- The special counsel’s office reportedly interviewed former White House strategist Steve Bannon on Friday.
- Mueller’s team asked Bannon about any contacts between Roger Stone and the Trump campaign, according to The Washington Post.
- The report indicates that Mueller is speeding up his investigation of Stone.
The special counsel’s office interviewed former White House strategist Steve Bannon for the second time on Friday, this time about any interactions between the Trump campaign and Roger Stone, according to a report.
The interview with Bannon, first reported by The Washington Post, is the latest indication that Special Counsel Robert Mueller is speeding up an investigation into Stone.
Mueller and his team are interested in finding out whether Stone, a longtime friend of President Donald Trump’s, had advance knowledge of WikiLeaks’ plans to release emails stolen from the DNC and Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta.
Stone has denied wrongdoing and claims he did not know about email hacks before they occurred. He has also denied having direct contact with Wikileaks or its founder, Julian Assange.
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Left-wing billionaire Tom Steyer is running a Facebook ad comparing President Donald Trump to former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
The ad features a three-minute long video that accuses the president of following a “dictator’s playbook” modeled by tyrants like Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, in addition to Hussein.
The ad describes Trump as a “malignant narcissist” and claims he is perpetuating “systemic misogyny.” The video claims Trump’s support for a border wall and attacks on the media make him comparable to dictators like Hussein and Chavez.
Steyer first published the Facebook video on Friday and on Monday began running ads promoting it, Facebook’s ad archive shows.
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Democrats are expected to outspend Republicans on House races this election season thanks in part to a last-minute campaign donation from former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s PAC, The New York Times reported Sunday, citing his adviser.
Democrats are on pace to outspend Republicans — $143 million to $86 million — on television ads for House races. The bulk of that spending came from Bloomberg, who pledged to spend roughly $20 million in House campaign ads in the final week by way of Independence USA, his super PAC, according to the report.
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) has not been so fortunate. The Republican National Committee (RNC) held a fundraising advantage over the DNC earlier this cycle as of September. The party is still trying to rebuild following reports it was in tatters after the 2016 presidential election.
Democratic congressional candidates combined raised over $1 billion this election cycle through September, while Republicans pulled in $709 million. One of those candidates to benefit is Beto O’Rourke, a Democratic representative in the running to unseat Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz.
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- Lawmakers interviewed former Trump aide George Papadopoulos on Thursday.
- Republicans who took part in the deposition came away questioning the FBI’s decision to open its collusion investigation based on information about Papadopoulos.
- North Carolina Rep. Mark Meadows said he believes the FBI’s investigation was “certainly not one built on a solid foundation”.
Republican lawmakers who interviewed George Papadopoulos on Thursday came away from the hearing questioning the FBI’s basis for opening its collusion investigation based on information about the former Trump campaign aide.
“What we’re finding without talking about specifics of what’s going on is that the whole reason that this investigation was opened up was certainly not one built on a solid foundation,” North Carolina Rep. Mark Meadows told Politico after Papadopoulos wrapped up his testimony.
“It’s hard to understand why the FBI opened the highest profile investigation in recent times into potential collusion by the Trump campaign with the Russian government that centers on a campaign policy adviser who been on the job a month at the time the Trump-Russia investigation was launched,” Texas Rep. John Ratcliffe told Fox News.
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Florida Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum attempted to turn the tables on Republicans Wednesday in response to damning new reports that he lied about obtaining Broadway tickets from an undercover FBI agent.
Gillum, the mayor of Tallahassee, claimed in a short video address to his supporters that he is being targeted by Republicans because he is black.
“The Republicans obviously want to distract, want to suggest. All along throughout this … they’ve wanted the people of this state to believe somehow I haven’t deserved what I’ve gotten, I’m unethical, participated in illegal and illicit activity. I mean, you name it,” Gillum said.
“The goal is obviously to use my candidacy as a way to reinforce, frankly, stereotypes about black men.”
Text messages made public Tuesday showed that in 2016, Gillum and a friend, a lobbyist named Adam Corey, received tickets to the Broadway show “Hamilton” from an FBI agent posing as a real estate developer.
