Tornado Alley (PROG)

[fuagf]

Part 187, some of Russian meddling, and related, material from F6 big ones. These from a post Wednesday, 04/18/18, covering
March 20, 2018, and headed, “It Was A Crime”: 15 Years After U.S. Invasion, Iraqis Still Face Trauma, Destruction & Violence
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=140147932

Sixth down

Readout of President Donald J. Trump’s Call with President Vladimir Putin of Russia
Issued on: March 20, 2018
President Donald J. Trump spoke today with President Vladimir Putin of Russia. The two leaders discussed the state of bilateral relations and resolved to continue dialogue about mutual national security priorities and challenges. President Trump congratulated President Putin on his March 18 re-election, and emphasized the importance of denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula. The two leaders confirmed the need for the United States and Russia to continue our shared efforts on strategic stability.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/readout-president-donald-j-trumps-call-president-vladimir-putin-russia-3/

The thirtieth to the thirty-second

Liz Plank: Trump's "best case" is he's "a cheating pig"

The Beat with Ari Melber
3/20/18
Former playboy model Karen McDougal comes forward alleging an affair with Trump and sues to break her silence. It
comes as a lie detector test Stormy Daniels took emerges and a judge green lights a “groping” and “defamation” suit
from an "Apprentice” contestant to move forward. Attorney Gloria Allred joins Liz Plank and Shelby Holliday on The Beat.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/the-beat-with-ari-melber/watch/liz-plank-trump-s-best-case-is-he-s-a-cheating-pig-1190774851980 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2c9UL_J8Cw [with comments]

*

Top DOJ Official: Trump firing McCabe 'suspicious' and 'nonsensical'

The Beat with Ari Melber
3/20/18
Trump faces exposure for obstruction of justice after becoming the first president to fire the FBI director and the Deputy Director of FBI. Two GOP
senators say firing Mueller leads to Trump’s “impeachment.” Neal Katyal, the former Acting Solicitor General of the United States joins The Beat.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/the-beat-with-ari-melber/watch/top-doj-official-trump-firing-mccabe-suspicious-and-nonsensical-1190779459508 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5q4ITgTpuQ [with comments]

*

Comey's new warning to Trump: You 'will hear my story soon'
The Beat with Ari Melber
3/20/18
After unusual firings, Trump braces for damning testimony from FBI veterans. Two people who knew
Comey long before the Russia probe speak out on how he “follows the evidence wherever it goes.”
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/the-beat-with-ari-melber/watch/comey-s-new-warning-to-trump-you-will-hear-my-story-soon-1190779971650

The thirty-fourth

This entrepreneur says he has the secret to stopping fake news on Facebook
The Beat with Ari Melber
3/20/18
Journalist, Lawyer and founder of 'Newsguard' Steven Brill joins Ari Melber to discuss why he's launching
a for-profit company, to entice big tech companies like Facebook, Google and Twitter to combat fake news.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/the-beat-with-ari-melber/watch/this-entrepreneur-says-he-has-the-secret-to-stopping-fake-news-on-facebook-1190788163624

Thirty-seven to forty-one

Trump under legal siege as jeopardy grows
All In with Chris Hayes
3/20/18
President Donald Trump is under legal siege, facing multiple battle fronts from the Mueller Russia probe to several civil lawsuits.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/trump-under-legal-siege-as-jeopardy-grows-1190825027616

*

Bannon oversaw Cambridge Analytica Facebook data collection

All In with Chris Hayes
3/20/18
Former Trump chief strategist Steve Bannon oversaw Cambridge Analytica's data collection
on Facebook while he was a top executive at the firm, reports the Washington Post.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/bannon-oversaw-cambridge-analytica-facebook-data-collection-1190827587684 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnIH0x3qh4g [with comments]

*

Trump ignores all caps warning, congratulates Putin

All In with Chris Hayes
3/20/18
President Trump reportedly called with kind words for Russian President Vladimir Putin
despite being implored by his national security advisers: "DO NOT CONGRATULATE."
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/trump-ignores-all-caps-warning-congratulates-putin-1190828099595 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWhaC35ljos [with comments]

Trump's White House hammered the Venezuela election last year. This year Putin "gets a pass."

