Main Topic Index

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|   Results of the Investigation (so far)   |   Main Players   |   Family Players   |   Congressional Players (some)   |   Legal Team   |   Russian Players   |   Russian Oligarchs   |   North Korea   |   Supreme Court   |   Trump Surrogates   |   Intelligence Community   |   Special Counsel   |   Other Influences   |   Splinter Groups   |   Anomalies   |   Out of Bounds Behavior   |   Travel Expense Scandal   |   Come and Gone   |   Other Information   |   Conservatives and Conspiracy Theorist   |   Out of Bounds Behavior   |   News Personnel   |   Acronyms   |  

Main Players Index

(and a few minor players)
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Trump surrogates

(played no major roll in transition or cabinet)
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Other Information Index
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|   25 Amendment   |   Alt-Right   |   Antifa (short for anti-fascists)   |   Arpaio Pardon (Sheriff Joe Arpaio)   |   Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)   |   'Blacks For Trump' Sign Holder   |   Boogaloo movement   |   Byrd Rule   |   Charlottesville   |   Clearance Chart   |   Common Interest Doctrine and Attorney-Client Privilege   |   Constitutional crisis   |   Come and Gone   |   Come and Gone List   |   Coronavirus (Pandemic)   |   Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)   |   Disorganized (definition)   |   Dossier   |   DREAM Act   |   Dream Host firm is fighting a federal demand for data   |   Emolument Clause (Foreign)   |   Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)   |   False Statements (1001) are a crime when...   |   Gun Control   |   Firearms background check   |   Novichok nerve agent   |   Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA)   |   FSB successor agency to the KGB   |   How the Russia Inquiry Began   |   Hatch Act   |   Identity Politics   |   Impeach (definition)   |   Insurrection Act   |   International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ)   |   Iran Nuclear Deal   |   Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)   |   Jones Act affects Puerto Rico   |   Juneteenth   |   Kakistocracy (definition)   |   The Lincoln Project (never Trumpers)   |   Logan Act   |   Magnitsky Act   |   Media Matters for America (MMfA)   |   NICS   |   National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS)   |   National Rifle Association (NRA)   |   One America News Network (OANN)   |   Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP)   |   Office of Special Counsel   |   The Paradise Papers   |   Pardons (Federal vs. State)   |   Posse Comitatus Act (of 1878)   |   QAnon (Conspiracy theory)   |   Queen for a Day   |   Racism and Trump   |   Secession is not Treason   |   Security Clearances   |   Skinny Obamacare   |   Edward Snowden   |   Telehealth   |   Tennessee Senators   |   Trade War with China   |   Trump’s Longtime Aids   |   Trump’s Triangle (a hate symbol)   |   Trump Tower Meeting   |   Tulsa race massacre [Black Wall Street]   |   Women Republican Senators   |  

Results of the Investigation

(So far)
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• July 26, 2017 the day after Manafort met with Senate intelligence committee investigators, the FBI conducted an early-morning no-knock raid against former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort.
  • The agents seized materials in Manafort's home as part of the ongoing Russia investigation led by Justice Department Special Counsel Robert Mueller
  • The documents seized included financial and tax records and at least some of the information had already been provided to Senate investigators.
• August 29, 2017 Special Counsel Robert Mueller has issued subpoenas to Melissa Laurenza an attorney who until recently represented Manafort, and to Jason Maloni, who is Manafort's spokesman; the subpoenas are seeking documents and testimony.
• October 5, 2017 George Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to making false statements to FBI agents.
  • The case was unsealed on October 30, 2017, the day Paul Manafort was indicted.
• October 30, 2017 Paul Manafort along with his business associate Rick Gates was indicted as part of the Special Counsel investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections.
  The indictment against the Manafort and Gates contains 12 counts:
  • conspiracy against the United States,
  • conspiracy to launder money,
  • unregistered agent of a foreign principal,
  • false and misleading US Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) statements,
  • false statements,
  • and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts.
• November 23, 2017 Lawyers for former national security adviser Michael Flynn told President Trump’s attorneys they can no longer discuss the special counsel’s investigation into Russian election meddling.
  • This might be a sign a sign that Flynn may be working with prosecutors.
  • Defense lawyers often share info during investigations but the practice is unethical when one client is cooperating with prosecutors and another is still being probed, the paper reported.
  • Earlier this month, it was reported that Mueller had gathered enough evidence to charge Flynn and his son as part of the investigation into Russian election interference.
  • "No one should draw the conclusion that this means anything about General Flynn cooperating against the President," Sekulow added.
  • November 9, 2017 Michael Flynn has expressed concern about the potential legal exposure of his son, Michael Flynn Jr., who, like his father, is under scrutiny by special counsel Robert Mueller. (see: Common Interest Doctrine and Attorney-Client Privilege)
  • Additionally, Mueller's team is looking into whether Flynn tried to get rid of a rival to Turkish President Recep Erdogan for a fee of millions of dollars.
• December 1, 2017, special counsel Robert Mueller agreed to a plea bargain where Flynn pleaded guilty to "willfully and knowingly" making "false, fictitious and fraudulent statements" to the FBI regarding conversations with Russia's ambassador.
• Specifically, Flynn is accused of falsely claiming that he had not asked Russia's ambassador to the United States Sergey Kislyak on December 29, 2016, "to refrain from escalating the situation in response to sanctions that the United States had imposed against Russia that same day."
• Flynn pleaded guilty the same day and acknowledged that he was cooperating with the investigation by Mueller.
• Flynn stated:

  It has been extraordinarily painful to endure these many months of false accusations of "treason" and other outrageous acts....Such false accusations are contrary to everything I have ever done and stood for. But I recognize that the actions I acknowledged in court today were wrong, and, through my faith in God, I am working to set things right.

• As part of Flynn’s plea negotiations, his son, Michael G. Flynn, is not expected to be charged.
• Bloomberg reports that Jared Kushner is the individual mentioned in Flynn's plea documents who is said to have ordered Flynn to contact Russia.
  
  The Internet Research Agency - "The Troll Factory"
• On February 16, 2018 the Department of Justice announced that special counsel Robert Mueller has indicted 13 Russian nationals and three Russian entities for allegedly meddling in the 2016 presidential election, charging them with conspiracy to defraud the United States.
• In addition, three defendants were charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud, and five defendants with aggravated identity theft.
• "The defendants allegedly conducted what they called information warfare against the United States, with the stated goal of spreading distrust towards the candidates and the political system in general," Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said.
• The sweeping indictment describes in detail an unprecedented campaign by Russia to influence the 2016 presidential election, affirming the longstanding conclusions of the US intelligence community. It is at odds with President Donald Trump's repeated questioning of those conclusions, which has continued throughout his first year in office.
• One of the named defendants, Yevgeny Prigozhin, is a Russian oligarch who has been dubbed Russian President Vladimir Putin's "chef" by the Russian press. According to the indictment, Prigozhin controlled Concord Catering, a group that funded the Internet Research Agency. By around September 2016, the indictment says, the Internet Research Agency's monthly budget for the project that included the US election interference operation exceeded 73 million Russian rubles, or over $1.25 million.
• On February 27, 2018 Mueller filed a motion to drop 22 tax and bank fraud charges against Gates, in the wake of his guilty plea last week. The filing was tied to Gates’ agreement last week to plead guilty to conspiracy to defraud the United States and lying to the FBI. As part of the plea, Gates agreed to cooperate with Mueller’s probe regarding "any and all matters" deemed relevant to his investigation. Gates still faces up to 71 months in prison.
  
  Indictments so far
• October 5, 2017 George Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to making false statements to FBI agents and agrees to cooperate with the investigation.
• October 30, 2017 Paul Manafort was indicted on 12 counts and pleaded not guilty.
• October 30, 2017 Rick Gates was indicted on 12 counts and pleaded not guilty.
  (According to media reports, Gates is finalizing a plea deal with special counsel Robert Mueller and has had a "queen for a day" interview.)
• November 30, 2017 Michael Flynn was indicted on 1 count.
• December 1, 2017 Michael Flynn agrees to a plea bargain and pleaded guilty to making false statements to FBI agents and agrees to cooperate with the investigation and protect his son.
• February 16, 2018 Robert Mueller indicts 13 Russian nationals and three Russian entities
  (For details of charges see: "Special Counsel investigation (2017–present)" link below).
• February 16, 2018 Richard Pinedo pleaded guilty to creating and selling bank accounts created with stolen identities.
• February 20, 2018 Alex Van Der Zwaan pleaded guilty to making false statements to investigators and agrees to cooperate with the investigation.
  
  4 main areas Mueller wants to ask the President about
• The President's role in crafting a statement aboard Air Force One that miscast Donald Trump Jr.'s campaign
• The June 2016 meeting with Russians in Trump Tower
• The firings of FBI Director James Comey
• The President's knowledge of Flynn's phone calls with the Russian ambassador
  
  Mueller indicts 12 Russian military intelligence agents for DNC hacking
  (See also: Details of criminal charges and a complete list of accused)
• July 13, 2018 The Justice Department's indictment of 12 Russian military intelligence agents today was jaw-dropping in its scope and level of details into attempts to influence the 2016 US presidential election.
• The indictment shows the lengths the Russians allegedly went to in order to defeat Hillary Clinton, thereby aiding Donald Trump's campaign. Their actions throughout 2016 resulted in multiple criminal charges, from identity fraud to money laundering conspiracy.
• Here are nine takeaways from the indictment:
  • To commit the alleged crimes, the Russians targeted more than 300 people affiliated with Clinton's campaign and Democratic political organizations, including the Clinton campaign chairman, John Podesta.
  • Once inside the Democratic computers, they searched for keywords like "Hillary," (then-GOP candidate Ted) "Cruz," "Trump" and "Benghazi investigations" so they could steal the most damaging files. They wanted opposition research, campaign field operations and voter data, the indictment alleges.
  • From Twitter and Facebook to WordPress, the hackers used the online services most ingrained in American society for posts that spread their illicit information.
  • Even bitcoin, the electronic cash that's kept Silicon Valley abuzz, played a key role in the Russians' efforts to build their hacking infrastructure.
  • The hacking tools included emails disguised as Google security alerts containing bogus links and malware deposited on servers.
  • They stole passwords, tracked keystrokes, took screenshots and watched banking information, the indictment said.
  • And then, to spread the documents they collected, the Russians lied about their identity.
  • The Russian military intelligence hackers snooped around online presences for state board of elections and county offices in Florida, Georgia and Iowa.
  • They stole personal information like names, addresses, partial social security numbers and drivers' license numbers for about 500,000 voters.
• The indictment states that on August 15, 2016, and again on September 9, Russian officers posing as Guccifer 2.0 "wrote a person who was in regular contact with senior members" of the Trump campaign, with language that matches Twitter messages previously released by Stone, who is not named in the indictment.
• Roger Stone says he's "probably" the unnamed person in today's indictment.
• "I never denied that it was me, I just didn't understand the earlier reference," Stone said.

Disorganized ¬

(definition)
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• "the campaign was hopelessly disorganized"
• synonyms: disorderly, disordered, unorganized, jumbled, muddled, untidy, messy, chaotic, topsy-turvy, haphazard, ragtag; in disorder, in disarray, in a mess, in a muddle, in a shambles, shambolic "a disorganized toolbox"

• "my boss decided that I was unproductive and disorganized"
• synonyms: unmethodical, unsystematic, undisciplined, badly organized, inefficient; haphazard, careless, slapdash; informal sloppy, hit-and-miss "muddled and disorganized"

Kakistocracy ¬

(definition)
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Player ¬

(urban dictionary definition)
Top   |   Back

• A Player can be male or female.
• They are usually slick, dress nicely and are very charming.
• They have a way of befriending people and making them feel important, before they use them to their own ends.
• Players make horrible friends or "significant others," because they will "Judas back stab" and hurt you in any way possible if it is in their best interest.
• They have no loyalty to anyone but themselves.
• "make sure that player doesn't bed your wife or pet poodle"
• synonyms: cheater, weasel, adulterer, play boy, play girl, worm tongue, sociopath, liar, back stabber

Main Players ¬
Top   |   Back

Donald J. Trump ¬ Top   |   Back

• Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is the 45th and current President of the United States, in office since January 20, 2017. Before entering politics, he was a businessman and television personality.
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  Nothing bad can be said about him by those who like him.
  Nothing good can be said about him by those who dislike him.
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• Trump said that he began his career with "a small loan of one million dollars" from his father.
• He appeared on the initial Forbes 400 list of wealthy individuals in 1982 with an estimated $200 million fortune, including an "undefined" share of his parents' estate.
• During the late 1980s he became a billionaire,, and made the Forbes World's Billionaires list for the first time in 1989, but he was absent from the Forbes 400 list following business losses from 1990 to 1995; he reportedly borrowed from his siblings' trusts in 1993.
• His father's estate, valued at more than $20 million, was divided in 1999 among Trump, his three surviving siblings and their children.

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  Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD)
• People with narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) are characterized by the personality traits of persistent grandiosity, an excessive need for admiration, and a personal disdain and lack of empathy for other people.
• As such, the person with NPD usually displays arrogance and a distorted sense of personal superiority, and seeks to establish abusive power and control over others.
• Self-confidence (a strong sense of self) is a personality trait different from the traits of narcissistic personality disorder; thus, people with NPD typically value themselves over others, to the extent of openly disregarding the wishes and feelings of anyone else, and expect to be treated as superior, regardless of their actual status or achievements.
• Socially, the person with narcissistic personality disorder usually exhibits a fragile ego (self-concept), intolerance of criticism, and a tendency to belittle other people, in order to validate their own superiority.
• The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5, 2013) indicates that a person with NPD possesses at least five of the following nine criteria, typically without possessing the commensurate personal qualities or accomplishments for which they demand respect and status:
  • Grandiosity with expectations of superior treatment from other people
  • Continually demeaning, bullying and belittling others
  • Exploiting others to achieve personal gain
  • Lack of empathy for the negative impact they have on the feelings, wishes, and needs of other people
  • Fixation on fantasies of power, success, intelligence, attractiveness, etc.
  • Self-perception of being unique, superior, and associated with high-status people and institutions
  • Need for continual admiration from others
  • Sense of entitlement to special treatment and to obedience from others
  • Intense envy of others, and the belief that others are equally envious of them
• True symptoms of NPD are pervasive, apparent in varied social situations, and are rigidly consistent over time.
• Severe symptoms of NPD can significantly impair the person's mental capabilities to develop meaningful human relationships, such as friendship, kinship, and marriage.
• Generally, the symptoms of NPD also impair the person's psychological abilities to function as a social animal, either at work, or at school, or within important societal settings.
• The DSM-5 indicates that, in order to qualify as symptoms of NPD, the person's manifested personality traits must substantially differ from the cultural norms of society.
• Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) (pdf)

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  Russian Sanctions Bill
• 08/02/2017 President Donald Trump signed into law legislation that levies new sanctions against Russia and restricts Trump's own ability to ease sanctions in place against Moscow.
   (The bill was passed with by a veto overriding 2/3 majority vote in both the House and Senate.)
• Trump expressed his own doubts about the legislation: "The bill remains seriously flawed -- particularly because it encroaches on the executive branch's authority to negotiate."
• The Kremlin responded with:

  "Trump’s administration has demonstrated total impotence by surrendering its executive authority to Congress in the most humiliating way, the American establishment has won an overwhelming victory over Trump, the president wasn’t happy with the new sanctions, but he had to sign the bill. The topic of new sanctions was yet another way to put Trump in place."

  2018 Russia–United States summit
  Putin Summit (Wikipedia)
• The 2018 Russia–United States summit was a summit meeting between United States President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin (hence also known as the Trump–Putin summit). It took place on July 16, 2018, in Helsinki, Finland. The Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs officially titled the summit as the #HELSINKI2018 Meeting. It was hosted by the President of Finland Sauli Niinistö.
• During an interview on the eve of the summit with news broadcaster CBS, Trump called the EU the biggest trade foe of the United States. Russia was a 'foe in certain aspects'.
• The summit focused on improving bilateral ties between the two countries which had been degrading since the annexation of Crimea by Russia in 2014 and due to the U.S. Intelligence Community's assessment that Russia tried to meddle with the results of the 2016 U.S. elections.
• President Trump announced on Twitter on July 16 that the relationship between Russia and the USA had 'never been worse'.
• He blamed this is on 'foolishness and stupidity' on the part of the USA and referenced the ongoing Special Counsel investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 elections, calling it a 'witchhunt'.
• He also defended Russia over claims of interference in US elections, from accusations by the FBI amongst other intelligence agencies, saying "President Putin says it's not Russia. I don't see any reason why it would be."
  
  Aftermath
• The hours immediately following the summit drew criticism across the globe and bipartisan criticism in the United States, particularly in regards to Trump's performance at a joint press conference with Putin. Democrats and Republicans such as James Lankford, 2012 Republican Candidate for President Mitt Romney, and 2008 Republican candidate for President John McCain, the latter calling the summit "one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory." Criticism focused on his apparent acceptance of Putin's denial of involvement in Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections which contradicted the findings of the United States Intelligence Community, and stood in pointed contrast to the indictment of twelve Russian GRU agents just three days earlier in the ongoing Special Counsel investigation:

  JONATHAN LEMIRE, ASSOCIATED PRESS: President Trump, you first. Just now, President Putin denied having anything to do with the election interference in 2016. Every U.S. intelligence agency has concluded that Russia did. My first question for you sir is, who do you believe? My second question is would you now, with the whole world watching, tell President Putin, would you denounce what happened in 2016 and would you want him to never do it again?
  
  TRUMP: So let me just say that we have two thoughts. You have groups that are wondering why the FBI never took the server. Why haven't they taken the server? Why was the FBI told to leave the office of the Democratic National Committee?
  
  I've been wondering that. I've been asking that for months and months and I've been tweeting it out and calling it out on social media. Where is the server? I want to know where is the server and what is the server saying?
  
  With that being said, all I can do is ask the question.
  
  My people came to me, Dan Coats, came to me and some others they said they think it's Russia. I have President Putin. He just said it's not Russia.
  
  I will say this: I don't see any reason why it would be. But I really do want to see the server but I have, I have confidence in both parties.

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  North Korea
• 08/08/2017 President Donald Trump issued an extraordinary ultimatum to North Korea warning Pyongyang not to make any more threats against the United States or they will "face fire and fury like the world has never seen."
• "North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States. They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen... he has been very threatening beyond a normal state. They will be met with fire, fury and frankly power the likes of which this world has never seen before," he said.
  President Donald Trump taunted North Korean leader Kim Jong Un about US nuclear capabilities as tensions worsen between the two nations.
• 02/02/2018 tweet -- North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un just stated that the “Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times.” Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!
• 02/02/2018 tweet -- Sanctions and “other” pressures are beginning to have a big impact on North Korea. Soldiers are dangerously fleeing to South Korea. Rocket man now wants to talk to South Korea for first time. Perhaps that is good news, perhaps not - we will see!
  2018 North Korea–United States summit
  Kim Summit (Wikipedia)
• U.S. President Donald Trump met with North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un on June 12, 2018, in Singapore, in the first summit meeting between the leaders of the United States of America and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea). They signed a joint statement, agreeing to security guarantees for North Korea, new peaceful relations, reaffirmation of the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, recovery of soldiers' remains, and follow-up negotiations between high-level officials. Immediately following the summit, Trump announced that the US would discontinue "provocative" joint military exercises with South Korea and would "eventually" withdraw troops stationed there.
• On 6–7 July 2018, Mike Pompeo traveled to North Korea to continue the negotiations with General Kim Yong-chol, Kim Jong Un's right hand. After the meeting, Pompeo stated that the talks had been productive and that progress had been made "on almost all of the central issues". However the North Korean stated media criticized the meeting soon after by calling the demands of the Trump administration "deeply regrettable". Notwithstanding the stern reports, Pomepo delivered President Trump a letter from Kim Jong Un, in which the latter expressed his hope for successful implementation of the US-North Korea Joint Statement and reaffirmed his will for improving the relations between the countries. Following the meeting, a lower ranks meeting took place regarding retrieving the remains of US soldiers from the Korean War on July 15, 2018. Pompeo called the talks "productive" and that the two sides had reached firm commitments about returning the remains of American troops. He stated that further meeting were scheduled to coordinate the remains return.

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  Trump's Political Party affiliation

  Trump’s affiliations have gone back and forth
  Month and year of registration	Party affiliation
  July 1987	Republican
  October 1999	Independence Party
  August 2001	Democrat
  September 2009	Republican
  December 2011	No party affiliation (independent)
  April 2012	Republican

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  Sexual misconduct allegations
• Two days before the second presidential debate, a 2005 recording surfaced in which Trump was heard bragging about forcibly kissing and groping women.
• The hot mic recording was captured on a studio bus in which Trump and Billy Bush were preparing to film an episode of Access Hollywood.
• "I just start kissing them," Trump said, "I don't even wait. And when you're a star, they let you do it, you can do anything ... grab them by the pussy."
• During the recording, Trump also spoke of his efforts to seduce a married woman, saying he "moved on her very heavily."
• These statements were recorded several months after Trump married his third and current wife, Melania, who was pregnant at the time.
• Trump's language on the tape was described by the media as "vulgar", "sexist", and descriptive of sexual assault.
• The incident prompted him to make his first public apology during the campaign, and caused outrage across the political spectrum, with many Republicans withdrawing their endorsements of his candidacy and some urging him to quit the race.
• Subsequently, at least 15 women came forward with new accusations of sexual misconduct, including unwanted kissing and groping, resulting in widespread media coverage.
• Trump and his campaign have denied all of the sexual misconduct accusations, which Trump has called "false smears", and alleged a conspiracy against him.
• In his two public statements in response to the controversy, Trump responded by alleging that Bill Clinton, former President of the United States and husband of Trump's Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, had "abused women" and that Hillary had bullied her husband's victims.
  The Story (misconduct allegations)
• Donald Trump (R), the 45th President of the United States, was accused of sexual assault by 13 women during the 2016 election and denied it, along with the release of a 2005 video by The Washington Post. The video, in which Trump described, in a private conversation, hypothetical consensual lewd sexual encounters of a celebrity, was released two days before a debate between Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee and Trump, the Republican nominee himself. At the televised debate, Trump dismissed the video as "locker room talk."

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  Trump's repeated unsubstantiated claim of widespread voter fraud  (his voter fraud commission has been dissolved)
• 11/27/2016 tweet -- In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally.
• 12/27/2017 tweet -- Look forward to seeing final results of VoteStand. Gregg Phillips and crew say at least 3,000,000 votes were illegal. We must do better!
• The Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity (PEIC or PACEI), also called the Voter Fraud Commission, was a Presidential Commission established by Donald Trump that ran from May 11, 2017 to January 3, 2018.  (For details see: Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity (Wikipedia)

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  IMPORTANT : To get an understanding Donald Trump's behavior read: Roy Cohn (local)
• Roy Cohn was called Joseph McCarthy's "Pit Bull" and attacked everything that he could.
• Having met Donald Trump 1973 Roy Cohn’s advice to Trump to "fight everything" has been very influential in all of Trumps later dealings.

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  IMPORTANT : To get an understanding Donald Trump's immigration policies read: Stephen Miller (local)
• Stephen Miller is President Donald Trump's senior advisor for policy and has been focused on opposition to immigration to the United States since his time at Duke University.
• Miller has been credited as the engineer behind the Trump administration's decision to reduce the number of refugees accepted into the United States. And all policies concerning immigrants including DACA and Dreamers.

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See also: Donald Trump (Wikipedia)
and: Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) (pdf)
and: Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) (Wikipedia)
and: 2018 North Korea–United States summit (Kim Summit) (Wikipedia)
and: 2018 Russia–United States summit (Putin Summit) (Wikipedia)
and: Efforts to impeach Donald Trump (Wikipedia)
and: North Korea (on this web page) (Local link - Use the "back" button to return)
Part of the Out of Bounds Behavior group.
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Trump put a ban all pre-shredded cheese... to make America grate again.

Mike Pence Top   |   Back

• Michael Richard Pence (born June 7, 1959) is an American politician and lawyer who serves as the 48th and current Vice President of the United States, in office since January 20, 2017.
• He previously held the position of Governor of Indiana from 2013 to 2017.
• After losing two bids for a U.S. congressional seat in 1988 and 1990, he became a conservative radio and television talk show host from 1994 to 1999.
• Pence was elected to the United States Congress in 2000 and represented Indiana's 2nd congressional district and Indiana's 6th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 2001 to 2013.
• He served as the chairman of the House Republican Conference from 2009 to 2011.
• Pence positioned himself as a principled conservative and supporter of the Tea Party movement, stating that he was "a Christian, a conservative, and a Republican, in that order."
  --------------------
• Waiting in the wings for the inevitable outcome.
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Reince Priebus Top   |   Back

• Reinhold Richard "Reince" Priebus (born March 18, 1972) is an American lawyer and politician who served as White House chief of staff for President Donald Trump from January 20, 2017, until July 31, 2017.
• He also served as the chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC) from 2011 to 2017.
• American lawyer, politician, and the current White House Chief of Staff for U.S. President Donald Trump, serving since January 20, 2017.
• Priebus previously served as the Republican National Committee chairman, RNC general counsel, and chairman of the Republican Party of Wisconsin.
• In December 2015, Priebus publicly criticized then Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's proposal to temporarily suspend Muslim immigration in response to terrorist attacks. "I don't agree", Priebus told The Washington Examiner.
• Following Trump's controversial remarks about Mexican illegal immigrants in early 2015, Priebus reportedly delivered a "stern 40-minute lecture" to Trump.
• In May 2016, Priebus again publicly criticized Trump, saying Trump was not the head of the Republican Party and that Trump must "change his tone."
• On November 13, 2016, Trump announced his choice of Priebus for White House Chief of Staff.
• As White House chief of staff, Priebus has held nearly singular control over who is and is not able to enter the Oval Office.
• On February 19, 2017, Priebus said intelligence officials had cleared the Trump campaign of having any contact with Russian spies, contrary to anonymously sourced reports made the previous week by The New York Times, part of what the White House has referred to as "fake news".
• According to a Politico article dated March 17, 2017, a request by Priebus that the FBI refute allegations of contact by Trump associates with Russian intelligence "appears to have violated the White House's policy restricting political interference in pending investigations".

John Kelly Top   |   Back

• John Francis Kelly (born May 11, 1950) is the current White House Chief of Staff for President Donald Trump.
• On July 28, 2017, he was appointed to replace Reince Priebus as White House Chief of Staff.
• He took office July 31.
• He previously served as United States Secretary of Homeland Security.
• He is a retired United States Marine Corps general and the former commander of United States Southern Command, the Unified Combatant Command responsible for American military operations in Central America, South America, and the Caribbean.
• Kelly previously served as the commanding general of the Multi-National Force West in Iraq from February 2008 to February 2009, and as the commander of Marine Forces Reserve and Marine Forces North in October 2009.
• Kelly succeeded General Douglas M. Fraser as commander of U.S. Southern Command on November 19, 2012.
• Kelly was succeeded by Navy Admiral Kurt W. Tidd on January 14, 2016.
  Secretary of Homeland Security
• Kelly was appointed Secretary of Homeland Security on January 20, 2017, by President Trump.
• At six months, Kelly's term as Secretary of Homeland Security is the shortest in the office's history.
• In an April 2017 speech at George Washington University, Kelly said, "If lawmakers do not like the laws they've passed and we are charged to enforce, then they should have the courage and skill to change the laws. Otherwise they should shut up and support the men and women on the front lines."
• Kelly indicated days into the administration his interest in having the U.S.–Mexico border wall completed within two years.
• On April 21, 2017, Kelly said the U.S.–Mexico border wall would begin construction "by the end of the summer." Two days later, Kelly said he believed "a border wall is essential" as there were "tremendous threats" such as drugs and individuals coming into the US.
• On May 2, Kelly stated his surprise in office holders "rejoicing in the fact that the wall will be slower to be built and, consequently, the southwest border under less control than it could be."
• In May 2017, Kelly said of terrorism, "It's everywhere. It's constant. It's nonstop. The good news for us in America is we have amazing people protecting us every day. But it can happen here almost anytime." He said that the threat from terrorism was so severe that some people would "never leave the house" if they knew the truth.
• In July, Kelly blocked Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke from taking a position in the DHS.

See also: John F. Kelly (Wikipedia)
and: David Clarke (an anomaly)

Michael T. Flynn Top   |   Back

• Michael Thomas Flynn (born December 1958) is a retired United States Army Lieutenant General, who served in the Army for 33 years until 2014.
• Michael Flynn, who served in the job for less than a month, said he had given "incomplete information" regarding a telephone call he had with the ambassador in late December about American sanctions against Russia, weeks before President Trump’s inauguration.
• Flynn's military career included a key role in shaping U.S. counterterrorism strategy and dismantling insurgent networks in Afghanistan and Iraq, and he was given numerous combat arms, conventional, and special operations senior intelligence assignments.
• He was appointed by President Barack Obama as the eighteenth director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, serving from July 2012 to his retirement from the military in August 2014.
• After leaving the military, he established Flynn Intel Group which has provided intelligence services for businesses and governments, including ones in Turkey.
• Flynn also briefly served as the twenty-fifth National Security Advisor for President Donald Trump, from January 20 to February 13, 2017.
• Flynn was forced to resign as Trump's National Security Advisor after information surfaced that he had lied to Vice President Mike Pence about the nature and content of his communications with the Russian ambassador to the U.S., Sergey Kislyak.
• Flynn's tenure of just 24 days was the shortest in the history of the office.
• On April 27, 2017, the Pentagon inspector general announced an investigation into whether Flynn had accepted money from foreign governments without the required approval.
• Flynn initially refused to hand over subpoenaed documents to the Senate Intelligence Committee, pleading the Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination, but a compromise with the committee was worked out.
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• Michael Flynn has expressed concern about the potential legal exposure [and expenses] of his son, Michael Flynn Jr., who, like his father, is under scrutiny by special counsel Robert Mueller.
• Flynn Jr., who served as his father's chief of staff and top aide, was actively involved in his father's consulting and lobbying work at their firm, Flynn Intel Group.
• That included joining his father on overseas trips, such as Moscow in December 2015.
• During that trip, Flynn dined with Russian President Vladimir Putin at a black-tie gala for the RT television network, which US intelligence views as a Russian propaganda outlet.
• Flynn likely broke federal law by taking a paid speaking engagement in Russia without US government approval, and he hid the payments from FBI investigators reviewing the security clearance he is afforded as a retired lieutenant general.
• It is not clear that either of the Flynns will face charges once the investigation is complete.
• "The disappointment on your faces when I don't go to jail will be worth all your harassment," Flynn Jr. tweeted on 11/05/2017, responding to his online critics.

Dina Powell Top   |   Back

• Dina Habib Powell (born June 12, 1973) is a financial executive, non-profit executive, philanthropist, and U.S. policymaker.
• She was the U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategy to President Donald Trump.
• She is an Egyptian-American and Coptic-American.
• She had an influential role in determining the first year of the administration's foreign policy, especially in regard to Middle East policy.
• She was also an Assistant to the President and Senior Counselor for Economic Initiatives, a position that she continued in after her security appointment and that she spent about 20 percent of her time on.
• She left the administration in early 2018.
• Prior to accepting these White House positions, Powell was a managing director and partner at Goldman Sachs and president of its non-profit subsidiary, the Goldman Sachs Foundation. In that capacity she ran the foundation's 10,000 Women program. She has since returned thence.
• Before her first stint there, she served in the George W. Bush administration as Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs, Deputy Undersecretary of State for Public Affairs and Public Diplomacy, and an Assistant to the President for Presidential Personnel.
• Powell was born in Egypt and immigrated with her family to Texas at a young age.
• She is a lifelong member of the Republican Party.
• Gary Cohn, Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump, and Dina Powell, have been referred to by opponents as the "Wall Street-wing" of the Trump administration.
  Departure
• On December 8, 2017, it was announced that Powell would be leaving the administration in early 2018, which will probably be January or early February of said year, subsequently elaborated to be after a delayed vice presidential trip to the Middle East had been initiated.
• She had also reportedly become worn out by the duties of the job and tired of the never-ending battles within the White House.
• The administration's set of never-ending controversies gave her pause as to the effects upon her career, with her reportedly asking friends "Am I f---ed?" and "When should I leave?" In addition, the above-mentioned possible path to the Ambassador to the UN position, which would permit her to work in New York, was no longer open.
• Four administration officials indicated that the decision to leave really was hers. Several officials viewed her departure as a significant loss for the White House and one official said, "Without her, it really would have been worse."
• It was reported by the New York Times on January 18, 2018 that Powell had left her position as Deputy National Security Advisor the previous week.
• NSC staffer Nadia Schadlow was chosen to replace Powell. Powell had prepared Schadlow for the role. Schadlow has been described as capable for the position but not in possession of the likes of Powell's connections within the administration.

See also: Dina Powell (Wikipedia)
Part of the Come and Gone crew.

K. T. McFarland Top   |   Back

• Kathleen Troia McFarland (born July 22, 1951) is an American government official and commentator who is the nominee to become the next United States Ambassador to Singapore.
• McFarland served as Deputy National Security Advisor to President Donald Trump during the first months of 2017.
• McFarland formerly served as a staff member on the U.S. National Security Council in the 1970s and a staff member at the Defense Department in the 1980s.
• McFarland ran unsuccessfully for the Republican Party nomination in the United States Senate election in New York, 2006, then was a Fox News national security analyst and a contributor to its website opinion page in the 2010s.
• November 25, 2016, it was reported that McFarland was selected as President-elect Donald Trump's Deputy National Security Advisor, a position that does not require Senate confirmation.
• McFarland had no existing relationship with the new chief executive, but knew his two older sons from their appearances on Fox News, while he liked her appearances on that channel.
• Upon taking office, this represented McFarland's first holding of any government position in over 30 years.
• February 14, 2017, Flynn announced his resignation after he became embroiled in controversy regarding discussions he had with Russian officials before his appointment.
• H. R. McMaster was eventually named as Flynn's replacement.
• April 9, 2017, it was reported that McFarland had been asked to step down from her position as Deputy National Security Advisor, after serving for less than three months, and had been offered a position as the United States Ambassador to Singapore.
• On June 15, 2017, McFarland was formally nominated by the White House to be Ambassador to Singapore
• Her confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee took place on July 20, 2017.
• During her confirmation hearing, she said the importance of Singapore could be encapsulated by the real estate maxim "location, location, location."
• McFarland also stated that she believed Russia had interfered in the 2016 U.S. elections.
• On September 19, McFarland's confirmation was approved by the Committee and was sent on to the full Senate.
• The Republicans on the Committee supported the nomination, while panel Democrats were of the split persuasion.
• McFarland's nomination has not yet been scheduled for a vote in the full Senate, a delay that by the end of November evoked frustration from a McFarland supporter from the American Conservative Union.
• At the end of 2017, the U.S. Senate sent McFarland's nomination back to the White House rather than tabling it until 2018, along with other pending nominations.
• On January 10, 2018, the administration renominated McFarland.
• On 2 February 2018, McFarland withdrew her nomination, writing "I have come to this decision reluctantly, because I believe in your mission" in her resignation letter to Trump. In response, Trump blamed the Democrats, noting that they "chose to play politics rather than move forward with a qualified nominee for a critically important post" even though Senate Republicans could have approved her nomination unilaterally given their majority, which suggests that some of them may have been hesitant to approve her.

See also: K. T. McFarland (Wikipedia)
Part of the Come and Gone crew.

Tom Bossert Top   |   Back

• Thomas P. Bossert (born March 25, 1975) is an American lawyer and former Republican White House staffer, who served as Homeland Security Advisor to President Donald Trump until his resignation on April 10, 2018.
• Immediately before, he was a fellow at the Atlantic Council and prior to that he served as Deputy Homeland Security Advisor to President George W. Bush.
• In that capacity, he co-authored the 2007 National Strategy for Homeland Security.
• Prior to that, Bossert held positions in the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Small Business Administration, the Office of the Independent Counsel, and the House of Representatives.
• He also was appointed as the Director of Infrastructure Protection under Bush, overseeing the security of critical U.S. infrastructure, a post he held for two years.
• Bossert was appointed the Senior Director for Preparedness Policy within the Executive Office of the President.
• Following the end of the Bush administration, Bossert was made a Nonresident Zurich Cyber Risk Fellow at the Atlantic Council's Cyber Security Initiative, a position he held until 2016. He also became president of the risk management consulting firm Civil Defense Solutions.
• On December 27, 2016, the Trump transition team announced that then President-elect Donald Trump intended to appoint Bossert to the post of Homeland Security Advisor (officially titled the Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism), a position that would not require Senate confirmation. Bossert was officially appointed on January 20, 2017, the date of President Trump's entrance into office.
• In July 2017, a British hacker spear-phished Bossert into thinking he was Jared Kushner by sending an email to Bossert. The hacker also received Bossert's private email address without asking for it.
• On April 10, 2018, Bossert resigned a day after John R. Bolton, the newly-appointed National Security Advisor, started his tenure.

See also: Tom Bossert (Wikipedia)
And: Homeland Security Advisor (Wikipedia)
Part of the Come and Gone crew.

