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Trump under pressure to assure NATO allies he has their back
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Trump under pressure to assure NATO allies he has their back
http://reut.rs/
It is amazing that when the Trump WH talks constantly about "leaks" most of the leaking is coming from actually inside the WH...
CBSNews
Quote:
WASHINGTON#-- To the White House and its supporters, the big story in Washington isn't the investigation into possible Trump campaign ties to Russia. It's about leakers working to undermine the president.
"SABOTAGE," read the subject line of emails sent out by President Donald Trump's re-election campaign and the Republican Party, which pointed to "people within our own unelected bureaucracy that want to sabotage President Trump and our entire America First movement." Trump tweeted Thursday that he's facing "the single greatest witch hunt of a politician in American history!"
The language reveals much about how Trump and his backers are explaining the seemingly never-ending blitz of bad news rocking the White House. As Democrats talk about possible obstruction of justice and dream of removing Trump from office, the president and his allies reject that he bears responsibility for his woes. They see a plot to undermine him at every turn, as evidenced by the anonymous sources disclosing the embarrassing and damaging information - some of it classified.
All administrations have to deal with leaks, from the release of the Pentagon Papers on Vietnam policy to Edward Snowden's dump of national security files. But the scope and frequency experienced by the Trump White House is remarkable.
In addition to an endless stream of gossip and internal squabbling, news outlets have been privy to everything from details of draft documents to the president's private phone conversations with foreign leaders. This week came reports that the president had shared highly classified information with Russian officials during an Oval Office meeting, revealed by those with knowledge of the conversation.
"This has all the markings of a coordinated, silent coup," said Michael Caputo, who worked on Trump's campaign and keeps in touch with administration officials.
Leaks are hardly the only cause of Trump's problems - the uproar over FBI Director James Comey's dismissal wasn't the result of a leak. But Trump-friendly talking heads see something that stretches the realms of believability. Far-right radio host Alex Jones warns of a plot by "deep-state" globalists to impeach Trump. On Fox News, Sean Hannity warned Wednesday of a "destroy Trump alliance" that is now "aligning to take down President Trump."
But even if some claims go too far, Trump clearly does face opposition from within his own government. Running on a pledge to tear apart Washington, Trump still depends to some extent on Obama administration holdovers and career government employees, many of whom oppose him.
Clashes among Trump aides also create an environment in which staff leak information to undercut rivals.
Ari Fleischer, who served as press secretary to President George W. Bush, blamed Trump for creating an environment that promotes leaks, saying that starts at the top.
"I do think there is a serious problem with leakers inside the administration and holdovers who can't stand the president and will do anything they can to hurt him. Leaks are a real problem," he said. "But Donald Trump created many of these problems for himself."
A sense of fatigue and despondence has set in as White House officials wait for new balls to drop. Again and again, they have tried to push forward with their agenda, only to see news reports dominated by near-daily leaks.
"Somebody is selectively leaking information and facts. And there's a reason it's selective," said White House press secretary Sean Spicer, who once demanded that staffers turn over their cell phones so he could inspect them for unauthorized communication. "It's because they're trying to create ... at least it appears as though somebody is trying to create a narrative or a problem."
"It's extremely troubling," he said.
The focus on leaks has also been embraced by Republicans in Congress, who have urged reporters to pay more attention to the source of their stories - a familiar strategy to deflect the conversation away from bad news.
In many cases, Trump aides have leaked gossip to cement their public standings or tried to communicate with the president through news stories, which he devours.
Erick Erickson, a conservative activist who has been critical of the president, recently wrote that because the notoriously thin-skinned president doesn't like internal criticism, some aides "are left with no other option but to go to the media, leak the story, and hope that the intense blowback gives the president a swift kick in the butt."
White House officials have not said whether there is a leak investigation going on. But they're not the first to rail against leaks and leakers - or try to root them out.
In 2013, for instance, the Obama Justice Department secretly obtained two months of phone records for reporters and editors of The Associated Press, which appeared to be linked to a criminal investigation into leaks about a foiled terrorist plot to bomb an airliner.