*

Sanders: Trump firing Mueller would be 'impeachable offense'
All In with Chris Hayes
3/20/18
Sen. Bernie Sanders weighs in on the possibility of Trump firing the special counsel, plus
the brutal war the Trump administration is helping wage without congressional oversight.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/sanders-trump-firing-mueller-would-be-impeachable-offense-1190832707852

--

Against advice, Trump congratulates Putin on sham election win: WaPo

The Rachel Maddow Show
3/20/18
Carol Leonnig, National Reporter for The Washington Post, talks with Rachel Maddow about new reporting that Donald Trump's advisers
explicitly told him not to congratulate Vladimir Putin and to condemn the poisoning of two people in the UK. Trump did the opposite.
“If Skripal and his daughter received a lethal dose of B-1976, C-1976, or D-1980, then, most likely, they will suffer
the same fate as earlier victims. There is no antidote to these agents. I can say with nearly 100% certainty that if
Skripal and his daughter are taken off of life support, they will die, although they are now only technically alive.”
The Bell: An exclusive interview with the scientist who developed 'Novichok'
https://thebell.io/en/the-scientist-who-developed-novichok-doses-ranged-from-20-grams-to-several-kilos/
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/against-advice-trump-congratulates-putin-on-sham-election-win-wapo-1190933059810 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgyQyx-vl40 [with comments]

Forty-three to forty-nine

Warner: 'A lot more stories to be told' from Cambridge Analytica
The Rachel Maddow Show
3/20/18
Senator Mark Warner, top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, talks with Rachel Maddow
about the new revelations regarding Cambridge Analytica and its work for the Donald Trump campaign.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/warner-a-lot-more-stories-to-be-told-from-cambridge-analytica-1190939203567

*

Senate intel moves to secure elections despite Trump indifference
The Rachel Maddow Show
3/20/18
Senator Mark Warner, top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, talks with Rachel Maddow about the
bipartisan effort in the Senate to establish basic defenses against further Russian intrusion into U.S. elections.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/senate-intel-moves-to-secure-elections-despite-trump-indifference-1190948419604

*

James Comey visits The Rachel Maddow Show on Thursday April 19th
The Rachel Maddow Show
3/20/18
Rachel Maddow alerts viewers that former FBI Director James Comey will be a guest on The Rachel Maddow Show on Thursday, April 19th at 9pm ET.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/james-comey-visits-the-rachel-maddow-show-on-thursday-april-19th-1190957635704

--

Some Republicans talk impeachment if Trump fires Mueller

The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell
3/20/18
GOP Sens. Lindsey Graham and Jeff Flake say it would be a constitutional crisis and impeachment could follow if Trump
fires Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Will other Republicans follow? Ari Melber talks to Jennifer Rubin and Ezra Klein.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/watch/some-republicans-talk-impeachment-if-trump-fires-mueller-1190942275793 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNmwAFHdVNU [with comments]

*


Stormy attorney: Trump team 'stepped into every trap we've laid'

The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell
3/20/18
Stormy Daniels' attorney Michael Avenatti says Donald Trump's lawyers "have stepped into every trap we have laid" and calls their
strategy "tic-tac-toe" compared to their team's game of chess. Joyce Vance and Matt Miller react to the latest Trump legal troubles.
©2018 NBCNews.com
http://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/watch/stormy-attorney-trump-team-stepped-into-every-trap-we-ve-laid-1190942275818 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfwFzVFGqMk [with comments]


--

Fmr. FBI Special Agent: Vladimir Putin Owns the President
The 11th Hour with Brian Williams
3/21/18
As the Washington Post reports, President Trump went against his advisers' advice in congratulating Vladimir Putin. Former Ambassador Mike McFaul, Washington
Post reporter Ashley Parker, former FBI Special Agent Clint Watts and former Undersecretary of State Rick Stengel weigh in on the Trump-Putin relationship.
©2018 NBCNews.com
[originally aired March 20, 2018]
http://www.msnbc.com/brian-williams/watch/fmr-fbi-special-agent-vladimir-putin-owns-the-president-1191007299939

*

Republicans Start Talking Impeachment

The 11th Hour with Brian Williams
3/21/18
A GOP warning to President Trump about impeachment, should he bring an end to the Mueller investigation. Plus, the top Republican attorney who turned
down an invitation to join the Trump legal team. The Washington Post's Robert Costa and the New York Times' Jeremy Peters share their latest reporting.
©2018 NBCNews.com
[originally aired March 20, 2018]
http://www.msnbc.com/brian-williams/watch/republicans-start-talking-impeachment-1191010883810 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UW1FQH5IkM [with comments]

