- The House Intelligence Committee on Tuesday interviewed a Georgian-American businessman mentioned in the special counsel’s report.
- Giorgi Rtskhiladze told The Daily Caller News Foundation that he spent eight hours with the committee, which asked about his business contacts with Michael Cohen and the Trump Organization.
- Rtskhiladze has filed a complaint with the Justice Department regarding the special counsel’s report, which misquoted text messages he exchanged with Cohen about an unsubstantiated sex tape of Donald Trump.
The Democrat-controlled House Intelligence Committee continued its investigation of President Donald Trump on Tuesday by interviewing Giorgi Rtskhiladze, a Georgian-American businessman mentioned in the special counsel’s report because of his contacts with former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen.
Rtskhiladze told the Daily Caller News Foundation on Wednesday that he spent eight hours with committee staff discussing his business relationship with Cohen and the Trump Organization. He also answered questions about an Oct. 30, 2016, text message exchange with Cohen about a rumored sex tape of Trump that is mentioned in a footnote in the special counsel’s report.
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- Robert Mueller, the former special counsel, will testify before two congressional committees on July 17, after being subpoenaed.
- Democrats and Republicans alike will have plenty of questions about Mueller’s 22-month investigation of President Trump.
- Here are 27 questions that Mueller’s report left unanswered.
When former special counsel Robert Mueller testifies before Congress on July 17, he can expect a slew of questions from both Democrats and Republicans about the details of his 22-month long Russia probe.
Democrats are likely to focus on the obstruction portion of the investigation, in hopes that they can mount a case for the impeachment of President Donald Trump. Republicans will likely key in on Mueller’s finding that the Trump campaign did not conspire with the Russian government to influence the 2016 election.
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A coalition of far-left political activist organizations known for peddling smears about conservatives held a protest at Mastercard’s annual general meeting (AGM) today, aiming to pressure the international credit card giant to financially blacklist wider sections of the political right. The groups’ proposal to form a “human rights committee” did not sway shareholders, who voted the measure down.
At Mastercard’s AGM this morning, the far-left groups SumOfUs and Sleeping Giants circled the venue with a mobile billboard stating: “Putting hate groups out of business? #Priceless.”
According to a press release published by the two organizations, this was coupled with a speech from Sleeping Giants co-founder Nandini Jammi, “addressing the need for Mastercard to take swift action by cutting off its services to these hate groups.”
Sleeping Giants, whose founders initially refused to take accountability for the organization’s words and actions by remaining anonymous, was set up in 2016 by far-left political activists with the sole stated purpose of defunding Breitbart by spreading lies about it. The identity of its other founder, former advertising professional Matt Rivitz, was revealed last year.
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Former Senator John Kerry praised a play based on former FBI Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report Monday and considered it to be “an act of public service” by the Hollywood who are set to take part in it.
“Haven’t read the Mueller Report? Watch it live tonight at 9pm – performed by an extraordinary cast, ranging from Annette Bening to @HamillHimself to @ZacharyQuinto and more,” Kerry wrote on Twitter.
In addition to his promotion of the play, Kerry, who served as secretary of State under President Barack Obama, added, “An act of public service by these artists.”
The play, titled The Investigation: A Search For The Truth in 10 Acts, will only be held once and was written by Robert Schenkkan.
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- Trey Gowdy said Sunday that an FBI transcript he reviewed while in Congress changed his “perspective” of the Mueller investigation.
- Republicans have alluded to the mystery transcript, which is believed to be from an FBI informant’s interactions with George Papadopoulos.
- Gowdy has previously said the transcript is a potential “game-changer” in terms of the public’s opinion of the FBI’s investigation of the Trump campaign.
Former Republican South Carolina Rep. Trey Gowdy said Sunday that his “perspective” of the special counsel’s investigation changed after he saw a transcript of an interaction between the FBI and a Trump campaign associate believed to be George Papadopoulos.
“I was supportive of [Robert] Mueller. I was supportive of the idea to initiate, to investigate what Russia did, but when I saw this transcript, it actually changed my perspective,” Gowdy said in an interview on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.”
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- The House Judiciary Committee released a 273-page transcript of former White House communications director Hope Hicks’s testimony.
- Hicks largely defended President Donald Trump and the activities during the 2016 presidential campaign.
- Her lawyers refused to let her answer more than 150 questions about her work in the White House, citing immunity on the topic.
The House Judiciary Committee released a transcript Thursday of former White House communications director Hope Hicks’s closed-door testimony.
