign finance violations when he eventually leaves office. "If I was Donald Trump, I would be scared," Democratic Rep. Ted Lieu of California, who sits on the House Judiciary Committee, said on CNN's "The Situation Room." They show that Cohen was paid more than $500,000 through his company as a business consultant from January to August 2017 by Columbus Nova LLC., an investment management firm that is linked to Russian national Viktor Vekselberg. But he is far from the only Trump associate to have suggestions of links that can be traced back to prominent Russians. Methods used by investigators to track Cohen, including state-of-the-art techniques targeting Apple devices, and the revelation of their sweep through the lawyer's emails and telephone communications may fuel Trump's fury about what he sees as the special counsel's "witch hunt." It's also notable that Mueller has indicted three Russian entities and 13 Russian nationals in connection with Moscow's operation to use social media to interfere in the 2016 election, sow political discord and elect Trump. Washington has been on edge for several weeks over expectations that Mueller is getting toward the end of the road. Some former officials who received letters from the committee requesting documents, including former White House counsel Don McGahn and former deputy counsel Annie Donaldson, are referring them to the White House.