“The net is closing around a duo of fugitive oligarchs and their kin accused of laundering Kazakh money in posh U.S. real estate — including Trump Organization properties.” More …
Russia
Special Counsel’s Trump investigation Includes Manafort Case
“The special counsel investigating possible ties between President Donald Trump’s campaign and Russia’s government has taken over a separate criminal probe involving former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, and may expand his inquiry to investigate the roles of the attorney general and deputy attorney general in the firing of FBI Director James Comey, The Associated Press has learned.” More …
How the Trump Administration’s Secret Efforts to Ease Russia Sanctions Fell Short
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Unknown to the public at the time, top Trump administration officials, almost as soon as they took office, tasked State Department staffers with developing proposals for the lifting of economic sanctions, the return of diplomatic compounds and other steps to relieve tensions with Moscow. These efforts to relax or remove punitive measures imposed by President Obama in retaliation for Russia’s intervention in Ukraine and meddling in the 2016 election alarmed some State Department officials, who immediately began lobbying congressional leaders to quickly pass legislation to block the move, the sources said.” More …
Hacker, Banker, Soldier, Spy: A Guide to the Key Players in the Trump-Russia Scandal
“Keeping track of the relentless news on the widening Trump-Russia investigation—from revelations about the president’s inner circle to the role of Russian oligarchs and other assorted players—isn’t easy. As part of our project to cover this scandal, we’ve assembled dossiers on the sprawling cast of characters who populate this stranger-than-fiction controversy threatening to engulf the presidency. Will be updated as needed. ” More …
Robert Mueller Knows the Russia-Trump Investigation Is All About the Money
“Robert Mueller is not fooling around and, for all the bizarre behavior concerning secure comms and Russian ambassadors, he seems to have homed in already on the key to the whole sorry mess. Somewhere, at the heart of it, there’s nothing more or less banal than the classic American hunger for a quick and easy buck. That’s where this whole thing is headed.” More …
Why FBI and Robert Mueller Are Looking at Jared Kushner
“Federal investigators homing in on Jared Kushner’s connections to powerful Russians and his multiple roles in last year’s presidential campaign have identified at least three lines of inquiry into Donald Trump’s son-in-law. From a meeting with a former Russian intelligence official-turned-banker allied with Vladimir Putin and Kushner’s failure to report it, to his push to have the president fire James Comey at the FBI, investigators see the 36-year-old’s fingerprints on several questionable actions.” More …
How the Trump White House Has Tried to Interfere With the Russia Investigations
“The pattern is increasingly clear: As investigations into the Trump campaign’s ties to and possible collusion with Russia have intensified, so too have efforts by the president and his staff to quash those probes or put pressure on US officials to publicly deny the validity of the swirling allegations.” More …
Kushner Met With Russian Banker Who Is Putin Crony, Spy School Grad
“The Russian banker Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner met with in December is viewed by U.S. intelligence as a “Putin crony” and a graduate of a “finishing school” for spies who was often tasked with sensitive financial operations by Putin, according to multiple U.S. officials and documents viewed by NBC News.” More …
Meet the Real Jared Kushner: He’s a Lot Tougher Than He Looks
” … It was Kushner who reportedly pushed for the firing of FBI Director James Comey over the objections of Bannon. And it was Kushner who was the lone voice urging for a counterattack after Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announced the appointment of a special prosecutor, according to the New York Times. And it is now Kushner whose family’s business activities leave him open to the same level of conflict-of-interest charges that have dogged his wife and father-in-law, and Kushner who appears to be as closely tied to the Russian government as anyone serving in the White House… ” More …
Trump’s Russia Scandal Is Becoming a Corruption Scandal
“The Washington Post reported Friday that investigators have identified a current White House official as a person of interest in its financial probe.” More …