Poll: Nearly 6 in 10 say Donald Trump impeded Russia probe
A majority of Americans say they believe President Donald Trump has tried to obstruct the investigation into his campaign’s ties to Russia, though the public is divided on whether he should be removed from office if he’s found to have stymied the probe, according to a new poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Meanwhile, the survey shows Americans are somewhat less likely to say Congress should remove Trump from office if he directed his former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, to arrange hush money payments to cover up claims of extramarital relationships during the 2016 campaign. Still, opinions on both matters see a stark partisan divide. The poll was conducted just after federal prosecutors in New York implicated Trump in illegal payments to a former Playboy model and an adult-film actress and after special counsel Robert Mueller revealed that discussions over a possible Trump Tower in Moscow extended longer than had been previously known. It was done amid signs of intensifying legal danger for Trump, whose actions face scrutiny in New York and in Mueller’s investigation into possible coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign. Overall, 42 percent of Americans approve of the job Trump is doing as president, while 56 percent disapprove. Those numbers have held steady for most of the year. About 8 in 10 Republicans approve of Trump’s job performance, while just 1 in 10 Democrats say the same. The swirling investigations are helping define public opinion, creating clear divisions about whether and for what Trump should be impeached and to what extent he might be culpable of wrongdoing. A majority of Americans — 58 percent —think the president has tried to impede the Russia investigation, while 4 in 10 say he has not. An overwhelming share of Democrats, 90 percent, say the president has sought to obstruct the probe, compared with 22 percent of Republicans. The survey also shows that if Mueller’s investigation finds that Trump did not personally have inappropriate contacts with the Kremlin but nonetheless tried to obstruct the FBI’s work, 51 percent of Americans think Congress should take steps to remove him from office, while 46 percent think it should not. The special counsel’s obstruction investigation has shadowed the president for a year and a half, unfolding alongside his inquiry into whether the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia to sway the election and the separate campaign finance probe in New York. The last month has produced bombshell developments in the investigation, including Cohen’s sentencing, allegations that Trump’s former campaign chairman lied to prosecutors and a judge’s unexpected upbraiding of former national security adviser Michael Flynn. Jonathan Levine, a 64-year-old financial services professional in Connecticut, said he was especially concerned by reports that negotiations over a Trump Tower in Moscow continued deep into the 2016 campaign. “He’s running to be president of the United States. The United States is ideologically opposed to Russia, so he’s accidentally dealing with the enemy, accidentally in bed with the enemy,” Levine said. “Obviously he should have discontinued negotiations in Moscow when he turned the campaign on full time.” Levine said he could support impeachment if there were appropriate hearings and solid evidence. But there are major partisan divides about what constitutes an impeachable offense. About 8 in 10 Democrats and 2 in 10 Republicans think Trump should be removed from office if he committed obstruction. Nearly three-quarters of Democrats and only about 1 in 10 Republicans think Congress should take steps to impeach him if he directed illegal payments. Overall, 45 percent said Congress should take steps to remove him from office if he orchestrated the hush money payments. Slightly more, 53 percent, said Congress should not take steps to remove Trump for that. About 4 in 10 think he broke the law when it comes to directing Cohen’s payments, and about as many say the same of his ties to Russia. About 2 in 10 think Trump has done nothing wrong, with the remainder saying his actions were unethical, but not illegal. About 7 in 10 Democrats believe Trump has done something illegal involving Russia. Among Republicans, 55 percent say Trump has done nothing wrong when it comes to Russia, while 35 percent think he has done something unethical but not illegal. Matthew Behrs, a maintenance coordinator from Plymouth, Wisconsin, is among those unconvinced by the allegations. He said he was skeptical of the impact Russia actually had on the election and wondered why Mueller hadn’t provided direct evidence of collusion if the problem was so prevalent. “If there was this collusion, why wasn’t this (over in) three months,” he said. “Here are the emails, here’s the contact, here’s the collusion. Here it is.” Nearly 7 in 10 Democrats find illegality for Trump in Cohen’s payments, while just 7 percent of Republicans say the same. Among Republicans, 49 percent think Trump did something unethical, but not illegal, while 44 percent think he did nothing wrong. The poll finds rising confidence among Democrats of the fairness and impartiality of Mueller’s investigation. Overall, about a third of Americans say they’re extremely or very confident that the inquiry is fair and impartial; another quarter say they are moderately confident. Roughly 4 in 10 say they’re not confident. Democrats are more likely to express confidence today compared with a year ago, 51 percent to 38 percent. Just 14 percent of Republicans say they are confident, which is unchanged from last year. ___ The AP-NORC poll of 1,067 adults was conducted Dec. 13-16 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 4.1 percentage points. Respondents were first selected randomly using address-based sampling methods, and later interviewed online or by phone. ___ Republished with permission from the Associated Press.
