“HOW LONG, SIR?”
COMPILATION AND COMMENTARY
BY LUCY WARNER
OCTOBER 31, 2017


UNFORTUNATELY, THERE ARE THOUSANDS OF TRUMP ENTHUSIASTS WHO WILL BELIEVE HIS EVERY WORD NO MATTER HOW UNLIKELY IT IS TO BE THE ACTUAL TRUTH. THEY LIKE A GOOD SONG AND DANCE, AND THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT TRUMP GIVES THEM. THEY DON’T GIVE A FLYING FLIP ABOUT HIS RACIAL ATTITUDES OR HONESTY, BECAUSE THAT’S HOW THEY THINK, TOO. I CAN ONLY SAY, ECHOING TRUMP’S FAVORITE WAY TO END A TWEET, “SAD!” BUT CONGRESS IN BOTH PARTIES ARE NOT WALKING IN LOCK STEP BEHIND HIM, AND A MAJORITY OF THE CITIZENS DO NOT LIKE HIM ONE LITTLE BIT. HE WILL NOT HAVE HIS LIKENESS CARVED ON MOUNT RUSHMORE, AS HE MUSED TO A REPORTER JUST A FEW MONTHS AGO. HE LIES CONSTANTLY, BUT NOT WELL, AND HE IS GETTING HIMSELF DEEPER IN TROUBLE DAY BY DAY. I JUST CAN’T PRETEND TO BE SORRY ABOUT THAT. I HAVE TAKEN IT UPON MYSELF, THEREFORE, TO DISPROVE JUST ONE OF HIS LIES. MY RESOURCE MATERIALS ARE A SLATE ARTICLE ON THE REAL HISTORY OF THE TRUMP/MANAFORT RELATIONSHIP AND THE GREAT SITE “POLITIFACT.”

GO TO TODAY’S NEWS AND VIEWS TO READ THE PRIMARY ARTICLE FROM WHICH THESE EXCERPTS HAVE BEEN TAKEN: HTTPS://WWW.CBSNEWS.COM/NEWS/DONALD-TRUMP-RUSSIA-INVESTIGATION-JOHN-KELLY-VERY-DISTRACTING-WHITE-HOUSE/. KELLY SAYS, "ALL OF THE ACTIVITIES, AS I UNDERSTAND IT, THAT THEY WERE INDICTED FOR WAS LONG BEFORE THEY EVER MET DONALD TRUMP," KELLY SAID ON FOX NEWS MONDAY.

FIRST, THE DATES OF THE MANAFORT DIRTY DEEDS ARE EXAMINED BY POLITIFACT:

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2017/oct/30/donald-trump/trump-wrongly-says-manafort-crimes-came-years-he-j/
TRUMP WRONGLY SAYS MANAFORT CRIMES CAME YEARS BEFORE HE JOINED THE CAMPAIGN
BY JON GREENBERG ON MONDAY, OCTOBER 30TH, 2017 AT 3:02 P.M.

“paul manafort’s alleged crimes were "years ago, before paul manafort was part of the trump campaign."
— donald trump on monday, october 30th, 2017 in a tweet.

Video -- Paul Manafort, a former campaign manager for U.S. President Donald Trump, has been indicted by a federal grand jury on 12 counts including conspiracy against the United States and money laundering. (Reuters)

President Donald Trump reacted via his favorite platform -- Twitter -- to indictments against his former campaign manager Paul Manafort, a business associate of Manafort’s, and a guilty plea from a former campaign policy adviser.

"Sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign. But why aren't Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus," Trump tweeted.

Donald J. Trump ✔@realDonaldTrump
Sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign. But why aren't Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus?????
10:25 AM - Oct 30, 2017
75,095 75,095 Replies 35,113 35,113 Retweets 119,610 119,610 likes
Twitter Ads info and privacy

The Justice Department indicted Manafort on 12 counts, primarily money laundering and false statements, none of which involved his work for Trump. The oldest of the allegations date back to activities that began in 2006, but three occurred in 2016 and 2017.

Manafort’s more recent actions undercut Trump’s statement. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

Manafort’s campaign role

In March 2016, then-candidate Trump tapped Manafort to manage the Republican National Convention. In a press release announcing the hiring, Trump praised Manafort as "a great asset and an important addition" in consolidating the support Trump won during the primary season.

On May 19, Trump promoted Manafort to campaign chairman and chief strategist.

On Aug. 19, as Trump’s poll numbers tumbled, Manafort resigned. His time with the Trump campaign had lasted six months.

The indictments

From 2006 to 2014, according to the indictment, Manafort and his business partner Rick Gates made tens of millions of dollars lobbying on behalf of a pro-Russia political party in Ukraine and the man who led it into power, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. The work continued briefly after Yanukovych was forced from office.

The grand jury indictment alleges that in order to hide the money from the U.S. government, Manafort and Gates "laundered the money through scores of United States and foreign corporations, partnerships and back accounts." Manafort used "his hidden overseas wealth to enjoy a lavish lifestyle in the United States." He bought "multi-million dollar properties" and then "borrowed millions of dollars in loans using these properties as collateral, thereby obtaining cash in the United States without reporting and paying taxes on the income."

The money-laundering conspiracy is the second count in the indictment.

The government documented a large number of transactions between 2008 and 2014. But they continued into March 2016, the very beginning of Manafort’s work with the Trump campaign.

In 2012, Manafort used an offshore account to buy a $2.8 million condominium in New York City, which he rented out using, among other services, Airbnb. In late 2015, he applied to get a mortgage on the property. To get a lower interest rate, he and Gates invented documents to say it was a second-home for his daughter and son-in-law.

Based on that assurance, in March 2016, government prosecutors said, a bank gave Manafort a $1.185 million loan on the property.

Also in early 2016, Manafort misled another bank to secure a loan on a second New York property.

In addition, the indictment said for many years Manafort had hidden his control over multiple foreign accounts in places such as Cyprus and the United Kingdom. That deception continued as late as October 2016.

There are two other charges that occurred in 2016 and 2017, and both involve making false statements. The government said that in November 2016 and February 2017 Manafort and Gates failed to make a full disclosure of their overseas work under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. They denied that their work for Ukrainian parties included meetings or outreach within the United States. The government also said they tried to bury the paper trail that would reveal their full activities.

Manafort's attorney Kevin Downing said in a statement that the Special Counsel was using a "very novel theory" of the foreign agents registration law, and that since 1966, the government has won just one conviction for failure to file under it.

Our ruling

Trump said the allegations against Manafort involved crimes committed years ago. Most of the counts in the indictment detail Manafort’s money laundering efforts dating back to 2006. But that deception involving foreign bank accounts and misleading lenders, prosecutors said, extended until as late as October 2016.

By March of that year, Trump had named Manafort to oversee the Republican National Convention.

The charges that Manafort made false statements took place after Manafort stepped down from the Trump campaign, but they did take place within the past year.

Trump’s claim puts more of a cushion between him and Manafort than was actually the case.
We rate this statement Mostly False.



FINALLY, THIS IS A RELATIONSHIP HISTORY FROM SLATE GOING BACK TO THE 1980S. THIS STATEMENT STRUCK ME WHEN I FIRST HEARD IT A MONTH OR SO AGO AND IT ALARMED ME AT THE TIME: “AND ONE PERSON CLOSE TO THE CAMPAIGN SAID ABOUT TRUMP, ‘HE’S CALLING MANAFORT LIKE 20 TIMES A DAY.’” THAT IS NOT PSYCHOLOGICALLY NORMAL FOR A MATURE MAN TO DO WITH ANOTHER MAN. LOVERS SOMETIMES DO THAT, AND MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS, BUT HEALTHY MEN ALMOST ALWAYS ARE INDEPENDENT IN THEIR RELATIONSHIPS TO A MUCH GREATER DEGREE THAN THIS.

AT ANY RATE IT LEADS ME TO FEAR HIM IN ANOTHER WAY – I THINK HE IS TOO UNSTABLE FOR THE PRESIDENCY. I GET THE FEELING THAT A GOOD MANY OF OUR LAWMAKERS DO AS WELL. I FEAR THAT WE ARE IN PERIL AS A NATION. IF TRUMP HIMSELF IS NOT INDICTED I WILL CONTINUE TO FEEL UNEASY, BECAUSE HE IS AT THE VERY LEAST A ROGUE. I HOPE THIS PERIOD OF UNCERTAINTY DOESN’T LAST A YEAR OR MORE, AS THE NIXON AND BILL CLINTON TRIALS DID. WE NEED TO FEEL THAT OUR PRESIDENT IS HONEST AND COMPETENT. I CAN TOLERATE DISAGREEING WITH PRESIDENTS POLITICALLY MUCH BETTER IF I TRUST THEM IN THIS VERY BASIC WAY.


http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2017/10/a_timeline_of_paul_manafort_s_relationship_with_the_trump_world.html
JURISPRUDENCE
THE LAW, LAWYERS, AND THE COURT. OCT. 30 2017 1:54 PM
A Timeline of Paul Manafort’s Relationship with Donald Trump
They’ve known each other since the 1980s.
By Kate Brannen

Photograph -- Republican nominee Donald Trump and campaign manager Paul Manafort do a walkthrough at the Republican National Convention on July 20, 2016, in Cleveland. Brooks Kraft/Getty Images

This piece was originally published on Just Security, an online forum for analysis of U.S. national security law and policy.

Now that special counsel Robert Mueller has indicted Paul Manafort, the former chairman of President Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, the White House has already begun to revive its efforts to distance itself from Manafort and play down the role he had on the campaign. But try as they might, the Trump team can’t change the facts. Manafort worked on the Trump campaign for five crucial months in 2016 and was its chairman from May through August 2016, when he resigned under pressure. Plus, the relationship between Trump and Manafort goes back much further.

When it started to become clear that Manafort was likely in serious legal jeopardy, the White House pushed the idea that his role on the campaign was minimal. In March, Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary at the time, said Manafort was someone “who played a very limited role for a very limited amount of time” during the presidential campaign. Another campaign aide told Politico in May that he “wasn’t part of the core campaign team,” and that Trump and Manafort “didn’t have a relationship” until Tom Barrack, a real estate investor and close friend of Trump’s and Manafort’s for several decades, recommended that Trump allow him to join the team as a volunteer. Roger Stone, Trump’s longtime political adviser, also recommended Trump hire Manafort.

After Manafort’s Virginia home was raided by FBI agents in August, Trump said, “I know Mr. Manafort—I haven’t spoken to him in a long time, but I know him—he was with the campaign, as you know, for a very short period of time—for a relatively short period of time. … But I’ve always known him to be a good man.”

The goal of this messaging was clear: Whatever bad stuff Manafort did, Trump barely knew him and his role on the campaign was minimal. That the Trump team was already seeking to disown Manafort suggested they knew more bad news was coming.

But reports from the time Manafort joined the campaign describe him as “firmly in charge of all major aspects of Trump’s campaign,” and “asserting a more active role in shaping the direction of the campaign and the candidate.” Manafort was known to call Trump “Donald,” and one person close to the campaign said about Trump, “He’s calling Manafort like 20 times a day.”

The Trump team has also downplayed how well the president and Manafort knew each other before the 2016 campaign. Manafort himself has said, “Donald Trump and I had some business in the 1980s but we had no relationship until the Trump campaign called me.”

The depth of their relationship pre-2016 isn’t well-known, but it’s clear Trump and Manafort have been operating in close circles for decades. In 1980, Manafort, Charles Black, and Roger Stone (all Ronald Reagan campaign officials) opened a lobbying shop in Washington, D.C. One of their very first clients: Donald Trump, who employed the lobbying firm of Black, Manafort & Stone through the early 1990s.

Plus, both men have mutual close friends, including Barrack and Stone, whom Manafort and Trump have been close with for decades. Both Manafort and Trump were active in the New Jersey political scene in the 1980s, and later, both men were involved in lobbying Capitol Hill on American Indian gaming issues. Since 2006, Manafort has owned a condo in Trump Tower in Manhattan, and around the same time, became involved in the Manhattan real estate scene.

It’s certainly possible both men didn’t know each other well before 2016, but to say they had “some business in the 1980s” does not capture the many ways Trump and Manafort have been crossing paths for decades.

Here is a timeline to help piece together a clearer picture of their connections.

* * * *

1972: Paul Manafort and Roger Stone are active in the College Republicans. Their candidate to lead the group, John “Terry” Dolan, runs against Karl Rove, whose key aide was Lee Atwater. Rove won.

1973: Trump, 27, meets Roy Cohn, a former aide to Sen. Joe McCarthy who went on to become Trump’s lawyer and mentor. At the time, the Justice Department was suing the Trumps for not renting to black people, and Trump hired Cohn, a New York attorney “who represented New York power brokers, from the Yankees owner George Steinbrenner to the mob boss Carlo Gambino,” to represent them in the matter.

1977: Stone, 25, wins the presidency of the Young Republicans in a campaign managed by Manafort.

Late 1970s: Tom Barrack meets Manafort in Beirut around this time.

“A roommate at Barrack’s Beirut apartment introduced him to Manafort, who represented a firm doing business with a Saudi construction company. They became close friends,” reported the Washington Post.

1979: Roger Stone meets Roy Cohn and Trump.

From the Weekly Standard (Nov. 5, 2007):

Around the time he became northeast chairman of Reagan’s 1980 campaign, [Stone] had another awakening when he started working with the notorious lawyer Roy Cohn, former McCarthy henchman and also a Reagan supporter. “I’m still kind of a neophyte,” Stone admits, “still kind of thinking everything’s on the level. ‘Cause the truth is, nothing’s on the level.” At a 1979 meeting at Cohn’s Manhattan townhouse, he was introduced to major mobster and Cohn client Fat Tony Salerno. “Roy says to Tony, ‘You know, Tony, everything’s fixed. Everything can be handled.’ Tony says, ‘Roy, the Supreme Court’ Roy says, ‘Cost a few more dollars.’ ” Stone loved Cohn: “He didn’t give a s— what people thought, as long as he was able to wield power. He worked the gossip columnists in this city like an organ.

Around 1980: As the Guardian reported, “There are multiple versions of how Trump and Manafort met.” The most widely reported version is that Cohn introduced Manafort to Trump around the same time he introduced Stone to Trump.

1980: Manafort, Stone, and Charles Black (all Reagan campaign officials) open their lobbying shop in Washington, D.C.

From Vanity Fair:

Their first client, Stone recalled, was none other than Donald Trump, who retained him, irrespective of any role Manafort might have had in the firm, for help with federal issues such as obtaining a permit from the Army Corps of Engineers to dredge the channel to the Atlantic City marina to accommodate his yacht, the Trump Princess.
Stone described the lobbying work he did for Trump on Frontline, saying Trump had a number of small but important issues.

For example, the Treasury Department is rewriting the currency transaction rules as they pertain to casinos. He has an interest there. He’s built a couple of skyscrapers that are five feet taller than the FAA-allowed limit. He needs a waiver there. He buys the Trump Princess from [Saudi businessman Adnan] Khashoggi, but it’s too big to come into the Atlantic City harbor without dredging. He needs dredging permits. Those usually take three years. We got them for him in a couple months.
Stone oversaw Trump’s business at the lobbying firm, but as Franklin Foer wrote in Slate, “Manafort didn’t own the Trump account at the firm. But one of his former partners told me that he would dispense advice and pitch in, winning Trump’s trust.”

