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THE FEDERAL BUREAU of Investigation opened an inquiry into whether US President Donald Trump was working on behalf of Russia in 2017, The New York Times reported on Friday.
The investigation – a dual counterintelligence and criminal probe – was launched after the president fired FBI director James Comey in May 2017, the newspaper said, citing anonymous sources.
The counterintelligence aspect consisted of determining whether Trump was knowingly or unknowingly working for Moscow and whether he was a threat to national security, the newspaper reported.
It added the criminal portion related to Trump’s firing of Comey.
The FBI investigation was soon folded into Robert Mueller’s inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 vote and possible collusion between his campaign and Moscow, it said, adding that it was unclear whether the counterintelligence aspect was still being pursued.
The New York Times said that the FBI had been suspicious of Trump’s ties to Russia during the 2016 campaign.
But it held off on opening an investigation until the president sacked Comey, who refused to swear his allegiance and roll back the nascent Russia investigation, which is now being spearheaded by Mueller.
‘Witch hunt’
Trump has repeatedly criticised the Mueller investigation as a “witch hunt” and views it as a stain on the legitimacy of his presidency.
But while Trump has slammed the probe as baseless, Mueller has issued dozens of indictments and steadily chalked up convictions of some of the president’s close associates – including his former national security advisor, his former personal lawyer, and his ex-campaign chief.
The ex-national security advisor, Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to investigators about his Moscow ties.
The lawyer, Michael Cohen, has been sentenced to three years in prison for multiple crimes, including felony violations of campaign finance laws he undertook, prosecutors alleged, under Trump’s direction.
And Trump’s former presidential campaign chair, Paul Manafort, has been convicted in one case brought by Mueller and pleaded guilty in another, over financial crimes related to his work in Ukraine before the 2016 campaign, and for witness tampering.
Court filing
Mobile phone records show that Cohen was near Prague during the summer of 2016, supporting claims that he met there with Russian officials during the presidential election campaign, McClatchy news service has reported.
Cohen, who will testify in Congress on 7 February, insists that he has never been to Prague, but added in a tweet: “#Mueller knows everything!”
As for Manafort, two pro-Russia Ukrainian oligarchs were the intended recipients of US polling data that Manafort admitted to sharing with a Russian during the 2016 presidential race, CNN reported.
Manafort admitted in a court filing to sharing the data with Russian political consultant Konstantin Kilimnik, who reportedly has intelligence ties, but denied lying about these dealings, claiming that he merely forgot details during the hectic campaign.
The specifics of the Mueller allegations were not previously known publicly, having been blacked out in a heavily redacted 7 December filing by the prosecutor’s team.
But in Manafort’s response, the electronic formatting for the redaction could easily be bypassed, revealing exactly what he was accused of lying about.
The Mueller investigation is set to continue to cast a cloud over the White House: a judge has given an extension to the secret grand jury empanelled in the probe, extending its original 18-month mandate.
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Donald Trump, a member of the corrupt, powerful elite supported fervently by the Alt-Right.
@Orla Smith: What do you believe the world would be like if ever one had left wing views and right wing didn’t exist?
@George Weener: much fairer and peaceful
@Michael Walsh: The soy industry would be booming
@George Weener: Well I’m a centrist so I don’t think about such hypotheticals.
@Orla Smith: Centrist? That’s an identity now?
@Garry Coll: always has been. It’s where most people are ideologically. They like some stuff from the left and some from the right but dislike the extremes of both. Judging from Órla’s comments she ain’t one of them
@Dave O’Keeffe: Completely agree – Orla is far Left
@Michael Walsh: like venezuela ?
@PC Principal: Left of left and arrogant to compound her problems
Trump is the best thing that happened to the warmongering establishment in America. They can do whatever they want (and they are doing it) and no one cares because people are tying themselves in knots caz of his bloody tweets.
What has changed in America foreign policy between Obama and trump? Nothing. Its the same.
@Adeel McDangerson: If ya don’t have an America with teeth, ya won’t exist on this planet, my friend.
@Adeel McDangerson: troops pulled from Syria is one thing.
@Adeel McDangerson:
So, as soon as Trump was elected, even before he took office, the US aggression in Syria stopped, whereas while Obama was there, they actually ran out of bombs.
Trumps response to gas attacks was to blow up the factory, minimal aggression and loss of life.
Denuked NK (nevermind the bs MSM saying it’s stopped), No test missiles, North South railway started etc.
Hostages recovered peacefully from “enemy” countries.
US troops pulling out of Syria, where they should never have been, but for Obama and Clinton.
Obama won a Nobel prize after doubling US conflict zones, But Trump is villified for his tweets?
@NoneOfYourBusiness: but its cool and hip to give out about Trump
@NoneOfYourBusiness: Suuuure, NK is denuking itself. Just as the Saudis are modernising their kingdom.
By the way, my mate is selling Sydney Opera House for AU$20,000 if you’re interested. Papers drawn up and everything.
@NoneOfYourBusiness: straight over your head mate…..
@Toby Fish: not yet. Also, he has increased deployments by a massive amount.
