Wednesday, May 9, 2018

Congresswoman raises suspicions about Pentagon's Niger investigation.


JUST IN: AT&T: Mueller contacted us about payments to Cohen


Independent Sen. Angus King of Maine, who caucuses with Democrats, has announced that he will vote against Gina Haspel's nomination to be the next CIA director


Russian spies masqueraded as Islamic State supporters to threaten vocal spouses of U.S. military personnel, @AP finds


The involvement of not just any oligarch, "but an individual who was sanctioned by our own government … [and] payments to Michael Cohen, the President’s lawyer, from that Russian oligarch? That prospect is very serious evidence of collusion,”


Taking Children from Their Parents Is a Form of State Terror


Russia unlikely to limit Israeli actions in Syria: Netanyahu

Evil dudes

Must see: How Russian oligarchs like Viktor Vekselberg (in Avenatti's report) are connected to Trump and each other. Amazing work by @dallasnews


Russian oligarch-linked firm that paid Michael Cohen was also represented by Trump lawyer Marc Kasowitz


Reporters hit Trump for threatening to revoke credentials: Just because you don't like it doesn't make it "fake"


CBS News confirms President Trump's personal attorney got millions of dollars from companies seeking access to the @POTUS in the months after the election. That includes money from a company tied to a Russian oligarch


Executive Summary into the Public Court Record via your Opposition of Avenatti’s Pro Hac Vice.


Trump's veiled threat to journalists


Salem executives pressured radio hosts to cover Trump more positively, emails show


Looks like AT&T made 12 payments of 50,000 each = 600K! Way more than first reported.


NEW TODAY: A senior official at Novartis told @NBCNews that Cohen reached out shortly after Trump's election "promising access" to the new administration. Cohen and his attorney did not respond to a request for comment


BREAKING: Israeli military accuses Iranian al-Quds forces of firing 20 "projectiles" toward IDF forward line positions on the Golan Heights, and "Israel has responded to this attack and this is an ongoing situation."


Russian Ambassador to Portugal Oleg Belous dies suddenly at age of 66 - foreign ministry


Trump Told His Lawyers He Knows Nothing About Michael Cohen's Business


BREAKING - Gowdy and Nunes To Get Access To Secret Mueller Intelligence


NBC News: In a new statement (their third) Novartis says they paid $1.2 million to Michael Cohen, had one meeting with him and determined he would be "unable to provide the services that Novartis had anticipated related to US healthcare policy matters."


MCCAIN WRITES: "Even a remote risk that the President of the United States might be vulnerable to Russian extortion had to be investigated."


Why isn’t it a bigger deal that Michael Cohen was the deputy finance chair of the Republican National Committee while he was being paid by Russian oligarchs and big corporations? This is on the whole Republican Party.


The D.C. Cir. has released the opinion preventing the government from transferring a U.S. citizen held as an enemy combatant in Iraq to a third country while his habeas case is pending.


Today, @SenateDems officially filed the petition that allows us to force a vote on the Senate floor to save #NetNeutrality. And with just #OneMoreVote from a Republican, we can secure a victory


"Unusual delays at customs"


Fox News is going out of its way to avoid covering Michael Cohen


Special Counsel Mueller’s Team Questioned Blackwater Founder Erik Prince


NBC News: In a new statement (their third) Novartis says they paid $1.2 million to Michael Cohen, had one meeting with him and determined he would be "unable to provide the services that Novartis had anticipated related to US healthcare policy matters."


NEW TODAY: A senior official at Novartis told @NBCNews that Cohen reached out shortly after Trump's election "promising access" to the new administration. Cohen and his attorney did not respond to a request for comment


SCOOP: National Security Adviser John Bolton and his aides are considering eliminating the White House's top cybersecurity job


NEW: Michael Cohen reached out to Novartis’s then-chief executive officer Joe Jimenez, promising help gaining access to Trump and influential officials in the new administration, according to an employee inside Novartis familiar with the matter.


Fox makes the startling argument in its memo that its since-retracted article on the conspiracy theory of Rich's murder was not "outrageous" under defamation law because it portrayed him as a "hero" and a "whistle-blower."


LIVE: Senate confirmation hearing for Gina Haspel as CIA director.


LATEST: U.N. nuclear watchdog confirms the nuclear-related commitments under the Iran deal are still being implemented by Iran


Wow. Netanyahu wears the St George's ribbon as he comes to May 9 Parade with Putin. Not even Serbia's Vucic has one. (The ribbon, a symbol of Russian military glory, is also of late the symbol of Russian irredentism and is banned in Ukraine.)

Unreal

Since taking over the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Mick Mulvaney has halted all new investigations, frozen hiring, stopped data collection and proposed cutting off public access to a database of consumer complaints.


Extraordinary statement from the First Lady's office about "opposition media" coverage of Melania Trump's "Be Best" roll out. "I encourage members of the media to attempt to Be Best in their own professions."


Former ambassadors express serious concern about Haspel for CIA


Why does it matter that Fox News is barely covering the Stormy Daniels story and related scandals? It matters because the network is the main source of news for 40 percent of Trump voters.


The Russian oligarch who allegedly gave Michael Cohen $500,000 was at Trump's inauguration AND Mike Flynn's 2015 dinner in Moscow.


The military paid for a study on sea level rise. The results were scary.