The agent was investigating corruption in the city of Tallahassee, including the awarding sweetheart deals to developers and businessmen.
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- Hillary Clinton’s emails as secretary of state have revealed that her longtime friend, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, lobbied her heavily on behalf of Symbion Power.
- Soon after Wilson began contacting Clinton about Symbion, a foreign aid agency chaired by Clinton awarded the company $47 million in contracts to build a power plant in Tanzania.
- A newly released email shows Clinton told Wilson she visited the power plant at his urging.
While serving as secretary of state in 2011, Hillary Clinton visited a power company in Africa at the urging of former Ambassador Joe Wilson, a longtime Clinton friend who happened to serve as a director at the company Symbion Power.
Emails released by the State Department since 2015 have showed Wilson lobbied Clinton heavily on behalf of Symbion, which he joined in June 2009. By September 2010, a foreign aid agency chaired by Clinton awarded Symbion a nearly $47 million contract to build a power plant in Tanzania.
But while Symbion and the agency, the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), have downplayed Wilson’s influence on Clinton, an email recently released by the Department of State shows Clinton heard of the company through Wilson, the former ambassador to Gabon and São Tomé and Príncipe. Clinton also paid a diplomatic visit to Symbion’s facility in Tanzania at Wilson’s request.
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Rudy Giuliani claims that former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort has not provided incriminating information on President Donald Trump during his many hours of interviews with the special counsel’s office.
Trump has maintained a joint defense agreement with Manafort, even after the longtime Republican operative entered a plea agreement with special counsel Robert Mueller in September.
Giuliani, who is serving as one of Trump’s lawyers in the Russia probe, told Reuters that he spoke last week with Manafort lawyer Kevin Downing, who said his client did not provide damaging information on Trump.
“He’s just telling me the conclusion that he’s not in a conflicted position with us,” Giuliani said.
“If he wants to communicate information, Manafort, he’s allowed to do that. There’s nothing that stops him from doing that,” added Giuliani. “All I’m interested in is: Is there anything we need to know with regard to us?”
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The Associated Press on Sunday changed a headline after a backlash from liberals furious at the AP for describing a caravan of illegal immigrants heading towards the United States as an “army of migrants.”
“A ragged, growing army of migrants resumes march toward US,” read the original headline on the AP story. The AP later changed the headline to replace the word “army” with “caravan.”
Though the AP has used the word “army” to refer to large groups of people besides migrants — including nurses and political activists — many on the political left criticized the wire service for its original headline.
“This is not only incorrect, but it enables a racist narrative sold by this @POTUS and his supporters,” wrote liberal Rolling Stone writer Jamil Smith. “Armies invade. These people are running away.”
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- Wilfred Michael Stark has a long history of attacking Republicans and has been previously arrested multiple times.
- Stark was employed by American Bridge 21st Century, founded by David Brock.
- Despite multiple arrests and complaints, Brock did not fire Stark until now.
The Democratic activist funded by George Soros who was charged with battery against the female campaign manager of Nevada Republican gubernatorial candidate Adam Laxalt has a long history of attacking Republicans.
Wilfred Michael Stark, 51, who was employed by American Bridge 21st Century, founded by David Brock, was fired Wednesday night after he allegedly pushed a door open, “trapping” Kristin Davison, Laxalt’s campaign manager, in the doorway, “grabbing her arm, and forcefully twisting it behind her back and squeezing,” Laxalt’s campaign communications director Parker Briden told The Daily Caller News Foundation.
“She screamed, ‘You’re hurting me! Stop hurting me!’ but he would not stop and grabbed her arm tighter — creating painful bruises and straining her neck, shoulder, and lower back. The man would not relent and screamed: ‘You can make this stop, Adam.’ Kristin was terrified and begged for him to stop and could not get free until Las Vegas city marshals intervened. They arrested him, and while Kristin’s head, neck, and arm were throbbing with pain, they took him to the Las Vegas city jail,” Briden continued.
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A Democratic operative funded by George Soros was arrested for battery Tuesday after the campaign manager for Nevada Republican gubernatorial nominee Adam Laxalt claims he grabbed her arm and would not let go, leaving her bruised on her neck and arms.
