#T-rump family too cowardly to tell truth to Crooked Donald

[malenipshadows]

*** What an idiot. The Orange Voldemort deserves to be impeached, indicted, and imprisoned.  For years, he’s fired, sued, or intimidated anyone who challenged his shortsighted and probably illegal business practices.  He never held a respectable job in his pathetic life, let alone a position in government.  Now, he is unable to escape public scrutiny.  All his sins eventually will come to light. ... More power to the Mueller prosecutorial team! ***

[malenipshadows]

  *** Special counsel Robert Mueller has been gathering evidence about the rendezvous, which took place less than two weeks before Trump’s inauguration. Mueller is reportedly looking to see if the meeting was meant to set up a secret back channel between Trump and Putin, the Russian president. ...    It’s not clear what Prince and the official talked about. But according to The New York Times, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, eventual national security adviser Michael Flynn and then-Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak discussed the possibility of setting up the communications channel in a December 2016 meeting. ***

[malenipshadows]

  *** The spectacle of the release was itself noteworthy, given that wiretapping under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, is normally one of the government’s closest-guarded secrets. No such application materials had apparently become public in the 40 years since Congress enacted that law to regulate the interception of phone calls and other communications on domestic soil in search of spies and terrorists, as opposed to wiretapping for ordinary criminal investigations. ...    Visible portions (of the released documents) showed that the F.B.I. in stark terms had told the intelligence court that Mr. Page “has established relationships with Russian government officials, including Russian intelligence officers”; that the bureau believed “the Russian government’s efforts are being coordinated with Page and perhaps other individuals associated with” Mr. T-rump’s campaign; and that Mr. Page “has been collaborating and conspiring with the Russian government.” ***  

[malenipshadows]

*** T-rump's comments during a joint press conference with Putin on Monday (7-16-2018) alarmed lawmakers, leading some to wonder about the president's possible financial ties to Russia.    Democrats have since stepped up their calls to have Congress request T-rump's tax returns from the Treasury Department in order to learn more about the pres-ident's finances. ...   The issue of T-rump's tax returns had become less prominent in recent months. But that changed following last week's joint press conference with Putin in Helsinki when T-rump questioned the findings of the U.S. intelligence community that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election. ***

[malenipshadows]

  *** T-rump stayed at the resort and played golf there last Saturday, between a meeting of the NATO military alliance and a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.    It was not clear whether all of the payments were made to cover expenses for T-rump's visit. The State Department paid Turnberry $7,670 in April and another $70,000 in the days before T-rump's visit last week, federal records showed.    A State Department spokeswoman declined to comment about the charges, and White House officials did not respond to a request for comment.    Former government ethics officials and watchdog groups say T-rump has failed to put safeguards in place to ensure that he does not directly profit from his actions as president. ***

[malenipshadows]

*** On a background call hosted by Ivanka Trump and Holli Richmond, director of the President Trump's Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition, in advance of "White House Sports and Fitness Day," one of the hosts dropped off of the call after being asked to comment on her father's new exercise regimen and questions pertaining to Chinese trademarks being awarded to her fashion brand.  ***

[malenipshadows]

  *** The special counsel’s interest demonstrates Mr. Sessions’s overlooked role as a key witness in the investigation into whether Mr. T-rump tried to obstruct the inquiry itself. It also suggests that the obstruction investigation is broader than it is widely understood to be — encompassing not only the president’s interactions with and firing of the former F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, but also his relationship with Mr. Sessions.  ***

[malenipshadows]

   *** The carefully maintained secrecy around T-rump’s finances is under unprecedented assault a year into his presidency, with three different legal teams with different agendas trying to pry open the Trump Organization’s books.   (1.)  Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, who has subpoenaed T-rump Organization documents as part of his wide-ranging investigation into the 2016 campaign.   (2.) Stormy Daniels, the adult-film actress seeking internal correspondence as part of her effort to be freed from a nondisclosure agreement centering on an alleged affair with T-rump.    (3.) District of Columbia and Maryland have sued T-rump, alleging he is improperly accepting emoluments from foreign or state governments through his businesses, including his hotels.  A federal judge ruled Wednesday (3-28-2018) the case can proceed, opening the way for plaintiffs to seek at least a portion of T-rump’s tax returns. ***

[malenipshadows]

  *** In the spring of 2016, Orbis Business Intelligence — a small investigative-research firm that Steele and a partner had founded, in 2009, after leaving M.I.6, Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service — had agreed to do opposition research on T-rump’s murky relationship with Russia.    Under the arrangement, Orbis was a subcontractor working for Fusion GPS, a private research firm in Washington, D.C.  Fusion, in turn, had been contracted by the Perkins Coie law firm, which represented both Hillary Clinton’s Presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee.    Several months after Steele signed the deal, he learned that, through this chain, his research was being jointly subsidized by the Clinton campaign and the D.N.C. In all, Steele was paid US$168,000 for his work.    Steele had spent more than 20 years in M.I.6, most of it focusing on Russia. For three years, in the 1990s, he spied in Moscow under diplomatic cover. Between 2006 and 2009, he ran the service’s Russia desk, at its headquarters, in London. He was fluent in Russian, and widely considered to be an expert on the country. He’d also advised on nation-building in Iraq.   As a British citizen, however, he was not especially knowledgeable about American politics.  Peter Fritsch, a co-founder at Fusion who has worked closely with Steele, said of him, “He’s a career public-service officer, and in England, civil servants haven’t been drawn into politics in quite the same way they have here. He’s a little naïve about the public square.” ***

[malenipshadows]

 *** The Kushners are in private discussions to have President Trump’s company manage at least one hotel at the center of the development known as Pier Village near Long Branch, NJ, USA, according to people briefed on the previously unreported talks. The Kushner Companies and the Trump Organization have signed a letter of intent, though no deal is final and the Kushners are not required to inform city officials.    The long-running talks blur the line between family, business and politics in ways that lack precedent: Both Mr. Trump and Mr. Kushner, the president’s senior adviser and son-in-law, retain financial interests in their family businesses. The Trump Organization’s outside ethics adviser has raised questions about a potential deal — one reason the two-year-long discussions have not been completed. ***

[malenipshadows]

 *** "When I hear what Vladimir Putin was saying just yesterday about the nuclear capabilities he has, the President of the United States is tweeting about Alec Baldwin this morning, I mean, where is your sense of priorities?" Brennan asked. "I think a lot of Americans are looking at what's happening with a sense of, ‘This is surreal.’ "    The Russian leader told lawmakers this week that its new intercontinental ballistic missiles could reach almost any target in the world, even Florida, where T-rump’s Mar a Lago estate is situated. ***