Some Jeff Sessions allies hope White House allows graceful exit
Sensing that Jeff Sessions’ days at the Justice Department may be numbered, some of his supporters want the White House to allow for a graceful exit for an attorney general they believe has dutifully carried out the administration’s agenda even while enduring the president’s fury. It seems unlikely that efforts to soften a possible dismissal after the Nov. 6 midterm election would find sympathy in the White House, where President Donald Trump’s rage remains unabated over the attorney general’s recusal from the Russia investigation. A hand-picked successor could theoretically oversee the rest of the probe in place of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. But some supporters say they hope that if and when Sessions is replaced, his record as senator and attorney general will be recognized and not overwhelmed by Trump’s attacks, or that the administration will at least respect the Justice Department by guaranteeing a smooth transition. A scenario advocated by at least one Sessions ally, former Cincinnati Mayor Ken Blackwell, would allow him to remain on the job until January and be permitted to resign on his own then rather than be fired immediately after the midterms. Blackwell said allies have made their case to administration officials that Sessions has successfully pushed the president’s core priorities, including on illegal immigration, and deserves some sort of recognition from the White House that “he has more than a passing grade.” “It is not unknown, from anyone from John Kelly to Jared Kushner, that there is a base of support,” said Blackwell, referring to Trump’s chief of staff and son-in-law. “A portion of that base is ready to continue advocacy for his service.” Newt Gingrich, a former Republican House speaker who is close to the White House and calls himself a longtime “admirer” of Sessions, said he would be open to serving as an intermediary if asked between the White House and Sessions supporters. “He deserves a graceful exit. His career deserves a strong conclusion,” said Gingrich, who called Sessions “a strong conservative who has done strong work at the Department of Justice.” Sessions, who has publicly acknowledged the president’s displeasure, has plowed forward with the conventional duties of the job, including a regular calendar of events and announcements. On Friday, he spoke first at the Justice Department news conference announcing the arrest of a mail-bomb suspect in Florida. The president, though mindful that Sessions remains popular among much of his base, would seem unlikely to sign off on a plan to extend Sessions’ time in office, according to a White House official and an outside adviser familiar with Trump’s thinking but not authorized to publicly discuss private conversations. Trump has repeatedly had to be talked out of firing Sessions before November and has signaled to allies that he wants to make sweeping changes at the Justice Department once the midterms have concluded. He told The Associated Press this month that he was “not thrilled” with Sessions but made no commitment to dismiss him. If Trump were to wait, it would not be out of deference to Sessions, but rather because the White House would be managing the fallout from the midterms and preparing for a pair of presidential overseas trips in November, according to the official. Sessions’ decision to recuse remains his original sin in Trump’s eyes. Trump has fumed that Sessions has not done more to protect his personal interests and has vented about what he sees as Sessions’ failure to get a handle on immigration and his lack of emphasis on combating transnational criminal organizations. Cameron Smith, a former Sessions Senate aide, said, “The idea that this gets better — they stand next to each other and sing common praises — I just don’t see anybody looking at that seriously.” After being berated by Trump over the recusal decision last year, Sessions offered his resignation, but it was rejected. He has been widely viewed as determined to stay in the job because he believes in Trump’s agenda, which largely mirrors his own interests, and reluctant to leave a job for which he gave up a Senate seat. For more than a year, Trump has repeatedly polled advisers as to whether he should fire Sessions. Some of his closest aides, including attorney Rudy Giuliani, have counseled him not to do so, at least not yet. The case that Sessions’ protectors outlined to Trump largely consists of three components: Firing Sessions, a witness in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of obstruction of justice, would add legal peril to his standing in the Russia probe. Doing so would anger the president’s political base, which Trump cares deeply about, especially before the midterms. A number of Republican senators would rebel against the treatment of a longtime colleague and potentially not hold confirmation hearings for a replacement if the GOP holds onto the Senate. Blackwell, the Sessions friend, said conservatives are divided between those who support firing him immediately and those who regard him as loyal to their cause, protective of their ideals and propelling Trump’s agenda. Gingrich, for instance, calls the recusal “inexcusable” even as he professes admiration for Sessions. The ground appears to have softened recently after some influential Republicans, including Sen. Lindsey Graham, suggested Trump would have the right, after the elections, to select a replacement he trusted. Smith said one way Trump could enable a respectful exit would be for the White House to craft a smooth succession plan and allow Sessions to be part of the process. Ed Meese, a Reagan administration attorney general and Sessions friend, said he wasn’t thinking about Sessions’ departure because “I don’t want to see him fired at all.” “I think he’s taken it with grace,” Meese said of Sessions’ response to Trump’s anger. “What he is recused from is less than 1 percent of the department and he has done an outstanding job in everything he’s done in the department.” Republished with permission from the Associated Press.
Russia probe revival expected if Democrats win House
House Democrats are expected to reopen the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election if they win the majority in November. But they would have to be selective in what they investigate. California Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House intelligence panel, has said his party would have to “ruthlessly prioritize the most important matters first.” The Republican-led Intelligence Committee was the only House panel to investigate Russian meddling, and its investigation is now closed. Republicans say they found no evidence of collusion between Russia and President Donald Trump‘s campaign. Democrats say Republicans ignored key facts and important witnesses and want to restart parts of the investigation if they win the House. But some Democrats also worry that there could be a political cost if they overreach. Schiff and other lawmakers say they are closely watching special counsel Robert Mueller‘s Russia investigation and the Senate’s Russia probe to look for gaps that they could fill. And if Mueller issues any findings, their investigative plans could change. “My sense is that we want to be precise,” says California Rep. Eric Swalwell, a Democratic member of the intelligence panel. Here’s a look at what Democrats are likely to investigate if they take the House majority. ___ MONEY LAUNDERING Schiff has repeatedly said a priority for Democrats would be investigating whether Russians used laundered money for transactions with the Trump Organization. Trump’s businesses have benefited from Russian investment over the years. Schiff said he wants to know whether “this is the leverage that the Russians have” over Trump. Other committees might also want to look into money laundering, including the House Financial Services panel. It’s unclear whether Mueller is probing money laundering related to the president’s business. ___ MORE WITNESSES The Democrats issued a list in March of several dozen people whom the committee hadn’t yet interviewed when the Russia investigation was shut down. Democrats would want to call in some — but probably not all — of those witnesses. Former Trump campaign advisers Michael Flynn, Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, and George Papadopoulos are among them. They all pleaded guilty to various charges in the Mueller probe and have cooperated with prosecutors. Important witnesses whose credibility Democrats have questioned might also be called back. That includes Trump’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, who pleaded guilty in federal court in August to campaign-finance violations and other charges, and prominent Trump supporter Erik Prince, who met with Russians during the campaign. Prince was defiant in an interview with the intelligence panel in December. “I believe there are those who were less than candid with us,” says Illinois Rep. Mike Quigley, a Democratic member of the committee, referring to Cohen and Prince, among others. Democrats have said they also want additional documents that Republicans refused to subpoena. ___ PUBLIC HEARINGS House Republicans limited their Russia investigation to the intelligence panel, which traditionally conducts most of its business in secret. Democrats would probably spread the investigation over several other committees, opening it up and allowing for public hearings with top Trump officials. Texas Rep. Joaquin Castro, a Democratic