Tag: Russia

Categories
Donald Trump Espionage Foreign Policy Russia

New Questions Raised About Trump Possibly Sharing Intel Info That Led To The Attack On Israel

A 2017 meeting failed former president Donald Trump held in the Oval Office with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russia’s ambassador to the United States, Sergey Kislyak, is once again in the spotlight as questions about how Israel could have been so unprepared for the Hamas terror attack are being raised, with some suggesting that intelligence data Trump shared with the two Russians may have found its way into the hands of Iran, which passed it along to Hamas to aid their planning of the deadly assault launched from the Gaza Strip.

Israel, we later learned, was the source of that intelligence, as NBC noted in May 2017:

The link to Israel was first reported by the New York Times a day after it was disclosed that Trump gave Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov intelligence about a laptop bomb threat and revealed the Syrian city where the information was collected.

And now Senior White House Communications Adviser Andrew Bates is hinting that Trump may have been partially responsible for the Hamas attack that has left over 1,000 Israelis dead.

According to Mediaite, Bates made the claim in response to a Twitter post from former Trump administration official Stephen Miller.

That response from Bates resulted in others suggesting that Trump may be partially to blame for Hamas’ attack.

The ex-president’s niece, Mary, pulled no punches.

Soon there was a deluge of discussion and accusation on Twitter.

It’s important to note that at the moment there is no direct evidence the information Trump shared with the two Russians was used to plan the Hamas attack on Israel, but shouldn’t there at least be congressional investigations into the matter? And if a link can be proven, what additional crimes should Donald Trump be charged with?

 

Categories
Crime Donald Trump Espionage Russia

Did Trump’s Motive For Stealing Classified Documents Involve Russia?

As he continues to investigate the matter of classified documents former president Donald Trump illegally removed from the White House and took with him to Mar-a-Lago when he left office, Special Counsel Jack Smith is focusing in on Russia as the motive for why the failed ex-president took thousands of secret files and stored them at his Palm Beach golf resort.

In what may wind up being the greatest irony of all, according to Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Murray Waas, Special Counsel Smith and a grand jury he impaneled believe Trump’s obsession with Russia led him to steal the information.

As he left office, Waas has learned, Trump desperately tried to declassify thousands of pages of secret documents that detailed Russia’s efforts to help defeat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election.

But Trump was stymied in his efforts to make the records public, leading the outgoing president to rage to aides that the documents would never see the light of day.

Now, sources close to Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation tell me that prosecutors have questioned at least three people about whether Trump’s frustrations may have been a motive in Trump taking thousands of pages of classified papers from the White House to Mar-A-Largo, in potential violation of federal law. One of those people was compelled to testify before a federal grand jury, the sources say.

The sources say that prosecutors appear to believe the episode may be central to determining Trump’s intent for his unauthorized removal from the White House of the papers.  Insight into the president’s frame of mind—his intent and motivation, are likely to be the foundational building blocks of any case that the special counsel considers seeking against Trump.

That has led Smith to take a close look at conversations between the White House counsel, the Justice Department, and then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows in the last frantic hours of the Trump administration.

The sources familiar with some aspects of the special counsel’s investigation further disclosed to me that prosecutors sought information regarding the following issues:   the witnesses were asked about any conversations they personally had with then-president Trump or any of their White House colleagues about the Russia papers; they were asked about conversations between senior Justice Department officials and attorneys with the White House counsel’s office, including two former senior lawyers in the office, John Eisenberg and Pat Philbin, regarding Trump’s presidential order to declassify the Russia papers; and they also were asked about the circumstances surrounding a memo written by Trump’s then Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows, the day following Trump’s declassification order, in which Meadows appeared to reverse course and related that the papers would not be released before the concerns of other agencies regarding the Privacy Act were fully assuaged.

“It was very clear from what they asked that their emphasis was on Trump and Meadows,” one person said.

Another former aide to Trump, Kash Patel, has publicly stated that he saw all of the records the disgraced ex-president wanted declassified, telling Breitbart:

 “It’s information that Trump felt spoke to matters regarding everything from Russiagate to the Ukraine impeachment fiasco to major national security matters of great public importance—anything the president felt [the public] had a right to know is in there and more.”

So it was Russia that allegedly helped elect Trump, Russia that led to his impeachment, and Russia that may wind up sending him to prison for the rest of his life if Smith’s investigation proves Russiagate was what Trump clung to even after he left the White House.

Right about now, Donald Trump is probably wishing he had never heard of Russia or his BFF, Vladimir Putin.

 

Categories
Fox News Joe Biden Russia

Maria Bartiromo Is Furious Because The Media Is Covering Russia Instead Of Hunter Biden 

Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo is absolutely apoplectic because somehow the Biden administration managed to get the news media to talk about the insurrection in Russia this weekend instead of Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden.

Speaking with the hosts of “Fox & Friends” on Sunday morning, Bartiromo was asked if the story about Biden’s taxes would be able to “break through” in the media, to which she replied, “Well, the White House wanted to give the media something else to cover, and this is the MO.”

“This is exactly the way they do things,” Bartiromo continued. “In fact, on Friday, I said, wow, what a blockbuster; what’s that message? I’m sure there will be an enormous story over the weekend that the White House is going to be pushing to take this story off of the front page, and sure enough, we’ve got the State Department drumming up all the drama that took place over the weekend in Russia.”