The campaign manager, Kristin Davison, 31, says Wilfred Michael Stark, 50, who is funded by both Soros and David Brock, has since left her “terrified and traumatized” after the attack, according to Fox News. Stark was arrested by Las Vegas city marshals Tuesday night after Davison filed a “battery” charge against him.
Stark was previously arrested for allegedly assaulting the female press secretary for Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke in March. He also was arrested tracking Republican gubernatorial candidate Ed Gillespie.
“After an education rally, a large male liberal operative began chasing members of the Laxalt campaign and the attorney general, getting physically aggressive to push himself onto staff. When the team entered a side room and closed the door, the man pushed the door open — trapping Kristin in the doorway, grabbing her arm, and forcefully twisting it behind her back and squeezing,” Laxalt campaign communications director Parker Briden told The Daily Caller News Foundation.
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A senior FBI official accepted tickets to sporting events from reporters and initially lied about it to government investigators, according to a report released Tuesday.
The conduct of the FBI official, who has not been identified, violated federal regulations that prohibit federal employees from accepting gifts from journalists and other “prohibited sources.”
The improper gifts were discovered in text messages reviewed by the Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) as part of its investigation into the FBI’s handling of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s emails and the Trump-Russia investigations.
The same investigation led to the firings of Andrew McCabe as FBI deputy director and Peter Strzok as deputy chief of the FBI’s counterintelligence division. McCabe was found to have falsely denied authorizing leaks to the media in October 2016 about the Clinton probe. Strzok, who led the Trump-Russia probe, was found to have exchanged anti-Trump text messages with his mistress, FBI attorney Lisa Page.
Both Page and former FBI general counsel James Baker resigned from the bureau on May 4.
The official, who retired from the FBI during the investigation, will not be referred for prosecution, the OIG said.
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Fox News’ Tucker Carlson questioned aloud whether Senator Elizabeth Warren could be paying the Boston Globe after they ran the results of her DNA test on his show Monday night.
The Boston Globe reported on Monday that the DNA test revealed Warren was somewhere between 1/64 and 1/1,024 Native American.
Carlson made the comment during a back and forth exchange with his guest, radio host Howie Carr.
In the ad Warren released as a part of the PR plan, Carr was featured mocking Warren.
“Tucker, if the Boston Globe was a legitimate news organization the headline on the story would be something like ‘DNA test prove white women, white woman,’ or ‘DNA test confirm Senator Warren is still a fake Indian.’ I mean this is ridiculous,” Carr added.
“Let me ask you, as the only person really outside of New England whoever looks at the Boston Globe I always wonder are they taking payment directly from or is it just a kind of moral payment?” Carlson asked.
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- A top Republican lawmaker said Sunday that the FBI failed to provide a federal surveillance court with evidence that “directly” contracted the bureau’s rationale for opening the Trump-Russia investigation
- Rep. John Ratcliffe told Fox News that the evidence related to former Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos
- The FBI opened its investigation in July 2016 based on intelligence from the Australian government about Papadopoulos
Republican lawmakers have hinted for months that the FBI failed to provide federal judges on the surveillance court with information that undercut the government’s premise for opening the Trump-Russia probe in 2016.
Republicans have suggested in interviews that the information related to George Papadopoulos, the former Trump campaign adviser whose conversation with an Australian diplomat prompted the FBI to open its investigation into the Trump campaign.
Texas Rep. John Ratcliffe provided Sunday the clearest picture to date of what the FBI allegedly withheld from the surveillance court.
Ratcliffe suggested that the FBI failed to include evidence regarding former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos, in an interview with Fox News.
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The co-founder of the opposition research firm behind the Steele dossier, Glenn Simpson, will invoke his First and Fifth Amendment privileges to avoid testifying before Congress next week, his lawyer has told Congress.
According to The Hill, Simpson’s attorney, Joshua Levy, told House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Bob Goodlatte that Simpson will not appear for a deposition because the congressional investigation “is not designed to discover the truth.”
The Virginia Republican subpoenaed Simpson on Sept. 29 after Levy said his client would not appear voluntarily for an interview before members of the House Judiciary and House Oversight & Government Reform committees.