Rex Tillerson Top   |   Back

• Rex Wayne Tillerson (born March 23, 1952) is an American civil engineer and former energy executive who is the 69th and current United States Secretary of State, serving since February 1, 2017, under President Donald Trump.
• Tillerson joined Exxon in 1975 and rose to serve as the chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of ExxonMobil from 2006 to 2016.
• An American diplomat, civil engineer, and former energy executive who is the 69th and current United States Secretary of State, serving since February 1, 2017.
• Tillerson joined Exxon in 1975 and rose to serve as the chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of ExxonMobil from 2006 to 2016.
  
  Ties with Russia
  • Tillerson has ties with President of Russia Vladimir Putin.
  • They have been associates since Tillerson represented Exxon's interests in Russia, the world's largest producer of crude oil, during President Boris Yeltsin's tenure.
  • Tillerson was responsible for the development of a partnership between Exxon and state-owned oil company Rosneft and the ultimately unsuccessful attempt to acquire a stake in Yukos, owned by Mikhail Khordorkovsky, before the firm was nationalized after Khordovsky's arrest.
  • John Hamre, the President and CEO of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, of which Tillerson is a board member, states that Tillerson "has had more interactive time with Vladimir Putin than probably any other American, with the exception of Dr. Henry Kissinger."
    U.S. commitment to defending South Korea and Japan.
    • Tillerson also reaffirmed U.S. commitment to defending South Korea and Japan.
    • In mid-March 2017, Tillerson made his first trip to Asia, traveling to Japan, South Korea, and China.
    • Tillerson remarked that diplomatic efforts in the past 20 years to stop North Korea's nuclear development had "failed."
    • Tillerson also stated the United States may need to take preemptive action, remarking "Certainly, we do not want things to get to a military conflict... but obviously, if North Korea takes actions that threatens the South Korean forces or our own forces, then that would be met with an appropriate response.
    • If they elevate the threat of their weapons program to a level that we believe that requires action, that option is on the table."
      --------------------
    • November 7, 2017 A rising star at the State Department, Elizabeth Shackelford has written a blistering resignation letter to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (details below):

      She said that under his leadership, the agency's influence has withered and morale among staff has plummeted, in part because of the "stinging disrespect" shown by the Trump administration. And that if Tillerson is unable to show the leadership required to lead the agency and reverse an exodus of diplomats like her, "I would humbly request that you follow me out the door." Shackelford, who served in South Sudan, Kenya and Poland, wrote that under Tillerson, the State Department is being "diminished" and its influence around the world undercut as the administration increasingly relies on the military at a time of perilous foreign policy challenges. "We have ceded to the Pentagon our authority to drive US foreign policy," Shackelford wrote, "at the behest of the White House, but to our detriment as a nation." Shackelford, who served in South Sudan, Kenya and Poland, wrote that under Tillerson, the State Department is being "diminished" and its influence around the world undercut as the administration increasingly relies on the military at a time of perilous foreign policy challenges. "We have ceded to the Pentagon our authority to drive US foreign policy," Shackelford wrote, "at the behest of the White House, but to our detriment as a nation."

      --------------------
    • Tillerson joined the Trump administration on February 1, 2017.
    • Trump dismissed Tillerson on March 13, 2018, making his tenure one of the shortest in recent history.
    • Trump stated that he would nominate CIA Director Mike Pompeo to replace Tillerson.
    • Tillerson's term officially ended on March 31, 2018; Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan will serve as acting secretary until a replacement is sworn in.
    
    See also: Rex Tillerson (Wikipedia)
    Part of the Come and Gone crew.

Steve Bannon Top   |   Back

• Stephen Kevin Bannon (born November 27, 1953) is an American media executive, political activist, and former investment banker, who is executive chairman of Breitbart News.
• He served as the White House Chief Strategist (a newly created position) in the administration of US President Donald Trump during the first seven months of his term.
• In this capacity, he attended the Principals Committee of the U.S. National Security Council from January 28, 2017, to April 5, 2017.
• An American media executive, formerly a film producer but as Chief Strategist, (a newly created position) in the Trump administration, he attended the Principals Committee of the U.S. National Security Council from January 28, 2017 to April 5, 2017.
• Bannon also hosted a radio show (Breitbart News Daily) on the SiriusXM Patriot satellite radio channel.
• In 2015, Bannon was ranked No. 19 on Mediaite's list of the "25 Most Influential in Political News Media 2015".
• On August 17, 2016, Bannon was appointed chief executive of Donald Trump's presidential campaign.
• Bannon left Breitbart, as well as the Government Accountability Institute and Cambridge Analytica, to take the job.
• Shortly after he assumed the chief executive role, the chairman of the Trump campaign, Paul Manafort, was dismissed.
• On November 13, 2016 following Donald Trump's election victory, Bannon was appointed chief strategist and senior counselor to the President-elect.
• His appointment drew opposition from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the Council on American–Islamic Relations, the Southern Poverty Law Center, Democrat Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, and some Republican strategists, because of statements in Breitbart News that were alleged to be racist or antisemitic.
• In February 2017, Bannon appeared on the cover of Time, on which he was labeled "the Great Manipulator".
• The headline used for the associated article was "Is Steve Bannon the Second Most Powerful Man in the World?", alluding to Bannon's perceived influence in the White House.
  Political Views
• Bannon's political views have been described by others as nationalist and paleoconservative.
• He describes himself as an economic nationalist.
• He rejects allegations that he is a white nationalist, calling white nationalists "losers", a "fringe element", and a "collection of clowns".
• He has advocated reductions in immigration, and restrictions on free trade.
• He is in favor of raising federal income taxes to 44% for those earning incomes over $5 million a year.
• He is skeptical of military intervention abroad, opposing proposals for the expansion of U.S. involvement in the War in Afghanistan, the Syrian Civil War, and the Crisis in Venezuela.
• As White House Chief Strategist, Bannon had reportedly opposed the 2017 Shayrat missile strike, but was overruled by Senior Advisor to the President Jared Kushner.
• He believes "there is no military solution" to the 2017 North Korea crisis.
  Fired... or quit to fight on a different front with different weapons?
• On August 18, 2017 Steve Bannon has been fired by President Donald Trump's as his chief strategist.
• Bannon's ouster had been in the works for two weeks and a source said that while Bannon was given the option to resign, he was ultimately forced out.
• White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders confirmed Bannon's departure, but claimed the decision for him to leave was mutual.
• Trump was furious with his chief strategist after he was quoted in an interview with the American Prospect contradicting Trump on North Korea and asserting that Bannon was able to make personnel changes at the State Department.
• Bannon's exit meant one of the White House's most controversial staffers, the man generally perceived as the driving force behind Trump's "nationalist" ideology, would no longer be at the center of the Trump universe.
• The question now is whether Bannon will be an ally or a thorn in the side of the Trump administration outside the White House, where he has apparently already returned to his role as head of Breitbart, the right-wing news site he ran until he joined Trump's campaign a year ago.
• Bannon told the Weekly Standard:

  "I feel jacked up. Now I'm free. I've got my hands back on my weapons. Someone said, 'it's Bannon the Barbarian.' I am definitely going to crush the opposition. There's no doubt. I built a fucking machine at Breitbart. And now I'm about to go back, knowing what I know, and we're about to rev that machine up. And rev it up we will do."

• Bannon rejoined Breitbart as executive chairman only hours after his firing was announced.
• He is now expected to use it as a platform to blast those within the White House - and perhaps Trump himself - when they don't hew to the fiercely nationalist policies Bannon advocated as an inside adviser.
• Given Trump’s nature, what comes next will hardly be conventional, but it may well be less willfully disruptive—which, to Bannon, had been the point of winning the White House.
• Bannon said Friday, shortly after confirming his departure:

  "The Trump presidency that we fought for, and won, is over, we still have a huge movement, and we will make something of this Trump presidency. But that presidency is over. It’ll be something else. And there’ll be all kinds of fights, and there’ll be good days and bad days, but that presidency is over."

• In recent days, Bannon had told friends he is worth tens of millions of dollars, is a worldwide leader in the populist-nationalist movement that propelled Trump to power, and could go back to Breitbart, which he refers to as a "killing machine", or perhaps other endeavors financed by the family of hedge-fund tycoon Robert Mercer, his longtime ally.
• In an interview with Bloomberg News, Bannon confirmed rumors shared with ABC News by a source close to the former chief strategist that he would continue to work in the president's interests. Quote:

  "If there’s any confusion out there, let me clear it up: I’m leaving the White House and going to war for Trump against his opponents -- on Capitol Hill, in the media, and in corporate America."

  Also of interest (Odd Bits)
• 01/03/18 The Hill reported that Stephen Bannon has reportedly lost the support of billionaire backer Rebekah Mercer after he suggested he might run for president himself.
• "The core constituency for Breitbart is what you would call the Trump Deplorables^‡. That’s the audience. And if they’re asked to choose between Steve and Trump, they’re going to choose Trump. That’s clear," a person familiar with Breitbart News's operations told the Post.
  ^‡ "Basket of deplorables" is a phrase from a 2016 presidential election campaign speech delivered by Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton on September 9, 2016, at a campaign fundraising event, which Clinton used to describe a faction of supporters of her general election opponent, Republican nominee Donald Trump.
  --------------------
• Former White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon's future at Breitbart News is reportedly in question amid his feud with President Trump. The Wall Street Journal reported that members of the right-wing news network's board debated Thursday whether to oust Bannon.
• News of Bannon's possible departure from the conservative news outlet comes hours after White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders called for the news network to look at the possibility of separating from him. "I certainly think that it’s something they should look at and consider," Sanders said at Thursday's (01/04/2018) White House press briefing.
• Bannon is in danger of losing control of Breitbart News as well as his hosting gig on the news network's daily radio show on SiriusXM, Breitbart News Daily, a source familiar with the situation told the newspaper. The former Trump aide rejoined the show as a regular host in December (2017).
• Bannon hasn’t disavowed his comments to Wolff. But he has made concessionary statements since Trump blasted him in a statement ("he lost his mind") on Wednesday (01/03/2018). "The president of the United States is a great man," Bannon said Wednesday night on Breitbart’s SiriusXM radio program. "You know I support him day in and day out." On his Thursday morning radio show (01/04/2018), he added: "Nothing will ever come between us and President Trump and his agenda. We’re as tight on this agenda as we’ve ever been." But for the moment, at least, the damage appears to have been done.

  ---

  Is Bannon "Off the Air???"
• In January 2018, Breitbart announced that Bannon stepped down from his position as executive chairman. (after being fired)
• Bannon is also out as the host of "Breitbart News Daily" on SiriusXM radio, the station confirmed. (their contract was with Breitbart not Bannon)
  Bannon's departure underscores the extraordinary consequences of the publication of Fire and Fury, Michael Wolff’s book about the turbulent Trump administration. Bannon served as one of Wolff’s primary sources, providing incendiary quotes about both Trump and his children. "To the extent the book has a main character with an arc, that protagonist isn’t Trump, but Bannon."

See also: Steve Bannon (Wikipedia)
Part of the Come and Gone crew.

Jeff Sessions Top   |   Back

• Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III (born December 24, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer who is the 84th Attorney General of the United States, in office since 2017.
• Sessions previously served as a United States Senator from Alabama from 1997 to 2017, and he is a member of the Republican Party.
• From 1981 to 1993, he served as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama.
• Sessions was nominated in 1986 to be a judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama, but his contentious nomination failed.
• Sessions was elected Attorney General of Alabama in 1994, and to the U.S. Senate in 1996, being re-elected in 2002, 2008, and 2014.
• During his time in Congress, Sessions was considered one of the most conservative members of the U.S. Senate.
• An early supporter of Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, Sessions was nominated by Trump for the post of U.S. Attorney General.
• He was confirmed on February 8, 2017, with a 52–47 vote in the Senate, and was sworn in on February 9, 2017.
• In his Attorney General confirmation hearings, Sessions stated, while under oath, that he did not have contact with Russian officials during the 2016 presidential campaign and that he was unaware of any contacts between Trump campaign members and Russian officials.
• However, in March 2017, news reports revealed that Sessions had twice met with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak in 2016.
• Sessions subsequently recused himself from any investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, while some Democratic lawmakers called for his resignation.
• In testimony before the House Intelligence Committee in November 2017, Carter Page declared that he had notified Sessions about his contacts with Kremlin officials in July 2016, contradicting Sessions' earlier denials.
• As Attorney General, Sessions overturned a memo delivered by his predecessor, Eric Holder, that had sought to curb mass incarceration by avoiding mandatory sentencing, and has ordered federal prosecutors to begin seeking the maximum criminal charges possible.
• Sessions signed an order adopting civil asset forfeiture, which allows law enforcement to seize the property of those suspected but not charged with crimes.
• A staunch opponent of illegal immigration, Sessions has taken a hard-line on so-called sanctuary cities and has told reporters that cities failing to comply with federal immigration policy would lose federal funding.
• Sessions supports allowing the Department of Justice to prosecute providers of medical marijuana.
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• Jared Kushner and Jeff Sessions both failed to disclose their Russia meetings to the FBI.
• Sessions didn’t just fail to disclose his meeting with Kislyak—he also failed to disclose two dozen other meetings with foreign dignitaries, including ambassadors from Bulgaria, Lithuania, Hungary, Korea, Italy, Australia, and Germany.

See also: Jeff Sessions (Wikipedia)

Rod Rosenstein Top   |   Back

• Rod Jay Rosenstein (born January 13, 1965) is the Deputy Attorney General for the United States Department of Justice.
• Rosenstein was a former nominee to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
• At the time of his confirmation as Deputy Attorney General in April 2017, he was the nation's longest-serving U.S. attorney.
• President Donald Trump announced his intention to nominate Rosenstein to serve as Deputy Attorney General for the United States Department of Justice on January 31, 2017.
• Rosenstein was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on April 25, 2017.
• On May 8, 2017, President Donald Trump directed Sessions and Rosenstein to make a case against FBI Director James Comey in writing.
• In May 2017, he authored a memo which President Trump said was the basis of his decision to dismiss FBI Director James Comey.
• On May 17, 2017, Rosenstein told the full Senate he knew that Comey would be fired before he wrote his controversial memo that the White House initially used as justification for President Trump firing Comey.
• On May 17, 2017, Rosenstein appointed Robert Mueller as a special counsel to conduct the investigation into "any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump" as well as any matters arising directly from that investigation.
• Rosenstein's order authorizes Mueller to bring criminal charges in the event that he discovers any federal crimes.
• Rosenstein said in a statement, "My decision is not a finding that crimes have been committed or that any prosecution is warranted. I have made no such determination. What I have determined is that based upon the unique circumstances the public interest requires me to place this investigation under the authority of a person who exercises a degree of independence from the normal chain of command."
• In an interview with the Associated Press, Rosenstein said he would recuse from supervision of Mueller, if he himself were to become a subject in the investigation due to his role in the dismissal of James Comey.
• In that situation, supervision would fall to DOJ's third-ranking official, Associate Attorney General Rachel Brand.

See also: Rod Rosenstein (Wikipedia)

Rachel Brand Top   |   Back

• Rachel Lee Brand (born May 1, 1973) is an American lawyer, academic, and government official.
• She was sworn in as the United States Associate Attorney General on May 22, 2017, after being nominated to the position by President Donald Trump and confirmed by the United States Senate.
• Brand was the first woman to serve as Associate Attorney General.
• She served as Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Policy in the George W. Bush administration and was appointed by President Barack Obama to serve on the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board.
• Prior to becoming Associate Attorney General, Brand was an associate professor at Antonin Scalia Law School.
  Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (2012–2017)
• In 2012, Brand was appointed by President Barack Obama to serve on the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB). She was confirmed on August 2, 2012 to a term ending January 29, 2017.
• Brand dissented from several recommendations included in the PCLOB's 2014 report on NSA's bulk metadata collection program under section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act.
• She declined to join in the Board's view that the program was illegal as a statutory matter and argued that, in policy terms, it struck a justifiable balance between privacy and national security and, as such, should not be discontinued.
• The Board, for its part, had recommended the program's termination.
  Associate Attorney General (2017–2018)
• On February 1, 2017, President Donald Trump nominated Brand to be United States Associate Attorney General. Her appointment was confirmed 52–46 by the U.S. Senate on May 18, 2017, and she was sworn in on May 22, 2017.
• The reauthorization of the 702 section of the surveillance law was a job assignment of the subject according to CNN.
• On February 9, 2018, the New York Times reported that Brand planned to resign from the Justice Department.
  Hint on her resignation (just my opinion)
• If Trump ask Rod Rosenstein to fire Mueller and he refused and was fired or resigned then as next in line Rachel Brand would have been ask to fire Mueller. Whether she said yes, no, or resigned her career would still take a serious hit.

See also: Rachel Brand (Wikipedia)
Part of the Come and Gone crew.

Bill Stepien Top   |   Back

• Bill Stepien (born 1978) is the current White House political director.
• Stepien managed both of Chris Christie's gubernatorial campaigns and served as his Deputy Chief of Staff before being fired in 2014 after Christie said he "lost confidence" in Stepien's judgment.
• After Donald Trump secured the Republican nomination, he joined the presidential campaign in August 2016 and was later named the White House political director during the Trump presidential transition.
• Bill Stepien’s career as a political operative was left for dead after his involvement in New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s Bridgegate scandal a few years ago.
• But now he plays a central role in the White House as President Trump’s go-to guy in charge of 11 people in the political affairs office.

Sally Yates Top   |   Back

• Sally Caroline Yates (née Quillian; born August 20, 1960) is an American lawyer.
• She served as a United States Attorney and later United States Deputy Attorney General, having been appointed to both positions by President Barack Obama.
• Following the inauguration of Donald Trump and the departure of Attorney General Loretta Lynch, Yates served as Acting Attorney General from January 20, 2017, until being dismissed by Trump on January 30, 2017, following her instruction to the Justice Department not to defend Trump's immigration-related executive order in court.

Steve Mnuchin Top   |   Back

• Steven Terner Mnuchin (born December 21, 1962) is an American banker, film producer, and former hedge fund manager who is the 77th United States Secretary of the Treasury as part of the Trump administration.
• After he graduated from Yale University in 1985, Mnuchin worked for investment bank Goldman Sachs for 17 years, eventually becoming its Chief Information Officer.
• After he left Goldman Sachs in 2002, he worked for and founded several hedge funds. During the financial crisis of 2007–2008, Mnuchin bought failed residential lender IndyMac.
• Mnuchin joined Trump's presidential campaign in 2016, and was named national finance chairman for the campaign.
• On February 13, 2017, Mnuchin was confirmed to be President Trump's Secretary of the Treasury by a 53–47 vote in the U.S. Senate.

Scott Pruitt Top   |   Back

• Edward Scott Pruitt (born May 9, 1968) is an American lawyer and Republican politician from the state of Oklahoma who is currently the fourteenth Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
• Nominated for the position by President Donald Trump, Pruitt was confirmed by the United States Senate to lead the EPA on February 17, 2017.
• An American lawyer and Republican politician from the state of Oklahoma
• Pruitt was elected Attorney General of Oklahoma. In that role, he was viewed as a proponent of federalism, supporting religious freedom laws and opposing abortion rights, same-sex marriage, the Affordable Care Act, and environmental regulations as a self-described "leading advocate against the EPA's activist agenda.
• In his campaigns for Oklahoma Attorney General, Pruitt received campaign contributions from the fossil fuel industry. As Oklahoma's Attorney General, Pruitt sued the Environmental Protection Agency at least 14 times regarding the agency's actions.
• Pruitt rejects the scientific consensus that human activities are a primary contributor to climate change and that carbon dioxide is the primary contributor.
• During his January 18, 2017, confirmation hearing to be EPA Administrator, he said that "the climate is changing, and human activity contributes to that in some manner".
• In March 2017, Pruitt said that he does not believe that human activities, specifically carbon dioxide emissions, are a primary contributor to climate change, a view which is in contradiction with the scientific consensus.
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• In March 2018, it was reported that Pruitt had leased a luxurious Washington D.C. condo from a lobbyist couple at $50 per night, which amounted to $6,100 over a six-month period. The condo was owned by health care lobbyist, and her husband was also a lobbyist, representing clients in industries regulated by the EPA. Other apartments in the building complex, which is in a prime location and less than a block away from the US Capitol - have rented for as much as $5,000-a-month.
• Pruitt also has a vastly larger all-around-the-clock security detail than his predecessors.
• Pruitt has a "blanket waiver" to travel regulations which normally prohibit first-class travel by federal employees.
• In September 2017, the EPA spent nearly $25,000 to build a soundproof booth for Pruitt to use in his office. The EPA's spokesperson said that this was to protect against hacking and eavesdropping. In March 2018, it was revealed that the cost of the soundproof booth was higher than initially reported; it cost close to $43,000.
• In September 2017, it was reported that Pruitt's security detail had increased to 18 people who guarded him around the clock, which is an unprecedentedly large security detail for an EPA chief.
• Pruitt rejects the scientific consensus on climate change.
  --------------------
  On July 5, 2018 Scott Pruitt resigned as the controversies mounted.
  Travel
• The EPA inspector general is probing Pruitt's travel practices. The review began following reports Pruitt would frequently travel home to Oklahoma on the taxpayers' dime. The IG twice expanded the probe, first as the agency acknowledged Pruitt used both a private plane and military jet to travel four times instead of flying commercial -- at a price of $60,000 -- and again to include all of Pruitt's travel from 2017.
• In February, questions over Pruitt's travel prompted House Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy, a South Carolina Republican, to announce an inquiry into Pruitt's practices, and in response to the committee's request for documents, the EPA did not appear to turn over travel waivers granted to Pruitt for first-class travel.
• Pruitt defended his first-class travel in February by saying it was for security purposes, citing the "toxic environment" in politics and implying he was less likely to face threats in a first-class crowd. EPA memos obtained by CNN said that if Pruitt flew coach, the occasional "lashing out from passengers" could "endanger his life."
• EPA documents reviewed by CNN in February showed attorneys for Pruitt's office justifying a series of charter flights last summer, including some $14,000 expended on travel around his home state of Oklahoma.
• A report from The Washington Post in mid-March said documents the EPA provided to Congress outlined further travel expenses from Pruitt, totaling about $68,000 and including a nearly $20,000, four-day trip to Morocco and a series of first-class flights.
• Staff accounts, security detail, personal errands
• The Washington Post and The New York Times reported on a pair of top Pruitt aides who spoke with House Oversight Committee investigators in June. The two detailed how Pruitt enlisted them for personal tasks, including attempting to find a job for his wife with the Republican Attorneys General Association, and the Post report said both aides told the investigators about Pruitt pressing to travel first class or by private plane.
• Millan Hupp, a Pruitt staffer, told the House Oversight Committee that she helped search for rental properties for Pruitt and his wife. Hupp also said she reached out to the Trump International Hotel in Washington after Pruitt said he thought there was "an old mattress that he could purchase" from the President's hotel. Government ethics experts said the rental searches might have clashed with ethics rules. Hupp resigned in June.
• Kevin Chmielewski, a former deputy chief of staff for operations for Pruitt, told The Hill that Pruitt had not reimbursed Sydney Hupp, a scheduler who has since departed EPA and is Millan Hupp's sister, for a $600 hotel bill she paid for personally, and that Pruitt's chief of staff reimbursed her in cash. The Washington Post, citing a current and former EPA officials, said Pruitt "routinely" had staff put reservations for him on their credit cards.
• Emails the Sierra Club obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request showed Sydney Hupp reached out to the CEO of Chick-fil-A about the possibility of Pruitt's wife becoming a franchise owner. Pruitt later said he and his wife "love" the fast-food chain and praised it as "a franchise of faith."
• The Washington Post reported in early June that Pruitt had enlisted his security detail to run a series of personal errands, including driving him around to find a lotion from Ritz-Carlton hotels. The Daily Beast, citing four sources, said Pruitt sent out staff regularly to pick up snacks for him.
• Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse sent a letter to the inspector general of the EPA that said Pruitt's constant security included even personal trips to Disneyland and the Rose Bowl. House Democrats wrote a letter in June following up on the Rose Bowl tickets, asking the source of the tickets, the head of a PR firm that represents oil and gas companies, how the tickets were requested and how many Pruitt had received.
• The Environmental Integrity Project obtained heavily redacted documents from the EPA that showed the agency spent more than $30,000 on security for Pruitt's 2017 trip to Italy.
• A letter from EPA's inspector general in May said Pruitt had requested a full 24/7 security detail as soon as he was confirmed to his job leading the agency. The finding contradicted earlier claims by Pruitt and EPA about his security detail being needed due to threats against him.
  Records
• Sen. John Barrasso, the Wyoming Republican who leads the Senate committee overseeing EPA, has asked Pruitt to provide a list of the agency email accounts he uses after Senate Democrats said they believe Pruitt uses four email accounts and were unsure if the agency searches all four accounts when asked to produce public records.
• EPA is fighting a lawsuit from Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility that alleges the Pruitt administration is deliberately avoiding creating written records of meetings and decisions (so that there are no documents subject to leaking or FOIA) and that Pruitt "uses phones other than his own to deal with important EPA-related matters so the calls do not show up in his call logs."
• As EPA administrator, Pruitt maintained four different email addresses. This prompted two Democrats on the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works to request that the EPA inspector general look into "whether the agency has properly searched these email addresses for responsive documents in response to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests."
• Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, issued a letter in June accusing Pruitt of directing EPA to prevent or delay public records requests.
• Chmielewski told CNN that Pruitt and his aides kept "secret" calendars and schedules and decided which meetings or calls with industry representatives and others to include on the publicly available calendar.
  Lobbyists
• Pruitt lived for about six months in a Capitol Hill condo owned by a health care lobbyist whose husband has lobbied EPA, and paid below the market rate, according to reports by ABC News and Bloomberg. A former deputy chief of staff told congressional investigators the energy lobbyist, J. Steven Hart, called Pruitt's chief of staff to complain that Pruitt was behind on rent, and a separate source told CNN the couple eventually evicted Pruitt by changing the condo lock code. CNN has reported that White House officials are exasperated by the housing controversy.
• A family friend of the lobbyists Pruitt rented a room from was considered for a position with EPA, according to emails between Pruitt's chief of staff and lobbyist J. Steven Hart.
• Lobbyist Richard Smotkin worked with EPA to organize a December 2017 trip to Morocco with Pruitt, and Leonard Leo, a prominent conservative from The Federalist Society who has advised the White House on judicial appointments, was involved in a trip with Pruitt to Italy, a personal familiar with the planning told CNN.
  Other
• The $43,000 EPA spent to purchase and install a soundproof booth in Pruitt's office violated federal spending law, according to the Government Accountability Office. EPA was required to notify Congress before spending more than $5,000 on office improvements, GAO found, although EPA disputed that requirement applies to the privacy booth. Pruitt told Congress in late April that the booth had not been "certified" as a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility, backtracking from his previous testimony, but said that "it does provide protection on confidential communications."
• The Sierra Club obtained documents through a Freedom of Information Act request showing a Pruitt aide ordered 12 fountain pens with the EPA seal and Pruitt's signature on them for a total cost of $1,560.
• The EPA chief of staff, Ryan Jackson, signed on Pruitt's behalf the authorization of large raises to two close aides, internal documents show. Pruitt has maintained -- including in a Fox interview -- he was unaware of the raises and planned to reverse them, although the agency's inspector general found no evidence the raises were rescinded. The Atlantic has reported that Pruitt defied the White House to grant the raises. The two aides, Sarah Greenwalt and Millan Hupp, resigned in June.
• Multiple senior EPA officials, including a career official and political appointees, were sidelined or demoted after they raised concerns or pushed back on the amount of money Pruitt has spent as EPA chief on expenses such as travel as well as his management of the agency, two sources confirmed to CNN. An EPA spokesman has disputed the claims, calling the employees in question "disgruntled." Two people in contact with the Office of Special Counsel -- an independent body not associated with the Justice Department special counsel -- said the office is investigating whether staff were dismissed or demoted for questioning Pruitt.
• Pruitt met with a mining company CEO last year and just hours afterward told his staff to withdraw a plan to protect a watershed in Alaska from certain mining activities.
• CNN reported in early March that Pruitt was one of four Cabinet-level officials the White House had scolded in February over stories about questionable ethics at their agencies.
• Three people familiar with the proposal told CNN that Pruitt approached Trump during an Oval Office conversation this spring, appealed to the President to fire Attorney General Jeff Sessions and offered to run the Justice Department in Sessions' place on a temporary basis under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act before leaving the administration and running for office again in Oklahoma.
• Congressional Democrats cited government emails to say in May that Pruitt had directed staffers to consider opening an office in Tulsa, the administrator's hometown.
• While he was Oklahoma attorney general, Pruitt reimbursed himself around $65,000 from his campaigns, which the Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan group, said may have been handled in a way that violated Oklahoma's campaign finance rules.

See also: Scott Pruitt (Wikipedia)
Part of the Travel Expense Scandal group.

Wilbur Ross Top   |   Back

• Wilbur Louis Ross Jr. (born November 28, 1937) is an American investor and government official who is the current United States Secretary of Commerce.
• On November 30, 2016, President-elect Donald Trump announced that he would nominate Ross to be United States Secretary of Commerce.
• Before he was appointed as Secretary of Commerce, Ross was a banker known for restructuring failed companies in industries such as steel, coal, telecommunications, foreign investment and textiles.
• He specializes in leveraged buyouts and distressed businesses.
• In February 2017, Forbes magazine reported that Ross has a net worth of $2.5 billion.
• He is often called the "King of Bankruptcy" because of his experience in buying bankrupt companies, primarily in the manufacturing and steel industries, and later selling them for a large profit after operations improve.
• Ross was raised as a Democrat. He served under U.S. President Bill Clinton on the board of the U.S.-Russia Investment Fund.
• Later, under New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Ross served as the Mayor's privatization advisor.
• In January 1998 he put $2.25 million in seed money into the campaign of his then-wife, Betsy McCaughey Ross, who was seeking the Democratic nomination for Governor of New York.
• Although he was an early supporter of Donald Trump's presidential campaign, Ross was previously a registered Democrat, served as an officer of the New York State Democratic Party, and held fundraisers for Democratic candidates at his apartment in New York City.
• Since at least 2011, Ross has been donating to Republican candidates and organizations.
• He became a registered Republican in November 2016.
  --------------------
• (11/05/2017) According to the Paradise Papers Wilbur Ross, the commerce secretary, retained investments in a shipping firm with business ties to Russian President Vladimir V. Putin’s inner circle.
• After becoming commerce secretary, Wilbur L. Ross Jr. retained investments in a shipping firm he once controlled that has significant business ties to a Russian oligarch subject to American sanctions and President Vladimir V. Putin’s son-in-law, according to newly disclosed documents.
• The shipper, Navigator Holdings, earns millions of dollars a year transporting gas for one of its top clients, a giant Russian energy company called Sibur, whose owners include the oligarch and Mr. Putin’s family member.
• Despite selling off numerous other holdings to join the Trump administration and spearhead its "America first" trade policy, Mr. Ross kept an investment in Navigator, which increased its business dealings with Sibur even as the West sought to punish Russia’s energy sector over Mr. Putin’s incursions into Ukraine.

Ryan Zinke Top   |   Back

• Ryan Keith Zinke (born November 1, 1961) is an American politician and businessman who is currently the 52nd United States Secretary of the Interior, serving in the Trump administration.
• Zinke served as the U.S. representative for Montana's at-large congressional district from 2015 until 2017.
• From 2009 to 2013, he served as a member of the Montana Senate, representing the 2nd district.
• Then President-elect Donald Trump announced his intent to nominate Zinke for the position of United States Secretary of the Interior on December 13, 2016.
• Zinke was confirmed on March 1, 2017, becoming the first Navy SEAL and the first Montanan since statehood to occupy a Cabinet position. Zinke’s tenure as Secretary of the Interior has been asked with controversy over potential violations of the Hatch Act.
  Private flights and Hatch Act investigations
  • In September 2017, it was reported that on June 26, Zinke had chartered a jet belonging to an oil industry executive for a flight from Las Vegas to Kalispell, Montana.
  • Zinke had been in Las Vegas to make an announcement related to public lands and to deliver a speech to the National Hockey League's Vegas Golden Knights, an expansion franchise owned by William P. Foley, a major donor to Zinke's congressional campaigns.
  • The chartered flight cost taxpayers $12,375.
  • Costs for commercial flights between Las Vegas and Kalispell typically start at $300.
  • Upon arrival in Kalispell, Zinke, a native of nearby Whitefish, Montana, spent the night at his private residence, before delivering remarks at the annual meeting of the Western Governors Association the next morning, having lunch with association members, participating in a photoshoot for GQ, and conducting an interview for Outside Magazine.
  • Zinke and his staffers returned to Washington on a commercial fight the next day.
  • Zinke used private aircraft and performed political duties in relation to an April 1 trip between St. Croix and St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
  • Zinke had been in St. Croix on March 30 for an official meeting with Governor Kenneth Mapp during the day, and spent the night at a fundraiser for the Republican Party of the Virgin Islands, where donors of between $1,500 and $5,000 were allowed to have their pictures taken with Zinke.
  • The following morning, Zinke took a private flight costing the government $3,150 to St. Thomas to celebrate the centennial of the Islands' handover to the United States by Denmark.
  • In October 2017, the Interior Department's Inspector General launched an investigation into Zinke's use of three charter flights during his tenure as Interior Secretary.
  • The United States Office of Special Counsel also announced that it would launch a Hatch Act investigation into Zinke's meeting with the Vegas Golden Knights NHL team.
  
  See also: Ryan Zinke (Wikipedia)
  Part of the Travel Expense Scandal group.

James Mattis Top   |   Back

• James Norman Mattis (born September 8, 1950) is a retired United States Marine Corps general who is the 26th and current United States Secretary of Defense, serving in the Cabinet of Donald Trump.
• Mattis was previously the 11th Commander of United States Central Command during the presidency of Barack Obama, and was responsible for American military operations in the Middle East, Northeast Africa, and Central Asia.
• Before President Obama appointed him to replace General David Petraeus as Commander of US Central Command from August 11, 2010, to March 22, 2013, Mattis had previously commanded United States Joint Forces Command from November 9, 2007, to August, 2010 and served concurrently as NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Transformation from November 9, 2007, to September 8, 2009.
• Prior to that, he commanded I Marine Expeditionary Force, United States Marine Forces Central Command, and 1st Marine Division during the Iraq War.
• On January 20, 2017, Mattis was confirmed as Secretary of Defense 98–1 by the United States Senate on a waiver, as he had only been three years out of active duty despite US federal law requiring a seven-year cooling off period for retired military personnel to be appointed Secretary of Defense.
• He was the first member of President Donald Trump's cabinet to be confirmed.
• Senator Kirsten Gillibrand was the only senator to oppose his appointment.
• As Secretary of Defense, Mattis has affirmed the United States' commitment to defending long-time ally South Korea in the wake of the 2017 North Korea crisis.
• An opponent of proposed collaboration with Russia on military matters, Mattis has consistently stressed Russia's threat to the world order.
• Mattis has occasionally voiced his disagreement with certain Trump administration policies, opposing the proposed withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, and has criticized budget cuts that hamper the ability to monitor the impacts of climate change and noted, "...climate change is a challenge that requires a broader, whole-of-government response."
• On December 20, 2018, after failing to convince Trump to reconsider his decision to withdraw all American troops from Syria, Mattis announced his resignation effective February 28, 2019.
• Trump later accelerated the departure date to January 1, stating he had essentially fired him.
• Mattis later publicly criticized Trump, describing him as "the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people — does not even pretend to try. Instead, he tries to divide us."

Betsy Devos Top   |   Back

• Elisabeth Dee DeVos (née Prince; born January 8, 1958) is an American businesswoman, philanthropist, politician, and the United States Secretary of Education.
• DeVos is a Republican known for her support for school choice, school voucher programs, and charter schools.
• She was Republican National Committeewoman for Michigan from 1992 to 1997 and served as chair of the Michigan Republican Party from 1996 to 2000, with reelection to the post in 2003.
• DeVos has been an advocate of the Detroit charter school system and she is a member of the board of the Foundation for Excellence in Education.
• She has served as chair of the board of the Alliance for School Choice and the Acton Institute and headed the All Children Matter PAC.
• DeVos is married to Dick DeVos, the former CEO of the multi-level marketing company Amway, and is the daughter-in-law of Amway's billionaire co-founder, Richard DeVos.
• Her brother, Erik Prince, a former U.S. Navy SEAL officer, is the founder of Blackwater USA.
• Their father is Edgar Prince, founder of the Prince Corporation.
• In 2016, the DeVos family was listed by Forbes as the 88th richest family in America, with an estimated net worth of $5.4 billion.
• On November 23, 2016 then-President-elect Donald Trump announced that he would nominate DeVos to serve as Secretary of Education in his administration.
• On January 31, following strong opposition to the nomination from Democrats, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions approved her nomination on a party-line vote, sending her nomination to the Senate floor.
• On February 7, 2017, DeVos was confirmed by the Senate by a 51–50 margin, with Vice President Mike Pence breaking the tie in favor of DeVos's nomination.
• This was the first time in U.S. history that a Cabinet nominee's confirmation was decided by a vice president's tiebreaking vote.

