Trump and Putin, behind the scenes

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Meanwhile..

On Thursday, the New York Times revealed, via a previously undisclosed email exchange, that Donald Trump adviser Roger Stone was advertising himself to the campaign, and specifically to chair Steve Bannon, as an intermediary to WikiLeaks — the radical "open-government" group linked to the Kremlin which dumped a trove of stolen emails from Hillary Clinton's campaign manager John Podesta in 2016 to help sink her candidacy for president..

Roger Stone Is Scrambling as Newly Revealed Emails Show He Sold Himself to Steve Bannon as a Conduit to WikiLeaks | Alternet

And then..

A scheme to pay women to make “false claims” of sexual assault against special counsel Robert Mueller has been forwarded to the FBI for investigation, Mueller’s office said Tuesday. “When we learned last week of allegations that women were offered money to make false claims about the Special Counsel, we immediately referred the matter to the FBI for investigation,” the special counsel’s spokesman Peter Carr said in a statement. Mueller’s office confirmed that the plot was brought to their attention by a number of journalists who said a woman told them she was offered $20,000 by GOP activist and noted conspiracy theorist Jack Burkman “to make accusations of sexual misconduct and workplace harassment against Robert Mueller,” The Atlantic first reported.

Apparent scheme to smear Mueller forwarded to FBI investigators - MarketWatch

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Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility (CREW) revealed on Friday that Trump signed a secret waiver to prevent Solicitor General Noel Francisco, the man who “built his law practice as if his primary goal was to troll the libs” and is poised to oversee Mueller’s probe if Trump fires Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, from having to recuse himself from the Russia investigation. Trump’s campaign is represented by Francisco’s former law firm, Jones Day, in Mueller’s investigation, which has racked up more than 100 criminal chargesagainst dozens of people, including guilty pleas from Trump’s former national security adviser, former campaign manager, and multiple former campaign advisers..

Trump signed secret waiver that could have major impact on the Mueller investigation – ThinkProgress

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Roger Stone can’t seem to get his story straight. In 2017, the political world’s most well-known “dirty trickster” denied ever having a direct line to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, as he repeatedly boasted during the 2016 election. Now, in light of new emails that show he communicated WikiLeaks’ pre-Election Day plans to at least one senior Trump campaign official in the weeks before the election, his recollection is changing yet again.

Even before the latest email revelation, Stone, a longtime friend and confidant of President Donald Trump, was in hot water with the House Intelligence Committee. Since his September 2017 hearing before the panel, he’s amended his testimony three times as new reports have emerged about his contacts with Russian nationals, the extent of his interactions with WikiLeaks, and his conversations with Trump campaign officials. Despite those changes, the question of whether he perjured himself before the committee still stands—and is reportedly being examined by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

Roger Stone's Murky Relationship With WikiLeaks - The Atlantic

In this week’s episode of “Trump, Inc.,” we’re digging into a part of Giuliani’s work that has occurred largely outside of the spotlight: He has often traveled to Russia or other former Soviet states as guests of powerful players there. And since Trump was elected, he appears to have stepped up the frequency of those trips. Just last week, for example, Giuliani appeared in the former Soviet republic of Armenia, which has close trade ties with Russia. He was invited, according to local press accounts, by Ara Abramyan, an Armenian businessman who lives in Russia. Abramyan once helped reconstruct the Kremlin and also received a medal for “merit to the fatherland” from President Vladimir Putin of Russia. Giuliani said he was in Armenia as a private citizen, but on a local TV news show, Abramyan implied that he expected Giuliani to carry a message for him to Trump. (The conversation was in Armenian, so it’s not clear whether Giuliani understood what Abramyan was saying.) While in Armenia, Giuliani also attended a technology conference (one of his businesses advises on cybersecurity). The conference program listed him as appearing on a panel that also included a Russian currently on the U.S. sanctions list imposed after Russia’s invasion of Crimea. There are many things we don’t know about Giuliani’s trips. We don’t know whether he’s being paid, and if so by whom. Giuliani declined to answer our questions. One thing we do know is that a company called TriGlobal Strategic Ventures claims credit for organizing the trips. Abramyan is on TriGlobal’s board, as is a former Russian government minister. TriGlobal and Abramyan also did not respond to our questions.

