US Politics

[LA se Karachi]

McCain calls on Trump to clarify wiretapping claim

By Eli Watkins, CNN

Washington (CNN) - Sen. John McCain said Sunday that President Donald Trump should either retract or substantiate his claim that President Barack Obama wire-tapped him in the final weeks of the presidential campaign and added he expects more to come on Russia's meddling in the US election.

McCain said on CNN's "State of the Union" that he had "no reason to believe" Trump's allegation, which the President has not supported with any evidence and which a White House official said was prompted by a Breitbart article.

"I have no reason to believe that the charge is true, but I also believe that the President of the United States could clear this up in a minute," McCain told anchor Jake Tapper. "All he has to do is pick up the phone, call the director of the CIA, director of national intelligence and say, 'OK, what happened?'"

The Arizona senator's comments marked the latest high-profile call for the President to explain a series of tweets he sent on March 4 in which he claimed, without evidence, that Obama had the "wires tapped" at Trump Tower. Since Trump leveled the stunning accusations, several current and former national security officials denied the accusation, including former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, as did Obama himself through his spokesman. Sources have told CNN that FBI Director James Comey also pushed back against Trump's claim.

Under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, law enforcement agencies must obtain a warrant from a secret court to undertake such monitoring. But communications of Americans may be swept up in the monitoring of foreigners, as was reportedly the case with ex-national security adviser Michael Flynn, whose leaked contacts with Russian diplomat Sergey Kislyak led to his ouster.

Reports that Trump's associates contacted Russians known to US intelligence during the campaign have dogged Trump for months, raising questions about whether those contacts had anything to do with Russia's meddling in the US election. The US intelligence community has concluded that Moscow launched an aggressive hacking campaign to undermine the candidacy of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

The Russian government has denied these claims, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov telling CNN's Fareed Zakaria in an interview that aired Sunday: "Russia is being demonized."

Facing political pressure over reports that he, too, met with Kislyak but did not acknowledge it during his confirmation hearing, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced earlier this month that he would recuse himself from any investigation into Trump's campaign.

The House and Senate Intelligence committees have said they are investigating alleged Russian involvement in the election, and the White House has asked Congress to include Trump's unsubstantiated wiretapping claims in its investigations.

House Speaker Paul Ryan said on CBS "Face the Nation" in an interview that aired Sunday that he had not seen any evidence to back Trump's claims. Ryan is a member of the "Gang of Eight" of congressional leaders with access to the nation's top intelligence. FBI Director James Comey met behind closed doors with those lawmakers Thursday.

In his interview Sunday, McCain said Trump's accusation must be resolved; if left hanging, "it undermines the confidence the American people have in the entire way the that the government does business," he said.

McCain also expressed his concern with the mounting questions about the relationships between Russian officials and people tied to Trump, who advocated for better relations with Russia during the campaign.

"There's a lot of aspects of this whole relationship with Russia and (Russian President) Vladimir Putin that requires further scrutiny, and so far, I don't think the American people have gotten all the answers,"McCain said. "In fact, I think there's a lot more shoes to drop from this centipede."

McCain, who has advocated a hard line against Russia, called into question the failure of the Republican Party to adopt at its 2016 national convention a plank for the provision of defensive weapons to Ukraine following Russia's invasion of Crimea.

"Why was that taken out of the Republican platform?" McCain asked. "Clearly, it was not the will of most Republicans."

As president, Obama weighed the idea of arming Ukraine, but ultimately did not proceed with such a move.
McCain named Flynn as one person about whom he had questions. He went on to say that former Trump adviser Roger Stone also needed to be questioned in addition to former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, accusing both of questionable ties to the ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.

"This whole issue of the relationship with the Russians and who communicated with them and under what circumstances clearly cries out for investigations, but I would also point out, we should not assume guilt until we have a thorough investigation," McCain said.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/12/politics/john-mccain-donald-trump/

 

[Dragon Ball]

https://twitter.com/x/status/841369900123865088

 

[RabzonKhan]

I really cannot understand how can poor blue-collar workers vote for him and think that this filthy rich man was going to take care of them? Hopefully they will learn their lesson and next time will vote more wisely.


Trump promised not to cut Medicaid. His health bill will cut $880 billion from it.

Updated by Andrew Prokopandrew Mar 13, 2017

As a candidate, Donald Trump promised that he wouldn’t cut Medicaid. He’d “save Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security without cuts,” he pledged during his announcement speech. “Have to do it.”

The House Republican health care bill doesn’t just break that promise — it makes a mockery of it.

According to the Congressional Budget Office estimate released Monday, the American Health Care Act would slash $880 billion in federal funds from Medicaid in the next 10 years. As a result, 14 million fewer people would have Medicaid coverage in 2026, the agency estimates.

Trump’s promise not to cut Medicaid wasn’t a one-off — he used it specifically to argue that he was different from other Republicans. In May 2015 when he was preparing his campaign, he said, “I’m not going to cut Medicare or Medicaid. Every other Republican is going to cut.”


That same month, he tweeted the following:

https://twitter.com/x/status/596338364187602944

Trump has also repeatedly promised, even after his election, that his health care plan would provide insurance for everyone. “We’re going to have insurance for everybody,” he said in January. “There was a philosophy in some circles that if you can’t pay for it, you don’t get it. That’s not going to happen with us.”