1987: Tom Barrack, Manafort’s close friend at this point, meets Trump.

“Barrack received a phone call to come to Trump Tower to meet a rising star in New York real estate,” the Washington Post reported. Barrack and Trump become close friends.

1988: According to Stone, Trump first met Manafort at the 1988 Republican National Convention in New Orleans. From U.S. News and World Report:

Manafort was the deputy convention manager for Vice President George H.W. Bush. Trump was in town and curious to see how a convention was really run; Manafort thought it’d be neat to get his picture with The Donald. The two convened in a trailer outside the Louisiana Superdome during a steamy weekday for a friendly chitchat.
1989: A New York Times article from May 1989 covers the scandals enveloping the New Jersey governor’s race, where Black, Manafort, Stone & Kelly (Peter Kelly, a top Democratic political adviser, joined the firm later) are working for the Republican candidate Jim Courter. Manafort’s controversial involvement in obtaining a $43 million grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development for a development project in Seabrook, N.J. (in which he later became a 20 percent partner), threatens to derail Courter’s campaign. The spokesman for the Democratic candidate says Courter’s relationship to Manafort and Stone’s lobbying firm “could be dangerous because the firm also represents powerful special interests, including the developer and casino owner Donald J. Trump.”

1991: Burson–Marsteller, the large public relations agency, acquires Black, Manafort, Stone & Kelly.

October 1993: Trump and Stone testify before the House Native American Affairs subcommittee on Indian Gaming. “Black Manafort has represented Trump for years, providing advice on housing matters,” wrote the Hartford Courant at the time.

Asked why he even needed someone to help him around town, Trump laughed.

“I don’t know if this lobbying does anything,” he said, “but they’ve represented me over the years, and I’m very loyal.”

Black, Manafort, Stone & Kelly are heavily involved in Indian gaming issues on Capitol Hill. In addition to Trump, they also represent the Casino Association of New Jersey and MGM Grand.

1996: Manafort has a new consulting firm called DMS in Virginia.

1999: Stone is working for Trump as chief political adviser as he toys with running for president. By that time, Manafort has accumulated significant experience in presidential campaigns.

Early 2000s: Manafort begins working for Donbas billionaire Rinat Akhmetov, Ukraine’s richest oligarch.

2001: Paul Cohen and Julius Nasso launch Manhattan Pictures International, a New York-based motion picture distribution and production company. Manafort is part of the team behind the new company. Nasso is arrested in 2002 by federal agents, and pleads guilty in 2003 for using Gambino family mob enforcers to extort money from the actor Steven Seagal. He spends more than a year in prison.

Nasso was friendly with Trump. In a story in the New York Post from December 1999, Nasso says he asked Trump’s opinion of Abe Hirschfeld before deciding to do business with him on the film The Prince of Central Park.

“I checked him out with Donald Trump. Donald said he was a nice guy,” Nasso told the paper.

Julius Nasso has an uncle who is also named Julius Nasso. The elder Nasso owned the Julius Nasso Concrete Company, which, in 1975, entered into a joint venture with the S&A Concrete Company, owned by Anthony “Fat Tony” Salerno, boss of the Genovese crime family, and Paul Castellano, boss of the Gambino family. Cohn was Salerno’s lawyer. At the time, most of Manhattan’s major development projects had mob involvement, Trump’s included. S&A Concrete “supplied building material to the Trump Plaza on Manhattan’s East Side.”

2004: Viktor Yanukovych, the Ukrainian politician, hires Manafort as a political consultant following the 2004 Orange Revolution in Ukraine. He wants to save his political career after Viktor Yushchenko is elected president.

2005: Manafort starts a new firm called Davis Manafort Partners Inc. with Rick Davis. It has staff in the U.S., Ukraine, and Russia.

2006: Manafort reportedly begins working for Russian aluminum billionaire Oleg Deripaska, who has close ties to Vladimir Putin. The Associated Press reported that Manafort signed a $10 million contract with Deripaska in 2006 to “influence politics, business dealings and news coverage inside the United States, Europe, and former Soviet republics to benefit President Vladimir Putin’s government.” A spokesman for Deripaska has denied this.

November 2006: Manafort buys a condo in Trump Tower for $3.7 million through an LLC called John Hannah. John is Manafort’s middle name, and Hannah is the middle name of his then–business partner, Rick Davis. This is the first of several multimillion-dollar real estate deals Manafort does between 2006 and 2012, often all in cash.

Foer in Slate: “When Manafort took an apartment in Trump Towers in 2006, he would kibitz with his old client when they’d run into one another on the elevator.”

2007: Barrack helps Manafort, “loaning Trump’s future campaign manager $1.5 million to refinance a home in the Hamptons. Barrack said the loan was repaid in 14 months and was the only financial transaction between the two,” the Washington Post reported.

March 2007: Manafort and his partners (political consultant Rick Davis and lobbyist Rick Gates) set up a private equity fund, Pericles Emerging Market Partners, to buy smaller Ukrainian firms and merge them into larger ones and then sell them. The fund is registered in the Cayman Islands. Also involved in the business are Konstantin Kilimnik, who worked for Manafort in his Kiev political consulting operation since 2005, Ukraine political consultant Philip Griffin, and Party of Regions flack Alexander Balanutsa.

Deripaska, the aluminum oligarch and one of Russia’s richest men, transfers $18.9 million to the fund so that it could purchase Black Sea Cable, a Ukrainian telecommunications company. The money disappears. As Bloomberg reported:

It’s not clear what became of the money that Deripaska provided for the venture. Years after the deal, Deripaska’s company sued, seeking an accounting of how the money was spent. The details are now even more clouded because lawyers for the men have since agreed to resolve the matter outside court — and outside public view, according to one of the people.
2008: Rick Davis arranged for Deripaska to meet then–presidential candidate John McCain at an international economic conference in Switzerland. At the time, Davis was McCain’s campaign manager, having taken a leave from his company with Manafort.

June 2008: CMZ Ventures, described as “one of the more bizarre development teams ever assembled in the city,” forms and attempts to buy the Drake Hotel in Manhattan for $850 million. CMZ was made up of Manafort, Arthur G. Cohen, a former top developer in the city, and Brad Zackson, who had served as a right-hand man to Fred Trump Sr. Zackson had been “the exclusive broker and manager for Fred Trump of the original Trump Organization.”

Zackson gained “access to society’s inner circle through the Trumps.” According to the Commercial Observer, Zackson had wanted to buy a property in the Bahamas, but needed help navigating the bureaucracy there, so he teamed up with Cohen and Manafort.

The Real Deal reported:

Manafort and Zackson were neighbors in the Hamptons, and soon became friends and business associates. Zackson says he invested in Manafort’s film production business, Manhattan Pictures, best known for the 2005 film The Dying Gaul.
Manafort had “an uncanny ability to conjure investors, such as Ukrainian billionaire gas king Dmitry Firtash, for projects,” the Commercial Observer reported in 2011.

Mr. Manafort then met with Ukranian billionaire Mr. Firtash, a part owner of Eural Transgas, in Kiev, and secured the promise of an initial $112 million for the project, but that fell apart when Mr. Firtash became distracted by an investment in troubled Bank Nadra back home. Grasping, Mr. Zackson wrote in an email in March 2009: “I have an idea to bring [Donald] Trump in on the Drake. I think it solves a lot of issues right away.”
Court documents show Deripaska was also “set to make a $56 million investment in the Drake,” through the Pericles fund.

But the company, designed to be a billion-dollar fund to buy distressed luxury real estate, never made a single purchase.

Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko alleged in a lawsuit that “Firtash used CMZ as a front in order to hide income illegally skimmed from his natural gas company RosUkrEnergo,” but a judge ultimately dismissed the suit.

2010: Manafort helps elect Yanukovych as president of Ukraine.

2014: Yanukovych is forced to flee Ukraine for Russia in the face of widespread public protests.

2014: Deripaska dissolves the private equity fund being managed by Manafort. He accuses Manafort in a Cayman Islands court of taking nearly $19 million.

Feb. 29, 2016: Manafort reportedly reaches out to Trump via their mutual friend Tom Barrack with two memos, which laid out the case for why he’d be a good fit for the campaign. These memos were reported on by the New York Times in April 2017. In one of them, Manafort “refers vaguely to work he performed, years ago, to clear noisy airspace over Mr. Trump’s Florida resort.” He stresses that he’ll work for free.

The Washington Post: “ ‘I really need to get to’ Trump, Manafort said, according to Barrack. He told Barrack he wanted to work as Trump’s convention manager, helping him navigate what they expected would be a contentious affair.”

March 2016: Manafort meets Barrack at the Montage hotel in Beverly Hills to talk about joining the Trump campaign.

March 28, 2016: Trump campaign hires Manafort to work unpaid.

May 2016: Konstantin Kilimnik, who worked for Manafort in his Kiev political consulting operation since 2005, and Manafort meet.

May 19, 2016: Manafort is named chairman of the Trump campaign.

July 2016: Manafort reportedly offers private briefings on the campaign to Deripaska over email.

Aug. 2, 2016: Manafort and Kilimnik meet at the Grand Havana Club, an upscale cigar bar in Manhattan, to talk “caviar,” which is believed to be a reference to earlier payments made to Manafort by Deripaska.

August 2016: A phone belonging to one of Manafort’s daughters is hacked and hundreds of her text messages are eventually posted on a darknet website. The texts reveal Manafort’s daughters were worried about the work he did in Ukraine and that someone had tried to blackmail him, suggesting they could reveal a secret meeting Manafort had supposedly arranged for Trump in 2012 with a Yanukovych ally.

Aug. 19, 2016: Manafort submits his resignation from the Trump campaign.

January 2017: The Steele dossier is published. Manafort calls “Trump’s chief of staff, Reince Priebus, to push back against the mounting controversy” and the claims made in the dossier. Conversations between Trump and Manafort reportedly continued after the president took office.

More from Just Security:

Facebook Users Have the Right to Know How They Were Exposed to Russian Propaganda

How Congress Should Avoid Taking the Bait if Trump Fails to Certify Iran Nuclear Deal

One more thing

The Trump administration poses a unique threat to the rule of law. That’s why Slate has stepped up our legal coverage—watchdogging Jeff Sessions’ Justice Department, the Supreme Court, the crackdown on voting rights, and more.

Our work is reaching more readers than ever—but online advertising revenues don’t fully cover our costs, and we don’t have print subscribers to help keep us afloat. So we need your help.

If you think Slate’s journalism matters, become a Slate Plus member. You’ll get exclusive members-only content and a suite of great benefits—and you’ll help secure Slate’s future.

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Kate Brannen is the deputy managing editor of Just Security and a nonresident senior fellow at the Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security at the Atlantic Council.

October 31, 2017


News and Views


WHEN THINGS HAPPEN TO POLITICIANS THAT SEND THEM SCRAMBLING TO MAKE UP A GOOD COVER STORY (LIE), THEY CALL IT “DISTRACTING.” WHAT THEY MEAN IS “DAMNED EMBARRASSING.” EUPHEMISMS INTEREST ME. THAT’S THE KIND OF THING THEY GET FROM THEIR PUBLIC RELATIONS FIRM. THERE WAS A GREAT MOVIE SOME 15 YEARS AGO ON THIS THEME CALLED “THE FIXER.” I CAN’T REMEMBER HOW IT WENT ANYMORE, BUT IT HAD A SINISTER ASPECT TO THE STORY, AS I SEEM TO RECALL. MAYBE I’LL FIND IT ON YOUTUBE AND WATCH IT AGAIN.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/donald-trump-russia-investigation-john-kelly-very-distracting-white-house/
CBS NEWS October 31, 2017, 6:37 AM
As White House downplays Russia investigation, John Kelly calls it "very distracting"

The first indictments in the Russia investigation put the White House on the defensive. President Trump wanted to focus on his tax overhaul push this week, before he goes on a 12-day trip to Asia.

The Trump White House expects the special counsel's investigation to wrap up soon and claims it is business as usual here. As the investigation accelerates, the president's lawyer insists that Mr. Trump is not considering firing Robert Mueller.

The president and first lady handed out candy on the South Lawn on Monday, even after White House officials said they weren't at all spooked by the bombshell indictments, reports CBS News correspondent Margaret Brennan.

"We're not worried about it distracting because it doesn't have anything to do with us," said White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

Chief of Staff John Kelly also tried to distance the president from the unfolding controversy.

"All of the activities, as I understand it, that they were indicted for was long before they ever met donald trump," kelly said on fox news monday.

[note: see the slate article under a second blog from today, called “How Long, Sir?”]

But he told Fox News that he and the president discuss the probe multiple times a day.

"It is very distracting to the president, as it would be to any citizen to be investigated," Kelly said.

John Dickerson weighs in on White House reaction to charges in Russia probe
Play VIDEO
John Dickerson weighs in on White House reaction to charges in Russia probe

The president reportedly spent Monday morning fuming as the Russia indictments played out on TV.

A senior Republican told the Washington Post, "everyone is freaking out."

White House lawyer Ty Cobb pushed back, telling CBS News "I don't know where the perception of agita comes from, but it's not real," and "the walls are not caving in."

The president claimed any alleged criminal actions by former campaign chair Paul Manafort pre-dated the election, tweeting: "Sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign."

But the indictment contradicted that claim. Details of Manafort's alleged criminal activities range from 2006 to February of this year, and he's accused of laundering money during the campaign.

Sanders also insisted that George Papadopoulos -- who pleaded guilty to lying to federal agents -- attempted to arrange meetings with Russian officials on his own accord.

"The actions that he took would have been on his own," Sanders said.

Of course the Papadopoulos plea agreement revealed that he was actually encouraged by an unnamed campaign adviser to pursue contact with the Russians. The president has yet to comment on those charges.

© 2017 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.


MUELLER MOVING FORWARD

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/robert-mueller-russia-investigation-whats-next/
CBS NEWS October 30, 2017, 7:49 PM
What's next in Mueller's Russia investigation?

The charges announced Monday in the special counsel investigation into Russian meddling in the U.S. election signal an aggressive probe -- a double-barreled punch that veteran prosecutors say is just the beginning, CBS News' chief legal correspondent Jan Crawford reports.

Taken together, lawyers say the indictment of Paul Manafort and Rick Gates, and the plea deal with George Papadopoulos, have a common purpose beyond the underlying crimes: to shake some trees and get witnesses to cooperate with the broader investigation.

Papadopoulos met with government lawyers and started cooperating after his arrest in July. Manafort and Gates, so far, have not.

Lawmakers react to charges in Russia probe
Play VIDEO
Lawmakers react to charges in Russia probe

But now, the threat of prosecution and jail time -- or even additional charges against them -- could cause them to flip if they have information that special counsel Robert Mueller would be interested in.

"Extremely strong, very serious charges, that put a tremendous amount of pressure on Manafort and Gates to plead and cooperate," former federal prosecutor Peter Zeidenberg told CBS News correspondent Julianna Goldman.

That's a common approach in these wide ranging investigations, Crawford reports. They're not just one big case that's filed at the very end, but a series of interim cases throughout.