@Patabake Kennedy: what are you even on about? Please tell me you are not referring to ww2… Caz if that’s where you are going, than Soviets is the correct answer. You do know Holywood movies are not actual history lessons
@Patabake Kennedy: what are you even on about? Please tell me you are not referring to ww2… Caz if that’s where you are going, than Soviets is the correct answer. You do know Holywood movies are not actual history lessons
@Toby Fish: Obama pulled troops from Afghanistan and Iraq. And Syria has not happened yet. So tell me when they actually do it.
@Dave O’Keeffe: Please add a link for those deployment figures Dave. He sent 10,000 extra to Japan and 2,000 or so to S.Korea. Is that what you are referring to?
@NoneOfYourBusiness: “So, as soon as Trump was elected, even before he took office, the US aggression in Syria stopped, whereas while Obama was there, they actually ran out of bombs.”
Aggression did not stop. That is not true at all. US involvement in Syria increased under Trump, especially after the US put their support behind the Kurds, and aerial bombing (Operation Inherent Resolve) levelled several ISIS held towns and cities, the largest of which was Raqqa.
Previous to this, under the Obama presidency, US only fought ISIS out in the open, in rural areas. As result the proportion of civilian casualties was much lower under Obama than under Trump. Urban combat and bombing under Trump greatly increased civilian casualties in Syria.
Also, the withdrawal from Syria only involves 2000 special forces and support personal, they may be withdrawn in about 3 months, they say. Also, the troop withdrawal from Afghanistan began in 2011 under Obama.
“Trumps response to gas attacks”
Obama never bombed Syria in response to Gas attacks, Trump bombed twice. After the East Ghouta attack in 2013, the US did nothing, they didn’t bomb Syria. Syria instead agreed to decommission their chemical weapons in turn for the US dropping the threat of the No Fly Zone.
The only two times the US attacked Syria following alleged gas attacks happened under Trump, after the 2017 Khan Sheikhoun attack and the 2018 Douma Attack.
@Shane Dignam: glad you asked sweetheart https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2017/12/01/566798632/under-trump-u-s-troops-in-war-zones-are-on-the-rise
@Shane Dignam: and here’s more insight https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2018/04/09/dod-strips-iraq-afghanistan-syria-troop-numbers-from-web/
@Adeel McDangerson: Chap, just get a little help for yerself, maybe get an appointment with yer shrink as i am sure that there are tablets out there now for that complaint that you are suffering with. God speed.
Yeah right! The smear campaign began way before that
@PC Principal: to be fair, if they hadn’t launched an investigation after he announced that he fired Comey to shut down the Russia investigation it would have been ridiculous
@Dave O’Keeffe: I agree with you on that one Dave. Question though, nearly three years on do you think anything substantial will surface? If there’s anything in it, it won’t be released to the public until the 2020 campaign – that’s where my money is at
@PC Principal: You’re a bookies dream.
@PC Principal: you know this isn’t the Russia investigation right? The investigation mentioned in this article started less than two years ago and I’d imagine is one of the redacted cases mentioned in both the Manafort and Cohen cases. I’m not sire what Trump’s role was, neither of us have enough information. Innocent until proven guilty in my book. He doesn’t help himself at all though.
I honestly think the Russians would not be able to work with him as he is to stupid. He said last year after visiting Canada for a G7 meeting, ‘It was a really great overseas trip.’
Shades of J Edgar Hoover who threatened to expose JFKs personal life if he got fired. Comey got fired and now the Russia probe has become the Stormy Daniels probe.,
@Pragmatist2018: the Russia investigation was ongoing by the time this second investigation started. They are separate investigations.
@Dave O’Keeffe: But a central element of the probe appears to be the Comey firing, despite Comey having testified after the firing that a president has the right to fire the director for whatever reason or no reason.
@Pragmatist2018: yes and it’s not the firing that is the offense they’re looking at it’s what the desired result was
Comey was incompetent and should have been fired. The Mueller investigation should never have began. Comey, Page and Strzok said there was no evidence of collusion. There needs to be another Church Committee as the Intelligence Community has lost the run of itself! Also, a full and proper investigation into the Obama admin and DoJ abuse of power before Trump took office.
@Jack Simpson: You say Comey was incompetent!! In what way? As far as any competent neutral observer was of the Clinton E-Mail affair would know that Comey did what he was legally obliged to do at each given stage. The oly reason he was sacked a was that he refused to give an oath of loyalty to Trump personally, something he could not Constitutionally do as head of the countries foremost Law Enforcement Agency which must remain entirely neutral from politics.
@Mick.: In some of the following ways:
1) Used the “salacious and unverified” Steele dossier as justification to surveil Carter Page
2) Failed to seize DNC’s “hacked” servers
3) Lied under oath
4) Allowed a secret investigation to mushroom into a media maelstrom driven by leaks that created a Russiagate story that far exceeded the evidence, and then used that false narrative to set an out of control special counsel
5) HRC debacle pre election
6) Comey usurped Lynch’s authority during HRC email scandal
@Jack Simpson: funny I thought judges issues FISA warrants. Also his firing is why the special counsel was appointed how do you figure he made thst happen?
