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James Clapper Struggles to Explain Why Trump Campaign Wasn’t Warned of Russian Threat

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By The Daily Caller. . .During an interview with Dana Bash on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Clapper seemed to argue that the Russian threat “had [not] reached the point” where the FBI would alert the campaign, but apparently had reached the point where the FBI would send in an informant.

“The first thing is just to determine what was going on,” Clapper said. “If there wasn’t a concern about the Russians…perhaps no reason to do that. You know, the FBI has rules and protocols for when they decide to do something like that and I don’t think that at that point it had reached the point where it would be appropriate to engage the head of the campaign or the nominee.” (Read more from “James Clapper Struggles to Explain Why Trump Campaign Wasn’t Warned of Russian Threat” HERE)

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Trump: Lives Have Been ‘Devastated and Destroyed’ by Russia Probe

By Politico. President Donald Trump tweeted Sunday that the Russia probe has “devastated and destroyed” the reputations of people, continuing his weekend Twitter assault against the Robert Mueller investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

“Who’s going to give back the young and beautiful lives (and others) that have been devastated and destroyed by the phony Russia Collusion Witch Hunt? They journeyed down to Washington, D.C., with stars in their eyes and wanting to help our nation. … They went back home in tatters,” the president wrote on Twitter.

Trump has repeatedly called special counsel Mueller’s probe a “witch hunt,” a charge that in recent weeks has been coupled with renewed calls from his allies to end the probe soon. Some House lawmakers have gone even further, arguing that reports stating a confidential FBI informant met with Trump campaign officials means the investigation is irrevocably tainted.

“With Spies, or ‘Informants’ as the Democrats like to call them because it sounds less sinister (but it’s not), all over my campaign,” Trump wrote on Twitter on Saturday, “even from a very early date, why didn’t the crooked highest levels of the FBI or ‘Justice‘ contact me to tell me of the phony Russia problem?” (Read more from “Trump: Lives Have Been ‘Devastated and Destroyed’ by Russia Probe” HERE)

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Russian Business Entity Rips Mueller’s Charges as ‘Make-Believe’

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Lawyers for a business entity charged in the special counsel’s investigation of Russian interference in the presidential election on Monday derided the alleged crime as “make-believe” and said the prosecution has “absolutely nothing to do” with probing any coordination between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin.

The Russian business entity, Concord Management and Consulting LLC, represented by a Washington-area team from Reed Smith, suggested in a court filing that Special Counsel Robert Mueller III had overstepped his authority to investigate any conspiracy between Donald Trump’s campaign and Russian actors who meddled in the presidential race. Concord Management and other Russian entities and individuals were charged in February in Washington federal district court for alleged roles in “sowing discord” in the presidential campaign.

Mueller’s team alleged Concord Management funded the Internet Research Agency, a Russian outfit also charged in the indictment. Prosecutors in charging documents identified the Internet Research Agency as the “organization.”

The reason for bringing the case, Reed Smith partners Eric Dubelier and Katherine Seikaly said in a court filing Monday, “is obvious, and is political: to justify his own existence the Special Counsel has to indict a Russian—any Russian.” The two lawyers describe Mueller’s case as based on allegations that Concord Management “engaged in the make-believe crime of conspiring to ‘interfere’ in a United States election.” . . .

Concord Management’s attorneys asked U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich to review the legal instructions prosecutors provided to the grand jury that charged the Internet Research Agency, Concord Management and other Russian entities and individuals.

(Story appeared at Yahoo.com but read more about it HERE)

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Mueller Indicted a Russian Company That Doesn’t Exist

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By The Daily Wire. This week, one of the Russian companies accused by Special Counsel Robert Mueller of funding a conspiracy to meddle in the 2016 U.S. presidential election was revealed in court to not have existed during the time period alleged by Mueller’s team of prosecutors, according to a lawyer representing the defendant.

U.S. Magistrate Judge G. Michael Harvey asked Eric Dubelier, one of two lawyers representing the accused Russian company, Concord Management and Consulting LLC, if he was representing a third company listed in Mueller’s indictment . . .