"This investigation has got a head of steam and there will be a lot more shoes to drop," Zeidenberg said.

© 2017 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.


SOME ARE ASKING WHETHER OR NOT TRUMP MAY TRY TO FIRE MUELLER. THE LAWYER COHN SAYS "THERE IS NO BASIS" TO FIRE HIM. I ALSO BELIEVE THAT WHEN TWO REPUBLICAN SENATORS AND A FEW DEMOCRATS AS WELL HAVE POINTEDLY AND STRONGLY WARNED HIM IN FRONT OF THE TV CAMERAS NOT TO TRY THAT, I THINK HE IS LISTENING TO THEM. BESIDES, FOR TRUMP TO HAVE TO WRESTLE WITH MUELLER WOULD PROBABLY BE LIKE TWO SUMO WRESTLERS. IT WON'T BE A PIECE OF CAKE FOR TRUMP. MUELLER BOTH SMART AND TOUGH. I'M SO GLAD THAT HE IS THE ONE WHO IS HANDLING THE INVESTIGATON. I WOULD HATE TO SEE JEFF SESSIONS IN CHARGE. I DO NOT TRUST SESSIONS.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-lawyer-says-theres-no-basis-to-fire-robert-mueller/
By REBECCA SHABAD CBS NEWS October 31, 2017, 8:12 AM
Trump lawyer says there's "no basis" to fire Robert Mueller

One of President Trump's lawyers said Tuesday that there is "no basis" to fire Robert Mueller as special counsel in charge of the federal investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

In an interview on ABC's "Good Morning America," Jay Sekulow was asked if he could definitively say that the president has ruled out firing Mueller.

"Let me say this and I have said this, there is no conversation regarding firing Robert Mueller. And there's no basis to fire Robert Mueller," Sekulow said.

Asked again if the president is ruling out firing Mueller, he said, "I will say this, the president has not indicated to me or to anyone else that I work with that he's had any intent of terminating Robert Mueller and the way it would work is, you could only terminate a special counsel for cause and we just don't see any basis for cause."

Sekulow was also asked if Mr. Trump is ruling out pardons, but Sekulow said that he hasn't had a conversation with the president about that, but that "pardons are not on the table."

He said that he discussed with the president on Monday the federal charges against three of his former campaign aides, but he denied reports that there was a meeting with all of the lawyers in the White House residence for hours.

"I just want to say that that's not true," he said. "That did not take place. We had a conversation with the President, discussed what the charges looked like and that was it.

On Monday, it was revealed that Paul Manafort, one of Mr. Trump's 2016 campaign chairmen, Rick Gates, Manafort's former business associate and George Papadopoulos, a foreign policy adviser to the campaign, were indicted by a federal grand jury. Manafort and Gates surrendered to the FBI, and later pleaded not guilty in federal court to 12 counts including conspiracy to launder money, conspiracy against the U.S., unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading statements surrounding the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), false statements and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts.

Papadopoulos, meanwhile, pleaded guilty to making false statements to the FBI. His statements had to do with the nature of his relationship with "certain foreign nationals whom he understood to have close connections with senior Russian government officials."

CBS News' Jillian Hughes contributed to this report.

© 2017 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.



DA DEMS DID IT!

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-weighs-in-on-george-papadopoulos-case/
By REBECCA SHABAD CBS NEWS October 31, 2017, 8:41 AM
Trump weighs in on George Papadopoulos

President Trump on Tuesday weighed in on George Papadopoulos, who served as a foreign policy adviser to his 2016 campaign and pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.

Mr. Trump said on Twitter that Papadopoulos was merely a volunteer on the campaign and has "proven to be a liar."

Follow
Donald J. Trump ✔@realDonaldTrump
....came to the campaign. Few people knew the young, low level volunteer named George, who has already proven to be a liar. Check the DEMS!
8:16 AM - Oct 31, 2017
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The president also repeated that the events involving Paul Manafort and Rick Gates took place "long before" Manafort joined the campaign in March 2016. The indictment against the two men that was disclosed to the public on Monday says otherwise.

Follow
Donald J. Trump ✔@realDonaldTrump
The Fake News is working overtime. As Paul Manaforts lawyer said, there was "no collusion" and events mentioned took place long before he...
8:09 AM - Oct 31, 2017
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Mr. Trump is trying to shift the attention to Hillary Clinton and the Democrats in the election.

Follow
Donald J. Trump ✔@realDonaldTrump
I hope people will start to focus on our Massive Tax Cuts for Business (jobs) and the Middle Class (in addition to Democrat corruption)!
8:21 AM - Oct 31, 2017
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White House Chief of Staff John Kelly is also trying to distance the president from the unfolding controversy.

"All of the activities, as I understand it, that they were indicted for was long before they ever met Donald Trump," Kelly said on Fox News Monday.

But he told Fox News that he and the president discuss the probe multiple times a day.

"It is very distracting to the president, as it would be to any citizen to be investigated," Kelly said.

On Monday, it was revealed that Manafort, one of Mr. Trump's 2016 campaign chairmen, Gates, hid former business associate and Papadopoulos were indicted by a federal grand jury. Manafort and Gates surrendered to the FBI, and later pleaded not guilty in federal court to 12 counts including conspiracy to launder money, conspiracy against the U.S., unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading statements surrounding the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), false statements and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts.

Papadopoulos, meanwhile, pleaded guilty to making false statements to the FBI. His statements had to do with the nature of his relationship with "certain foreign nationals whom he understood to have close connections with senior Russian government officials."

© 2017 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.



"AT SOME POINT YOU HAVE TO ASK, 'WHY ALL THE DECEPTION?'" SCHIFF SAID.” TRUMP HAS DONE THIS FROM THE FIRST. HE THINKS IT SOLVES HIS PROBLEM, BUT IT JUST CREATES A MUCH BIGGER ONE. NOW THE RESULT MAY VERY WELL BE EXPULSION FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. I HATE TO BE HARD-HEARTED, BUT THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT HE DESERVES. BESIDES, HIS ACTIONS ARE DAMAGING OUR WAY OF LIFE AS GOOD AMERICANS. LOCK HIM UP!!

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/lawmakers-react-to-charges-in-special-counsel-investigation/
By NANCY CORDES CBS NEWS October 30, 2017, 8:09 PM
Lawmakers react to charges in special counsel investigation

WASHINGTON -- Reaction to the indictments against Paul Manafort and Rick Gates, and the guilty plea from George Papadopoulos, in the special counsel investigation came quickly Monday on Capitol Hill, where the House and Senate Intelligence Committees -- and the Senate Judiciary Committee -- are conducting parallel investigations into Russian election meddling.

Republicans gave the special counsel a wide berth Monday.

"This is what Bob Mueller was tasked to do," Speaker of the House Paul Ryan said.

"No reason not to trust him," said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina.

Democrats, meanwhile, argued the indictments and the guilty plea from Papadopoulos are proof of a pattern -- a pattern "of people affiliated with the Trump campaign lying about their connections with the Russians," said Sen. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee.

Paul Manafort, Rick Gates plead not guilty to 12 counts
Play VIDEO
Paul Manafort, Rick Gates plead not guilty to 12 counts

"At some point you have to ask, 'Why all the deception?'" Schiff said.

Schiff told CBS News that Manafort's shady financial dealings did not end when he went to work for candidate Trump.

"During the campaign while he's campaign manager, [Manafort is] trying to obtain more money for his work for these pro-Russian interests in Ukraine; money like that which he has now been indicted for laundering," Schiff said.

Republican Sen. Richard Burr, who is running the Senate's Russia investigation, said Papadopoulos was a "person of interest" in his probe as well.

George Papadopoulos pleads guilty to lying to FBI
Play VIDEO
George Papadopoulos pleads guilty to lying to FBI

"Lying to the FBI is a serious charge," Burr said.

Democrats argue it's time to pass a bill protecting special counsel Mueller from a presidential firing.

"The investigation must be allowed to proceed unimpeded," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said.

Republicans say President Trump knows better than to try that.

"The president should let the special counsel do his job," Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said.

But they'd still rather talk about almost anything else.

"That really isn't our job," Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said Monday.

"I don't see how the indictment changes the president's ability to do his job. There is a process for this to go forward. And I trust that it will happen," Cornyn said.

The White House said Mr. Trump has no intention of trying to fire Mueller, and Republicans say that's a good thing, because even his fellow Republican and recent golf partner Sen. Graham said there would be "holy hell" to pay if Muller were dismissed without cause.


KLOBUCHAR IS CALLING FOR LEGISLATIVE ACTION TO CONTROL HOW THE INTERNET CAN LEGALLY BE USED FOR POLITICAL ADS. THANK GOODNESS. IT HAS BEEN A WILD WEST FREE FOR ALL, SO FAR.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/amy-klobuchar-says-paul-manaforts-surrender-could-just-be-the-beginning/
By REBECCA SHABAD CBS NEWS October 30, 2017, 8:48 AM
Amy Klobuchar says Paul Manafort's surrender "could just be the beginning"

Video – Klobuchar interview 6:17

Sen. Amy Klobuchar said Monday that the move by President Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort to surrender to federal authorities "could just be the beginning" in the Russia investigation.

"The issue is even if he is charged with something unrelated to Russia, it could just be the beginning," the Minnesota Democrat said in an interview with "CBS This Morning."

Manafort and his former business associate, Rick Gates, have been indicted by a federal grand jury as part of the investigation into Russian meddling in the U.S. election, according to unsealed documents released Monday.

The 31-page indictment charges them on 12 counts including conspiracy to launder money, conspiracy against the U.S., unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading statements surrounding the Foreign Agents Registration Act , false statements and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts.

CBS News spotted Manafort leaving his apartment in Alexandria, Virginia Monday morning with his lawyer and entering the Washington Field Office of the FBI.

A federal grand jury used by Special Counsel Robert Mueller approved the first charges stemming from the investigation, CBS News reported Friday.

Klobuchar said that Manafort failed to register under the Foreign Agent Act when he was representing the former government in Ukraine that was tied to Russia. She said that lawmakers are also aware of "shady business dealings" and "money laundering" involving reports of wire transfers in 2012 and 2013.

"I consider it a truth hunt and not a witch hunt," Klobuchar said when asked to react to Mr. Trump calling the investigation a "witch hunt." "We owe it to our democracy."

"What I want to know is how far this went, who was involved, and who gave the orders," she said about the federal probe.

Klobuchar discussed a bill she's co-sponsoring that would make political ads on social media more transparent, saying "it's about Americans having the right to know who's trying to influence them."



THIS STORY IS ABOUT THE HORRIBLE MASS MURDER THAT OCCURRED IN NYC TODAY. WE DON’T YET KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THIS PERSON, BUT I’M SURE IT’S ANOTHER NUT CASE OUT TO CLEANSE THE WORLD OF EVIL BY KILLING PEOPLE. HE PROBABLY HATES LIBERALS AND HILLARY CLINTON, OR HE CONSIDERS ALL WOMEN TO BE PROSTITUTES. HE MAY ALSO HAVE LOST HIS JOB, OR HIS LADY LEFT HIM. SO MANY MEN HAVE NO PATIENCE WITH WOMEN BECAUSE THEY CRY, BUT WHEN THESE SAME MEN GET DEEPLY DISCOURAGED, THEY START SHOOTING STRANGERS OR RUNNING THEM DOWN – THAT’S THE MOST POPULAR METHOD NOWADAYS. IT’S A FAD OF SORTS. HE WAS CARRYING A TOY GUN. THAT’S A SIGN THAT THIS IS “SUICIDE BY COP,” MOST LIKELY. HOW DEPRESSING THIS IS. BELOW THIS ARTICLE WILL BE UPDATES IF THEY HAVE NEW INFORMATION. “THE SUSPECT IS IN CUSTODY, POLICE SAID.” THAT, AT LEAST IS GOOD NEWS.

https://www.yahoo.com/gma/york-city-officers-responding-reports-shots-fired-lower-194603578--abc-news-topstories.html?soc_trk=gcm&soc_src=ecd5e8af-dc90-3332-9efb-d522bf6b8dfa&.tsrc=notification-brknews
6 dead after driver plows into people on New York City bike path
Good Morning America
EMILY SHAPIRO and AARON KATERSKY
Good Morning America • October 31, 2017

At least six people are dead and others injured after a vehicle drove onto a bike path in lower Manhattan in New York City. The sprawling crime scene runs several blocks along the West Side Highway.

A vehicle entered the West Street pedestrian and bike path north of Chambers Street, hitting multiple people on the path, leaving some dead and "numerous people injured," New York City police said, citing preliminary investigation.

The vehicle kept driving south until it hit another vehicle, police said. At that point, the suspect, who was "displaying imitation firearms," got out of the vehicle and was shot by responding officers, authorities said.

The suspect is in custody, police said.

View image on Twitter

Martin Speechley ✔@NYPDSpeechley
All media responding to the incident in Lower Manhattan are asked to meet DCPI reps at Chambers Street and Greenwich Street.
3:35 PM - Oct 31, 2017
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A truck hit multiple people on the bike path on the West Side Highway, a witness told ABC's New York station WABC. The truck crashed into a school bus at Chambers and West streets, near Stuyvesant High School, the witness added.

"Everybody started running," the witness said. "...Everything was happening so fast."

The witness added of the driver, "He kept going all the way down full speed."

"Thank god the trick-or-treaters weren't out yet," the witness later said.

Video from the scene showed mangled bicycles strewn across the bike path.

There is no active threat, according to the mayor's press secretary.

Eric Phillips ✔@EricFPhillips
Mayor’s been briefed on extremely preliminary info. NO active threat. https://twitter.com/nypdnews/status/925443702985773057 …
3:31 PM - Oct 31, 2017
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New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio are heading to the scene.

The FBI is also responding to the incident.

Police warned that New Yorkers should expect many emergency personnel in the area.

PHOTO: Authorities respond to incident in lower Manhattan in New York City, Oct. 31, 2017. (Jeff/WFH/Twitter)
PHOTO: Authorities respond to incident in lower Manhattan in New York City, Oct. 31, 2017. (WABC)

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JS
JS40 minutes ago
This was an attack. CNN calling it an accident.
ReplyReplies (59)42198

Jake
Jake38 minutes ago
Condolences for the deceased and their families.
ReplyReplies (6)3058

JS
JS42 minutes ago
Religion of peace strikes NY, again.
ReplyReplies (23)34288



https://ca.news.yahoo.com/police-respond-shots-fired-near-194022625.html?soc_trk=gcm&soc_src=ecd5e8af-dc90-3332-9efb-d522bf6b8dfa&.tsrc=notification-brknews
8 killed by New York motorist in 'cowardly act of terror'
The Canadian Press • October 31, 2017

NEW YORK — A man in a rented pickup truck mowed down pedestrians and cyclists along a busy bike path near the World Trade Center memorial Tuesday, killing at least eight and seriously injuring 11 in what the mayor called "a particularly cowardly act of terror."

The driver was shot in the abdomen by police after jumping out of the truck with what turned out to be a fake gun in each hand and shouting what witnesses said was "Allahu Akbar!," Arabic for "God is great," authorities said. He underwent surgery and was expected to survive.