@Jack Simpson:
1) He would have been remiss and incompetent if he did not investigate someone that the FBI had received information about.
2) As the victims of the crime he had no authority nor legitimate reason to seize the DNC servers.
3) To whom did he lie under Oath to?
4)He did not institute the Muller investigation. It began after Trump fired him.
5) I refer you back to original reply.
6) He followed the letter of the Law as one would and should expect from the Head of the FBI.
@Mick.:
1) When interviewed by the house committees Comey suffered an acute bout of dementia. He didn’t seem to remember many details but did disclose a few key insights. He confessed that the FBI had not corroborated much of the Steele dossier before it was submitted as evidence to a secret court to support a FISA warrant to spy on Page. The FISA court process is an honor system and that the FBI may only submit evidence it has verified to the judges. It was a case of the cart before the horse. He also admitted much of the dossier remained uncorroborated more than six months later when he was fired by President Trump. So why push for an overblown investigation if you can’t verify and qualify any of the allegations?
2) That’s ridiculous! The servers are key to Russiagate. The DNC, the Clinton campaign and the cypersecurity firm employed by them (which is headed by Russophobes) accused the Russians of hacking. Veteran intelligence professionals for sanity (made up of 2 x former NSA technical directors) examined the metadata and said a hack was impossible. It was a leak. So a key piece of evidence was not seized. That is reprehensible!
3) To Congress about FBI leaks.
4) He set the wheels in motion 9-10 months before the Mueller investigation as stated above, i.e. abusing the FISA court, using an unverified dossier, leaking to the media, threatening Trump about an unverified dossier, etc.
6) No he didn’t.
@Jack Simpson: 1. the FISA warrant, there was an entire page explaining that the dossier was not verified and explaining their reasons for including it. It’s in the unredacted part and everything. 2. The hack/leak hasn’t this been settled already? Wasn’t someone’s phone misplaced? 3. You’re probably right 4. The FISA warrant was issued and reissued in accordance with the law with the judges knowing the dossier was unverified as by its very nature it was unverifiable for the most part.
Too Stupid to be anything but a Stooge. But his ego makes him easy to manipulate and thus a perfect mark for the Russian Intelligence Agencies the GRU or SVR. A little flattery and he would be eating out of their hands.
@Mick.: Or perhaps the Cold war is over and Europe is the new enemy for trying to bypass Saudi dollar oil for Iranian and Iraqi Euro oil. China too is an enemy after telling the Koreans to fire Ballistic missiles over Japan and Russia might just be the new ally to help contain them both. He could be a very stable genius. If Isis were created by Saudi and US then did they attack Europe? We live in interesting times. Orange man bad lies in the realm of the simple minded.
@alan: “Or perhaps the Cold war is over”. I dont think that Vlad has gotten that memo. Maybe you could write to him and let him know Russia Lost the Cold War. Because he is under the impression that it is still going. One only has to look at what Russia has been up to since he first became President. Invaded and annexed his neighbours territory, murdered opponents in Russia and abroad,used Cyber Warfare to attack the West, State Sponsored cheating by Russian Athletes, Proxy Wars. Used an egotistical simpleton to be come the most disruptive force in Western history. Russia leaves Chinese machinations in the halfpenny place.
@Mick.: 1) Crimea voted to secede after western backed coup
2) Who did he murder?
3) All countries engage in cyber warfare so what’s your point?
4) Don’t think it is state sponsored. It is widespread though!
5) Proxy wars. Again, all big powers engage in these. US has been most prolific.
6) Zero evidence of Kremlin-Trump collusion to get Trump elected.
@Jack Simpson: Lets look at your replies.
1) Russia had invaded Crimea before any spurious vote had taken place. They had also invaded and annexed both South Ossitia and Abkhazia in Georgia.
2)Under is orders the attempted murders of the Skripals led to the murder of Dawn Sturgess. He is also responsible for the murder of Sergei Maginski, Anna Potlitovskya, Boris Nemtsov, Alexander Litvinenko and not forgetting the 283 victims of MH 17.
3) So you agree that Russia has used Cyber Warfare against the West in a continuation of the Cold War.
4)It has be proven beyond all doubt that Russian State sponsored took place.One only has to look at the confessions of Vitaly Stepanov and Darya Pishchalnikova and the report commissioned by WADA.
5) Proxy wars in Eastern Ukraine and Trandinistra in Moldova.
6) the Muller investigation has not yet concluded as such you cannot state conclusively that your premise is correct.
Definitely not a spy.
Just a useful idiot.
I have a print of the Declaration of Independence framed up on my den wall, & when I compare the lofty ideals in that declaration with the bile twittering from the White House, I fear for the USA.
I fear also for this great democracy, when one man & his gofers can hold the Elected House on the hill to ransom.
I fear also that he is accumulating an increasing group of fired, resigned, & subpoenaed generals & political professionals, who will feel very aggrieved & disenchanted that they have been jettisoned overboard.
My hope is that the “Swamp” that he wishes to drain, will swallow him up and submerge his vile creed at the end of his term in 2 years time.
Meantime, we are living in squeaky bum times, & should just stay calm, whilst the system steadily cleanses itself of this infection.
have your say