Hicks mostly defended President Donald Trump and members of the Trump campaign during an eight-hour interview Wednesday. She disputed the idea that the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government, and also said she had no advance knowledge WikiLeaks would release emails that had been stolen from Democrats during the campaign.
Hicks, who is a communications executive at Fox, also said she had no discussions prior to the 2016 election about hush money payments made on behalf of Trump. Days before the election, Michael Cohen, a former attorney for Trump, paid $130,000 to Stormy Daniels, a porn star who claimed she had an affair with Trump in 2006.
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The Obama-era intelligence community relied on three redacted reports marked as drafts from the private firm CrowdStrike to reach its conclusion that Russian agents hacked the servers of the Democratic National Committee, according to a U.S. government filing.
The U.S. government further admitted that it does not possess the un-redacted CrowdStrike reports about what allegedly happened to the DNC servers and that it relied upon DNC lawyers to generally characterize what was in the redacted sections.
These stunning admissions were contained in a U.S. government court response to a motion filed by attorneys for former Trump confidante Roger Stone, seeking to compel the government to release un-redacted CrowdStrike reports about the alleged hacks — reports the government says it doesn’t possess.
The Justice Department did not return a Breitbart News request from yesterday seeking comment on whether the FBI or any U.S. government agency has ever seen the full, un-redacted CrowdStrike reports on the DNC servers.
The DNC famously refused to allow the FBI to access its server to verify the allegation that Russia carried out a hack during the 2016 presidential campaign. Instead, the DNC reached an arrangement with the FBI in which a third party company, CrowdStrike, conducted forensics on the server and shared details with the FBI.
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President Donald Trump has asserted immunity for former White House communications director Hopes Hicks to prevent his longtime assistant from testifying to Congress this week about her work in the White House.
Pat Cipollone, the White House general counsel, told the House Judiciary Committee in a letter on Tuesday that Hicks is “absolutely immune from being compelled to testify before Congress with respect to matters occurring during her service as a senior adviser to the President.”
Hicks is scheduled to appear for a closed-door interview on Wednesday in response to a subpoena issued in May by New York Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler, the chairman of the Judiciary panel. Hicks has provided some documents to the committee from her work on the campaign, but has withheld others from her time in the White House.
Democrats want to quiz Hicks about her work on the Trump campaign, during the transition period and as White House communications director. She left the position on March 29, 2018, and is now a top communications executive at Fox.
Politico reported that Democrats plan to ask Hicks about five separate incidents of possible obstruction that were investigated by the special counsel. Hicks was present during discussions about firing James Comey as FBI director. Democrats also plan to ask Hicks about hush money payments made on Trump’s behalf before the 2016 election.
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The State Department identified at least 30 separate security breaches during its investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server, the agency recently disclosed.
In a letter to Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, a State Department official said that at least 15 State Department employees were responsible for 23 violations and seven security infractions related to Clinton’s server.
The FBI investigated whether Clinton mishandled classified information by sending and receiving classified emails on a private server that she kept at her residence in New York. The FBI found that Clinton was “extremely careless” in using the server, but ultimately decided not to recommend that she be charged with a crime.
The State Department continued its internal review of the Clinton server after the FBI ended its investigation, according to the letter to Grassley. Clinton’s State Department aides, including Cheryl Mills and Huma Abedin, were aware that she exclusively used the server. Clinton and her aides exchanged thousands of classified emails while she was in office, including more than two dozen that were found to have top-secret information.
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Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) suggested on Sunday that America should secure its border before avenging foreign vessels allegedly attacked by Iran.
Congressman Gaetz tweeted Sunday, suggesting that America should heed Japan and Norway’s caution against war with Iran amid heightened tensions with the Middle Eastern nation.
The Florida congressman wrote, “Japanese and Norwegian vessels were attacked. If these nations aren’t calling for war, neither should the U.S. We can’t afford another #ForeverWar“:
Rep. Gaetz wrote that President Donald Trump’s “America First” foreign policy means that the country must protect its borders from illegal immigration and cartel violence before it attacks foreign nations.
President Donald Trump garnered much support for his America First foreign policy, contending that America should focus less on intervention and nation-building abroad and more on rebuilding the nation at home.
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- Michael Flynn plans to testify at a trial for his former business partner, who faces charges related to his lobbying on behalf of the Turkish government.
- A prosecutor handling the case of Bijan Rafiekian, the former Flynn associate, said at a hearing Thursday Flynn is considered a witness in the case, and not a co-conspirator.