The American Health Care Act utterly breaks that promise. Not only does it roll back Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion, it would overhaul the entire Medicaid program to cap how many federal dollars states would get per enrollee, as Dylan Matthews explains. As a result, it would cause millions of people to be tossed off Medicaid without offering them an affordable alternative. Link




CBO: Republican health care bill raises premiums for older, poor Americans by more than 750%

The American Health Care Act would make a low-income 64-year-old in the individual market pay more than half his income for health insurance.

by German Lopez Mar 13, 2017

The Republican-backed American Health Care Act would be totally devastating to older Americans who rely on the individual market for insurance, according to an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

The bill does bring down overall premiums in the individual market by about 10 percent by 2026 compared with what they would be under current law, the CBO found. But the CBO includes a big caveat: This would greatly differ based on age and income.

The CBO offers an example of a single individual with an annual income of $26,500.

If that person is 21 years old, he’ll largely benefit from the Republican health care bill. Under the Affordable Care Act (also known as Obamacare), he would on average pay $1,700 in premiums for insurance. Under the Republican plan, he would pay $1,450.

But if that person is 64 years old, he would be hurt by the Republican bill. Under Obamacare, he would also pay $1,700 in premiums for insurance. But under the Republican bill, he would pay $14,600 — more than half his annual income. That amounts to more than a 750 percent increase in premiums from Obamacare to the Republican bill.

A 64-year-old who’s making $68,200 a year would fare a bit better. Under Obamacare, he’s expected to pay $15,300 in premiums for insurance — because his income would be too high to receive the law’s tax credits. But under the Republican bill, everyone below $75,000 gets a tax credit based on age (with a phaseout for higher incomes). So he would get a subsidy that would reduce his premium to $14,600 — just barely enough to be lower than it would be under Obamacare.

Here’s how all of that looks in chart form:

Older people with an annual income of $75,000 or more would get fewer to no subsidies under the Republican bill. So they would likely face higher premiums than they did under Obamacare, much like the lower-income consumer.

The Republican bill accomplishes all of this in two ways.

First, it abandons Obamacare’s income-based tax credits (which give more money to people with lower incomes) to instead give anyone with an annual salary below $75,000 a tax credit based on age, with older people getting more money and a phaseout for higher incomes.

But it also peels back an Obamacare rule that protects older people from higher premiums. Under Obamacare, insurers are generally only allowed to charge an older person about three times what they would charge a younger person — under the theory that older people are often sicker and therefore need to use more insurance. But under the Republican bill, the limit of three times would go up to five times, effectively letting insurers charge older people 66 percent more than they would under Obamacare.

Republicans argue this is necessary because it would also let insurers charge younger people less, which would encourage younger and generally healthier people to come into the insurance pool — and therefore bring down the overall cost of health care by making it so more younger, healthier people are effectively subsidizing everyone’s care.

The CBO found that’s broadly true. It would bring insurance premiums down in general, and it would cost young people less to get signed up for a health plan. But it would do all of that at a high cost for older Americans.


Correction: This article originally misstated how the individual market tax credit phaseout works under the American Health Care Act. Link

 

[RabzonKhan]

What is funny is you posting a wall of rubbish in which you haven't got a clue about what you are talking about.






Read your own sources. The FBI is looking into:

1. The people behind the DNC breaches.

2. The Identity of Guciffer2 (Believed to have posted Padestas emails.)

3. Russian contacts and companies with possible links to Trump associates.



In your liberal mind this equates to Trump having contacts with Russia and since when was it illegal to do business in Russia? Hillary and Bill Clinton made a lot of money from Russia, 500k for one speach but that's okay, it's only wrong if Trump or his business partners do it.



Meanwhile:

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/11/01/us/politics/fbi-russia-election-donald-trump.html


The FBI already investigating Trump/Russia and found nothing.

Are you really that gullible? You said: “give the Trump Russian conspiracy rest. The FBI has already concluded that Trump has no links to Russia.” In response to your bogus claim, I gave you the reference/link to shows you that the FBI is still continuing with the investigation, now, at this time, nobody knows where these investigations (remember, five men were arrested that led to the resignation of president Nixon Link) will lead.

The other point is, the New York Times article that you quoted is of November 2016, clearly, looks like you’re not very up to date, now, read this:

Note, the report is from January 6, 2017

“We assess Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the US presidential election. Russia’s goals were to undermine public faith in the US democratic process, denigrate Secretary Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency. We further assess Putin and the Russian Government developed a clear preference for President-elect Trump. We have high confidence in these judgments.

We also assess Putin and the Russian Government aspired to help President-elect Trump’s election chances when possible by discrediting Secretary Clinton and publicly contrasting her unfavorably to him. All three agencies agree with this judgment. CIA and FBI have high confidence in this judgment; NSA has moderate confidence.” Link

Blah.. blah..blah. Mostly a bunch of disgruntled political hack Democrats and a handful of Rupblicans that openly hate Russians are kicking up dirt. They can launch as many inquiries as they want, the FBI has already concluded Trump had no connection to Russia. That is a hard pill to swallow for libs.