One from the real comedy section

Trump Shuffles His Legal Counsel To Fend Off Mueller

Published on Mar 21, 2018 by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Donald Trump has assembled an 'A Team'
to take on Special Counsel Robert Mueller. And this definition of 'A Team' means... it's 'a team.'
[originally aired March 20, 2018]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yo9ExghnDhA [with comments]

To "stashed March 20, 2018:"

Trump's Confidence Game
After a year of uncertainty and unhappiness, the president is reportedly feeling more comfortable—but has he really mastered the job?
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/03/trumps-confidence-game/555926/

It’s not your imagination. Trump is getting worse.
By Eugene Robinson
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/its-not-your-imagination-trump-is-getting-worse/2018/03/19/36acac5e-2bac-11e8-8ad6-fbc50284fce8_story.html

If Trump fires Mueller, Republicans will be, like, really disappointed
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/compost/wp/2018/03/19/if-trump-fires-mueller-republicans-will-be-like-really-disappointed/

Republicans tell Trump: Lay off Mueller _ but they don’t act
https://www.apnews.com/04edb1a7205e4e09a316d8ae7d73b05e

The Wrong People Are Criticizing Donald Trump
Editorial
Seeing someone stand up to a bully is cathartic. That feeling is magnified when the bully is the president of the United States and his abusive behavior cries out for a response from honorable people.
The problem is that a vast majority of the people in the best position to put weight behind such a response, Republicans in Congress, have kept silent.
[...]
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/19/opinion/trump-mccabe-republicans.html

GOP leaders back second special counsel
http://thehill.com/homenews/house/379228-gop-leaders-back-second-special-counsel

Mueller’s Interest in Obstruction Is Probably Just the Tip of the Iceberg
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/03/muellers-obstruction-focus-is-likely-the-tip-of-the-iceberg.html

Trump Hires Lawyer Who Has Pushed Theory That Justice Dept. Framed the President - Joseph E. diGenova
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/19/us/politics/joseph-digenova-trump-lawyer.html

Trump shakes up team of lawyers as legal threats mount
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-shakes-up-team-of-lawyers-as-legal-threats-mount/2018/03/19/fad71bb0-2ba1-11e8-b0b0-f706877db618_story.html

Why Congress Must Act Now to Protect Robert Mueller
https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/why-congress-must-act-now-to-protect-robert-mueller

Fact Check: Trump wrong on Russia collusion question
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-russia-collusion-fact-check-wrong-on-collusion-claim/

Mueller pens Trump in as he [Trump] slips restraints elsewhere
https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/20/politics/donald-trump-robert-mueller-lawyer/index.html

McCabe firing: Trump's 'great day for democracy' smacks of dictatorship
https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/18/opinions/trump-mccabe-firing-loyalty-opinion-obeidallah/index.html

All the times Cambridge Analytica gave brazenly contradictory accounts of its murky work on Brexit
The Facebook data scandal has all-but confirmed Cambridge Analytica's shadowy role in the US election, but its involvement in Brexit is even more murky.
The company repeatedly claimed it worked with Leave.EU, only to later completely deny any collaboration with Nigel Farage's Brexit campaign group.
Leave.EU executives have also contradicted themselves on the role Cambridge Analytica played in helping it influence voters in Britain.
http://www.businessinsider.com/cambridge-analytica-has-contradicted-itself-on-its-work-for-leaveeu-2018-3

Cambridge Analytica: Undercover Secrets of Trump's Data Firm

Channel 4 News
An investigation by Channel 4 News has revealed how Cambridge Analytica claims it ran ‘all’ of President Trump’s digital campaign - and may have broken election law. Executives were secretly filmed saying they leave ‘no paper trail’.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cy-9iciNF1A
Data, Democracy and Dirty Tricks: Cambridge Analytica Uncovered
A five-part exposé into Cambridge Analytica – the British data firm linked
[...]
Part three: The Trump campaign ( https://youtu.be/cy-9iciNF1A )
The undercover investigation reveals how Cambridge Analytica claims it ran ‘all’ of President Trump’s digital campaign – and may have broken election law. Executives were secretly filmed saying they leave ‘no paper trail’. And, as the report went on air, the firm announced it has suspended chief executive Alexander Nix, pending a full investigation.
[...]
https://www.channel4.com/news/data-democracy-and-dirty-tricks-cambridge-analytica-uncovered-investigation-expose
Exposed: Undercover secrets of Trump’s data firm ( https://youtu.be/cy-9iciNF1A )
An investigation by Channel 4 News has revealed how Cambridge Analytica claims it ran ‘all’ of President Trump’s digital campaign – and may have broken election law. As the report went on air, the firm announced it has suspended chief executive Alexander Nix, pending a full investigation.
https://www.channel4.com/news/exposed-undercover-secrets-of-donald-trump-data-firm-cambridge-analytica