Iranian lawmakers set fire to the U.S. flag inside the country's parliament following President Trump's decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear agreement.


Senators ask billionaire Icahn for refinery waiver details


ALERT: Maj Gen (Ret) Paul Eaton @PaulDEaton52 on Donald Trump's violation of the #IranDeal "It puts American security in great danger, frays our alliances, and sends a message to North Korea, and others, that the word of the United States is not worth the paper its printed on."


Fact checking Trump's speech on withdrawal from Iran deal


"Today, respect for the time-honored blue slip comes to an end," said Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.). "I urge my colleagues to recognize that while today’s action disrespects my role as the junior senator from Wisconsin, tomorrow it may well be you."


1) Trump threatens to stop AT&T's merger with TimeWarner 2) AT&T pays Michael Cohen's "porn star hush money" LLC $200,000 3) Trump doesn't mention merger again 4) AT&T claims it paid Cohen's LLC out of the goodness of its corporate heart


CNN’s Amanpour: “I would describe pulling out of this deal [nuke deal] as possibly the greatest deliberate act of self-harm and self-sabotage in geo-strategic politics in the modern era.” @camanpour


Novartis is currently under investigation in Greece for bribing politicians, apparently to maintain inflated drug prices. Novartis is also under investigation in Congress for the exorbitant cost of MS drugs.


The mystery of Trump’s fake Nobel Peace Prize nomination


Avenatti responds to the critics of his always-on-TV strategy: "Here's the bottom line, Anderson: It's working. It's working in spades... Because we're so out front on this, people send us information, people want to help our cause..."


This theory, that the $1.6M paid to a Playboy model, was in fact for Trump, makes more sense that the story we've been fed so far. Cohen used the same pseudonym David Dennison, but this time they had an abortion to cover up, so Broidy took the bullet


Adorable 4 year old with assault rifle


My latest interview with Rudy Giuliani: He says he is focused on Mueller and that he and Trump are “definitely on the same page, as they say.”


Every single Boeing employee who loses their job is going to know why.


When Schneiderman steps down at EOB tomorrow, Solicitor General Barbara Underwood will take over for the office, according to a spox. Former Action US Solicitor Gen, chief assist in EDNY, argued 20 cases before SCOTUS, clerked for Justice Thurgood Marshall


.@MichaelAvenatti's bombshell report raises this key question: Did a wealthy Russian with Kremlin contacts funnel money to Trump and the Republicans?


Here is a new link to our Executive Summary as the old link is no longer active



Cohen's attorney, to me, re: Columbus Nova-Cohen transactions: “This was not a payment.”


No one in Russia is lamenting Trump's poor decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal. Just the opposite


Columbus Nova, US affiliate of Viktor Vekselberg’s Renova Group, confirms that it hired Michael Cohen but denies that Vekselberg was directly involved


It's hard to imagine a benign explanation for @realDonaldTrump's fixer Michael Cohen receiving $500k in payments from a wealthy Putin associate as Trump took office. What did he receive in return? Intelligence on the U.S. Government? Delayed sanctions implementation? What?


KKK leader found guilty of firing gun during Charlottesville rally, faces years in prison


Oil jumps after U.S. abandons Iran deal, plans 'highest level' sanctions


Shepard Smith: You Can't Say Trump Pulled Out Of Iran Deal; He Made Decision To Violate It


Today, Donald Trump simultaneously lied about the Iranian nuclear deal, undermined global confidence in US commitments, alienated our closest allies, strengthened Iranian hawks, & gave North Korea more reason to keep its nukes. This madness is a danger to our national security.


Michael Avenatti: Suspicious Payments To President Donald Trump Lawyer | The Last Word

Stormy Daniels' lawyer, Michael Avenatti, reveals payments made to a shell company controlled by President Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen right after the election. The suspicious payments are from a company tied to a Russian oligarch and large corporations including AT&T and Novartis


Nunes is trying to get top secret intelligence that will out a Russian source. His unethical crusade to stop Mueller could actually cost lives and irreparably damage US intelligence gathering efforts. This is nuts.


Former CIA Officer Charged With Spying For China


In 2014 Ivanka Trump attended a gala in Moscow with Wendi Deng, and guests Len Blavatnik and Viktor Vekselberg


Billionaires Made So Much Money Last Year They Could End Extreme Poverty Seven Times


Sinclair Broadcast Group is ramping up its plans to build a competitor to Fox News


Secret intelligence source who aided Mueller probe is at center of latest clash between Nunes and Justice Dept.


Senate Intel: Russia-linked hackers were in position to “alter or delete voter registration data” in 2016


Trump just manufactured a national security crisis for no reason


Donald Trump Abdicates US Role In Iran Deal, Nods To Bolton Keen For War

Rachel Maddow reports on the background of the Iran nuclear deal and outlines questions about its fate now that Donald Trump has broken from allies and removed the U.S. and given new strength to John Bolton's eagerness for war as one of the limited number of alternatives.


Newly Exposed Payments To Donald Trump Confidant Cohen Add Depth To Case | Rachel Maddow | MSNBC

Rachel Maddow reports on a set of payments to Donald Trump confidant Michael Cohen exposed in an online posting by Stormy Daniels attorney Michael Avenatti, from corporations like AT&T, Russian oligarch-connected firms, and some as yet unexplained sources. Joyce Vance, former U.S. attorney joins to discuss the legal implications.