Simpson’s firm, Fusion GPS, was hired during the 2016 presidential campaign by the law firm that represented the DNC and Clinton campaign. Fusion GPS hired former British spy Christopher Steele to conduct an investigation into Donald Trump’s possible links to Russia. The result of the probe was a 35-page report alleging collusion between the Trump campaign and Kremlin.
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Former Attorney General Eric Holder said at a campaign event for Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams this week that when Republicans “go low,” Democrats should “kick them.”
“It’s on us as Democrats to be as tough as they are, to be as dedicated as they are, to be as committed as they are,” Holder said. “Michelle always says — Michelle Obama, I love her … she always says that, you know, when they go low, we go high.”
“No,” Holder asserted. “When they go low, we kick them.”
The audience cheered and laughed in response.
“That's what this new Democratic Party is about,” Holder said. “We’re proud as hell to be Democrats, we’re going to fight for the ideals of the Democratic Party … we’re in this to win.”
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Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas accused Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer Tuesday of being involved in the operation to leak Christine Blasey Ford’s letter to the public.
“I believe the Schumer political operation was behind this from the very beginning,” Cotton told conservative commentator Hugh Hewitt during his radio show.
Ford wrote Democratic lawmakers a letter in July accusing Justice Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct more than 35 years ago. During the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in September, Ford said she did not authorize the letters release, despite it being made public.
“We learned last week that a woman named Monica McLean was Ms. Ford’s roommate and she was one of the so-called ‘beach friends’ that encouraged Ms. Ford to go to [Sen.] Dianne Feinstein and the partisan Democrats on the judiciary committee,” Cotton continued. “It just so happens that Monica McLean worked for Preet Bharara, the former U.S. attorney in Manhattan, now a virulent anti-Trump critic on television and former counsel to Chuck Schumer.”
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- Former FBI General Counsel James Baker shared “explosive” information with Congress last week, according to Republicans.
- Sources tell The Daily Caller News Foundation that Baker discussed his interactions with Mother Jones reporter David Corn as well as former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe
- Baker said McCabe told him that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein discussed wearing a wire in meetings with President Donald Trump.
Former FBI General Counsel James Baker told Congress in “explosive” testimony about his interactions with a Mother Jones reporter just after the 2016 election as well as a conversation he had last year with then-FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe regarding Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.
Baker recently told lawmakers that David Corn, a reporter at the liberal Mother Jones, provided him a copy of the Steele dossier a day after President Donald Trump’s election win, sources familiar with Baker’s testimony told The Daily Caller News Foundation.
Baker, who resigned from office in May, also told lawmakers that McCabe and his general counsel, Lisa Page, told him in May 2017 that Rosenstein made remarks about wearing a wire during meetings with Trump. Baker’s testimony seems to bolster a Sept. 21 report from The New York Times that cited memos McCabe wrote just after a meeting with Rosenstein in May 2017, shortly after James Comey was fired as FBI director.
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Attorney Michael Avenatti stymied Democrats’ attempts to derail the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, Democratic senators and aides told CNN.
“Democrats and the country would have been better off if Mr. Avenatti spent his time on his Iowa vanity project rather than meddling in Supreme Court fights,” a top Democratic Senate aide told CNN ahead of Saturday’s vote to confirm Kavanaugh.
“His involvement set us back, absolutely,” said the aide, referring to Avenatti’s fledgling 2020 presidential campaign.
Avenatti, who represents porn star Stormy Daniels, entered the Kavanaugh foray as an attorney for Julie Swetnick, a Washington, D.C., woman who claimed that Kavanaugh was present at house parties in the early 1980s where girls were allegedly gang-raped.
Avenatti pushed Swetnick’s case at his cable TV mainstays, CNN and MSNBC, but ultimately failed to produce the witnesses he claimed would come forward to support his client’s case. He also mounted a tepid defense against questions raised about Swetnick’s credibility. It emerged that Swetnick’s ex-boyfriend obtained a restraining order against her in 2001. She was also sued in 2000 by a former employer and accused of sexual harassment against male co-workers.
