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☆ Opinion: Putin, Trump, and a remarkable split-screen moment in world history
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-31 | by ( Sheena Mckenzie | Opinion Frida Ghitis | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

She is a weekly opinion contributor to CNN, a contributing columnist to The Washington Post and a columnist for World Politics Review. First, that Prigozhin had openly challenged Russian President Vladimir Putin, and second, that countless others who had defied Putin have met untimely, violent deaths. In different ways, both Putin and Trump are key players in that phenomenon. Neither Trump nor Putin are novices at the art of conjuring major victories by going to war against the truth. Putin launched the full-scale war in Ukraine around the 8th anniversary of his 2014 invasion of Crimea.

Persons: Frida Ghitis, Yevgeny Prigozhin, Prigozhin, Vladimir Putin, Putin, Donald Trump’s, Trump, Alexander Solzhenitzyn, Robert Mueller’s, indicting Prigozhin, ” Prigozhin, Anna Politkovskaya, Facebook Putin, Boris Nemtsov, Alexei Navalny Organizations: CNN, Washington Post, Politics, Frida Ghitis CNN, Soviet Union, Kremlin, Internet Research Agency, Ukraine, Twitter, Facebook Locations: Russian, Moscow, Russia, Ukraine, Atlanta, Soviet, United States, “, Crimea

☆ Trump’s allies have long faced legal troubles, but this time is different because he is too
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-16 | by ( Stephen Collinson | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

They were the latest members of the former president’s inner circle to find out that associating with Trump could put them on cracking legal ice. There is increasing speculation over why Meadows was charged in Georgia but not in special counsel Jack Smith’s federal investigation into Trump’s election stealing efforts. Legal experts wonder whether he could be cooperating with that probe in a sign of peril for the former president. Trump’s inner circles have long faced legal problemsTrump’s co-defendants in the Georgia case are not the first to find out that the ex-president’s intolerance for the rules and conventions that normally constrain presidencies can lead them into treacherous waters. Trump once vowed to bring only “the best people” to Washington, but his acolytes often find themselves dragged into his legal storms.

Persons: Donald, –, Trump, Rudy Giuliani, Giuliani –, Trump’s, ”, Giuliani, bruiser, “, “ I’m, “ We’re, Mark Meadows, Meadows, Jack, John Eastman, Mike Pence, Harvey Silverglate, Sidney Powell –, Walt Nauta, Carlos De Oliveira –, Paul Manafort, Michael Flynn, Robert Mueller’s, Steve Bannon, Bannon, ” Bannon, Allen Weisselberg, Michael Cohen, Cohen, ” Trump, Attorney Alvin Bragg, Stormy Daniels, extravagantly, Flynn, Manafort, Roger Stone, won’t, ’, District Attorney Fani Willis –, Ty Cobb, CNN’s Erin Burnett, wouldn’t, Willis, ” Cobb Organizations: CNN, Trump, New, New York City, WABC, White House, Caucus, White, Republican, Former Trump, Trump Organization, Manhattan, Attorney, Trump’s, Save, District Attorney Locations: Georgia, Fulton, New York, Ukraine, North Carolina, Washington, Meadows, Fulton County , Georgia, Lago, Trump, Russia, Manhattan, Congress

☆ Hearing on handling classified materials in Jack Smith’s Trump case could set up clash over delay
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-18 | by ( Tierney Sneed | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

Trump himself is not expected to attend to the hearing, but Nauta – who is a bodyman to the former president – may attend, sources told CNN. In addition to the trial date, Trump and Nauta’s defense attorneys have already clashed with the Justice Department on timing of even initial procedural steps in the case. Tuesday’s hearing is aimed at discussing the schedule for those issues to be briefed and are usually “uneventful” affairs, Gonzalez said. “In sum, neither the amount of classified discovery in this case nor the timetable for its production is a reason for an indefinite continuance of the trial date,” the prosecutors said. In the case, Trump is facing several counts of willful retention of national defense information.

Persons: Jack Smith’s, Donald Trump, Smith, Aileen Cannon, Trump, CIPA, Walt Nauta, Nauta, –, Cannon, “, haven’t, ”, Brandon Van Grack, Robert Mueller’s, Van Grack, Brian Greer, Gregory Gonzalez, Gonzalez, ” Gonzalez, that’s, ” Greer Organizations: CNN, Trump, Justice Department, CIA, Congress, Justice Department’s National Security Division, Prosecutors, DOJ, Government Locations: Russian, Florida

☆ How Trump will fight the classified documents charges he's facing
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-11 | by ( Tierney Sneed | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Trump and Nauta have pleaded not guilty to the charges, which include obstruction-related allegations in addition to the accusations that Trump illegally retained national defense information. Did the special counsel have the authority to bring the charges? Trump has claimed at times that he declassified the documents in question, though his lawyers have stopped short of making such assertions in legal filings. The charges Smith brought, however, do not necessarily turn on whether the materials were classified. Trump and Nauta say they won’t know how much of a dispute over these procedures there will be until they have a chance to review the classified discovery.

