FBI

Follow the money: the Trump connection to Deutsche Bank and Russian money

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Earlier this month, the Wall Street Journal reported that Special Counsel Mueller Subpoenas Deutsche Bank Records Related to Trump:

Deutsche Bank received a subpoena earlier in the fall from U.S. special counsel Robert Mueller’s office concerning people or entities affiliated with President Donald Trump, according to a person briefed on the matter.

The subpoena requested documents and data about accounts and other dealings tied to relationships with Mr. Trump and people close to him, the person said. The bank has lent more than $300 million to entities affiliated with Mr. Trump, according to public disclosures.

Ty Cobb, the White House’s chief lawyer handling the Russia investigation, said bank records of Mr. Trump and his family weren’t subpoenaed. “Previous reports today about subpoenas for financial records relating to the president and his family are false,” Mr. Cobb said.

A Deutsche Bank spokesman said Tuesday that the bank “takes its legal obligations seriously and remains committed to cooperating with authorized investigations into this matter.” The subpoena was earlier reported by German newspaper Handelsblatt.

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Putin and his puppets are ‘sowing discord and confusion that destabilizes our system’ of democracy

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While Americans were enjoying a long weekend Christmas holiday, the Washington Post did some important reporting on Russia’s ongoing cyber war against the United States that few people probably saw.

The hard reporting is a lengthy investigative report, Kremlin trolls burned across the Internet as Washington debated options. You really should read this report for background and context.

Michael Morell, former deputy director and twice acting director of the Central Intelligence Agency from 2010 to 2013, and Mike Rogers, a Republican congressman from Michigan who served in the House from 2001 to 2015 and was chairman of the Intelligence Committee from 2010 to 2015, write in an op-ed at the Post, Russia never stopped its cyberattacks on the United States:

[T]he United States has failed to establish deterrence in the aftermath of Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. We know we failed because Russia continues to aggressively employ the most significant aspect of its 2016 tool kit: the use of social media as a platform to disseminate propaganda designed to weaken our nation.

There is a perception among the media and general public that Russia ended its social-media operations following last year’s election and that we need worry only about future elections. But that perception is wrong. Russia’s information operations in the United States continued after the election and they continue to this day.

This should alarm everyone — Republicans, Democrats and independents alike. Foreign governments, overtly or covertly, should not be allowed to play with our democracy.

Russia’s information operations tactics since the election are more numerous than can be listed here. But to get a sense of the breadth of Russian activity, consider the messaging spread by Kremlin-oriented accounts on Twitter, which cybersecurity and disinformation experts have tracked as part of the German Marshall Fund’s Alliance for Securing Democracy.

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Sen. Mark Warner warns of the plot against Special Counsel Robert Mueller

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This week, Senator Mark Warner (D-VA), Vice Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, spoke on the floor of the U.S. Senate to warn of threats to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election and to highlight the constitutional crisis that would likely ensue if the President were to interfere in the Mueller probe.

In recent weeks, a growing chorus of irresponsible voices in Congress, the conservative media entertainment complex, and the White House have begun pushing a coordinated narrative designed to undermine the credibility of the Special Counsel’s investigation, the FBI, and of the Department of Justice itself. Sen. Warner responded to these “troubling” signs that the President may be considering firing Mr. Mueller or top FBI/DOJ brass, pardoning potential witnesses, or otherwise obstructing the Special Counsel’s investigation.

Watch the video.

Screen Shot 2017-12-22 at 2.31.07 PM

Transcript of prepared remarks:

Mr. President –

I rise today concerned about threats to the Special Counsel’s critical investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Over the last several weeks, a growing chorus of irresponsible and reckless voices have called for President Trump to shut down Special Counsel Mueller’s investigation. At first, these calls came from the fringes of our political discourse – those who would refuse to put our country and our security before base political instincts. Earlier this year, many of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle were right to push back on those misdirected calls and urge that the Special Counsel be allowed to do his job without interference.

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(Update) America’s descent into the darkness of ‘Trumpism,’ the new American fascism

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Republicans lavished praise on President Donald Trump at a White House event on Wednesday to celebrate the passage of their “tax cuts for corporations and plutocrats” bill through both the House and Senate. They later posed for their mug shot of who is responsble for this crime for future historical reference.

GOP Mug Shot

Republicans lavish praise on Trump in marathon event to celebrate the passage of tax reform:

“Well, let me just say Mr. President, you made the case for the tax bill,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said. “But this has been a year of extraordinary accomplishment for the Trump administration.”

Um, this tax bill is the only legislative “achievement” of the GOP this year. The Septuagenarian Ninja Turtle included his own unconstitutional blockade of President Obama’s nomination for the Supreme Court last year so that the GOP could install conservative justice Neil Gorsuch this year, and the ongoing GOP court packing scheme with judges who are rated unqualified to serve on the bench. The withdrawal of Trump nominees Jeff Mateer, Brett Talley and Matthew Peterson this past week, considered too unqualified even by the GOP’s low standards, is just the latest assault on the judicial branch. Trump judicial nominee who struggled to answer basic questions pulls out. McConnell threw in repealing government regulations for good measure, a favorite GOP talisman, but most of those regulations are in the admininstrative review process and public comment phase, not repealed merely with Trump’s signature.

Next up was House Speaker Paul Ryan, who praised Trump’s “exquisite presidential leadership.”

“Something this big, something this generational, something this profound could not have been done without exquisite presidential leadership,” said Ryan, who has fought to overhaul the tax code for much of his near-two decades in Congress. “Mr. President, thank you for getting us over the finish line, thank you for getting us where we are.”

The GOP’s alleged boy genius took out The Big Book of Adjectives and “exquisite” is what he came up with? Has he been living in a cave this past year? “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”

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The latest GOPropaganda ‘stunt’ to smear the Special Counsel’s investigation

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Last week, Mike Allen of Axios.com reported a Scoop: Mueller obtains “tens of thousands” of Trump transition emails:

Special Counsel Robert Mueller has obtained “many tens of thousands” of Trump transition emails, including emails of Jared Kushner, transition team sources tell Axios.

  • Trump officials discovered Mueller had the emails when his prosecutors used them as the basis for questions to witnesses, the sources said.
  • The emails include 12 accounts, one of which contains about 7,000 emails, the sources said.
  • The accounts include the team’s political leadership and the foreign-policy team, the sources said.

Why it matters: The transition emails are said to include sensitive exchanges on matters that include potential appointments, gossip about the views of particular senators involved in the confirmation process, speculation about vulnerabilities of Trump nominees, strategizing about press statements, and policy planning on everything from war to taxes.

  • “Mueller is using the emails to confirm things, and get new leads,” a transition source told me.

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