“Handful of Republicans”, really? clearly, you really don’t know what the heck you’re talking about. Since Republicans are in majority in the Congress, all of these important committees Chairman’s are Republicans as well as majority of its members. Link

FBI is still continuing the investigation, so please, stop repeating rubbish.

I'm hoping for your sake and dignity you are drunk because I find it hard to believe a sober person can be this foolish. The democrat sock puppet asked Sessions if he had contacts with Russians during the campaign. He truthfully answer no. He met with the Russian embassador 2 times prior to being involved with the Trump campaign but that is not what was asked

Looks like you just made that story up, didn’t you? Let me give you some facts here:

On February 28, 2016 Jeff Sessions becomes the first senator to endorse Trump for president.

On March 3, 2016 Trump announces Sessions will lead his national security advisory committee. Link

New York, NY) March 3rd, 2016 – Today Donald J. Trump announced Senator Jeff Sessions, who has advised the GOP frontrunner on issues such as trade and immigration and endorsed Mr. Trump on Sunday in Alabama, will serve as Chairman of Mr. Trump’s National Security Advisory Committee.

Mr. Trump stated, “It is an honor to have Jeff as a member of the team.

Senator Sessions added, "I am grateful for the opportunity to recommend and facilitate discussions among exceptional and experienced American military and diplomatic leaders to share insight and advice with Donald Trump.

On July 18, 2016 Jeff sessions spoke with Sergey I. Kislyak, the Russian ambassador, during the Republican National Convention.

On Sept. 8, 2016 Sessions and two of his senior aides meet with Kislyak in Sessions’s Senate office.

Jan. 10, 2017 At the confirmation hearing for attorney general, Senator Al Franken, a Democrat, asks Mr. Sessions what he would do if “there is any evidence that anyone affiliated
with the Trump campaign communicated with the Russian government in the course of this campaign.” Sessions replies, “I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign, and I didn’t have —did not have communications with the Russians, and I’m unable to comment on it.”

Jan. 10, 2017 Senator Patrick J. Leahy, a Democrat, asks Mr. Sessions in a written questionnaire whether he had been “in contact with anyone connected to any part of the Russian government about the 2016 election, either before or after Election Day.” Mr. Sessions replies, “No.”

March 1, 2017 The Washington Post reports that Sessions met twice with Kislyak.

The fact is, he was working for Trump’s campaign, when he testified under oath “I did not have communication with the Russians” he was not being truthful, only after the Washington Post broke the news and he was caught red handed, he came up with more lame excuses, absolutely pathetic.

So now, what say you?

 

[ptldM3]

@RabzonKhan were you not one of the many liberals that was occussing Trump of not paying any taxes for the last 20 years?

Turns out he payed more then 38 million in taxes in 2005. Trump Was taxed at over 25%, while Sanders payed just 13%. He payed 100s of millions in taxes but for some bum liberals that have never contributed to society that is not enough.

Liberals being exposed for being liars again. Proof once again the liberals put out fake news, and I love the scoundrel Racheal madcow bragging and brandishing stolen financial information. How dare weki leaks expose corrupt Democrats but stealing personal tax information and showing it to millions is fine.

 

[RabzonKhan]

There goes Trumps Muslim ban part two, I’m loving it.

Federal judges block Trump's travel ban

By Laura Jarrett, CNN March 16, 2017

(CNN) Two federal judges have temporarily blocked President Donald Trump's travel ban, both citing Trump's statements about Muslims during the presidential campaign as part of their rulings.

A ruling by a federal judge in Hawaii Wednesday resulted in a temporary restraining order nationwide, hours before it was set to go into effect. In a decision published Thursday morning, another federal judge in Maryland specifically blocked the 90-day ban on immigration for citizens of six Muslim-majority countries.
In a 43-page ruling, US District Court Judge Derrick Watson, who presides in Honolulu, concluded in no uncertain terms that the new executive order failed to pass legal muster at this stage and the state had established "a strong likelihood of success" on their claims of religious discrimination.

Trump decried Watson's ruling during a rally Wednesday night in Nashville, introducing his statement as "the bad, the sad news."
"The order he blocked was a watered-down version of the first one," Trump said, as the crowd booed the news.

"This is, in the opinion of many, an unprecedented judicial overreach," he added, before pledging to take the issue to the Supreme Court if necessary.
The practical effect of Watson's ruling -- which applies nationwide -- is that travelers from six Muslim-majority countries and refugees will be able to travel to the US.
Unlike the previous executive order, the new one removed Iraq from the list of banned countries, exempted those with green cards and visas and removed a provision that arguably prioritizes certain religious minorities.

The new ban was announced earlier this month and was set to take effect Thursday. It would have banned people from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen from entering the US for 90 days and all refugees for 120 days.

"The illogic of the Government's contentions is palpable. The notion that one can demonstrate animus toward any group of people only by targeting all of them at once is fundamentally flawed," Watson wrote.

"Equally flawed is the notion that the Executive Order cannot be found to have targeted Islam because it applies to all individuals in the six referenced countries," Watson added. "It is undisputed, using the primary source upon which the Government itself relies, that these six countries have overwhelmingly Muslim populations that range from 90.7% to 99.8%." Read more

 

[RabzonKhan]

What a childish behavior!