member of the intelligence panel, says they would try to be more transparent. The Republican investigation was “a way to keep everything behind closed doors,” he said. Democrats would also push to provide interview transcripts to Mueller, a step Republicans had resisted. The committee recently voted to make most of its Russia transcripts public, but it’s unclear when that will happen. ___ DONALD TRUMP JR. Democrats have pushed for more information about the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., and communications with his father and other aides related to a June 2016 meeting between Trump campaign officials and a Russian lawyer. According to phone records he provided to Congress, Trump Jr. had a call with a blocked number several days before the meeting took place; he said he didn’t recall with whom. Democrats want to subpoena additional phone records because Trump Jr. has insisted he didn’t alert his father to the meeting beforehand. They also want more information about his communications with former Trump communications aide Hope Hicks. Democrats may also look into direct messages on Twitter between Trump Jr. and WikiLeaks, the website that released emails from top Democratic officials during the 2016 campaign. Trump Jr. has released those direct messages, in which the website urged him to publicize its leaks. ___ TRUMP’S TAXES Democrats in the majority would probably push for the release of Trump’s tax returns, a task that would be up to the House Ways and Means Committee. Trump broke a decades long tradition by declining to release his returns during the campaign. The Republican House and Senate have declined to ask for them. Lawmakers hope that access to Trump’s taxes would reveal information about his financial entanglements with other countries, among other things. But getting them may not be easy. The tax-writing committees in Congress can obtain tax records from the IRS under the law, but it is possible the Trump administration would refuse to hand them over, prompting a court fight. ___ ISSUES RELATED TO COLLUSION Since Republicans closed the Russia investigation earlier this year, Democrats on the intelligence panel have conducted some of their own investigations despite not having subpoena power. They have made some progress in probing Cambridge Analytica, a data analytics firm once employed by the Trump campaign that improperly gained access to data from millions of social media profiles. They have also investigated Republican operative Peter W. Smith, who worked to obtain Democrat Hillary Clinton’s emails from Russian hackers, according to The Wall Street Journal. Smith died shortly after talking to the paper. ___ PROTECTION FOR ROBERT MUELLER A Democratic House would probably try to move legislation to protect special counsel Mueller. Trump has repeatedly criticized Mueller and his investigation, calling it a witch hunt. Prompted by concerns that Trump may try to fire Mueller, the GOP-led Senate Judiciary Committee approved legislation in April that would give any special counsel a 10-day window to seek expedited
With declassification, Donald Trump preps latest Russia probe punch
President Donald Trump has opened a new front in his efforts to discredit the origins of the Justice Department’s Russia probe, with the White House saying he will declassify a trove of documents and publicly release text messages of former FBI officials after calls from a small group of his Republican allies in Congress to do so. The declassification announcement came as part of Trump’s continued efforts to undermine special counsel Robert Mueller‘s probe in the wake of the guilty plea of his former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, and amid the ongoing grand jury investigation into a longtime associate, Roger Stone. The president also made the decision as he dealt with a separate firestorm surrounding his Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, and a sexual assault allegation. It was unclear how soon the documents would be released. The White House on Monday evening announced that Trump would declassify a portion of a secret surveillance warrant application and also direct the Justice Department to release text messages and documents involving several top Justice Department and FBI officials whom he has attacked over the last year, including former FBI Director James Comey. “Really bad things were happening, but they are now being exposed. Big stuff!” Trump tweeted Tuesday morning. In comments later at the White House, the president said he wants “total transparency,” returning to his usual refrain that the Russia investigation is a “witch hunt.” “The things that have been found over the last couple of weeks about text messages back and forth are a disgrace to our nation,” he said, adding: “I think it’s a good thing because we should open it up for people to see.” The move comes after a small group of Republicans in Congress, all staunch allies of Trump, held a news conference last week asking him to declassify the documents. Democrats criticized the effort, saying the GOP lawmakers were trying to discredit the Justice Department in an effort to protect Trump from Mueller’s investigation. Trump made a similar move in February when the White House, over the objections of the FBI and intelligence community, cleared the way for the Republican-led House intelligence committee to release a partisan memo about the surveillance warrant on former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. Democrats weeks later released their own memo. The disclosures were unprecedented given that surveillance warrants obtained from the secret court are highly classified and are not meant to be publicly disclosed, including to defendants preparing for or awaiting trial. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced Trump’s latest decision in a written statement Monday evening, saying the president had directed the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Justice Department to declassify the documents. Those departments have since said they have begun a declassification review of the materials. According to the White House, Trump declassified 21 pages of the 101-page June 2017 application to renew a warrant obtained under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, to monitor Page’s communications in 2016. Those pages only make up a small part of the 412 pages of FISA applications and court orders related to Page released by the FBI earlier this year in heavily redacted format. The June 2017 application was the last of four filed by the Justice Department in support of FISA court orders allowing the monitoring of Page. His communications were monitored for nearly a year starting in October 2016. According to the redacted version, three of the declassified pages involve information included in a section titled “The Russian Government’s Coordinated Efforts to Influence the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election.” That section includes reference to potential coordination between people associated with Trump’s campaign and the Russian election interference effort. The other 18 pages appear to relate to information the government submitted that came from former British spy Christopher Steele before the presidential election. Steele was a longtime FBI informant whose Democratic-funded research into Trump ties to Russia was compiled into a dossier that has become a partisan lightning rod since its publication in January 2017. Besides the FISA applications pages, the president is declassifying all FBI reports documenting interviews in connection with the Page surveillance warrant and those documenting interviews with senior Justice Department official Bruce Ohr, who was in contact with Steele. According to Sanders’ statement, Trump also directed the Justice Department to publicly release in full the text messages of Comey, Ohr, former acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, former FBI lawyer Lisa Page and former FBI special agent Peter Strzok that are related to the Russia investigation. The declassification decision and order for public release of the documents was quickly praised by Trump allies in Congress and attacked by Democrats. “Transparency wins. This is absolutely the right call from @POTUS,” said Rep. Mark Meadows, a North Carolina Republican, on Twitter. Meadows, who had pushed for the documents’ release, said it will allow the American people to decide “what happened at the highest levels of their FBI and Justice Department.” And the No. 3 Republican in the House, Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise, tweeted that Trump made the right call. “Americans deserve the truth about these egregious actions by government officials,” Scalise said. But Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the ranking Democrat on the House intelligence committee, called Trump’s decision a “clear abuse of power” intended to advance a “false narrative” to help in his defense from Mueller’s probe. Schiff said the FBI and the Justice Department had said releasing the documents would cross a “red line” because doing so would compromise sources and methods. Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland and Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York, the ranking Democrats on the House Oversight and Judiciary committees, said in a statement that Trump’s actions were a “direct and frantic response” to Manafort’s recent guilty plea and cooperation agreement with Mueller. Republished with permission from the Associated Press.