She added, “The mainstream media has an excuse again not to cover it. They’re covering everything about Russia and the Wagner Group. As if it really matters to the U.S. right now.”

The media isn’t supposed to report when the government of a country with an arsenal of nuclear weapons is potentially on the verge of collapse? How irresponsible of them. After all, Hunter Biden is the story! This must be a massive conspiracy to protect the Biden family.

It’s a miracle Bartiromo is still at Fox. She was one of the most vociferous disseminators of lies and conspiracy theories in the months after the 2020 election that wound up costing her employer $787.5 million.

So if you’re wondering why everything was so tense in Russia this weekend, you can blame the Bidens. Seems they’re responsible for everything in the mind of the right-wing, tinfoil hat wearing fools over at Fox.

Here’s the video:

 

Categories
Donald Trump Russia

FBI Raids Condo Owned By Two Russians At Trump Towers In Florida

Though the Trump Tower in New York is probably much more well-known than any other property that carries the name of the indicted and twice-impeached former president/sex offender, all of the attention this week has been on Trump Towers located at Sunny Isles Beach in Florida.

On Thursday, according to The Miami Herald, FBI agents raided Trump Tower III in Florida, which just so happens to be owned by two Russians.

A squad of FBI special agents, assisted by local police, descended on Trump Tower III at 15811 Collins Ave. to carry out a search of unit 4102. It’s owned by a shell company, MIC-USA LLC, that is controlled by two Russian businessmen, Oleg Sergeyevich Patsulya and Agunda Konstantinovna Makeeva, according to state corporation records.

On Friday, a spokesman for the FBI’s Miami field office said it “was conducting court-ordered law enforcement activity in the vicinity of that location,” but provided no other information.

Sunny Isles Beach has been called “Little Moscow” because it serves as a home to a large number of Russian expatriates, some of whom expressed worries when Russia invaded Ukraine last year. In response, the U.S. government began cracking down with sanctions against oligarchs who are believed to hide their wealth by purchasing real estate in South Florida and other U.S. locations.

Trump agreed to have his name placed on the three Sunny Isles Beach condos before he became president in 2016. It was believed doing so would help promote sales of the units.

The Herald also reports that “MIC-USA … acquired the three-bedroom, three-bath condo residence at Trump Tower III for $1.65 million a decade ago, according to Miami-Dade property records.

In 2020, BAC Florida Bank, which provided financing for the purchase, sued Patsulya and Makeeva, claiming they defaulted on their $975,000 mortgage. The dispute was resolved later that year, though it’s not clear how from the court records. MIC-USA, controlled by the two Russians, continued to own the 41st-floor unit at Trump Tower III.

Though he has denied any connections to Russia, the former president’s son, Eric, said in 2014 that the Trump Organization got significant funding from Russian sources, according to The Hill:

”I said, ‘Eric, who’s funding? I know no banks — because of the recession, the Great Recession — have touched a golf course. You know, no one’s funding any kind of golf construction. It’s dead in the water the last four or five years,’”  the writers told WBUR.

“And this is what he said. He said, ‘Well, we don’t rely on American banks. We have all the funding we need out of Russia.’ I said, ‘Really?’ And he said, ‘Oh, yeah. We’ve got some guys that really, really love golf, and they’re really invested in our programs. We just go there all the time.’”

 

Categories
Congress GOP Joe Biden

Jamie Raskin: GOP’s Bogus Claims Of A Biden Bribery Scandal Can Be Traced To Giuliani And Russia

On Wednesday, Republicans on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee made an announcement that they had been made aware of information being held by the FBI that allegedly proves President Joe Biden has been involved in a bribery scandal that supposedly took place while he was serving as vice president in the Obama administration.

CBS News reports that the allegation came from House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer (KY) and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA).

In their letter to (FBI Director Chris) Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland, Grassley and Comer said that it had come to their attention that “the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) possess an unclassified FD-1023 form that describes an alleged criminal scheme involving then-Vice President Biden and a foreign national relating to the exchange of money for policy decisions.”

“It has been alleged that the document includes a precise description of how the alleged criminal scheme was employed as well as its purpose,” their letter said. 

The White House immediately responded to announcement from Grassley and Comer, with Ian Sams, the White House spokesperson for oversight and investigations, noting:

“For going on five years now, Republicans in Congress have been lobbing unfounded, unproven, politically-motivated attacks against the President and his family without offering evidence for their claims or evidence of decisions influenced by anything other than U.S. interests.”

“When it comes to President Biden’s personal finances, anybody can take a look: he has offered an unprecedented level of transparency, releasing a total of 25 years of tax returns to the American public.”

And now Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, is suggesting that the latest attempt by Republicans to create a scandal is actually part of a Russian campaign to discredit President Biden, explaining in a statement:

“Committee Republicans are recycling unsubstantiated claims floated by Senate Republicans by issuing a subpoena to the FBI to require the release of a June 2020 tip from an unknown informant.  During this same time period, Rudy Giuliani and Russian agents, sanctioned by Trump’s Treasury Department, were peddling disinformation aimed at interfering in the 2020 presidential election.  Given Chair Comer’s commitment to ‘dismantle’ the FBI, it’s no surprise that he would rely on these unverified tips to attack President Biden in one more baseless partisan stunt.”

In the weeks ahead, you can expect to hear more from Comer and other Republicans about this nonexistent scandal they’ve created out of thin air. They have nothing, but it won’t keep them from peddling lies to their constituents for the purpose of slagging Biden and trying to raise money off it.