Trump apparently refused to shake German Chancellor Merkel’s hand during a joint appearance at the White House.

Photographers, can we get a handshake…….Merkel whispers to Trump, do you want to have a handshake…….Trump ignores her request (absolutely disgusting)…….Merkel, makes awkward face.

British novelist, best known as the author of the Harry Potter fantasy series.

https://twitter.com/x/status/843013819597312000

 

[T-72M1]

 

[RabzonKhan]

I’m watching House select intelligence committee’s hearing:

Russian interference in our elections,

Trump campaigns links with Russia

Trump’s bogus claims that former Pres. Obama ordered a wiretap on Trump Tower.

NSA Dir. Adm. Michael Rogers and FBI director James Comey are testifying.

FBI director Comey drop two bombshells,

First, he completely rejected Pres. Trump’s claim that Pres. Obama had ordered a wiretap on Trump Tower.

Second, he confirmed that the FBI is investigating links between Pres. Trump campaign's links to Russia’s election interference.

I’ll post more after the hearing is completed.

 

[F-22Raptor]

View attachment 385346

I’m watching House select intelligence committee’s hearing:

Russian interference in our elections,

Trump campaigns links with Russia

Trump’s bogus claims that former Pres. Obama ordered a wiretap on Trump Tower.

NSA Dir. Adm. Michael Rogers and FBI director James Comey are testifying.

FBI director Comey drop two bombshells,

First, he completely rejected Pres. Trump’s claim that Pres. Obama had ordered a wiretap on Trump Tower.

Rep. Speier: "Is Russia our adversary?"

Comey: "Yes"
Rogers: "Yes"

This just confirms why it's so important to get to the bottom of the Trump-Russia story.

 

[F-22Raptor]

Trump has asked Paul Ryan to pull his health care bill due to lack of support in the House. Big loss for Trump...

Apparently Ryan told some reps that health care is basically dead for the rest of Congress. This is a massive blow for Trump and his team.

Paul Ryan just now, "Obamacare is the law of the land."

 

[F-22Raptor]

1. Trump lost the popular vote by the largest margin ever.
2. Travel ban failed twice
3. Mexico won't pay for the wall
4. Trumpcare failed
5. His administration is under investigation by the FBI
6. Trump's a pathological liar

When does the winning start?

 

[LA se Karachi]

Nunes admits meeting with source of Trump surveillance documents on White House grounds

House Intelligence Committee Chair Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) apologized to colleagues, March 23, after facing backlash for going to the White House before consulting them about what he said was fresh intelligence about surveillance of the president. (Reuters)


The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee acknowledged Monday that he had made a secret visit to the White House last week to view intelligence files he then cited as proof of potentially improper spying activity against President Trump, casting new doubt on the independence of a congressional investigation into Russian election interference.

The admission by Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) triggered calls among Democrats for his removal as chairman of the House panel, and bipartisan appeals for an independent probe of Kremlin meddling in the 2016 election and potential connections between Russia and Trump associates.

The committee’s ranking Democrat, Adam B. Schiff (Calif.), called late Monday for Nunes to “recuse himself from any further involvement in the Russia investigation” and all “oversight matters pertaining to any incidental collection of the Trump transition,” noting Nunes was a member of Trump’s transition team.

The development coincided with the disclosure that Trump’s son-in-law and close adviser, Jared Kushner, had privately met in December with the chief executive of a Russian bank being targeted by U.S. sanctions, and that Kushner has agreed to discuss such contacts with the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Trump administration officials sought to play down the significance of both developments, describing Kushner’s contacts as inconsequential and refusing to answer questions about the Nunes visit. “I’m not going to get into who he met with or why he met with them,” White House spokesman Sean Spicer said.

The meeting with a source and his review of intelligence material apparently occurred in a secure space for handling classified files within the Old Executive Office Building adjacent to the White House. Nunes returned to the White House the next day — bypassing colleagues on the House committee — supposedly to brief Trump on what he had learned.

The attempts to keep such matters hidden from public view, however, added to the perception that the Trump administration has failed to be forthcoming about contacts with Russia and is working with allies on Capitol Hill to blunt congressional probes.

The Senate’s top Democrat said that House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) should remove Nunes to salvage that chamber’s investigation of Moscow influence. “If Speaker Ryan wants the House to have a credible investigation, he needs to replace Chairman Nunes,” Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said.

Schiff said, “There was no legitimate justification for bringing that information to the White House instead of the committee. That it was also obtained at the White House makes this departure all the more concerning.”

Asked about Nunes’s White House visit, Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) said, “Not good. It’s not a confidence builder.” He said “we’re rapidly getting” to the point where a select committee or independent commission is need to conduct the investigation into Russian meddling.

Nunes said in an interview Monday that no one in the Republican leadership had asked him to step aside, and he defended his actions as part of an attempt to investigate potential misconduct by U.S. spy agencies against Trump associates.

“Everybody is worried by process and they should be worried about what I’ve actually said about what I’ve seen,” Nunes said, when asked whether it was proper for him to visit the White House under those circumstances. “Why all the worry about where I saw information? We go to the White House all the time, our job is providing oversight of the executive branch.”