- The prosecutor also said Flynn “was aware” the Turkish government was somehow involved in a public relations and lobbying campaign that also involved Rafiekian and Turkish businessman, Ekim Alptekin.
Federal prosecutors offered a preview Thursday of Michael Flynn’s role at the upcoming trial of his former business partner, saying in a court hearing that the former national security adviser is considered a witness rather than a co-conspirator in a secret Turkish lobbying campaign involving his consulting firm.
Flynn still plans to testify against his former partner, Bijan Rafiekian, assistant U.S. attorney James P. Gillis said at a hearing in Alexandria, Virginia. Rafiekian, who was an executive at Flynn’s consulting firm, Flynn Intel Group, was indicted Dec. 12, 2018, on charges that he acted as a foreign agent of Turkey.
His trial is tentatively scheduled to start July 15.
Gillis said in court Thursday that Flynn “was aware” the Turkish government was somehow involved in a public relations and lobbying campaign aimed against Fethullah Gulen, a Muslim cleric and political foe of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, according to The Washington Post.
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The Justice Department plans to interview two senior CIA officers as part of a sweeping review of surveillance activities against the Trump campaign, The New York Times reported.
Sources briefed on the plans told The Times that U.S. Attorney John Durham, who is leading the DOJ review, wants to speak with a senior CIA counterintelligence official and a senior CIA analyst who handled intelligence about Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.
Attorney General William Barr is interested in finding out more about the sources the CIA relied on to assess Russia’s goals in interfering in the election, according to The Times. He also wants to know about intelligence the CIA provided the FBI in summer 2016, including about Americans associated with the Trump campaign.
One of the officials sought for an interview worked at a CIA counterintelligence mission center that worked closely with the FBI.
CIA Director Gina Haspel does not plan to block the interviews, according to The Times.
Barr, who picked Durham to lead the probe, has said he is concerned by information he has seen that U.S. agencies may have improperly surveilled members of the Trump campaign.
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House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler said Tuesday he expects former special counsel Robert Mueller to appear before Congress “way before” the end of summer.
He reiterated his pledge to subpoena Mueller if necessary to force him to testify in an interview on MSNBC.
“Has Robert Mueller agreed to come in voluntarily? Is there a date by which if he does not, you would subpoena him?” MSNBC host Ari Melber asked Nadler, a New York Democrat.
“We’re carrying on conversations with him, and he will come in, and if we have to subpoena him, we will,” Nadler said.
“Would that be by the end of the summer?” asked Melber.
“I would think it would be way before that,” said Nadler.
When asked whether he believes negotiations with Mueller will be over by the end of June, Nadler declined comment but said he was unsure.
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House Judiciary Committee Democrats will hold a hearing Monday on the Robert Mueller report, “presidential obstruction,” and other crimes.
The House Judiciary Committee, led by chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) will hold a hearing on Monday at 2:00 p.m. EST on the Mueller report, “presidential obstruction,” and other crimes.
“No one is above the law. While the White House continues to cover up and stonewall, and to prevent the American people from knowing the truth, we will continue to move forward with our investigation,” Nadler said in a statement this week, announcing the hearing, entitled, “Lessons From the Mueller Report: Presidential Obstruction and Other Crimes.”
The hearing will include testimony from former White House counsel John Dean, who was a key figure in the Watergate hearings that led to Richard Nixon’s resignation. Dean cooperated with the Watergate special prosecutor after pleading guilty to obstruction of justice.
Nadler continued:
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- Carter Page discussed his interactions with FBI informant Stefan Halper on “Fox News Sunday.”
- The former Trump campaign aide said that his contacts with Halper “intensified” just before the FBI applied for its first spy warrant against him in October 2016.
- The timing of the contact raises questions over whether the FBI relied on information from Halper as part of its spy warrant application.
Carter Page said Sunday that his contacts with Stefan Halper, an alleged FBI informant, “intensified” in the month before the U.S. government obtained its first spy warrant against the former Trump campaign aide.
“My conversations with him intensified right, the month before my illegitimate FISA warrant, in September 2016, when all these defamatory articles were being placed by the DNC,” Page said in an interview with Maria Bartiromo on “Fox Sunday Futures.”
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Big Tech’s day of reckoning has finally arrived.
Both of the major antitrust enforcement agencies of the executive branch of the federal government are stepping into the fray, with the Department of Justice reportedly preparing for an investigation of Google parent Alphabet, Inc. and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) doing the same for social media giant Facebook.
