Tag: Special Counsel investigation (2017–present)

The revelations provide more detail on the sophisticated assault on the US election in 2016, including the release of emails designed to damage Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Trump is due to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin -- who has denied election meddling -- in Helsinki on Monday for a summit that includes a one-on-one meeting with only interpreters present. The Justice Department says the hacking targeted Clinton's campaign, Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, with the intention to "release that information on the internet under the names DCLeaks and Guccifer 2.0 and through another entity." "There is no allegation in this indictment that any American citizen committed a crime," Rosenstein said at a news conference. "Today's charges include no allegations of knowing involvement by anyone on the campaign and no allegations that the alleged hacking affected the election result," Walters said in a statement. No Americans are involved. Time for Mueller to end this pursuit of the President and say President Trump is completely innocent," he tweeted. "These Russian individuals did their work during the Obama years," Trump continued in a tweet later Saturday. Intelligence gathered by US officials captured some of the Russians accused in Friday's indictments congratulating each other and celebrating the success of their operation during the campaign, according to a person familiar with the investigation. The computer crimes the Russians face also accuse them of installing malware on Democratic campaign computers.

The confrontation is coming to a head as Trump and his allies ratchet up their attacks on the special counsel probe, seizing on a report released Thursday by the Justice Department’s inspector general that castigated FBI officials for their conduct during the 2016 Hillary Clinton email investigation. In the meantime, Trump must decide whether to do a face-to-face interview with Mueller’s team — an answer the president’s legal team expects to have in the next two weeks. If the president agreed to a sit-down, the special counsel has told Trump’s lawyers that he could finish within roughly 90 days a report on whether Trump sought to obstruct a probe into Russian interference in the 2016 campaign, according to two people familiar with the discussions. “He’s the final decision-maker,” said Giuliani, adding: “There will be pressure from all ways.” Rosenstein, who has repeatedly sought to defuse attacks on the Justice Department by the president and his congressional allies, has indicated he will only bend so far. “Even if the report is a devastating indictment of Trump, the political tribalism in the country is so deep and won’t suddenly go away.” For months, Trump has been setting the stage by repeatedly attacking the Justice Department and the FBI and accusing Mueller of waging a “witch hunt” against him — language echoed by White House officials and Giuliani. If Trump refuses an interview, Mueller will have to decide his next move. “Robert Mueller would say it would be irresponsible not to give the president a chance to explain himself.” If Trump declines to do a sit-down and the special counsel decides not to pursue a subpoena of the president, Mueller could deliver an obstruction report to Rosenstein in the coming months. The regulations would allow Rosenstein to refer the report to Congress, Katyal said, and release it to the public if he decides doing so could better serve the public. Carol Leonnig is an investigative reporter at The Washington Post, where she has worked since 2000. Follow @CarolLeonnig Robert Costa is a national political reporter for The Washington Post.

Rudy Giuliani backed claims on Sunday made in a newly-leaked memo by Donald Trump’s legal team that the president can’t be compelled to testify by a grand jury subpoena as part of the Russia investigation. That question was posed on Saturday when the New York Times published a January-dated letter from Trump’s lawyers to special counsel Robert Mueller arguing that he could “if he wished, terminate the inquiry, or even exercise his power to pardon”. But the political ramifications, Giuliani added, “would be tough. Pardoning yourself is another.” Ultimately, Giuliani told NBC’s Meet the Press, he thought Trump pardoning himself would be “unthinkable and probably lead to immediate impeachment”. “I think the political ramifications would be tough,” Giuliani told ABC’s This Week. “Pardoning other people is one thing, pardoning yourself is tough.” But Giuliani also appeared to want it known that if Trump used his power to pardon himself, and triggered a constitutional crisis, it would be in vain since there had been no obstruction of justice in the first place. “I mean, we’re leaning toward not,” Giuliani told ABC. Trump’s lawyers and White House press secretary Sarah Sanders previously denied the president had dictated the statement and only offered suggestions. On Sunday Giuliani, by turns, said that conflicting statements about the source of Don Jr’s statement were one reason he would not want the president, his client, to grant an interview to Mueller’s prosecutors. “I mean, this is the reason you don’t let the president testify,” he added.