Donald Trump seethes over Russia probe, calls for end to ‘SPYGATE’
President Donald Trump escalated his efforts to discredit the Russia investigation Wednesday, saying the FBI has been caught in a “MAJOR spy scandal” over their use of a secret informant to determine whether some of Trump’s campaign aides were working with Russia ahead of the 2016 election. “SPYGATE could be one of the biggest political scandals in history!” Trump said in an early morning Twitter tirade. Trump and his GOP supporters in Congress are now demanding information on the outside informant, claiming it is proof that the Obama administration was trying to spy on his campaign for political reasons. The White House has negotiated rare access to classified documents for Trump’s congressional allies in a briefing expected Thursday. “Look how things have turned around on the Criminal Deep State,” Trump tweeted Wednesday. “They go after Phony Collusion with Russia, a made up Scam, and end up getting caught in a major SPY scandal the likes of which this country may never have seen before! What goes around, comes around!” The president’s comments came a day after he increased pressure on the Justice Department, declining to say whether he has confidence in Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. Over the weekend, Trump demanded that the Justice Department investigate the FBI and Justice Department’s handling of the Russia probe. The Justice Department agreed by expanding an open, internal investigation to determine whether there was any politically motivated surveillance. And the White House said that Trump chief of staff John Kelly would organize the meeting with House lawmakers to review the documents, although he and other White House staffers would not be present. FBI Director Christopher Wray, National Intelligence Director Dan Coats and Justice Department official Edward O’Callaghan will meet with House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes and House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Trey Gowdy. White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said no Democrats were invited because they had not requested the information, despite calls from lawmakers for the briefing to be bipartisan. The top Democrat on the House intelligence panel, California Rep. Adam Schiff, said the briefing should have been done through the bipartisan “Gang of 8,” which includes Republican and Democratic leaders and the top Republicans and Democrats on the House and Senate intelligence panels. That group regularly receives classified briefings. The New York Times was the first to report that the FBI had an informant who met several times with Trump campaign officials who had suspicious contacts linked to Russia. The Justice Department’s internal probe began in March at the request of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and congressional Republicans. Sessions and the lawmakers urged Inspector General Michael Horowitz to review whether FBI and Justice Department officials abused their surveillance powers by using information compiled by Christopher Steele, a former British spy, and paid for by Democrats to justify monitoring Carter Page, a former campaign adviser to Trump. Horowitz said his office will look at those claims as well as communications between Steele and Justice and FBI officials. Republished with permission from the Associated Press.