Kirstjen Nielsen Top   |   Back

• Kirstjen Michele Nielsen (born May 14, 1972) is an American attorney, government official and national security expert who is the current United States Secretary of Homeland Security.
• Prior to the cabinet post, Nielsen served as Principal Deputy White House Chief of Staff to President Donald Trump from September 6, 2017, to December 6, 2017, and chief of staff to John F. Kelly during his term as Secretary of Homeland Security from January to July 2017.
• She had informally performed the role of White House Deputy Chief of Staff since John F. Kelly assumed the office of White House Chief of Staff on July 31, 2017, at which point Elaine Duke became acting Secretary of Homeland Security.
• On December 5, 2017, she was confirmed by the Senate, and was sworn in the next day as Secretary of Homeland Security.
• On Tuesday, January 16, 2018 Secretary Nielsen testified before the United States Senate and enunciated a position in favor of merit-based immigration, as opposed to the current immigration system based on family relations.
• She was questioned about a previous meeting at the White House on the topic of immigration in which press reports and Senator Dick Durbin stated that the President had used the word shithole to describe African countries and other disparaging remarks about Haiti.
• Nielsen said "I did not hear that word used, no sir" although she said she heard "tough language" which was impassioned.
• During the same hearing, Senator Patrick Leahy asked Secretary Nielsen whether Norway was a predominantly white country. Kirstjen Nielsen appeared to hesitate before answering, "I actually do not know that, sir." She added, "But I imagine that is the case."
• Nielsen was criticized by New Jersey Senator Cory Booker for not recalling or speaking out against Trump's disparaging remarks which Booker characterized as bigoted.
• Following the hearing, Nielsen expressed her disappointment in the amount of attention being paid to the White House meeting.
• On 9 March, Nielsen led the official United States delegation at the opening ceremony of the 2018 Paralympic Winter Games in Pyeongchang.

Mick Mulvaney Top   |   Back

• John Michael Mulvaney (born July 21, 1967) is an American politician in the Republican Party and Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
• He was nominated as OMB Director by incoming President Donald Trump in December 2016 and confirmed by Senate vote (51–49) on February 16, 2017.
• Elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2010, he was the first Republican since 1883 to represent South Carolina's 5th congressional district where he served until his confirmation as OMB Director in 2017.
• Mulvaney served in the South Carolina General Assembly from 2007–2011, first in the State House of Representatives and then the State Senate.
• Mulvaney, previously a stalwart deficit hawk, became a proponent of large federal deficits after his appointment to the Trump administration.
• Trump appointed Mulvaney to serve as Acting Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act (FVRA), which allows for the president to appoint an interim replacement without Senate confirmation.
• However, a dispute has arisen over whether Mulvaney can be so-named under the FVRA or whether a provision of the Dodd-Frank Act controls, which would make the deputy director, currently Leandra English, acting director of the CFPB instead.
• This dispute is ongoing.
• The Senate may also resolve the dispute by confirming a permanent replacement once nominated by the President.
• On November 28, 2017, a federal judge ruled in Trump's favor to allow Mulvaney to serve as CFPB Acting Director.

David Shulkin Top   |   Back

• David Jonathon Shulkin (born July 22, 1959) is an American physician and former government official.
• In 2017, Shulkin became the 9th United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs and served under President Donald Trump.
• He served as the Under Secretary of Veterans Affairs for Health from 2015 until 2017, appointed by President Barack Obama.
• On March 28, 2018, President Trump dismissed Shulkin from his position and announced that Physician to the President Ronny Jackson would be nominated to be Shulkin's successor.
• In 2015, Shulkin left the private sector when he was named by President Barack Obama as Under Secretary of Veterans Affairs for Health in the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).
• When his staff told him it would take ten months to organize a summit on combat veteran suicides, Shulkin told them that during the wait 6,000 veterans would die and to get it done in one month, which they then did.
  Privatization of VA Healthcare
• Following his dismissal in March, 2018, Shulkin highlighted the political pressure from the Trump White House to dismantle VA healthcare and send veterans to the private sector.
• In a New York Times editorial, Shulkin warned that "privatization is a political issue aimed at rewarding select people and companies with profits, even if it undermines care for veterans."
• Much of the political push to privatize VA healthcare comes from a political advocacy group and pseudo-Veteran Service Organization (VSO), Concerned Veterans of America (CVA), which is backed by Charles Koch and David Koch.
• Privatization of VA healthcare is overwhelmingly opposed by veterans and VSOs.
• Political aides assigned to VA, including John Ullyot, Camilo J. Sandoval and Jake Leinenkugel, battled with Shulkin over the issue and advocated for his removal in an effort to coerce him to support privatization.
• Shulkin's removal from the head of VA has renewed concerns among veterans that the Trump administration will privatize VA healthcare.
  Was he fired or did he quit?
• Shulkin says he was fired. The White House said he resigned. Here's why it matters.
• Which of those two things actually happened could have sweeping implications that could throw an agency beset with challenges even further into turmoil.
• When President Donald Trump announced on Twitter last week that Shulkin would depart the agency and that a Defense Department official, Robert Wilkie, would serve as acting secretary, he side-stepped Shulkin's deputy, Thomas Bowman, who was next in the line of succession.
• That decision has given new life to the legal debate over how a President can pick a replacement for departing Cabinet secretaries.
• The Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998 gives the President the authority to temporarily fill a vacancy at a federal agency if the official "dies, resigns, or is otherwise unable to perform the functions and duties of the office."
• The law, however, doesn't explicitly say if the president still has that authority if the person is fired.
• If Shulkin was indeed fired, Trump's decision to replace him with Wilkie instead of following VA's line of succession, could imperil any decisions Wilkie makes while serving at VA in an acting capacity. There could be legal challenges to any actions that Wilkie makes, at a moment where VA is at a crossroads and decisions are looming about some of the department's biggest functions.
• Given the lengthy process for Senate confirmation, Wilkie could serve in an interim capacity for months.
• Trump nominated White House physician Ronny Jackson to become the VA's next secretary, but lawmakers and veterans' groups have raised questions about whether or not he has the right experience to lead the government's second largest bureaucracy.

For additional information in the following areas see:  David Shulkin (Wikipedia) Top   |   Back

• Veterans Affairs - Details of Shulkin's Administration
• European trip controversy

See also: David Shulkin (Wikipedia)

Ronny Jackson Top   |   Back

• Ronny Lynn Jackson (born May 4, 1967) is an American medical doctor, Physician to the President, and United States Navy rear admiral who is currently expected to be nominated as the Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs. He has been a White House physician since 2006.
• First appointed to the role of Physician to the President on July 25, 2013, by Barack Obama, he was retained by Donald Trump after his election in 2016.
• On March 28, 2018, President Donald Trump announced his intention to nominate Jackson as United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs, succeeding David Shulkin.

See also: Ronny Jackson (Wikipedia)

Robert Wilkie Top   |   Back

• Robert Leon Wilkie Jr. (born August 2, 1962) is an American lawyer and government official who currently serves as the Acting United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs, while serving as the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness.
• An intelligence officer in the United States Naval Reserve, he was nominated for his Department of Defense position by U.S. President George W. Bush on June 20, 2006, and his appointment was approved by the Senate on September 30, 2006.
• He currently lives in Arlington, Virginia, with his wife and two children.
• On March 28, 2018 President Trump announced via Twitter that Wilkie will serve as interim United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs until the Senate confirms a successor, likely the nominee Rear Admiral Ronny Jackson.
• Prior to being named assistant secretary, Wilkie served as special assistant to the President for national security affairs and a senior director of the National Security Council where he was a senior policy advisor to then-National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice as well as her successor, Stephen Hadley.
• Wilkie developed strategic planning for the implementation of the Moscow Treaty, the Millennium Challenge Account, Iraqi Reconstruction and NATO Expansion.
• In 2009, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates awarded him the Defense Distinguished Public Service Medal, the highest civilian award of the Department.
• While serving as assistant secretary of defense for legislative affairs, Wilkie authored a memo outlining guidelines that restricted congressional testimony to high-ranking officers and civilians appointed by the president.
• Critics of the guidelines argued that they could impede investigations of the Iraq War, and that the Pentagon had no authority to set the rules.
• Wilkie was nominated to be Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness by President Donald Trump on July 25, 2017.
• This nomination was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on November 16, 2017.
• Wilkie previously served as a Senior Advisor to U.S. Senator Thom Tillis.

See also: Robert Wilkie (Wikipedia)

Rick Dearborn Top   |   Back

• Ricky Allen "Ricky" Dearborn (born 19 July 1965) is currently the White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Legislative, Intergovernmental Affairs and Implementation and formerly the executive director of Donald Trump's presidential transition team.
• Dearborn has worked for six U.S. Senators, including two members of Senate leadership, and spent more than 25 years working on Capitol Hill.
• He was nominated by President George W. Bush and confirmed by the Senate to become the Assistant Secretary for Congressional Affairs at the United States Department of Energy, where he worked with the Senate, House and Tribal Governments on achieving President George W. Bush's Energy Agenda.
• Ricky Dearborn was a member of Donald Trump's presidential transition team, a group of advisors tasked with recommending presidential appointments for the incoming administration.
• Dearborn had previously worked as the Chief of Staff for Senator Jeff Sessions from December 2004 until 2016.
• Dearborn, along with Senior Advisor Steven Miller, is one of two former senior Sessions staffers to have a senior role in Trump's White House.
  --------------------
  Donald Trump presidential transition team
• Dearborn was a member of Donald Trump's presidential transition team.
• The transition team was a group of around 100 aides, policy experts, government affairs officials, and former government officials who were tasked with vetting, interviewing, and recommending individuals for top cabinet and staff roles in Trump's administration.
• He was the team's executive director.
• Dearborn, alongside Marc Short, and Andrew Bremberg, coordinated with aides of Senator Mitch McConnell in employing the Congressional Review Act to reverse 13 regulations made late in the presidency of Barack Obama by creating an Excel spreadsheet of targets, eventually being able to eliminate over twice as many regulations as they had anticipated.
  --------------------
  Attempt to set up a meeting between Trump campaign officials and Russian President Vladimir Putin
• Rick Dearborn reportedly received an email in June 2016 from a person attempting to set up a meeting between Trump campaign officials and Russian President Vladimir Putin, CNN reported citing unnamed sources.

Ben Carson Top   |   Back

• Benjamin Solomon Carson Sr. (born September 18, 1951) is an American neurosurgeon, author, and politician who is the 17th and current United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, under the Trump Administration. Prior to his cabinet position, he was a candidate for President of the United States in the Republican primaries in 2016.
• Born in Detroit, Michigan, and a graduate of Yale University and the University of Michigan Medical School, Carson has authored numerous books on his medical career and political stances. He was the subject of a television drama film in 2009.
• He was the Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Maryland from 1984 until his retirement in 2013. As a pioneer in neurosurgery, Carson's achievements include performing the only successful separation of conjoined twins joined at the back of the head, pioneering the first successful neurosurgical procedure on a fetus inside the womb, performing the first completely successful separation of type-2 vertical craniopagus twins, developing new methods to treat brain-stem tumors, and reviving hemispherectomy techniques for controlling seizures.
• He became the youngest chief of pediatric neurosurgery in the country at age 33. He has received more than 60 honorary doctorate degrees, dozens of national merit citations, and written over 100 neurosurgical publications. In 2008, he was bestowed the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States.
• Carson's widely publicized speech at the 2013 National Prayer Breakfast catapulted him to conservative fame for his views on social and political issues.
• On May 4, 2015, he announced he was running for the Republican nomination in the 2016 presidential election at a rally in his hometown of Detroit. In March 2016, following the Super Tuesday primaries, he suspended his campaign and announced he would be the new national chairman of My Faith Votes, a group that encourages Christians to exercise their civic duty to vote. He then endorsed the candidacy of Donald Trump.
• On March 2, 2017, Carson was confirmed by the United States Senate as the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development in a 58–41 vote.

Lynne Patton Top   |   Back

• Lynne Martine Patton (born 1973 or 1974) is an American event planner, who was designated in June 2017 by President Donald Trump to head Region II of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, which oversees New York and New Jersey.
• She previously worked as an event planner for the Trump family, whose work includes planning the wedding of Eric Trump, and helping to run the Eric Trump Foundation.
• She was a speaker at the 2016 Republican National Convention.
• An Eric Trump Foundation staff biography of Patton states that she was involved in casting the 2012 and 2014 seasons of The Celebrity Apprentice.
• Patton was one of 16 unpaid directors at the Eric Trump Foundation, though her position did not appear in the Foundation's 2014 tax filings.
• Her HUD financial disclosures stated that she had been a vice president and a board member at the Eric Trump Foundation from January 2009 to January 2017, and she speaks of being with the Trump family since 2009.
• In May 2016, during Donald Trump's 2016 Presidential campaign, Patton narrated a YouTube video called "The Trump Family I Know – A Black Female Trump Executive Speaks Out," in which she defended the Trump against accusations that he was is racist.
• She spoke at the 2016 Republican National Convention; the official convention program listed her position as "Vice President of The Eric Trump Foundation and Senior Assistant to Eric Trump, Ivanka Trump, and Donald Trump, Jr."
• In her convention speech, she acknowledged historical racism, but said that Donald Trump knows that black lives, LGBTQ lives, veterans' lives, and police lives matter.
• Later in the campaign, Patton joined other campaign spokeswomen on the Trump-Pence Women's Empowerment Tour.
• She is a director of National Diversity Coalition for Trump.
• Beginning in January 2017, Patton served as a White House liaison and Director of Public Liaison for the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development.
• Since the Trump Organization co-owns some properties that receive federal rental subsidies from HUD, her position raised questions of conflict of interest.
• She has no reported experience with housing policy.
• Beginning in July 5, 2017, HUD Secretary Ben Carson, an acclaimed neurosurgeon with no expertise in housing policy either, charged Patton with running the agency’s regional office overseeing New York and New Jersey.
• Congressional Representatives Grace Meng and Nydia Velázquez, both Democrats from New York, publicly urged the administration to reconsider the appointment.
• During his confirmation hearing, Carson had promised to take a nationwide listening tour to get his bearings, a move widely praised by housing activists. Planning the tour fell to the professional — Patton.
• It didn’t go well. The launch was barely publicized, denying the new HUD secretary news coverage as he visited his hometown of Detroit.
• In other cities, Carson praised programs targeted for budget cuts, a blunder that suggested he hadn’t been properly coached by staff.
• In April, the secretary was ridiculed when he got stuck in an elevator at a Miami housing project.
• Soon after, his staff suspended the listening tour, which his own allies chalked up as a disaster.
  --------------------
• Patton says she has struggled with substance abuse and addiction, and publicly praised the Trump family for standing by her through tough times.

Gary Cohn Top   |   Back

• Gary David Cohn (born August 27, 1960) is an American investment banker who serves as the 11th Director of the National Economic Council and is chief economic advisor to President Donald Trump.
• He was formerly the president and chief operating officer of Goldman Sachs from 2006 to 2017.
• Cohn is a registered Democrat but has donated extensively to Republican politicians, as well.
• Cohn was considered one of the most influential voices in the Trump administration.
• On March 6, 2018, it was reported that Cohn planned to resign from his position in the coming weeks.
• Cohn started his career at the U.S. Steel home products division in Cleveland, Ohio. After a few months, he left U.S. Steel and became an options dealer in the New York Mercantile Exchange. He taught himself the basics of options by reading about it in the days between meeting the hiring manager and joining the New York Mercantile Exchange.
• Cohn was recruited by Goldman Sachs in 1990. In 1996, he was named head of the commodities department, and in 2002, he was named the head of the Fixed Income, Currency and Commodities (FICC) division. In 2003, he was named co-head of Equities, and in January 2004, Cohn was named the co-head of global securities businesses. He became President and Co-Chief Operating Officer, and director in June 2006.
• In late 2009, Cohn led a delegation from Goldman Sachs to meetings with the government of Greece, which included proposals (that were not adopted) to push debt due dates far into the future, "much as when strapped homeowners take out second mortgages to pay off their credit cards." Goldman Sachs had been scrutinized for creating or pitching products used by Greece to "obscure billions in debt from the budget overseers in Brussels".
• In 2010, Cohn testified to Congress on the role of Goldman Sachs in the financial crisis of 2007–2008. Cohn testified: "During the two years of the financial crisis, Goldman Sachs lost $1.2 billion in its residential mortgage-related business. We did not 'bet against our clients,' and the numbers underscore this fact."
• Cohn's salary at Goldman Sachs was US$22 million in 2014. He received $21 million in 2015.
• He received a severance package worth around $285 million – mostly in stock – from Goldman Sachs upon leaving to join the administration of Donald Trump. In the administration he took a salary of $30,000, considerably less than every other high ranking administration officials.
• On January 20, 2017, Cohn took office as Director of the National Economic Council (NEC) in President Donald Trump's administration, a position which did not require Congressional confirmation.
• By February 11, 2017, The Wall Street Journal described Cohn as an "economic-policy powerhouse" and The New York Times called him Trump's "go-to figure on matters related to jobs, business and growth".
• With the confirmation of Trump's December 12, 2016 nominee for Secretary of Treasury, Steven Mnuchin, held back by Congressional hearings, Cohn filled in the "personnel vacuum" and pushed "ahead on taxes, infrastructure, financial regulation and replacing health-care law".
• Had Cohn stayed at Goldman Sachs, some believed he would have become CEO when Lloyd Blankfein vacated that office. His severance package at Goldman Sachs amounted to $285 million. Additionally, Cohn sold a stake valued at $16 million in the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the world's largest bank as of 2017.
• Cohn supports reinstating the Glass-Steagall legislation, which would separate commercial and investment banking.
• Under the Trump administration Cohn has been cited by the press as a supporter of globalism and has been given nicknames such as "Globalist Gary" and "Carbon Tax Cohn".
• Along with Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump, and Dina Powell, they have been referred to by opponents as the "Wall Street-wing" of the Trump administration. He was stated as being at odds with the populist faction that was led by Steven Bannon, when Bannon was White House Chief Strategist.
• Cohn withstood pressure to resign from his job following President Trump's speech blaming both sides for violence between white supremacists and groups, such as ANTIFA, protesting against them during the 2017 Charlottesville rally (Cohn was standing right behind President Trump as Trump made his controversial statement). Cohn did not resign at that time.
• On March 6, 2018, Cohn announced his intention to resign; the announcement followed Trump's proposal to impose import tariffs on steel and aluminum, and Trump's cancellation of a meeting with end-users of steel and aluminum that Cohn had arranged in an attempt to dissuade the president from the planned tariffs. President Trump confirmed he would appoint a new Chief Economic Advisor.

See also: Gary Cohn (investment_banker) (Wikipedia)
and: National Economic Council (United States) (Wikipedia)
Part of the Come and Gone crew.

Corey Lewandowski Top   |   Back

• Corey R. Lewandowski (born September 18, 1973) is an American political operative and political commentator.
• He was a political commentator for One America News Network (OANN) and Fox News Channel (FNC) and a former political commentator for the Cable News Network (CNN), as well as a former campaign manager of Donald Trump's 2016 campaign for President of the United States from January 2015 to June 2016.
• Prior to joining Trump's campaign, Lewandowski worked for several campaigns and was a lobbyist.
• He worked for Americans for Prosperity advocacy group in a variety of roles, and led its national voter registration effort for 11 months.
• Lewandowski himself has run unsuccessfully for office twice, once in Massachusetts and once in New Hampshire.
• On December 21, 2016, Lewandowski co-founded Avenue Strategies, a political consulting firm in an office overlooking the White House.
• Citgo Petroleum Corporation and Puerto Rico were among their first clients.
• In May 2017, Public Citizen, a government-ethics group, called for a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into Lewandowski's alleged lobbying activities without having formally registered.
• By early May, Lewandowski exited the lobbying firm.
  Alleged physical incidents
• On March 10, 2016, Michelle Fields, a reporter for Breitbart News, wrote that, after she asked Donald Trump a question when she approached him after a March 8, 2016, press conference in Jupiter, Florida, she was forcefully grabbed by Lewandowski.
• On March 29, 2016, Lewandowski was charged with one count of simple battery by the Jupiter Police Department and surrendered himself to the authorities, after releasing a statement maintaining his innocence.
• On April 14, Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg filed court documents saying that his office would not prosecute Lewandowski.
• Prosecutors determined that "there was probable cause to make an arrest" and "the facts support the allegation that Mr. Lewandowski did grab Ms. Fields' arm against her will" but that "the evidence cannot prove all legally required elements of the crime alleged and is insufficient to support a criminal prosecution."
• On March 19, 2016, during a campaign event in Tucson, Arizona, Lewandowski drew criticism for his handling of a protester.
• A video shows Lewandowski grabbing the protester by the collar.
• The campaign and Lewandowski denied the allegation.
  Departure
• In April 2016, Lewandowski's influence within the Trump campaign was reported to be waning.
• On June 20, 2016, Trump's campaign announced that it was parting ways with Lewandowski; according to reports, Lewandowski was fired, although Donald Trump Jr, Trump's son, described the split as "amicable."
• The move occurred after Lewandowski clashed with Trump chief strategist and campaign chairman Paul Manafort in an internal "power struggle."
• After Lewandowski's departure, Manafort (who had been brought on the campaign in March 2016) became the de facto campaign manager.

Carter Page Top   |   Back

• Carter William Page (born June 3, 1971) is an American oil industry consultant and a former foreign-policy adviser to Donald Trump during his 2016 Presidential election campaign.
• Page is the founder and managing partner of Global Energy Capital, a one-man investment fund and consulting firm specializing in the Russian and Central Asian oil and gas business.
• In 1998, Page joined the Eurasia Group, a strategy consulting firm, but left three months later. In 2017, Eurasia Group president Ian Bremmer recalled on his Twitter feed that Page's strong pro-Russian stance was "not a good fit" for the firm and that Page was its "most wackadoodle" alumnus.
• Stephen Sestanovich later described Page's foreign-policy views as having "an edgy Putinist resentment" and a sympathy to Russian leader Vladimir Putin's criticisms of the US. Over time, Page became increasingly critical of US foreign policy toward Russia, and more supportive of Putin, with a US official describing Page as "a brazen apologist for anything Moscow did".
• Page is frequently quoted by Russian state television, where he is presented as a "famous American economist". In 2013, Russian intelligence operatives attempted to recruit Page, and one described him as enthusiastic about business opportunities in Russia but an "idiot".
• News accounts in 2017 indicated that because of these ties to Russia, Page had been the subject of a FISA warrant in 2014, at least two years earlier than was indicated in the stories concerning his role in the 2016 Presidential campaign of Donald Trump.
• He has been a focus of the 2017 Special Counsel investigation into links between Trump associates and Russian officials and Russian interference on behalf of Trump during the 2016 Presidential election.
• Page served as a foreign-policy advisor to Donald Trump's 2016 Presidential campaign. In September 2016, U.S. intelligence officials investigated alleged contacts between Page and Russian officials subject to U.S. sanctions, including Igor Sechin. After news reports began to appear describing Page's links to Russia and Putin's government, Page stepped down from his role in the Trump campaign.
• Shortly after Page resigned from the Trump campaign, the Federal Bureau of Investigation obtained a warrant from the US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to surveil Page's communications. To issue the warrant, a federal judge concluded there was probable cause to believe that Page was a foreign agent knowingly engaging in clandestine intelligence for the Russian government. Page was the only American who was directly targeted with a FISA warrant in 2016 as part of the Russia probe. The 90-day warrant was repeatedly renewed.
• In January 2017, Page's name appeared repeatedly in a leaked contract intelligence dossier containing unsubstantiated allegations of close interactions between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin. By the end of January 2017, Page was under investigation by the FBI, the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, the Director of National Intelligence, and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. He has denied wrongdoing. The Trump Administration has attempted to distance itself from Page, denying that he was in fact an "advisor" to Trump.
• In October 2017, Page said he would not cooperate with requests to appear before the Intelligence Committee and would assert his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. He said this was because they were requesting documents dating back to 2010, and he did not want to be caught in a "perjury trap." He expressed the wish to testify before the committee in an open setting.
• On November 2, 2017, Page testified to the U.S. House Intelligence Committee that he had informed Jeff Sessions, Corey Lewandowski, Hope Hicks and other Trump campaign officials that he was traveling to Russia to give a speech in July 2016.
• Page testified that he had met with Russian government officials during this trip and had sent a post-meeting report via email to members of the Trump campaign. He also indicated that campaign co-chairman Sam Clovis had asked him to sign a non-disclosure agreement about his trip.
• Elements of Page's testimony contradicted prior claims by Trump, Sessions, and others in the Trump administration.
• Lewandowski, who had previously denied knowing Page or meeting him during the campaign, said after Page's testimony that his memory was refreshed and acknowledged that he had been aware of Page's trip to Russia.
• Page also testified that after delivering a commencement speech at the New Economic School in Moscow, he spoke briefly with one of the people in attendance, Arkady Dvorkovich, a Deputy Prime Minister in Dmitry Medvedev's cabinet, contradicting his previous statements not to have spoken to anyone connected with the Russian government.
• In addition, while Page denied a meeting with Igor Sechin, the president of state-run Russian oil conglomerate Rosneft as alleged in the Donald Trump–Russia dossier, he did say he met with Andrey Baranov, Rosneft's head of investor relations.
• The dossier alleges that Sechin offered Page the brokerage fee from the sale of up to 19 percent of Rosneft if he worked to roll back Magnitsky Act economic sanctions that had been imposed on Russia in 2012. Page testified that he did not "directly" express support for lifting the sanctions during the meeting with Baranov, but that he might have mentioned the proposed Rosneft transaction.

See also: Carter Page (Wikipedia)

George Papadopoulos Top   |   Back

• George Papadopoulos (born August 1987) is a former member of the foreign policy advisory panel to Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.
• On October 5, 2017, Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to making false statements to FBI agents about contacts he had with the Russian government in 2016 relating to U.S.–Russia relations and Trump's campaign.
• Papadopoulos advised Ben Carson's presidential campaign from November 2015 to January 2016.
• He joined Donald Trump's presidential campaign in May 2016 where he performed similar tasks.
• Three days after joining Trump's campaign, Papadopoulos sent emails concerning Vladimir Putin to seven campaign officials.
• Between March and September 2016, he made at least six requests for Trump to meet with Russian politicians, one of which was rejected by Paul Manafort in May.
• He was interviewed about Russia–United States relations by Interfax in September 2016, in which he said that Barack Obama promised to cooperate with Russia, but that promise did not go through.
• Senator Richard Burr, chair of the Senate panel investigating Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections, said in October 2017 that the panel was interested in Papadopoulos because he had sent e-mails attempting to set up meetings between Trump and Vladimir Putin.
• Since Trump assumed his office as President of the United States, Papadopoulos worked as an independent energy and policy consultant.
• On October 5, 2017, Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to making false statements to FBI agents. The case was unsealed on October 30, 2017, the day Paul Manafort was indicted.
  How the Russia Inquiry Began (or what caused the FBI to open an investigation months before the presidential election)
• During a night of heavy drinking at an upscale London bar in May 2016, George Papadopoulos, a young foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign, made a startling revelation to Australia’s top diplomat in Britain: Russia had political dirt on Hillary Clinton.
• About three weeks earlier, Mr. Papadopoulos had been told that Moscow had thousands of emails that would embarrass Mrs. Clinton, apparently stolen in an effort to try to damage her campaign.
• Exactly how much Mr. Papadopoulos said that night at the Kensington Wine Rooms with the Australian, Alexander Downer, is unclear. But two months later, when leaked Democratic emails began appearing online, Australian officials passed the information about Mr. Papadopoulos to their American counterparts, according to four current and former American and foreign officials with direct knowledge of the Australians’ role.
• The information that Mr. Papadopoulos gave to the Australians answers one of the lingering mysteries of the past year: What so alarmed American officials to provoke the F.B.I. to open a counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign months before the presidential election?
• It was not, as Mr. Trump and other politicians have alleged, a dossier compiled by a former British spy hired by a rival campaign. Instead, it was firsthand information from one of America’s closest intelligence allies.

Paul Manafort Top   |   Back

• Paul John Manafort Jr. (born April 1, 1949) is an American lobbyist, political consultant and lawyer.
• He joined Donald Trump's presidential campaign team in March 2016 and served as campaign manager from June to August 2016.
• He was previously an adviser to the U.S. presidential campaigns of Republicans Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and Bob Dole.
• In 1980 Manafort co-founded the Washington, D.C.-based lobbying firm Black, Manafort & Stone, along with principals Charles R. Black Jr., and Roger J. Stone, joined by Peter G. Kelly in 1984.:124
• American lawyer, lobbyist and political consultant.
• He served as campaign manager for the presidential campaign of Donald Trump in 2016.
• Manafort often lobbied on behalf of controversial foreign leaders such as Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych; Ferdinand Marcos, former dictator of the Philippines; Mobutu Sese Seko, dictator of the former Democratic Republic of the Congo; and Angolan guerrilla leader Jonas Savimbi.
• Lobbying to serve the interests of foreign governments requires registration with the Justice Department under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA); however, as of June 2, 2017, Manafort had not registered. On June 27 he retroactively registered as a foreign agent.
• A firm headed by Paul Manafort made more than $17 million in two years working for the pro-Russia political party that controlled Ukraine's government.
• Manafort is under investigation by multiple federal agencies.
• The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has had an active criminal investigation on him since 2014 regarding business dealings while he was lobbying for Ukraine.
• He may also be a subject of an FBI counterintelligence probe looking into possible collusion between the Russian government and associates of Trump to influence the 2016 presidential election.
• Manafort was an adviser to the presidential campaigns of George H. W. Bush in 1988 and Bob Dole in 1996.
  
• ? On January 19, 2017, the eve of the Trump's presidential inauguration, it was reported that Manafort was under active investigation by multiple federal agencies including the Central Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Director of National Intelligence and the financial crimes unit of the Treasury Department. Investigations were said to be based on intercepted Russian communications as well as financial transactions.
• In August 2016, Manafort's connections to former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and his Party of Regions drew national attention in the USA, where it was reported that Manafort may have illegally received $12.7 million in off-the-books funds from the Party of Regions.
• On August 17, 2016, Donald Trump received his first security briefing. Also, on August 17, 2016, the New York Times reported on an internal staff memorandum from Manafort stating that Manafort would "remain the campaign chairman and chief strategist, providing the big-picture, long-range campaign vision". However, two days later, Trump announced his acceptance of Manafort's resignation from the campaign after Stephen Bannon and Kellyanne Conway took on senior leadership roles within that campaign.
• Special counsel Robert Mueller, who was appointed on May 17, 2017 by the Justice Department to oversee the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections and related matters, took over the existing criminal probe involving Manafort. Special counsel Robert Mueller, who was appointed on May 17, 2017 by the Justice Department to oversee the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections and related matters, took over the existing criminal probe involving Manafort.
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• 08/29/2017 Special counsel Robert Mueller has issued subpoenas to Melissa Laurenza an attorney who until recently represented Manafort, and to Jason Maloni, who is Manafort's spokesman; the subpoenas are seeking documents and testimony.
• Manafort is under investigation for possible tax and financial crimes, according to US officials briefed on the investigation.
• The allegations under investigation largely center on Manafort's work for the former ruling party in Ukraine, which was ousted amid street protests over its pro-Russian policies.
• Paul Manafort also worked for Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska from at least 2005 to 2009.
  --------------------
• On October 27, 2017, Gates and Manafort were indicted by a federal grand jury as part of the Special counsel investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections and related matters.
• The twelve-count indictment charges the two men with conspiracy against the United States, making false statements, money laundering, and failing to register as foreign agents for Ukraine as required by the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
• The charges arise from his consulting work for a pro-Russian government in Ukraine and are unrelated to the Trump campaign.
• On October 30, 2017 Manafort and Gates both surrendered to the FBI and at a court hearing both entered pleas of not guilty.
• While awaiting trial, Manafort was released on $10 million bond and Gates was released on $5 million bond.
• Prosecutors described them as flight risks, and as a condition of pretrial release, both men surrendered their passports and were placed under house arrest.
• On November 30, 2017, Manafort's attorneys said that Manafort has reached a bail agreement with prosecutors that will free him from the house arrest he has been under since his indictment. He offered bail in the form of $11.65 million worth of real estate. While out on bond, Paul Manafort worked on an op-ed with a "Russian who has ties to the Russian intelligence service", prosecutors said in a court filing requesting that the judge in the case revoke Manafort's bond agreement.
• On January 3, 2018, Manafort filed a lawsuit challenging Mueller's broad authority and alleging the Justice Department violated the law in appointing Mueller.
• On February 2, 2018, the Department of Justice filed a motion seeking to dismiss the civil suit Manafort brought against Mueller.
• Judge Jackson dismissed the suit on April 27, 2018, citing precedent that a court should not use civil powers to interfere in an ongoing criminal case. She did not, however, make any judgement as to the merits of the arguments presented.
• On February 22, 2018, both Manafort and Gates were further charged with additional crimes involving a tax avoidance scheme and bank fraud in Virginia.
• On February 28, 2018, Manafort entered a not guilty plea in the District Court for the District of Columbia. Judge Jackson subsequently set a trial date of September 17, 2018, and reprimanded Manafort and his attorney for violating her gag order by issuing a statement the previous week after former co-defendant Gates pleaded guilty.
• Friends of Manafort announced the establishment of a legal defense fund on May 30, 2018, to help pay his legal bills.
• On June 8, 2018, Manafort was indicted for obstruction of justice and witness tampering along with long time associate Konstantin Kilimnik. The charges involve allegations that Manafort attempted to convince others to lie about an undisclosed lobbying effort on behalf of Ukraine's former pro-Russian government.
• Since this allegedly occurred while Manafort was under house arrest, Judge Jackson revoked Manafort's bail on June 15 and ordered him held in jail until his trial. Manafort was booked into the Northern Neck Regional Jail in Warsaw, Virginia, at 8:22 PM on June 15, 2018, where he was housed in the VIP section and kept in solitary confinement for his own safety.
• On June 22, Manafort's efforts to have the money laundering charges against him dismissed were rejected by the court.
• Citing Alexandria's D.C. suburbia status, abundant and significantly negative press coverage, and the margin by which Hillary Clinton won the Alexandria Division in the 2016 Presidential election, Manafort moved the court for a change of venue to Roanoke, Virginia on July 6, 2018, citing Constitution entitlement to a fair and unbiased trial.
• On July 10, Judge T. S. Ellis ordered Manafort to be transferred back to the Alexandria Detention Center, an order Manafort opposed.
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  Paul Manafort Mugshot

  The Trial
• On July 17, 2018, the Mueller investigation asked Judge Ellis to compel five witnesses, who had not previously been publicly associated with the Manafort case, to testify in exchange for immunity, and Ellis denied Manafort's motion to move the trial to Roanoke, Virginia.
• On July 23, 2018, A federal judge in Alexandria, Virginia, granted the request Monday for five witnesses to testify with immunity in the criminal trial of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, the first trial in the Russia investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller.
• The judge also delayed the Manafort trial which is now scheduled to begin on July 31, 2018.
• The five witnesses that were given immunity and compelled to testify were:
  • James Brennan - allegedly included on email chains with Raico and Laporta about tax returns and a loan agreement.
  • Donna Duggan - allegedly part of email chains involving proof of insurance for a property at 377 Union St. in Brooklyn, which is known to be a brownstone owned by Manafort that is referenced in his indictment.
  • Conor O'Brien - a former employee of an accounting firm based in Virginia called Kositzka, Wicks and Company
  • Cindy Laporta - a Certified Public Accountant for accounting called Kositzka, Wicks and Company (KWC)
  • Dennis Raico - said to have been involved with a purported deal through Chicago’s Federal Savings Bank to loan $16 million to Manafort in return for the bank’s founder, Steve Calk, serving as an economic advisor to Trump.
  (Kositzka, Wicks and Company (KWC) confirmed that it handled Manafort’s taxes.)
• So-called "use immunity" protects the witnesses against a government attempt to "use" the witness’s testimony in any hypothetical subsequent prosecution against the witness. (This type of immunity basically is an attempt to prevent the witness from pleading the Fifth.) As the manual for U.S. Attorneys points out, it is different from "transactional immunity," which is broader.
• Transactional immunity protects witnesses from being prosecuted for the underlying offense about which they may be called to testify.
• Here, the witnesses being offered immunity apparently don’t have that broad of a protection. They could be prosecuted if they did something illegal, but their words could not be used against them.
• Kositzka, Wicks and Company (KWC) confirmed that it handled Manafort’s taxes.
  Paul Manafort found guilty on eight counts, a mistrial on 10 counts
• On August 21, 2018, President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort was found guilty on eight counts of financial crimes, a major victory for special counsel Robert Mueller.
• Guilty on 5 tax fraud charges
• Guilty on 1 charge of hiding foreign bank accounts
• Guilty on 2 counts of bank fraud
• But jurors were unable to reach a verdict on 10 charges, and Judge T.S. Ellis declared a mistrial on those counts.