The Problem Isn't Cambridge Analytica: It's Facebook - bullshit - it's both
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kalevleetaru/2018/03/19/the-problem-isnt-cambridge-analytica-its-facebook/

‘I made Steve Bannon’s psychological warfare tool’: meet the data war whistleblower
For more than a year we’ve been investigating Cambridge Analytica and its links to the Brexit Leave campaign in the UK and Team Trump in the US presidential election. Now, 28-year-old Christopher Wylie goes on the record to discuss his role in hijacking the profiles of millions of Facebook users in order to target the US electorate.
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/17/data-war-whistleblower-christopher-wylie-faceook-nix-bannon-trump
The Cambridge Analytica Files
https://www.theguardian.com/news/series/cambridge-analytica-files

What Hope Hicks Knows
The departure of the Trump whisperer has left the White House in even deeper chaos. Which surely pleases some outsiders angling to get back in.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/03/what-hope-hicks-learned-in-washington.html

We just got our latest hint that Hope Hicks has a detailed diary — and that could be of interest to investigators
The top presidential aide Hope Hicks listed pros and cons of her resignation from the White House in her notebook, New York magazine reported [item just above].
That detail is the latest indication that Hicks' records of her time in the White House and her relationship with President Donald Trump may be of interest to the special counsel investigating Russia's interference in the 2016 US election.
Hicks is said to have refused to answer some questions during her testimony before the House Intelligence Committee last month, prompting some lawmakers to press investigators to subpoena her.
http://www.businessinsider.com/does-hope-hicks-have-a-diary-trump-2018-3

more: https://news.google.com/news/story/djKBNYFLifybsBMt5smQom1tV6tMM?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en

Lawyer Offers To Represent Any Trump Staffer Who Breaks ‘Forever’ Nondisclosure Pacts
“It’s an unconstitutional prohibition on 1st Amendment rights,” attorney Mark Zaid argues.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/mark-zaid-trump-nondisclosure-pacts_us_5ab0380be4b00549ac7e5e2f

John Kelly Sure Seems Like A Jerk
He’s humiliated a Cabinet official, lied about a congresswoman and lamented the lack of “compromise” in the Civil War.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/john-kelly-jerk_us_5ab009a8e4b00549ac7e31ec

Helicopter Carrying Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner Experienced Engine Failure Last Week
The chopper, which was on its way to New York City, returned safely to Washington.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ivanka-trump-jared-kushner-helicopter-engine-failure_us_5ab00473e4b00549ac7e29b6

Fox News Analyst Quits, Calling Network a ‘Propaganda Machine’
A longtime analyst for Fox News is leaving the network, saying that he could not “in good conscience” remain with an organization that, he argued, “is now wittingly harming our system of government for profit.”
In a searing farewell note sent to colleagues on Tuesday, Ralph Peters, a Fox News strategic analyst and a retired lieutenant colonel in the United States Army, castigated the network for its coverage of President Trump and the rhetoric of its prime-time hosts.
“In my view, Fox has degenerated from providing a legitimate and much-needed outlet for conservative voices to a mere propaganda machine for a destructive and ethically ruinous administration,” Colonel Peters wrote in his message, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times.
“Over my decade with Fox, I long was proud of the association,” he added. “Now I am ashamed.”
Without citing them by name, Colonel Peters, 65, wrote that Fox News’s prime-time anchors “dismiss facts and empirical reality to launch profoundly dishonest assaults on the F.B.I., the Justice Department, the courts, the intelligence community (in which I served) and, not least, a model public servant and genuine war hero such as Robert Mueller.”
“I cannot be part of the same organization, even at a remove,” he wrote.
Fox News responded on Tuesday by saying it was “extremely proud of our top-rated prime-time hosts and all of our opinion programming.”
“Ralph Peters is entitled to his opinion despite the fact that he’s choosing to use it as a weapon in order to gain attention,” the network said in a statement.
Colonel Peters, who appeared regularly on Fox News and the Fox Business Network — including as recently as Monday morning — spent more than two decades in the Army, eventually specializing in Russian intelligence. He began appearing as a television commentator in the late 1990s, and signed an exclusive contract with Fox in 2008.
Typically hawkish in his views, Colonel Peters supported the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and was a strong proponent of confronting President Vladimir Putin of Russia. He was a fervent critic of former President Barack Obama, deriding his foreign policy as weak, and was briefly suspended by the network in 2015 after using a vulgarity to describe Mr. Obama during an appearance on Fox Business.
[...]
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/20/business/media/fox-news-analyst-ralph-peters.html