Rudy Giuliani's Repeated Travel to Russia and Former Soviet Countries While Serving as Trump's Unpaid Lawyer Is Raising Serious Questions | Alternet

[Admin]

There is a lot wrong with the acting AT

Matthew Whitaker, whom President Donald Trump named as his acting attorney general on Wednesday, privately provided advice to the president last year on how the White House might be able to pressure the Justice Department to investigate the president’s political adversaries, Vox has learned. Whitaker was an outspoken critic of special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe before he became the chief of staff to Attorney General Jeff Sessions in September 2017. That has rightfully raised concerns that Whitaker might now attempt to sabotage Mueller’s investigation. But new information suggests that Whitaker — while working for Sessions — advocated on behalf of, and attempted to facilitate, Trump’s desire to exploit the Justice Department and FBI to investigate the president’s enemies.

Exclusive: Matthew Whitaker advised Donald Trump on investigating Hillary Clinton - Vox

Just one week into his new job as acting Attorney General, Matt Whitaker is under siege. He’s deeply  distrusted at the Justice Department. There are widespread fears that he might try to squelch investigations into President Trump. There are questions about his background — and even about whether his appointment is illegal.

Before joining the Justice Department in the fall of 2017, Whitaker was a harsh public critic of special counsel Robert Mueller. Not only did he publicly opine that the Trump campaign hadn’t colluded with Russia and that there was no obstruction of justice case against the president, but he mused about how a replacement for Jeff Sessions could rein Mueller in.

Matt Whitaker: the many scandals of Trump’s new acting AG, explained - Vox

The latter is an in-depth profile. Not reassuring, needless to say.

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Republican operative and longtime Trump ally Roger Stone is resisting a request for documents and an interview from Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee, citing his Fifth Amendment rights. In a letter released Tuesday by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (Calif.), the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, Stone’s attorney described the document request as “unreasonably broad” in scope and characteristic of a “fishing expedition.”

Stone declines Dem request for interview, invokes Fifth Amendment | TheHill

• What has he got to hide..?
  
• Pleading the fifth, that's for the Mob, not for innocent people, is what Trump argued.
  

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The Trump Organization planned to give Russian President Vladimir Putin a $50 million penthouse in the proposed Trump Tower Moscow as the project was being pitched in Russia during the heat of the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Buzzfeed News reported Thursday. The building project eventually fell apart and it was unclear if Donald Trump knew about the details, Buzzfeed said. Citing four sources, including Trump business associate Felix Sater, who claimed credit for the idea, Buzzfeed said Michael Cohen led negotiations into the summer of 2016, despite public claims that the project was scuttled that January

Trump Organization wanted to give Putin $50 million penthouse in Moscow: report - MarketWatch

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A lawyer for Paul Manafort, the president’s onetime campaign chairman, repeatedly briefed President Trump’s lawyers on his client’s discussions with federal investigators after Mr. Manafort agreed to cooperate with the special counsel, according to one of Mr. Trump’s lawyers and two other people familiar with the conversations. The arrangement was highly unusual and inflamed tensions with Mr. Mueller’s office when prosecutors discovered it after Mr. Manafort began cooperating two months ago, the people said. Some legal experts speculated that it was a bid by Mr. Manafort for a presidential pardon even as he worked with the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, in hopes of a lighter sentence. Rudolph W. Giuliani, one of the president’s personal lawyers, acknowledged the arrangement on Tuesday and defended it as a source of valuable insights into the special counsel’s inquiry and where it was headed. Such information could help shape a legal defense strategy, and it also appeared to give Mr. Trump and his legal advisers ammunition in their public relations campaign against the special counsel’s office.

Manafort’s Lawyer Said to Brief Trump Attorneys on What He Told Mueller - The New York Times

Huh?!

