Tag: Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections

Paul Manafort was sentenced today. Here's everything you need to know about today's sentencing: The sentence: Manafort, 69, received 47 months —or almost four years — in prison for defrauding banks and the government, and failing to pay taxes on millions of dollars in income he earned from Ukrainian political consulting. The restitution: Judge TS Ellis set Manafort's restitution payment in a range from $6 million to almost $25 million because it's not yet clear how much money Manafort will relinquish to the federal government in his forfeiture proceeding. What the judge said: Ellis said he thought the sentencing recommendation was "excessive," adding that he believed Manafort "lived an otherwise blameless life," was a good friend and generous person to others. Here's how Manafort's time stacks up When Judge TS Ellis gave Paul Manafort his sentence, it wasn't a clear-cut four years for all his crimes. Paul Manafort's lawyer Kevin Downing requested in court that Manafort serve his time in a federal prison camp in Cumberland, Maryland. Judge gives Manafort credit for time he's been in jail Judge TS Ellis gave Paul Manafort credit for the nine months he's spent in jail, after a different judge revoked his bond last June. Why that matters: There is another judge who will sentence Manafort next week, and has some latitude to decide how the two sentences from Ellis and from her court fit together. Judge believes he gave Manafort a just sentence Judge TS Ellis said he believes he gave Paul Manafort "a just sentence for that conduct." Manafort must pay millions in restitution Judge TS Ellis ordered Paul Manafort to pay at least $6 million in restitution to the government.

What We’re Following Today It’s Thursday, February 14. (Here’s a refresher on the legal showdown that might result.) Here’s what else we’re following: “A Deliberate Liar”: Andrew McCabe writes in an exclusive book excerpt for The Atlantic that “the president and his men were trying to work me the way a criminal brigade would operate.” The former acting FBI director describes interactions with Trump himself—including when the president called him on an unsecured phone line to talk about his firing of former FBI Director James Comey—and his conversations with deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein about protecting ongoing investigations into Russian interference. One Year After Parkland: How have students tried to recover from the trauma of a mass shooting, while still keeping the memory of their classmates alive? And although schools across the country have worked to improve security, administrators can only do so much to prevent another attack, Adam Harris reports. Acevedo has been consistently critical of Trump. How the Parkland Shooting Changed My Life (Sarah Lerner) “I went to school the morning of February 14, 2018, to give a quiz to my senior English classes. Later that day, 20 minutes before school ended, my world changed forever. Which makes our current backsliding even more frustrating.” ? Read on. What Will Trump Do If He Realizes He’s Lost the Shutdown Fight?

(CNN)President Donald Trump might be in jail by the time Election Day comes around, Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren said on her first full day of campaigning as a declared presidential candidate. "In fact, he may not even be a free person." It's no longer just the Mueller investigation," Warren said. Earlier in the day, the Massachusetts Democrat had lamented in Cedar Rapids that the country is in a "dangerous moment," and that, "what happens in 2020 is going to determine the direction of our nation, the direction of our people." "Every day, there's a racist tweet, a hateful tweet, something really dark and ugly," Warren said of Trump. "And what are we, as candidates, as activists, the press, going to do about it? Yeah. Donald Trump is the symptom of a badly broken system," Warren said. "So, our job as we start rolling into the next election is not just to respond on a daily basis. A Warren campaign official told CNN that the presidential candidate does not plan to engage in every single tweet or attack from Trump as the 2020 season ramps up.

Carlo Allegri/Reuters WASHINGTON — As a top official in President Trump’s campaign, Paul Manafort shared political polling data with a business associate tied to Russian intelligence, according to a court filing unsealed on Tuesday. The document also revealed that during the campaign, Mr. Manafort and his Russian associate, Konstantin V. Kilimnik, discussed a plan for peace in Ukraine. Prosecutors and the news media have already documented a string of encounters between Russian operatives and Trump campaign associates dating from the early months of Mr. Trump’s bid for the presidency, including the now-famous meeting at Trump Tower in Manhattan with a Russian lawyer promising damaging information on Hillary Clinton. Most of the data was public, but some of it was developed by a private polling firm working for the campaign, according to the person. The oligarchs had financed Russian-aligned Ukrainian political parties that had hired Mr. Manafort as a political consultant. The surprise disclosures about Mr. Manafort were the latest in two years of steady revelations about contacts between associates of Mr. Trump’s and Russian officials or operatives. The two men continued working together over the next three years as Mr. Manafort’s financial troubles grew and investigators began to investigate a fraud scheme that eventually led to his conviction for 10 felonies. In August 2016, apparently just before Mr. Manafort was fired from the Trump campaign, he and Mr. Kilimnik met to discuss a plan for Ukraine that seemed to further Russia’s interests. In an interview on Tuesday, Mr. Artemenko said that investigators working for Mr. Mueller had questioned him extensively about his efforts to promote that plan. The prosecutors could also decide to file new charges against Mr. Manafort for lying to them, but apparently they do not plan to do so, according to Tuesday’s filing.