“What about Concord Catering?” Harvey asked Dubelier. “The government makes an allegation that there’s some association. I don’t mean for you to – do you represent them, or not, today? And are we arraigning them as well?” . . .

“That company didn’t exist as a legal entity during the time period alleged by the government,” Dubelier continued. “If at some later time they show me that it did exist, we would probably represent them. But for purposes of today, no, we do not.” (Read more from “Mueller Indicted a Russian Company That Doesn’t Exist” HERE)

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Mueller, It’s Time to Wrap This Investigation Up

By The Hill. Special Counsel Robert Mueller has been the leading story in the headlines ever since his appointment on May 17, 2017. He promised the nation a swift, narrow, focused investigation into the allegations that President Trump had colluded with Russia, and as we approach the one year anniversary of his appointment he has failed to deliver despite extraordinary waivers of executive privilege by the Trump administration.

It would be a terrible thing for Mueller to stain, forever, his superb reputation going into this job by his conduct of the investigation. A key problem is that Mueller has two major conflicts of interest, which suggest, at a minimum, that he is the wrong man for this job.

First, the big legal charge he seems to be investigating is whether President Trump obstructed justice by firing former FBI director, James Comey, a close personal friend of Mueller’s with whom Mueller worked closely both during both the second Bush and Obama administrations. Nobody should be picked to investigate the legality of the firing of a close personal friend or acquaintance.

As the investigation has unfolded, a different conflict of interest for Mueller has arisen, which is that serious questions have arisen about whether the integrity of the FBI itself was seriously compromised during the time when James Comey was the FBI director. It is obvious that Mueller, a former FBI director, is not the right person to conduct an investigation into possible impermissible conduct by the FBI. (Read more from “Mueller, It’s Time to Wrap This Investigation Up” HERE)

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Journalist Posts Dossier Timeline, Confirms Deep State and Media Colluding to Trounce Trump

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By Conservative Tribune. For more than a year, the liberal mainstream media — and particularly CNN — have gleefully perpetuated a conspiracy theory regarding alleged collusion between the Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and the Russian government as an explanation for Hillary Clinton’s surprising electoral loss in 2016. The centerpiece of that claim are the contents of a “salacious and unverified” anti-Trump dossier.

That dossier was believed to have been compiled during the lead up to the election by former British spy Christopher Steele in association with a liberal opposition research firm known as Fusion GPS, with funding supplied by Clinton’s campaign and the Democrat National Committee.

Unfortunately for them, its veracity has increasingly become even more dubious as more information about its creation and introduction to the public have been uncovered.

Indeed, it now appears that the only “collusion” that took place during the 2016 election was between Trump-hating “deep state” government employees — namely former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and fired FBI Director James Comey, among others — and their willing anti-Trump allies in the liberal media.

Sean Davis of The Federalist laid it all out last week in a timeline after scouring through the 253 pages of a declassified House Intelligence Committee report on alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 election and comparing that knowledge with what has already been gleaned from other sources. (Read more from “Journalist Posts Dossier Timeline, Confirms Deep State and Media Colluding to Trounce Trump” HERE)

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Leaked Questions Reveal What Mueller Wants to Ask Trump About Russia

By The Guardian. Robert Mueller, the special counsel investigating Russian interference in the US election, wants to ask Donald Trump about contact between his former election campaign manager Paul Manafort and Russia, the New York Times reported on Monday.

The paper said it had obtained a list of nearly 50 questions that Mueller, investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, wants to put to the US president. More than half relate to potential obstruction of justice.

“What knowledge did you have of any outreach by your campaign, including by Paul Manafort, to Russia about potential assistance to the campaign?” is one of the more dramatic questions published by the Times.

The pointed reference to Manafort breaks tantalising new ground, since there was no previous evidence linking him to outreach to Moscow. Benjamin Wittes, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution thinktank in Washington, tweeted: “This is very interesting – strong evidence that there are still collusion threads that are not yet public.”