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Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort held secret talks with Julian Assange inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London, and visited around the time he joined Trump’s campaign, the Guardian has been told. Sources have said Manafort went to see Assange in 2013, 2015 and in spring 2016 – during the period when he was made a key figure in Trump’s push for the White House. It is unclear why Manafort would have wanted to see Assange and what was discussed. But the last apparent meeting is likely to come under scrutiny and could interest Robert Mueller, the special prosecutor who is investigating alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. A well-placed source has told the Guardian that Manafort went to see Assange around March 2016. Months later WikiLeaks released a stash of Democratic emails stolen by Russian intelligence officers.

Manafort held secret talks with Assange in Ecuadorian embassy, sources say | US news | The Guardian

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Former FBI director James Comey testified to House lawmakers this week that the counterintelligence investigation into possible conspiracy between Russia and the Trump campaign began by examining four Americans. While Comey steadfastly denied the probe was focused on a political campaign and declined to identify who the four individuals are, he did note President Trump was not among them.

Comey reveals new details on Russia probe during House testimony | TheHill

And consider also this:

And while Comey could not comment on the special counsel’s ongoing investigation during the testimony, he forcefully defended Robert Mueller, the FBI and its agents that have come under GOP-scrutiny. In particular, Comey went to bat for former counterintelligence agent Peter Strzok, who was fired earlier this year for sending disparaging text messages about the president while he worked on two key FBI investigations during the 2016 presidential election. He said he saw no evidence of bias in Strzok’s work on the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s handling of classified materials while secretary of State. Still, he said that if he had known about some of the now surfaced texts that Strzok had sent to Lisa Page -- a former FBI lawyer he was having an affair with at the time -- he would have removed the agent for even giving the appearance of bias against Trump.

But Comey appeared to dismiss claims Strzok may have acted out of bias to hurt Trump’s campaign -- an allegation some Republicans have made after a text message from Strzok surfaced saying “we’ll stop” Trump during the heated presidential race. Comey argued that since Strzok was involved in the counterintelligence probe that tied in some members of the Trump campaign, the then-agent had ample opportunity to hurt the then-Republican candidate, which he didn’t take.

“[Strzok] also was one of the handful of people in the entire world who knew we were investigating four Americans who had some connection to Mr. Trump during the summer of 2016, and he didn't tell a soul,” Comey told the congressional investigators. “So it's hard to reconcile that with his being on Team Clinton. It's hard to reconcile his not leaking that Trump associates were under investigation and his drafting of a letter to Congress on October 28th that Secretary Clinton believed hurt her chances of being elected,” he continued.

Comey reveals new details on Russia probe during House testimony | TheHill

If Peter Strzok and others at the FBI really wanted to hurt Trump's campaign, they would have leaked stuff before the election. But remember what actually happened. Two weeks before the election Hillary's email case was reopened, which almost certainly cost her the Presidency, while the American voting public was blissfully unaware of any investigation into the Trump campaign. 

The whole idea that they were out to get there, conjured up from some private texting messages, is based on nothing.

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A pair of new reports prepared for the Senate Intelligence Committee and released on December 17 underscored the lengths that Russian disinformation teams went to during President Donald Trump’s first year in office. In 2017, according to the reports, Russian officials bombarded social media with pro-Trump messages that were stridently opposed to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russiagate investigation. And conservative Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin, responding to the reports in her latest column, asserts that Trump’s interests and the interests of the Russian government are “perfectly in sync.”

Rubin writes, “Trump wants to smear Mueller; Russia wants to smear Mueller. Trump tries to obliterate the line between truth and propaganda; Russia’s ‘active measures’ have tried for decades to do this, thereby sowing Americans’ doubts and distrust of the government.”

Conservative writer argues new evidence shows that 'Trump and the Russians are locked at the hip' — and the president's loyalties are 'unclear' | Alternet

Here is the collusion:

• Trump simply does nothing to stop the Russians from interfering in US elections.
  
• He doesn't accept his own intelligence agency's conclusion that the Russians did interfere in the 2016 election.
  
• He argues that social media (where most of the Russian interference actually takes place) are biased against conservatives.
  
• He asked the Russians to find the emails from Hillary Clinton in public, and the same day the Democratic Party's server was hacked.