See also: Paul Manafort (Wikipedia)
and: Black, Manafort, Stone and Kelly (Wikipedia)
Part of the Come and Gone crew.
and of special note: Results of the Investigation

Rick Gates Top   |   Back

• Richard W. Gates III (born 1971 or 1972) is an American political consultant and lobbyist.
• In June 2016, Donald Trump hired Paul Manafort to manage his campaign for president, and Gates went to work for Manafort.
• Gates handled the day-to-day activities of the campaign.
• He took responsibility for apparent plagiarism during Melania Trump's speech at the Republican National Convention.
• Gates stayed with the campaign after Manafort was forced out, and then went to work as a fundraiser for the Republican National Committee and the Donald Trump Inaugural Committee.
• He then helped to form a pro-Trump nonprofit group called America First Policies, but was removed from the organization due to his involvement with Manafort's overseas ventures.
  --------------------
• On October 27, 2017, Gates and Manafort were indicted by a federal grand jury as part of the Special Counsel investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections and related matters.
• The twelve-count indictment charges the two men with conspiracy against the United States, making false statements, money laundering, and failing to register as foreign agents for Ukraine as required by the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
• The charges arise from his consulting work for a pro-Russian government in Ukraine and are unrelated to the Trump campaign.
• Manafort and Gates both surrendered to the FBI on October 30, 2017, and at a court hearing both entered pleas of not guilty.
• While awaiting trial, Manafort was released on $10 million bond and Gates was released on $5 million bond.
• Prosecutors described them as flight risks, and as a condition of pretrial release, both men surrendered their passports and were placed under house arrest.

Roger Stone Top   |   Back

• Roger Jason Stone Jr. (born August 27, 1952) is an American political consultant, lobbyist, strategist, and conspiracy theorist noted for his use of opposition research usually for candidates of the Republican Party.
• In 1980, he co-founded the Washington, DC-based lobbying firm Black, Manafort, Stone with principals Paul Manafort and Charles R. Black Jr. It recruited Peter G. Kelly and the firm was renamed Black, Manafort, Stone and Kelly in 1984. During the 1980s, BMSK leveraged its "White House connections" to attract "high-paying clients" including "U.S. corporations", "trade associations", and foreign governments. By 1990, it was "one of the leading lobbyists for American companies and foreign organizations".
• Stone has variously been referred to in media as a "political dirty trickster," a "renowned infighter," a "seasoned practitioner of hard-edged politics," and a "veteran Republican strategist." Over the course of his political career, Stone has been widely regarded as promoting a number of falsehoods and conspiracy theories. Stone is the subject of a Netflix documentary film, titled Get Me Roger Stone.
• Stone left the campaign on August 8, 2015 amid controversy, with Stone claiming he quit and Trump claiming that Stone was fired. Despite this, Stone still supported Trump. A few days later, Stone wrote an op-ed called "The man who just resigned from Donald Trump's campaign explains how Trump can still win" for Business Insider.
• Despite calling Stone a "stone-cold loser" in a 2008 interview and accusing him of seeking too much publicity in a statement shortly after Stone left the campaign, Donald Trump praised him during an appearance in December 2015 on Alex Jones' radio show that was orchestrated by Stone. "Roger's a good guy," Trump said. "He's been so loyal and so wonderful." Stone remained an informal advisor to and media surrogate for Trump throughout the campaign."
• During the course of the 2016 campaign, Stone was banned from appearing on CNN and MSNBC after making a series of offensive Twitter posts disparaging television personalities. Stone specifically referred to a CNN commentator as an "entitled diva bitch" and imagined her "killing herself", and called another CNN personality a "stupid negro" and a "fat negro". Erik Wemple, media writer for The Washington Post, described Stone's tweets as "nasty" and "bigoted". In February 2016, CNN said that it would no longer invite Stone to appear on its network, and MSNBC followed suit, confirming in April 2016 that Stone had also been banned from that network. In a June 2016 appearance on On Point, Stone told Tom Ashbrook: "I would have to admit that calling Roland Martin a 'fat negro' was a two-martini tweet, and I regret that. As for my criticism of Ana Navarro not being qualified ... I don't understand why she's there, given her lack of qualifications."
• In March 2016, an article in the tabloid magazine National Enquirer stated that Ted Cruz, Trump's Republican primary rival, had extramarital affairs with five women. The article quoted Stone as saying, "These stories have been swirling about Cruz for some time. I believe where there is smoke there is fire." Cruz denied the allegations (calling it "garbage" and a "tabloid smear") and accused the Trump campaign, and Stone specifically, of planting the story as part of an orchestrated smear campaign against him. Cruz stated, "It is a story that quoted one source on the record, Roger Stone, Donald Trump's chief political adviser. And I would note that Mr. Stone is a man who has 50 years of dirty tricks behind him. He's a man for whom a term was coined for copulating with a rodent." (Ratfucking is an American slang term for political sabotage or dirty tricks. It was first brought to public attention by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein in their book All the President's Men.) In April 2016, Cruz again criticized Stone, saying on Sean Hannity's radio show of Stone: "He is pulling the strings on Donald Trump. He planned the Trump campaign, and he is Trump's henchman and dirty trickster. And this pattern, Donald keeps associating himself with people who encourage violence." Stone responded by comparing Cruz to Richard Nixon and accusing him of being a liar.
• In April 2016, Stone formed a pro-Trump activist group, Stop the Steal, and threatened "Days of Rage" if Republican party leaders tried to deny the nomination to Trump at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. The Washington Post reported that Stone "is organizing [Trump] supporters as a force of intimidation," noting that Stone "has ... threatened to publicly disclose the hotel room numbers of delegates who work against Trump." Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said that Stone's threat to publicize the hotel room numbers of delegates was "just totally over the line."
• After Trump had been criticized at the Democratic National Convention for his comments on Muslims by Khizr Khan, a Pakistani American whose son received a posthumous Bronze Star Medal and Purple Heart in Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2004, Stone made headlines defending Trump's criticism by accusing Khan of sympathizing with the enemy.
• During the campaign, Stone frequently promoted conspiracy theories, including the false claim that Clinton aide Huma Abedin was connected to the Muslim Brotherhood.
  Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections
• During the 2016 campaign, Stone was accused by Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta of having prior knowledge of the publishing by Wikileaks of Podesta's private emails obtained by a hacker. Stone tweeted before the leak, "It will soon [sic] the Podesta's time in the barrel". Five days before the leak, Stone tweeted, "Wednesday Hillary Clinton is done. #Wikileaks." Stone has denied having any advance knowledge of the Podesta email hack or any connection to Russian intelligence, stating that his earlier tweet was referring to reports of the Podesta Group's own ties to Russia. In his opening statement before the United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence on September 26, 2017, Stone reiterated this claim: "Note that my tweet of August 21, 2016, makes no mention, whatsoever, of Mr. Podesta's email, but does accurately predict that the Podesta brothers' business activities in Russia ... would come under public scrutiny."
• However, Stone has repeatedly acknowledged that he had established a back-channel with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to obtain information on Hillary Clinton. Stone has pointed to this intermediary as the source for his advance knowledge about the release of Podesta's e-mails by Wikileaks. Stone ultimately named Randy Credico, who had interviewed both Assange and Stone for a radio show, as his intermediary with Assange.
  Congressional investigation and further scrutiny
• In February 2017, The New York Times reported that as part of its ongoing investigation into the Trump campaign, the FBI was looking into any contacts Stone may have had with Russian operatives.
• In March 2017, after reports surfaced in The Washington Times that Stone had direct-messaged alleged DNC hacker Guccifer 2.0 on Twitter, Stone admitted to having contact with the mysterious persona and made public excerpts of the messages. Stone claimed the messages were just innocent praise of the hacking. According to a publicly released report by U.S. intelligence agencies, the U.S. intelligence community believes Guccifer 2.0 to be a false persona created by Russian intelligence to obscure its role in the DNC hack.
• During the congressional investigations of Russia's role in the 2016 election, Stone's role in Trump's campaign and his potential contacts with Russia have come under scrutiny. The Senate Intelligence Committee asked Stone to preserve all documents related to any Russian contacts. The Committee Vice Chair, Senator Mark Warner, called on Stone to testify before the committee, saying he "hit the trifecta" of shady dealings with Russia. Stone denied any wrongdoing in an interview on Real Time with Bill Maher on March 31, 2017, and claimed he was willing to testify before the committee.
• On September 26, 2017, Stone testified before the House Intelligence Committee behind closed doors, but he released a public statement which he had delivered to the Committee shortly before, and supplied to the media afterwards. The Washington Post noted his affiliations with conspiracy sites Infowars, Breitbart.com, and Barack Obama citizenship conspiracy theories promulgator, Jerome Corsi. Stone also made personal attacks on Democratic committee members Adam Schiff, Eric Swalwell and Dennis Heck.
• On October 28, 2017, Stone became agitated following a news report by CNN that indictments would be announced within a few days. Subsequently, Stone's Twitter account was suspended by Twitter for what it called "targeted abuse" of various CNN personnel in a series of derogatory, threatening and obscenity-filled tweets.
• On March 13, 2018, two sources close to Stone, former Trump aide Sam Nunberg and a person speaking on condition of anonymity, acknowledged to the Washington Post that Stone had established contact with WikiLeaks owner Julian Assange and that the two had a telephone conversation discussing emails related to the Clinton campaign which had been leaked to WikiLeaks.
• According to Nunberg, who claimed he spoke to the paper after being asked to do so by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, Stone joked to him that he had taken a trip to London to personally meet with Assange, but declined to do so, had only wanted to have telephone conversations to remain undetected and did not have advance notice of the leaked emails.
• The other source, who spoke on anonymity, stated that the conversation occurred before it was publicly known that hackers had obtained the emails of Podesta and of the Democratic National Committee, documents that WikiLeaks released in late July and October.
• Stone afterwards denied that he had contacted Assange or had known in advance about the leaked emails.
• In May 2018, Stone's social media consultant, Jason Sullivan, was issued grand jury subpoenas from the Mueller investigation.
• In July 2018, the anonymous person mentioned in the indictment released by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, which charged twelve Russian military intelligence officials with conspiring to interfere in the 2016 elections, as somebody the Russian hackers operating by means of the online persona Guccifer 2.0 communicated with, and who the indictment alleged ?was in regular contact with senior members of the presidential campaign? was identified by two government officials as Roger J. Stone.

See also: Roger Stone (Wikipedia)
and: Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections (Wikipedia)
and: Kristin M. Davis (Local link - Use the "back" button to return)
and: Andrew Miller (Local link - Use the "back" button to return)
and of special note: Guccifer 2.0 (Local link - Use the "back" button to return)

Kellyanne Conway Top   |   Back

• Kellyanne Elizabeth Conway (née Fitzpatrick; born January 20, 1967) is a political pundit and pollster, who is currently serving as Counselor to the President in the administration of US President Donald Trump.
• She was previously Trump's campaign manager, having been appointed in August 2016.
• She is the first woman to ever run a successfully US presidential campaign, as well as the first woman to run a Republican general election presidential campaign.
• She has previously held roles as campaign manager and strategist in the Republican Party, and was formerly president and CEO of The Polling Company, Inc./WomanTrend.
• On November 10, 2016, Conway tweeted publicly that Trump had offered her a White House job. "I can have any job I want", she said on November 28.
• On December 22, 2016, Trump announced that Conway would join his administration as Counselor to the President.
  --- Controversies ---
• Since Trump's inauguration, Conway has been embroiled in a series of controversies.
  Alternative Facts
• During a Meet the Press interview two days after Trump's presidential inauguration, Conway used the phrase "alternative facts" to defend statements made by White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer regarding the inaugurations crowd size.
• Conway's phrase reminded many commentators of "Newspeak", an obfuscatory language style that is a key element of the society portrayed in George Orwell's dystopian novel 1984.
• Soon after Conway's interview, sales of the book had increased by 9,500%, which The New York Times and others attributed to Conway's use of the phrase, making it the number-one bestseller on Amazon.com.
  Bowling Green massacre
• Making reference to a "Bowling Green massacre" that never occurred.
• On February 2, 2017, Conway appeared in a television news show interview on Hardball (MSNBC) with Chris Matthews.
• In order to justify President Trump's immigration ban, she referenced an event allegedly perpetrated by Iraqi terrorists she termed the "Bowling Green massacre".
• Such an event never took place.
• Vox suggested Conway was referring to the 2011 arrest of two Iraqi refugees in Bowling Green, Kentucky.
• Conway stated the next day that she meant to say "Bowling Green terrorists", both of whom had pleaded guilty to carrying out and supporting attacks on American soldiers in Iraq.
• There was never any suggestion that they had planned to carry out attacks in the United States.
  Ethics violation allegations and investigation
• On February 9, 2017, during an appearance on Fox & Friends (FOX), Conway discussed department store Nordstrom's decision to drop products supplied by Ivanka Trump's business.
• "Go buy Ivanka's stuff is what I would tell you", said Conway; she elaborated "It's a wonderful line. I own some of it. I'm going to give a free commercial here: Go buy it today, everybody. You can find it online".
• Within hours, two organizations filed formal ethics complaints against Conway for violating federal law prohibiting use of a federal position "for the endorsement of any product, service or enterprise".
  Banned from Morning Joe
• On February 15, 2017, one national news show, Morning Joe on MSNBC, banned her from future appearances. "We know for a fact that she tries to book herself on this show. I won’t do it.
• Because I don’t believe in fake news, or information that is not true... every time I’ve ever seen her on television, something’s askew, off or incorrect", the show's co-host Mika Brzezinski said.
• The show's primary host Joe Scarborough said the decision to ban Conway from future appearances was based on her being "out of the loop" and "in none of the key meetings". "She's not briefed. She’s just saying things just to get in front of the TV to prove her relevance", he said.
  Michael Flynn's resignation
• On February 13, 2017, Conway claimed that former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn had the president's "full confidence". Hours later, Flynn resigned.
• The following day, Conway claimed Flynn had offered to resign, despite the fact that White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said Trump had asked Flynn for his resignation.
  Suspension from certain television appearances
• It was then reported that Conway had afterwards leaked negative stories about Spicer to the press.
• Following a week of absence from television interviews, it was announced that the White House had sidelined Conway, though White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders still alleged to CNNMoney that Conway was going to make many appearances during the week.
• On February 5, 2017, New York University journalism professor Jay Rosen argued that, given repeated misstatements of fact, Conway should cease being booked as a guest on television news shows.
• CNN opted not to book Conway as a guest that day because of what the network said were "serious questions about her credibility."

Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster Top   |   Back

• Herbert Raymond "H. R." McMaster (born July 24, 1962) is a United States Army officer and currently the U.S. National Security Advisor.
• On February 20, 2017, U.S. President Donald Trump named McMaster to serve as his National Security Advisor following the resignation of Michael T. Flynn on February 13.
• Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster indicated that he "intends to remain on active duty while he serves as national security adviser."
• Because McMaster intended to remain on active duty, his official assumption of the National Security Advisor's duties and responsibilities required a United States Senate vote; lieutenant generals and generals require Senate confirmation of their rank and assignments.
• On March 6, 2017, the Senate Armed Services Committee voted 23–2 to recommend to the full Senate that McMaster be confirmed for reappointment at his lieutenant general rank during his service as the National Security Advisor.
• The committee recommendation was referred to the Senate on March 7, and the full Senate confirmed McMaster by a vote of 86–10 on March 15, 2017.
• His immediate past military assignment was as Director of the Army Capabilities Integration Center, and Deputy Commanding General, Futures of the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command.
• McMaster's prior assignments include Commanding General, Ft. Benning Maneuver Center of Excellence, and Director of the Combined Joint Interagency Task Force-Shafafiyat at the International Security Assistance Force Headquarters in Kabul, Afghanistan.
• He is known for his roles in the Gulf War, Operation Enduring Freedom, and Operation Iraqi Freedom.
• McMaster authored the book Dereliction of Duty in 1997, which criticized the actions of high-ranking U.S. military leadership during the Vietnam War.
• General McMaster has angered the political right by pushing out several conservatives on the national security staff and cautioning against ripping up the nuclear agreement with Iran negotiated by President Barack Obama without a strategy for what comes next.
• His future has been in doubt amid speculation that Mr. Trump might send him to Afghanistan.
• But after two days of unrelenting attacks on General McMaster by conservative activists and news sites, complete with the Twitter hashtag #FireMcMaster, the president weighed in to quash such talk.
• "General McMaster and I are working very well together," he said in a statement emailed to The New York Times.
• "He is a good man and very pro-Israel. I am grateful for the work he continues to do serving our country."
  Order so far:
  • Michael Flynn January 20, 2017 - February 13, 2017
  • Keith Kellogg (Acting) February 13, 2017 - February 20, 2017
  • H. R. McMaster February 20, 2017 - March 22, 2017
  • John Bolton March 22, 2017 - Present

• Multiple reports have indicated McMaster could depart the White House amid months of tension with President Donald Trump.
• The national security advisor drew Trump's ire when he said it was "incontrovertible" that Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. elections.
• McMaster resigned as National Security Advisor on March 22, 2018, after sustaining the ire of conservatives for months and disagreeing with the president on key foreign policy strategies, including on the administration's approach towards Russia and North Korea.

See also: H. R. McMaster (Wikipedia)
and: National Security Advisor (United States) (Wikipedia)
Part of the Come and Gone crew.

John R. Bolton Top   |   Back

• John Robert Bolton (born November 20, 1948) is an American diplomat, attorney, and the 27th National Security Advisor-elect of the United States.
• A conservative, Bolton served as the United States Ambassador to the United Nations from August 2005 until December 2006 as a recess appointee by President George W.
• Bush.
• He resigned in December 2006, when the recess appointment would have otherwise ended, because he was unlikely to win confirmation from the Senate in which a newly elected Democratic Party majority would be taking control in January 2007.
• On March 22, 2018 President Donald Trump announced his appointment as National Security Advisor who will take office on April 9, 2018.
• Bolton is currently a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), senior advisor for Freedom Capital Investment Management, a Fox News Channel commentator, and of counsel to the Washington, D.C. law firm Kirkland & Ellis.
• He was a foreign policy adviser to 2012 presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
• Bolton is also involved with a number of politically conservative think tanks, policy institutes and special interest groups, including the Institute of East-West Dynamics, the National Rifle Association, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, Project for the New American Century, Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA), Committee for Peace and Security in the Gulf, the Council for National Policy, and the Gatestone Institute, where he serves as the organization Chairman.

See also: John R. Bolton (Wikipedia)

Nikki Haley Top   |   Back

• Nimrata "Nikki" Haley (née Randhawa; born January 20, 1972) is the 29th and current United States Ambassador to the United Nations.
• She became the first Indian-American (with ancestry from India) to hold office in South Carolina.
• She served as the 116th governor of South Carolina from January 2011 to January 2017.
• Before her tenure as governor, Haley was a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives.
• Haley was the first female governor of South Carolina and the second Indian American, after fellow Republican Bobby Jindal, to serve as a governor in the United States.
• She delivered the official Republican response to President Barack Obama's 2016 State of the Union Address on January 12, 2016.
• In 2016, Haley was named among "The 100 Most Influential People" by Time magazine.
• One of Haley's stated goals was to lower taxes.
• Haley implemented a plan in which teachers' salaries would be based not only on seniority and qualifications but also on job performance, as determined by evaluations and reports from principals, students, and parents. She supports school choice and charter schools.
• Haley has stated that, as the daughter of immigrants, she believes the immigration laws should be enforced.
• She voted in favor of a law that requires employers to be able to prove that newly hired employees are legal residents of the United States, and also requires all immigrants to carry documentation at all times proving that they are legally in the United States.
• Haley describes herself as pro-life and has supported legislation to restrict abortion rights.
• Before June 2015, Haley was in support of flying the Confederate flag on the statehouse grounds.
• In the immediate aftermath of the Charleston church shooting, Haley did not take a position on removing the flag, saying "I think the state will start talking about that again, and we'll see where it goes."
• On June 22, Haley called for the removal of the Confederate flag from the statehouse grounds.
• In April 2016, Haley indicated she would not support legislation introduced by the South Carolina State Senate which would require transgender individuals to use restrooms based on biological sex instead of gender identity.
• As governor, in 2016, Haley received extensive press coverage for saying the phrase "bless your heart" in response to an attack by GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump.
• Trump had attacked her on Twitter for her call for him to release his tax records.
• On January 20, 2017, President Donald Trump sent Haley's nomination for Ambassador to the United Nations to the United States Senate.
• On January 24, 2017, Haley was confirmed by the Senate 96-4. The four that voted against Haley were: Senators Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Tom Udall (D-N.M.), and Chris Coons (D-Del.)
• On February 2, 2017, Haley declared to the U.N. Security Council that sanctions against Russia for its Crimean conflict would not be lifted until Russia returned control over the region to Ukraine.
• On March 15, 2017, Haley said she would not support a Muslim ban should President Trump choose to enact one. Haley said she did not believe "we should ever ban anyone based on their religion" and that a Muslim ban would be "un-American".
  Personal life
• In September 1996, she married Michael Haley with both Sikh and Methodist ceremonies.
• Haley identifies herself today as a Christian, but attends both Sikh and Methodist services.
• Her husband is an officer in the South Carolina Army National Guard and was sent on a year-long deployment to Afghanistan in January 2013.
• The couple have two children, daughter Rena and son Nalin.
  Alleged affairs (so far none have been proven)
• Nikki Haley: The “Other Woman” In SC Divorce Case. S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley is one of three “other women” named in a divorce lawsuit filed in Richland County, S.C. earlier this month [February 2013]. Jennifer Marchant – wife of prominent S.C. State House lobbyist Larry Marchant – is suing her husband for divorce on the grounds of infidelity.
• The Nikki Haley Alleged Blogger Affair Story Today [05/24/2010] blogger Will Folks preemptively admitted to an affair with state Rep. Nikki Haley, who has jumped ahead of her fellow competitors in the South Carolina gubernatorial race, attracting the backing of such GOP names as Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin, and Jenny Sanford.
• Haley addresses 'disgusting' rumor: Some people 'try and throw arrows' when you speak your mind. Fire and Fury author Michael Wolff is "disgusting" and illustrates the kinds of accusations women in the workplace face.

  "But it goes to a bigger issue that we need to always be conscious of. At every point in my life, I've noticed that if you speak your mind and you're strong about it and you say what you believe, there is a small percentage of people that resent that," Haley said. "And the way they deal with it is to try and throw arrows -- lies or not -- to diminish you."

• The rumor stems from remarks made by Fire and Fury author Michael Wolff in an appearance on HBO’s "Real Time with Bill Maher."

  Wolff: "said he didn’t have enough proof to write about this it in his book, but be nonetheless told the journalist Bill Maher that the president, he believes, is having an affair and that close readers of his book would be able to figure out who he thinks the president is having an affair with," Politico writer Eliana Johnson said on the latest "Women Rule" podcast. "Many people jumped to the conclusion that it was Nikki Haley."

See also: Nikki Haley (Wikipedia)

Stephen Miller Top   |   Back

• Stephen Miller (born August 23, 1985) is U.S. President Donald Trump's senior advisor for policy.
• Miller has been credited as the engineer behind the Trump administration's decision to reduce the number of refugees accepted into the United States.
• He was previously the communications director for then-Alabama senator, Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
• He also served as a press secretary to Republican U.S. Representatives Michele Bachmann and John Shadegg.
• Miller has acted as Trump's chief speechwriter and is credited with authoring the president's "American carnage" inaugural address.
• He has been a key adviser since the early days of Trump's presidency and was a chief architect of Trump's executive order restricting immigration from several Middle Eastern countries.
• Miller rose to national prominence on February 12, 2017, when, during a morning of television appearances defending the travel ban, he questioned the concept of the Separation of Powers and the role of the judiciary in enacting legislation, and said "our opponents, the media and the whole world will soon see as we begin to take further actions, that the powers of the president to protect our country are very substantial and will not be questioned".
• Miller is widely seen as sharing an "ideological kinship" with, and has had a "long collaboration" with, current White House Chief Strategist, Steve Bannon.
• According to The Economist, A British news magazine, Bannon and Miller "see Mr [Vladimir] Putin as a fellow nationalist and crusader against cosmopolitanism."
• Miller has been criticized on multiple occasions for making false or unsubstantiated claims regarding public policy.
• In September 2017, the New York Times reported that Miller stopped the Trump administration from showing an internal study by the Department of Health and Human Services, that found that refugees had a net positive effect on government revenues, to the public. Miller insisted that only the costs of refugees be publicized, not the revenues that refugees brought in.
  Early life
• Miller grew up in a liberal-leaning Jewish family in Santa Monica, California. His mother's family immigrated to the United States in the early 1900s from Belarus escaping the Anti-Jewish pogroms in the Russian Empire (1903-1906). When his family arrived in the United States, his great-grandmother only spoke Yiddish, the historical language of the Ashkenazi Jews of Eastern Europe. However, in spite of their poverty, most of the the family learned English, worked hard and opened successful businesses in Pennsylvania —"the classic immigration success story".
• Miller became a committed conservative after reading Guns, Crime, and Freedom, a book by National Rifle Association Chief Executive Officer Wayne LaPierre.
• In 2007, Miller received his bachelor's degree from Duke University where he studied political science.
• Miller gained national attention for his defense of the students who were wrongly accused of rape in the Duke lacrosse case.
• While attending Duke University, Miller accused poet Maya Angelou of "racial paranoia" and described student organization Chicano Student Movement of Aztlán (MEChA) as a "radical national Hispanic group that believes in racial superiority."
• While at Duke, Miller and the Duke Conservative Union helped co-member Richard B. Spencer, a Duke graduate student at the time, with fundraising and promotion for an immigration policy debate in March 2007 between the open-borders activist and University of Oregon professor Peter Laufer and journalist Peter Brimelow, the founder of the anti-immigration website VDARE (external link below).
• Spencer would later become an important figure in the white supremacist movement and president of the National Policy Institute.
• Spencer stated in a media interview that he had spent a lot of time with Miller at Duke, and that he had mentored him; in a later blog post he said the relationship had been exaggerated.
• Miller says he has "absolutely no relationship with Mr. Spencer" and that he "completely repudiate[s] his views, and his claims are 100 percent false." A contemporary of Spencer and Miller at Duke disputed the mentorship claim.
• Duke University's former senior vice president, John Burness, told The News & Observer in February 2017 that, while at Duke, Miller "seemed to assume that if you were in disagreement with him, there was something malevolent or stupid about your thinking—incredibly intolerant."
• In Michael Wolff's book Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, Miller was described as a "a fifty-five-year-old trapped in a thirty-two-year-old's body"; Wolff noted that "other than being a far-right conservative, it was unclear what particular abilities accompanied Miller's views. He was supposed to be a speechwriter, but if so, he seemed restricted to bullet points and unable to construct sentences. He was supposed to be a policy adviser but knew little about policy. He was supposed to be the house intellectual but was militantly unread. He was supposed to be a communications specialist but he antagonized almost everyone."

See also: Stephen Miller (political advisor) (Wikipedia)
and: VDARE (Wikipedia)

Sebastian Gorka Top   |   Back

• Sebastian Lukács Gorka (Hungarian: Gorka Sebestyén Lukács; born October 22, 1970) is an American military and intelligence analyst.
• In January 2017, Gorka assumed the position of deputy assistant to the president in the Trump administration.
• He was a member of a White House team known as the Strategic Initiatives Group, which was set up by Steve Bannon and Jared Kushner.
• According to an Associated Press report, by February 2017, Gorka did not have appropriate security clearance.
• Questions were raised as to what the precise roles and duties of Gorka were within the Trump administration.
• In April 2017, The Washington Examiner reported that Gorka was planning to leave his role at the White House; however, in May 2017 The Daily Beast reported that President Trump and Steve Bannon had asked him to remain.
• Gorka was born in the United Kingdom to Hungarian parents, lived in Hungary from 1992 to 2008, and in 2012 became a naturalized American citizen.
• Gorka has written for a variety of publications, is generally considered politically conservative and has ties to the alt-right.
• Various national security scholars in academic and policymaking circles have characterized Gorka as fringe.
• Some critics have challenged his academic credentials, his views on Islam and radicalization—as well as his motives for identifying with the Order of Vitéz or supporting the EU-banned anti-Roma and anti-Semitic Hungarian Guard.
• Gorka has given a series of combative interviews with the press in which he has defended the Trump administration's positions on national security and foreign policy.
• He has referred to himself as "the President's pitbull."

Sam Clovis Top   |   Back

• Samuel H. Clovis Jr. (born September 18, 1949) is a former United States Air Force officer, former Economics professor, talk radio host, and political figure.
• Clovis is currently the senior White House adviser to the United States Department of Agriculture.
• Clovis unsuccessfully ran for Iowa state treasurer in the 2014 elections.
• He was national co-chair of Donald Trump's campaign in the 2016 presidential election.
• In January 2017, Trump made Clovis a senior White House adviser to the USDA.
• In September 2017, Trump nominated Clovis as Under Secretary of Agriculture for Research, Education, and Economics in the United States Department of Agriculture.
• In 2015, Clovis worked on the presidential campaign of Rick Perry, but left in August 2015 to join the Trump campaign as a policy advisor.
• Clovis became national cochairman of Trump's campaign team and served as a frequent spokesperson on cable news.
• After Trump took office in January 2017, he appointed Clovis as senior White House adviser to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).
  --------------------
• Clovis has described climate research as "junk science"; and, in 2014, he told Iowa Public Radio that he is skeptical about climate change.
• Clovis, who now serves as the agency’s senior White House adviser, confirmed in an Oct. 17 letter obtained by The Washington Post that he has no academic credentials in either science or agriculture.
• Clovis has also suggested that protecting gay rights could prompt the legalization of pedophilia.
  --------------------
• In October 2017, former Trump campaign advisor George Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to lying to federal agents about his contacts with the Russia government during the campaign.
• Papadopoulos had been charged by special counsel Robert Mueller as part of his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S.
• election.
• Clovis was identified as a campaign supervisor who encouraged Papadopoulos to travel to Russia and meet Russian officials to build relations with the Kremlin.
• It was reported that Clovis has spoken to investigators with the special prosecutor's office and has testified before the federal grand jury looking into the matter.
• Clovis was tentatively slated to have a hearing before the Senate Agriculture Committee on Nov. 9, 2017.
• His confirmation hearing is likely to focus not only on controversial statements he has made in the past but on the revelation this week that he was one of the top officials on the Trump campaign who was aware of efforts by foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos to broker a relationship between the campaign and Russian officials.
• On November 2, 2017 Sam Clovis withdrew himself from consideration for the top Agriculture post amid the Russia probe

J. D. Gordon Top   |   Back

• Jeffrey D. "J.D." Gordon is an American communications and foreign policy advisor, who served as a Pentagon spokesman from 2005–2009.
• Gordon is a retired United States Navy officer who has served as a senior advisor to Republican political figures and at conservative Washington, DC-based think tanks.
• Gordon is also a contributing columnist to Fox News, The Daily Caller, The Hill, The Washington Times and other media outlets.
• Gordon founded Protect America Today, a national security-themed Super PAC in February 2012.
• Previously, he served as a spokesman for the Navy and Department of Defense, retiring as a Commander.
• He managed communications and press relations in a wide variety of locations over a 20-year career, including posts in Europe, Latin America and Asia.
• His final assignment in the military was at the Pentagon, serving under Secretaries Donald Rumsfeld and Robert Gates.
• In 2015, Gordon became the Chief Foreign Policy Advisor to 2016 Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, the former Governor of Arkansas. He appeared on behalf of Huckabee at various events, to include speaking at a White House rally against the Iran Deal in July 2015, alongside Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX).
  --------------------
• In February 2016, Gordon endorsed Donald Trump for president.
• In March, he joined the Trump campaign as the Director of National Security, managing the National Security Advisory Committee under its Chairman, Senator Jeff Sessions (R. - Ala.).
• In July, during the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, Gordon encountered Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak and dozens of other foreign ambassadors at the U.S. State Dept. sponsored Global Partners in Diplomacy (GPD) Program.
• Gordon acknowledged that fact in March 2017, despite repeated denials by Trump officials that there had been any contact between the Russian government and the Trump campaign.
• According to Gordon, during the encounter he expressed to Kislyak a wish for improved relations between the US and Russia, and indeed, the week prior to convention during RNC Platform Week, Gordon personally advocated for softening a delegate proposed plank to the Republican party platform which had called for providing "lethal defensive weapons" to the government of Ukraine, where Russia was sponsoring separatist fighters.
• This represented a continuation of Obama Administration policies towards Ukraine.
• Gordon later said of his advice to soften the delegate's proposed amendment on Ukraine that "this was the language Donald Trump himself wanted," though he denied that Trump had been aware of the "details."

Michael Flynn Jr. Top   |   Back

• Michael G. Flynn also known as Michael Flynn Jr. is the son of Retired General Michael T. Flynn and worked with his dad on several endeavors.
• December 6, 2016 Michael G. Flynn resigned from the Trump transition team after he made tweets about Pizzagate, a conspiracy theory accusing Hillary Clinton leading a child sex trafficking ring at Comet Ping Pong, a pizzeria in Washington, D.C.
• His tweet came after a a man named Edgar Welch who believed in the conspiracy went to investigate the pizzeria and ended up fired gunshots at the building.
• Michael G. Flynn had tweeted that #Pizzagate would remain a story until it’s "proven to be false."
  

  Pizzagate is a conspiracy theory developed in November 2016 alleging that a pedophile ring is operated out of a Hillary Clinton-linked venue, the famous Washington D.C. pizzeria Comet Ping Pong. The ring was supposedly run by Comet Ping Pong owner James Alefantis, who was alleged to have posted photos of children on his Instagram, even though he has no children. The conspiracy theory, which involved Hillary Clinton and her Campaign Chairman John Podesta running a child trafficking ring out of the basement of a D.C. pizza restaurant.   The restaurant doesn't have a basement and the story is a lie.

  Consulting firm
• Retired General Michael T. Flynn with his son Michael G. Flynn ran Flynn Intel Group Inc., which provided intelligence services for business and governments before closing in 2016.
• The company was founded in the fall of 2014, and restarted in June 2015 as a Delaware company.
• Flynn was paid over $65,000 by companies connected to Russia in 2015, including $11,250 from both Volga-Dnepr Airlines and the U.S. subsidiary of Kaspersky Lab.
• Other clients included Palo Alto Networks, Francisco Partners, Brainwave Science and Adobe Systems.
• While working as a consultant Flynn served on the board of several organizations, including GreenZone Systems, Patriot Capital, Brainwave, Drone Aviation and OSY Technologies.
• Subsidiaries of the Flynn Intel Group included FIG Cyber Inc., headed by Timothy Newberry, and FIG Aviation.

Omarosa Manigault Top   |   Back

• Omarosé Onée Manigault-Newman (born February 5, 1974), often referred to mononymously as Omarosa, is an American former reality television show participant, who served until 13 December 2017 as a political aide in the White House.
• December 13, 2017 The White House says Omarosa Manigault-Newman — one of President Donald Trump's most prominent African-American supporters — plans to leave the administration next month.
• White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders says Manigault Newman's resignation is effective Jan. 20, one year since Trump's inauguration.
• Born and raised in Youngstown, Ohio, Manigault received a bachelor's degree in broadcast journalism from Central State University.
• Manigault was a contestant on the first season of Donald Trump's original American version of The Apprentice.
• She later returned for the television series sequel, Celebrity Apprentice and appeared on numerous other reality television shows.
• TV Guide included her in their 2013 list of The 60 Nastiest TV Villains of All Time.
• During the Republican National Convention in July 2016, Manigault announced that she had been named Director of African-American Outreach for Donald Trump's presidential campaign.
• In September 2016, she said in an interview with Frontline: "Every critic, every detractor, will have to bow down to President Trump. It's everyone who's ever doubted Donald, who ever disagreed, who ever challenged him. It is the ultimate revenge to become the most powerful man in the universe."
• Shortly after Donald Trump won the election, Manigault stated that Donald Trump has an "enemies" list of Republicans who voted against him in the presidential election.
• In December 2016, Manigault was announced as one of the nine members to President-elect Donald Trump's transition team.
• In December 2016, Manigault accompanied former NFL stars Ray Lewis and Jim Brown to meet with President-elect Trump at Trump Tower.
• On January 3, 2017, it was reported that Manigault would join Trump's White House staff, focusing on public engagement.
• Her specific title was made public the next day as Assistant to the President and Director of Communications for the Office of Public Liaison.
• In her first interview after being named to the Trump White House, she told Megyn Kelly that she was a "Trumplican" and had switched her political affiliation to the Republican Party .
• She hopes more African Americans will follow her lead and do the same, given how she believes Democrats take African American voters for granted, making empty promises to them.
• In June 2017 Manigault signed an invitation for the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) to visit the White House as "the Honorable Omarosa Manigault". The use of the style the Honorable which is not usually given to political aides or used by the person styled as such to refer to themselves, was off putting to some members of the CBC. The CBC ultimately declined the invitation.
• In August 2017, Manigault was on a panel about losing loved ones to violence at National Association of Black Journalists convention in New Orleans. She got into a shouting match with moderator and fellow panelist Ed Gordon because his questions to her focused on Trump's policies and not her personal history with losing family members to violence.
• She made $179,700, the maximum salary for any White House staffer.
• December 13, 2017 while White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders says Manigault Newman's resignation is effective Jan. 20, one year since Trump's inauguration, she was escorted out of the White House after trying to protest her firing.
• Omarosa was one of the few people of color on the president’s employee roster, and the only woman of color.