Manafort and his deputy, Rick Gates, pleaded not guilty last October to a 12-count indictment accusing them of conspiring to defraud the US by laundering $30m from their work for a Russia-friendly political party in Ukraine. (Read more from “Leaked Questions Reveal What Mueller Wants to Ask Trump About Russia” HERE)

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Mattis Explains Why He Ordered the ‘Annihilation’ of Hundreds of Russian Soldiers

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By The Blaze. Back in February, reports surfaced that hundreds of Russian mercenaries were killed during an attack on a U.S. base in Syria’s Deir Ezzor region. … Yesterday, during a hearing with the the Senate Armed Services Committee, Secretary of Defense James Mattis explained why he directed the strike.

“The Russian high command in Syria assured us it was not their people, and my direction to the chairman was for the force, then, to be annihilated,” said Mattis. “And it was.” (Read more from “Mattis Explains Why He Ordered the ‘Annihilation’ of Hundreds of Russian Soldiers” HERE)

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Mattis: Criminal Charges Likely Amid Probe into Intelligence Contract

By Federal News Radio. Defense Secretary James Mattis told lawmakers Thursday it’s probable that federal officials will file criminal charges as part of an ongoing investigation into a series of contracts the Army issued to help establish security forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The contracts were supposed to be used to help those nations build their own intelligence gathering capabilities, but audits thus far have pointed to tens of millions of dollars in potential fraud connected to at least one vendor, including for luxury vehicles and six-figure salaries paid to its employees who performed no discernible work.

The ongoing criminal investigation involves a series of agreements, beginning in 2007, that wound up costing $458 million.

According to an audit the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction published in July, the lion’s share of those funds went to a single subcontractor, New Century Consulting (NCC). But SIGAR concluded that because of poor recordkeeping and a reliance on vendors to grade their own performance, it’s almost impossible to determine whether the contracts’ objectives were ever met. (Read more from “Mattis: Criminal Charges Likely Amid Probe into Intelligence Contract” HERE)

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Holy Smokes – House Intel Drops a Bomb on Mike Flynn – He Might Want to Reconsider That Guilty Plea…

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By The Daily Caller. The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence released its report on the findings of the Russia investigation Friday, which showed that FBI agents “did not detect any deception during [Former National Security Advisor Michael] Flynn’s interview.”

Flynn, President Trump’s first national security advisor, pleaded guilty in December 2017 to “willfully and knowingly” making false statements to the FBI during interviews on meetings he took with Russian Ambassador to the United States Sergei Kislyak. The report specifically highlights that Flynn pleaded guilty despite bureau agents determining that there was no “deception” in his interview.

“According to the charging documents, on or about December 22, 2016, ‘a very senior member of the Presidential Transition Team’ (PTI) directed General Flynn to contact representatives of foreign governments,” the House Intel report reads. “This request concerned a resolution about Israel[ settlements submitted by Egypt to the U.N. Security Council around December 21, 2016.

“Later, on December 22, General Flynn contacted Ambassador Kislyak and ‘requested that Russia vote against or delay the resolution.’ The next day, Ambassador Kislyak informed General Flynn that Russia would not comply with the request. On December 29, 2016, President Obama ‘authorized a number of actions’ — including new sanctions — ‘in response to the Russian government’s aggressive harassment of U.S. officials and cyber operations aimed at the U.S. election in 2016.’” (Read more from “Holy Smokes – House Intel Drops a Bomb on Mike Flynn – He Might Want to Reconsider That Guilty Plea…” HERE)

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Flynn and His Son Met with Russian Ambassador in December 2015

By Talking Points Memo. The House Intelligence Committee’s report from its Russia investigation published on Friday revealed another meeting former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn had with the Russian ambassador before he joined the Trump campaign.

Flynn and his son, Michael Flynn, Jr., met with Ambassador Sergey Kislyak at his Washington, D.C. residence on December 2, 2015, according to emails reviewed by the House Intelligence Committee. Flynn’s son described the meeting as “very productive” in an email to the Russian embassy, according to the committee’s report. According to the report, “emails indicate that the meeting was arranged at the request of General Flynn or his son.” Neither Flynn sat with the committee for an interview, leaving congressional investigators with few details about the rendezvous.