Donald Trump Jr: Can’t recall discussing Russia probe with father
Donald Trump Jr. struck an unapologetic tone during hours of congressional questioning last year, saying he didn’t think there was anything wrong with meeting a Russian lawyer at Trump Tower ahead of the 2016 presidential election or that the get-together might have been part of a Russian government effort to aid his father, according to transcripts released Wednesday The president’s eldest son also deflected multiple questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee, responding to dozens of queries by saying he could not recall. The committee released more than 1,800 pages of transcripts of interviews with Trump Jr. and others who attended a June 9, 2016, meeting at which they expected to receive dirt about Trump’s opponent, Democrat Hillary Clinton. Meanwhile, the Senate intelligence committee said it stands behind a 2017 assessment by U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia intervened in the election to hurt Clinton and help Trump. Republican chairman Richard Burr of North Carolina said in a statement that his staff had spent 14 months “reviewing the sources, tradecraft and analytic work, and we see no reason to dispute the conclusions.” The Judiciary Committee transcripts reveal new details about how the Trump Tower meeting — central to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into potential collusion between Trump aides and the Kremlin — came to be arranged and efforts afterward to mitigate the political damage arising from its disclosure. The transcripts show the dissatisfaction of Trump Jr. and other campaign aides, including brother-in-law Jared Kushner, when the meeting failed to yield the harmful Clinton information they thought they’d get — as well as the increasing panic of one of the meeting participants who feared his reputation would be ruined by his role in having set it up. In addition, the transcripts reflect an aggressive Russian outreach to Trump both before and after the June 2016 meeting, including an effort to arrange a follow-up get-together that November with members of his transition team. One year earlier, Trump was invited to the 60th birthday party of a friend in Moscow at which the opportunity to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin was dangled. Trump Jr. answered “No, I don’t recall” when asked if he had spoken with his father about the Russia investigation, and he could not recall if he had spoken with him the day the Trump Tower meeting was arranged. But he insisted he had never discussed the meeting with him. Asked if he thought it was problematic to take a meeting described to him as part of a Russian government effort to aid his father’s campaign, Trump Jr. said no. “I didn’t think that listening to someone with information relevant to the fitness and character of a presidential candidate would be an issue, no.” Senate Judiciary Democrats said the transcripts are just “one piece of a much larger puzzle” and do not tell the entire story because some meeting participants were not interviewed and Republican committee chairman Chuck Grassley did not subpoena them to compel their appearance. Though the witnesses were not under oath, they were nonetheless required to tell Congress the truth. In addition to Trump Jr., the committee interviewed four other people who attended the meeting in New York — publicist Rob Goldstone, who set up the meeting with the promise of dirt on Clinton; Rinat Akhmetshin, a prominent Russian-American lobbyist; Ike Kaveladze, a business associate of a Moscow-based developer, and a translator. The committee did not interview Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer at the center of the meeting. But the panel released her written responses to a letter that Grassley sent her. The panel was also not able to interview Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, or Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chairman, though both attended. The committee did release one page of notes that Manafort took during the meeting. His notes mention “Russian adoption by American families” and Bill Browder, a British citizen who has spearheaded a U.S. sanctions law —known as the Magnitsky Act— that targets Russian officials over human rights abuses. The relatively cryptic notes appear to track with some of the details contained in a presentation that Veselnitskaya has given in an attempt to undermine the sanctions law. Manafort’s notes also contain references to “tied into Cheney” and “active sponsors of RNC” without any further explanation. Mueller has brought several unrelated charges against Manafort, including money-laundering conspiracy, false statements and acting as an unregistered foreign agent related to Ukrainian political work. The special counsel is investigating the Russian meddling in the election, whether Trump’s campaign was involved and possible obstruction of justice. The New York meeting and the administration’s initial response to reports of it have been a focus of the probe. The White House has said the president was involved in drafting an initial statement after news of the meeting broke last year. That statement said the meeting primarily concerned a Russian adoption program, though Trump Jr. later released the emails showing he agreed to the sit-down after he was promised information on Clinton. The emails also show he accepted the meeting despite it being described as part of a Russian government effort to aid his father’s campaign. Asked in the interview if his father was involved in drafting the statement, Trump said: “I don’t know. I never spoke to my father about it.” The transcripts provide a timeline of the days leading up to the meeting as well as misgivings about the appropriateness of a Russian lawyer meeting with a U.S. presidential campaign. Music publicist Rob Goldstone, who arranged the meeting at the request of Azerbaijani-Russian pop singer Emin Agalarov, said he thought the meeting was a “bad idea.” “I believed it was a bad idea and that we shouldn’t do it. And I gave the reason for that being that I’m a music publicist. Politics, I knew nothing about,” Goldstone said, adding that neither did Emin Agalarov nor his father, Aras. The Agalarovs had bonded with the Trumps during the 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow. Like Trump Jr. and Kushner, who released
Donald Trump whips up supporters against Russia probe
President Donald Trump said Thursday he hopes for a “truly honest” outcome from the Russia investigation that has consumed the opening months of his presidency, and he challenged Democrats to either continue their “obsession with a hoax” or begin serving the interests of the American people. At a boisterous campaign rally in Trump-friendly West Virginia, Trump slammed the investigation as a “fake story that is demeaning to all of us and most of all demeaning to our country and demeaning to our Constitution.” He commented hours after news broke that Robert Mueller, the special counsel leading the investigation, had empaneled a grand jury in the case. “I just hope the final determination is a truly honest one, which is what the millions of people who gave us our big win in November deserve and what all Americans who want a better future want and deserve,” Trump told thousands of cheering, sign-waving supporters packed into an arena in Huntington. Trump overwhelmingly won the state in the November election, partly due to his promises to revive a slumping coal industry. The president, who remains agitated over the investigation into allegations of coordination between his campaign associates and Russian government officials, said Democrats have a decision to make. “They can continue their obsession with the hoax or they can serve the interests of the American people,” he said. Trump maintains there were no ties between his campaign and Russia and says no wrongdoing was committed. His frustration over the investigation peaked in recent weeks as he began attacking Attorney General Jeff Sessions for recusing himself from the investigation. Sessions, most recently a U.S. senator, was an early and ardent Trump supporter. “Most people know there were no Russians in our campaign. There never were,” he told the cheering crowd in West Virginia. “We didn’t win because of Russia. We won because of you.” Trump argued that Democrats are pushing the “totally made-up Russia story” because “they have no message, no agenda and no vision.” “The Russia story is a total fabrication. It’s just an excuse for the greatest loss in the history of American politics,” he said, referring to his victory over Hillary Clinton. “It just makes them feel better when they have nothing else to talk about.” His suggestion for Democrats: “Try winning at the voter booth. Not going to be easy, but that’s the way you’re supposed to do it.” Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