• Political party
  Democratic (before 2015)
  Republican (since 2015)
• Spouses
  Aaron Stallworth (m. 2000; div. 2005)
  John Newman (m. 2017)
• Domestic partner
  Michael Clarke Duncan (2010–2012)

Brad Parscale Top   |   Back

• Brad Parscale (born January 3, 1976) is an American digital media and political strategist.
• He served as the digital media director for Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.
• Parscale began working for the Trump Organization in 2011, developing and designing websites, and creating and managing digital media strategies.
• In early 2015, Trump hired Parscale and his firm, Giles-Parscale, to create a website for his exploratory campaign.
• When Trump declared himself a Republican candidate in 2015, one of the first people he called was Parscale, asking him to update his exploratory campaign site into a "full-fledged presidential campaign website."
• Throughout the Republican primary, Parscale was responsible for the Donald J. Trump for President website, as well as for digital media strategy and online fundraising campaigns.
• In June 2016, Parscale was officially named digital media director for the Donald J. Trump for President campaign, overseeing all aspects of digital media and online fundraising, as well as traditional media strategy, like radio and television placements.
• In January 2017, Parscale, along with another senior Trump aide, Nick Ayers, formally launched America First Policies, a non-profit organization that promotes President Trump's agenda and White House initiatives.
• In 2011, he partnered with Jill Giles of Giles Design and together, founded Giles-Parscale, a San Antonio branding, design, digital media, website and marketing firm.
• In 2011, Giles-Parscale began working for the Trump Organization, providing website development, design and digital media strategy for Trump International Realty.
• In early 2015, Giles-Parscale was hired to create a website for President Donald Trump's exploratory campaign, charging $1,500 for the site.
• Through the entire election cycle, Giles-Parscale was paid $94 million by the Trump campaign.
• Parscale utilized social media advertisements with an experiment based strategy of different face expressions, font colors & slogans like "Basket of Deplorables."
• Parscale was able to utilize Facebook advertising to directly target voters in swing states. Parscale was able to utilize Facebook advertising to directly target voters in swing states.
• The database of voter information that drove Parscale's social media advertising campaigns in the 2016 election was dubbed "Project Alamo", a name which eventually encompassed all of the associated fundraising and political advertising efforts.
• He claims they used social media better than anyone in history to win the 2016 election.
  Trump Jr. told Brad as soon as WikiLeaks made first contact.
• On the same day that Trump Jr. received the first message from WikiLeaks, he emailed other senior officials with the Trump campaign, including Steve Bannon, Kellyanne Conway, Brad Parscale, and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, telling them WikiLeaks had made contact.

Rob Porter Top   |   Back

• Robert R. Porter is a former White House Staff Secretary for U.S. President Donald Trump, serving from January 20, 2017 until February 7, 2018. He previously served as chief of staff for Utah Senator Orrin Hatch.
• Prior to becoming staff secretary in the Trump White House, Porter served as the chief of staff for Senator Orrin Hatch from March 2014. He also worked for Senators Rob Portman and Mike Lee.
• He resigned on February 7, 2018, following public allegations of spousal abuse from his two ex-wives.
• Both of his ex-wives, Colbie Holderness and Jennifer Willoughby, came forward to publicly accuse him of abuse. These allegations were supported by photographs of a black eye and a restraining order.
  A series of DailyMail.com revelations about violence towards his ex-wives
• Colbie Holderness, 37, a senior analyst for the U.S. government and Porter's first wife, spoke on the record to DailyMail.com about their five-year marriage
• The couple met in 2000 at their Mormon church while they were in college
• 'He was never physically abusive until our honeymoon and that floored me,' Holderness told DailyMail.com
• 'He would throw me down on the bed, put his full body weight on top of me, then grind a knee or elbow into my body, expressing rage,' she claims
• She says the violence escalated to where Porter was choking her. ‘It was not hard enough for me to pass out but it was scary, humiliating and dehumanizing'
• On Tuesday night, Porter's second ex-wife Jennifer Willoughby, also shared the story of her abusive marriage with DailyMail.com
• She says he dragged her out of the shower and was verbally abusive
• Last week DailyMail.com revealed that Porter and Hope Hicks are dating, and were seen kissing in a cab on the way back to her apartment
• Holderness confirmed that she was interviewed by the FBI about her marriage after Porter was tapped for his current White House position and required a security clearance – which he has not received
• Porter, 40, is considered one of the most important players in Donald Trump's daily orbit and helped him write last week's State of the Union Address
• He denied the allegations but has now stepped down from his White House role

  ---

• CNN: White House communications director Hope Hicks, who has been in a romantic relationship with Rob Porter, was involved in crafting the response to the allegations of domestic abuse leveled against Porter on Tuesday [02/06/2018].

See also: Rob Porter (Wikipedia)
Part of the Come and Gone crew.
Part of the Out of Bounds Behavior group.

Allen Weisselberg Top   |   Back

• Allen Howard Weisselberg (born August 15, 1947) is an American businessman.
• He is the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of The Trump Organization.
• Following college, Weisselberg worked for real estate magnate Fred Trump and The Trump Organization.
• By the late 1980s, he was controller of the organization and worked under CFO Stephen Bollenbach.
• In 2000, Weisselberg was named Vice President of Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts.
• He also served as treasurer of the Donald J. Trump Foundation.
• On January 11, 2017, it was announced that Weisselberg would serve as a trustee at the Trump Organization alongside Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr while Donald Trump serves as President of the United States.
• On April 4, 2017, a report by ProPublica revealed Trump Jr. and Weisselberg as its sole trustees. The report clarifies that the only people who know the details of the Trump trust's finances are its trustees.
• Weisselberg and has been subpoenaed to testify before a federal grand jury in the criminal probe of Mr. Trump’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, according to people familiar with the investigation.
• The Wall Street Journal reported on August 24, 2018, that Weisselberg had been granted immunity by federal prosecutors in the Cohen probe.
  --------------------

See also: Allen Weisselberg (Wikipedia)

Elliott Broidy Top   |   Back

• Elliott B. Broidy (born July 18, 1957) is an American venture capitalist, Republican fundraiser, and philanthropist.
• From 2005 to 2008 he was finance chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC).
• In 2017, he was named a deputy finance chairman of the RNC.
• Broidy resigned from his RNC role in April 2018 after the Wall Street Journal reported that he had been a party to a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) with former Playboy Playmate Shera Bechard, paying $1.6 million for her silence about a sexual affair between them.
• Broidy was the executive producer of two 2013 films: Sugar and Snake and Mongoose.
• Broidy owns the private security company Circinus LLC, which provides services to the United States and other governments.
• The company has hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts with the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
• In 2018, Broidy intended to take a business trip with George Nader to meet with the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, in order to sell the prince a $650 million contract with Circinus.
• The plan fell apart when F.B.I. agents took Nader in for questioning upon his arrival at Dulles Airport.
  --------------------
• Elliott Broidy and Colony NorthStar, a company led by Thomas Barrack, paid Gates $20,000 a month for consulting work starting in early 2017.

See also: Elliott Broidy (Wikipedia)

Thomas Barrack Top   |   Back

• Thomas J. "Tom" Barrack Jr. (born April 28, 1947) is an American private equity real estate investor and the founder, chairman, and CEO of Colony NorthStar. Barrack is a close friend and ally of President Donald Trump who has represented Trump on television news segments. He also served as the chairman of the Presidential Inaugural Committee.
• His first job was at the law firm of Herbert W. Kalmbach, President Richard Nixon's personal lawyer.
• In 1972 firm sent him to Saudi Arabia, where he soon became the squash partner of a Saudi prince.
• Barrack endorsed Donald Trump during the United States presidential election, 2016.
• He was a major fundraiser for Trump's campaign through the "Rebuilding America Now" Super PAC, which raised $23 million.
• In early 2016, Barrack initially introduced George Nader and Donald Trump Jr.
• Barrack recommended that Trump hire Paul Manafort as his campaign manager, whom Barrack had first met in the 1970s when they were both working for Saudis and living in Beirut.
• Barrack had later loaned Manafort $1.5 million to refinance a home in the Hamptons.
• On April 26, 2016, Barrack began an email correspondence with one of his business parters, United Arab Emirates Ambassador Yousef Al Otaiba, reassuring him that Trump had investments in the UAE.
• On May 26, Barrack wrote introducing Otaiba to Jared Kushner, and the two met later that month.
• On July 13, Barrack conveyed to Otaiba that Trump had removed releasing the 28 Pages of redacted information in the 9/11 Report from the Republican Party platform.
• On July 21, Barrack spoke at the 2016 Republican National Convention.
• In September 2016, Barrack helped set up a meeting between Trump and the Emir of Qatar in Trump Tower.
• Barrack served as chairman of the committee overseeing the inauguration of Donald Trump, for which he raised over $100 million, doubling the previous record.
• Barrack hired Rick Gates as deputy chairman of the inauguration and then hired him as the director of Colony NorthStar's Washington office.
• After Trump became president he acted as a middleman between him and Arab princes.
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• Elliott Broidy and Colony NorthStar, a company led by Thomas Barrack, paid Gates $20,000 a month for consulting work starting in early 2017.

See also: Thomas Barrack (Wikipedia)

George Nader Top   |   Back

• George Nader (born 1959) is a Lebanese-American businessman, lobbyist, and convicted pedophile.
• He has acted as an unofficial liaison between Washington politicians and Middle Eastern officials.
• Nader is an adviser to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan of the United Arab Emirates and a consultant to Blackwater founder Erik Prince.
• In 2018, Broidy intended to take a business trip with George Nader to meet with the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, in order to sell the prince a $650 million contract with Circinus.
• The plan fell apart when F.B.I. agents took Nader in for questioning upon his arrival at Dulles Airport.
• In January 2018, special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigators questioned Nader in connection to suspicions that the UAE had been involved with President Trump’s 2016 campaign.
• Nader was sentenced in the 1990s for transporting child pornography publications, and imprisoned in 2003 for sexually abusing 10 boys in the Czech Republic.

See also: George Nader (businessman) (Wikipedia)

Hope Hicks Top   |   Back

• Hope Charlotte Hicks (born October 21, 1988) is an American public relations executive.
• She is President Donald J. Trump's longest-serving political aide.
• She previously served as the press secretary and early communications director for Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, as well as the national press secretary for his presidential transition team.
• In January 2017, Hicks was included on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list, having "served as a one-woman press team for Trump's historic presidential campaign."
• Hicks began working for public relations firm Hiltzik Strategies in 2012, working for its client Ivanka Trump, Donald Trump's daughter, on her fashion line, and then on other Trump ventures.
• In August 2014 she joined the Trump Organization full-time.
• Hicks worked for Ivanka Trump inside Trump Tower, helping expand her fashion label (the Ivanka Trump Collection) and modeling for her online store.
• Five months later, Donald Trump earmarked Hicks, who was 26 years old at the time, for the role of press secretary in January 2015 when planning for his potential presidential run.
• Donald Trump summoned her to his office and, as she tells it, "Mr. Trump looked at me and said, 'I'm thinking about running for president, and you're going to be my press secretary.'" Until that time, she had never worked in politics, nor volunteered on a campaign.
• After Trump's first primary victories, Hicks was asked to choose between staying with the Trump Organization or working on the campaign full time.
• She initially decided to leave the campaign, but Trump convinced her to remain and she stayed on as press secretary.
• During the campaign, she played the role of gatekeeper to press members who wanted to speak with Trump, handling over 250 requests a day, and deciding which reporters would be allowed to speak with him.
• Tweets - Hicks also takes dictation from Trump for his tweets, and then sends them to another person in the Trump organization who actually sends out the tweet from Trump's official account.
• When in New York City, she would spend most of her day sitting in Trump's office, handling inquiries from the press and taking dictation from him to tweet.
• The demands of the campaign took a personal toll, as they caused a breakup between Hicks and her boyfriend of six years.
• On December 22, 2016, it was announced that Hicks would become part of the Trump Administration, in the newly created position of the White House Director of Strategic Communications.
• Top salary - She is paid the highest White House salary; $179,700, equal to the salaries of three other top members, (now former) White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon, (now former) White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and (now former) White House Office of Public Liaison Omarosa Manigault.
• In January 2017, Hicks was included on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list, having "served as a one-woman press team for Trump's historic presidential campaign."
• Hicks was criticized by some with regard to a statement she issued on May 29, 2017, regarding President Trump's character and personality.
• The statement, ridiculed by Washington Post reporter Callum Borchers as approaching parody comparable to Saturday Night Live, read:

  President Trump has a magnetic personality and exudes positive energy, which is infectious to those around him. He has an unparalleled ability to communicate with people .... He has built great relationships throughout his life and treats everyone with respect. He is brilliant with a great sense of humor … and an amazing ability to make people feel special and aspire to be more than even they thought possible.

  ---

• CNN: White House communications director Hope Hicks, who has been in a romantic relationship with Rob Porter, was involved in crafting the response to the allegations of domestic abuse leveled against Porter on Tuesday [02/06/2018].

  See also: Hope Hicks (Wikipedia)
  Part of the Come and Gone crew.

Keith Schiller Top   |   Back

• Keith Schiller (born 1959) is the current Director of Oval Office Operations.
• Prior to his appointment in the Trump administration, Schiller worked as the Director of Security for The Trump Organization and was the personal bodyguard to Donald Trump.
• In 1999, Schiller saw Marla Maples, Donald Trump's then-wife, at the Manhattan District Attorney's office, accompanied by a bodyguard, whom Schiller judged as not being particularly imposing; seeking side work to supplement his NYPD salary, Schiller asked the assistant district attorney to put in a good word with Trump, so that he could be employed as a bodyguard.
• The Trump Organization eventually brought him on for a one-month trial, and later that year hired him officially.
• Schiller remained a part-time bodyguard until he retired from the NYPD in 2002.
• In 2004, Trump named him his Director of Security.
• He was appointed Director of Oval Office Operations after Trump assumed the office of the President in January 2017.
• In this role he accompanied Jared Kushner on his visit to Iraq and sat in on meetings.
• Hit protester - Schiller made headlines in 2015 when he hit a protester outside Trump Tower.
• Efrain Galicia and four other activists sued Schiller and others in Trump’s organization, saying they were assaulted while protesting outside Trump Tower.
• Schiller said Galicia attacked him first, grabbing him after Schiller took away Galicia’s sign.
• Schiller said he thought Galicia was trying to touch his gun so hit him with a "minimal amount of force to get him off my firearm and off my body."
• He acknowledged in a deposition that he did not have a valid New York state security guard license at the time.
• He thought that wasn’t needed because of his federal license allowing him to carry a gun on private airplanes.
• Comey fired letter - Schiller was selected as Trump's envoy to personally deliver the letter of termination to FBI director James Comey "effective immediately".
• Schiller personally walking the letter over to FBI headquarters – though Comey himself found out the news he was dismissed from television stations while at a field office in Los Angeles, and apparently thought it was a joke.
• Exposed Mattis' cell # - The following week, Schiller accidentally made Secretary of Defense James Mattis' cell phone number public when a photograph of Schiller carrying papers with the hand-written number on a sticky note was published in the Washington Post.
• Schiller was tasked with informing another longtime Trump aide, George Gigicos, that he would never manage another Trump event after the president was unhappy with how his Aug. 22, 2017 Phoenix rally went.
  --------------------
• Left the White House - Schiller left the White House and Trump at the end of September 2017, he said it was for financial reasons.
• Keith Schiller has been working by President Donald Trump’s side for almost two decades.
• But it looks like the longtime personal aide who worked for years as Trump’s bodyguard and is now head of Oval Office operations didn’t even last one year at the White House.
• Pay drop - Even though Schiller, a former New York City police detective, earns an annual salary of $165,000, that is a decrease from the $294,000 he was earning before the White House.
• The sources stressed that Schiller's reasoning was primarily financial, but one source said Schiller has also grown frustrated with the new system installed by White House chief of staff John Kelly aimed at restricting access to the President.
• Schiller has complained that he must call into the White House switchboard to reach Trump over the phone, one source said.
• Collusion? - House Intelligence Committee investigators want to interview Schiller as a witness for their inquiry into possible collusion between Trump campaign and Russians who sought to influence the presidential election.

Rhona Graff Top   |   Back

• Rhona Cheryl Graff is a long-standing executive assistant to Donald Trump and senior vice-president of the Trump Organization.
• She worked at Trump Tower in New York City for nearly thirty years prior to Trump's election to the United States Presidency, and has been described as Trump's 'gatekeeper'.
• Since Trump's election to the White House, Graff has continued to handle his arrangements outside official engagements.
• She remains a point of contact for the sprawling universe of Trump associates, politicians, reporters and others seeking Trump's time and attention, even now that he's in the White House.
• Long-time Trump associate Roger Stone has described Graff as a go-between for "anyone who thinks the system in Washington will block their access".
• She will reportedly be questioned Friday [12/22/2017] by the House intelligence committee probing Russian interference in last year’s election.
• Her name was in the email between Donald Trump Jr. and British publicist Rob Goldstone as they set up the infamous meeting at Trump Tower with a Russian lawyer whom Trump and Goldstone believed had dirt on Democrat Hillary Clinton. Graff, even though she was not on the email chain.

Trump Family Players
Top   |   Back

Jared Kushner Top   |   Back

• Jared Corey Kushner (born January 10, 1981) is an American investor, real-estate developer, and newspaper publisher who is currently senior advisor to US President Donald Trump.
• Kushner is the elder son of real-estate developer Charles Kushner, and is married to Ivanka Trump, President Trump's daughter and advisor.
• He was chief executive officer of the real-estate holding and development company Kushner Companies, and of Observer Media, publisher of the New York Observer.
• He is the co-founder and part owner of Cadre, an online real-estate investment platform.
• While we’ve known since early April that Kushner had omitted his meetings with foreign officials, this "dog ate my homework" excuse is focusing new public attention on what Kushner has lied about, and rightly so. Even if it’s true that a staffer’s greasy fingers are to blame for the errant submission, it doesn’t explain why Kushner failed to disclose his meeting with Veselnitskaya when he amended it for the first time.
• Trump has been an executive vice president of her father's company – The Trump Organization – as well as serving as a boardroom advisor on her father's TV show The Apprentice. She moved to Washington, D.C in January 2017 as her husband, Jared Kushner, was appointed as a Senior Advisor to the President of the United States by her father.
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  Security Clearance:
• November 16, 2017 Jared Kushner is still working with an interim security clearance 10 months into President Donald Trump’s administration.
• People familiar with the situation say Kushner’s interim clearance allows him to view sensitive material, and that it is valid unless revoked.
• To obtain a security clearance, officials must complete an SF-86 form, which delineates foreign contacts. That form has been repeatedly amended to list Kushner’s contacts with foreign officials.
• "I have never seen that level of mistakes," Charles Phalen, the director of the National Background Investigations Bureau, said in a congressional hearing earlier this fall.
• Leslie McAdoo Gordon, a lawyer who has worked on security clearance cases for years said the president could eventually approve Kushner’s clearance.
  --------------------
• Senior White House adviser Jared Kushner’s failure to properly list foreign contacts on his national security clearance forms and his vast financial holdings make him a "natural" target for special counsel Robert Mueller’s team.
• Kushner had contact with foreign officials during last year's transition to the White House, at the behest of then President-elect Donald Trump.
• He also directly worked with data company Cambridge Analytica, whose CEO reportedly reached out to WikiLeaks to help organize the damaging Democratic emails the site published.

Ivanka Trump Top   |   Back

• Ivanka Trump (born Ivana Marie Trump; October 30, 1981) is the daughter and advisor to the 45th President of the United States, Donald Trump, and his first wife, Ivana Trump.
• Starting in late March 2017, Trump began serving in her father's administration as assistant to the president. She assumed this official, unpaid federal government position after multiple ethics concerns were raised about her access to sensitive material while not being held to the same ethics restrictions as a federal employee.
• In 2007 she formed a partnership with a diamond vendor, Dynamic Diamond Corp., to create Ivanka Trump Fine Jewelry, a line of diamond and gold jewelry, sold at her first flagship retail store in Manhattan.
• In November 2011, Trump's retail flagship moved from Madison Avenue to 109 Mercer Street, a larger space in the fashionable SoHo district.
• On October 2, 2015, retail website racked.com reported that "Ivanka Trump's flagship store on Mercer Street appear[s] to be closed" and, noting that the shop had been "stripped clean", said that it is unclear exactly when the shop stopped doing business. As of October 2016, though, the company's website lists Trump Tower as its flagship boutique and its only dedicated retail shop, with the brand also available at fine-jewelry stores throughout the US and Canada, as well as in Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.
• Trump has her own line of fashion items, including clothes, handbags, shoes, and accessories, which is available in major U.S. department stores. Her brand has been criticized for allegedly copying designs by other designers, and by PETA and other animal rights activists for using fur from rabbits. In 2016, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission recalled "Ivanka Trump"-branded scarves because they did not meet federal flammability standards. A 2016 analysis found that most of the fashion line was produced outside the U.S. As of February 2017, department store chains Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom dropped Trump's fashion line, citing "poor performance."
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• Senior White House adviser Jared Kushner’s failure to properly list foreign contacts on his national security clearance forms and his vast financial holdings make him a "natural" target for special counsel Robert Mueller’s team.
• Kushner had contact with foreign officials during last year's transition to the White House, at the behest of then President-elect Donald Trump.
• He also directly worked with data company Cambridge Analytica, whose CEO reportedly reached out to WikiLeaks to help organize the damaging Democratic emails the site published.

Donald Trump Jr Top   |   Back

• Donald John Trump Jr. (born December 31, 1977) is an American businessman and former reality TV personality.
• He is the oldest child of the 45th President of the United States, Donald Trump, and his first wife, Ivana.
• He currently works alongside his brother Eric as a trustee and executive director of The Trump Organization.
• The trust was established to oversee all his father's assets during the latter's presidency.
• Controversy surrounds him due to suspected ties to the Russian government; notably he held a meeting with a Russian lawyer, the emails arranging which promised damaging information on Hillary Clinton, as a sign of the Russian government’s support for Mr. Trump.
• Miss Universe 2013 was held near Moscow, hosted by real estate tycoon Aras Agalarov.
• In June 2016, the publicist for Aras's son Emin Agalarov set up a meeting in Trump tower between Trump Jr., Paul Manafort, Jared Kushner and Russian attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya.
• In an e-mail titled "FW- Russia - Clinton - private and confidential," Trump, Jr. was told that the documents "would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father," and that "This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump." Trump, Jr. responded "If it’s what you say I love it especially later in the summer."
• On June 9, 2016, Trump Jr., Paul Manafort, who was then chairman of the presidential campaign, and Jared Kushner met with Natalia Veselnitskaya at Trump Tower. Previously, Trump, Jr. said she instead discussed the Magnitsky Act. The Democratic National Committee cyber attacks were revealed later that week.
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  Other controversies:
• During the campaign, Trump drew controversy for posting an image comparing refugees to Skittles, saying "If I had a bowl of skittles and I told you just three would kill you. Would you take a handful? That's our Syrian refugee problem." The makers of Skittles condemned the tweet, saying "Skittles are candy. Refugees are people. We don't feel it's an appropriate analogy."
• Another controversy arose when Trump retweeted remarks by psychologist Kevin B. MacDonald about alleged favors exchanged by Hillary Clinton and Switzerland's largest bank (McDonald has been accused of anti-semitism for some of his writings). On the campaign trail, Trump promoted Alex Jones' conspiracy theory that Hillary Clinton wore an earpiece to a presidential forum and that official unemployment rates were manipulated for political purposes.
• In September 2016, Trump Jr. cited Holocaust imagery to criticize the main stream media's seeming uncritical coverage of Hilary Clinton during her campaign, by "letting her slide on every discrepancy", while also accusing Democrats involved in the 2016 campaign of lying. Trump Jr. said if the Republicans were committing the same offences mainstream outlets would be "...warming up the gas chamber right now."
• In March 2017, Trump criticized the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, after the 2017 Westminster attack, which in turn led British lawmakers to criticize Trump Jr. British journalists said that Trump Jr. had quoted Khan out of context when he criticized him.
  
  
• In 2008 Donald Trump Jr., told investors in Moscow that the Trump Organization had trademarked the Donald Trump name in Russia and planned to build housing and hotels in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Sochi, and sell licenses to other developers, the Russian daily Kommersant reported. "Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets," Trump Jr. said at the time. "We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia."

Eric Trump Top   |   Back

• Eric Frederick Trump (born January 6, 1984) is an American businessman, philanthropist, and former reality television personality. He is the third child and second son of the President of the United States, Donald Trump, and Ivana Trump.
• Alongside his older brother Donald Trump Jr., he serves as a trustee of The Trump Organization.
• A fourth-generation businessman who followed in the footsteps of his great-grandmother Elizabeth Trump (who founded the company), grandfather Fred Trump, and father, Trump has served as a longtime executive vice president of the firm; Trump and his brother Donald Jr. are currently running the company during their father's administration.
• From 2007 to 2016, he led The Eric Trump Foundation, a charity that raised money for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.
• In June 2017, it was reported that the Eric Trump Foundation shifted a portion of that money to the Trump Organization ostensibly to cover the expenses of various fundraising events, though charity experts say there was no reasonable cost justification.
• Trump denies any wrongdoing and pledges to cooperate with any official review of the matter.
  The Eric Trump Foundation
• In 2007, Eric Trump established the Eric Trump Foundation, a public charity which raised money for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Tennessee.
• On November 30, 2012, the foundation committed to raising $20 million over a 10-year period for the naming rights to the new Eric Trump Foundation Surgery & ICU Center in the Kay Research and Care Center, a $198 million tower that was officially opened on February 19, 2015, on the St. Jude campus".
• On December 21, 2016, Eric announced that he would stop active fundraising for the Eric Trump Foundation as of December 31. The move came to avoid the appearance that donors were using him to gain access to his father after he won the presidential election.
  Controversy about use of funds
• In 2016, the fundraising president of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, stated that The Eric Trump Foundation had raised and donated $16.3 million dollars to the hospital since the charity's foundation.
• In June 2017, Forbes reported that the Eric Trump Foundation shifted money intended to go to cancer patients to the family's businesses.
• Eric Trump had asserted that his foundation got to use Trump Organization assets for free ("We get to use our assets 100% free of charge"), but that appears not to be the case.
• According to Forbes, more than $1.2 million of the donations went to the Trump Organization for the use of Trump's Westchester golf course and that "Golf charity experts say the listed expenses defy any reasonable cost justification for a one-day golf tournament. "
• According to a former member of the foundation's board of directors, "We did have to cover the expenses....The charity had grown so much that the Trump Organization couldn't absorb all of those costs anymore. "
• Forbes acknowledged that the charity has done a great deal of good, including an intensive-care unit that opened in 2015 at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, as well as funding cancer research.
• Trump denies wrongdoing and pledges to cooperate with any review of the matter.
• Trump said in July 2016 that his father, Donald Trump, had made "hundreds of thousands of dollars in personal donations" to the Eric Trump Foundation in the past, although the Eric Trump Foundation's tax records don't explicitly show such donations. When The Washington Post followed up for evidence, Trump appeared to backtrack and refused to give details.
• In June 2017, the New York State Attorney General's Office confirmed that it had begun an inquiry into the Eric Trump Foundation, based on issues raised by the Forbes investigation.
• The investigation was reported as ongoing in January 2018.

See also: Eric Trump (Wikipedia)

Mary L. Trump Top   |   Back

• Mary Lea Trump (born May 1965) is an American clinical psychologist, businessperson, and author.
• She is the niece of Donald J. Trump and authored a book about him and the family,
  Too Much and Never Enough (How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man) (2020).
• Mary L. Trump was born in 1965 to Fred Trump Jr. and Linda Lee Clapp, a flight attendant.
• She has one brother, Frederick Trump III.
• Their father died of a heart attack tied to alcoholism when Mary was 16.
• Trump's undergraduate studies were in English literature at Tufts University. She earned a master's degree in English Literature at Columbia University studying the works of William Faulkner and his dysfunctional fictional Compson family.
• Trump volunteered in a study of schizophrenia in young adults at Zucker Hillside Hospital in Queens, N.Y.C., which furthered her interest and expertise in psychological dysfunction.
• In 2009, Trump completed a Ph.D. in Clinical psychology at Adelphi University in the Derner Institute of Advanced Psychological Studies with her dissertation titled "A Characterological Evaluation of the Victims of Stalking," working with Carolyn M. Springer.
  Conflicts with the Trump family
• When Frederick "Fred" Trump Sr. died in 1999 from Alzheimer's disease, Mary and her brother Fred III contested their grandfather's will. Fred Sr.'s will left the bulk of his estate, in equal shares, to his children. His grandchildren were each left $200,000. When Mary's father predeceased him Fred Sr.'s lawyers recommended amending his will, to leave Mary and her brother, Fred III, larger shares than the grandchildren with living parents. They anticipated Fred Sr.'s will would be challenged if it were not amended, by descendants who argued his intent was for each child would eventually leave a portion of their share of the estate to their own descendants.
• Shortly after Fred Sr.'s death Mary's brother's wife gave birth to a son with a rare and debilitating medical condition - one that would require a lifetime of very expensive medical care. Fred Sr. had established a foundation that paid the medical expenses of his family. Mary and Fred III were advised that the medical foundation would no longer pay for their medical expenses. The final settlement of the dispute over sharing Fred Sr.'s estate did not award them the share their father would have inherited, if he had been alive when Fred Sr. died. It did restore coverage of their family's medical expenses.
• The 2019 Pulitzer Prize in Investigative Reporting was awarded to David Barstow, Susanne Craig and Russ Buettner of The New York Times, for "an exhaustive 18-month investigation of President Donald Trump's finances that debunked his claims of self-made wealth and revealed a business empire riddled with tax dodges."
• Mary Trump was reportedly a key source of information for that study. Mary came into possession of Donald Trump's tax documents during the discovery process in the dispute over her grandfather's estate.
  The Book Too Much and Never Enough
• Upon the announcement of Mary Trump's book Too Much and Never Enough in June 2020, the Trump family attempted to block its release, claiming that she signed a non-disclosure agreement during the 1999 lawsuit.
• The filing of a temporary restraining order against Mary L. Trump was dismissed by a New York court for a lack of jurisdiction, and the book is scheduled to be published on July 14, 2020.

See also: Mary L. Trump (Wikipedia)

Congressional Players
(Select)
Top   |   Back

Mitch McConnell Top   |   Back

• Addison Mitchell McConnell Jr. (born February 20, 1942) is an American politician serving as the senior United States Senator from Kentucky since 1985.
• A member of the Republican Party, he has been the Majority Leader of the Senate since January 3, 2015.
• He previously served as Minority Leader from 2007 to 2015.
• He is the second Kentuckian to lead his party in the Senate.
• McConnell is the longest-serving U.S. Senator in Kentucky history.
• During the administration of President Barack Obama, McConnell was known to the left as being an obstructionist, while opinion on the right was sharply divided.
• Some on the right praised him for tenacity and courage, while others criticized him for being part of the political establishment and not keeping his promises to conservatives.
• McConnell has gained a reputation as a skilled political strategist and tactician.
• However, this reputation dimmed after Republicans failed to pass a replacement for the Affordable Care Act in 2017.
• From early 2016, McConnell refused to schedule Senate hearings for Obama's nominee to the Supreme Court, Merrick Garland, to replace Associate Justice Antonin Scalia, who died in February 2016.
• Garland's nomination remained before the Senate for 294 days, from March 16, 2016, until it expired on January 3, 2017, more than double the time of any other Supreme Court nomination.
• Later, McConnell used the so-called "nuclear option" to lower the threshold for overriding filibusters for Supreme Court nominees to a simple majority, with the aim of confirming Neil Gorsuch to the Court.

Chuck Schumer Top   |   Back

• Charles Ellis Schumer (born November 23, 1950) is an American politician, the senior United States senator from New York and a member of the Democratic Party.
• First elected in 1998, he defeated three-term Republican incumbent Al D'Amato 55% to 44%.
• Schumer was re-elected in 2004 with 71% of the vote, in 2010 with 66% of the vote, and in 2016 with 70% of the vote.
• Before his election to the Senate, Schumer served in the House of Representatives from 1981 to 1999, first representing New York's 16th congressional district before being redistricted to the 10th congressional district in 1983 and 9th congressional district in 1993.
• A native of Brooklyn and graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, he was a three-term member of the New York State Assembly from 1975 to 1980.
• Schumer was chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee from 2005 to 2009, during which time he oversaw 14 Democratic gains in the Senate in the 2006 and 2008 elections.
• He was the third-ranking Democrat in the Senate, behind Senate minority leader Harry Reid and minority whip Dick Durbin.
• He was elected vice chairman of the Democratic Caucus in the Senate in 2006.
• In November 2010, he was also chosen to hold the additional role of chairman of the Senate Democratic Policy Committee.
• Schumer was elected to his fourth Senate term in 2016 and was then unanimously elected minority leader to succeed the retiring Reid.

Lindsey Graham Top   |   Back

• Lindsey Olin Graham (born July 9, 1955) is an American politician and member of the Republican Party who has served as a United States Senator from South Carolina since 2003.
• Graham is known in the Senate for his advocacy of a strong national defense, his support of the military, and as an advocate of strong United States leadership in world affairs.
• He is also known for his willingness to be bipartisan and work with Democrats on issues like campaign finance reform, line item veto, global warming, tax reform, waterboarding ban and immigration reform and his belief that judicial nominees should not be opposed solely on their philosophical positions.
• He is also a critic of the Tea Party movement, arguing for a more inclusive Republican Party.
• On June 21, 2015, Graham formally announced his candidacy for President of the United States. On December 21, 2015, he ended his campaign for the presidency.
• He later endorsed Jeb Bush for President. After Bush suspended his campaign on February 20, Graham subsequently endorsed Ted Cruz.
• In May 2016, Graham refused to support or vote for Donald Trump when he became the presumptive nominee; and later the Republican Presidential candidate.
• In 1996, Graham voted for the Defense of Marriage Act.
• In 1997, he took part in an abortive coup against House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
• He was a member of the Judiciary Committee during the impeachment of President Bill Clinton in 1998. He was the only Republican on the Committee to vote against any of the articles of impeachment (the second count of perjury in the Paula Jones case), famously asking: "Is this Watergate or Peyton Place?"

John McCain Top   |   Back

• John Sidney McCain III (born August 29, 1936) is an American politician who currently serves as the senior United States Senator from Arizona, in that office since 1987.
• He was the Republican nominee in the 2008 presidential election, which he lost to Barack Obama.
• McCain followed his father and grandfather, both four-star admirals, into the United States Navy and graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1958.
• He became a naval aviator and flew ground-attack aircraft from aircraft carriers.
• Fire - During the Vietnam War, he was almost killed in the 1967 USS Forrestal fire.
• Captured - While McCain was on a bombing mission over Hanoi in October 1967, he was shot down, seriously injured, and captured by the North Vietnamese.
• He was a prisoner of war until 1973. McCain experienced episodes of torture and refused an out-of-sequence early repatriation offer.
• The wounds that he sustained during war have left him with lifelong physical disabilities.

Jeff Flake Top   |   Back

• Jeffry Lane Flake (born December 31, 1962) is an American politician serving as the junior United States Senator for Arizona, elected in 2012. He is a Republican
• Upon graduating from college, Flake worked briefly at a public relations firm in Washington, D.C., before returning to Africa to serve as executive director of the Foundation for Democracy in Namibia.
• In 1992, Flake returned to Arizona where he became executive director of the Goldwater Institute, a conservative think tank.
• Flake was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 2000, where he would serve for 12 years.
• Flake was elected to the United States Senate in 2012.
• Flake was also one of the bi-partisan "Gang of Eight" that pushed through a Senate immigration-reform bill in 2013.
• He is known as a vocal critic of President Donald Trump, but votes overwhelmingly in line with Trump's position and has rejected suggestions to use his powers as a congressman to pressure Trump.
• In 2015, Flake and Senator John McCain published a report detailing what they called "paid patriotism" by the U.S. Department of Defense for using soldiers, military equipment and resources at professional sports events in the United States. The report gave evidence that taxpayer-funded patriotic displays extended not only to the NFL but also to Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League and Major League Soccer.
• Flake announced on October 24, 2017 that he would not seek reelection in 2018.
  --------------------
  [opinion]
• Is Jeff Flake Deliberately Blocking Kavanaugh by Staying Out of Washington? Some Think So.
• Mitch McConnell canceled the traditional August recess for the Senate to push through Kavanaugh and Trump’s other judicial nominees ahead of the election and Jeff Flake responds by taking off for Zimbabwe to observe their election and extol the virtue of paper ballots.
• Since the Judiciary is comprised of 11 Republicans and 10 Democrats, Flake’s absence ties up the Committee and that means that no new nominees can go to the floor while he is on the Zimbabwean Trail, and Pence will have to stay in Washington to break ties on those already advanced to the floor rather than campaigning for Republican candidates.