Persons: Donald Trump, Walt Nauta, Jack Smith, Aileen Cannon, Trump, ”, Nauta, –, Robert Mueller, Smith Organizations: CNN, Trump, Records, Presidential Locations: United States, Russia

☆ Durham Exposes Robert Mueller’s Failure
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-20 | by ( The Editorial Board | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com. https://www.wsj.com/articles/special-counsel-john-durham-report-robert-mueller-donald-trump-russia-collusion-bf7023c8

☆ Trump is weaponizing the Russia report he demanded -- even though it lacks bombshells
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Stephen Collinson | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

Another Trump ally, South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, argued the report showed the “rule of law in America is subservient to political outcomes. In another politically sensitive part of his report, Durham found that the FBI did not pursue allegations against Clinton with the same vigor with which they acted against Trump. He pointed out that the Trump investigation was launched at a time when Russia was attacking Democratic National Committee servers and had used stolen information to attack Clinton. The investigation was only launched after the bureau received evidence from a friendly foreign government that the Trump campaign had been offered help by the Russians. But all Trump needed from the report was a headline and a general narrative of suspicion against the FBI.

☆ Special counsel John Durham concludes FBI never should have launched full Trump-Russia probe
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Zachary Cohen Devan Cole Tierney Sneed Evan Perez Hannah Rabinowitz Jeremy Herb Marshall Cohen | Zachary Cohen | Devan Cole | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +14 min

“Strzok, at a minimum, had pronounced hostile feelings toward Trump,” Durham wrote, while quoting in a footnote previously known texts between Strzok and Lisa Page, then an FBI attorney. Witness testimony exposed the FBI’s overreliance on the dossier as it sought court approval to wiretap a former Trump campaign adviser in 2016. Mixed results over 3+ yearsBarr tapped Durham in 2019 to review the origins of the Russia probe, and the scope of Durham’s work grew over the years. Former special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, which inherited the initial Russia probe, released a detailed accounting of Russia’s effort to interfere in the 2016 election. Mueller found no evidence of a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia, but investigators documented numerous contacts between Trump associates and Russians.

New York CNN —Facebook’s parent company Meta announced Wednesday that it has taken down a network of more than 100 China-based accounts that posed as organizations in the US and Europe and pushed pro-Beijing talking points. The network, which had more than 15,000 followers on Meta’s platforms, appears to have had some financial resources behind it. The fake accounts also posted “negative commentary about Uyghur activists and critics of the Chinese state,” it said. “We’re keeping a close eye” on the Chinese influence operations heading into the 2024 election, the official said. Ahead of the 2022 US midterm election, FBI officials expressed concern that Chinese operatives appeared to be engaging in “Russian-style influence activities” that stoke American divisions.

☆ Rupert Murdoch’s media machine offers full-throated defense of Trump after grand jury indictment
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-31 | by ( Oliver Darcy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

It came despite the relationship between Murdoch and Trump being on the rocks as of late. And yet, Murdoch allowed the incendiary pro-Trump rhetoric to grip his network on Thursday night. If there was any doubt that Fox News might not offer a full-throated defense of Trump today, given the disgraced Republican’s shaky relationship with Murdoch, that has been erased. Even if he’s not convicted, they figure the indictment and spectacle will help him become the Republican nominee. The outlet’s website prominently featured a story saying Bragg “has a bad case of bias,” among other Trump-friendly articles.

☆ Russia's Prigozhin admits links to what U.S. says was election-meddling troll farm
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Feb 14 (Reuters) - Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of Russia's Wagner mercenary group, said on Tuesday that he founded and financed and the Internet Research Agency, a company Washington says is a "troll farm" which meddled in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. He has previously admitted interfering in U.S. elections, but his statement on Tuesday appears to go further than before in outlining his specific links to the St. Petersburg-based Internet Research Agency (IRA). "I was never just the financier of the Internet Research Agency. Prigozhin was first sanctioned by the United States over his links to the Internet Research Agency in 2018 and charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States. "IRA employees also traveled to the United States on intelligence-gathering missions."

☆ Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, the Man Challenging Putin for Power - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( Mikhail Zygar | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

According to my sources close to the Russian administration, Mr. Putin then perceived Mr. Prigozhin solely as a counterweight to the generals. The Russian president saw Mr. Prigozhin as his man, an obedient tool and easy to use. Those achievements alone guaranteed Mr. Prigozhin responsibility for Mr. Putin’s most delicate assignments. But this year, Mr. Prigozhin moved into another league, surpassing all of Mr. Putin’s other friends in power. Mr. Prigozhin bypassed all of them and appears to be the most important player in Russia.

