The Muscovite Candidate

[Big RR]

Would he lie?

[ex-khobar Andy]

It would be nice if the WH had its own transcript of the meeting. If Trump sold one thing above all else, it was his sheer competence based on years of high-level business experience. I don't think I have ever had any kind of substantive business meeting where I did not have a bound notebook in front of me and made contemporaneous notes. Very important meetings I tended to do a more extended note or even a CYA memo immediately after the fact. But maybe there are recordings . . .

[ex-khobar Andy]

There's a nice article about Putin's offer to help in The Atlantic. The comments are hilarious. We all need a break from this now and then.

https://www.theatlantic.com/internation ... e-comments

[Lord Jim]

Exclusive: Trump campaign had at least 18 undisclosed contacts with Russians

Michael Flynn and other advisers to Donald Trump’s campaign were in contact with Russian officials and others with Kremlin ties in at least 18 calls and emails during the last seven months of the 2016 presidential race, current and former U.S. officials familiar with the exchanges told Reuters.

The previously undisclosed interactions form part of the record now being reviewed by FBI and congressional investigators probing Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election and contacts between Trump’s campaign and Russia.

Six of the previously undisclosed contacts described to Reuters were phone calls between Sergei Kislyak, Russia's ambassador to the United States, and Trump advisers, including Flynn, Trump’s first national security adviser, three current and former officials said.

Conversations between Flynn and Kislyak accelerated after the Nov. 8 vote as the two discussed establishing a back channel for communication between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin that could bypass the U.S. national security bureaucracy, which both sides considered hostile to improved relations, four current U.S. officials said.

In January, the Trump White House initially denied any contacts with Russian officials during the 2016 campaign. The White House and advisers to the campaign have since confirmed four meetings between Kislyak and Trump advisers during that time.

The people who described the contacts to Reuters said they had seen no evidence of wrongdoing or collusion between the campaign and Russia in the communications reviewed so far. But the disclosure could increase the pressure on Trump and his aides to provide the FBI and Congress with a full account of interactions with Russian officials and others with links to the Kremlin during and immediately after the 2016 election.

The White House did not respond to requests for comment. Flynn's lawyer declined to comment. In Moscow, a Russian foreign ministry official declined to comment on the contacts and referred Reuters to the Trump administration.

Separately, a spokesman for the Russian embassy in Washington said: “We do not comment on our daily contacts with the local interlocutors.”

The 18 calls and electronic messages took place between April and November 2016 as hackers engaged in what U.S. intelligence concluded in January was part of a Kremlin campaign to discredit the vote and influence the outcome of the election in favor of Trump over his Democratic challenger, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton.

Those discussions focused on mending U.S.-Russian economic relations strained by sanctions imposed on Moscow, cooperating in fighting Islamic State in Syria and containing a more assertive China, the sources said.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-t ... SKCN18E106

[Lord Jim]

Russian ambassador told Moscow that Kushner wanted secret communications channel with Kremlin

Jared Kushner and Russia’s ambassador to Washington discussed the possibility of setting up a secret and secure communications channel between Trump’s transition team and the Kremlin, using Russian diplomatic facilities in an apparent move to shield their pre-inauguration discussions from monitoring, according to U.S. officials briefed on intelligence reports.

Ambassador Sergey Kislyak reported to his superiors in Moscow that Kushner, son-in-law and confidant to then-President-elect Trump, made the proposal during a meeting on Dec. 1 or 2 at Trump Tower, according to intercepts of Russian communications that were reviewed by U.S. officials. Kislyak said Kushner suggested using Russian diplomatic facilities in the United States for the communications.

The meeting also was attended by Michael Flynn, Trump’s first national security adviser.

The White House disclosed the meeting only in March, playing down its significance. But people familiar with the matter say the FBI now considers the encounter, as well as another meeting Kushner had with a Russian banker, to be of investigative interest.

Kislyak reportedly was taken aback by the suggestion of allowing an American to use Russian communications gear at its embassy or consulate — a proposal that would have carried security risks for Moscow as well as the Trump team.

Neither the meeting nor the communications of Americans involved were under U.S. surveillance, officials said.

The White House declined to comment. Robert Kelner, a lawyer for Flynn, declined to comment. The Russian Embassy did not respond to requests for comment.

Russia at times feeds false information into communication streams it suspects are monitored as a way of sowing misinformation and confusion among U.S. analysts. But officials said that it’s unclear what Kislyak would have had to gain by falsely characterizing his contacts with Kushner to Moscow, particularly at a time when the Kremlin still saw the prospect of dramatically improved relations with Trump.

Kushner’s apparent interest in establishing a secret channel with Moscow, rather than relying on U.S. government systems, has added to the intrigue surrounding the Trump administration’s relationship with Russia.

The FBI closely monitors the communications of Russian officials in the United States, and it maintains a nearly constant surveillance of its diplomatic facilities. The National Security Agency monitors the communications of Russian officials overseas.

Current and former U.S. intelligence officials said that although Russian diplomats have secure means of communicating with Moscow, Kushner’s apparent request for access to such channels was extraordinary.