His gambit Sunday also fits into an effort by the White House, Trump's allies on Capitol Hill and conservative media cheerleaders to muddy the reputations and any eventual findings of special counsel Robert Mueller's team as well as to cement the President's political base. Trump's fury peaked with a tweet that coincided with cresting coverage on conservative media of the unproven claim that an FBI confidential source in the Russia investigation could have been a spy sent by Obama administration officials to damage Trump. "I hereby demand, and will do so officially tomorrow, that the Department of Justice look into whether or not the FBI/DOJ infiltrated or surveilled the Trump Campaign for Political Purposes - and if any such demands or requests were made by people within the Obama Administration!" Shortly after his outburst, the Justice Department said its inspector general had been asked to assess whether there was any political impropriety in the use of the confidential source, as part of an existing probe into aspects of the Russia investigation. Even the fact that Rosenstein asked the inspector general -- the internal Justice Department watchdog -- to get involved, puzzled some analysts. CNN legal analyst Paul Callan said that he found it "bizarre" that Rosenstein acted on an order to start an investigation via tweet. CNN has reported that the confidential source was not someone planted by the FBI inside the campaign, at a time when the bureau was investigating alleged Russian election interference. And by the way, even if there was collusion, which there wasn't, not a crime. The Mueller probe continues...for now," said Soufan. This has never been done before and by any means necessary, they are out to frame Donald Trump for crimes he didn't commit," Trump wrote, citing Asman.

President Trump said Sunday that he will officially demand that the Justice Department investigate whether federal agents infiltrated or surveilled his 2016 presidential campaign for political purposes and whether the preceding Obama administration was behind such action. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 20, 2018 Trump, late last week, began accusing the Justice Department of trying to frame him by planting a spy in his campaign -- an allegation his own lawyer said might not be true. Promoting a theory that is circulating, Trump quoted Fox Business anchor David Asman and tweeted Friday: "Apparently the DOJ put a Spy in the Trump Campaign. Earlier this month, the National Review raised the question of a possible FBI spy in Trump's campaign. The article cites work by California Republican Rep. Devin Nunes, an ardent Trump supporter and head of the House Intelligence Committee, who has demanded information on an FBI source in the Russia investigation. "It would be at best irresponsible, and at worst potentially illegal, for members of Congress to use their positions to learn the identity of an FBI source for the purpose of undermining the ongoing investigation into Russian interference in our election," Warner wrote in a statement. "Anyone who is entrusted with our nation's highest secrets should act with the gravity and seriousness of purpose that knowledge deserves." The Times reported Friday that the informant talked to Page and Papadopoulos because they had suspicious contacts linked to Russia. The newspaper attributed the information to current and former FBI officials. Mueller is investigating possible coordination between Russia and Trump's 2016 campaign.

Kelly told National Public Radio (NPR) in a rare interview broadcast on Friday that Robert Mueller’s investigation inevitably crops up when the US president hosts his foreign counterparts. The anti-Obama: Trump's drive to destroy his predecessor's legacy Read more “There may not be a cloud, but certainly the president is, you know, somewhat embarrassed, frankly,” Kelly, a retired four-star marine corps general, said. “When world leaders come in, it’s kind of like you know Bibi Netanyahu [of Israel] is here and he – who’s under investigation himself – and it’s like, you know, you walk in and you know the first couple of minutes of every conversation might revolve around that kind of thing.” Kelly, who is Trump’s second chief of staff, said he spends five to eight hours a day with the president. His tenure has been the subject of recent speculation after reports that his influence is waning and that he branded the president an “idiot”. But he told NPR he thinks Trump is “a super-smart guy”. Sometimes he takes the opinion, sometimes he doesn’t.” Kelly denied reports he had threatened to resign but admitted: “There’s times of great frustration, mostly because of the stories I read about myself or others that I think the world of, which is just about everybody who works at the complex, and wonder whether it’s worth it to be subjected to that.” He did not name his predecessor, Reince Priebus, but said he wishes he had been in the role sooner. He said most people coming into the country without documentation “are not bad people”, but they will not assimilate easily. They don’t speak English; obviously that’s a big thing. The New York Times reported that she had drafted but not submitted a resignation letter after Trump lambasted her at a meeting for failing, in his view, to secure US borders. The DHS denied the claim.

