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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
No Collusion! WITCH HUNT!
Russians followed up on Trump Tower meeting after election, Democrats say
Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the intelligence panel, told CNN's Jim Sciutto on Friday that Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya reached out to the Trump family after the election with a request to follow up on efforts to repeal the Magnitsky Act, the 2012 Russian sanctions the US enacted over human rights abuses.
Veselnitskaya was the Russian lawyer at the center of the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting, where Donald Trump Jr. expected to receive damaging information on Hillary Clinton but instead Veselnitskaya focused on the repeal of the sanctions.
"Clearly, there's an expectation there on the Russian side that they may now have success with the Magnitsky Act, given that the prior meeting and communications dealt with the offer of help," Schiff said. "It certainly seems like the Russians were ready for payback."
In addition, another effort to reach out to Trump's team after the election came from Aras Agalarov, the Azerbaijani-Russian oligarch who also has ties to the Trump Tower meeting. Agalarov, along with his pop-star son, Emin Agalarov, also worked with Trump to bring the 2013 Miss Universe Pageant to Moscow.
The outreach from the Russians after the 2016 election was one of the new details that stemmed from the release of the Republican report on the Russia investigation, as well as a lengthy Democratic dissent that disputed the Republican conclusion there was no evidence of collusion between Trump's team and Russia.
In the dissent, Democrats cite a November 28, 2016, email from publicist Rob Goldstone to Trump's assistant, Rhona Graff, which said that "Aras Agalarov has asked me to pass on this document in the hope it can be passed on to the appropriate team."
"Later that day, Graff forwarded to Steve Bannon the email with Agalarov's document regarding the Magnitsky Act as an attachment, explaining, 'The PE [President Elect] knows Aras well. Rob is his rep in the US and sent this on. Not sure how to proceed, if at all.'"
Trump's team has denied there was any follow up after the Trump Tower meeting.
It's not clear that there was any response from the Trump team to the request from Veselnitskaya, or Agalarov. The Trump administration has not moved to roll back the Russian sanctions, and, in fact, new sanctions against Russia have been enacted.
CNN has previously reported
additional outreach that came after the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting, in which Goldstone sent emails to Trump's team in the weeks following that meeting. But the overtures from Veselnitskaya and Agalarov are the first indication that the same Russians were still pushing to change the sanctions law after Trump was elected.
While the Democratic report released Friday does not mention Veselnitskaya's post-election outreach, a committee source said that she approached the Trump team following the election before the appeal from Aras Agalarov.
In the lead-up to the Trump Tower meeting, Goldstone told Trump Jr. that Veselnitskaya had damaging information about Clinton that he claimed came from the Russian government. At the meeting, however, Trump Jr. said she did not provide damaging information, and instead focused on the repeal of the sanctions law.
edited 29th Apr '18 9:09:40 PM by megaeliz
A couple of stories from News & Guts. Nothing new or groundbreaking, but a different perspective maybe.
Enough Is Enough; The Case For Ending The WHCA Dinner
When journalists have an event to celebrate themselves, and their work, they invite criticism and ridicule. And playing into the hand of Donald Trump, we give this White House an opening as wide as the Grand Canyon to mock us in front of the rest of the country. My fellow journalists, you can argue it, but it's the truth and you know it.
Here's what Politico writes is the purpose of the event:
At its core, the dinner is supposed to be a celebration of the First Amendment, an opportunity to laud the young journalists who have won the association's scholarships, and a place to applaud the current journalists whose work illuminates the public's understanding of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave."
OK, sure, it's for a worthy cause but that's not why people attend. It's all about being seen, sitting with the right people at the right tables. Having the "A" guest on your arm, someone you'll probably have to objectively report on. How's that going to work?
Once again for the umpteenth year, a comedian has crossed the line and there will be a weeks of collective naval gazing by some in the Washington press corps who think they should, for some reason, apologize for the entertainer's behavior. After the actions of this White House? Seriously? First, she's a comedian and it's her job to make fun of people. Second, take a peek at Donald Trump's twitter account. To allow the White House to claim the high road on ANY issue shows the ridiculousness of this event. The faux outrage from conservatives is laughable.
Let's do everyone a favor and make next years event about the future of journalism. Lose the celebrities, the politicians and business leaders. Or just cancel the event. The New York Times stopped going years ago. There are less painful ways to raise money for aspiring journalists.
Ahead Of Midterms, GOP Establishment Worried Of Trump Unhinged
Despite polling that shows the House all but lost and the Senate in play, Trump is doubling down, refusing to concede the perils of his ways.
From the New York Times
:
- President Trump is privately rejecting the growing consensus among Republican leaders that they may lose the House and possibly the Senate in November, leaving party officials and the president's advisers nervous that he does not grasp the gravity of the threat they face in the midterm elections.
- Over dinner with the president and other Republican congressional leaders this month, Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, phrased his advice for the president in the form of a reminder: Mr. Trump should never forget his central role in the 2018 campaign, Mr. McConnell said, explaining that Republicans' prospects are linked to what he says and does and underscoring that their one-seat advantage in the Senate was in jeopardy.
- If Mr. McConnell's warning was not clear enough, Marc Short, the White House's legislative liaison, used the dinner to offer an even starker assessment. The G.O.P.'s House majority is all but doomed, he said.
- But Mr. Trump was not moved. That's not going to happen.
But last night in Michigan, he sounded like he was moved, telling the crowd Republicans need to maintain control of the House of he'll face impeachment.
"We have to keep the House because if we listen to Maxine Waters, she's going around saying 'We will impeach him.'"
Waters has called on Trump to resign.
From The Hill
: A Quinnipiac Poll released last week shows that if Democrats win the House, more than 70 percent of their supporters want to begin impeachment proceedings.
It's been clear for a while that Trump can't take a joke if it's aimed at him. He couldn't take Obama making a joke about him at the last dinner and he couldn't take being made fun of now.
And his people are the ones painting us as a bunch of snowflakes who scream and cry and demand safe spaces whenever we're upset.
@ 240211 Raptorslash: That mention of Mount Rushmore reminds me, I don't have the article since my roommate saw it on his Tumblr, but there was an interview with a Republican politician from South Dakota who told of a meeting he and a bunch of other South Dakotan reps were at with Trump, and the idiot actually said he does want his face on Mount Rushmore. Everyone took it as a joke (though only one person laughed), but Trump insisted he was quite serious about it.
I don't know if this story is true, but I could believe it. The ego of this man...and yet so fragile, as proven by his reaction to that WHCD roasting and every other joke or criticism since then.
. Personally, I thought a golden toilet
would be a better metaphor, but that works too.
the Museum where it was actually offered to give it to Trump as a "long term loan"
, outraging Fox News.
edited 30th Apr '18 12:59:12 AM by megaeliz

About trump and hilary: that is because trumpers think Hilary is the real gulty party here, the extreme corrupt media politician who manage to get away with everything, acording to them Comey were to soft on her and now we are crazy seen she didnt win and try to sabotage Trump.
"My Name is Bolt, Bolt Crank and I dont care if you believe or not"