“How would he trust that the Russians wouldn’t leak it on their side?” said one former senior intelligence official. The FBI would know that a Trump transition official was going in and out of the embassy, which would cause “a great deal” of concern, he added. The entire idea, he said, “seems extremely naive or absolutely crazy.”[And this guy's supposed to be "the smart one"... ]

The discussion of a secret channel adds to a broader pattern of efforts by Trump’s closest advisers to obscure their contacts with Russian counterparts. Trump’s first national security adviser, Flynn, was forced to resign after a series of false statements about his conversations with Kislyak. Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from matters related to the Russia investigation after it was revealed that he had failed to disclose his own meetings with Kislyak when asked during congressional testimony about any contact with Russians.

Kushner’s interactions with Russians — including Kislyak and an executive for a Russian bank under U.S. sanctions — were not acknowledged by the White House until they were exposed in media reports.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/na ... dbecab36f6

[Crackpot]

You do realize the handicap Kushner is playing with don't you?

[rubato]

You do realize the handicap Kushner is playing with don't you?

He's a hermaphrodite?


yrs,
rubato

[rubato]

There were earlier stories about Trump associates trying to set up a back-channel communications link with Russia. What motive does he have to be so fixated on what had to be a reckless attempt? Putin has blackmail material and Trumpy wants a little tet a tet to 'work something out'?


yrs,
rubato

[rubato]

From the comments to ExKAs linked article:

"I will ride to your rescue while shirtless on horseback. Is sexy, no?"


yrs,
rubato

[Econoline]

[BoSoxGal]

[Scooter]

Trump defends Carter Page, whom he is not supposed to know

Over the weekend, the Wall Street Journal reported that “a team of lawyers” may soon review Donald Trump’s social-media missives as the White House tries to grapple with the Russia scandal.

If that was the plan, it doesn’t appear to be going well. This morning, for example, the president published some tweets about the controversy that didn’t do Trump World any favors:

So now it is reported that the Democrats, who have excoriated Carter Page about Russia, don’t want him to testify. He blows away their case against him & now wants to clear his name by showing ‘the false or misleading testimony by James Comey, John Brennan…’ Witch Hunt!

Trump was apparently watching a Fox News segment this morning, which led to this little outburst.

And that’s a shame, because the president’s tweets are problematic for a variety of reasons.

For example, Trump, apparently quoting a letter Page sent to lawmakers seemed to argue this morning that the former directors of the FBI and the CIA delivered “false or misleading testimony” while under oath. That’s a pretty dangerous thing for a president to allege publicly without any evidence.

What’s more, Trump’s tweet follows Page’s claim that his interview with the House Intelligence Committee has been delayed, but it’s unclear if that interview had ever been scheduled in the first place.

But perhaps the most salient detail is Trump’s insistence that Carter Page has information that “blows away” the Democrats’ “case against him” in the Russia scandal. This, of course, leads to an awkward question: how exactly would the president know that?

A year ago, during the presidential campaign, Trump personally singled out Page, by name, as one of only a handful of people who were advising him on matters of foreign policy. That became highly problematic: the FBI has investigated Page as a possible agent of Russia.

The more controversial Page became, the more eager Team Trump became to put distance between Page and the president. Sean Spicer told reporters during the transition period, for example, “Carter Page is an individual whom [Trump] does not know.” The Washington Post added this morning people close to the president have insisted that Trump and Page “never met.”

And yet, there was the president this morning, not only defending Page, but making the case that Page has important, exculpatory information. I’ll look forward to the explanation as to how and why Trump has reached this conclusion.

[Scooter]

Jeff Sessions Under Investigation For Yet Another Secret Meeting With Russian Official

As the Russia scandal and cover-up continue to drown this White House, CNN is now reporting that Attorney General Jeff Sessions is under investigation for yet another meeting he may have had with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak.

According to the report, Congressional investigators are looking into another possible meeting that took place in April 2016 – in the middle of the campaign – between Sessions and the Russian official.

More from the report:

Congressional investigators are examining whether Attorney General Jeff Sessions had an additional private meeting with Russia’s ambassador during the presidential campaign, according to Republican and Democratic Hill sources and intelligence officials briefed on the investigation.

Investigators on the Hill are requesting additional information, including schedules from Sessions, a source with knowledge tells CNN. They are focusing on whether such a meeting took place April 27, 2016, at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, DC, where then-candidate Donald Trump was delivering his first major foreign policy address. Prior to the speech, then-Sen. Sessions and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak attended a small VIP reception with organizers, diplomats and others.

In addition to congressional investigators, the FBI is seeking to determine the extent of interactions the Trump campaign team may have had with Russia’s ambassador during the event as part of its broader counterintelligence investigation of Russian interference in the election. The FBI is looking into whether there was an additional private meeting at the Mayflower the same day, sources said.

The report comes months after Sessions found himself in hot water over two meetings he lied about taking with Russian officials during the campaign. It was quickly uncovered that Sessions did, in fact, have a pair of meetings with Kislyak during the campaign.

When Sessions was pressed on the whether there were any other meetings with Russian officials that he failed to disclose, the attorney general essentially said, “Nope.”