See also: Jeff Flake (Wikipedia)

Al Franken Top   |   Back

• Alan Stuart Franken (born May 21, 1951) is an American writer, comedian, and politician serving since 2009 as the junior United States Senator from Minnesota.
• He became well known in the 1970s and 1980s as a writer and performer on the television comedy show Saturday Night Live.
• After decades as a comedic actor and writer, he became a prominent liberal political activist.
• Franken was first elected to the United States Senate in 2008 in a razor-thin victory over incumbent Republican Senator Norm Coleman, and then easily won re-election in 2014 over Republican challenger Mike McFadden.
• Franken is a member of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL), an affiliate of the Democratic Party.
• Born in New York City, Franken moved to Minnesota when he was four.
• With his writing partner Tom Davis, with whom he had developed an interest in improvisational theater at the prestigious college preparatory school The Blake School, he was hired as a writer for SNL at its inception in 1975.
• He worked on the show as a writer and performer until 1980, and returned from 1985 to 1995.
• After leaving SNL, he wrote and acted in movies and television shows.
• He also hosted a nationally syndicated political radio talk show, The Al Franken Show, and wrote seven books, four of which are political satires critical of conservative politics.
• His latest book, Al Franken, Giant of the Senate, about his time in the Senate, was a New York Times Non-Fiction Best Seller.
  Sexual assault allegations
• On November 16, 2017, sports commentator Leeann Tweeden asserted that during a USO tour in 2006 Franken groped her while she was sleeping and forcibly kissed her.
• In her article, she included a photograph of Franken alledgedly groping her while she was asleep.
• In response Franken said, "I certainly don't remember the rehearsal for the skit in the same way, but I send my sincerest apologies to Leeann...
• As to the photo, it was clearly intended to be funny but wasn't. I shouldn't have done it."
• The incident was sent to the Senate Ethics Committee for review by Senate leaders Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer, a decision supported by members of both parties, including Franken himself.
  
  The Story
• Al Franken, Senator (D-MN), was accused of forcibly kissing and groping Leeann Tweeden, a model and radio host, while on a USO Tour in 2006. A photograph of Franken apparently grabbing her breasts while she was asleep was also released by Tweeden.
• December 7, 2017, after multiple accusations of sexual misconduct, Franken announced his intention to resign from the Senate.

Tim Murphy Top   |   Back

• Timothy Francis Murphy (born September 11, 1952) is an American psychologist and politician from the U.S. state of Pennsylvania.
• A Republican, he served as the U.S.
• Representative for Pennsylvania's 18th congressional district, serving from 2003 until his resignation in 2017.
• He had previously served in the Pennsylvania State Senate, representing the 37th Senate district from 1997 to 2003.
• He is also a commander in the United States Navy Reserve.
• The 18th district includes several suburbs south of Pittsburgh. It includes parts of Allegheny, Washington, Greene and Westmoreland counties.
• In his elections, Murphy never won with less than 58% of the vote, and in fact he won re-election unopposed in 2014 and 2016.
• On October 5, 2017, after allegations arose that Murphy had encouraged his mistress to terminate a pregnancy despite holding a strict anti-abortion stance, House Speaker Paul Ryan announced that Murphy had tendered his resignation effective October 21.
  The Story
  • Tim Murphy, Representative (R-PA), had an extramarital affair with Shannon Edwards, a 32-year-old forensic psychologist. The pro-life Murphy asked Edwards to have an abortion after she became pregnant. The information was revealed as part of Murphy's divorce proceedings and published by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette after it fought in Pennsylvania state court to have the documents unsealed. Murphy resigned his seat in Congress.
  
  See also: Tim Murphy (Wikipedia)
  Part of the Out of Bounds Behavior group.

Blake Farenthold Top   |   Back

• Randolph Blake Farenthold (born December 12, 1961) is an American politician who has been the U.S. Representative for Texas's 27th congressional district since 2011.
• A member of the Republican Party, Farenthold co-hosted a conservative talk radio program before he began his political career.
• In 2014, Farenthold was sued by a former staffer, who accused the congressman of gender discrimination, saying that he created a hostile work environment and improperly fired her after she complained.
• The sexual harassment lawsuit was settled out of court in November 2015 on confidential terms.
• In December 2017, it was reported that the settlement, for $84,000, was made with taxpayer money.
• Blake Farenthold says he promises to pay back taxpayers for funds from a special congressional account he used to pay a harassment settlement back in 2013.
• Farenthold clames that he "didn't do anything wrong" but would "do my best" to repay the settlement fee sometime this week, this time taking out a personal loan instead.
  Conspiracy theories about the 2016 presidential election
• In a May 2017 appearance on CNN, Farenthold publicly doubted the Russian hack of Democratic Party servers and instead promoted a debunked conspiracy theory that the hack was an "inside job."
• When pressed by journalist John Berman, Farenthold defended his statement by saying that there were "Things circulating on the internet."
• Farenthold's claim contradicted testimony from former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director John Brennan and the conclusions of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and CIA.
• Farenhold's statement was criticized by the editorial board of the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, who called it "Farenthold's latest new low" and said "Farenthold's antics are becoming increasingly cartoonish."
  Personal life
• He is the step-grandson of Sissy Farenthold, a long-time Democratic icon in Texas, who was married to his grandfather, George Farenthold, from 1950 until 1985.
• In 1972, when Farenthold was ten years old, his father disappeared and was later found dead, his body having washed ashore after being weighed down with a cement block and deposited in Corpus Christi Bay.
• The gangland-style murder was the work of enemies of the elder Farenthold, who feared he would testify against a group of con artists who had tried to defraud him out of $100,000.

  ---

  Allegations of inappropriate behavior
• In 2014, Farenthold was sued by a former staffer, Lauren Greene, who accused the congressman of gender discrimination, saying that he created a hostile work environment and improperly fired her after she complained. Greene said another Farenthold aide told her the lawmaker said he had "sexual fantasies" and "wet dreams" about Greene. She also claimed that Farenthold "regularly drank to excess" and told her in February 2014 that he was "estranged from his wife and had not had sex with her in years."
• When she complained about comments Farenthold and a male staffer made to her, Greene said the congressman improperly fired her. She filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia, but the case was later dropped after both parties reached a private settlement.
• The sexual harassment lawsuit was settled out of court in November 2015 on confidential terms. In December 2017, it was reported that the settlement, for $84,000, was made with taxpayer money.
• In December 2017, Michael Rekola, a former senior aide and communications director to Farenthold, alleged that the congressman was verbally abusive and sexually demeaning, and described his congressional office as an intensely hostile environment with Farenthold often making comments about women’s physical features, including their breasts or behinds. Past co-workers and relatives have corroborated Rekola's story, some having first-hand accounts of Farenthold subjecting his staff "to a stream of angry behavior...screaming fits of rage, slamming fists on desks and castigating aides", and regularly using profane slurs to describe those who worked in his office. Farenthold has denied the use of sexual insults lodged against him, but has admitted to the use of vulgar language, claiming that it was "in jest".
  
• Farenthold announced on December 14, 2017, that he would retire and not seek reelection to his seat in 2018.

Trent Franks Top   |   Back

• Harold Trent Franks (born June 19, 1957) is a former U.S. Representative for Arizona 8, serving in Congress from 2003 to 2017.
• He is a member of the Republican Party.
• The district, numbered as the 2nd District from 2003 to 2013, is located in the West Valley portion of the Valley of the Sun and includes Glendale, Surprise, Sun City, Peoria and part of western Phoenix.
• December 8, 2017, Franks resigned from Congress after the House Ethics Committee announced that it would investigate him for a conversation regarding surrogacy with two female staff members.
• Franks denied any sexual misconduct, but said the way he approached the conversations with his staff members was "clearly insensitive".

John Conyers Top   |   Back

• John James Conyers Jr. (born May 16, 1929) is an American Democratic Party politician, who served as the U.S. Representative from 1965 to 2017.
• The districts he represented always included part of western Detroit, and during his final term included many of Detroit's western suburbs, as well as a large portion of the Downriver area.
• As the longest-serving active Representative, he was the Dean of the House of Representatives, as well the last remaining member of either the House or Senate that served since the presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson.
• After serving in the Korean War, Conyers became active in the civil rights movement.
• He also served as an aide to Congressman John Dingell before winning election to the House in 1964.
• He co-founded the Congressional Black Caucus in 1969 and established a reputation as one of the most liberal members of Congress.
• Conyers joined the liberal Congressional Progressive Caucus after it was founded in 1991.
• Conyers supports the creation of a single-payer healthcare system and sponsored the United States National Health Care Act to achieve that goal.
• He also sponsored a bill to establish Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a federal holiday.
• Conyers ran for Mayor of Detroit in 1989 and 1993 but was defeated in the primary in both elections.
• Conyers served as the ranking Democrat on the House Committee on the Judiciary from 1995 to 2007 and again from 2011 to 2017.
• On November 26, 2017, he announced his intention to step aside from that position while he was investigated by the House for allegations of sexual harassment.
• He previously served as chairman of that committee from 2007 to 2011 and as Chairman of the House Oversight Committee from 1989 to 1995.
• Conyers is one of seven individuals to have served in Congress for at least fifty years, and the only African-American.
• In November 2017 in the wake of allegations that he had sexually harassed female staff members, the news media reported that Conyers intended to retire from Congress at the end of his current term, and not seek re-election in 2018.
• December 5, 2017, Conyers announced his resignation, effective immediately, and his endorsement of his son, John Conyers III, to replace him in Congress.

See also: John Conyers (Wikipedia)
and: United States National Health Care Act (Wikipedia)
Part of the Out of Bounds Behavior group.

Ruben Kihuen Top   |   Back

• Rubén Jesús Kihuen Bernal (born April 25, 1980) is an American politician from Nevada who is the U.S. Representative for Nevada's 4th congressional district.
• A Democrat, he was previously a member of the Nevada Senate.
• He is Nevada's first Latino member of the U.S.
• House and Kihuen described himself as the first Dreamer elected to Congress.
• On December 1, 2017, a 25-year-old woman who served as finance director of Kihuen's 2016 congressional campaign accused him of sexual harassment and unwanted touching. The woman, who joined Kihuen's campaign in June 2015 and left in April 2016, alleges that Kihuen's behavior began in February, that he repeatedly requested that she go on dates or have sexual intercourse with him, and on two occasions forcibly touched her thighs without consent.
• On December 13, 2017, a second woman accused Kihuen of sexual misconduct. The woman, who asked to remain anonymous, told The Nevada Independent that he touched her thighs or butt in three separate incidents, and was sent hundreds of sexually suggestive text messages.
• House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has called on Kihuen to resign in response to sexual misconduct allegations against him by a female campaign staff member, as reported by BuzzFeed.
• Kihuen has publicly refused to resign.
• On December 16, 2017, Kihuen announced that he would not seek re-election in 2018.

Pat Meehan Top   |   Back

• Patrick Leo Meehan (born October 20, 1955) is a former federal prosecutor and a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives, representing Pennsylvania's 7th congressional district, elected in 2010.
• The district includes parts of Delaware County, Chester, Montgomery County, Berks, and Lancaster.
• He succeeded Democrat Joe Sestak, who ran unsuccessfully for the United States Senate.
• A graduate of Bowdoin College and Temple University, Meehan previously served as United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania (2001–2008) and as district attorney of Delaware County, Pennsylvania (1996–2001).
• In January 2018, following the revelation that he used taxpayers' money to settle a sexual harassment claim brought by a female staff member, Meehan announced that he would retire from Congress at the end of his current term, and not seek re-election in 2018.

  ---

  Sexual harassment settlement
• The New York Times revealed in January 2018 that Meehan used taxpayers' money to settle a sexual harassment claim brought by a female staff member.
• Meehan also allegedly grew hostile after the alleged victim rejected his advances.
• The staff member began to work from home to avoid Meehan's advances and ultimately left the job.
• Following the report, Meehan denied the allegations against him. He was removed from the U.S. House Ethics Committee.
• A few days later in an interview with the Philadelphia Inquirer, Meehan denied harassment and said he wasn't sexually interested in the staffer, though explained she was his "soul mate" and he had reacted poorly to learning she had a new boyfriend.
• Another two days later, on January 25, 2018, Meehan announced that he would retire from Congress at the end of his current term, and not seek re-election in 2018.
• He said he would repay the taxpayer money if the Ethics Committee determines he committed sexual harassment.
• He also responded regarding his prior use of the term "soul mate".

See also: Pat_Meehan (Wikipedia)
Part of the Out of Bounds Behavior group.

Rand Paul Top   |   Back

• Randal Howard Paul (born January 7, 1963) is an American politician and physician serving as the junior United States Senator from Kentucky since 2011 alongside Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
• He is the son of former U.S. Representative Ron Paul of Texas.
• Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Paul attended Baylor University and is a graduate of the Duke University School of Medicine.
• Paul began practicing ophthalmology in 1993 in Bowling Green, Kentucky, and established his own clinic in December 2007.
• Throughout his life he volunteered for his father's campaigns.
• In 2010 he entered politics by running for a seat in the United States Senate.
• A Republican, Paul has described himself as a Constitutional conservative and a supporter of the Tea Party movement and has advocated for a balanced budget amendment, term limits, and privacy reform.
• On April 7, 2015, Paul officially announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination at the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
• He suspended his campaign on February 3, 2016, shortly after the Iowa caucus, where he finished in 5th place out of the 12 Republican candidates.
• While attending Duke University School of Medicine, Paul volunteered for his father's 1988 Libertarian presidential campaign.
• In response to President Bush breaking his election promise to not raise taxes, Paul founded the North Carolina Taxpayers Union in 1991. In 1994, Paul founded the anti-tax organization Kentucky Taxpayers United (KTU), and was chair of the organization from its inception. He has often cited his involvement with KTU as the foundation of his involvement with state politics. The group examined Kentucky legislators' records on taxation and spending and encouraging politicians to publicly pledge to vote uniformly against tax increases.
• The Wall Street Journal reported in 2010 that, although Paul had told a Kentucky television audience as recently as September 2009 that KTU published ratings each year on state legislators' tax positions and that "we've done that for about 15 years", the group had stopped issuing its ratings and report cards after 2002 and had been legally dissolved by the state in 2000 after failing to file registration documents.
• In February 2014, Paul joined the Tea Party-affiliated conservative advocacy group FreedomWorks in filing a class-action lawsuit charging that the federal government's bulk collection of Americans' phone records metadata is a violation of the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Commenting on the lawsuit at a press conference, Paul said, "I'm not against the NSA, I'm not against spying, I'm not against looking at phone records... I just want you to go to a judge, have an individual's name and [get] a warrant. That's what the Fourth Amendment says." He also said there was no evidence the surveillance of phone metadata had stopped terrorism.
• In the 2010 Senatorial election, Paul faced Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway.
• Paul's campaign got off to a rough start after his comments on the Civil Rights Act of 1964 stirred controversy. Paul stated that he favored 9 out of 10 titles of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, but that had he been a senator during the 1960s, he would have raised some questions on the constitutionality of Title II of the Act.
  (Note: Title II Outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion or national origin in hotels, motels, restaurants, theaters, and all other public accommodations engaged in interstate commerce; exempted private clubs without defining the term "private".).
• Paul said that he abhors racism, and that he would have marched with Martin Luther King Jr. to repeal Jim Crow laws. He later released a statement declaring that he would have voted for the Act and stated "unequivocally ... that I will not support any efforts to repeal the Civil Rights Act of 1964".
• Paul was sworn in on January 5, 2011, along with his father, who was simultaneously in the House of Representatives.
  See Rand Paul (Wikipedia link below) for highlights of his participation in the:
• 112th Congress (2011–2013)
• 113th Congress (2013–2015)
• 114th Congress (2015–2017)
  and most of the
• 115th Congress (2017–present)
• On March 16, 2017Senator John McCain accused Paul of being an agent of Vladimir Putin after Paul objected to adding Montenegro to NATO. Paul responded the following day by saying McCain "makes a really, really strong case for term limits", suggesting McCain had become "a little unhinged" as a result of his seniority.
• On June 12, 2017, U.S. senators reached an agreement on legislation imposing new sanctions on Russia and Iran. The bill was opposed only by Rand Paul and Bernie Sanders.
  Second US shutdown of 2018
• (CNN) In the early hours of Friday morning, the Senate approved a two-year budget deal that would re-open the federal government, sending the plan to the House of Representatives -- where it faces a tougher vote. The Senate vote was 71-28. The federal government shuttered for the second time in less than a month overnight, as Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul prevented the deal from passing Thursday ahead of a shutdown deadline.
• Paul by refusing to agree to move up the time for a vote in the chamber on the bill, which requires unanimous consent from all 100 senators forced the vote procedurally to occur after 1 a.m. ET on Friday, after government funding expired.

See also: Rand Paul (Wikipedia)
and: Civil Rights Act of 1964 - Title II (Wikipedia)

Legal Team
Top   |   Back

Michael Cohen Top   |   Back

• Michael Dean Cohen (born 1966/67) is an American attorney who works as a lawyer and spokesperson for U.S. President Donald Trump.
• Prior to this appointment he was Executive Vice-President of the Trump Organization and special counsel to Trump.
• Cohen also previously served as co-president of Trump Entertainment and a member of the board of the Eric Trump Foundation, a children's health charity.
• He joined the Trump Organization after having been a partner at Phillips Nizer.
• Cohen served as executive vice president and Special counsel at the Trump Organization during Trump's presidential campaign and did not hold a formal title in the campaign.
• Prior to this appointment he was Executive Vice-President of the Trump Organization and special counsel to Trump.
• Cohen also previously served as co-president of Trump Entertainment and a member of the board of the Eric Trump Foundation, a children's health charity.
• Cohen defended Trump against charges of antisemitism.
• Michael Cohen has hired Stephen Ryanh to be his own attorney to navigate his ties to Trump.
• Cohen grew up on Long Island. His mother was a nurse, and his father, who survived the Holocaust, was a surgeon.
• He graduated from American University and the Thomas M. Cooley Law School.
• Cohen has a net worth of $10 million.
  Broader investigation
• As of April 2018, Cohen was under federal investigation for possible bank fraud, wire fraud and violations of campaign finance law, according to media reports.
• On April 9, 2018 the FBI raided Cohen's Rockefeller Center office, his home, as well as his hotel room at the Loews Regency Hotel on Park Avenue, pursuant to a federal search warrant.
• The warrant was obtained by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, whose public corruption unit is overseeing an investigation.
• Seeking the warrant required high-level approval from the Department of Justice.
• The Interim U.S. Attorney, Geoffrey Berman, was recused. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray, Trump appointees, are assumed to have signed off.
• The FBI obtained the warrant after a referral from Robert Mueller's Special Counsel investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections, although the raid did not appear to be directly related to that investigation.
• Agents seized emails, tax records, business records, and other matter related to several topics, including payments made by Cohen to Stormy Daniels.
• The search included the seizure of materials would normally be protected by attorney-client privilege; the privilege is subject to exceptions, specifically the crime-fraud exception. The search warrant itself has been sealed so it is not available to the public.
• The FBI also sought documents pertaining to Cohen's ownership of taxi medallions when it raided his home and offices. Cohen's taxi fleet is operated by Gene Freidman, who is facing legal trouble for alleged tax evasion.
• Following the raid, Squire Patton Boggs ended its formal working relationship with Cohen.
  Trump Sees Inquiry Into Cohen as Greater Threat Than Mueller
  --- The Principal Players ---
• Kimba Maureen Wood (born January 21, 1944) is a Senior United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.
• Joanna C. Hendon (Trump's new lawyer) is an American lawyer with Spears & Imes who specializes in white collar criminal defense, securities enforcement, and complex civil litigation.
• Hendon is a former federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York. In 2000, she received the United States Attorney General's John Marshall Award, the highest award given by the Department of Justice for excellence at trial.
• In April 2018 she was appointed lawyer to Donald Trump.
• Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow said Hendon’s firm, Spears & Imes, is representing the president with respect to the attorney-client issues raised by the Cohen case.
• Todd Harrison (Cohen's lead attorney) focuses his practice on white-collar and corporate defense, internal investigations, regulatory and compliance matters, and complex civil litigation in state and federal courts.
  Attorney-Client Privilege
• Although his lawyers had projected confidence in their dealings with the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, they were caught flat-footed by the New York raids.
• Mr. Cohen and Mr. Trump, through their lawyers (Harrison and Hendon), argued in federal court on Friday that many of the seized records were protected by attorney-client privilege. They asked for an order temporarily prohibiting prosecutors from reading the documents until the matter could be litigated. Mr. Cohen argued that he or an independent lawyer should be allowed to review the documents first.
• Prosecutors argued that Cohen’s limited number of clients suggests that many of the records seized Monday, including information from a safe-deposit box, are unlikely to contain attorney-client communications. The government lawyers contend this distinguishes Cohen’s situation from another in New York in 2002, in which a judge did require a court-appointed special master to sift through files seized from the office of well-known criminal defense attorney Lynne Stewart.
• U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood on Friday (04/13/2018) ordered attorneys for Cohen to hand over a list of Cohen’s law clients and proof of their relationship by 10 a.m. Monday, so she can decide whether materials seized from Cohen’s office by federal law enforcement agents last week should be protected by attorney-client privilege.
• Wood said at Friday’s hearing that she wanted to see the list of Cohen’s clients [Monday] because Cohen’s attorneys claimed the materials seized in the FBI raid "contain thousands if not millions of documents that are protected by attorney-client privilege," which the attorneys said would require a special review process.
• That list will be a public record, Wood said, because the identities of an attorney’s clients are not subject to attorney-client privilege unless the mere name itself would reveal the kind of advice sought or given.
• Wood’s order raises the possibility of further embarrassing disclosures involving Cohen, who is already at the center of a legal dispute involving adult-film actress Stormy Daniels, who is suing the president to void a nondisclosure agreement negotiated by Cohen concerning a sexual encounter Daniels says she had with Trump in 2006.
  Michael Cohen's Client
• On April 16, 2018 Michael Cohen was in court and reveled two of his clients as President Donald Trump and Republican fundraiser Elliott Broidy who paid $1.6 million to a Playboy Playmate after she and Broidy had an illicit affair that left her pregnant.
• Ryan, Cohen's attorney, argued that a third client should not be publicly named and he offered to give Judge Kimba Wood that third client's name in a sealed envelope for the court's information, if he had some assurances that the name would not be released.
• The judge wasn't buying it. She ordered the name be revealed. Ryan identified the third client as Sean Hannity.
• The full courtroom reacted audibly and immediately.
  Payment to Stormy Daniels
• A January 2018 Wall Street Journal article reported that in October 2016, Cohen used Essential Consultants LLC to pay adult film actress Stormy Daniels regarding an alleged affair she had with Trump in 2006.
• Cohen told The New York Times in February 2018 that the $130,000 was paid to Daniels from his own pocket, that it was not a campaign contribution, and that he was not reimbursed for making it by either the Trump Organization or the Trump campaign.
• The Washington Post later noted that, by stating that he used his own money to "facilitate" the payment, Cohen was not ruling out the possibility that Trump, as an individual, reimbursed Cohen for the payment.
• In April 2018, Trump acknowledged for the first time that Cohen has represented him in the Stormy Daniels case, after previously having denied knowledge of the $130,000 payment.
• On March 9, NBC News reported that Cohen had used his Trump Organization email to negotiate with Daniels regarding her nondisclosure agreement, and that Cohen had used the same Trump Organization email to arrange for a transfer for funds which would eventually lead to Daniels' payment.
• In response, Cohen acknowledged that he had transferred funds from his home equity line of credit to the LLC and from the LLC to Daniels' attorney.
• In a March 25, 2018, interview with 60 Minutes, Daniels said that she and Trump had sex once, and that later she had been threatened in front of her infant daughter, and felt pressured to later sign a nondisclosure agreement.
• Cohen initiated a private arbitration case against Daniels in February 2018, based on an October 2016 non-disclosure agreement signed by Daniels in October 2016 in exchange for $130,000.
• Cohen obtained an order from an arbitrator barring Daniels from publicly discussing her alleged relationship with Trump.
• Daniels subsequently brought a lawsuit in federal court against Trump and Cohen, arguing that the non-disclosure agreement is legally invalid because Trump never signed it, Cohen responded by seeking to compel arbitration, which would avoid public proceedings.
• In April 2018, Cohen filed a declaration in the court saying that he would invoke his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself in the Daniels lawsuit.
  Essential Consultants LLC ()
• Cohen for many months used the LLC for an array of business activities, of which were largely unknown by the public, with at least $4.4 million moving through the LLC between when Trump was elected President until January 2018.
• Transactions described in the records, released to the public and news agencies by Stormy Daniels lawyer Michael Avenatti, included hundreds of thousands of dollars that were given to Cohen from Fortune 500 firms with business before the Trump administration, as well as other smaller fees for expenses such as a Mercedes-Benz or private club dues.
• Cohen claimed that the documents dispersed by Avenatti were inaccurate in nature when asked to respond by the media.
  • $600,000 that AT&T
    paid to the LLC between October 2017 and January 2018, while at the same time the proposed merger between the company and Time Warner is pending before the Justice Department. AT&T claim that the money was paid to the LLC and other firms that were used to provide insights into understanding the new administration, and that the LLC did no legal or lobbying work for AT&T.
  • Nearly $1.2 million from Novartis a Switzerland based pharmaceutical giant paid the LLC.
    The company released a statement May 9, 2018 that it hired the LLC to help the company understand the "health care policy" of the new administration, but it actually didn't get much for its money. The statement continued that the company made a decision to not engage further, but it couldn't terminate the contract for "cause", this statement has raised concerns on why the company did not give cover themselves to recoup their payments.
  • $150,000 Korea Aerospace Industries.
    The stated reason for the transaction was advice on "cost accounting standards" which is a highly technical way of describing the rules in seeking governmental contracts.
  • $500,000 the LLC received money from Columbus Nova
    a US offshoot of the business empire of a Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg in 2017. Vekselberg, is a Russian billionaire who according to Daniels lawyer Avenatti, is close to President Vladimir Putin. Vekselberg is also a longtime friend and business partner of Soviet-born billionaire and major Republican Party donor Leonard Blavatnik.
  
  
• The U.S. Treasury is investigating how Stormy Daniels' lawyer Michael Avenatti obtained Cohen's private banking records.
  Cohen recording of discussion regarding Karen McDougal
• On July 20, 2018, it was revealed that Cohen secretly recorded a conversation with Trump discussing a potential hush payment to McDougal.
• The recording had been classified as a privileged attorney-client communication by the Special Master reviewing the Cohen material, but Trump's attorneys waived that claim, meaning that prosecutors can have it and use it.
• Altogether the prosecutors have been given twelve audio recordings from the material seized from Cohen in the April raid, after the Trump team withdrew their claim of privilege.
  --------------------
• Allen Weisselberg, a longtime financial gatekeeper for President Donald Trump, has been subpoenaed to testify before a federal grand jury in the criminal probe of Mr. Trump’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, according to people familiar with the investigation.
  Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to campaign finance charges "at the direction of a candidate for federal office".
• On August 21, 2018, Michael D. Cohen, President Trump’s former fixer, pleaded guilty to campaign finance and other charges. He made the extraordinary admission that he paid a pornographic actress "at the direction of the candidate," referring to Mr. Trump, to secure her silence about an affair she said she had with Mr. Trump.
• Mr. Cohen told a judge in United States District Court in Manhattan that the payment was "for the principal purpose of influencing the election" for president in 2016.
• Mr. Cohen also pleaded guilty to multiple counts of tax evasion and bank fraud, bringing to a close a monthslong investigation by Manhattan federal prosecutors who examined his personal business dealings and his role in helping to arrange financial deals with women connected to Mr. Trump.
  
  --- (To Be Continued...) ---

Can the president pardon Michael Cohen? -- See Pardons (Local link - Use the "back" button to return)

See also: Michael Cohen (lawyer) (Wikipedia)
and: ? (U.S. District Judge) (Wikipedia)
and: Kimba Wood (U.S. District Judge) (Wikipedia)
and: Todd Harrison (Cohen's lawyer) (McDermott Will & Emery)
and: Joanna Hendon (Trump's new lawyer) (Wikipedia)

Jay Sekulow Top   |   Back

• Jay Alan Sekulow (born June 10, 1956) is an American attorney and Chief Counsel for the American Center for Law & Justice (ACLJ).
• He also hosts a talk show, which airs on radio and television.
• Sekulow is a frequent guest commentator on the Christian Broadcasting Network and the Fox News Channel.
• A self-described Messianic Jew, Sekulow built a legal and media empire over a thirty-year period by representing conservative, religious and antiabortion groups.
• Sekulow is a frequent guest commentator on the Christian Broadcasting Network and the Fox News Channel.
• Since June 2017, Sekulow has been on President Donald Trump's personal legal team that is charged with advising the President while there is an investigation into possible collusion with members of his 2016 campaign and the Russian government.
• In June 2017, The Guardian reported that Sekulow's "approved plans to push poor and jobless people to donate money to his Christian nonprofit, which since 2000 has steered more than $60m to Sekulow, his family and their businesses".

Martin Raskin

• Martin R. Raskin graduated from Seton Hall University School of Law, where he was a member and executive editor of the Seton Hall Law Review.
• Upon graduation, Mr. Raskin served a judicial clerkship with the chief judge of the United States District Court for New Jersey.
• Thereafter, Mr. Raskin held various positions within the United States Department of Justice, including Assistant U.S.
• Attorney for the District of New Jersey; Special Attorney with the Organized Crime and Racketeering Section assigned to the Miami Strike Force; and Chief of the Criminal Division for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida.
• Raskin specializes in complex criminal and commercial litigation, grand jury investigations, related administrative proceedings and appeals.
• Over the years, he has represented numerous corporations, public officials, professionals and individuals involved in a wide variety of industry segments, including banking and finance, health care, the issuance and sale of securities, aviation and international trade.
• Mr. Raskin is admitted to practice in Florida, New Jersey, the United States Supreme Court, and various federal courts throughout the United States.

See also: Raskin & Raskin (RaskinLaw)
and: Martin R. Raskin (RaskinLaw)

Jane Raskin

• Jane Serene Raskin received her undergraduate degree from Wellesley College and her law degree, cum laude, from Boston College Law School.
• Her practice embraces a wide array of white collar criminal matters and related administrative and civil actions. She has extensive experience in health care fraud, mortgage fraud, securities enforcement and internal corporate investigations.
• She has consistently received the highest rating by Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory, for legal skills and professional ethics and recently received the highest rating awarded by Chambers & Partners, America’s Leading Business Lawyers, under the category of Litigation Specialists, White Collar Crime and Government Investigations.
• She is rated "Superb" by the AVVO lawyer rating website. In addition, she has lectured on topics including trial practice, health care fraud, grand jury practice, handling complex criminal cases, money laundering, bank fraud, securities fraud and internet crimes in seminars presented by Harvard Law School, Georgetown University Law Center, the Attorney General's Advocacy Institute, the ABA National Institute on White Collar Crime, the ABA National Institute on Health Care Fraud, the ABA National Institute on Securities Fraud, the ABA Criminal Justice Section, and the Federal Bar Association.
• Ms. Raskin is admitted to practice in Florida, Massachusetts, the District of Columbia, the United States Supreme Court, and various federal courts throughout the United States.

See also: Raskin & Raskin (RaskinLaw)
and: Jane Serene Raskin (RaskinLaw)

Emmet Flood

• Emmet Thomas Flood IV is an American attorney. He served as Special Counsel in the George W. Bush Administration.
• Flood was a law clerk for Ralph K. Winter on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.
• Flood advised President Bill Clinton during his impeachment process. Flood's law firm also represented Hillary Clinton on matters relating to the Clinton email controversy.
• Flood represented Dick Cheney in response to Wilson v. Cheney, a civil lawsuit filed by Valerie Plame for his alleged role in the Plame affair.
• Flood advised Bob McDonnell on his response to the corruption investigation into his activities. Flood was retained by Cameron International to defend them after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
• In 2017, Flood was offered a job in the Trump Administration, though he declined. In March, 2018, Flood met with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office to discuss the White House's response to the Special Counsel investigation.
• On May 2, 2018, it was reported that Flood would be replacing Ty Cobb as the White House attorney dealing with the investigation of President Donald Trump by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

See also: Emmet Flood (Wikipedia)

Rudy Giuliani

• Rudolph William Louis Giuliani (born May 28, 1944) is an American politician, attorney, businessman, public speaker, former mayor of New York City, and an informal adviser on cybersecurity to the White House.
• Politically a Democrat, then an Independent in the 1970s, and a Republican since the 1980s, Giuliani was the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York during the 1980s. Giuliani prosecuted pivotal cases against the American Mafia, and against corrupt corporate financiers.
• During his first term as mayor of New York City, Giuliani hired a new police commissioner, William Bratton, who applied the broken windows theory of urban decay, which holds that minor disorders and violations create a permissive atmosphere that leads to further and more serious crimes that can threaten the safety of a city. Within several years, Giuliani was widely credited for major improvements in the city's quality of life, and in lowering the rate of violent crimes.
• While still Mayor, Giuliani ran for the U.S. Senate in 2000; however, he withdrew from the race upon learning of his prostate cancer diagnosis.
• Giuliani was named Time magazine's Person of the Year for 2001, and was given an honorary knighthood in 2002 by the United Kingdom's Queen Elizabeth II for his leadership in the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001.
• In 2002, Giuliani founded Giuliani Partners (security consulting), acquired and later sold Giuliani Capital Advisors (investment banking), and joined a Texas firm while opening a Manhattan office for the firm renamed Bracewell & Giuliani (legal services).
• Giuliani sought the Republican Party's 2008 presidential nomination, and was considered the early front runner in the race, before withdrawing from the race to endorse the eventual nominee, John McCain.
• Giuliani was considered a potential candidate for New York Governor in 2010 and for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012. Giuliani declined all races, and instead remained in the business sector.
• On January 12, 2017, President-elect Donald Trump named Giuliani his informal cybersecurity adviser.
• On April 19, 2018, Giuliani announced that he would join President Trump's legal team.
• That same day, the Justice Department announced it would release in May 2018 the results of its inspector general's investigation into alleged leaks from the FBI of information about Hillary Clinton during the 2016 campaign; it had previously been reported that information had been leaked to Giuliani and he had discussed it on Fox News.

See also: Rudy Giuliani (Wikipedia)

Marc Kasowitz Top   |   Back

• Marc Elliot Kasowitz (born June 28, 1952) is an American trial lawyer and partner of the New York-based law firm Kasowitz Benson Torres, which he co-founded in 1993.
• He was a personal outside attorney for U.S. President Donald Trump.
• On May 24, 2017, Kasowitz was retained to represent Trump personally in connection with investigations into the role of Trump's presidential campaign in Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections.
• Kasowitz also represents several Russian clients with close ties to Vladimir Putin.
• Trump's Personal Lawyer - $1,500 an hour fee.
• Kasowitz has represented Trump in a variety of lawsuits, including the fraud allegations surrounding Trump University.
• He boasted to friends and colleagues that he played a central role in the firing of Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, according to four people familiar with the conversations.
• Kasowitz told Trump, "This guy is going to get you," according to a person familiar with Kasowitz’s account. [subsequently Trump DID fire Preet Bharara]
• It’s entirely possible that Kasowitz was boasting to his friends and colleagues to make his White House reach sound more impressive. If, however, Kasowitz WAS directly involved in the firing of a federal prosecutor because he hoped to shield his client from legal trouble, it’s hard not to wonder whether Trump’s lawyer needs a lawyer.
• See also: http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/did-trumps-personal-lawyer-help-fire-key-us-attorney
• Kasowitz’s net worth is unknown at this time, but it’s estimated to be in the millions.
• Mr. Kasowitz, Mr. Trump’s combative longtime personal lawyer, has aggravated his mercurial client by repeatedly demanding that the president curtail his Twitter habits, which Mr. Kasowitz — and most others in the White House — believe to be damaging to the president’s legal and political cause.
• Mark Corallo (see below) is a spokesman for Trump's attorney Marc Kasowitz.
  Is he loosing it?
• In 2017, ProPublica reported that Kasowitz may be ineligible for a federal security clearance due to his alcohol abuse.
• After reading the articles, a currently unidentified individual sent an email to Kasowtiz urging him to "resign now."
• threats? - Kasowitz replied with a series of profanity-laced emails, some of which took a threatening tone, writing:

  "You don't know me, but I will know you," Kasowitz responded to the critic. "How dare you send me an email like that. I'm on you now. You are fucking with me now. Let's see who you are. Watch your back, bitch." as well as "Call me. Don’t be afraid, you piece of shit. Stand up. If you don’t call, you’re just afraid." And later: "I already know where you live, I’m on you. You might as well call me. You will see me. I promise. Bro."

• Kasowitz apologized after emails of the conversation were made public.
• The emailer forwarded the emails to the Federal Bureau of Investigation to report the threats, and Kasowitz subsequently issued a statement saying "The person sending that email is entitled to his opinion, and I should not have responded in that inappropriate manner...This is one of those times where one wishes he could reverse the clock, but of course I can’t."
• Gone - Kasowitz departed Trump's White House legal team on July 20, 2017.