The decision by President Trump and Attorney General William Barr to clear their regulators for action is a watershed moment, both in the history of antitrust law and in the evolution of Silicon Valley’s relationship with American society. After years in which the Obama administration delayed and thwarted any major action against the Big Tech companies, the decision has apparently even shamed some House Democrats into playing along.
This change of tack is long overdue; Google and Facebook are undoubtedly massive, manipulative monopolies.
Google controls roughly 90 percent of the online search market. Three quarters of mobile and 70 percent of desktop web browsing takes place on Google software, and its YouTube subsidiary has completely dominated the user-generated streaming video market virtually unchallenged since its inception.
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Christopher Steele will meet with Justice Department investigators out of concern he will be “thrown under the bus” in a probe of the FBI’s handling of the dossier, a New York Times reporter said.
“He is incredibly concerned, maybe obsessed, that this investigation is going to throw him under the bus,” Matthew Rosenberg, a national security reporter for The Times, said on CNN Tuesday.
Rosenberg was responding to reports that Steele has agreed to meet with Justice Department investigators to discuss his interactions with the FBI regarding his work on the dossier, which accuses the Trump campaign of conspiring with Russians to influence the 2016 election.
Michael Horowitz, the Justice Department’s inspector general, is close to wrapping up an investigation into the FBI’s handling of the dossier, which was funded by the Clinton campaign and DNC. The FBI relied on Steele’s unverified report to obtain surveillance warrants against Carter Page, a Trump campaign adviser.
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A CNN analyst said Tuesday that dossier author Christopher Steele should not meet with the Justice Department because doing so “will not end up well” for the former British spy.
“If you go to car races looking for car wrecks, this is significant. This will be a car wreck,” Phil Mudd, a former FBI official, told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.
“I can’t believe he has perfect answers about the origins of the Steele dossier. I’m not even sure why he’s showing up. If I were him, I’d go to Disney World. I would not go to the Department of Justice, because it will not end up well.”
Mudd, who worked at the CIA and also served as deputy director of the FBI’s national security branch, speculated that Steele’s meeting with the Justice Department will not end well for him because of the flimsiness of the allegations in his controversial report.
“Let me give you how this game ends. Christopher Steele shows up in front of the Department of Justice and I’m guessing doesn’t have terrific answers for the quality of the information in that Steele dossier,” said Mudd.
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Former Trump attorney John Dowd on Monday accused the special counsel’s office of ambushing him and attempting to smear his reputation in the Russia report by selectively quoting from a voicemail he left for Michael Flynn’s attorney.
“Isn’t it ironic that this man who kept indicting and prosecuting people for process crimes committed a false statement in his own report. By taking out half my words, they changed the tenor and the contents of that conversation with [Flynn lawyer] Robert Kelner,” Dowd said of former special counsel Robert Mueller in an interview with Fox News’s Sean Hannity.
Dowd, a former federal prosecutor, was responding to Friday’s release of a complete transcript of a voicemail he left with Kelner on Nov. 22, 2017, just after Flynn left a joint defense agreement with President Donald Trump and shortly before he began cooperating with the special counsel.
Mueller published portions of the voicemail transcript in the section of the Russia report dealing with the obstruction of justice investigation against Trump. According to the report, Dowd left the voicemail after Kelner had told him “that Flynn could no longer have confidential communications with the White House or the President.”
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A top House Republican is asking the Justice Department’s inspector general whether Peter Strzok is the former FBI official accused of leaking sensitive materials to the press and accepting gifts from a reporter.
Georgia Rep. Doug Collins, the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, sent a letter Thursday to Michael Horowitz, the Justice Department inspector general (IG), inquiring about the identity of a former FBI deputy assistant director (DAD) who was investigated for unauthorized contacts with the press.
Collins said the description of the official in a summary of the IG investigation matches up with Strzok, who was fired from the FBI on Aug. 13, 2018, for sending anti-Trump text messages.
“While the DAD is not named in the Summary, there are several indications the DAD in question is former FBI counterintelligence agent Peter Strzok,” Collins said, noting Strzok had been promoted to the position of deputy assistant director in the FBI’s Espionage Section in September 2016.
The IG found the FBI official accepted a $225 ticket from a reporter to a media-sponsored event. The official also had “dozens” of unauthorized contacts with the media, and provided law enforcement sensitive information to reporters on “multiple” occasions.
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