Evangelical leaders rally around Jared Kushner amid Russia probe
Evangelical leaders are rallying around White House senior adviser and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner as he meets with congressional leaders investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 election. A host of Christian leaders, from South Carolina Pastor Mark Burns to Liberty University president Jerry Falwell Jr., have been taking to Twitter and releasing statements voicing their support for Kushner as he spends two days speaking with congressional investigators on Capitol Hill. “I’ve known Jared for many years. He’s a man of integrity, character, and a great, personal friend,” wrote Paula White, a gospel preacher and Trump friend who prayed at Trump’s inaugural. “(E)nough-is-enough,” she wrote. Liberty University president Jerry Falwell Jr. blasted the “endless attempts by the media to keep the fake Russia collusion story alive- solely to obstruct the president’s agenda” in a statement Monday. “In Jared Kushner, they’ve picked the wrong fight. I don’t know a more competent person. He is brilliant and he is a man of the highest integrity,” Falwell wrote. Kushner insisted Monday that he had done nothing improper during the campaign as he met with members of the Senate intelligence committee for nearly three hours behind closed doors. He’s set to meet with lawmakers on the House intelligence committee Tuesday. The coordinated statements are the work of Johnnie Moore, an evangelical activist from California, who recently attended a faith outreach meeting at the White House and tweeted a powerful photo of Christian leaders surrounding the president, heads bowed in prayer. “We’ve all had it,” said Moore, adding that he and other Christian leaders have become close to Jared over the years. Moore said that he decided on Monday morning that he wanted to release a statement and sent a note around to fellow faith leaders asking if they had anything to add. “We didn’t ask permission. They didn’t even know we were doing it,” he said of the White House. “For us it was personal.” Trump won an overwhelming 80 percent of the white evangelical vote in the November election, and a Pew Research Center survey marking his first 100 days in office found three-fourths of white evangelicals approved of his performance as president, versus thirty-nine percent of the general public. Kushner, who is an orthodox Jew, acted as a liaison to the religious community, said Burns, the pastor from South Carolina, who served as an opening act at many Trump rallies. “Jared has been a huge instrument in giving us access to the White House. So this is just us showing our love and support back to him for what he has done for our faith-based community,” said Burns. Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
Alabama delegation reacts to Jeff Sessions testimony on Russia
Former Alabama U.S. Senator and current U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions appeared Tuesday at a public hearing before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence to testify in the ongoing investigation into Russian tampering in the 2016 presidential election. Sessions’ hearing follows fired FBI Director James Comey‘s. Comey testified before the same committee less than a week ago. During the highly contentious hearing, Sessions said any suggestion he colluded with Russians during the election was an “appalling” lie. “Please, colleagues, hear me on this,” he said. Here’s what the Alabama delegation thought of their former Congressional colleague’s testimony: Sen. Luther Strange: My friend Jeff Sessions demonstrated today why the people of Alabama trust him and why President Donald Trump chose him to be our Attorney General – a complete commitment to integrity, transparency and the rule of law. I trust the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee to finish this investigation swiftly and allow Congress to return to the business of implementing President Trump’s agenda to repeal Obamacare, reform our tax code, rebuild our military and rollback red-tape. Alabama 1st District U.S. Rep. Bradley Byrne: I am not at all surprised that the Jeff Sessions who testified today was the same Jeff Sessions I have known for almost forty years. He was honest, knowledgeable of the law, direct, and professional. I continue to have complete confidence and trust in him as he serves as our Attorney General. Alabama 2nd District U.S. Rep. Martha Roby: I applaud Attorney General Sessions for testifying publicly before the Senate Intelligence Committee. I’m glad he took the opportunity to forcefully defend himself and set the record straight amid unfair partisan attacks. I have always known Attorney General Sessions to be a man of the highest integrity, and he demonstrated that today. Alabama 3rd District U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers: Thank goodness for Jeff Sessions. He is a man of the highest integrity and honesty. The American people heard the truth today. Now it’s time for the liberal media elite and the Democrats to stop their frivolous attacks on President Trump so we can start the people’s work. Alabama 4th District U.S. Rep. Robert Aderholt: Jeff Sessions testimony showed that he is not far removed from the Eagle Scout who grew up in Camden, Alabama. His testimony today was honest, open and direct. And just as the Scout oath says, I believe Sessions will continue to do his duty to God and to his country. If there is anything there, I certainly believe we need to get to the bottom of the attempts by the Russian government to influence our election process. However, I have still not seen a single piece of evidence that Russian interference changed a single vote back on November 8th and certainly not thousands of votes that were cast for Mr. Trump in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. Alabama 5th District U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks: We have clear unambiguous testimony by Attorney General Jeff Sessions that he has in no way, shape, or form colluded with Russians concerning 2016 elections. It is time for the Democrat Party, Democrat elected officials, and the Democrat Communications Wing (the mainstream news media) to put up or shut up. If any of them have evidence – not hearsay, not gossip, not partisan-motivated lies – that conflicts with Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ sworn testimony, they must produce it or quit assassinating his character so that we can put this matter behind us. The American people deserve far better than the innuendo and falsities Democrats spread in a hyper-partisan effort to impugn the honor and integrity of Jeff Sessions, one of Alabama’s best. Alabama 6th District U.S. Rep. Gary Palmer: While I was unable to hear Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee, I am confident that he is a man of highest character and has conducted himself with the highest integrity. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has spent practically his entire career serving the people of the United States, first as a U.S. Attorney then as a U.S. Senator and now as Attorney General, and working faithfully to uphold the rule of law. Alabama 7th District U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell: Did not respond to request for comment
Donald Trump’s base providing steady support amid Russia probes