Interesting that this social media story broke long before this Time article yet Time gives no credit that that journalist and her story is far more detailed than the Time article.....
https://patribotics.blog/2017/04/16/...ed-with-trump/
A remarkable look at how foreign officials are preparing for the President of the United States
http://nyti.ms/2rlwAlT
US Congressman talks Russian money laundering with alleged ex-Soviet spy in Berlin
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn...on/index.html#
Russian Embassy, UK
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@RussianEmbassy
#WikiLeaks informer Seth Rich murdered in US but MSM was so busy accusing Russian hackers to take notice.
Russian diplomats buy into and promote largely discredited conspiracy pushed by US conservative media ESPECIALLY pushed by FOX News and Alex Jones of Infowars.....
MORE solid evidence of just how now US alt right ie white nationalists and Russian propaganda are working together....
Rosenstein told Congress he knew DJT plan to fire Comey before writing memo—says it was not a justification for firing; blows apart WH story
AP Politics
WH aides have worried that if Trump's 1st trip is difficult, he might turn foreign travel duties over to Mike Pence:
Remember when Trump said HRC didn't have the stamina to be POTUS? In her 4 yrs as Secretary of State Clinton#traveled#956,733 miles.
https://www.apnews.com/417c7e00c0274...ial-disclosure
Trump attorney didn’t want him to sign financial disclosure
Quote:
]WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump’s attorneys originally wanted him to submit an updated financial disclosure without certifying the information as true, according to correspondence with the Office of Government Ethics.
Attorney Sheri Dillon said she saw no need for Trump to sign his 2016 personal financial disclosure because he is filing voluntarily this year. But OGE director Walter Shaub said his office would only work with Dillon if she agreed to follow the typical process of having Trump make the certification. That is standard practice for the thousands of financial disclosure forms OGE processes each year.
The Associated Press obtained the letters under a Freedom of Information Act request.
“As we discussed, OGE will provide this assistance on the condition that the President is committed to certifying that the contents of his report are true, complete and correct,” Shaub wrote in a May 10 letter. “When we met on April 27, 2017, you requested that he be excused from providing this certification.”
In her letter to Shaub, Dillon says the president will “sign and file” documents regarding his 2016 financials by mid-June — an indication that she agreed to the OGE requirement that the president certify the information as true to the best of his knowledge.
Dillon also stressed in her letter, dated May 9, that Trump is under no obligation to file a financial disclosure this year and is doing so voluntarily. “President Trump welcomes the opportunity to provide this optional disclosure to the public, and hopes to file it shortly,” she wrote.
Personal financial disclosures include an accounting of a person’s personal income, assets and liabilities. Trump’s 2016 form will span his general election candidacy, election and transition to power — potentially shedding light on the immediate impact his Republican nomination and election had on his Trump Organization.
Last May, then-candidate Trump’s disclosure form showed his business empire had grown in value while he was running for office. However, the information is no substitute for tax returns, which Trump has chosen not to release — breaking the long tradition of his predecessors. Tax documents would show his effective rate of income tax and detail the extent of his charitable giving.
Trump’s decision to file a personal financial disclosure puts him in the company of past Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and others.
Shaub references that history in the first line of his letter to Dillon: “Thank you for your letter dated May 9, 2017, regarding the President’s decision to adhere to the longstanding tradition of voluntarily filing a public financial disclosure report in the first year after taking office.”
NOW it is getting interesting.....and leaked just as Trump is leaving the country...
BTW...the WH answer to this breaking release was the standard Trump tweet response..."all officials have previously stated there is no collusion"...which basically is a lie as no FBI and or IC official has ever clearly and concisely stated that....this answer is just what Trump tweets nothing more nothing less
CNN Politics
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First on CNN: Russian officials bragged they could use Michael Flynn to influence Donald Trump, sources say
On tape......
Russian collusion...criminal investigation and now a coverup....investigation
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/poli...#storylink=cpy
Comey agrees to testify in public as Trump-Russia probe heats up
By Matthew Schofield and Lesley Clark
McClatchy Washington Bureau
Quote:
WASHINGTON
Investigators into Russian meddling in the U.S. presidential elections are now authorized to probe whether White House officials have engaged in a cover-up, according to members of Congress who were briefed Friday by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.
