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"
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]
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
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
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
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
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
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
Judge tosses Manafort civil suit challenging special counsel
"Part 186, some of..."
Paul Manafort’s attorneys had initially asked the judge to throw out all charges against him, arguing that special counsel Robert Mueller had exceeded his authority by bringing charges unrelated to Russian election interference. | Alex Brandon/AP Photo
The court has yet to rule on the ex-Trump official's parallel bid to dismiss criminal charges.
By JOSH GERSTEIN
04/27/2018 12:35 PM EDT
Updated 04/27/2018 01:55 PM EDT
A federal judge in Washington has thrown out a civil lawsuit President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, filed challenging the authority of special counsel Robert Mueller.
Mueller is pursuing criminal cases against Manafort in two different federal courts and Manafort’s suit initially asked that all all the charges in at least one of those cases be thrown out. However, the veteran political consultant and former Trump campaign official later dropped that part of his suit and appeared to focus on blocking any further investigation or prosecution by Mueller.
U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman ruled Friday that Manafort's request for an injunction against additional charges from Mueller should be denied, in part because it was too speculative.
"The fact that Manafort has narrowed his approach to only focus on future investigative steps by the Special Counsel does not cure the problem with his civil complaint," Jackson wrote, suggesting indications are that potential new charges against Manafort are too remote.
"It does not appear that he has identified any harm that is actual or imminent, and not hypothetical," the judge wrote in her 24-page opinion .. https://ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2018cv0011-37 . "Since it is not clear at this point what actions, if any, the Special Counsel will take with respect to Manafort, and whether those future actions will be subject to attack for the same reasons set forth in the complaint, prudential considerations weigh against hearing an action to prohibit them now."
Jackson noted that Manafort has also filed a similar motion in the criminal case she is overseeing, arguing that the order Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein issued last May appointing Mueller was overbroad and that Mueller has exceeded even that capacious mandate.
"Because Manafort is currently a defendant in a pending criminal case before the Court, he has been granted the opportunity to bring a motion challenging his prosecution, and he has already exercised that right by filing a motion advancing the very concerns set forth in the instant complaint," the judge wrote. "If the Court grants Manafort's motion to dismiss the indictment in the criminal case on the grounds that the Appointment Order exceeded the Acting Attorney General's authority, Manafort will have achieved the primary objective of this lawsuit: the issuance of an order to that effect.......His concerns regarding the Special Counsel's investigation will be taken up in the criminal case."
The criminal indictment pending before Jackson in Washington charges Manafort with money laundering and failing to register as a foreign agent in connection with his work for Ukraine. Another case filed in Alexandria, Virginia, charges him with tax evasion, bank fraud and failure to report overseas bank accounts. The 69-year-old Manafort could potentially spend the rest of his life in prison if convicted in either case.
Prosecutors also indicated in a court filing earlier this month that they are investigating at least one other matter related to Manafort that is not part of the pending charges.
Last week, Jackson held a hearing on Manafort's bid to dismiss the Washington case. She said she saw some merit in at least one of the arguments put forward by Manafort's defense that Rosenstein's order appointing Mueller was more open-ended than Justice Department regulations permit. However, those rules specifically say that they can't be enforced by parties outside the government. Sens. Chuck Grassley and Dianne Feinstein are pictured. | AP Photo
Jackson made no ruling at the hearing, but she seemed skeptical about allowing a criminal defendant to challenge alleged violations of Justice Department policies.
Spokespeople for Manafort and Mueller's office, respectively, had no immediate comment on the judge's decision throwing out the civil suit. Jackson has entered a gag order limiting public comments about the criminal case by those involved.
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