Officials who were not authorized to discuss the investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity identified the attacker as 29-year-old Sayfullo Saipov and said he is from Uzbekistan and came to the U.S. in 2010. He has a Florida driver's license but may have been staying in New Jersey, they said.

The driver barrelled along the bike path in a rented Home Depot truck for the equivalent of about 14 blocks, or around eight-tenths of a mile, before slamming into a small yellow school bus. The mayhem and the burst of police gunfire set off panic in the neighbourhood and left the pavement strewn with mangled bicycles and bodies that were soon covered with sheets.

"I saw a lot of blood over there. A lot of people on the ground," said Chen Yi, an Uber driver.

Eugene Duffy, a chef at a waterfront restaurant, said, "So many police came and they didn't know what was happening. People were screaming. Females were screaming at the top of their lungs."

Argentina [sic: There is no prior reference to this name, so I conclude it must mean that the Embassy of Argentina said this.] said the dead included Argentine citizens.

Police closed off streets across the western edge of lower Manhattan along the Hudson River, and officers rushed into the neighbourhood just as people were preparing for Halloween festivities, including the big annual parade through Greenwich Village.

"This was an act of terror, and a particularly cowardly act of terror aimed at innocent civilians, aimed at people going about their lives who had no idea what was about to hit them," Mayor Bill de Blasio said.

New York and other cities around the globe have been on high alert against attacks by extremists in vehicles. The Islamic State has been exhorting its followers to mow down people, and England, France and Germany have all seen deadly vehicle attacks in the past year or so.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo called it a "lone wolf" attack and said there was no evidence to suggest it was part of a wider plot.

New York City Police Commissioner James O'Neill said a statement the driver made as he got out of the truck and the method of attack led police to conclude it was a terrorist act.

On Twitter, President Donald Trump called it "another attack by a very sick and deranged person" and declared, "NOT IN THE U.S.A."

While police did not specifically blame the Islamic State for the New York bloodshed, Trump railed against the extremist group, tweeting, "We must not allow ISIS to return, or enter, our country after defeating them in the Middle East and elsewhere. Enough!"

Police said the vehicle entered the bike path at about 3 p.m. on West Street a few blocks from the new World Trade Center, the site of the deadliest terror attack in U.S. history. The truck then turned at Chambers Street, hitting the school bus and injuring two adults and two children.

A paintball gun and a pellet gun were found at the scene, police said. At least two covered-over bodies could be seen lying on the bike path, and the front end of the pickup was smashed in, as was the side of the school bus.

Tom Gay, a school photographer, heard people saying there was an accident and went down to West Street, where a woman came around the corner shouting, "He has a gun! He has a gun!"

Gay said he stuck his head around the corner and saw a slender man in a blue track suit running on West Street holding a gun. He said a heavyset man was chasing him.

He said he heard five or six shots, and the man in the tracksuit fell to the ground, gun still raised in the air. He said a man came over and kicked the gun out of his hand.
___
Associated Press writers Sadie Gurman in Washington and Tom Hays, Michael Balsamo and Adam Geller in New York contributed to this story.
Colleen Long And Jake Pearson, The Associated Press


DISHONESTY IS EVERYWHERE. I WAS WAITING FOR A DEM TO SHOW UP AS A CHARACTER IN THIS SAGA OF LIFE, AND SOME LEGISLATORS, TOO, BECAUSE THEY ARE DEEPLY INTO THE LOBBYING GAME. THE BUSINESS OF POWER IS CORRUPT. ONLY BERNIE IS A REAL GENTLEMAN.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/democratic-lobbyist-tony-podesta-quits-220227572.html
Democratic Lobbyist Tony Podesta Quits After His Firm Turns Up In Manafort Indictment
HuffPost
Paul Blumenthal
HuffPost • October 30, 2017

WASHINGTON ― Tony Podesta, the Democratic Party super-lobbyist, announced his resignation as head of the Podesta Group after the company appeared in the indictment of former Donald Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort on Monday.

Manafort and his business partner Richard Gates were indicted on 12 criminal charges, including money laundering, making false statements and failing to register as foreign agents for the government of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. The indictment came from the office of special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, in particular accusations that Russia hacked the emails of Trump’s political opponents and influenced the election.

The Podesta Group and another firm, Mercury Public Affairs, are listed in the indictment as “Company A” and “Company B,” although it is not known which company is A or B. The two firms were hired by Manafort to lobby for the Yanukovych government in 2012 but did not register as foreign agents until 2017.

At an all-staff meeting announcing his departure, Podesta told staff that he was leaving because of the possible legal issues arising from Manafort’s indictment. According to Politico, which first reported Podesta’s departure, he said he “needs to fight this as an individual, but doesn’t want the firm to fight it.”

Tony Podesta is a major Democratic Party figure in Washington, D.C. He and his brother, John Podesta, who was Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign manager, founded the Podesta Group in 1988, but John Podesta has not been involved with the firm since 1993. The Podesta Group routinely ranks as one of the top-earning lobbying firms in Washington. In 2016, the firm raked in $24 million from its registered lobbying business, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

The allegations in the indictment related to the Podesta Group’s lobbying on behalf of Yanukovych, who had close relations with the Russian government, and his Party of Regions begin in 2012, when Manafort led a public relations effort in Washington during Yanukovych’s re-election campaign. Manafort hired the Podesta Group and Mercury Government Affairs, a Republican lobbying firm, as part of this campaign. But he hired them through the European Centre for a Modern Ukraine*, [Also Called “The Centre” In An Article Yesterday] a Belgium-based nonprofit that acted as an arm of the Yanukovych government, to mask the true source of the lobbying campaign.

Signing up the lobbying firms this way also reduced transparency about the lobbying campaign. Both firms could claim that they were not working on behalf of a foreign government or foreign political party, which allowed them to register under the less rigorous Lobbying Disclosure Act and not as foreign agents. Lobbyists who register as foreign agents must disclose far more information about their activities than those who register for domestic or non-foreign government-aligned clients.

The indictment explains, however, that the Podesta Group and Mercury Public Affairs were aware that they were working for a foreign government and still failed to register as foreign agents. Gates wrote to “Company A,” according to the indictment, that it would be “representing the Government of Ukraine” in Washington.

In November 2012, according to the indictment, Gates wrote to both the Podesta Group and Mercury Public Affairs that they provide “an assessment of their past and prospective lobbying efforts so the ‘President’ could be briefed by ‘Paul’ on what Ukraine has done well and what it can do better as we move into 2013,” presumably referring to President Yanukovych and Paul Manafort.

The Podesta Group and Mercury Public Affairs were neither hired nor paid by their nominal client, the European Centre for a Modern Ukraine. They were both hired directly by Manafort and Gates, and were paid from the former Trump aides’ offshore accounts in Cyprus and the Grenadines. The two firms received $2 million in payments from 2012 through 2014 from these offshore accounts.

As part of the campaign, the two firms directly lobbied members of Congress on potential sanctions targeting Ukraine and on toning down a resolution expressing disapproval for a trial of Yanukovych’s former political rival, ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. Much of this lobbying was personally directed by both Manafort and Gates, according to the indictment.

In August 2016, the [sic] The Associated Press revealed that Manafort orchestrated this lobbying campaign on behalf of the Yanukovych government, which fell in February 2014 after the Maidan protest movement drove him into exile in Russia. In response to the AP report, Gates distributed talking points to Podesta Group and Mercury Public Affairs to help them deny that they worked for the former Ukrainian government.

In 2016 and 2017, Manafort and Gates, the Podesta Group and Mercury Public Affairs retroactively registered as foreign agents. Manafort and Gates registered as lobbyists for the Ukrainian Party of Regions while the Podesta Group and Mercury Public Affairs registered on behalf of the European Centre for a Modern Ukraine.

Failure to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act is rarely prosecuted or punished. Most violators can escape legal sanction by retroactively registering. The indictment of Manafort and Gates, however, charges the two with failure to register as foreign agents and also with making false statements in their retroactive registrations.

Mueller has already called representatives of the Podesta Group and Mercury Public Affairs to testify. It is unclear whether these firms or the principals who signed the lobbying contract with Manafort and Gates will face any charges.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost.


MERCURY PUBLIC AFFAIRS
https://ballotpedia.org/Mercury_Public_Affairs

Mercury Public Affairs
Mercury public affairs.png

Basic facts

Location: Washington, D.C.
Type: Public Strategy Firm
Affiliation: Bipartisan
Top official: •CEO: Kieran Mahoney
•President: Kirill Goncharenko
Founder(s): Kirill Goncharenko and Kieran Mahoney
Year founded: 1999
Website: Official website

Connections
•Brian Jones
•Rick Wiley
•Mike DuHaime
•Roger Salazar

Mercury Public Affairs is a bipartisan political strategy and consulting firm that focuses on campaigns and political communications ranging from advocacy advertising to litigation communications to media and public relations. The firm has multiple locations throughout the U.S and in Mexico City as well as London. The firm was co-founded, in 1999, by Kirill Goncharenko and Kieran Mahoney in Manhattan. The firm has since been purchased by Omnicom Group, a company that controls 1,500 marketing communication agencies around the world.[1] Omnicom Group's chairman is Bruce Crawford. Several past and present members of Mercury are working on presidential campaigns for the 2016 election cycle.



http://nypost.com/2017/10/30/bernie-sanders-get-stuck-waiting-for-a-train-with-de-blasio/
METRO
Bernie Sanders gets stuck waiting for a train with de Blasio
By Yoav Gonen October 30, 2017 | 2:53pm | Updated


Sen. Bernie Sanders took a subway ride with Mayor Bill de Blasio on Monday — but only after waiting 10 minutes for a downtown A train.

The progressive bosom buddies met at Penn Station shortly before 11 a.m. to ride just five stops to Fulton Street, but were forced to make small talk on the platform because of delays in service.

As they waited, they were serenaded by a pair of musicians, and then caused a ruckus when they entered a packed train with dozens of reporters, photographers and bodyguards in tow.

Riders shouted out encouragement, snapped photos and shot videos — and at one point, a man started shouting, “Lock up Trump! Lock up Trump!”

Sanders suggested Hizzoner’s* so-called millionaires tax proposal to fund the MTA long-term could work miracles.

“When you ride on the subway, you should ride in comfort, you should ride in a subway car where you can sit, where you know where the train is coming,” said Sanders. “That is not a radical idea. It exists around the world.”

The proposed tax faces a rough road in Albany, which would have to approve it.

Sanders insisted he wasn’t taking sides in a battle between Gov. Andrew Cuomo and de Blasio over how to fund the subways — even though Cuomo has called the millionaires tax proposal “dead on arrival.”

“I’m not taking sides — to be honest, I’ve got enough to keep me busy in Washington without getting involved in New York state politics,” Sanders said. “[To] ask people on top to pay a little more in taxes, I think that is fair, I think it’s the right thing to do.”

The mayor — who endorsed Hillary Clinton in 2016 over Sanders — echoed Sanders’ message of a rigged financial system that has propelled those on Wall Street to the top of the heap.

“They got a lot of what they got because of laws that benefited them specifically, and tax laws written for them,” said de Blasio.

The mayor for months has declined to support calls for half-fare Metrocards for the lowest-income New Yorkers — despite a hefty city budget surplus — and only embraced the idea as part of his proposed tax on the wealthy.


HTTPS://WWW.MERRIAM-WEBSTER.COM/DICTIONARY/HIZZONER

DEFINITION OF HIZZONER*
—Used as a title for a man holding the office of mayor

First known use: 1882
Origin and etymology of hizzoner
An alteration of “his honor”




http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/carter-page-reacts-to-indictments-papadopoulos-plea-1084943939800
ALL IN WITH CHRIS HAYES 10/30/17
Carter Page reacts to indictments, Papadopoulos plea
Carter Page, former foreign policy advisor to Donald Trump's presidential campaign, speaks frankly with Chris Hayes about what he knew and when he knew it. Duration: 10:00


http://www.msnbc.com/hardball/watch/russian-backed-content-reached-126-million-on-facebook-1084867651628
HARDBALL WITH CHRIS MATTHEWS 10/30/17
Russian backed content reached 126 million on Facebook
126 million Americans received Russian-backed content on Facebook during the 2016 campaign, according to prepared testimony the company submitted to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Duration: 9:01


http://www.msnbc.com/the-beat-with-ari-melber/watch/ari-melber-breaks-down-what-s-next-for-mueller-s-russia-investigation-1084922947748
THE BEAT WITH ARI MELBER 10/30/17
Ari Melber breaks down what's next for Mueller's Russia...
Trump tries to distance himself from Russia investigation downplaying roles of Paul Manafort and foreign policy adviser, George Papadopoulos. Duration: 5:04


http://www.msnbc.com/mtp-daily/watch/schiff-says-fmr-trump-adviser-george-papadopoulos-was-on-radar-1084754499522
10/30/17
Schiff Says Fmr. Trump Adviser George Papadopoulos Was on Radar
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) joins MTP Daily to discuss if today’s news of former Trump aides being indicted is evidence that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia. Duration: 7:56


THIS NEXT IS FROM MCCAIN’S RECENT SPEECH WHICH WAS, AGAIN, A GREAT ONE. DO LISTEN TO IT.

http://www.msnbc.com/mtp-daily/watch/chuck-really-listen-to-what-mccain-is-saying-1075452995559
MTP DAILY 10/17/17
Chuck: ‘Really Listen to What McCain is Saying’
Tonight Chuck is obsessed with what Sen. John McCain was really saying last night, but not what some people are saying he said and the Trump versus McCain narrative you may be hearing. Duration: 2:18


http://www.msnbc.com/mtp-daily/watch/can-political-polarization-be-fixed-1075443267729
MTP DAILY 10/17/17
Can Political Polarization Be Fixed?
Former Rep. Jason Altmire joins MTP Daily to discuss his book, "Dead Center," which focuses on how to fix political polarization. Duration: 6:24


http://www.msnbc.com/hardball/watch/russian-backed-content-reached-126-million-on-facebook-1084867651628
Embed
HARDBALL WITH CHRIS MATTHEWS 10/30/17
Russian backed content reached 126 million on Facebook
126 million Americans received Russian-backed content on Facebook during the 2016 campaign, according to prepared testimony the company submitted to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Duration: 9:01



http://www.msnbc.com/hardball/watch/russian-backed-content-reached-126-million-on-facebook-1084867651628
HARDBALL WITH CHRIS MATTHEWS 10/30/17
Russian backed content reached 126 million on Facebook
126 million Americans received Russian-backed content on Facebook during the 2016 campaign, according to prepared testimony the company submitted to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Duration: 9:01


http://www.msnbc.com/hardball/watch/matthews-we-need-a-leader-who-can-unite-the-country-1084895299563
HARDBALL WITH CHRIS MATTHEWS 10/30/17
Matthews: We need a leader who can unite the country
Chris’s new book, "Bobby Kennedy: A Raging Spirit," revives the life of someone who believed minorities and working class whites could be united in political purpose. Duration: 0:56


http://www.msnbc.com/hardball/watch/will-trump-fire-mueller-1084889667589
HARDBALL WITH CHRIS MATTHEWS 10/30/17
Will Trump fire Mueller?
As Robert Mueller makes his first criminal charges, Democrats are already stepping up efforts to protect the special counsel. Duration: 3:39


http://www.msnbc.com/the-beat-with-ari-melber/watch/top-clinton-aide-on-manafort-indictment-justice-will-be-served-1084924483572
THE BEAT WITH ARI MELBER 10/30/17
Trump points the finger at Hillary Clinton after Mueller...
Following Mueller’s indictments of Trump campaign staffers, Trump tries to shift the attention to Hillary Clinton. Philippe Reines, advisor to Hillary Clinton, and former Obama adviser, Ron Klain join Duration: 6:57