more: https://news.google.com/news/story/dXhkv_nY9g-KEOMWbSm8ECG7RRS1M?ned=us&gl=US&hl=en

Trump Congratulates Putin on Re-Election, but Fails to Mention Meddling in U.S.
WASHINGTON — President Trump called on Tuesday to congratulate President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia on his re-election, but did not raise with him the lopsided nature of his victory, Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential election or Moscow’s role in a nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy and his daughter living in Britain.
Instead, Mr. Trump kept the focus of the call on what the White House said were “shared interests” — among them, North Korea and Ukraine — overruling his national security advisers, who counseled him to condemn Russia for the nerve-agent attack.
“We had a very good call,” Mr. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, where he had just welcomed Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia. “We will probably be meeting in the not-too-distant future.”
The president’s upbeat characterization came five days after his administration imposed sanctions on Russia for its interference in the election and for other “malicious cyberattacks,” the most significant action it has taken against Moscow since Mr. Trump took office. The United States also joined Britain, France and Germany in denouncing the Russian government for violating international law for the attack on the spy, Sergei V. Skripal, and his daughter Yulia.
Both actions highlighted a contradiction at the heart of the Trump presidency: the administration’s steadily tougher stance toward Russia and Mr. Trump’s own stubborn reluctance to criticize Mr. Putin.
Mr. Trump, a senior official said, signed off on the sanctions and the harsh language in the administration’s statements. But he was determined not to antagonize Mr. Putin, this person said, because he believes his leader-to-leader rapport is the only way to improve relations between the two countries.
That strategy has put Mr. Trump at odds with his own advisers: in preparing the president for the call, one aide wrote on his briefing materials, “DO NOT CONGRATULATE.” The Washington Post first reported this detail, which a White House official confirmed.
The White House also insisted that it was not the place of the United States to question how other countries conduct their elections — a contention that is at odds with years of critical statements about foreign elections by the United States, as well as recent statements by the Trump administration about elections in Venezuela and Iran.
“What we do know is that Putin has been elected in their country, and that’s not something we can dictate to them how they operate,” said the press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders. “We can only focus on the freeness and fairness of our elections, something we 100 percent fully support.”
Echoing the president, she went on to rail against the investigation of the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, into links between the Trump campaign and Russia.
“To pretend like going through this absurd process for over a year would not bring frustration seems a little bit ridiculous,” she said.
Ms. Sanders noted that other foreign leaders, including Chancellor Angela Merkel, of Germany, had called Mr. Putin. Ms. Merkel’s office released a terse account of their call, saying she had told the Russian president, “Today, it is more important than ever to continue the dialogue with one another and to foster relations between our states and peoples.”
Republican lawmakers, even those who have resisted criticizing Mr. Trump, faulted him for congratulating Mr. Putin.
“When I look at a Russian election, what I see is a lack of credibility in tallying the results,” said the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. “Calling him wouldn’t have been high on my list.”
Senator John McCain of Arizona, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, was harsher.
“An American president does not lead the free world by congratulating dictators on winning sham elections,” he said in a statement. “And by doing so with Vladimir Putin, President Trump insulted every Russian citizen who was denied the right to vote in a free and fair election to determine their country’s future, including the countless Russian patriots who have risked so much to protest and resist Putin’s regime.”
In fact, both Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush called to congratulate Mr. Putin after previous election victories.
In Mr. Obama’s case, said Michael A. McFaul, who served as ambassador to Moscow during the Obama administration, there was lively internal debate about whether, and when, the president should make that call. Mr. Obama waited several days after Mr. Putin’s election in March 2012 before calling.
After that election, the State Department issued a statement in which it said, “The United States congratulates the Russian people on the completion of the presidential elections, and looks forward to working with the president-elect after the results are certified and he is sworn in.”
The language, Mr. McFaul said, was carefully chosen to applaud the Russian people for voting without praising Mr. Putin for winning. The statement also noted the reservations of outside observers about the “partisan use of government resources, and procedural irregularities on Election Day,” though it credited the Russian authorities for reforms after a widely criticized parliamentary election the previous December.
The parliamentary election drew condemnation from Hillary Clinton, then the secretary of state, who said the Russian people, “like people everywhere, deserve the right to have their voices heard and their votes counted.” Her statement planted the seeds for the antipathy between her and Mr. Putin, who accused her of fomenting unrest in Russia.
This time, Mr. Putin prevailed with more than 76 percent of the vote. International observers said Russian electoral authorities counted the votes efficiently, but that several other factors prevented the contest from being fair.
“Restrictions on the fundamental freedoms of assembly, association and expression, as well as on candidate registration, have limited the space for political engagement and resulted in a lack of genuine competition,” observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said in a report.
During their call on Tuesday, a senior official said, Mr. Trump told Mr. Putin he had been concerned by a recent speech in which Mr. Putin talked about Russia developing an “invincible” intercontinental cruise missile and a nuclear torpedo that could outsmart all American defenses.
Mr. Putin’s presentation included animated videos depicting multiple warheads aimed at Florida, where the president often stays at his Mar-a-Lago resort. Mr. Trump raised the nuclear threat in calls with Prime Minister Theresa May of Britain, President Emmanuel Macron of France and Ms. Merkel.
More recently, however, Mr. Trump noted that Mr. Putin had taken a more moderate tone, talking about the need to de-escalate the nuclear arms race between Russia and the United States.
Mr. Trump, this official said, told Mr. Putin that he welcomed the shift in tone. But Mr. Trump reminded Mr. Putin that his administration was spending $700 billion to upgrade the American military, and that the United States would win any arms race between the two.
“We will never allow anybody to have anything even close to what we have,” Mr. Trump told reporters.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/20/us/politics/trump-putin-russia.html