Nunes had previously refused to say how or where he had seen classified files he cited in a hastily arranged news conference last week, saying that he had obtained troubling evidence that U.S. spy agencies “incidentally collected information about U.S. citizens involved in the Trump transition.”

At a time when the White House was struggling to defend Trump’s baseless accusation that he had been wiretapped under orders issued by then-President Barack Obama, the Nunes assertion helped shift public attention and, to some, cast Trump as a victim of espionage abuse.

In reality, Nunes appeared to be referring to legitimate intelligence operations against foreign individuals who were either in contact with Trump associates or mentioned them in conversations that were monitored as part of routine U.S. surveillance. Nunes reiterated Monday that he has seen no evidence of illegality.

Current and former national security officials described Nunes’s trip to the White House complex, apparently late in the evening after he had slipped away from his staff, as highly unusual. Doing so would ordinarily require Nunes and the person he met with to have been cleared in advance and accompanied by an escort — requirements that seemed to undercut White House claims to have no information about the encounter.

“How incredibly irregular,” said Matt Olsen, who served in the Obama administration as the head of the National Counterterrorism Center and the general counsel at the National Security Agency. “The only explanation you’re left with is that this is all being orchestrated by the White House.”

Nunes again declined to disclose with whom he met, citing the need “to protect people who bring information to the committee, and I’m going to protect my source.” His office said he met the source on the White House grounds.

The House Intelligence Committee is authorized to handle classified information and routinely meets with officials — including whistleblowers — from U.S. spy agencies.

Nunes spokesman Jack Langer said that because of limitations on House computer systems, Nunes could not have used secure facilities at the Capitol to review the files. He added that “the White House grounds was the best location to safeguard the proper chain of custody and classification of these documents.”

Nunes has said that the documents include references to Trump advisers and associates, but do not pertain to Russia. In the past few days, former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and former campaign advisers Carter Page and Roger Stone volunteered to make themselves available for interviews with the Senate and House Intelligence committees.

On Monday, officials from the White House and Senate said that Kushner had also offered himself for an interview with the Senate Intelligence Committee, at a date yet to be determined. The development was first reported by the New York Times.

A senior congressional official said Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) spoke with the White House counsel “some weeks ago” to warn that the panel would be seeking to speak with administration officials, including Kushner. The White House indicated to the committee over the weekend that Kushner would be willing to participate.

The White House had previously disclosed that Kushner met with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak at Trump Tower in December, a session also attended by former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who was fired for lying about the nature of his contacts with Kislyak.

On Monday, the White House acknowledged a previously undisclosed meeting between Kushner and Sergey N. Gorkov, chief of Russian government-owned Vnesheconombank. The bank, which handles Russia’s pension funds and deals with development activity for the state, including foreign debts and investments, has been under U.S. sanctions since July 2014, in response to Russia’s intervention in Ukraine.

The bank also has been tied to Russian intelligence services.

In early 2015, one of the bank’s New York-based employees, Evgeny Buryakov, was arrested and accused of being an unregistered spy for Russia’s foreign intelligence service, working with two Russian diplomats who were also secretly acting as spies. According to the U.S. government, they collected information about U.S. sanctions against Russia, and American efforts to develop alternative energy resources.

Buryakov pleaded guilty in March 2016 to conspiring to act as an agent of a foreign government, though he never admitted to being an employee of Russia’s foreign intelligence service.

Spicer defended Kushner’s meetings, saying that he was the “official primary point of contact” with foreign governments and officials during the campaign and transition period.

Robert Costa and Devlin Barrett contributed to this report.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/powe...489b735b3a3_story.html?utm_term=.41f5cd697a21

 

[RabzonKhan]

View attachment 385346

I’m watching House select intelligence committee’s hearing:

Russian interference in our elections,

Trump campaigns links with Russia

Trump’s bogus claims that former Pres. Obama ordered a wiretap on Trump Tower.

NSA Dir. Adm. Michael Rogers and FBI director James Comey are testifying.

FBI director Comey drop two bombshells,

First, he completely rejected Pres. Trump’s claim that Pres. Obama had ordered a wiretap on Trump Tower.

Second, he confirmed that the FBI is investigating links between Pres. Trump campaign's links to Russia’s election interference.

I’ll post more after the hearing is completed.

Sorry, got little busy.

Below are the Key highlights from the hearing:

FBI director James Comey confirmed at the hearing what long has been reported in the liberal media that the FBI is investigating Russia’s interference during the presidential election, including possible links between the Trump campaign and the Russians to influence the election and any coordination between them. He described it as a “counterintelligence investigation”, and that “also include an assessment of whether any crimes were committed”.

Comey also clearly said that the Russian wanted to help Trump win the election:

Rep. Adam Schiff is the ranking member of the House intelligence committee hearing on Russian interference in the 2016 US election.

His opening statement is little long, but worth the read:

Rep. Schiff Opening Statement Laying Out Facts of Russia Investigation

Adam Schiff, Last summer at the height of a bitterly contested and hugely consequential presidential campaign, a foreign adversarial power intervened in an effort to weaken our democracy and to influence the outcome for one candidate and against the other. That foreign adversary was of course Russia and it activated through its intelligence agencies and upon the direct instructions of its autocratic ruler Vladimir Putin, in order to help Donald J. Trump become the 45th president of the United States.