John Dowd Top   |   Back

• John M. Dowd (born February 11, 1941) is an American lawyer, former attorney for the United States Department of Justice, and former Marine.
• His expertise in the law field focuses on white-collar crime.
• He took the main role in several baseball investigations with the most notable being the Dowd Report in 1989.
• Since June 2017, Dowd has been a part of President Donald Trump's personal legal team that is charged with advising the President while there is an investigation into possible collusion with members from his 2016 campaign and the Russian government.
• American lawyer, former U.S. Attorney, and former marine. His expertise in the law field focuses on white-collar crime.
• He took the main role in several baseball investigations with the most notable being the Dowd Report in 1989.
• As a U.S. Attorney for the Justice Department, Dowd was a trial attorney for the tax division and later as a chief of an Organized Crime Strike Force from 1974–1978.
• His early career at the Department of Justice involved working on the tax evasion case of Meyer Lansky, the prosecution of Small Business Administration bribery cases in Virginia, and internal investigations involving financial corruption by FBI officials.
• Dowd helped implement and trained FBI officers and U.S. Attorneys offices the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO).
• The first case that tested the strength of the RICO laws was tried by Dowd.
• In 1977 and 1978, Dowd lead an investigation of Congressman Daniel J. Flood.
• Dowd questioned Flood's former aid, Steve Elko, who accused Flood on a number of federal contracts in exchange for cash kickbacks and also mentioned Congressman Joshua Eilberg's law firm handling the contract negotiations for a federal grant to Hahnemann University Hospital.
• The discovery of evidence involving Congressman Eilberg coincided with the firing of U.S. Attorney, David W. Marston.:263 Dowd was then assigned to investigate Eilberg while the Flood investigation later expanded to include RICO violations.
• In April 1979, The Wall Street Journal reporter Jim Drinkhall, wrote an article accusing U.S. Attorneys Dowd and William M. Kramer of developing and implementing an unethical plan to force a convicted felon, Samuel Ray Calabrese, to cooperate with the government against other organized crime figures.
• Following its publication, the Justice Department launched an investigation which ultimately cleared Dowd and Kramer of wrongdoing.
• Drinkhall later published a second article in December 1979 where he accused Dowd and Kramer of investigating him.
• Dowd and Kramer filed a libel suit against Dow Jones for $5 million and was settled for $800,000 in 1984 before going to trial.
  --------------------
• Gone - On March 22, 2018, Dowd resigned as Trump's lead counsel in the special counsel investigation into Russian election interference and possible ties to Trump associates.

Ty Cobb Top   |   Back

• Ty Cobb (born 1950) is an American lawyer.
• He was a partner at Hogan Lovells in Washington, D.C. until July 2017, when he joined the Trump administration legal team.
• Reflecting a growing sense among West Wing officials that the president’s private lawyer, Marc E. Kasowitz, cannot handle the job alone.
• Cobb, a partner at the Washington, D.C., law firm Hogan Lovells, was speculated to be taking over the White House's response to the growing investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
• Cobb earned his law degree at Georgetown University after graduating from Harvard University.
• Cobb was a law clerk for a federal judge, and then worked in the U.S. Attorney's office in Baltimore, serving as chief of the criminal section and head of the region's drug enforcement and organized crime task force.
• In 1986, he was passed over for the U.S. Attorney position in favor of Breckinridge L. Willcox, and he joined the Baltimore law firm Miles and Stockbridge.
• Two years later, he joined Hogan & Hartson, which became Hogan Lovells.
• His high-profile clients have included John Huang, Eli Segal, Mary McCarthy, Hudson Foods, AIG, and Office Depot.
• Gone - On May 2, 2018, Cobb announced that he was retiring as White House special counsel at the end of the month.

Joseph diGenova ¬ Top   |   Back

• Joseph diGenova (born February 22, 1945) graduated with a BA from the University of Cincinnati in 1967. After that, he finished his Juris Doctor from Georgetown University in 1970.
• Throughout his career, Joseph worked in law. He and his wife, Victoria are the founding partners of diGenova & Toensing in Washington D.C. The firm represents corporations, individuals, and other entities before the Congress, U.S. Cabinet, and Federal courts.
  His wife and partner
• Victoria Ann Toensing (née Long; born 1941) is a lawyer, and partner with her husband, Joseph diGenova, in the Washington law firm DiGenova and Toensing. Her practice specializes in white-collar criminal defense, regulatory inquiries, and legislative advocacy. She has appeared as a legal commentator on several networks including CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC.
• In 1981, Toensing became chief counsel to Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, where she helped draft the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982.
  His conspiracy beliefs
• A former prosecutor who made the leap to conservative pundit 30 years ago, diGenova has reliably sputtered about this supposed conspiracy against Trump all over right wing media.
• Among his recent claims on Fox News:

  There was a brazen plot to illegally exonerate Hillary Clinton and, if she didn't win the election, to then frame Donald Trump with a falsely created crime."
  
  "It wasn't the Russians who corrupted the presidential election; it was the American officials at the Department of Justice and the FBI."
  
  "We are headed toward a very sad ending for the FBI and senior DOJ officials. ... I believe that several high FBI officials will be charged criminally. And it is conceivable that some DOJ people will also be charged criminally. ... I would consider this the largest law enforcement scandal in history for this reason.

  --------------------
• In January 2016, long before anyone linked the Trump campaign and Russia, diGenova was advocating for Trump and against his likely opponent. In his telling, the FBI was reaching "critical mass" in its investigation of Clinton's emails and he declared she would be "charged with a crime" and be unable to run for president. She never was charged.
• Earlier, diGenova was a gadfly participant in the effort to create a scandal over then-Secretary of State Clinton's handling of the attack on American facilities in Benghazi, Libya. Years of investigation confirmed no scandal.
• On March 19, 2018, diGenova and his wife, Victoria Toensing, were considered for legal assistance by President Donald Trump to serve on his legal team for the Special Counsel investigation.
• Gone before starting - Trump cancelled the hires several days later due to potential conflicts-of-interest posed by Mr. DiGenova’s firm’s representation of other witnesses in the Russia probe.

For the firm's participation in the following areas see:  Victoria Toensing (Wikipedia)

• Monica Lewinsky scandal
• Teamsters probe
• Valerie Plame scandal
• FBI informant in Uranium One investigation
• Electoral politics

See also: Victoria Toensing (Wikipedia)
and: Intelligence Identities Protection Act (Wikipedia)

Jamie Gorelick Top   |   Back

• Jamie S. Gorelick (born May 6, 1950) is an American lawyer who served as the Deputy Attorney General of the United States from 1994 to 1997, during the Clinton administration.
• She has been a partner at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr since July 2003 and also serves as a director of Amazon.com since February 2012.
• Under the Clinton administration, Gorelick served as General Counsel of the Department of Defense from 1993 to 1994, when she was appointed Deputy Attorney General of the United States, the No. 2 position in the Department of Justice.
• Gorelick served on British Petroleum's Advisory Council, as their top legal counsel after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
• She was appointed by former Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle to serve as a commissioner on the bipartisan National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, which sought to investigate the circumstances leading up to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and also served as Vice Chairman of Fannie Mae.
• While serving as Deputy Attorney General under Bill Clinton, Gorelick spoke in favor of banning the use of strong encryption and called for a key escrow system to allow the Federal government access to encrypted communication.
• Gorelick represented Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of Donald Trump, as he considered a possible role in the White House.
• She had advised Kushner, who has sprawling financial interests in a multi-billion-dollar global real estate empire, on how he might comply with federal ethics and anti-nepotism laws.
• She has argued that although officials leading federal agencies are barred from hiring relatives, the White House is not an agency and thus exempt. Gorelick argued that if Kushner forgoes a White House salary, he would not be bound by federal nepotism rules.
• Though Kushner has no experience in government or public policy, Trump directed that during his Presidential transition all foreign-policy matters be relayed through Kushner.
• Kushner participated in meetings between Trump and foreign heads of state while continuing to run the Kushner Companies.
• On July 14, 2017 Gorelick stepped away from the lead role in the Russian investigation and turned over all responsibilities to Abbe Lowell.
• Gorelick will still work on other matters for Kushner that she was originally retained for.

Abbe Lowell Top   |   Back

• Abbe David Lowell (born c. 1952) is an American defense attorney who was Chief Minority Counsel to Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives during the impeachment of Bill Clinton in the Lewinsky scandal.
• Lowell will be representing Jared Kushner in the ongoing Russian investigation, after Jamie Gorelick stepped back from the lead role in July 2017.
• American defense attorney who was Chief Minority Counsel to Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives during the impeachment of Bill Clinton in the Lewinsky scandal.
• Lowell graduated from Columbia University in 1974, and Columbia Law School in 1977.
• In 1982, Lowell ran unsuccessfully for the Maryland House of Delegates as a Democrat.
• Lowell worked in the U.S. Department of Justice, including a stint as an assistant to Attorney General Benjamin Civiletti.
• He has been an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown Law Center and Columbia University.
• Lowell has defended political figures including John Edwards, Jim Wright, Dan Rostenkowski, Charles Keating, Gary Condit, former Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons, U.S. Rep. Joseph McDade and lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
• Lowell was part of the defense of Stephen Jin-Woo Kim, a State Department contractor who pleaded guilty to a felony count of disclosing classified American intelligence on North Korea.
• He is currently a partner at the firm of Norton Rose Fulbright. He has appeared in the media as a legal affairs expert.
• Lowell is head of the Development Committee and a Trustee of The Shakespeare Theatre and is an active member of the Jewish Community, serving as Vice President and General Counsel of the Jewish Community Center of Greater Washington.

Don McGahn Top   |   Back

• Donald F. "Don" McGahn II (born June 16, 1968) is the current White House Counsel and Assistant to the President for U.S. President Donald Trump, serving since January 20, 2017.
• He is an American campaign finance lawyer, political operative, and a former Commissioner of the United States Federal Election Commission (FEC).
• McGahn was chief counsel for the National Republican Congressional Committee from 1999 to 2008.
• He was nominated to the Federal Election Commission in 2008 by George W. Bush and served in that role until 2013.
• McGahn was named White House Counsel by then President-elect Trump in November 2016.
• McGahn personally recommended Trump nominate Neil Gorsuch to replace Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court. Gorsuch was sworn in on April 7, 2017.
  --------------------
• In May 2017 Sally Yates alleged discussions she had with McGahn, beginning on Jan. 26, regarding National Security Adviser Michael T. Flynn’s conversations in December with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
• McGahn has not commented on Yates allegations.
  --------------------
• In January 2018 The New York Times reported that in June, 2017, the president asked McGahn to instruct top Justice Department officials to dismiss special counsel Robert Mueller, and that McGahn refused, instead threatening to resign.
• The New York Times reported on August 18, 2018 that McGahn had been cooperating extensively with the Special Counsel investigation for several months and that he and his lawyer had become concerned that Trump "had decided to let Mr. McGahn take the fall for decisions that could be construed as obstruction of justice, like the Comey firing, by telling the special counsel that he was only following shoddy legal advice from Mr. McGahn."
• On August 29, 2018, President Trump announced "McGahn will be leaving his position in the fall, shortly after the confirmation (hopefully) of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the United States Supreme Court. I have worked with Don for a long time and truly appreciate his service!."

Russian Players
Top   |   Back

Vladimir Putin ¬ Top   |   Back

• Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian statesman serving as the current President of Russia since 7 May 2012, previously holding the position from 2000 to 2008.
• He was Prime Minister from 1999 to 2000, and again from 2008 to 2012.
• During his second term as Prime Minister, he was the chairman of the ruling United Russia party.
• During Putin's first presidency, the Russian economy grew for eight straight years, and GDP measured in purchasing power increased by 72%.
• The growth was a result of the 2000s commodities boom, high oil prices, and prudent economic and fiscal policies.
• Because of constitutionally mandated term limits, Putin was ineligible to run for a third consecutive presidential term in 2008.
• The 2008 presidential election was won by Dmitry Medvedev, who appointed Putin Prime Minister, what some opponents considered the beginning of a period of "tandemocracy".
• In September 2011, after presidential terms were extended from four to six years, Putin announced he would seek a third term as president.
• He won the March 2012 presidential election with 64% of the vote, a result which aligned with pre-election polling.
• Falling oil prices coupled with international sanctions imposed at the beginning of 2014 after Russia's annexation of Crimea and military intervention in Eastern Ukraine led to GDP shrinking by 3.7% in 2015, though the Russian economy rebounded in 2016 with 0.3% GDP growth and is officially out of the recession.
• Under Putin's leadership, Russia has scored poorly in Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index and experienced democratic backsliding according to both the Economist Intelligence Unit's Democracy Index and Freedom House's Freedom in the World index.
• Experts no longer consider Russia a democracy.
• Putin has enjoyed high domestic approval ratings during his career, and received extensive international attention as one of the world's most powerful leaders.
• U.S. intelligence agencies have accused him of launching an influence campaign against Hillary Clinton in the 2016 United States presidential election.

Sergei Magnitsky ¬ Top   |   Back

• Sergei Leonidovich Magnitsky (8 April 1972 – 16 November 2009) was a Russian lawyer and auditor whose arrest and subsequent death in custody generated international media attention and triggered both official and unofficial inquiries into allegations of fraud, theft and human rights violations.
• Magnitsky had alleged there had been a large-scale theft from the Russian state, sanctioned and carried out by Russian officials.
• He was arrested and eventually died in prison seven days before the expiration of the one-year term during which he could be legally held without trial.
• In total, Magnitsky served 358 days in Moscow's Butyrka prison.
• He developed gall stones, pancreatitis and a blocked gall bladder and received inadequate medical care. A human rights council set up by the Kremlin found that he was physically assaulted shortly before his death.
• His case has become an international cause célèbre and led to the adoption of the Magnitsky bill (also known as the Magnitsky Act) by the U.S. government at the end of 2012 by which those Russian officials believed to be involved in the auditor’s death were barred from entering the United States or using its banking system.
• In response, Russia blocked hundreds of foreign adoptions.
  Background
• Magnitsky was an auditor at the Moscow law firm Firestone Duncan, working for its owner, Jamison Firestone.
• He represented the investment advisory firm Hermitage Capital Management, which had been accused of tax evasion and tax fraud by the Russian Interior Ministry.
• Over the years of its operation, Hermitage had on a number of occasions supplied to the press information related to corporate and governmental misconduct and corruption within state-owned Russian enterprises.
• Hermitage's company co-founder, American Bill Browder, was expelled from Russia in 2005 as a national threat.
• Browder has said that he represented a threat only "to corrupt politicians and bureaucrats" in Russia, and believed that the ouster was conducted in order to leave his company open for exploitation.
• In November 2005, Browder had arrived in Moscow to be told his visa had been annulled. He was deported the next day and has not seen his Moscow home since.
• On 4 June 2007, Hermitage's Moscow office was raided by about 20 Ministry of Interior officers. The offices of Firestone Duncan were also raided. The officers had a search warrant alleging that Kamaya, a company administered by Hermitage, had underpaid its taxes. This was highly irregular, as the Russian tax authorities had just confirmed in writing that this company had overpaid its tax.
• In both cases, the search warrants permitted the seizure of materials related only to Kamaya. But, in both cases the officers illegally seized all the corporate, tax documents and seals for any company that had paid a large amount of Russian taxes, including documents and seals for many of Hermitage's Russian companies.
• In October 2007, Browder received word that one of the firms maintained in Moscow had a judgment against it for an alleged unpaid debt of hundreds of millions of dollars. According to Browder, this was the first he had heard of this court case and he did not know the lawyers who represented his company in court. Magnitsky was assigned to investigate the case.

Natalia Veselnitskaya ¬ Top   |   Back

• Natalia Vladimirovna Veselnitskaya (born ???) is a Russian lawyer.
• Her prominent clients include Pyotr Katsyv, an official in the state-owned Russian Railways, and his son Denis Katsyv, whom she defended against a money laundering charge in New York.
• Her June 2016 meeting with Donald Trump Jr, Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort in Trump Tower has attracted attention related to Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections.
• The lawyer who met Trump Jr. is seen as fearsome Moscow Insider
• MOSCOW — When American prosecutors accused a senior Russian official’s son of laundering $14 million by investing in Manhattan property and other assets, she was called to defend him.
• When Moscow regional officials battled Ikea over the Swedish retailer’s expansion, she took on their case.
• The Russian lawyer who met with Donald Trump Jr last year to discuss possible compromising material on the Democrats, has been widely depicted as a one-issue activist consumed with getting Congress to repeal sanctions against Russian businessmen.
• But lawyers and others in Moscow’s legal community called her a trusted insider, one who could be counted on to argue and win important high-profile court cases that matter to the government and to one senior, well-connected official in particular.
• In May, when she helped Denis P. Katsyv, Pyotr’s son, fight the money laundering claims in New York brought by the Manhattan federal prosecutor Preet Bharara. Mr. Bharara tangled with Ms. Veselnitskaya several times and protested at one point that she had been charging the government for a $995-a-night room at the Plaza Hotel.
• The case was settled two months after Mr. Bharara was dismissed (fired) by President Trump.
• She also represented a military unit founded by the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) in 2002.
• The service, known as the F.S.B., is the successor agency to the K.G.B. and was once headed by President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.
• In a July 14, 2017 interview with The Wall Street Journal, Veselnitskaya acknowledged that she was in regular contact with the Russian prosecutor general's office and with Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika "while waging a campaign against U.S. sanctions".
• On November 3, 2017 a judge denied a request for Veselnitskaya to enter the U.S. to attend hearings related to the money laundering case.

Rinat Akhmetshin ¬ Top   |   Back

• Rinat Rafkatovitch Akhmetshin (born 1967) is a Soviet Union–born Russian-American lobbyist and former Soviet counterintelligence officer.
• He came to American media spotlight in July 2017 as a registered lobbyist for an organization run by Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, who, along with him, had a meeting with Donald Trump's election campaign officials in June 2016.
• A former Soviet counter-intelligence official attended a meeting last year with senior aides to President Donald Trump and his son, it has emerged.
• Rinat Akhmetshin, now a lobbyist, confirmed to US media he was present at the Trump Tower encounter.

Sergey Kislyak Top   |   Back

• Sergey Ivanovich Kislyak (born 7 September 1950) is a Russian senior diplomat and politician.
• Since September 2017, he has represented Mordovia in the Federation Council, the upper chamber of the Russian legislature.
• Previously he served as the Ambassador of Russia to the United States from 2008 to 2017.
• From 2003 to 2008, he was the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, and from 1998 to 2003, he served as Russia's Ambassador to Belgium and Russia's Head of Mission to NATO.
• Dubbed "the diplomat's diplomat" by CNN, Kislyak was Russia's top presence in the U.S. during his nine-year tenure in Washington, D.C., a period of increasing political tension between the two countries.
• Kislyak became a key figure in the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections, receiving significant media coverage while denying that Russia was behind the hacking of the Democratic National Committee.
• However, Kislyak's meetings with advisers to then President-elect Donald Trump became a subject of investigation by U.S. intelligence officials.
• In May 2017, Trump held a meeting with Kislyak and Sergei Lavrov and disclosed classified information about ISIS, an incident which was leaked to the press and became a major scandal.
• After nearly a decade in the U.S., Kislyak returned to Moscow in July 2017 and was formally released from his duties in August, succeeded by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Anatoly Antonov.
• Also on 21 August, Kisylak announced that he plans to run for a seat for the Federation Council, representing the Republic of Mordovia.
• Russian senior diplomat who has served as Russia's Ambassador to the United States since 2008. From 2003–2008, he was the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. From 1998–2003, he served as Russia's Ambassador to Belgium and Russia's Head of Mission to NATO.

Anatoly Antonov Top   |   Back

• Anatoly Ivanovich Antonov (born ???) is a Russian politician, military officer and diplomat who is currently the Ambassador of Russia to the United States, formally replacing Sergey Kislyak on 21 August 2017 by presidential decree.
• With a reputation as a hardliner and tough negotiator, Antonov is scheduled to take up his post in Washington, D.C. on 1 September 2017.
• He was formerly Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Deputy Minister of Defence.
• Since 2015, he has been under sanctions of the European Union and Canada, in response to Russia's military intervention in Ukraine.
• In May 2017, he was approved to replace Sergey Kislyak as the next Russian Ambassador to the United States.
• Since 2015, Antonov has been under European Union sanctions in response to Russia's military intervention in Ukraine.
• Antonov is considered a hardliner against the West, earning him a reputation as a "bull terrier."
• In early autumn 2016, he was considered for the post Russian Ambassador to the United States as the Kremlin assumed that Hillary Clinton would win the presidential election and, therefore, bilateral relations would remain strained.
• However, despite the fact that Donald Trump won the election, Antonov was still chosen to take over the post from Sergey Kislyak, who had been the ambassador since 2008.
• In February 2017, Antonov was named the main candidate for this post.
• On 11 May 2017, the Russian Foreign Ministry formally submitted Antonov to the Federal Assembly, which approved him on 18 May following a closed session of the State Duma's foreign policy committee.

Joseph Mifsud (The Professor) Top   |   Back

• Joseph Mifsud (born 1960) is a Maltese academic, with high level connections to the Russian state, a former employee of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Malta, a principal in the London Centre of International Law Practice, a professorial teaching fellow at the University of Stirling in Scotland, and director of the London Academy of Diplomacy, where he held many seminars on Brexit.
• He was awarded a PhD entitled "Managing educational reform: a comparative approach from Malta (and Northern Ireland); a headteachers' perspective" in 1995 from Queen's University Belfast.
• Investigators say Mifsud enticed George Papadopoulos, an advisor to the 2016 Donald Trump presidential campaign, with a promise of Russian "dirt" on Hillary Clinton.
• He is a Member of the European Council of Foreign Relations (ECFR), and a former President of EMUNI in Slovenia.
• He was a regular at meetings of the Valdai Discussion Club, an annual conference held in Sochi, Russia, attended by Vladimir Putin.
• The Professor at center of Russia disclosures claimed to have met with Putin.
• Mifsud is not accused of wrongdoing in the US legal papers. The FBI says his role was "to introduce Papadopoulos to Russian contacts."

Oleg Deripaska Top   |   Back

• Oleg Vladimirovich Deripaska (born January 2, 1968) is a Russian oligarch and philanthropist.
• The Russian oligarchs are business entrepreneurs who emerged under Mikhail Gorbachev (General Secretary 1985-1991) during his period of market liberalization.
• The Russian oligarchs (see the related term "New Russians") are wealthy businessmen of the former Soviet republics who rapidly accumulated wealth during the era of Russian privatization in the aftermath of the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the 1990s.
• The failing Soviet state left the ownership of state assets contested, which allowed for informal deals with former USSR officials (mostly in Russia and Ukraine) as a means to acquire state property.
• He is the founder and owner of one of the largest Russian industrial groups Basic Element.
• He is the president of En+ Group and United Company Rusal, the second largest aluminum company in the world.
• Deripaska specialized in trading aluminum before expanding into energy, machinery, financial services and agribusiness.
• In 2000, Deripaska founded Rusal, the result of a partnership between Sibirsky Aluminum and Roman Abramovich's Millhouse Capital.
• In 2007, Rusal merged with SUAL Group and Glencore International AG to form UC Rusal, with Deripaska as chairman.
• He was once Russia's richest man, worth $28 billion, but nearly lost everything due to mounting debts amid the 2007–08 financial crisis.
• As of May 2017, his wealth was estimated by Forbes at $5.2 billion.
• Deripaska is also known for his close ties to Russian president Vladimir Putin, as well as his connection to American political consultant Paul Manafort, whom Deripaska employed from at least 2005 to 2009.
• Deripaska is also the founder of Volnoe Delo, Russia's largest charitable foundation, and is reported to have donated more than $250 million to mostly educational causes.
• He is married to Polina Yumasheva, step-granddaughter of former Russian President Boris Yeltsin and daughter of Valentin Yumashev, Yeltsin's son-in-law and close advisor.

See also: Oleg Deripaska (Wikipedia)
and: Russian oligarch (Wikipedia)
and: New Russians (Wikipedia)

Aleksandr Torshin Top   |   Back

• Aleksandr Porfiryevich Torshin (November 27, 1953, Ust-Bolsheretsky District) is a Russian politician.
• In 2015 he was nominated as a deputy head of the Central Bank of Russia.
• Torshin, originating from the Mari El Republic, a republic in Russia, is a leading figure in the ruling United Russia party.
• He served in Federation Council of Russia, the upper house of the Russian parliament, from 2001 to 2015, and as its acting Chairman for four months in 2011.
• There have also been accusations made that he is a leading figure within the Russian mafia.
• In 2016 he was connected by Spanish investigation with the Tambovskaya organized crime group.
• Torshin was allegedly involved in money laundering for the group.
• Torshin is a life member of the National Rifle Association.
  Involvement in U.S. politics
• Torshin, and his assistant (sometimes described as his associate or representative) Maria Butina, have established a cooperative relationship between United States-based National Rifle Association (NRA) and the Russian-based Right to Bear Arms which Butina founded in 2011.
• Torshin has been attending NRA annual meetings in the United States since at least 2011.
• Following the 2011 meeting then NRA President David Keene expressed his support for Torshin's "endeavors" and extended an invitation to the 2012 meeting.
• Torshin has attended every NRA annual meetings between 2012 and 2016, occasionally with Butina, and has met every NRA president since 2012.
• Torshin has tweeted that he and Butina are the only two Russians he knows of who are lifetime NRA members.
• Butina and Torshin attended the 2014 NRA annual meeting as special guests of former NRA president Keene.
• Butina attended the Women's Leadership Luncheon at the 2014 meeting as a guest of former NRA president Sandy Froman.
• Butina presented to then NRA president Jim Porter a plaque from Right to Bear Arms. Afterwards, she tweeted "Mission accomplished. "
• As Keene's guest, Butina got to ring the NRA's Liberty Bell, saying, "To the right to bear arms for citizens of the whole world. "
• Butina and Torshin also attended the 2015 NRA annual convention.
• In November 2013, Keene was a guest at the conference of the Right to Bear Arms in Moscow.
• In 2015, a NRA delegation attended Right to Bear Arms's annual conference in Russia.
• The delegation included Keene; Pete Brownell, a NRA board member and vice president and CEO of a gun-parts supply company; Paul Erickson, conservative American political operative; and Milwaukee County sheriff David Clarke.
• One of their hosts was Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who in 2014 was sanctioned following Russia's invasion of Ukraine by the White House.
• During the meeting, Clarke met the Russian foreign minister and attended a conference at which Torshin spoke.
• Clarke's trip cost $40,000, with all expenses paid by the NRA, Brownell and Right to Bear Arms.
• According to a disclosure Clarke filed, Right to Bear Arms paid $6,000 to cover his meals, lodging, transportation and other expenses.
• As of 2018 Butina, Torshin, and Paul Erickson, an American political operative, are under investigation in the United States for their potential involvement in Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections; Torshin has also been the subject of a probe by the Federal Bureau of Investigations into whether the Russian government attempted to illegally funnel money to the NRA in order to help Donald Trump win the presidency.

See also: Aleksandr Torshin (Wikipedia)
and: Maria Butina (Wikipedia)
and: Paul Erickson (activist) (Wikipedia)
and: Russian mafia (Wikipedia)

Maria Butina Top   |   Back

• Mariia Butin a (born 10 November 1988, sometimes spelled Maria Butina) is a political activist, alleged Russian agent, and the founder of "Right to Bear Arms", a Russian gun rights group.
• At one time, she worked for Aleksandr Torshin, a former member of the Federation Council for Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party and deputy governor of the Central Bank of Russia, with alleged ties to the Russian mafia.
• In recent years, Butina has developed extensive ties to conservative American political circles.
• On July 15, 2018, Butina was arrested in Washington, D.C., by the Federal Bureau of Investigations and charged with conspiring to act as an unregistered agent of the Russian Federation.
• In an affidavit in support of the arrest warrant, the FBI wrote that Butina sought to "exploit personal connections with U.S. persons having influence in American politics in an effort to advance the interests of the Russian Federation."
• Prior to her arrest, Butina, along with Torshin and Paul Erickson, an American political operative, were under investigation for their potential involvement in Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections; Torshin was also the subject of an FBI probe into whether the Russian government had attempted to illegally funnel money to the National Rifle Association in order to help Donald Trump win the presidency.
  Maria Butina: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know
  • 1. Butina Studied Political Science in Russia, Was Involved in Politics From a Young Age & Started a Furniture Store in Her Hometown in Siberia That She Sold in 2011
  • 2. She Started Working for Then-Senator Aleksandr Torshin, a Putin Ally, in 2011
  • 3. Butina Began Building a Relationship Between the NRA & Her Russian Group, Right to Bear Arms, in 2012
  • 4. She Asked President Trump a Question About Russian Sanctions at an Event in 2015 & Wrote an Op-Ed Saying a Republican President Would Be Good for Russia
  • 5. Butina Founded a Company in South Dakota With an American Political Operative in 2016 & Hosted a Birthday Party Attended by Trump Campaign Staffers
  

  

  Alligations (all hover links are speculation)
• Court filings on Wednesday () say Ms Butina was living with an unnamed 56-year-old American - identified in documents as US Person 1 - with whom she had a "personal relationship".
• She had "expressed disdain for continuing to cohabitate with" the American man, according to documents seized by the FBI, and got him to do her university homework.
• Prosecutors said she did not appear to take the attachment seriously because "on at least one occasion, Butina offered an individual other than US Person 1 sex in exchange for a position within a special interest organisation".
• The Department of Justice alleges that Ms Butina worked "under the direction and control" of a senior Russian official who is not named in charging documents.
• Court papers say the Russian official acted as her handler, and coached her through online messages.
• "Right now everything has to be quiet and careful," Ms Butina allegedly wrote to her contact through a private Twitter message, a month before the 2016 presidential election.
• On the night of the vote, court filings say she messaged the Russian official: "I'm going to sleep. It's 3 a.m. here. I am ready for further orders."
• During the inauguration of President Donald Trump, she shared a photo of herself attending the event at the US Capitol.
• "You're a daredevil girl!" her contact messaged her.
• "What can I say!" she replied. "Good teachers."
• She tried to establish "back channel" lines of communication to "penetrate the US national decision-making apparatus", the Justice Department said.
• During her time in the US, she fostered relationships with conservative pro-gun groups.
  (most of this information is from the BBC News)

See also: Maria Butina (Wikipedia)
and: Aleksandr Torshin (Wikipedia)
and: Paul Erickson (activist) (Wikipedia)

Yevgeny Prigozhin ¬ Top   |   Back

• Yevgeny Viktorovich Prigovnov (born June 1, 1961) is a Russian businessman with ties to Russian president Vladimir Putin.
• Prigozhin is dubbed "Putin’s chef" by the media due to his restaurants and catering businesses that host dinners between Vladimir Putin and foreign dignitaries.
• Prigozhin was born in Leningrad, now called Saint Petersburg, in 1961.
• He graduated from an athletics boarding school in 1977 and tried to become a ski racer, but ultimately failed.
• On November 29, 1979, Prigozhin was given a suspended sentence for stealing (in Leningrad).
• In 1981 he was sentenced to twelve years imprisonment under articles of robbery, fraud, involving teenagers in prostitution.
• Prigozhin spent in the colony nine years, then he was reprieved and released from the colony-settlement.
• In 1990, after his release, he and his stepfather set up a network to sell hot dogs. Soon, according to him, 'the rubles were piling up faster than his mother could count them.' He also became the manager of and 15% stakeholder in "Contrast," started by Boris Spektr, a classmate from his boarding school, which was the first grocery store chain in Saint Petersburg.
• In 1995, when revenues began to fall, Prigozhin convinced a director at "Contrast," Kiril Ziminov, to open a restaurant with him. The two opened the "Old Customs House", which was one of the first elite restaurants in Saint Petersburg.
• In 1997, inspired by waterfront restaurants on the Seine in Paris, Prigozhin and Ziminov spent $400,000 remodeling a rusting boat on the Vyatka River and started the floating restaurant "New Island," which quickly became one of the most fashionable dining spots in Saint Petersburg. According to him, his patrons "wanted to see something new in their lives and were tired of just eating cutlets with vodka."
• In 2001, Prigozhin personally served food to Vladimir Putin and French president Jacques Chirac when they dined at "New Island", and to US President George W. Bush in 2002.
• In 2003, Putin celebrated his birthday at "New Island." By 2003, Prigozhin had left his business partners and established his own independent restaurants.
• The Anti-Corruption Foundation accused Prigozhin of corrupt business practices; his illegal wealth estimated to be worth more than one billion rubles.
  Criminal charges
• On February 16, 2018, Prigozhin was indicted by a U.S. grand jury, which charged him with funding and organizing operations targeting the United States for the purpose of interference with the U.S. political and electoral processes, including the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election.

See also: Yevgeny Prigozhin (Wikipedia)

Viktor Vekselberg ¬ Top   |   Back

• Viktor Felixovich Vekselberg (born 14 April 1957) is a Ukrainian-born Russian businessman.
• He is the owner and president of Renova Group, a large Russian conglomerate.
• According to Forbes, his fortune is estimated at $13.6 billion, making him the fourth richest person in Russia, as of August 4, 2015.
• Vekselberg is close to the Moscow Kremlin, overseeing projects to modernize the Russian economy.
• From 2007 until March 2012, Vekselberg was a shareholder and chairman of the board of Rusal, the aluminum company controlled by Oleg Deripaska.
• Deripaska has business ties to former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who has been indicted on fraud and tax related charges as part of Mueller's investigation.
• Vekselberg is now overseeing a vast restructuring of his assets: the division of property with the partner Leonard Blavatnik, the merger of Renova's aluminum assets with those of Oleg Deripaska, and the integration of various electricity and telecommunications investment.
  Controversies
• In March 2018, members from Robert Mueller's team of special counsel investigators questioned Vekselberg at a New York area airport.
• In April 2018, the United States imposed sanctions on him and 23 other Russian nationals.
• Mueller's team questions Russian oligarch about payments to Cohen.
• Robert Mueller's investigators have questioned the Russian oligarch about hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments his company's US affiliate made to President Donald Trump's personal attorney, Michael Cohen, after the election, according to a source familiar with the matter.
• Investigators also asked Vekselberg about donations the head of his US affiliate made to Trump's inaugural fund and campaign funds, sources said.
• Vekselberg's cousin Intrater gave generously to support Trump. He donated $250,000 to the Trump inauguration fund, $35,000 to the Trump Victory Fund, and $29,600 to the Republican National Committee in June 2017, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
• While it is illegal for foreigners to donate to US politics, Intrater is American.

See also: Viktor Vekselberg (Wikipedia)
and: Russian oligarch (Wikipedia)
and: New Russians (Wikipedia)

Guccifer 2.0 ¬ Top   |   Back

• "Guccifer 2.0" is a persona claiming to be the hacker(s) that hacked into the Democratic National Committee (DNC) computer network and then leaked its documents to the media, the website WikiLeaks, and a conference event. Some of the documents Guccifer 2.0 released to the media appear to be forgeries cobbled together from public information and previous hacks, which had been salted with disinformation.
• The U.S. Intelligence Community concluded that some of the genuine leaks that Guccifer 2.0 has said were part of a series of cyberattacks on the DNC were committed by two Russian intelligence groups.
• This conclusion is based on analyses conducted by various private sector cybersecurity individuals and firms, including CrowdStrike, Fidelis Cybersecurity, Fireeye's Mandiant, SecureWorks, ThreatConnect, Trend Micro, and the security editor for Ars Technica.
• The Russian government denies involvement in the theft, and "Guccifer 2.0" denied links to Russia.
• WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said that multiple parties had access to DNC emails and that there was "no proof" that Russia was behind the attack.
• According to various cybersecurity firms and U.S. government officials, Guccifer 2.0 is a persona that was created by Russian intelligence services to cover for their interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
• In March 2018, Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller took over investigation of Guccifer 2.0 from the FBI while it was reported that forensic determination had found the Guccifer 2.0 persona to be "an officer of Russia's military intelligence directorate (GRU)".
• The link between Russia and the Trump campaign that special counsel Robert Mueller has been looking for may finally have materialized.
• On March 23, 2018 it was reported that the hacker of the Democratic National Committee emails known as "Guccifer 2.0" is, in fact, a Russian intelligence officer.
• Mueller has brought onto his team the FBI investigator who tracked down the intelligence officer.
• Reportedly, Guccifer 2.0 inadvertently revealed his identity by failing to conceal his use of a Russian computer server on one occasion.
  --------------------
• Whoever assisted a Kremlin intelligence officer regarding the DNC hack is open to a charge of criminal conspiracy.
• None other than Roger Stone already said they talked.
• Stone has denied having advance knowledge of the publication of the hacked emails, but, in August 2016, before the emails of Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta were released by Wikileaks in October 2016, Stone tweeted that "it will soon be Podesta’s time in the barrel."
• His tweet suggested that he knew that Podesta’s emails had been hacked and would be released.

See also: Guccifer 2.0 (Wikipedia)

You Can't Spell Guccifer without Gucci ¬
Guccifer (pronounced GUCCI-fer) — a nom de guerre coined, he said, to combine "the style of Gucci and the light of Lucifer."
In 2014 the Romanian hacker whose real name is Marcel Lazar Lehel chose the handle Guccifer with the famous Italian designer in mind, the Russian then used Guccifer 2.0.

Konstantin Kilimnik ¬ Top   |   Back

• Konstantin Kilimnik (sometimes KK or Kostya) born circa 1971,is an individual whose activities have become a point of focus in the 2017 Special Counsel investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections.
• Kilimnik is believed by CNN and the New York Times to be "Person A" listed in court documents filed against Paul Manafort and is alleged to either have ties to Russian intelligence agencies or to be a Russian intelligence operative.
• Kilimnik denied any such ties to the Washington Post in 2017, saying he had "no relation to the Russian or any other intelligence service".