WHAT IS THE “FARA STATUTE?” IT’S THE FOREIGN AGENT REGISTRATION ACT.
https://www.fara.gov/rstatutes.html


http://www.msnbc.com/the-beat-with-ari-melber/watch/young-undocumented-immigrant-with-cerebral-palsy-detained-in-texas-1083254851788
Embed
THE BEAT WITH ARI MELBER 10/27/17
Young undocumented immigrant with cerebral palsy detained in...
A 10-year-old girl with cerebral palsy is fighting for her life after Trump’s border patrol took her into custody after emergency surgery Duration: 4:43


http://www.msnbc.com/the-beat-with-ari-melber/watch/donald-trump-jr-knew-trump-tower-meeting-was-with-kremlin-official-1083253827941
THE BEAT WITH ARI MELBER 10/27/17
Donald Trump Jr. knew Trump tower meeting was with Kremlin...
Donald Trump Junior was told he was meeting with a ‘Russian Government attorney” before the infamous Trump Tower meeting. Duration: 11:53

ARE CIVIL WAR MEMORIALS MORE IMPORTANT THAN HUMAN LIFE?
COMPILATION AND COMMENTARY
BY LUCY WARNER
OCTOBER 31, 2017
REVISED, NOVEMBER 1, 2017

UP TO A POINT I AGREE WITH THE GENERAL HERE ON THE SUBJECT OF CIVIL WAR MEMORIALS, BECAUSE INDEED, HISTORY IS HISTORY. THIS MAINLY SOUTHERN “MEAN OLD WHITE BACKLASH,” HOWEVER, IS A MODERN-DAY THING AMONG PEOPLE WHO ARE TRYING TO BRING BACK THE PAST, AND THE WORST ASPECTS OF THE PAST AT THAT. BARBARISM IS NOT THE FORM OF STRENGTH THAT WE SHOULD EMULATE. THAT IS WHAT HAS BEEN HAPPENING, AND IT IS AMORAL AND PROFOUNDLY IRRATIONAL. IT IS JUST THE CONTINUATION OF A CULTURE THAT HAS HAD AN INTENSE STRAIN OF EVIL BUILT INTO IT, AND BRINGING THAT BACK IS GOING TO DESTROY – IS DESTROYING – OUR CIVILIZATION OF TODAY.

WE SHOULD LOOK INSTEAD TOWARD HEROES LIKE BARBARA FRITCHIE. SHE WAS NOT A FICTIONAL CHARACTER, SO HER ACTIONS ARE POSSIBLE FOR ANYONE WHO IS WILLING TO TAKE A RISK. THESE DAYS WE CAN’T FACE UP TO A LITTLE SOCIAL DISAPPROVAL, SO WE JUST FOLLOW THE CROWD, WHICH IS SO OFTEN UP TO NO GOOD. ON THAT REFERENCE, SEE: HTTPS://EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG/WIKI/BARBARA_FRITCHIE; OR BETTER STILL, READ THE GREAT OLD HISTORICAL POEM BY JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER, A QUAKER, ABOUT THAT LADY. I DON’T KNOW IF YOU’VE EVER ATTENDED A QUAKER MEETING, BUT THEIR FORM OF PACIFISM IS LIKE THAT OF MARTIN LUTHER KING. IT ISN’T TIMIDITY.

WE SHOULD ALLOW THE HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY TO REST, AND MOVE ON. THE NEAR DEIFICATION OF THOSE HEROES FROM LONG PAST IS WELL UNDERWAY, WITH IMPLACABLE GROUPS DEMONSTRATING THEIR RACIST VIEWS WITH TORCHES AND CRUDE CHANTS. AT THAT PARTICULAR STATUE IN CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA AND OTHERS AROUND THE COUNTRY, THE RELATED LAWLESSNESS HAS BROUGHT ON THIS POLICY WITHIN STATE GOVERNMENTS TO PULL DOWN THOSE STATUES, IN AN ATTEMPT TO PREVENT A PATHOLOGICAL FOCUS ON THEM -- WHICH IS FUELING A FRIGHTENING AND DANGEROUS UPRISING OF HATE ACTIVITY. I WANT TO THINK THAT POGROMS IN NAZI GERMANY AND OTHER EUROPEAN NATIONS WERE ANOMALIES, BUT IT IS BECOMING CLEAR TO ME THAT THEY ARE NOT.

I UNDERSTAND WHY THE STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS ARE DOING THOSE REMOVALS, THOUGH I ALSO REGRET IT. MOST OF THEM ARE BEING MOVED TO NEWLY CONSTRUCTED HISTORICAL PARKS OR MUSEUMS, HOWEVER, WHICH IS FAIR ENOUGH, GIVEN THE SITUATION, TO A RATIONAL PERSON. FETISHIZING ABUSE OF ANY KIND, BY THUGS OF ANY RACE OR NATIONALITY, IS NOT INTELLIGENT, AND IT IS CERTAINLY NOT "CHRISTIAN." I PERSONALLY REALLY LOVE HISTORY. HOW PEOPLE USED TO LIVE IS MUCH MORE INTERESTING TO ME THAN WHAT IS SO POPULAR TODAY – REALITY SHOWS LIKE “SURVIVOR” OR “THE APPRENTICE,” ESPECIALLY. I DESPISE THE VERY LOWBROW CULTURAL TREND THAT HAS COME TO PASS IN AMERICA. THAT IS NOT THE WAY TO "MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN," NOR ARE SOME OF THE THINGS THAT I WAS TAUGHT IN K-12, ESPECIALLY THAT PERNICIOUS DOCTRINE "WHITE MAN'S BURDEN."

BESIDES, THESE RIGHTIST GROUPS ARE TRYING TO BRING HISTORY BACK AND RELIVE IT, AND THAT NEVER WORKS. WE DON’T LIKE TO THINK IT, BUT IN A FREE SOCIETY CHANGE IS ONGOING AND INEVITABLE, AS IT SHOULD BE. IT’S EVOLUTION. THAT’S HOW WE IMPROVE. WHEN WE GET OLD, OUR SKIN LOOKS LESS BEAUTIFUL AND OUR HAIR GRAYS, BUT WE STILL CONTINUE ON UNTIL DEATH. SO, LET’S LET THAT DARNED ISSUE OF A CONFEDERATE PAST GO, AND "LIVE IN THE NOW." ONE DAY AT A TIME IS THE ONLY WAY TO GO.

AND AS FOR ANTIFA AND SUCH GROUPS, THEY ARE TRYING TO PROTECT MODERN SOCIETY FROM WHAT AMOUNTS, IN MY VIEW, TO DEMONIC POSSESSION AMONG THE IGNORANT, RIOTOUS AND DISAFFECTED. ANTIFA IS DOING WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE IN A SITUATION OF GROSS LEGAL INACTION; IT'S METHODS ARE VIOLENT, YES, BUT SO ARE THESE FASCISTS. WHEN I WAS YOUNG THERE WERE FASCISTS, BUT THEY WEREN’T AS ACTIVE AS THEY HAVE BECOME, AND THEREFORE AS DANGEROUS.

I DON’T WANT BLOODSHED, BUT FIGHTING THIS HORROR DOES NEED TO BE DONE. I WOULD MUCH RATHER SEE FASCISTS ARRESTED, OF COURSE, THAN POSSIBLY BEING KILLED IN THIS WAY. THAT’S JUST STREET WARFARE, AND IT’S DESTRUCTIVE TO EVERYONE IN THE COUNTRY AS WELL AS TO THOSE WHO DIE. PASSIVISM, RATHER THAN PACIFISM, HOWEVER, IS WORSE THAN USELESS IN A SITUATION LIKE WHAT WE ARE EXPERIENCING LATELY. IT ENCOURAGES THE REALLY BAD GUYS BECAUSE THEY AREN’T BEING OPPOSED. IT’S THE “BYSTANDER EFFECT.” WHEN I SAW NAZI SALUTES TO DONALD TRUMP, WHICH IN ONE FILM, HE RETURNED, I WAS APPALLED. THIS IS NOT MY AMERICA.

ONE OF THE THINGS THAT WE HAVE UNWISELY SET UP ABOVE COMMON SENSE IN OUR NATION IS THE ESPOUSAL OF A BELIEF IN TOTAL FREEDOM TO FLOUT FAIRNESS AND DECENCY WHENEVER WE HAPPEN TO FEEL LIKE IT, WHICH IS A GREAT DEAL OF THE TIME. WHEN YOU BOIL IT DOWN, IT’S JUST ANOTHER FORM OF BULLYING. OUR BILL OF RIGHTS CONCEPT NEEDS TO BE MODIFIED WHEN THOSE “RIGHTS” CAUSE SUCH VILE BEHAVIOR. IT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN OUR PET DOG AND A WILD WOLF. I WILL NOT SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP IN THE FACE OF AN ATTEMPTED NAZI TAKEOVER OF THE USA, AND NEITHER SHOULD ANY AMERICAN CITIZEN. NOW THAT’S REAL PATRIOTISM – STICKING UP FOR THE GOOD AMERICA RATHER THAN MERELY THE POWERFUL. IT IS ESPOUSING GOOD RATHER THAN EVER MORE POWER THAT MAKES US “GREAT.” WE ARE SUPPOSED TO BE THE HOME OF THE FREE, YES, BUT OF THE TRULY BRAVE AS WELL. HAVING ENOUGH BRAVERY TO SPEAK UP FOR SOMETHING GOOD TO OUR PEERS WHEN THEY HAVE BECOME DESTRUCTIVE IS AS IMPORTANT AS JOINING THE ARMY TO GO AND FIGHT OVERSEAS.

WHAT WE HAVE AS A NATION IS CLEARLY FRAGILE, AND DESPERATELY NEEDS TO BE PRESERVED BY THE ACTIVE LEGAL PROTECTION OF GOODNESS, AGAINST THE KIND OF EVIL THAT IS HAPPENING NOW. MY HEROES ARE THE SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER SCHOLARS AND LAWYERS. THEIR ACTION IS NONVIOLENT, BUT PERSISTENT AND WELL-CONSIDERED. WE COULD ALSO USE ANOTHER MARTIN LUTHER KING RIGHT ABOUT NOW. SINCE THE TEA PARTY AND THE MILITIAS BEGAN TO BECOME DIRECTLY POLITICALLY ACTIVE, WE HAVE LOST CONTROL. SUCH THINGS ARE NOT, AND SHOULDN'T BE CONSIDERED TO BE "FREE SPEECH" AND "FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION." THEY ARE AIDING THE ENEMY.

WHILE WE ARE CRACKING DOWN ON VIOLENT RADICAL MUSLIMS, WE NEED ALSO TO INCLUDE OUR OWN "WHITE CHRISTIAN" CRIMINALS. WE HAVE ALLOWED THAT SEGMENT OF SOCIETY TO THRIVE, GROW AND, SINCE WE ARE ALL OF THE SAME SKIN COLOR, TO HIDE SAFELY AMONG THE CROWD; MANY OF THEM BEGAN IN POVERTY, WORKING AT JOBS THAT DO NOT REQUIRE AN EDUCATION, AND HAVE MOVED TOWARD A PURPOSEFUL IGNORANCE IN ORDER TO GET ALONG WITH THE MAJORITY. OTHERS HAD A PRIVILEGED UPBRINGING AND BELIEVE THAT IF WHITES ONLY HAD THEIR GOD-GIVEN RIGHTS, THEY WOULD HAVE AN ALL WHITE NATION. UNFORTUNATELY, THE ABUSE AND DISRESPECT TOWARD ALL MINORITIES IS ACTUALLY FOSTERED WITHIN HOUSEHOLDS, ON JOBS, IN CHURCHES, IN THE POLICE DEPARTMENT AND THE COURT SYSTEM, IN THE SCHOOLS, AND INEVITABLY AT THE POLLS. WE MUST STOP IT WITH SOCIAL ACTION.

DENIAL OF EVIL IN SUCH CASES AS WE HAVE TODAY IS A TERRIBLE THING. IT IS FROM THAT SOURCE THAT FASCISM, UGLY ABUSIVENESS AND EVEN MASS MURDERS GROW. WE HAVE NORMALIZED THE UNSPEAKABLE, AND THE RESULT IS THIS NEW FORM OF FASCISM. IF WE HAVE EYES AND A BRAIN, WE SHOULD READ AND LEARN, MODIFYING OUR BEHAVIOR IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE NEW KNOWLEDGE. IF WE ARE GOING TO TALK, WE SHOULDN’T TALK TRASH, OR MAKE UP RIDICULOUS CONSPIRACY THEORIES (AND MOST HARMFULLY, ACTUALLY BELIEVE THEM.) SUCH PEOPLE AREN’T ALL INSANE OR EVEN UNINTELLIGENT, BUT SIMPLY MENTALLY LAZY AND “BRAINWASHED.” LIES APPEAL MORE TO THEM THAN TRUTH, AND VIOLENCE IS ENTERTAINMENT. I AM RELIEVED TO SEE THAT THE TOTALLY INSENSITIVE ARE NOT THE MAJORITY; WE JUST NEED TO DEFEAT THOSE WHO ARE OF THAT TYPE BY USING OUR VOICES AND THE LAW. STREET MARCHES HAVE THEIR VALUE, BECAUSE SEEING 500, 000 PEOPLE MARCHING DOWN THE STREET IS AN ILLUSTRATION OF WHAT CAN HAPPEN. INTELLECTUAL PERSUASION IS NOT ALWAYS SUFFICIENT, BECAUSE THAT REQUIRES AN ACTIVE CONSCIENCE ON THE PART OF THE SOCIAL MASTER CLASSES.

THE RIGHTIST SUCCESSES, TO THIS POINT, ARE LARGELY DUE TO A CERTAIN COMPLACENCY AMONG OUR BEST PEOPLE; AND ESPECIALLY TO THE HILLARY CLINTON/KOCH-PAID DNC. THEY ARE NOT REALLY IN FAVOR OF NEO-NAZI PHILOSOPHY; THEY JUST DIDN'T BELIEVE IT TO BE AS PREVALENT IN THE USA AS IT HAS BECOME, OR CAPABLE OF A COUP. ALL THE WHITE PEOPLE WHOM I HAVE MENTION THIS TO ARE SHOCKED AN HORRIFIED THAT BY WHAT APPEARS TO BE PUBLIC ACCLAIM, A PROTO-DICTATOR HAS BEEN ELECTED. EVEN THE ARMED TAKEOVER OF A STATE PARK FACILITY IN THE WEST BY WEALTHY ANTI-GOVERNMENT GANG OF WHITE SUPREMACISTS DIDN'T MAKE THEM THINK THAT THEY SHOULD PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT WAS GOING ON, AND SEE THE PATTERN FOR WHAT IT IS -- AN ATTEMPTED REVOLUTION.