Trump’s national security advisers warned him not to congratulate Putin. He did it anyway.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trumps-national-security-advisers-warned-him-not-to-congratulate-putin-he-did-it-anyway/2018/03/20/22738ebc-2c68-11e8-8ad6-fbc50284fce8_story.html

more: https://www.google.com/search?q=trump+putin

Star GOP lawyer Theodore B. Olson declines offer to join Trump legal team
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-legal-team-seeks-to-add-gravitas-with-offer-to-star-gop-attorney-theodore-b-olson/2018/03/20/571f1e46-2c41-11e8-8ad6-fbc50284fce8_story.html

Flake warns Trump of impeachment ‘remedy’ if Mueller probe is halted
Sen. Jeff Flake, one of President Trump’s most prominent Senate critics, told The Washington Post in an interview Tuesday that he would support impeachment proceedings against Trump if the president ends special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election “without cause.”
“We’re begging him: ‘Don’t go down this road. Don’t create a constitutional crisis. Don’t force the Congress to take the only remedy that Congress can take,’ ” said Flake (R-Ariz.). “To remind the president of that is the best way to keep him from going down that road. To fire Mueller without cause, I don’t know if there is any other remedy left to the legislative branch.”
Flake compared any possible effort by Trump in the coming weeks to end the Mueller probe to President Richard Nixon’s infamous 1973 firing of the special prosecutor during the Watergate scandal.
“If [Trump] fires [Mueller] without cause, how different is that from what Nixon did with the ‘Saturday Night Massacre’?” Flake asked. “He left before impeachment came, but that was the remedy then and that would be the remedy now.”
Flake — who recently traveled to New Hampshire and is considered a potential Trump challenger in the race for the 2020 Republican presidential nomination — said he was speaking up Tuesday about the prospect of impeachment because Republican warnings have been unsuccessful in holding back Trump’s criticism of Mueller’s probe. Flake expressed alarm over how the president’s attacks on the investigation have seemed to escalate over the past week as the president faces mounting legal and political challenges.
Flake also credited Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) for taking the lead in talking about the possibility of impeachment proceedings — a topic most Republicans are eager to avoid.
Earlier Tuesday, Graham told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt that firing Mueller, “if he did it without cause,” would “probably” be an impeachable offense.
Flake said in the interview: “Nobody wants to talk about it. I don’t want to talk about it. As soon as you mention the I-word, that’s all people want to talk about.”
[...]
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2018/03/20/flake-warns-trump-of-impeachment-remedy-if-mueller-probe-is-halted/