The meeting with Kislyak took place about a week before Flynn traveled to Moscow to speak at the Kremlin RT news organization’s annual gala. Flynn sat next to Vladimir Putin at the dinner and was paid by RT to attend the event. (Read more from “Flynn and His Son Met with Russian Ambassador in December 2015” HERE)

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This Is the Outrageous Claim Russia Is Making About the Syrian Chemical Attack

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By The Daily Wire. On Friday, the Russian military made an astonishing claim; they said the alleged chemical attack in the Syrian town of Douma, which has ratcheted up tension worldwide as President Trump and American allies has threatened to intervene to stop the use of chemical gas, was staged and directed by Great Britain.

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said Great Britain was “directly involved in the provocation. ” He released statements by medics from Douma’s hospital who asserted that a group of people supposedly carrying video cameras entered the hospital, shouting that its patients were struck with chemical weapons and causing panic; the medics said none of the patients were hurt by chemicals.

Britain’s U.N. ambassador, Karen Pierce, leaving an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council, was furious, calling the Russian “bizarre” and “a blatant lie.” She added that she wanted “to state categorically … that Britain has no involvement and would never have any involvement in the use of a chemical weapon. … This is grotesque. … It’s some of the worst piece of fake news we’ve yet seen from the Russia propaganda machine.” (Read more from “This Is the Outrageous Claim Russia Is Making About the Syrian Chemical Attack” HERE)

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Russia Says No Evidence of Gas Attack in Douma

By AP. Russia’s military says its personnel in a Syrian city allegedly hit by a chemical weapons attack have not found evidence to support the claim.

Maj. Gen. Yuri Yevtushenko, head of the Russian center for reconciliation of the warring parties in Syria, said Friday that “According to the results of a survey of witnesses, studying samples and investigating locations undertaken by Russian specialists and medical personnel in the city of Douma, where chemical weapons purportedly were used, the use of poisonous substances was not shown.”

Yevtushenko also said the Russian military will ensure security for investigators from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, who will be working to determine whether chemical weapons were used in Douma. (Read more from “Russia Says No Evidence of Gas Attack in Douma” HERE)

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Woman Embalmed Alive During Routine Surgery

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By Daily Mail. A 27 year old woman has died in excruciating agony after she was embalmed alive due to a horrific medical blunder.

Ekaterina Fedyaeva’s mother has accused medics of ‘murder’ after they put her daughter on a formalin drip – a solution contain formaldehyde – instead of saline.

The woman had been in hospital in her home city of Ulyanovsk in Russia for routine surgery.

She was given a drip normally infused into the veins of the dead to prevent decomposition.

Ekaterina suffered horrible pains and convulsions for two days before falling into a coma. (Read more from “Woman Embalmed Alive During Routine Surgery” HERE)

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Russian Woman Embalmed Alive in Deadly Hospital Mistake

By The New York Post. A Russian woman was embalmed alive when doctors unwittingly put her on a formaldehyde-based drip instead of a saline during a surgery, according to a report Sunday.

Ekaterina Fedyaeva, 27, died from the gruesome medical blunder in which her veins were pumped full of the chemical, which is generally used to prevent the decomposition of corpses, according to the UK Sun.

“This is pure murder,” her mother, Galina Baryshnikova, said, according to the paper. “[It] was simply eroding her body from inside.”

Fedyaeva was getting a routine surgery at a hospital in Ulyanovsk last month when doctors placed her on a formalin drip — which can also be used as a disinfectant, the paper reported. (Read more from “Russian Woman Embalmed Alive in Deadly Hospital Mistake” HERE)

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Watch: Russia Releases Video Claiming to Be Another Test of Deadly New Nuclear Capacity

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The Russian defense ministry released a video Friday of what Moscow claims is the second test of the nuclear-capable Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile, a weapon designed to render American defenses “useless.”

The RS-28 Sarmat, a superheavy liquid-fueled ICBM built to replace the Soviet-era Voyevoda, was launched at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Archangel Province, Russia. The test, the exact date of which is unknown, is reportedly the second test of the Sarmat-2 since testing began in December last year.