A Justice Department official, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the topic, confirmed that Rosenstein told members of the House of Representatives that the special counsel in charge of the probe, former FBI Director Robert Mueller, “has been given the authority to investigate the possibility of a cover-up.”
But he denied that Rosenstein had told Congress such a probe was underway, noting that Rosenstein had declined to provide details of what is being explored. Where the investigation goes would be up to Mueller, the Justice Department official said.
Even as members of Congress were mulling the possible expansion of the case into a cover-up probe, and its reclassification from counterintelligence to criminal, the scandal appeared to grow.
The Washington Post reported Friday afternoon that federal investigators were looking at a senior White House official as a “significant person of interest.” The article did not identify the official, though it noted that the person was “someone close to the president.”
A person of interest is someone law enforcement identifies as relevant to an investigation but who has not been charged or arrested.
And The New York Times reported that Trump had told visiting Russian officials in the Oval Office that firing Comey had taken pressure off the Russia probe.
Meanwhile, Comey has agreed to testify publicly before the Senate Intelligence Committee, the committee’s senior members announced late Friday.
The announcement, issued jointly by the committee’s Republican chair, Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, and its senior Democrat, Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, said Comey’s appearance would take place after Memorial Day.
Burr said that he hoped Comey “will clarify for the American people recent events that have been broadly reported in the media” – a reference to news reports that he wrote private memos detailing meetings in which, the reports say, Trump asked him to drop the FBI’s investigation of former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
Cover-ups have traditionally been a major part of investigations that have threatened previous administrations. Articles of impeachment levied against Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton included allegations of obstruction of justice, as they were suspected of trying to hide other wrongdoing. Special counsels are authorized to investigate any interference with their investigations.
THAT FBI/DoJ "person of interest" is in fact the Trump son-in-law Jared Kuschner "Special Advisor to the President" WHO had lied on his SF86 security form about no Russian contacts...no Russian businesses and no Russian money....
Greg Miller
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The FBI Russia investigation now reaching directly into White House. Trump adviser person of interest
The Independent
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@Independent
Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner 'person of interest in Russia investigation'
http://ind.pn/2qGulqu
The New York Times
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@nytimes
What President Trump told Russian officials about firing James Comey
http://nyti.ms/2pTMns7#
Quote:
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"I just fired the head of the FBI. He was crazy, a real nut job. I faced great pressure because of Russia. That's taken off."
President Trump 10 May 2017 Oval Office
This is the REAL question that must be answered after this is over. WHY did MSM cover "Clinton emails" instead of "Trump's Mob connections"?
WHY did US MSM sit on the Steele Dossier for literally months?? AND why did it take social media to break the story??
Wikileaks: Inside the Farage-Assange-Trump Connection
How Donald Trump’s best friend in Britain—another big fan of Vladimir Putin—put his party at the service at Wikileaks’ Julian Assange.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/article...a=twitter_page
POLITICO Magazine
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@POLITICOMag
“The president of the United States has a 12-second attention span,” NATO’s Sec.-Gen. told a former senior official
People here think Trump is a laughingstock........and the coming trip is chaos and a circus....
"Trump played down his personal concern about the fighting in Ukraine". If true, a fairly disastrous signal.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/19/u...top-news&_r=0#
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This particular proTrump Sheriff was in Moscow at the same time Flynn was and getting briefings from Russian officials as well....
David A. Clarke, Jr.
Verifizierter Account
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@SheriffClarke
Folgen
Red Square near the Kremlin with a Russian officer. Met earlier with Russian Foreign Minister who spoke on Mid East.
He has been offered the Asst Directors positon in Homeland Security by Trump WH....
BTW...he has a "thing" about uniforms..maybe because he was never in the military....
Little know election fact..that now comes back to haunt the GOP Senate....
McConnell went high up on FBI's list when he threatened to Comey not to go public before election w/RU meddling op-ed.
Why would he stop something that the WH keeps saying never occurred....???
Market is falling after WashPost scoop that current WH official is of interest in Russia probe -->