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Facebook employees are reportedly in the midst of a week-long meltdown after vice president for global policy Joel Kaplan sat behind Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh during Kavanaugh’s Sept. 27 testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Hundreds of Facebook employees expressed their displeasure with Kaplan since Kavanaugh’s testimony, according to reports in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, citing sources familiar with the matter.
“His seat choice was intentional, knowing full well that journalists would identify every public figure appearing behind Kavanaugh. He knew that this would cause outrage internally, but he knew that he couldn’t get fired for it,” one Facebook program manager wrote about Kavanaugh, according to The NYT.
“This was a protest against our culture, and a slap in the face to his fellow employees,” the program manager wrote.
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A former top lawyer at the FBI provided “explosive” testimony to Congress on Wednesday regarding the FBI’s Trump-Russia investigation, lawmakers said.
James Baker, who served as the FBI’s general counsel until May, told Congress that a previously unidentified source provided information to the FBI for its investigation, which began on July 31, 2016.
“During the time that the FBI was putting — that [the Department of Justice] and FBI were putting together the [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act surveillance warrant] during the time prior to the election — there was another source giving information directly to the FBI, which we found the source to be pretty explosive,” Ohio GOP Rep. Jim Jordan said after a hearing, according to Fox News.
As the FBI’s top attorney, Baker was directly involved in handling applications for the FISA warrants granted against former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.
Baker was interviewed behind closed doors as part of a congressional task force’s investigation into the FBI’s possible abuse of the FISA process. Republican lawmakers have expressed concerns that the Page FISAs relied heavily on the unverified Steele dossier.
The document, which was funded by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee, was cited extensively in the FBI’s applications to spy on Page.
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President Donald Trump mocked Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s decades old allegation of sexual assault against Judge Brett Kavanaugh, during a Tuesday night rally in Mississippi.
Trump referenced Ford’s replies of “I don’t know” when pressed on where the alleged assault took place, what exact date it took place, and who was in attendance. “I had one beer and that’s the only thing I remember,” the president said mocking Ford’s concrete recollection of only having had one beer.
Kavanaugh is currently in the midst of an FBI investigation into decades-old sexual assault allegations made against him from his high school and college years. The investigation follows an emotional Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in which one of his accusers, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, alleged that Kavanaugh assaulted her in 1982.
Ford, however, was unable to provide key details to the committee during her testimony. A sex crimes prosecutor commissioned by the Judiciary Committee wrote a memo to Senate Republicans saying that Ford’s allegation does not have a level of evidence needed to bring a prosecution.
The president delivered a lengthy defense of Kavanaugh Tuesday while departing the White House saying “you can be somebody that was perfect your entire life and somebody could accuse you of something … that is one of the very, very bad things that’s taking place right now.”
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House lawmakers sent a letter Monday to the environmental group Earth justice demanding documents regarding its ties to foreign officials and environmental activists, The Daily Caller News Foundation has learned.
The letter from top Republicans on the House Committee on Natural Resources is the fourth sent to environmental groups over their ties to foreign governments. It’s the second letter related to environmental opposition to the U.S. military presence in Okinawa, Japan.
Lawmakers say Earth justice’s political activities may require them to register as a foreign agent, according to a copy of the letter obtained by The DCNF. Earth justice is an environmental law firm often represents environmental activists in litigation.
“The Committee is concerned that your organization’s political activities within the United States in opposition to the relocation of [Marine Corps Air Station] Futenma and the continued military presence in Okinawa may require compliance with” the Foreign Agents Registration Act, Republicans wrote to Earth justice president Abigail Dillen.
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The United States and Canada have reached a tenatative agreement on a renegotiated NAFTA. According to CBC News, a senior government source is saying there is agreement in principle after resolving a number of contentious issues.
Sources also confirmed to Global News that a deal has been finalized.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called a late Sunday night cabinet meeting to discuss the progress. Canada will reportedly be allowing greater access to its dairy market — something President Donald Trump has long demanded.
Trump earlier this week virtually proclaimed NAFTA to be a dead deal because Trudeau did “not seem to want to move” on its supply management dairy policy that maintains a 300 percent tariff on milk products. Trump also expressed his dislike for Canada’s chief trade negotiator, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland.
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