Persons: Putin, Alexander Lapin, Prigozhin, Robert Mueller’s, Wagner, Putin’s, Sergei Shoigu, Nikolai Patrushev, Sergei Chemezov, Yury Kovalchuk Organizations: Internet Research Agency, Defense, Russian Security Locations: Ukraine, Russian, Africa, Syria, Russia’s, Russia

☆ After criticism for silence, Biden White House takes questions on classified documents
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( Peter Nicholas | Peter Nicholas Is A Senior National Political Reporter For Nbc News. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +5 min

A White House official, Ian Sams, spoke to reporters Tuesday about documents dating back to Biden’s vice presidency — the first time the White House has solicited questions about the classified materials. Sams, a senior adviser to the White House Counsel’s office, said in the press briefing that because of an ongoing Justice Department investigation, the White House is limited in what it can responsibly disclose. At issue is whether the White House kept quiet about documents that had been stored improperly in hopes of sparing Biden the political fallout from such a disclosure. Biden’s personal attorneys found more classified documents while searching his home in Wilmington on Dec. 20. Yet the White House didn't acknowledge the found documents until a CBS News report earlier this month.

☆ Hunter Biden hires attorney Abbe Lowell to beef up legal team
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-21 | by ( Sarah Fitzpatrick | Sarah Fitzpatrick Is A Senior Investigative Producer | Story Editor For Nbc News. She Previously Worked For Cbs News | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

Hunter Biden has added a high-powered attorney to his legal team amid an ongoing federal probe and plans by Republicans to make him a key focus of investigations when they take control of the House next month. Abbe Lowell, of the firm Winston and Strawn, will be primarily responsible for coordinating Hunter Biden’s response to anticipated congressional oversight investigations, as well advising on other legal issues and overall strategy, an attorney for Hunter Biden told NBC News on Wednesday. "Hunter Biden has retained Abbe Lowell to help advise him and be part of his legal team to address the challenges he is facing,” the attorney, Kevin Morris, said. "Lowell is a well-known Washington based attorney has represented numerous public officials and high profile people in DOJ investigations and trials as well as Congressional Investigations. Mr. Lowell will handle congressional investigations and general strategic advice."

Smith takes over a staff that’s already nearly twice the size of Robert Mueller’s team of lawyers who worked on the Russia probe. Smith will also take on national security investigators already working the probe into the potential mishandling of federal records taken to Mar-a-Lago after Trump left the White House. Those lawyers maintain the former president is unlikely to be indicted, according to two sources familiar. Special Counsel Robert Mueller makes a statement about the Russia investigation on May 29, 2019 at the Justice Department in Washington, DC. Trump allies have consistently maintained that nothing Trump did related to the election and January 6 itself amounts to a crime.

The sources say Justice Department officials are looking carefully at a cross section of past cases involving the mishandling of classified material. Though his comments were about the separate Jan. 6 investigation, Justice Department officials said they apply broadly. Experts say the public evidence in the Mar-a-Lago case seems unambiguous. Less clear is whether there are aggravating factors — such as whether the Justice Department can prove Trump obstructed justice by failing to turn over documents despite a grand jury subpoena. Martin’s lawyers said he was a hoarder, and prosecutors concluded that he had not given classified information to anyone.

Share this -Link copiedCommittee votes to subpoena Trump The committee voted on Thursday unanimously to subpoena Trump. Trump would not be the first president to be subpoenaed, nor would he be the first former president subpoenaed by Congress. "Even before the networks called the race for President Biden on Nov. 7th, his chances of pulling out a victory were virtually nonexistent, and President Trump knew it," Kinzinger said. “At times, President Trump acknowledged the reality of his loss. “What did President Trump know?

That's based on a Secret Service email from 9:09 a.m. "The head of the President’s Secret Service protective detail, Robert Engel, was specifically aware of the large crowds outside the magnetometers," Schiff said. A Secret Service report at 7:58 a.m. said, "Some members of the crowd are wearing ballistic helmets, body armor carrying radio equipment and military grade backpacks." On Dec. 26, a Secret Service field office relayed a tip that had been received by the FBI, Schiff said. Trump would not be the first president to be subpoenaed, nor would he be the first former president subpoenaed by Congress.

A judge's order approving a special master to review documents the FBI took from former President Donald Trump's Florida home is a deeply flawed and unworkable mess, legal experts told NBC News on Tuesday. Rosenzweig agreed, calling it "absurd" that a special master should be searching out potential executive privilege issues. "I don't know how a special master would proceed, which means inevitable delay and dispute," he said. "I don’t think the appointment of a special master is going to hold up. Saltzburg, who has worked as a special master, said the reason judges generally want special masters "is they want a review to be done quickly and thoroughly, and they don’t have the time to do it themselves."

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