President Donald Trump is banking on his loyal base of supporters to help him through the tangle of the Russia turmoil. Trump had his core backers in mind as he responded to former FBI Director James Comey‘s blockbuster Senate testimony and the steady creep of multiple congressional investigations and Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe. Trump’s Republican allies might have found Comey credible, but the president called the man he fired as FBI director a liar and a “leaker.” Trump said he was the victim of the “fake news” media. And he tried to charge ahead by resorting to what worked for him as a candidate – pushing policies dear to his base and using strong rhetoric to convey that message. “As you know, we’re under siege, you understand that. But we will come out bigger and better and stronger than ever. You watch,” Trump said Thursday as Comey was telling senators that the president had pressured him to drop an investigation into an ex-White House aide. His strategy is consistent with the way Trump has governed in his first four months in office. His White House has made little effort to broaden the bedrock of support for a president who lost the popular vote and receives scant backing from Democrats. Trump has yet to hold a rally in a state he lost to Hillary Clinton in November. He visits many of the small Rust Belt cities and rural heartland communities that went for him. While backing away from some campaign promises, Trump has made good on policies his loyalists track closely. When Trump pulled the United States from the Paris climate accords despite pleas from American allies, he framed it as a victory for American industry and the blue-collar workers who backed him. He appointed a conservative to the Supreme Court, Neil Gorsuch, and is steadily nominating similar candidates to fill judicial vacancies. With help from the Republican-led Congress, he has rolled back Obama-era rules on the environment, gun rights, the internet and financial regulations. Support for the president has broken down sharply along party lines. Only 4 percent of Democrats back Trump while he has an 81 percent approval rating among Republicans, according to a Quinnipiac poll released this past week. His overall job approval number has fallen to the mid-30s, a new low, but the GOP number has remained steady in the past two months. Even if Trump’s core holds, the erosion of support from independents and wavering Democrats would jeopardize his ability to build support in swing states such as Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Florida, said Paul Maslin, a Democratic pollster based in Wisconsin. “He is backing into a corner more than anybody I’ve ever seen. He’s doing it with politics, he’s doing it with electorate considerations, he’s doing it with the way he views the world,” Maslin said. “He’s standing increasingly on his own island and the question is whether he’s going to have the means and the ability to come to shore because that island isn’t big enough to win again.” The White House says the administration is simply keeping the promises that candidate Trump made. “Voters don’t ask who can win, they ask who can lead,” Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway said at an event sponsored by Axios this past week. The message of Trump’s recent overseas trip was directed at his supporters back home: He reinforced his “America First” slogan by traveling to NATO’s headquarters to demand that allies increase defense spending and refused to explicitly support its mutual defense pact. (At a White House news conference Friday, Trump did say the U.S. was committed to that shared defense.) “If you asked most Americans where they are, they are in a position where we have our own problems, we don’t need to be taking care of the world’s problems,” said Greg Strimple, a Republican pollster based in Idaho, who said that Trump’s play could resonate beyond his base. “I think he is reaching out to the middle with a lot of these policies.” Trump’s legislative agenda has slowed to a crawl on Capitol Hill, in large part due to divisions among his Republican allies on health care and taxes. The Republican-led bill to dismantle the Obama-era health law narrowly passed the House, and Senate Republicans have struggled to bridge their divide in crafting legislation. Democrats have shown little inclination to work with Trump, and the White House has made almost no effort at outreach. By contrast, Republican George W. Bush, the most recent president to win election while losing the popular vote, took steps during his first months in office to woo the opposition party. He worked closely with Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy, a leading Democrat, to pass the “No Child Left Behind” education law. And Trump? He held a pair of meetings Tuesday at the White House to go over his legislative agenda. Only Republicans were invited. Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
Leaked NSA doc highlights deep flaws in US election system
A leaked intelligence document outlining alleged attempts by Russian military intelligence to hack into U.S. election systems is the latest evidence suggesting a broad and sophisticated foreign attack on the integrity of the nation’s elections. And it underscores the contention of security experts and computer scientists that the highly decentralized, often ramshackle U.S. election system remains profoundly vulnerable to trickery or sabotage. The document, purportedly produced by the U.S. National Security Agency, does not indicate whether actual vote-tampering occurred. But it adds significant new detail to previous U.S. intelligence assessments that alleged Russia-backed hackers had compromised elements of America’s electoral machinery. It also suggests that attackers may also have been laying groundwork for future subversive activity. The operation described in the document could have given attackers “a foothold into the IT systems of elections offices around the country that they could use to infect machines and launch a vote-stealing attack,” said J. Alex Halderman, a University of Michigan computer scientist. “We don’t have evidence that that happened,” he said, “but that’s a very real possibility.” Computer scientists have proven in the lab that once sophisticated attackers are inside an election network, they could manipulate pre-election programming of its systems and alter results without leaving a trace. Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the ranking Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee, said Tuesday that hacking into state voting systems ahead of the Nov. 8 vote was more widespread than has been disclosed. Attempts by Russia to “break into a number of our state voting processes” was “broad-based,” he said, without offering details. In Moscow, a Kremlin spokesman categorically denied Tuesday that Moscow had tried to hack the U.S. elections. Warner did not directly address the classified intelligence report published Monday by The Intercept, an online news outlet. The Associated Press has not independently verified the authenticity of the report, although its apparent leaker, an NSA contract worker, was arrested last weekend in Georgia. The NSA document says Russian military intelligence first targeted employees of a Florida voting systems supplier in August. Apparently exploiting technical data obtained in that operation, the cyber spies later sent phishing emails to more than 100 local U.S. election officials just days ahead of the Nov. 8 vote, intent on stealing their login credentials and breaking into the their systems, the document says. The emails packed malware into Microsoft Word documents and were forged to give the appearance of being sent by the system vendor, VR Systems of Tallahassee, Florida. The Department of Homeland Security knew in September that hackers believed to be Russian agents had targeted the voter registration systems of more than 20 states. To date, no evidence of tampering with vote tallies or registration rolls has emerged. The U.S. elections system is a patchwork of more than 3,000 jurisdictions overseen by the states with almost no federal oversight or standards. The attack sketched out in the NSA document appears designed specifically to cope with that sprawl. The NSA document did not name any of the states where local officials were targeted by the emails masquerading as being from VR Systems. But in September, the FBI held a conference