The Russian active measures campaign may have begun as early as 2015, when Russian intelligence services launched a series of spear fishing attacks designed to penetrate the computers of a broad array of Washington based Democratic and Republican party organizations, think tanks and other entities. This continued at least through the winter of 2016.

While at first the hacking may have been intended solely for the collection of foreign intelligence. In mid-2016 the Russians weapon eyes the stolen data and used platforms established by the Intel services, such as D.C. leaks in existing third-party channels like WikiLeaks to dump the documents. The stolen documents were almost uniformly damaging to the candidate Putin despised, Hillary Clinton. And by forcing her campaign to constantly respond to the daily drip of disclosures, the releases greatly benefited Donald Trump's campaign.

None of these facts is seriously in question. And they're reflected in the consensus conclusion of our intelligence agencies. We will never know whether the Russian intervention was determinative in such a close election. Indeed, it is unknowable in a campaign to which so many small changes could have dictated a different result. More importantly, and for the purposes of our investigation, it simply does not matter.

What does matter is this, the Russians successfully meddled in our democracy and our intelligence agencies have concluded they will do so again. Ours is not the first democracy to be attacked by the Russians in this way. Russian intelligence has been simile interfering in the internal and political affairs of our European and other allies for decades.

SCHIFF: What is striking here is the degree to which the Russians were willing to undertake such an audacious and risky action against the most powerful nation on Earth. That ought to be a warning to us that if we thought that the Russians would not dare to so blatantly interfere in our affairs, we were wrong.
And if we do not do our very best to understand how the Russians accomplished this unprecedented attack on our democracy and what we need to do to protect ourselves in the future, we will only have ourselves to blame. We know a lot about the Russian operation, about the way they amplified the damage their hacking and dumping of stolen documents was causing through the use of slick propaganda like R.T., the Kremlin's media arm. But there is a lot we don't know.

Most important, we do not yet know whether the Russians have the help of U.S. citizens including people associated with the Trump campaign. Many of the Trump's campaign personnel, including the president himself, have ties to Russia and Russian interests. This is of course no crime. On the other hand, if the Trump campaign or anyone associated with it aided or abetted the Russians, it would not only be a serious crime, it would also represent one of the most shocking betrayals of democracy in history.

In Europe, where the Russians have a much longer history of political interference, they've used a variety of techniques to undermine democracy. They employed the hacking and dumping of documents and slick propaganda as they clearly did here. But they've also used bribery, blackmail, compromising material, and financial entanglement to secure needed cooperation from individual citizens of targeted countries.

The issue of U.S. person involvement is only one of the important matters that the chairman and I have agreed to investigate and which is memorialized in the detailed and bipartisan scope of investigation that we have signed. We'll also examine whether the intelligence community's assessment of the Russian operation is supported by the raw intelligence, whether the U.S. government responded properly or missed the opportunity to stop this Russian attack much earlier and whether the leak of information about Michael Flynn or others is indicative of a systemic problem.

We have also reviewed whether there is any evidence to support President Trump's claim that he was wiretapped by President Obama in Trump Tower and found no evidence whatsoever to support that slanderous accusation. And we hope that Director Comey can now put that matter permanently to rest. Today, most of my Democratic colleagues will be exploring with the witnesses the potential involvement of U.S. persons in the Russian attack on our democracy. It is not that we feel the other issues are less important; they are very important, but rather because this issue is least understood by the public. We realize of course that the witnesses may not be able to answer many of the questions in open session.

They may or may not be willing to disclose even whether there is an investigation. But we hope to present to you directors and the public why we believe this is a matter of such gravity that it demands a thorough investigation not only by us as we intend to do but by the FBI as well.

Let me give you a short preview of what I expect you'll be asked by our members. Whether the Russian active measures campaign began as nothing more than an attempt to gather intelligence or was always intended to be more than that, we do not know and is one of the questions we hope to answer. But we do know this; the months of July and August 2016 appear to have been pivotal.

It was at this time the Russians began using the information they had stolen to help Donald Trump and harm Hillary Clinton. And so the question is, why? What was happening in July, August of last year and were U.S. persons involved? Here are some of the matters drawn from public sources alone since that is all we can discuss in this setting that concern us and we believe should concern all Americans.

In early July, Carter Page, someone candidate Trump identified as one of his national security advisors, travels to Moscow on a trip approved by the Trump campaign. While in Moscow, he gives a speech critical of the United States and other western countries for what he believes is a hypocritical focus on democratization and efforts to fight corruption.

According to Christopher Steele, a British — a former British intelligence officer, who is reportedly held in high regard by U.S. intelligence, Russian sources tell him that Page has also had a secret meeting with Igor Sechin, CEO of the Russian gas giant, Rosneft. Sechin is reported to be a former KGB agent and close friend of Putin's.

According to Steele's Russian sources, Page is offered brokerage fees by such an on a deal involving a 19 percent share of the company. According to Reuters, the sale of a 19.5 percent share of Rosneft later takes place with unknown purchasers and unknown brokerage fees. Also, according to Steele's Russian sources, the campaign has offered documents damaging to Hillary Clinton which the Russians would publish through an outlet that gives them deniability like WikiLeaks.