“I don’t believe so — you know, we meet a lot of people — I don’t believe so,” Sessions said in March, according to CNN.

If he had a third meeting with Kislyak last year, as the new reporting suggests, it would be not the first or second time the attorney general lied about his with meetings Russian officials – it would be the third.

For the nation’s top law enforcement officer, this type of behavior – lying about his meetings with a foreign state at a time when said foreign state was interfering in a U.S. presidential election – is unacceptable, and raises even more questions about why so many people around Trump are bending over backwards to conceal their contacts with Russia.

[Lord Jim]

Comey ‘Cleared for Takeoff’ in Public Testimony Next Week

Fired FBI Director James Comey is expected to testify in public before the Senate Intelligence Committee next week after having been "cleared for takeoff" by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, a source close to Comey told NBC News.

The source, a former law enforcement official, declined to say whether Mueller had specifically authorized Comey to discuss his interactions with President Trump, but said it was reasonable to expect that subject to come up.

Mueller was named earlier this month by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to be special counsel overseeing the sprawling FBI investigation into Russian election interference.

People close to Comey have said he is eager to testify in public in the wake of his abrupt dismissal, which Comey allies believe was an attempt to thwart the FBI's investigation into whether the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia's election interference.

But there had been some question as to whether Mueller would seek to block Comey's testimony, for fear it could impede his investigation.

When White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer was asked Wednesday about Comey's upcoming testimony, he declined to answer and said he was referring all media questions on the matter to President Donald Trump's outside counsel, Marc Kasowitz.

Comey wrote a memo about nearly every phone call and meeting he held with Trump, sources close to him have told NBC News, and he was concerned that Trump did not appear to respect the decades-long tradition that the FBI director should be independent from the White House.

Some critics have suggested that the president's behavior with Comey — coupled with his requests to senior intelligence officials that they state publicly they had seen no evidence of Trump campaign collusion with Russia — could amount to obstruction of justice.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/com ... ek-n766741

[RayThom]

It's almost like there's some kind of White House cover-up going on, but with Lord Dampnut assuring me it's all a big witch hunt I'm finding it hard who to believe. Poor Jeff Sessions, I used to think he was just addle brained but it's starting to sound like selective memory.

Politics sure has my head in a tizzy.

[Lord Jim]

President Donald Trump's outside counsel, Marc Kasowitz.

I wanted to talk a little bit about Trump's decision to pick this guy to be his legal Majordomo for his defense strategy in all things related to Russiagate and The Russiagate Cover-up...

It is a terrible decision from the point of view of Trump's political and legal well being, (which of course makes it a great decision from the point of view of the well-being of the American people... )

What Trump needed to do to save his ass in all of this was to pick someone who was deeply knowledgeable of the workings of Washington, and specifically possessed strong experience in dealing with Congressional and FBI investigations...

(Reportedly one of the other people under consideration for this selection was Ted Olsen; he would have fit that bill perfectly...)

And then he needed to shut up, and do and say exactly what that person told him to do...

Instead he has done the exact opposite...

Marc Kasowitz's distinguishing characteristic has been a slavish willingness to do or say absolutely anything Trump tells him to, no matter how morally questionable or legally fool-hardy it may be...

Kasowitz once filed a five billion dollar (yes, five BILLION) lawsuit against a journalist who wrote a book daring to dispute that Il Boobce was a rich as he claimed to be...

(Of course it was thrown out)

Kasowitz is also Trump's go-to legal bully boy in all his efforts to intimate his critics into silence (He was the guy who was sending all those letters during the campaign to journalists, news organizations, and Trump sex-assault accusers threatening lawsuits if retractions weren't made...No retractions were made, and no lawsuits were ever filed)

He's also the guy who handled The Donald's Trump University defense (which ultimately resulted in Trump paying a 25 million dollar settlement)

The one thing Trump has going for him by picking Kasowitz is that at least he'll never quit...

That's a problem he might have had with someone like Olsen, who once he took the job and realized that Trump wouldn't listen to anything he said, might have decided that he had a client that wouldn't let him do his job properly and bail...

But Trump and Kasowitz don't have a standard Client/Lawyer relationship...

They have a Boss/Flunky relationship...

Kasowitz won't be advising Trump; he will be listening attentively and carrying out Trump's every order without question and to the letter...

Which means that the person who will really be in charge of the strategy for defending Trump on all things Russiagate and The Russiagate Cover-up is ...

Why Donald Trump of course...

And given the stellar job he's done doing this so far...

Like I said, a bad decision for Donald Trump, but a good one for America...

[Scooter]

As if Ted Olsen would have ever in a million years agreed to take this on. That's like those who are touting Andy Card as the new chief of staff.

[Big RR]

Jim--I think it's the only choice Trump could make; he's not willing to simply shut up and say what he is told to say--indeed, I doubt he's capable of doing that. As long as he can distance himself from the discussions (like I think he has in most of the negotiations his company has had for various deals), he can keep quiet, but when he is at the center of the discussion, he clearly cannot. He made the only decision he could, and it is a great one for America.

[Scooter]

[BoSoxGal]