The Sarmat is a MIRV-equipped missile believed to be capable of carrying 10 to 15 thermonuclear warheads. The weapon has been in development by the Makeyev Rocket Design Bureau since 2009, but the weapon is expected to be mass produced in 2020 and made operational the following year, according to state media reports.

Russian President Vladimir Putin personally praised the missile at a speech to Federal Assembly in Moscow earlier this month. He said that the new Sarmat ICBM is so “formidable” it “has practically no distance limits” and “none of the perspective anti-ballistic missile systems pose an obstacle to it.” Putin suggested that the missile could be armed with supersonic warheads and defense countermeasures to skirt ABM systems. The weapon is designed to devastate an area the size of Texas.

“I would like to tell those who have been trying to escalate the arms race for the past 15 years, gain unilateral advantages over Russia, and introduce unlawful restrictions and sanctions to hinder our country’s development … you have failed to contain Russia,” Putin said in a televised address. “No one listened to us, but you will listen to us now.” (Read more from “Russia Releases Video Claiming to Be Another Test of Deadly New Nuclear Capacity” HERE)

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This Is Why President Trump Just Booted 60 Russian Diplomats and Spies

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The White House announced Monday that 60 Russian diplomats have been ordered to leave the country immediately, showing the consequences for Moscow’s alleged actions in attempting to assassinate a former spy in the United Kingdom.

Earlier this month, Sergei Skripal — a former Russian military officer who became a double agent for British intelligence — and his daughter Yulia were poisoned by an advanced nerve agent. U.K. authorities believe that Skripal was attacked with Novichok, a nerve weapon that was created by Soviet scientists and is believed to be up to eight times more powerful than VX. Russia has denied the allegations, as well as claims that Russia has researched and developed the chemical weapon.

The U.S. move will help to reduce Russia’s spy infrastructure inside our country, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders explained.

At least 12 of the 60 “engaged in espionage activities that are adverse to our national security,” the White House added. A senior official further explained that they “abused their privilege of residence.”

It should come as no surprise that Russia moved spies into the United States under diplomatic cover. In fact, every world power, and almost every country with a sophisticated intelligence apparatus, engages in similar espionage operations.

More than anything, the move should be recognized as an action to show solidarity with our western allies. By engaging in what appears to be an attempted assassination on foreign soil, Russia breached international norms that keep world order in check. The Trump administration, following the U.K.’s lead, is punishing Moscow for its rogue behavior.

The administration has also ordered the closure of the Russian consulate in Seattle “due to its proximity to one of our submarine bases and Boeing.”

The submarine base that the administration is most likely referring to is Naval Base Kitsap, which is the third largest naval base in the country, located close to Seattle. The base is the home port for several nuclear and non-nuclear submarines.

Boeing is the second biggest U.S. defense contractor by revenue. Boeing’s Phantom Works, its most secretive research site, is headquartered in the Washington, D.C., area. However, the company also has an advanced research center in Seattle, along with other facilities helping to advance U.S. national security.

The U.K. has expelled 23 Russian “diplomats,” whom the British accuse of being intelligence agents under diplomatic cover. Many other nations have also chosen to expel Russian officials in solidarity with the U.K.’s response.

Time is not on Putin’s side. Other than stirring up nationalist impulses among its citizens, Russia does itself no favors by continuing to increase its isolation and acting as a rogue state. Moscow is already suffering from an economic crisis and a declining population. The last thing Vladimir Putin’s regime needs is further isolation from potential trading partners.

The Trump administration has made it clear that Moscow will not be allowed to disregard international norms without consequences. This may cause Russia to rethink its strategy of constantly interfering in the internal affairs of sovereign states. For seven and a half of former President Obama’s eight years in office, Russia was appeased regardless of its troubling actions abroad. By making this the decision, the Trump White House continues to show that the era of “leading from behind” is over.

The “Trump-Russia” conspiracy theorists at CNN and elsewhere will now have to scramble for new ideas on how to reconcile this move with their position that the White House is controlled by Moscow. A senior U.S. official emphasized to reporters Monday that the decision was the president’s alone. (For more from the author of “This Is Why President Trump Just Booted 60 Russian Diplomats and Spies” please click HERE)

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