LET’S FACE IT, THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY, WHICH FOR YEARS NURTURED US, HAS ABANDONED THE POOR AND THE MIDDLE CLASS, BECAUSE, IN THEIR VIEW, THE PROBLEMS THAT ARE OCCURRING TODAY ARE HAPPENING TO "SOMEONE ELSE." AN INTELLECTUAL SCORN FOR THOSE “DEPLORABLES” WILL NOT STOP THEM. OUR WELL-HEELED MIDDLE CLASS SITS BACK IN A SELF-IMPORTANT WAY AND SHOWS “SUPERIORITY” BY LAUGHING AT THEM. GREAT LOT OF GOOD THAT DID.

UNFORTUNATELY, THAT JUST WON’T STOP THEM. THE MOTTO OF THE PRIVILEGED WHITES IS “WHAT, ME WORRY?” WE ARE LIVING IN A NEW GILDED AGE, AND IF WE DON’T BREAK AWAY FROM THAT, WE WILL BE THROWN OUT FROM OUR COMFORTABLE PLACE IN LIFE. SELF-SATISFIED AS WE ARE, AND EVEN BECAUSE OF THAT, THERE WILL BE A RECKONING, I’M AFRAID, SOONER RATHER THAN LATER.

A FASCIST MOB WILL KILL ALL WHO ARE NOT OF THEIR GROUP WITH NO COMPUNCTION WHATSOEVER, SO REFUSING TO FIGHT THEM NOW WHEN THEY ARE RELATIVELY WEAK, IS TOTAL FOOLISHNESS, UNLESS YOU PLAN TO JOIN THEM, OF COURSE. OUR LEGISLATORS ARE WISING UP TO THIS, THANK GOODNESS, AND BECOMING ACTIVE. I ONLY HOPE THAT OUR POPULATION IN GENERAL WILL FOLLOW SUIT. THAT’S WHY WHEN I SEE BLM AND SUCH GROUPS MARCHING IN LARGE NUMBERS I AM RELIEVED, BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT COMPLACENT. THEY’RE ON THE SIDE OF GOODNESS, COME TO SAVE THE DAY.


https://www.cbsnews.com/news/john-kelly-says-lack-of-compromise-caused-civil-war-wont-apologize-to-frederica-wilson/
By EMILY TILLETT CBS NEWS October 31, 2017, 9:20 AM
John Kelly says "lack of compromise" caused Civil War; won't apologize to Rep. Frederica Wilson

Photograph -- John Kelly at a press conference in Washington, January 31, 2017. DREW ANGERER / GETTY IMAGES

President Trump's chief of staff, Gen. John Kelly, reignited the debate over pulling down monuments immortalizing the Confederacy on Monday, telling Fox News Channel's Laura Ingraham on "The Ingraham Angle" that there's a "lack of appreciation of history and what history is." He also suggested that it was the inability to "compromise" that led to the Civil War.

Kelly, asked about the removal of historical markers across the country, said that "history's history."

"There are certain things in history that were not so good and other things that were very, very good. I think, I think we make a mistake, though, and as a society and certainly as, as individuals, when we take what is today accepted as right and wrong and go back 100, 200, 300 years or more and say what those, you know, what Christopher Columbus did was wrong."

He said the idea of applying current concepts of right and wrong so many years later is "very, very dangerous." As for Confederate general Robert E. Lee, Kelly called him an "honorable man."

"He was a man that gave up, gave up his country to fight for his state, which 150 years ago was more important than country. It was always loyalty to state first back in those days. Now it's different today. But the lack of an ability to compromise led to the Civil War and men and women of good faith on both sides made their stand where their conscience had them make their stand," Kelly said.

Both Kelly and Ingraham later joked about the threat of pulling down the Washington Monument and renaming the statue in the nation's capitol. Kelly sarcastically proposed renaming it after a "cult hero" like pop artist Andy Warhol.

Meanwhile, Kelly said he's not offering an apology to Florida Congresswoman Frederica Wilson any time soon in the fallout over President Trump's conversations with Gold Star families.

"I'll apologize if I need to. But for something like that, absolutely not. I stand by my comments," said Kelly when asked if he would ever extend a mea culpa to Wilson.

He added, "But I'd just as soon let that go."

Kelly had told reporters at the White House he was "stunned" to find out that a member of Congress had listened to the phone call Mr. Trump made to the widow of Army Sgt. La David Johnson, Myeshia Johnson, as she made her way to the airport to greet the remains of her late husband, timing that was reported by CBS Miami.

Wilson told CBS Miami that during the call, the president told Johnson, "'Well, I guess he knew what he was getting into'" — a comment that Johnson later said left her feeling "upset and hurt." The president blasted Wilson's account as "totally fabricated."

Kelly said it was "absolutely depressing" to see the calling of a war widow be turned into a political event, reiterating that Wilson's comments about the president were "stunning."

"I just don't know how anyone could possibly criticize another human being for doing the best he or she could do to express sorrow from the bottom of their hearts," said Kelly.

He added, "But to hear him [Trump] talk to four next of kin that day and essentially the message was the same and he did the best he could to make it personal and the best he could to make them understand how sorry he was as the president and as a father himself. And then to see what came of that, just was stunning to me."

© 2017 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.

October 30, 2017


News and Views


PART 1 -- A BREAK IN THE LOGJAM


“.... WHY AREN'T CROOKED HILLARY & THE DEMS THE FOCUS?????” TRUMP IS HIMSELF IN YET ANOTHER SCRAPE WITH THE LAW, AND “WHINING!”

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/30/us/politics/rick-gates-russia.html?action=click&contentCollection=Politics&module=RelatedCoverage®ion=EndOfArticle&pgtype=article
POLITICS
Rick Gates, a Protégé of Paul Manafort, Is Indicted Alongside Him
By EILEEN SULLIVAN OCT. 30, 2017

WASHINGTON — Rick Gates followed Paul Manafort to Eastern Europe, Africa, the Trump presidential campaign, and now a federal building where he surrendered on Monday to the F.B.I.

Mr. Gates, 45, is a former business associate of Mr. Manafort, the ousted chairman of Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign who also turned himself in to the F.B.I. on Monday. The men are charged with money laundering and violations of tax and foreign lobbying laws. They are the first to be charged in a special counsel investigation that has dogged Mr. Trump’s first year in office.

Mr. Manafort has been charged with laundering more than $18 million to buy properties and services. Mr. Gates has been accused of transferring more than $3 million from offshore accounts. Both men are charged with making false statements.

The indictments are the first in the long-running investigation of Mr. Trump’s associates and possible ties to Russian interference in the 2016 election. Mr. Trump has railed against the special counsel investigation. On Monday morning, Mr. Trump said in a Twitter post that the charges had nothing to do with the Trump campaign, adding “there is NO COLLUSION!”

Follow
Donald J. Trump ✔@realDonaldTrump
Sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign. But why aren't Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus?????
10:25 AM - Oct 30, 2017
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Donald J. Trump ✔@realDonaldTrump
....Also, there is NO COLLUSION!
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Separately, an early foreign policy adviser to Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign, George Papadopoulos, pleaded guilty on Monday to lying to the F.B.I. about a contact with a Russian professor with ties to Kremlin officials, prosecutors said.

A protégé of Mr. Manafort, Mr. Gates survived the Manafort exodus from the campaign and went on to have a central role in Mr. Trump’s inaugural committee and a lobbying group that was formed to advance the president’s agenda. Mr. Gates was forced out of that lobbying group in April amid questions about Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election.

“As part of the scheme, Manafort and Gates repeatedly provided false information to financial bookkeepers, tax accountants and legal counsel, among others,” the indictment said.

Attempts to reach Mr. Gates on Monday were unsuccessful.

Mr. Manafort had been under federal investigation on suspicion of violating tax law, laundering money and whether he appropriately disclosed his foreign lobbying work. As Mr. Manafort’s business associate, Mr. Gates’s name is listed on documents that are linked to companies Mr. Manafort’s firm established in Cyprus for payments from politicians and businesspeople in Eastern Europe, according to records reviewed by The New York Times.

When the business partners worked in Ukraine, Mr. Gates flew to Moscow for meetings with associates of a Russian oligarch, Oleg Deripaska.

Mr. Gates and Mr. Manafort met years ago when Mr. Gates was interning at Mr. Manafort’s Washington consulting firm, Black, Manafort, Stone, Kelly. The firm was known for running Republican political campaigns and then lobbying the politicians after they won their elections.

In Washington, Mr. Manafort was known for representing dictators and strongmen, such as Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines. Mr. Manafort also represented the Trump Organization to lobby the Treasury Department regarding casino transaction rules.

Mr. Gates would later follow Mr. Manafort to a new firm, Davis Manafort, which worked on the campaign of Viktor F. Yanukovych, the pro-Russia former Ukranian president. This work connected the men with Mr. Deripaska, an aluminum magnate and ally of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. Mr. Deripaska has been denied a visa to travel to the United States because of allegations that he is linked to organized crime operations, charges Mr. Deripaska has denied.

In 2008, Mr. Gates took over the firm’s duties in Eastern Europe, where he worked on business development and contract negotiations.

[DOCUMENT
Read the Charges Against Paul Manafort and Rick Gates – GO TO NYT WEBSITE --
Paul Manafort, President Trump's former campaign chairman, was indicted on charges including conspiracy, money laundering and other charges. Mr. Manafort's business associate, Rick Gates, was also charged.]

. . . . FOR THE REMAINDER OF THIS ARTICLE, GO TO NYT.


LOOK AT THE SHEER AMOUNT OF MONEY THAT WAS LAUNDERED BY MANAFORT

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/30/us/politics/paul-manafort-indicted.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fpolitics&action=click&contentCollection=politics®ion=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront
POLITICS
Paul Manafort, Ex-Chairman of Trump Campaign, and Associate Plead Not Guilty to Money Laundering
By ADAM GOLDMAN and NICHOLAS FANDOS OCT. 30, 2017

WASHINGTON — President Trump’s campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, was indicted Monday on charges that he funneled millions of dollars through overseas shell companies and used the money to buy luxury cars, real estate, antiques and expensive suits.

The charges against Mr. Manafort and his longtime associate Rick Gates represent a significant escalation in a special counsel investigation that has cast a shadow over Mr. Trump’s first year in office.

The two men appeared in the Federal District Court in Washington on Monday afternoon and pleaded not guilty to all charges.

SLIDE SHOW -- *Read the Charges Against Paul Manafort and Rick Gates

Separately, one of the early foreign policy advisers to Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign, George Papadopoulos, pleaded guilty to lying to the F.B.I. about a contact with a professor with ties to Kremlin officials, prosecutors said on Monday.

The special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, was assigned in May to investigate whether anyone close to Mr. Trump participated in a Russian government effort to influence last year’s presidential election. Monday’s indictments indicate that Mr. Mueller has taken an expansive view of his mandate.

The indictment of Mr. Manafort and Mr. Gates makes no mention of Mr. Trump or election meddling. Instead, it describes in granular detail Mr. Manafort’s lobbying work in Ukraine and what prosecutors said was a scheme to hide that money from tax collectors and the public. The authorities said Mr. Manafort laundered more than $18 million.

“Manafort used his hidden overseas wealth to enjoy a lavish lifestyle in the United States without paying taxes on that income,” the indictment reads.

Photo

George Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to lying to the F.B.I. about a contact with a Russian professor with ties to Kremlin officials.
SEE NYT FOR MORE


PAPADOPOULOS AND THE PROFESSOR APRIL 2016

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/30/us/politics/george-papadopoulos-russia.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fpolitics&action=click&contentCollection=politics®ion=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront
POLITICS
Trump Campaign Adviser Met With Russian to Discuss ‘Dirt’ on Clinton
By MATT APUZZO and MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT OCT. 30, 2017

Photograph -- George Papadopoulos, a former advisor to Donald J. Trump’s presidential campaign, plead guilty to lying to the F.B.I.

WASHINGTON — A professor with close ties to the Russian government told an adviser to Donald J. Trump’s presidential campaign in April 2016 that Moscow had “dirt” on Hillary Clinton in the form of “thousands of emails,” according to court documents unsealed Monday.

The adviser, George Papadopoulos, has pleaded guilty to lying to the F.B.I. about that conversation. The plea represents the most explicit evidence that the Trump campaign was aware that the Russian government was trying to help Mr. Trump and that the campaign was eager to accept that help.

As part of that effort, the Russian government hacked Democratic accounts and released a trove of embarrassing emails related to Mrs. Clinton’s campaign. The Trump campaign has repeatedly denied any inside knowledge about that.

“They have dirt on her,” the professor told Mr. Papadopoulos, according to the documents. “They have thousands of emails.”

SLIDE SHOW -- Read the Statement of Offense Against George Papadopoulos

Mr. Papadopoulos was quietly arrested at Washington Dulles Airport on July 27 and has since been cooperating with the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, records show. Mr. Papadopoulos’s conversation in April raises more questions about a subsequent meeting in June at Trump Tower, where Mr. Trump’s eldest son and senior advisers met with Russians who were similarly promising damaging information on Mrs. Clinton.

The documents released on Monday said that several senior campaign officials knew about some of Mr. Papadopoulos’s interactions with the Russians. The documents do not say whether he mentioned the Clinton emails to anyone.

The professor, who was not identified in court documents, introduced Mr. Papadopoulos to others, including someone connected to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a woman who he believed was a relative of the Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin. Mr. Papadopoulos repeatedly tried to arrange a meeting between the Trump campaign and Russian government officials, court records show.

“We are all very excited by the possibility of a good relationship with Mr. Trump,” the woman, who was not identified, told Mr. Papadopoulos in an email. She was not actually a relative of Mr. Putin, according to court documents.

Mr. Papadopoulos told the F.B.I. in January that the professor was “a nothing.” But Mr. Papadopoulos now acknowledges that he knew the professor had “substantial connections to Russian government officials.” Attempts to reach Mr. Papadopoulos on Monday were not successful.

Mr. Papadopoulos was one of a small group of foreign policy advisers that Mr. Trump announced in March 2016. Another of the advisers, Carter Page, has met with the F.B.I. about his own meetings with Russians.

The plea was unsealed on the same day that Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman, and his longtime associate, Rick Gates, were indicted on charges of money laundering and conspiracy.

Mr. Papadopoulos was first interviewed by the F.B.I. in January, as the bureau was investigating connections between the Trump campaign and Russia. In that interview, Mr. Papadopoulos said that he began communicating with the professor and the Russian woman before he became a foreign policy adviser to the campaign. He has since acknowledged that is untrue.
. . . . FOR THE REMAINDER OF THIS ARTICLE, GO TO NYT.



THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS DETAIL OF EACH INVOLVED TRUMP ASSOCIATE AND MORE. PAPADOPOULOS IS ONE OF THE EARLY KEY PLAYERS, AND “ALERTED THE CAMPAIGN” OF THE STRATEGIC VALUE FOR TRUMP. THIS FACT MAKES IT APPEAR TO ME TO BE TOO CLEAR A LINK FOR TRUMP TO GO UNINDICTED IN THE END. OF COURSE, WE WON’T KNOW UNTIL MUELLER IS FINISHED.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/06/07/us/politics/trump-russia-flynn-kushner.html
POLITICS
How Key Trump Associates Have Been Linked to Russia
By JASMINE C. LEE, ALICIA PARLAPIANO and KAREN YOURISH UPDATED OCT. 30, 2017

One Trump campaign adviser pleaded guilty for lying about his Russian contacts and several others are under scrutiny.

George Papadopoulos – Campaign adviser -- Pleaded guilty -- Met with professor with ties to the Russian government who said Moscow had “dirt” on Hillary Clinton. -- Pleaded guilty to lying to the F.B.I.

Jared Kushner -- Son-in-law and senior adviser -- Discussed secret back channel with Russian ambassador. Met with head of state-owned bank. -- Did not immediately report contacts when getting security clearance.

Jeff Sessions – Attorney general -- Spoke twice with ambassador and discussed Ukraine. -- Did not report conversations during his confirmation hearing.

Michael T. Flynn – Former national security adviser – Resigned -- Discussed sanctions with ambassador; paid $45,000 by state-owned media for speech. -- Misled the F.B.I. and and the vice president; omitted payments in financial disclosure.

Donald Trump Jr. -- Eldest son -- Met with a Russian lawyer he believed would offer him damaging information about Hillary Clinton.

Michael D. Cohen -- Trump’s personal lawyer -- Has personal and business ties to Ukraine; proposed a peace plan between the country and Russia.

Paul Manafort – Former campaign manager -- Worked for pro-Russian Ukrainians and with a Russian billionaire.

“The professor only took interest in defendant Papadopoulos because of his status with the campaign; and the professor told defendant Papadopoulos about the ‘thousands of emails’ on or about April 26, 2016, when defendant Papadopoulos had been a foreign policy adviser to the campaign for over a month,” according to the documents.

In February, Mr. Papadopoulos deleted his Facebook account, which included his communications with the Russians. Later that month, he began using a new cellphone number.

The documents say that Mr. Papadopoulos knew that the professor had met with senior officials in Moscow to discuss Mrs. Clinton’s email.

Mr. Papadopoulos alerted his supervisor and several members of the foreign policy team about his contacts, referring to his “good friend” the professor and a woman he called Mr. Putin’s niece. The campaign supervisor — who was not identified in the documents — said in response that he would “work it through the campaign” and added “Great work.”

The Justice Department said that Mr. Papadopoulos had hurt their investigation.

“Through his false statements and omissions, defendant Papadopoulos impeded the F.B.I.’s ongoing investigation into the existence of any links or coordination between individuals associated with the Campaign and the Russian government’s efforts to interfere with the 2016 presidential election,” the documents said.

. . . .


"THESE ARE INCREDIBLY SERIOUS CHARGES, AND SUGGEST A LONGSTANDING AND PERVASIVE PATTERN OF RECKLESS ILLEGALITY ON THE PART OF SOMEONE WHO WAS INSTRUMENTAL IN THE TRUMP CAMPAIGN, AND WHO SHOULD'VE KNOWN BETTER, ...."

http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/30/politics/manafort-gates-indictment-explained/index.html
What you need to know about the Manafort, Gates indictment
By Joan Biskupic and Kara Scannell, CNN
Updated 1:55 PM ET, Mon October 30, 2017

Washington (CNN)The 31-page, 12-count indictment against Paul Manafort and Richard Gates focuses on their years as political consultants and lobbyists working with Ukraine.

It alleges that they received tens of millions of dollars for their Ukraine work, and to hide that income, they laundered the money through "scores of United States and foreign corporations, partnerships, and bank accounts."

READ: Federal grand jury indictment against Manafort, Gates

It includes details about their lavish lifestyle, that they used money from offshore accounts to pay for mortgages, children's tuition and home decorating. The indictment says more than $75 million flowed through the offshore accounts, specifically that Manafort laundered more than $18 million and Gates transferred more than $3 million from the offshore accounts.

Signed by Robert Mueller, who was named special prosecutor May 17, the indictment focuses on an entity first created by Manafort in 2005 for political consulting, called Davis Manafort Partners. In 2011, Manafort created DMP International (DMI) and began consulting, lobbying and public relations for Ukraine.

Gates worked for both firms and according to the indictment "served as Manafort's right-hand man." A focus was advancement of the pro-Russia political party in the Ukraine, the Party of Regions," and candidacy of Viktor Yanukovych for president. He was elected in 2010 (and fled to Russia four years later).

Because Manafort and Gates were directing a campaign to lobby the US on behalf of the government of Ukraine and officials there, the indictment says, they were required to report the work and income. They didn't and when asked by the Justice Department about it, they lied about it.

Manafort and Gates used an entity called the European Centre for Modern Ukraine (the Centre) allegedly to conceal their activities. Mueller said the Centre was set up in 2012 "as a mouth piece for Yanukovych and the Party of Regions." (The Centre ceased operations in 2014 when Yanukovych fled to Russia). Mueller alleges that Manafort and Gates developed a false "cover story" using the Centre to distance themselves from Ukraine.

As DOJ was investigating whether Manafort, Gates and DMI were acting as agents of a foreign country without registering (a violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act), Manafort, Gates and DMI continued their cover story, the indictment alleges. Letters "approved by Manafort and Gates" insisted that DMI's efforts did not include work on behalf of the Party of Regions within the US. They said they had merely served to introduce Company A and Company B to the Centre.

In fact, Mueller alleges, Manafort and Gates had selected the two companies to undertake the lobbying on behalf of Yanukovych and the two men then engaged in weekly calls and emails to direct the steps to be taken. They paid the lobbying firms more than $2 million from their offshore accounts, according to the indictment.

The document says that the July 2017 search of Manafort's Virginia home revealed numerous documents related to this lobbying. (Manafort had apparently told investigators that DMI did not keep communications beyond 30 days; the indictment says that numerous older documents related to the lobbying were found.)

An 'appetizer' to future charges?

"These are incredibly serious charges, and suggest a longstanding and pervasive pattern of reckless illegality on the part of someone who was instrumental in the Trump campaign, and who should've known better," said Steve Vladeck, CNN legal contributor and professor at the University of Texas Law School.

"Taken together, it seems to me that this is a very important interim development in the Mueller investigation, but only as an appetizer," Vladeck said. "And like most meals, if all we get is an appetizer, I think folks on all sides of the political spectrum will find the denouement rather unsatisfying. It's a tantalizing step, but only if it's the first—and not the last."

Where'd the money go?

Manafort paid $3 million in cash for a brownstone in Brooklyn and then took out a $5 million loan "after promising the bank that approximately $1.4 million" of the loan would be used "solely for construction of the Union Street property." According to the indictment, before the loan was made Manafort told his tax preparer the construction loan would allow him to pay off a different mortgage in full. He also allegedly used other loan proceeds for a down payment on a California property, according to the indictment.

In 2012, Manafort allegedly wired $2.85 million in Cyprus accounts to purchase a Manhattan condo that he used as an income-generating property by renting it out on Airbnb. Four years later when Manafort was applying for a mortgage he falsely represented that his daughter and son-in-law to get a better interest rate on the loan, according to the indictment. As a result, the bank provided Manafort with a $3.18 million loan.

Under the alleged scheme from 2008 to 2014, Manafort wired $12 million from offshore accounts in Cyprus, Grenadines, and the United Kingdom to buy luxury cars, clothing and art and to fund renovations and home improvements relating to his Hamptons, New York, property.

Among the payments:

$5.4 million to vendors for home repairs for his properties in the Hamptons
$1.3 million to a Florida home automation, lighting and entertainment company
$934,350 to an antique rug store in Alexandria, Virginia.
$849,215 to a New York mens clothing store
$655,500 to a Hamptons landscaper
$623,910 to a New York antique dealer
$520,000 to a Beverly Hills clothing store
$500,000 to an investment company
$432,487 to a Florida contractor
$164,740 to a different Hamptons landscaper
$163,705 in payments for three Range Rovers
$125,650 for a Virginia contractor
$112,825 for home entertainment vendor in the Hamptons
$62,750 for a Mercedes
$47,000 for a Range Rover
$46,000 for a property management company in South Carolina
$31,900 to a Florida art gallery
$20,000 on housekeeping in New York



"THE INTEGRITY OF THIS CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT IS AT STAKE."

https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2017/10/30/trumps-texas-allies-mum-indictments-democrats-claim-vindication
POLITICS AT 10 MIN AGO (
No link to Trump? Press secretary's 'outright lies' on indictments prompt call to resign from Texas Rep. Castro
Todd J. Gillman Katie Leslie
October 30, 2016

Updated at 4:15 p.m. with Cornyn and Cruz declining to defend Trump, after Castro called for Sarah Sanders' resignation.

WASHINGTON -- Texas Republicans kept a distance Monday after President Donald Trump's campaign chairman and two other former aides were hit with felony charges -- forcing the administration to cope with the fallout on its own.

Texas Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz both declined to defend Trump or raise doubts about the merits of the charges, while across the aisle, Texas Democrats viewed the indictments as vindication.

One accused the White House press secretary of peddling "outright lies" by denying any link to the president, and demanded she resign.

The sharply varied reactions underscored the high stakes of special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. Republicans are wary of sharing in any taint that might befall Trump. Democrats are itching for a breakthrough to hobble the president.

Fort Worth Rep. Marc Veasey, a Democrat, predicted new and creative deflection from the White House, now that Mueller secured a confession proving that at least one Trump campaign aide did, in fact, engage in collusion with Russia.

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Rep. Marc Veasey ✔@RepVeasey
What new twitter war will @POTUS create today to deflect from #TrumpRussia investigation & answers for #Niger ambush?
8:48 AM - Oct 30, 2017
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"What new twitter war will @POTUS create today to deflect from #TrumpRussia investigation," Veasey wondered.

Hours after the indictments were handed up, Cornyn, the majority whip, abruptly ending a GOP news conference on judicial nominees when journalists insisted on asking about the charges. But he said, "I don't see how the indictment changes the president's ability to do his job."

Cruz -- whose presidential ambitions Trump quashed -- told The Dallas Morning News the indictments "are undoubtedly serious" and he wants to see the "strength of the factual predicate behind them."

"That's why we have a judicial process," he said. "We'll have to see if the facts back up the charges."

Paul Manafort, the Trump campaign's chairman for several months in 2016, was indicted on 12 counts of tax evasion and money laundering, along with his deputy, Rick Gates. Both pleaded not guilty.

Mueller also obtained a guilty plea on Oct. 5 -- unsealed Monday, with the other two indictments -- from George Papadopoulos, a member of the campaign's foreign policy team. Papadopoulos confessed to interacting with Russians promising "dirt" on Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, then lying to the FBI about the contacts.

Houston Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a Democrat, called the guilty plea the "most serious suggestion of alleged Russian collusion" with the Trump campaign.

"The dam now seems to be broken and the Congressional investigations should be expanded and intensified," she said in a statement. "The integrity of this constitutional government is at stake."

The Trump team has long sought to downplay Manafort's ties to the president -- a stance belied by his service as the campaign's chairman, a high visibility post that included daily briefings for the news media at the GOP nominating convention.

"We've been saying from Day 1 that there's been no evidence of Trump-Russia collusion" and the indictments don't change that, insisted White House press secretary Sarah Sanders. "Today's announcement has nothing to do with the president and nothing to do with the president's campaign."

That prompted Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, to demand Sanders' resignation, on grounds that "she lacks any credibility."

Follow
Joaquin Castro ✔@JoaquinCastrotx
Sarah Huckabee Sanders should resign as @PressSec. She lacks any credibility, outright lies to the American people. https://twitter.com/sahilkapur/status/925055133901258752 …
2:09 PM - Oct 30, 2017
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ABC News Politics ✔@ABCPolitics
In March, Sean Spicer said Paul Manafort had "played a very limited role for a very limited amount of time" in Trump's campaign.
12:03 PM - Oct 30, 2017
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Trump himself on Monday tried to distance himself from Manafort and the others, ignoring the Papadopoulos confession, which refutes his long-standing insistence that no one on his campaign worked with Russians to help him defeat Clinton.

A Trump tweet from March 31, 2016, showed him meeting with a dozen advisers, including Papadopolous and Sen. Jeff Sessions -- now the attorney general. The future president called it a "national security meeting." Papadopolous is two seats to Sessions' left in the photo.

View image on Twitter
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Donald J. Trump ✔@realDonaldTrump
#MakeAmericaGreatAgain #Trump2016https://instagram.com/p/BDo-7SimhUn/
10:21 PM - Mar 31, 2016
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Despite the connections, Trump and his aides insisted there are none -- a claim that Texas Democrats rejected.

Cruz, however, called it premature to draw conclusions from Papadopoulos' guilty plea, despite the admission that he'd lied to authorities about his contacts with Russians.

"At this point we have allegations, but not nearly sufficient detail to know what precisely occurred," Cruz said. "...That's why there are multiple congressional investigations that are ongoing and why the special counsel was appointed in the first place. I hope both Congress and the public will have the facts fully developed. That's a process that will take time and is ongoing."

Follow
Donald J. Trump ✔@realDonaldTrump
Sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign. But why aren't Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus?????
10:25 AM - Oct 30, 2017
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Donald J. Trump ✔@realDonaldTrump
....Also, there is NO COLLUSION!
10:28 AM - Oct 30, 2017
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Rep. Al Green, a Houston Democrat who has called for Trump's impeachment and removal from office, pointed to the indictments as progress. "THIS is how you drain the swamp!" he tweeted, borrowing Trump's language.

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Congressman Al Green ✔@RepAlGreen
Manafort and Gates have been indicted. Papadopoulos plead guilty. THIS is how you drain the swamp! #IndictmentDay #ImpeachTrump
11:29 AM - Oct 30, 2017
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Austin Rep. Lloyd Doggett, a senior Democrat, lauded the indictments and said that "while we lack the full story of any Trump collusion, one advisor has now plead guilty to lying about his Russian contact," suggesting the revelations have only begun.

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Lloyd Doggett ✔@RepLloydDoggett
My full statement on the indictments issued by Special Counsel Mueller:
11:35 AM - Oct 30, 2017
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"Unquestionably, the Russians attacked our democracy in a successful effort to elect their preferred candidate," Doggett said. The "sweeping charges" against Manafort "underscore the importance of not sweeping any of this investigation under the rug."

He urged Republican colleagues to send this "strong, public" message to Trump: "Any interference with this investigation is at your peril."

A federal magistrate ordered house arrest for Manafort and Gates, with bonds of $10 million and $5 million respectively.

"Donald Trump's top campaign associates have been charged with conspiracy against the United States, money laundering, and making false statements. One campaign advisor has already pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI. Americans should be alarmed at the lawlessness in the highest ranks of the Republican Party," said Texas Democratic Party chair Gilberto Hinojosa. "These indictments underscore the need for a thorough, complete and honest investigation into how far Trump's White House is compromised. This is not the end of the Trump-Russia scandal."

The U.S. House wasn't in session on Monday, but lawmakers in both parties were active on social media. Only the Democrats, however, were addressing the indictments.