The hacked documents would be in exchange for a Trump administration policy that de-emphasizes Russia's invasion of Ukraine and instead focuses on criticizing NATO countries for not paying their fair share. Policies which even as recently as the President's meeting last week with Angela Merkel have now presently come to pass. In the middle of July, Paul Manafort, the — the Trump campaign manager and someone who was a long on the payroll of Pro Russian- Ukrainian interests attends the Russian — the Republican Party Convention. Carter Page, back from Moscow, also attends the convention. According to Steele, it was Manafort who chose Page to serve as a go-between for the Trump campaign and Russian interests.

Ambassador Kislyak, who presides over a Russian Embassy in which diplomatic personnel would later be expelled as likely spies, also attends the Republican Party Convention and meets with Carter Page, and additional Trump advisors J.D. Gordon and Walid Phares. It was J.D. Gordon who approved Page's trip to Moscow.

Ambassador Kislyac also meets with Trump national campaign chair, National Security Campaign Chair and now attorney general, Jeff Sessions. Sessions would later deny meeting with Russian officials during his Senate confirmation hearing. Just prior to the convention, the Republican Party platform is changed, removing a section that supports the provision of lethal defensive weapons to Ukraine, an action that would be contrary to Russian interests.

Manafort categorically denies involvement by the Trump campaign and altering the platform, but the Republican Party delegate who offered the language in support of providing defensive weapons to Ukraine states it was removed at the insistence of the Trump campaign. Later, J.D. Gordon admits opposing the inclusion of the provision of the time it was being debated and prior to its being removed.

Later in July and after the convention, the first stolen emails detrimental to Hillary Clinton appear on WikiLeaks. A hacker who goes by the moniker, Guccifer 2.0, claims responsibility for hacking the DNC and giving the documents to WikiLeaks. A leading private cyber security firms including Crowdstrike, Mandiant and ThreatConnect review the evidence of the hack and conclude with high certainty that it was the work of APT 28 and APT 29 who are known to be Russian intelligence services.

The U.S. intelligence committee also later confirms that the documents were in fact stolen by Russian intelligence and Guccifer 2.0 acted as a front. Also in late July, candidate Trump praises WikiLeaks, says he loves them and openly appeals to the Russians to hack his opponents emails telling them that they will be richly rewarded by the press.

On August 8th, Roger Stone, a long time Trump political advisor and self-proclaimed political dirty trickster, boasts in his speech that he has communicated with Assange and that more documents would be coming, including an October surprise. In the middle of August, he also communicates with the Russian cut out Guccifer 2.0 and authors a Breitbart piece denying Guccifer's links to Russian intelligence.

Then later, in August, Stone does something truly remarkable. When he predicts that John Podesta's personal emails will soon be published, trust me he says, it will soon be Podesta's time in the barrel, #crookedHillary. In the weeks that follow, Stone shows remarkable prescience. I have total confidence that WikiLeaks and my hero, Julian Assange will educate the American people soon, he says, #LockHerUp. Payload coming, he predicts and two days later it does.

WikiLeaks releases its first batch of Podesta emails. The release of John Podesta's emails would then continue on a daily basis, up until the election. On Election Day in November, Donald Trump wins. Donald Trump appoints one of his high-profile surrogates, Michael Flynn, to be his national security advisor. Michael Flynn has been paid by the Kremlin's propaganda outfit RT in the past, as well as another Russian entity.

In December, Michael Flynn has a secret conversation with Ambassador Kislyak, about sanctions imposed by President Obama on Russia over attacking designed to help the Trump campaign. Michael Flynn lies about the secret conversation. The vice president unknowingly then assures the country that no — no such conversation ever happened. The president is informed that Flynn has lied and Pence has misled the country. The president does nothing.

Two weeks later, the press reveals that Flynn has lied and the president is forced to fire Mr. Flynn. The president then praises the man who lied, Mr. Flynn, and castigates the press for exposing the lie.

Now, is it possible that the removal of the Ukraine provision from the GOP platform was a coincidence? Is it a coincidence that Jeff Sessions failed to tell the Senate about his meetings with a Russian ambassador, not only at the convention, but a more private meeting in his office and at a time when the U.S. election was under attack by the Russians?

Is it a coincidence that Michael Flynn would lie about a conversation he had with the same Russian Ambassador Kislyak, about the most pressing issue facing both countries at the time they spoke, the U.S. imposition of sanctions over Russian hacking of our election designed to help Donald Trump? Is it a coincidence that the Russian gas company, Rosneft, sold a 19 percent share after former British intelligence officer Steele was told by Russian sources that Carter Page was offered fees on a deal of just that size?

Is it a coincidence that Steele's Russian sources also affirmed that Russian had stolen documents hurtful to Secretary Clinton that it would utilize in exchange for Pro Russian policies that would later come to pass? Is it a coincidence that Roger Stone predicted that John Podesta would be a victim of a Russian hack and have his private emails published and did so even before Mr. Podesta himself, was fully aware that his private emails would be exposed?