Judge rules defamation case against Trump may proceed
A New York judge said Tuesday that a defamation lawsuit against President Trump related to an allegation that he sexually harassed a former “Apprentice” contestant may go forward.
Summer Zervos filed the suit last year after Trump said publicly during the 2016 presidential campaign that she and other women accusing him of unwanted sexual contact were making up their claims. Trump sought to block the legal action, but New York Supreme Court Judge Jennifer G. Schecter — citing court precedent that ultimately led to the impeachment of President Bill Clinton in 1998 — said that “a sitting president is not immune from being sued in federal court for unofficial acts.”
The ruling came the same day that Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model, filed a lawsuit on the other side of the country against American Media, owner of the National Enquirer, seeking to be released from a contract she said paid her $150,000 to keep quiet about an alleged affair with Trump.
[...]
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/judge-rules-defamation-case-against-trump-may-proceed/2018/03/20/561d1d44-f498-11e7-b34a-b85626af34ef_story.html

The one new claim in a former Playboy model’s lawsuit that could spell trouble for Trump
There is a lot of old information in a lawsuit that former Playboy model Karen McDougal filed against the National Enquirer's parent company Tuesday, but one new claim stands out and could spell trouble for President Trump.
McDougal, who says she had an affair with Trump more than a decade ago, alleges in the lawsuit that American Media Inc. did not act alone when it bought her silence in 2016 but “worked secretly with Mr. Trump's personal 'fixer.' ”
The “fixer,” according to the lawsuit, is attorney Michael Cohen, the same lawyer who claims to have used his own funds to pay off porn star Stormy Daniels, who also says she had an affair with Trump.
[...]
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2018/03/20/the-one-new-claim-in-a-former-playboy-models-lawsuit-that-could-spell-trouble-for-trump/

Bannon oversaw Cambridge Analytica’s collection of Facebook data, according to former employee
LONDON — Conservative strategist Stephen K. Bannon oversaw Cambridge Analytica’s early efforts to collect troves of Facebook data as part of an ambitious program to build detailed profiles of millions of American voters, a former employee of the data-science firm said Tuesday.
The 2014 effort was part of a high-tech form of voter persuasion touted by the company, which under Bannon identified and tested the power of anti-establishment messages that later would emerge as central themes in President Trump’s campaign speeches, according to Chris Wylie, who left the company at the end of that year.
Among the messages tested were “drain the swamp” and “deep state,” he said.
Cambridge Analytica, which worked for Trump’s 2016 campaign, is now facing questions about alleged unethical practices, including charges that the firm improperly handled the data of tens of millions of Facebook users. On Tuesday, the company’s board announced that it was suspending its chief executive, Alexander Nix, after British television released secret recordings that appeared to show him talking about entrapping political opponents.
More than three years before he served as Trump’s chief political strategist, Bannon helped launch Cambridge Analytica with the financial backing of the wealthy Mercer family as part of a broader effort to create a populist power base. Earlier this year, the Mercers cut ties with Bannon after he was quoted making incendiary comments about Trump and his family.
In an interview Tuesday with The Washington Post at his lawyer’s London office, Wylie said that Bannon — while he was a top executive at Cambridge Analytica and head of Breitbart News — was deeply involved in the company’s strategy and approved spending nearly $1 million to acquire data, including Facebook profiles, in 2014.
“We had to get Bannon to approve everything at this point. Bannon was Alexander Nix’s boss,” said Wylie, who was Cambridge Analytica’s research director. “Alexander Nix didn’t have the authority to spend that much money without approval.”
Bannon, who served on the company’s board, did not respond to a request for comment. He served as vice president and secretary of Cambridge Analytica from June 2014 to August 2016, when he became chief executive of Trump’s campaign, according to his publicly filed financial disclosure. In 2017, he joined Trump in the White House as his chief strategist.
Bannon received more than $125,000 in consulting fees from Cambridge Analytica in 2016 and owned “membership units” in the company worth between $1 million and $5 million, according to his financial disclosure.
Cambridge Analytica did not respond to a request for comment about Bannon’s role.
[...]
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/bannon-oversaw-cambridge-analyticas-collection-of-facebook-data-according-to-former-employee/2018/03/20/8fb369a6-2c55-11e8-b0b0-f706877db618_story.html

more: https://www.google.com/search?q=bannon+cambridge+analytica