At the Senate, Republicans weren't eager to talk about the case. Cornyn emphasized that lawmakers continue to investigate Russian meddling, including a probe by the Senate Intelligence Committee that he sits on.

"The special counsel's got his lane and we have our lane. We're focused on making sure the Russian active measures investigation continues," Cornyn told reporters before the news conference on judicial nominees.

Asked if he's concerned about the indictments, he said there's been "a lot of work done both in the House and in the Senate, but the special counsel has got his own responsibilities and it doesn't involve us."



MORE ON THE GUILTY PLEA AND ANOTHER LINK TO THE CAMPAIGN

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/trump-campaign-adviser-george-papadopoulos-pleads-guilty-lying-n815596
DEVELOPING NEWS OCT 30 2017, 4:00 PM ET
Ex-Trump Adviser George Papadopoulos Pleads Guilty in Mueller’s Russia Probe
by TOM WINTER, TRACY CONNOR, KEN DILANIAN and JULIA AINSLEY

A former Trump campaign adviser struck a cooperation agreement with Special Counsel Robert Mueller, secretly pleading guilty three weeks ago to lying to federal agents about his contacts with Kremlin-connected Russians.

The bombshell announcement about George Papadopoulos, 30, came shortly after indictments against former campaign chair Paul Manafort and Manafort associate Rick Gates were unsealed, alleging financial crimes that predated Trump's candidacy.

Fmr. Trump Adviser Papadopoulos Pleads Guilty to Making False Statements to FBI Play Facebook Twitter Embed
Fmr. Trump Adviser Papadopoulos Pleads Guilty to Making False Statements to FBI 2:26

Court documents unsealed Monday in the Papadopoulos case refer to unnamed campaign officials who were aware he was trying to set up a meeting between Trump and the Russians. Two sources familiar with the charges said one of the officials is Manafort, who authored a key email about Papadopoulos' efforts.

"We need someone to communicate that DT is not doing these trips," the email said, according to the documents. "It should be someone low level in the campaign so as not to send any signal."

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Monday that Papadopoulos had an "extremely limited" role with the campaign. "It was a volunteer position and again, no activity was ever done in an official capacity on behalf of the campaign in that regard," she said at a briefing.

However, the court papers reveal that a Trump campaign supervisor, who was not named, encouraged Papadopoulos to make a trip to Russia for an off-the-record meeting with Russian officials "if it is feasible."

READ: Special Counsel’s office documents on George Papadopoulos

The documents suggest that foreign nationals with ties to the Russian government were seeking to establish a relationship with at least one campaign official, offering "dirt" on Hillary Clinton. And the documents outline how Papadopoulos, when questioned about those associations, lied.

"Through his false statements and omissions, defendant ... impeded the FBI's ongoing investigation into the existence of any links or coordination between individuals associated with the Campaign and the Russian government's efforts to interfere with the 2016 presidential election," Mueller's team wrote.

White House: Papadopoulos Was a 'Volunteer' on Campaign
Play -- White House: Papadopoulos Was a 'Volunteer' on Campaign 1:03

In his first interview with the FBI, Papadopoulos claimed that he made the contacts before Trump named him as a member of his campaign foreign policy team in March 2016 and called him an "excellent guy." He actually began communicating with them after he joined the campaign as an energy expert.

Days later, while attending what was billed as a "national security meeting" with Trump, Papadopoulos told the group he had connections that could lead to a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the court papers say.

During the FBI interview, Papadopoulos downplayed the importance of the communications, saying that a professor living in London was "a nothing," while a Russian woman had been emailing him just to say, "Hi, how are you?"

In reality, the professor, identified by the Washington Post as Joseph Mifsud of the London Academy of Diplomacy, had told Papadopoulos that Russians had "dirt" on Hillary Clinton.

"They have thousands of emails," the professor said, according to the documents — well before it was widely understood that Russia had hacked the Democrats.

Image: George Papadopoulos, third from left, meets with then-presidential candidate Donald Trump on March 31, 2016 at a "National Security Meeting" in Washington.

George Papadopoulos, third from left, meets with then-presidential candidate Donald Trump on March 31, 2016. @reaDonaldTrump / Instagram

The professor introduced Papadopoulos to a Russian who said he was close to officials at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. That contact, identified by the Washington Post as Ivan Timofeev of the Russian International Affairs Council, then spoke with Papadopoulos over Skype about laying the groundwork for a meeting between the campaign and officials in Moscow, prosecutors said.

A former Trump campaign adviser struck a cooperation agreement with Special Counsel Robert Mueller, secretly pleading guilty three weeks ago to lying to federal agents about his contacts with Kremlin-connected Russians.

The bombshell announcement about George Papadopoulos, 30, came shortly after indictments against former campaign chair Paul Manafort and Manafort associate Rick Gates were unsealed, alleging financial crimes that predated Trump's candidacy.

Fmr. Trump Adviser Papadopoulos Pleads Guilty to Making False Statements to FBI Play Facebook Twitter Embed
Fmr. Trump Adviser Papadopoulos Pleads Guilty to Making False Statements to FBI 2:26

Court documents unsealed Monday in the Papadopoulos case refer to unnamed campaign officials who were aware he was trying to set up a meeting between Trump and the Russians. Two sources familiar with the charges said one of the officials is Manafort, who authored a key email about Papadopoulos' efforts.

"We need someone to communicate that DT is not doing these trips," the email said, according to the documents. "It should be someone low level in the campaign so as not to send any signal."

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Monday that Papadopoulos had an "extremely limited" role with the campaign. "It was a volunteer position and again, no activity was ever done in an official capacity on behalf of the campaign in that regard," she said at a briefing.

However, the court papers reveal that a Trump campaign supervisor, who was not named, encouraged Papadopoulos to make a trip to Russia for an off-the-record meeting with Russian officials "if it is feasible."

READ: Special Counsel’s office documents on George Papadopoulos

The documents suggest that foreign nationals with ties to the Russian government were seeking to establish a relationship with at least one campaign official, offering "dirt" on Hillary Clinton. And the documents outline how Papadopoulos, when questioned about those associations, lied.

"Through his false statements and omissions, defendant ... impeded the FBI's ongoing investigation into the existence of any links or coordination between individuals associated with the Campaign and the Russian government's efforts to interfere with the 2016 presidential election," Mueller's team wrote.

White House: Papadopoulos Was a 'Volunteer' on Campaign Play Facebook Twitter Embed
White House: Papadopoulos Was a 'Volunteer' on Campaign 1:03

In his first interview with the FBI, Papadopoulos claimed that he made the contacts before Trump named him as a member of his campaign foreign policy team in March 2016 and called him an "excellent guy." He actually began communicating with them after he joined the campaign as an energy expert.

Days later, while attending what was billed as a "national security meeting" with Trump, Papadopoulos told the group he had connections that could lead to a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the court papers say.

During the FBI interview, Papadopoulos downplayed the importance of the communications, saying that a professor living in London was "a nothing," while a Russian woman had been emailing him just to say, "Hi, how are you?"

In reality, the professor, identified by the Washington Post as Joseph Mifsud of the London Academy of Diplomacy, had told Papadopoulos that Russians had "dirt" on Hillary Clinton.

"They have thousands of emails," the professor said, according to the documents — well before it was widely understood that Russia had hacked the Democrats.

Image: George Papadopoulos, third from left, meets with then-presidential candidate Donald Trump on March 31, 2016 at a "National Security Meeting" in Washington.

George Papadopoulos, third from left, meets with then-presidential candidate Donald Trump on March 31, 2016. @reaDonaldTrump / Instagram

The professor introduced Papadopoulos to a Russian who said he was close to officials at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. That contact, identified by the Washington Post as Ivan Timofeev of the Russian International Affairs Council, then spoke with Papadopoulos over Skype about laying the groundwork for a meeting between the campaign and officials in Moscow, prosecutors said.

The Russian woman — whom Papadopoulos mistakenly described in an email as the niece of Russian President Vladimir Putin — also tried to arrange a meeting between the Trump campaign and Russian government officials, the documents say.

Frank Figliuzzi, a former head of counterintelligence at the FBI, said on MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports that the Papadopoulos complaint portrays an effort by people likely connected to Russian intelligence to infiltrate the Trump campaign.

"He may not have actually understood who he was dealing with, but this has the fingerprints of Russian intelligence all over it," Figliuzzi said.

Video--Sanders: Manafort's Indictment 'Has Nothing To Do With The President' 0:41

Papadopoulos communicated with a "campaign supervisor" about his attempts to broker a meeting with the Russians to discuss U.S.-Russia ties during a Trump presidency, the court papers say.

"Great work," the supervisor, who was not named in the documents, told him in an email.

After he was first questioned by the FBI, Papadopoulos deactivated a Facebook account that had information about his communications with the foreign nationals, and he also got a new cellphone number, prosecutors said.

Papadopoulos, who spent 11 months on the Trump campaign after working for Ben Carson's campaign, was arrested in July 2017 when he got off a plane in Washington. The DePaul University graduate pleaded guilty on Oct. 5.

His plea agreement says the government will inform the sentencing judge of his "efforts to cooperate with the Government, on the condition that your client continues to respond and provide information regarding any and all matters as to which the Government deems relevant."

Papadopoulos' attorneys said in a statement that they would have no comment.

"We will have the opportunity to comment on George’s involvement when called upon by the Court at a later date," the statement said. "We look forward to presenting all the facts that led to the events that resulted in this charge."

Mifsud, the London-based professor, did respond to inquiries from NBC News. He had previously told the Washington Post that he had "absolutely no contact" with the Russian government. Timofeev also could not be reached for comment. In an earlier interview with a Russian news outlet, he said Papadopoulos initiated contact and that he asked for an official letter of request for a meeting.

"We did not take the proposal itself too seriously," he said. "Besides, hardly any of our colleagues or even any of us expected Trump to win."



NOBODY TODAY IS MENTIONING THIS TRUMP/RUSSIA MEETING AT THE WHITE HOUSE

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/05/10/527755991/trump-meets-with-russias-lavrov-at-the-white-house-today
Trump Hosts Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov And Ambassador Kislyak At White House
May 10, 201710:13 AM ET
BILL CHAPPELL

Photograph -- President Trump gestures to Russia's ambassador to the U.S., Sergey Kislyak, as he speaks to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in the Oval Office on Wednesday. Alexander Shcherbak/TASS/Getty Images

President Trump hosted Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at the White House on Wednesday, one day after firing the man whose agency is investigating Russia's meddling in the 2016 election that brought Trump to power.

Trump fired now-former FBI Director James Comey, who told Congress earlier this year that his agency has been investigating Russia's actions — and possible ties to anyone associated with the Trump campaign — since July. As NPR's Domenico Montanaro reports, the firing of Comey with more than six years left on his term in office has prompted a flurry of questions about the president's motives — and about what's next.

President Trump Fires FBI Director James Comey
POLITICS
President Trump Fires FBI Director James Comey

Lavrov's meeting with the president was scheduled for 10:30 a.m. ET, and it was declared closed to the press. Russian agencies tweeted photos from the Oval Office showing that in addition to Lavrov, Trump shook hands with Russia's ambassador to America, Sergey Kislyak — a key figure in the investigation into Trump's ousted national security adviser, Michael Flynn.

After the Lavrov session had concluded, members of the U.S. media were allowed into the Oval Office, where they found the president sitting with Henry Kissinger, who served as President Richard Nixon's secretary of state. The meeting hadn't been listed on the president's official schedule.

Trump said he and Kissinger had met to talk "about Russia and various other matters," according to the pool report.

From Archibald Cox To Ken Starr: 'Independent' Russia Probe Could Take Many Forms
POLITICS
After Comey Firing, Calls For Independent Probe Come In Lots Of Flavors

. . . .


NO, NOT A MEETING. JUST A CEREMONY.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/white-house-denies-antonov-trump-meeting-reports
TPM LIVEWIRE
WH: There Was ‘Not A Meeting’ Between Trump And New Russian Ambassador
By ALLEGRA KIRKLAND
Published SEPTEMBER 8, 2017 6:01 PM

The White House late Friday swatted down claims made by Russia’s new ambassador to the U.S. that he had held a “warm and friendly” introductory meeting with President Donald Trump earlier in the day.

“There was not a meeting,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in an email to TPM. “He was here for a credentialing ceremony with 12 other new ambassadors and their spouses.”

Anatoly Antonov was far more loquacious in his comments to the Russian press, characterizing the initial meeting as chummy.

“The atmosphere was good, constructive and friendly,” Antonov said, as quoted by TASS. “President Trump met me cordially. We agree with his staff members to continue our contacts.”

This initial face-to-face comes at a moment of escalating tensions in U.S.-Russia relations. Just last week, the Trump administration ordered the closure of Russian trade missions in Washington and New York, as well as the Russian consulate in San Francisco, where the fire department found staff burning unidentified items in the fireplace on an unseasonably warm August day. This move follows Russia’s expulsion of hundreds of U.S. diplomatic staff earlier in the summer.

In his remarks to Russian press, Antonov, the country’s former deputy defense minister, said he hoped to see a thawing in relations between the two nations.

Antonov assumed his post in late August, taking over for Sergei Kislyak, who served a nine-year term. Kislyak’s election-year meetings with several current and former members of Trump’s administration are part of the ongoing congressional and federal investigations into Russia’s interference in the 2016 campaign.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Photograph -- Allegra Kirkland is a New York-based reporter for Talking Points Memo. She previously worked on The Nation’s web team and as the associate managing editor for AlterNet. Follow her on Twitter @allegrakirkland.



RUSSIA AND FACEBOOK, AGAIN.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/facebook-says-126-million-americans-220129865.html?soc_trk=gcm&soc_src=ceafb8ea-13ba-326e-8577-780d7df5b520&.tsrc=notification-brknews
Facebook says 126 million Americans may have seen Russia-linked political posts
Reuters October 30, 2017
By David Ingram

Image -- A 3D-printed Facebook like button is seen in front of the Facebook logo, in this illustration taken October 25, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Facebook Inc (FB.O) said on Monday that Russia-based operatives published about 80,000 posts on the social network over a two year period in an effort to sway U.S. politics, and that about 126 million Americans may have seen the posts during that time.

Facebook gave the details about the reach of Russian posts in written testimony the company provided to U.S. lawmakers which was seen by Reuters.

Executives from Facebook, Twitter Inc (TWTR.N) and Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) Google are scheduled to appear before three congressional committees this week on alleged Russian attempts to spread misinformation in the months before and after the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

The Russian government has denied any attempts to sway the election, in which President Donald Trump, a Republican, defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Facebook General Counsel Colin Stretch said in the written testimony that the 80,000 posts from Russia's Internet Research Agency were a tiny fraction of content on Facebook, equal to 1 out of 23,000 posts.

The posts though violated Facebook's terms of service and any amount of such activity using fake accounts is too much, Stretch wrote.

"These actions run counter to Facebook's mission of building community and everything we stand for. And we are determined to do everything we can to address this new threat," he wrote.

The 80,000 posts were published between June 2015 and August 2017 and most of them focused on divisive social and political messages such as race relations and gun rights, Facebook said.


STORIES ABOUT THIS HISTORIC CASE ARE STILL BREAKING. I WILL CATCH THE REST TOMORROW. POSTED 8:53 PM, 10/30/17.