Is it possible that all of these events and reports are completely unrelated and nothing more than an entirely unhappy coincidence? Yes, it is possible. But it is also possible, maybe more than possible, that they are not coincidental, not disconnected and not unrelated and that the Russians use the same techniques to corrupt U.S. persons that they employed in Europe and elsewhere. We simply don't know, not yet. And we owe it to the country to find out.

Transcript of Schiff's Opening Statement was from the Washington Post Link

 

[RabzonKhan]

Senate Intelligence Chairman: Our Investigation on Russia's Election Meddling Will Go Wherever The Facts Lead

Katie Pavlich
Mar 29, 2017

Speaking to reporters on Capitol Hill Wednesday afternoon, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr and Ranking Member Mark Warner gave an update about their investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

"Our staff is currently working though thousands of intelligence and analytic products," Burr said, adding they are waiting for additional documents from the intelligence community related to their investigation. "This investigation will go absolutely wherever the intelligence leads it."

Burr revealed seven full time staff members from the Committee are working on the investigation and have been provided an unprecedented number of documents currently being analyzed.

This week, Burr and Warner scheduled the first interviews of the probe. They've sent 20 requests to individuals they would not name. Five have already been confirmed and scheduled. They also said a number of people have volunteered for interviews, including White House senior advisor Jared Kushner.

The goals of the investigation are simple and include finding out the extent of Russia's influence on the 2016 election in addition to investigating any collusion between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin.

"We're here to assure you, and more importantly the American people watching, we're going to get to the bottom of this," Warner said. "This is the most important thing I've done in my professional career. We're going to get it right."

Burr and Warner refused to take questions about the controversy surrounding House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, who is under fire for sharing information about his Committee's investigation into Russia with the White House. He's been asked to recuse himself by Republicans and Democrats.

The Senate Intelligence Committee investigation is one of three about Russia's meddling. The FBI is also criminally investigating a number of individuals who worked on the Trump campaign for possible ties to Russia. Link

The pressure on Nunes is intensifying. He won’t be able to hold off a reckoning forever.

If not now, when?

New signs of increased pressure on House Intelligence Committee Devin Nunes are emerging that could complicate his efforts to prevent a serious investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign. Yet most Republicans are still standing by him. What will it take to change this?

The hits on Nunes keep on coming. His hometown newspaper, the Fresno Bee, editorialized this week that his conduct has been “inept and bewildering” as he “betrayed the Constitution and its separation of powers by running like an errand boy to the White House.” A writer at the conservative National Review bluntly called on Nunes to step down, pointedly asking “why is Devin Nunes still chair of the House Intelligence Committee” when the country “needs leaders. It needs competence. It needs integrity.”

A few Republicans are turning on Nunes. Rep. Charlie Dent, a moderate Pennsylvania Republican, is calling for the Senate Intelligence Committee to take the lead on the Russia investigation, characterizing the House investigation as “paralyzed.” Meanwhile, Trump’s approval in Gallup hit a new low today of 35 percent, which theoretically should induce Republicans to contemplate whether it might soon be time to distance themselves from him.

Yet Nunes has cavalierly dismissed calls that he step aside. Sen. John McCain has called for a bipartisan select committee to investigate, and Sen. Lindsay Graham has questioned Nunes’ “objectivity,” but very few other Republicans have joined them.

Still, the optics of this story are just getting worse and worse for Nunes. On Monday, Democrats on the Intelligence Committee called for Nunes to step down, following his admission that the source for the classified information he refused to share with his colleagues — and which he claimed proved that Trump campaign associates were targets of U.S. spying — came from inside the White House itself.

What’s more, new press reports will make it increasingly difficult for Nunes, by fleshing out the ways in which Trump’s ties to Russia may extend beyond an admiration for President Vladimir Putin or an intention to recast U.S. foreign policy in the region. Media scrutiny is focusing daily on Trump’s financial ties with Russian oligarchs. As Reuters reported earlier this month, dozens of people with Russian passports or addresses have spent nearly $100 million on Trump-branded luxury properties in Florida, including businessmen with political, military, and intelligence connections. This week brought new reports of meetings between Trump’s son-in-law and advisor, Jared Kushner, and the head of a state-owned Russian bank with close ties to President Vladimir Putin. And a new USA Today piece raises additional questions about Russian investments in Trump real estate holdings.

Trump vehemently denies any business dealings with Russia. But his unprecedented refusal to disclose his tax returns has effectively blocked scrutiny of his financial dealings — a fact that is highlighted by the continued drumbeat of reporting that is revealing how little we really know, and by Democrats who are all too happy to remind everyone of Trump’s lack of transparency in the context of the Russia story.

Indeed, Democrats are increasingly focusing attention on Trump’s financial ties, seeing this as fertile ground for potential new revelations. Sen. Ron Wyden, the Oregon Democrat, has formally asked the Senate Intelligence Committee, which is running its own investigation, to examine Trump’s financial ties to Russia. As Wyden wrote to his Committee colleagues: “Efforts to understand these relationships and to separate fact from speculation have been hampered by the opacity of the finances of President Trump and his associates.”

On the House side, Trump is getting a huge assist from Nunes. But if his Senate counterparts heed Wyden’s call, Nunes’ collaboration with the White House could start to look even thornier than it does now. Nunes cannot hold to this posture forever. Link