NYT: Hope Hicks, the White House communications director and one of President Trump’s longest-serving advisers, said Wednesday that she was resigning. Ms. Hicks, 29, a former model who joined Mr. Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign without any experience in politics, became known as one of the few aides who understood his personality and style and could challenge the president to change … Read More
Breaking: Before, During And After The Election, Wikileaks Corresponded With Stone, Trump’s Confidante
If what The Atlantic is reporting is true, we have a connection between Trump and Russia. Trump——-friends with Roger Stone—-> tweeted to Wikileaks/Assange —-> received emails stole by Russia Here’s the story: On March 17, 2017, WikiLeaks tweeted that it had never communicated with Roger Stone, a longtime confidante and informal adviser to President Donald Trump. In his interview with the House Intelligence Committee … Read More
Man Connected To L’Affaire Russe Goes Underground And A Foreign Escort Lands In Thai Jail
Hmmmm. Joseph Mifsud, the professor who allegedly told former Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos that Russia had obtained leaked emails related to Hillary Clinton, has completely vanished — and even his fiancee can’t find him. BuzzFeed News reporter Alberto Nardelli this month traveled to Ukraine in search of Mifsud, who has not been seen since being caught up in special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe … Read More
Trump Spent An Hour This Morning Watching Sunday Morning News Shows And Tweeting Angrily
Nervous much? The WITCH HUNT one is my favorite. It’s just so raw. Maybe he’s unhinged, or maybe it’s a distraction from this, reported by CNN’s White House correspondent: Trump appears to be backing away from his support for 21 year age limit for assault weapons purchases, sources tell us tonight. — Jim Acosta (@Acosta) February 27, 2018 Anyway, it’s … Read More
Is The NRA In Bed With Russia?
Earlier this month, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) issued a pair of letters demanding information on any financial links between the NRA and Moscow, or between the NRA and Russian nationals. The questions came after McClatchy reported: January 18, 2018 05:00 AM WASHINGTON — The FBI is investigating whether a top Russian banker with ties to the Kremlin illegally funneled money to the National Rifle … Read More
Belated Post: Oh Look — The Democratic Response To The Nunes Memo
A few weeks after the Nunes memo, the Democrats on the House Intel have finally been allowed to release their response memo. It eviscerates the Nunes memo of course, and is heavily sourced, although much of the sources lie in classified documents. It also questions, as it should, the motives of Devin Nunes. Here is the memo: The President was … Read More
Superseding Manafort/Gates Indictment
Mueller’s team just dropped, literally minutes ago, its superseding indictment on Manafort and Gates. You can just look at the cover page to see who is indicted for what. 32 counts, mostly dealing with financial transactions and bank fraud and tax fraud (money laundering, basically) all before Manafort was Trump campaign manager. I did a search for “Trump” — his … Read More
Mueller Prosecutor List
I discovered this at emptywheel and I’m, well, I’m stealing it. With each development in the Mueller investigation, Marcy Wheeler* at emptywheel has been tracking which of Mueller’s 17 prosecutors show up on which dockets, as a way of understanding how little we know about the case. This information is accurate as of 2/17/2018 Manafort docket: Andrew Weismann (1) Greg … Read More
Trump Attacks His Own AG In Russia Tweet This Morning
Say what? (In a now-deleted tweet, he misspelled “Sessions”, and wrote “Session”) It looks like Trump is reviving his offensive on Mr. Sessions, whom he once called “beleaguered,” and continued his days-long Twitter comments on the ongoing special counsel’s investigation into Russian meddling. The idea that Obama didn’t do something about meddling is, once again, ridiculous. While some former Obama administration officials have said they could … Read More
Sarah Sanders Press Conference – 2/20/2018
Her first press conference since the shooting — Sarah Sanders is reading her statement about the Parkland massacre like it’s a book report she really doesn’t want to deliver. — Matt Novak (@paleofuture) February 20, 2018 “It’s very clear that Russia meddled in the election. It’s also very clear it didn’t have an impact in the election,” Sarah Sanders says … Read More
Trump’s Behavior Continues To Offend And Baffle
In the days following the mass shooting at a high school in Parkland Florida, and with Mueller clearly breathing down Trump’s neck, his behavior has been frenzied and offensive. Here’s how Time described it: The weekend began with what many considered a victory of the smallest order. The typically chatty President bypassed the reporters to board his waiting helicopter without … Read More
Another Mueller Indictment
Special Counsel Robert Mueller has charged Dutch lawyer Alex Van Der Zwaan with making false statements to FBI investigators. Van Der Zwaan, who was officially charged on Feb. 16 in a federal court in Washington, has a plea hearing scheduled for Tuesday at 2:30 p.m. EST. According to the indictment, the false statements came when Mueller’s team probed Van Der … Read More
Grand Jury In Mueller Probe Hands Down Indictment Against 13 Russian Nationals And Three Russian Entities
13 Russian nationals and three Russian entities are accused of violating U.S. criminal laws in order to interfere with U.S. elections and political processes. “The indictment charges all of the defendants with conspiracy to defraud the United States, three defendants with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud, and five defendants with aggravated identity theft,” Mueller says. The indictment … Read More
Details Of Another Trump Affair Shows How Trump Attempts To Keep His Transgressions Secret
A report out from the New Yorker Friday morning about President Donald Trump’s alleged affair with model Karen McDougal more than a decade ago shows how Trump’s allies paid women who had affairs with him to stay silent. Trump and McDougal began an affair in 2006 after he met her at a party at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles, where he … Read More
Trump’s Lawyer Paid $130,000 To A Porn Star To Keep Her Quiet About Nothing?
A longtime personal attorney for President Trump said Tuesday that he paid $130,000 to an adult-film star who had told people she had an affair with Trump a decade before he won the presidency (and while Trump’s wife Melania was several months pregnant). Michael Cohen, who had previously dismissed reports about the payment, said he paid Stormy Daniels — whose real name … Read More