Robert Mueller, the special counsel investigating Russian interference in the US election, wants to ask Donald Trump about contact between his former election campaign manager Paul Manafort and Russia, the New York Times reported on Monday. Benjamin Wittes, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution thinktank in Washington, tweeted: “This is very interesting – strong evidence that there are still collusion threads that are not yet public.” Manafort and his deputy, Rick Gates, pleaded not guilty last October to a 12-count indictment accusing them of conspiring to defraud the US by laundering $30m from their work for a Russia-friendly political party in Ukraine. He helped Yanukovych win the country’s 2010 presidential vote and approved a secret media operation to discredit Yanukovych’s rival Yulia Tymoshenko. Robert Mueller, the special counsel investigating alleged Trump-Russia collusion, has indicted Manafort on multiple counts. It is not yet known whether the president will agree to be interviewed. Russian banks have bailed out failing Trump projects and financed other projects. Trump tweeted after he was elected, “Russia has never tried to use leverage over me. "We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia” to the Trump Organization, Donald Trump Jr told a real estate conference in 2008. In 2010, a Russian-Canadian developer used funds from a Russian state-run bank to save a Trump hotel and tower project in Toronto. James Comey dismisses House Russia report as 'political document' Read more Mueller also wants to ask: “What did you know about communication between Roger Stone, his associates, Julian Assange or WikiLeaks?” And: “What did you know during the transition about an attempt to establish back-channel communication to Russia, and Jared Kushner’s efforts?” Most questions relate to obstruction of justice before and during Trump’s presidency, diving into Trump’s litany of contradictory statements and tweets.

Donald Trump cast doubt on memos of conversations between him and the fired FBI deputy director that have reportedly been handed to Robert Mueller, claiming Andrew McCabe did not take notes during their meetings. Trump lawyer calls for end to Russia investigation after McCabe firing Read more Seeing Trump’s offensive against McCabe as an attack on Mueller himself, several senior Republicans rallied to support the former FBI director, who is investigating Russian election interference and links between Trump aides and Moscow. Trump also targeted Comey, the FBI director he fired last May, a move that led to the appointment of Mueller. On Sunday Trey Gowdy, the Republican chair of the House oversight committee, used an appearance on Fox News Sunday to advise: “If you have an innocent client, Mr Dowd, act like it.” Jeff Flake, a Republican Arizona senator and fierce critic of the president, told CNN’s State of the Union Trump “seems to be building towards” firing Mueller, adding: “I just hope it doesn’t go there, it cannot – we cannot in Congress accept that. “Bob Mueller has conducted this investigation so far with great integrity, without leaking and by showing results and I don’t think the president is going to fire somebody like that.” If you have an innocent client, Mr Dowd, act like it Trey Gowdy Late on Sunday White House lawyer Ty Cobb said the president was not contemplating a move against Mueller. If it happened, he said, “I would hope that it would prompt all Democrats and Republicans in the House to pass an independent counsel law and reinstate Bob Mueller. The attorney general, Jeff Sessions, said on Friday he fired McCabe in part because he allowed two FBI agents to speak to a Wall Street Journal reporter about the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was secretary of state and the activities of the Clinton Foundation. Senator Jeff Flake calls for Republican to challenge Trump in 2020 Read more On Saturday, Trump repeatedly claimed his innocence, tweeting: “The Mueller probe should never have been started in that there was no collusion and there was no crime. And yet, there is NO COLLUSION!” Mueller and McCabe are Republicans. … So tell me, what was it like to lose?” Dowd told the same website the president “never made that statement according to two others who were present”.

Today in 5 Lines Rick Gates, a former Trump campaign aide, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and making false statements, and agreed to cooperate with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the election. Mueller also issued new charges against former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, alleging he secretly paid former European politicians to lobby on behalf of Ukraine. During a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference, President Trump criticized the armed officer who failed to stop the gunman in last week’s mass shooting at a Florida high school, and doubled down on his suggestion to arm teachers. The Trump administration imposed its largest package of sanctions ever against North Korea. Today on The Atlantic Bring Back Asylums? : This week, President Trump proposed reopening mental asylums as a solution to America’s gun-violence problem. It’s not the worst idea. (Jennifer Rubin, The Washington Post) ‘I’m Completely Disgusted’: The Broward County Sheriff’s Office revealed a series of failures by the department in preventing the fatal shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida. In the wake of the mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, some have argued for a reinstatement of the nationwide ban on assault weapons, while others have suggested that the solution lies in improving access to mental-health care. This week, we asked whether you want to see specific reforms to address mass shootings in the U.S. An overwhelming majority of you wrote in support of reinstating a ban on semi-automatic weapons, strengthening background checks, and raising the minimum age of firearm purchase.

The present Russian investigation hit its “have you no sense of decency” moment last week when Robert Mueller indicted 13 Russians for defrauding America. View Cartoon In 2016, the FBI opened a counterintelligence investigation into Russian meddling in the presidential election. Attorney General Sessions recused himself because people told him he may be a spy and he said, sure, why not. Then, when people got mad at him for that, he appointed a special counsel, Robert Mueller, to investigate the president because the firing suggested that he was a Russian spy. The special counsel statute requires the referral to identify a crime. During the special counsel’s tenure, the House and the Senate uncovered oodles of evidence that foreign nationals were providing Hillary Clinton with opposition research meant to influence the election. The special counsel, though, ignored it and instead indicted the hapless internet trolls. They could point out that foreign nationals try to influence American elections all the time, but they were singled out for exercising their right to free speech, guaranteed even to foreigners by the U.S. Constitution. They could introduce evidence that millions of illegals in American – yes, even the Dreamers –were organizing, marching, and otherwise helping Hillary Clinton in the last election. This indictment confirms that.