Donald Trump’s new attorney, Rudy Giuliani, would not on Sunday rule out the possibility that the president would assert his fifth amendment right against self-incrimination in the Russia investigation. “I’m going to walk him into a prosecution for perjury like Martha Stewart?” he said. The lifestyle entrepreneur was convicted in 2004 of lying to investigators and obstruction in an insider trading case. “The mob takes the fifth amendment,” Trump said. Giuliani also said the leak of a list of questions Mueller may want to ask Trump “helped” the president. “I don’t think Bob Mueller leaks,” Giuliani said after saying “first they leak the questions” and being corrected about the source of the document. I don’t know. We’re helped because it shows he has no case.” Giuliani’s latest interview came after days of conflicting statements about the investigations into the president. The former New York City mayor, who was hired by Trump last month, said he was still learning the facts of the Mueller case and Trump’s knowledge of a $130,000 hush payment to the adult-film actor Stormy Daniels. Daniels has alleged a sexual tryst with Trump in 2006, which Trump denies.

-Written by Elaine Godfrey (@elainejgodfrey) Today in 5 Lines During an address to the annual NRA convention in Dallas, Texas, President Trump assured voters that he would protect the Second Amendment, criticized the special-counsel investigation, and thanked rapper Kanye West for his support. President Trump told reporters that Rudy Giuliani needed to “get his facts straight” after the former mayor said that Trump reimbursed his lawyer, Michael Cohen, for a $130,000 payment to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels. Hours later, Giuliani walked back his comments. Jennifer Pena, the White House physician assigned to Vice President Mike Pence, resigned after fallout over President Trump’s doctor and former pick to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs, Ronny Jackson. CNN reported earlier this week that Pena had raised concerns about Jackson’s workplace conduct last fall. The Department of Homeland Security ended a program that allowed 57,000 Honduran citizens to temporarily live and work in the United States. The U.S. added 164,000 jobs in April, and the unemployment rate fell to 3.9 percent. Today on The Atlantic Absurd in Every Way: The Iran Deal was a cover for American inaction and former President Obama’s paralyzing fear of war, argues Reuel Marc Gerecht. Changing a Sacred Text: Some of France’s most prominent political leaders are calling to strike particular verses from the Quran. The idea doesn’t sit well with the country’s Muslims.

WASHINGTON — President Trump’s new legal team made a chaotic debut as Rudolph W. Giuliani, who was tapped recently to be one of the president’s lawyers, potentially exposed his client to legal and political danger by publicly revealing the existence of secret payments to Michael D. Cohen, the president’s personal lawyer. After he moved into the White House, the president began paying Mr. Cohen $35,000 a month, Mr. Giuliani said, in part as reimbursement for a $130,000 payment that Mr. Cohen made to a pornographic film actress to keep her from going public about an affair she said she had with Mr. Trump. Legally, the failure to disclose the payments could be a violation of the Ethics in Government Act of 1978, which requires that federal officials, including Mr. Trump, report any liabilities of more than $10,000 during the preceding year. Politically, Mr. Giuliani’s remarks — made in television appearances and interviews — raised questions about the president’s truthfulness and created a firestorm at the White House, where aides were caught off guard and furiously sought to deflect questions they could not answer. Mr. Giuliani’s disclosure is a sign of how Mr. Trump’s reshuffled legal team — which now includes a highly paid Washington lawyer, a famous former mayor, a constitutional lawyer who specializes in religious cases and former federal prosecutors — will function in the coming weeks as they sort out who takes the lead on representing the president. Mr. Trump faces a two-front battle with the Justice Department: one investigation in New York into Mr. Cohen and the special counsel investigation in Washington. The more helpful the president was, Mr. Dowd and Mr. Cobb told him last year, the more likely the investigation would conclude by year’s end. Instead, the investigation has intensified, and the president has concluded that approach was a mistake, according to people close to him. He did his job.” Violating campaign finance laws can be serious. “President Trump’s interest is not the same as Michael Cohen’s interest.” In his tweets on Thursday, Mr. Trump contradicted his earlier statements that he knew of no payment to Ms. Clifford.

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.