call with all 67 county elections supervisors in the battleground state of Florida to inform them of infiltration of VR Systems without naming the company. Ion Sancho, who retired as Leon County supervisor in December, said he later learned from industry contacts that it was VR Systems. VR Systems officials did not respond directly to questions emailed by the AP. In a statement, the company said it only knows of a “handful” of customers who received the fraudulent email, adding that it had “no indication” that anyone had clicked on the malware. The NSA document says at least one account was likely compromised. The company makes software for on-site voter registration at polling stations and backend systems for voting management, according to its website, which says it has customers in California, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, New York, North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia. VR Systems’ electronic poll books – electronic systems used to verify registered voters at polling places – experienced problems on Nov. 8 in Durham County, North Carolina. The issue forced officials to abandon the system, issue paper ballots and extend voting hours. North Carolina’s state elections director said Tuesday that officials would investigate to see if officials in Durham County were targeted and possibly compromised. Iowa University’s Douglas Jones is among computer scientists who say voter registration systems are particularly vulnerable to tampering, in part because they are on the internet. Someone trying to cause chaos and discredit an election could delete names from registration rolls prior to voting – or request absentee ballots en masse. In the latter case, a voter showing up at the polls on Election Day would be recorded as having already cast their ballot. That could force voters to file provisional ballots, and provoke long lines. There is no evidence any of that happened last Election Day. Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
No sign probes into Russia, Donald Trump campaign will die down
An FBI investigation and congressional probes into the Trump campaign and contacts with Russia continue to shadow the administration, each new development a focus of White House press briefings and attention on Capitol Hill. President Donald Trump has dismissed the story as “fake news” and raised allegations of politically inspired spying by the Obama administration, but the investigations show no sign of abating anytime soon. Here are the latest developments and background on the scandal: ___ THE LATEST A Senate Judiciary subcommittee says it will hear testimony in May from former acting attorney general Sally Yates, who was fired in the early days of the Trump administration, and James Clapper, the former director of national intelligence under President Barack Obama. The May 8 open hearing will be the first opportunity for the public to hear Yates’ account of her role in the firing of Trump’s first national security adviser, Michael Flynn. Separately, leaders of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform say Flynn appeared to violate U.S. criminal law when he failed to seek permission for or inform the government about accepting tens of thousands of dollars from Russian organizations after a trip there in 2015. Flynn’s lawyer said in a statement that Flynn disclosed the trip in conversations with the Defense Intelligence Agency, where he was its former director. ___ THE BACKGROUND Hackers broke into the computer network of the Democratic National Committee during the 2016 campaign, which U.S. officials and cybersecurity experts have publicly tied to Russian intelligence services. Stolen emails to and from top Democratic Party officials, including then-DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, were released to the public last summer on the secret-sharing website WikiLeaks, followed in the fall by the hacked messages of John Podesta, the campaign chairman of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. U.S. intelligence agencies have been blunt in their assessment that the hacks of Democratic email accounts were intended to benefit Trump and harm Clinton, his Democratic opponent. ___ THE INVESTIGATIONS FBI Director James Comey told Congress in March that a federal investigation examining Russian interference in the presidential election, and potential coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign, began in late July. The counterintelligence investigations like this one that examine the operations of foreign intelligence services on U.S. soil are heavily classified, historically time-consuming and rarely result in criminal charges. It’s not clear when this one will end or whether anything criminal will be found, though Comey has said the investigation is being done with an eye on whether any laws were broken. The House and Senate intelligence committees are conducting their own, simultaneous investigations. Republicans in Congress also are concerned that classified material about Trump associates recorded having conversations with Russian officials was improperly leaked to the news media and that the information had been improperly disseminated throughout government agencies. The House probe has been riven with discord. Devin Nunes, the top Republican on the committee who reported meeting with a secret source at the White House to review classified material that he said indicated that communications of Trump associates were captured in “incidental” surveillance of foreigners, recused himself in April from the investigation. ___ THE PLAYERS Numerous figures in the Trump orbit have come under scrutiny for communications with Russians, though each has denied doing anything improper — and no one has been charged with any crime. Flynn was interviewed by the FBI in the early days of the Trump administration about communications he had with the Russian ambassador, Sergey Kislyak, during the transition period. The White House fired him in February after concluding that he had not been truthful about those conversations. Republican strategist Roger Stone has said he communicated with Guccifer 2.0, the unnamed hacker that has taken credit for breaking into the DNC servers. But Stone has denied that he worked with Russian officials to influence the presidential election. Carter Page, a foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign, met with a Russian intelligence operative in 2013 and provided him documents about the energy industry, according to court documents from a 2015 prosecution alleging a Cold War-style spy ring in New York. Page, referred to in the filing as “Male-1,” is not accused of wrongdoing and said in a statement that he shared “basic immaterial information and publicly available research documents.” Meanwhile, Justice Department officials have scrutinized the business dealings of Paul Manafort, who resigned in August as Trump’s campaign chairman. The Associated Press has reported that Manafort wrote Russian billionaire and aluminum magnate Oleg Deripaska in 2005 with an ambitious proposal to promote the interests of “the Putin government” and undermine anti-Russian opposition across former Soviet republics. ___ THE RESPONSE Trump has sought to dismiss the story as “fake” and has countered with his own allegations of politically motivated spying by the Obama administration. The White House has also tried to publicly minimize the contributions either to the campaign or administration of some of the individuals whose names have surfaced as part of the investigation, such as Manafort and Flynn. Trump took to Twitter in March to accuse President Barack Obama of having wiretapped him at his New York skyscraper during the campaign. Law enforcement, congressional and intelligence officials have called that allegation untrue. In an interview with MSNBC, Susan Rice, Obama’s national security adviser, acknowledged that she had sometimes asked for the names of Americans who were referenced in intelligence reports, but denied that she or anyone else in the administration had used those reports for political intelligence purposes. Trump said the following day that he believed Rice had committed a crime. Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