See also: Konstantin Kilimnik (Wikipedia)

Novichok agent ¬ Top   |   Back

• Novichok (Russian: "newcomer") is a series of nerve agents developed by the Soviet Union and Russia between 1971 and 1993. Russian scientists who developed the agents claim they are the deadliest nerve agents ever made, with some variants possibly five to eight times more potent than VX, and others up to ten times more potent than soman.
• They were designed as part of a Soviet programme codenamed "FOLIANT".
• Five Novichok variants are believed to have been adapted for military use. The most versatile is A-232 (Novichok-5). Novichok agents have never been used on the battlefield.
• Theresa May, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and many heads of state, said that one such agent was used in the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in England in March 2018.
• Novichok was also confirmed to have been involved in the poisoning of a British couple, again in Wiltshire, four months later.
• These attacks led to the fatality of one and left the other in a critical condition, and hospitalised a police officer, who responded without knowledge that the nerve agent had been used and was therefore not using appropriate protective equipment.
• Russia denies producing or researching agents "under the title novichok".
• In 2016, Iranian chemists synthesised five Novichok agents for analysis and produced detailed mass spectral data which was added to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons Central Analytical Database. Previously there had been no detailed descriptions of their spectral properties in open scientific literature.
• A small amount of agent A-230 was also claimed to have been synthesised in the Czech Republic in 2017 for the purpose of obtaining analytical data to help defend against these novel toxic compounds.
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• These agents were designed to achieve four objectives:
  • To be undetectable using standard 1970s and 1980s NATO chemical detection equipment;
  • To defeat NATO chemical protective gear;
  • To be safer to handle;
  • To circumvent the Chemical Weapons Convention list of controlled precursors, classes of chemical and physical form.
  --------------------
• Some of these agents are binary weapons, in which precursors for the nerve agents are mixed in a munition to produce the agent just prior to its use. The precursors are generally significantly less hazardous than the agents themselves, so this technique makes handling and transporting the munitions a great deal simpler. Additionally, precursors to the agents are usually much easier to stabilise than the agents themselves, so this technique also makes it possible to increase the shelf life of the agents. This has the disadvantage that careless preparation may produce a non-optimal agent. During the 1980s and 1990s, binary versions of several Soviet agents were developed and are designated as "Novichok" agents. The FOLIANT programme may have been influenced by information on a secret American nerve agent code named "GJ" that was fed to the Soviet Union by a double agent as part of Operation Shocker.

See also: Novichok agent (Wikipedia)

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See also: ``` (Wikipedia)

North Korea
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Kim Jong-un (Son) Top   |   Back

• Kim Jong-un (born 8 January 1982–84 or 5 July 1984) is the Chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) and supreme leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), commonly referred to as North Korea.
• Kim is the second child of Kim Jong-il (1941–2011) and his consort Ko Yong-hui.
• Little is known for certain about Kim Jong-un.
• Before taking power, he had barely been seen in public, and many of the activities of both Kim and his government remain shrouded in secrecy.
• Even details such as what year he was born, and whether he did indeed attend a Western school under a pseudonym, are difficult to confirm with certainty.
• Kim was officially declared the supreme leader following the state funeral of his father on 28 December 2011.
• Kim holds the titles of Chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea, Chairman of the Central Military Commission, Chairman of the State Affairs Commission, Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army, and presidium member of the Politburo Standing Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea.
• Kim was promoted to the rank of Marshal of North Korea in the Korean People's Army on 18 July 2012, consolidating his position as the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces and is often referred to as Marshal Kim Jong-un or "the Marshal" by state media.
• Kim obtained two degrees, one in physics at Kim Il-sung University, and another as an Army officer at the Kim Il-sung Military University.
• On 12 December 2013 official North Korean news outlets released reports that due to alleged "treachery," he had ordered the execution of his uncle Jang Song-thaek. Jang is believed to have been executed by firing squad (reportedly using an anti-aircraft gun with a round that exploded on contact).
• Kim Jong-un has also put to death members of Jang's family, to completely destroy all traces of Jang's existence through "extensive executions" of his family, put to death members of Jang's family. Those reportedly killed in Kim's purge include Jang's sister Jang Kye-sun, her husband and ambassador to Cuba, Jon Yong-jin, and Jang's nephew and ambassador to Malaysia, Jang Yong-chol. The nephew's two sons were also said to have been killed.
• At the time of Jang's removal, it was announced that "the discovery and purge of the Jang group ... made our party and revolutionary ranks purer ... "and after his execution on 12 December 2013 state media warned that the army "will never pardon all those who disobey the order of the Supreme Commander".
• On 9 March 2014, Kim Jong-un was elected unopposed to the Supreme People's Assembly.
• He is the first North Korean leader born after the country's founding.
• Kim Jong-un is widely believed to have ordered the assassination of his brother, Kim Jong-nam in Malaysia in February 2017. The assassination using a banned chemical showed that North Korean assassins are able to deliver toxic agents across borders.

  ---

  Kim Jong-un vs. President Trump - War of Words (this would be humorous if they weren’t both leaders)
• Trump has recently started calling Kim Jong-un "Rocket Man." (Trump was not the first to use the epithet for a North Korean leader.
    In fact, Kim's father, Kim Jong-il was given the nickname on a July 8, 2006, cover of The Economist, a British business news magazine.)
• Trump had threatened to "totally destroy" North Korea in his first speech on the U.N. floor on Tuesday (09/19/2017).
  --------------------
• Far from making remarks of any persuasive power that can be viewed to be helpful to defusing tension, he made unprecedented rude nonsense one has never heard from any of his predecessors," Kim said.
• "A frightened dog barks louder," he added.
• Kim did not mention the sanctions.
• Yet the speech, which was approximately 500 words when translated to English, refers to Trump multiple times as a "dotard" — an arcane word for an elderly person who is weak minded or senile.
• "I will surely and definitely tame the mentally deranged U.S. dotard with fire," the despotic leader concluded.
  --------------------
• dotard ¬ - a person in his or her dotage.
• dotage ¬ - a state or period of senile decay marked by decline of mental poise and alertness.
  --------------------

Kim Jong-il (Father) Top   |   Back

• Kim Jong-il (16 February 1941/1942 – 17 December 2011) was the supreme leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), commonly referred to as North Korea, from 1994 to 2011.
• By the early 1980s Kim had become the heir apparent for the leadership of the country and assumed important posts in the party and army organs.
• He succeeded his father and founder of the DPRK, Kim Il-sung, following the elder Kim's death in 1994.
• Kim Jong-il was the General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), Politburo Standing Committee member of WPK, Chairman of the National Defence Commission (NDC) of North Korea, and the Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army (KPA), the fourth-largest standing army in the world.
• Kim's leadership is thought to have been even more authoritarian than his father's.

Kim Il-sung (Grandfather) Top   |   Back

• Kim Il-sung (born Kim Song-ju (???); 15 April 1912 – 8 July 1994) was the leader of North Korea from its establishment in 1948 until his death in 1994.
• He held the posts of Prime Minister from 1948 to 1972 and President from 1972 to 1994.
• He was also the leader of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) from 1949 to 1994 (titled as chairman from 1949 to 1966 and as general secretary after 1966).
• Coming to power after the overthrow of Japanese rule in 1945, he authorized the invasion of South Korea in 1950 triggering a defense of South Korea by the United Nations led by the United States.
• A cease-fire in the Korean War was signed on 27 July 1953.
• He was one of the longest-serving non-royal heads of state in the 20th century, in office for more than 45 years.
• Kim Il-Sung, who is revered like a god in North Korean propaganda, established the country in 1948 as a "socialist paradise" of free housing, health care and education where people would want for nothing.
• Grandson Kim Jong-Un claims his legitimacy as North Korea’s supreme leader by virtue of being a direct descendant of this quasi-deity.

Rodong Sinmun ("Workers' Newspaper") a North Korean newspaper Top   |   Back

• Rodong Sinmun ("Workers' Newspaper") is a North Korean newspaper that is the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea.
• It was first published on November 1, 1945, as Chongro ("right path"), serving as a communication channel for the North Korea Bureau of the Communist Party of Korea.
• It was renamed in September 1946 to its current name upon the steady development of the Workers' Party of Korea.
• Quoted frequently by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) and international media, it is regarded as a source of official North Korean viewpoints on many issues.
• The English-language version of Rodong Sinmun was launched in January 2012.
  --------------------
• (11/7/2017) Trump strikes at the heart of the North Korean regime with his speech before South Korea's National Assembly in Seoul.
• No "Rocket Man" but the words that Trump did use cut deeper, because they struck at the very heart of the Kim regime.
• If there is one thing that Kim has shown he cannot tolerate, it is personal criticism (which could be said of Trump as well).
• Parts of what Trump said were:

  "North Korea is not the paradise your grandfather envisioned, it is a hell that no person deserves."
  And he used words such as "twisted," "sinister," "tyrant," "fascism" and "cult."

• Rodong Sinmun characterized Trump's words as:

  ..."War mongering, filthy rhetoric spewing out of Trump's snout like garbage that reeks of gun powder to ignite war."
  The U.S. must oust the lunatic old man from power and withdraw the hostile policy towards the DPRK at once in order to get rid of the abyss of doom.(State-run news agency KCNA)

North Korean famine (1994 to 1998) Top   |   Back

• The North Korean famine (Hangul), which together with the accompanying general economic crisis are known as the Arduous March (Choson'gul) in North Korea, occurred in North Korea from 1994 to 1998.
• A 2011 U.S. Census Bureau report put the likely number of excess deaths during 1993 to 2000 at from 500,000 to 600,000.
• Loss of Soviet support - The famine stemmed from a variety of factors. Economic mismanagement and the loss of Soviet support caused food production and imports to decline rapidly. A series of floods and droughts exacerbated the crisis.
• The North Korean government and its centrally planned system proved too inflexible to effectively curtail the disaster.
• Estimates of the death toll vary widely. Out of a total population of approximately 22 million, somewhere between 240,000 and 3,500,000 North Koreans died from starvation or hunger-related illnesses, with the deaths peaking in 1997.
• In 1997, Seo Gwan Hee, the North Korean Minister of Agriculture, was accused of spying for the United States government and sabotaging North Korean agriculture on purpose, thus leading to the famine. As a result, he was executed by firing squad publicly by the North Korean government.
• Banned words - As part of this state campaign, uses of words such as 'famine' and 'hunger' were banned because they implied government failure. Citizens who said deaths were due to the famine could be in serious trouble with the authorities.
• Arduous March - The term "Arduous March" became a metaphor for the famine following a state propaganda campaign in 1993. The Rodong Sinmun (see below) urged the North Korean citizenry to invoke the memory of an apocryphal fable from Kim Il-sung's time as a commander of a small group of anti-Japanese guerrilla fighters. The story, referred to as the Arduous March, is described as "fighting against thousands of enemies in 20 degrees below zero, braving through a heavy snowfall and starvation, the red flag fluttering in front of the rank."
  (Rodong Sinmun is a North Korean newspaper that is the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea.)
  Women and children hurt the most.
• Women suffered significantly due to the gendered structure of North Korean society, which deemed women responsible for obtaining food, water and fuel for their families, which often included extended families.
• Children, especially those under two years old, were most affected by both the famine and the poverty of the period.
• The World Health Organization reported death rates for children at 93 out of every 1000, while those of infants were cited at 23 out of every 1000.
• Undernourished mothers found it difficult to breast-feed. No suitable alternative to the practice was available. Infant formula was not produced locally, and only a small amount of it was imported.

Timeline of the North Korean Military Nuclear Weapons Program Top   |   Back

1. 2006 On October 3, 2006, North Korea announced its intention to conduct a nuclear test.
    -- The blast is generally estimated to have had an explosive force of less than one kiloton, and some radioactive output was detected.
    -- United States officials suggested the device may have been a nuclear explosive that misfired.
2. 2009 On May 25, 2009, North Korean nuclear test was the underground detonation of a nuclear device.
    -- This was its second nuclear test, the first test, a fizzle, having taken place in October 2006.
    -- The United States Geological Survey reported a magnitude 4.7 earthquake at a depth of zero.
3. 2013 On February 12, North Korean state media announced it had conducted an underground nuclear test, its third in seven years.
    -- The United States Geological Survey reported a magnitude 4.9 to 5.17 earthquake.
    -- The estimated the yield of the 2013 test as approximately 10 kilotons.
4. January 2016 North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear detonation on January 6.
    -- The United States Geological Survey reported a 5.1 magnitude earthquake. China Earthquake Networks Center reported the magnitude as 4.9.
    -- North Korean media made announcements that the regime had successfully tested a hydrogen bomb. However third-party experts doubted North Korea's claims and contend that the device was more likely to have been a fission bomb such as a boosted fission weapon.
5. September 2016 North Korea conducted its fifth nuclear detonation on September 9.
    -- According to South Korean and Japanese estimates, the nuclear yield was equivalent to about 10 kilotons, generating about a 5.3 magnitude seismic shock.
6. September 2017 North Korea conducted its sixth nuclear test on September 3, 2017.
    -- According to South Korean estimates, the nuclear yield was equivalent to about 100 kilotons
    -- The United States Geological Survey reported an earthquake of 6.3 magnitude.

• 1993 North Korea fired a Nodong-1 missile into the Sea of Japan on May 29 and 30, 1993.
   -- The North Koreans were testing the missile so they could export it to Iran in return for oil.
   -- North Korea announced its withdrawal from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
• 2006 The North Korea reportedly fired at least seven separate missiles in two rounds of missile tests July 5, 2006.
   -- These included one long-range Taepodong-2 missile and short-range Scud derived missiles including the enlarged Nodong missile.
   -- The Taepodong-2 was estimated by United States intelligence agencies as having a potential range reaching as far as Alaska, although this missile failed after about 42 seconds of flight.
• 2009 Two rounds of North Korean missile tests were conducted on July 2, 2009 and July 4, 2009.
   -- Four missiles on the 2nd.
   -- Seven short range missiles into the Sea of Japan on the 4th.
   -- The missiles were launched in violation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1874.
• 2013 Three rounds of North Korean missile tests were conducted during May 2013.
   -- May 18 – North Korea launched three short-range guided missiles into the Sea of Japan.
   -- May 19 – North Korea launched a fourth rocket that landed in the Sea of Japan.
   -- May 20 – North Korea launched short-range projectiles that landed in waters off the country's eastern coast.
   -- (Unrelated) December 12 - Jang Song-thaek, Kim Jong Un's uncle is executed.
• 2014 June 2014 Test
   -- On June 30, North Korea test launched a tactical ballistic rockets.
• 2017 Over fourteen ballistic missile tests were conducted by North Korea throughout 2017.
   -- On March 6, North Korea launched four ballistic missiles, three of which landed 200 miles off Japan’s coastline.
   -- On April 4, North Korea launched a medium-range ballistic missile which reached the Sea of Japan.
   -- On April 16, a KN-15 medium-range ballistic missile was launched and failed almost immediately.
   -- On April 29, in the early hours, another missile was launched from Bukchang in the South Pyeongan province, and failed shortly after liftoff.
   -- On May 14, a ballistic missile flew for 30 minutes, covering a distance of 430 mi and reaching an altitude upwards of 1,200 mi.
   -- On June 8, North Korea fired four anti-ship missiles off its east coast, near the port city of Wonsan.
   -- On 4 July 4, North Korea tested an ICBM named the Hwasong-14, that flew for approximately 40 minutes, reached an altitude of 1,741 mi, falling 580 mi away from the launch site in the Sea of Japan. It is estimated that the missile has the capability of reaching 4,200 mi on a standard trajectory, meaning that although it would not be capable of reaching the Contiguous United States, it would be able to hit anywhere in Alaska.
   -- On July 28, North Korea launched an additional ballistic missile with a 45 minute flight time that reaching an altitude of 1,865 mi with an estimated range of approximately 6200 mi the missile could potentially reach major U.S. cities such as Denver and Chicago. This was the fourteenth missile test conducted by North Korea in the year 2017.
• August 2017
   -- On August 26, three short-range missiles were launched around early morning from a site in Gangwon Province, with the second one appears to have blown up almost immediately while another two flew about 155 mi in a north-eastern direction, before crashing in the Sea of Japan.
   -- On August 29, 2017, North Korea launched a Hwasong-12 ballistic missile that passed over Hokkaido, the second largest island of Japan. The missile travelled 1,700 mi and reached a maximum height of 340 mi. This was the second successful test flight of the Hwasong-12 missile, following three failed tests. The missile was launched from Pyongyang Sunan International Airport, presumably using a mobile launcher.
   --

``` Top   |   Back

North Korea - (officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Top   |   Back

• North_Korea (it self) (Wikipedia)
• North Korea and weapons of mass destruction (Wikipedia)
• North Korea–United States relations (Wikipedia)
• North Korean defectors (Wikipedia)
• North Korea national football team (Wikipedia)
• North Korean cult of personality (Wikipedia)
• North Korean famine (Wikipedia)
• North Korea–Russia relations (Wikipedia)
• North Korea–South Korea relations (Wikipedia)
• North Korean won (money) (Wikipedia)

Supreme Court
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Supreme Court of the United States Top   |   Back

• The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest federal court of the United States.
• Established pursuant to Article Three of the United States Constitution in 1789, it has ultimate (and largely discretionary) appellate jurisdiction over all federal courts and state court cases involving issues of federal law plus original jurisdiction over a small range of cases.
• In the legal system of the United States, the Supreme Court is generally the final interpreter of federal law including the United States Constitution, but it may act only within the context of a case, in which it has jurisdiction.
• The Court may decide cases having political overtones but does not have power to decide nonjusticiable political questions, and its enforcement arm is in the executive rather than judicial branch of government.
• According to federal statute, the Court normally consists of the Chief Justice of the United States and eight associate justices who are nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate.
• Once appointed, justices have lifetime tenure unless they resign, retire, or are removed after impeachment (though no justice has ever been removed).
• In modern discourse, the justices are often categorized as having conservative, moderate, or liberal philosophies of law and of judicial interpretation.
• Each justice has one vote, and it is worth noting that while a far greater number of cases in recent history have been decided unanimously, decisions in cases of the highest profile have often come down to just one single vote, thereby exposing the justices' ideological beliefs that track with those philosophical or political categories.
• The Court meets in the Supreme Court Building in Washington, D.C.
  --------------------
• The Supreme Court is sometimes colloquially referred to as SCOTUS (Supreme Court of the United States) similar to and in line with other acronyms such as POTUS (President of the United States).
  --------------------
  Notable Supreme Court Decisions during Trump's Presidency
• Census citizenship question (5-4) The Trump administration's plan to ask about citizenship in the 2020 census was not adequately explained and must be returned to lower courts for review.
• Partisan gerrymandering (5-4) Federal courts lack jurisdiction to intercede in cases of partisan gerrymandering, which present purely political questions.
• Federal agency powers (5-4) A decades-old Supreme Court precedent directing courts to give deference to agency interpretations of ambiguous regulations is retained but sharply limited.
• Freedom of Information Act (6-3) Business records customarily treated as private and provided to the government under that proviso are confidential under the Freedom of Information Act
• Scandalous trademarks (6-2) Federal prohibitions against granting trademark protection to material deemed "immoral" or "scandalous" are unconstitutional.
• Racial discrimination on juries (7-2) A Mississippi man tried six times for a quadruple murder and imprisoned for 22 years deserves a new trial because of the prosecution's racial discrimination in jury selection.
• Maryland "Peace Cross" (7-2) A nearly century-old World War I monument shaped like a mammoth Latin cross can remain standing in Bladensburg, Maryland, despite its religious connotation.
• Racial gerrymandering (5-4) Virginia's Republican-controlled House of Delegates cannot challenge a federal court decision striking down 11 legislative districts as racial gerrymanders.
• Double jeopardy (7-2) Federal and state governments can continue to prosecute defendants twice for the same crime.
• Apple antitrust dispute (5-4) Users of iPhones can sue Apple over excessive prices on its exclusive App Store.
• Class actions in arbitration (5-4) Ambiguous contracts between employers and workers must be resolved individually, not as a class, through arbitration.
• Detention of noncitizens (5-4) The federal government can detain noncitizens with criminal records anytime following their release from custody.
• Government fees, fines (9-0) States cannot impose excessive fees, fines and forfeitures as criminal penalties.
  Other Supreme Court Decisions during Trump's Presidency
• Gay and Transgender Rights (LGBTQ) (5-4) The court ruled that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects gay and transgender workers (LGBTQ) from workplace discrimination.
• Juries (6-3) the court ruled that the Constitution requires unanimous jury verdicts to convict defendants of serious crimes.
• Public Corruption (9-0) he court overturned the convictions of two associates of Chris Christie, the former governor of New Jersey, in the Bridgegate scandal.

Neil Gorsuch Top   |   Back

• Neil McGill Gorsuch (born August 29, 1967) is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.
• Gorsuch was appointed by President Donald Trump to succeed Antonin Scalia, following a year-long vacancy and took the oath of office on April 10, 2017.
• Gorsuch is a proponent of textualism in statutory interpretation and originalism in interpreting the U.S. Constitution.
• He is the first Supreme Court justice to serve alongside another justice for whom he once had clerked (Anthony Kennedy).
• Gorsuch clerked for Judge David B. Sentelle on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit from 1991 to 1992, and then for U.S. Supreme Court Justices Byron White and Anthony Kennedy, from 1993 to 1994.
• From 1995 to 2005, Gorsuch was in private practice with the law firm of Kellogg, Huber, Hansen, Todd, Evans & Figel.
• Gorsuch was a Deputy Associate Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice from 2005 to his appointment to the Tenth Circuit.
• Gorsuch was nominated to the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit by President George W. Bush on May 10, 2006, to replace Judge David M. Ebel, who took senior status in 2006.
• He holds a Bachelor of Arts from Columbia University, Juris Doctor from Harvard University, and Doctor of Philosophy in Law from the University of Oxford, where he was supervised by Professor John Finnis.
  Trump talked about rescinding Gorsuch’s nomination
• Trump talked about rescinding Gorsuch’s nomination, venting angrily to advisers after his Supreme Court pick was critical of the president’s escalating attacks on the federal judiciary in private meetings with legislators.
• Trump, according to several people with knowledge of the discussions, was upset that Gorsuch had pointedly distanced himself from the president in a private February [2017] meeting with Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), telling the senator he found Trump’s repeated attacks on the federal judiciary "disheartening" and "demoralizing."
• The president worried that Gorsuch would not be "loyal," one of the people said, and told aides that he was tempted to pull Gorsuch’s nomination — and that he knew plenty of other judges who would want the job.
• Trump was especially upset by what he viewed as Gorsuch’s insufficient gratitude for a lifetime appointment to the nation’s highest court, White House officials said.

Brett Kavanaugh Top   |   Back

• Brett Michael Kavanaugh (born February 12, 1965) is a nominee to become an Associate Justice for the United States Supreme Court.
• He currently serves as a United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
• He was White House Staff Secretary during the Presidency of George W. Bush.
• A protégé of Ken Starr, Kavanaugh played a lead role in drafting the Starr Report, which urged the impeachment of President Bill Clinton.
• Kavanaugh led the investigation into the suicide of Clinton aide Vince Foster.
• After the 2000 U.S. presidential election, in which Kavanaugh worked for the George W. Bush campaign in the Florida recount, Kavanaugh joined Bush's staff, where he led the Administration's effort to identify and confirm judicial nominees.
• Kavanaugh was nominated to the D.C. Appeals Court by Bush in 2003.
• His confirmation hearings were contentious and stalled for three years over charges of partisanship.
• Kavanaugh was ultimately confirmed in May 2006 after a series of negotiations between Democratic and Republican senators.
• Kavanaugh was nominated by President Donald Trump on July 9, 2018, to become an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, following the vacancy created by the pending retirement of Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy.

Trump Surrogates
TopTop   |   Back

Kellyanne Conway Top   |   Back

• She is the first woman to ever successfully run a presidential campaign.
• She has been a Republican Party campaign manager, strategist, and pollster, and was formerly president and CEO of The Polling Company Inc./Woman Trend.
• In 2016, Conway endorsed Ted Cruz in the Republican presidential primaries and chaired a pro-Cruz political action committee.
• After Cruz withdrew from the race, Trump appointed Conway as a senior advisor and later campaign manager to his campaign.
• On July 1, 2016, Trump announced that he had hired Conway for a senior advisory position on his presidential campaign.
• Conway was expected to advise Trump on how to better appeal to female voters.
• On August 19, Trump named Conway the campaign's third campaign manager.
• She served in this capacity for 10 weeks, through the November 8 general election, and was the first woman to successfully run an American presidential campaign, as well as the first woman to run a Republican general election presidential campaign.
• On November 10, 2016, Conway tweeted publicly that Trump had offered her a White House job. "I can have any job I want", she said on November 28.
• On December 22, 2016, Trump announced that Conway would join his administration as Counselor to the President.

Michael Dubke Top   |   Back

• White House Communications Director for U.S. President Donald Trump until his resignation effective June 2, 2017.
• President Donald Trump offered Dubke the role of White House Director of Communications.
• He began on 6 March 2017.
• The White House announced he had submitted his resignation on May 30, 2017, approximately three months later.
• The White House did not announce his exact date of departure nor who would be replacing him.
• Dubke originally should remain as communications director to assist in selecting his successor, according to White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus.
• However, his last day had been on June 2.
• Sean Spicer resumed the post as acting Director.

Sean Spicer Top   |   Back

• The press secretary serves by the appointment of and at the pleasure of the president; the office does not require the advice and consent of the U.S. Senate, though because of the frequent briefings given to the media, who in turn inform the public, the position is still a very prominent non-Cabinet post.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders Top   |   Back

• Sarah Elizabeth Huckabee Sanders (born August 13, 1982) is an American campaign manager and political advisor who was appointed White House press secretary to President Donald Trump in July 2017.
• The press secretary serves by the appointment of and at the pleasure of the president; the office does not require the advice and consent of the U.S. Senate, though because of the frequent briefings given to the media, who in turn inform the public, the position is still a very prominent non-Cabinet post.
• She is the daughter of former governor of Arkansas and presidential candidate Mike Huckabee and former Arkansas first lady Janet Huckabee.
• On July 21, 2017, following Spicer's announcement that he was going to resign, newly-appointed White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci announced that Sanders will take the role of White House Press Secretary.
• On June 27, during a press briefing, Sanders attacked the media, accusing them of spreading fake news against Trump. Sanders cited a video created by James O'Keefe.
• Several journalists criticized Sanders' decision to cite O'Keefe, noting that O'Keefe was charged with a misdemeanor in 2010 and that he tends to selectively edit his footage.
  --------------------
• In January 2019 Sanders said on the Christian Broadcasting Network that she thinks "God calls all of us to fill different roles at different times, and I think that he wanted Donald Trump to become president."
• On June 13, 2019, President Trump tweeted that Sanders would be leaving her role as press secretary for his administration on June 30.
• Under Sanders, the White House has set at least three records for the most days between formal press briefings.
• The White House had a 41-day streak which ended in January 2019, then a 42-day streak which ended in March 2019, followed by 94 days and counting without a formal press briefing when Sanders' departure was announced.

Anthony Scaramucci Top   |   Back

• Come - On July 21, 2017, Scaramucci was named to serve as the White House Communications Director.
• and Gone - But his name was withdrawn by President Donald Trump on July 31, 2017 (11 days later), at the request of the White House Chief of Staff, John Kelly.
• An American entrepreneur, financier, political figure, and author.
• In June 2017, he became a senior vice president and chief strategy officer at the U.S. Export-Import Bank.
• On January 12, 2017, President-elect Trump announced his intent to appoint Scaramucci Director of the White House Office of Public Liaison and Intergovernmental Affairs.
• Scaramucci's swearing-in was reportedly delayed by an extended review of his finances by the Office of Government Ethics, although the ethics office denied that clearance was necessary before making White House appointments.
• Ultimately, George Sifakis was appointed instead.
• Following the 2016 election, Scaramucci served on the Presidential Transition Team Executive Committee.
• In 2005, Scaramucci founded global investment firm SkyBridge Capital, serving as co-managing partner before selling the company in early 2017 to take a role in the Trump administration.
• Scaramucci also previously served as host of a financial television show Wall Street Week and contributor to Fox News.
  Colorful language
• On July 21, 2017, President Donald Trump appointed Scaramucci White House Communications Director, to take office on July 25.
• The White House announcement of Scaramucci said he would "report directly to the President" rather than to the White House chief of staff, as White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer had.
• On the day that Scaramucci's appointment was announced, Spicer resigned.
• The New York Times reported that he had done so after advising Trump that he "vehemently disagreed" with the appointment of Scaramucci.
• Trump's chief of staff Reince Priebus also had "vehement objections" to his hiring.
• In a July 26, 2017 phone call to Ryan Lizza of The New Yorker, Scaramucci said he would fire everyone on the White House communications staff if Lizza did not reveal the source of leaked information about who had attended a dinner with Trump.
• Scaramucci also accused Priebus of being "a leaker" who had committed "a felony", referred to Priebus as "a fucking paranoid schizophrenic, a paranoiac", and said that Priebus "would resign soon".
• Priebus did not respond to Lizza's request for comment.
• Scaramucci also said "I'm not Steve Bannon, I’m not trying to suck my own cock" in an apparent reference to his lack of interest in media attention.
• The following day, Scaramucci tweeted, "I sometimes use colorful language.
• I will refrain in this arena but not give up the passionate fight for Donald Trump's agenda."

Kayleigh McEnany Top   |   Back

• She is currently employed as a CNN contributor.
• After graduating from Georgetown University, McEnany worked as a producer for Mike Huckabee's TV show.
• She has interned for several politicians including Tom Gallagher, Adam Putnam, and George W. Bush, for both his 2004 campaign and in the White House Office of Communications in the Media Affairs department.
• In February 2017, McEnany had a heated exchange with New York Times columnist Charles Blow on CNN's show, CNN Tonight with Don Lemon.
• In March 2017, McEnany apologized after she claimed Barack Obama was President when Daniel Pearl, an American journalist, was beheaded by terrorists in Pakistan in 2002. George W. Bush was commander in chief at that time, while Obama was an Illinois state senator.
  Personal life:
• McEnany carries a mutated BRCA1 gene and underwent a double mastectomy in 2011.
• In 2016, conservative radio host Dana Loesch caused a small controversy by mocking McEnany's appearance, including her breast size, not knowing about her mastectomy.
• McEnany is engaged to be married to professional baseball pitcher Sean Gilmartin in November 2017.
  Released from CNN to become the spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee
• Kayleigh McEnany asked to be let out of her CNN contract to become the spokeswoman for the RNC.
• August 07, 2017 former Donald Trump surrogate Kayleigh McEnany has been named the new spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee.
• She takes a job formerly held by one-time White House spokesman Sean Spicer.
• Spicer was in the post when former White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus was the chairman of the RNC.
• Spicer and Priebus both lost their jobs in a White House staffing shakeup.
  White House Press Secretary
• After Mark Meadows replaced Mick Mulvaney as White House Chief of Staff in April 2020, Meadows's first personnel change was hiring McEnany as White House Press Secretary on April 7, 2020, which was officially announced the next day.
• Two months into her tenure, the Associated Press wrote of McEnany, she "has made clear from her first briefing that she’s willing to defend her boss’s view of himself as well as his most flagrant misstatements."
• In April 2020, McEnany defended Trump's assertion that the World Health Organization had shown a "clear bias towards China" and said that the WHO put Americans at risk by "repeating inaccurate claims peddled by China during the coronavirus pandemic" and "opposing the United States' life-saving travel restrictions."
• When Trump was criticized by experts for suggesting at a press conference that the coronavirus could be treated with disinfectant injections, McEnany said that the president's remarks were taken out of context. Trump later said he was asking a sarcastic question, although there was no indication in his statement that he was making a joke.
• On May 1, 2020, as part of her first public press briefing, McEnany was asked by an Associated Press reporter: "Will you pledge to never lie to us from that podium?" McEnany replied: "I will never lie to you. You have my word on that." McEnany then made a number of false claims.
• On the subject of Trump's responses to the coronavirus pandemic, she claimed, "This president has always sided on the side of data".
• In response to allegations of Trump's sexual misconduct, McEnany said: "He has always told the truth."
• In May 2020, McEnany defended Trump's false accusation that Joe Scarborough had a person murdered, offering no evidence in support of the accusation.
• The same month, McEnany defended claims that Trump made about the dangers of vote by mail, repeating the president's inaccurate claims that vote by mail has a "high propensity for voter fraud." McEnany herself has voted by mail 11 times in 10 years.
• In June 2020, she defended the decision by the Trump administration to forcibly remove peaceful protestors using smoke canisters, pepper balls, riot shields, batons, officers on horseback and rubber bullets so that Trump could stage a photo op in front of St. John's Episcopal Church, Lafayette Square in Washington. She likened Trump's action to that of Winston Churchill walking the streets to survey bomb damage during World War II.
• When General Jim Mattis, former Secretary of Defense in the Trump administration, condemned Trump's action, McEnany described Mattis's comments as "little more than a self-promotional stunt to appease the DC elite."

Jeffrey Lord Top   |   Back

• He served in the Reagan White House as an associate political director 1987–1988.
• In that position, he assisted in the judicial nomination process for several nominees, including Robert Bork for the Supreme Court.
• He also worked for Jack Kemp during the presidency of George H. W. Bush.
• Lord works as a political commentator, contributing material to CNN, The Weekly Standard, The American Spectator, National Review Online, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and the Harrisburg Patriot-News.
• He is the author of The Borking Rebellion, about the confirmation of Federal Judge D. Brooks Smith. It received a generally positive review in the Wall Street Journal. His more recent book, published in January 2016 (from which he gained the name, "The Trump Defender"), is What America Needs: The Case for Trump.
  Controversies
• In July 2010, after Shirley Sherrod stated that one of her relatives had been lynched in the 1940s, Lord wrote an article in the American Spectator pointing out that the man in question had actually been beaten to death by police officers. Lord questioned Sherrod's "veracity and credibility". He faced substantial criticism as a result, including criticism from other contributors to American Spectator.
• In August 2011, Lord wrote an article in the American Spectator in which he was critical of Congressman Ron Paul (Republican, Texas), and of the views of some of Ron Paul's supporters. The article sparked considerable debate within the conservative movement.
• In May 2012, Lord wrote an article in The American Spectator in which he compared President Barack Obama with Mao Zedong because of the similarities between Barack Obama's slogan "Forward" and Chairman Mao's Great Leap Forward. In the same article, he also compared Obama with the Hitler Youth due to their song "Vorwärts! Vorwärts!" ("Forward, Forward!").
• In February 2015, Lord called upon the Republican Party to demand an apology from the Democratic Party for its role in promoting and defending slavery and creating the segregationist Jim Crow system.
• In June 2015, Lord wrote an open letter to Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the head of the U.S. Democratic Party, asking her to apologize for her party's role in Indian removal, in promoting and defending slavery, in Confederate secession, and in creating segregationist Jim Crow regimes. Lord asserted that the Democrats' historical support for such institutions contributed, and continues to contribute, to the existence of racism and bigotry in American society.
• In March 2016, during a Super Tuesday election night on CNN, an argument ensued for several minutes between Lord and a CNN contributor, Van Jones, about Lord's defense of Donald Trump. The argument came about when a fellow contributor, conservative commentator S. E. Cupp, accused Trump of "crazy, dog whistle policy proposals", that she believed he had made to attract prejudiced voters, and because Trump had hesitated to disavow KKK member David Duke in a CNN interview the previous weekend. Lord responded that the KKK many decades earlier had supported Democrats and that the KKK was therefore left wing. He accused those who raised these worries of dividing Americans by race. Van Jones questioned the relevance of the first point and declared the second point "absurd". Lord responded that "history matters", that Democrats continue to divide citizens by race today, and that doing so is "morally wrong".
• In April 2017, on a CNN discussion program hosted by Don Lemon and featuring three other panelists including CNN commentator Symone Sanders, Lord maintained, as he had on an earlier CNN program, that President Donald Trump was the "Martin Luther King" of health care, explicitly comparing and equating Trump tactics to King tactics. This infuriated both Lemon and Sanders. Lemon ended the program in frustration and disgust after a few more minutes of discussion.
  Fired from CNN
• On August 10, 2017 CNN severed ties with Jeffrey Lord hours after he ignited controversy by tweeting the words "Sieg Heil!" at a prominent liberal activist (Angelo Carusone).
• "Nazi salutes are indefensible," a CNN spokesperson said in a statement. "Jeffrey Lord is no longer with the network."
• Lord said his tweet was misunderstood. He said he was mocking fascists, not acting like one.
• "I love CNN, but I feel they are caving to bullies here," he said in a telephone interview shortly after the network's decision was announced.
• Lord said his contract was set to expire at the end of the year.
• He said he greatly respected CNN management despite disagreeing with the decision.
• Lord had been one of CNN's best-known commentators.
• He was the first explicitly pro-Donald Trump commentator to join the network, back in August 2015, two months after Trump entered the GOP primary race.
• At the time Lord was a counterweight to CNN's other conservative commentators, who were all dismissive of Trump's candidacy.
• Other pro-Trump voices joined the network late, but Lord always stood out from the pack -- for his interpretations of history and his intense exchanges with commentators like Van Jones on "Anderson Cooper 360" and other programs.
• Lord, a columnist for The American Spectator, has been harshly critical of the activist he tweeted at, Angelo Carusone, and the liberal group of which Carusone is president, Media Matters for America.
• Lord and Carusone have had many sharp disagreements.
• Media Matters has repeatedly condemned Lord and criticized CNN for employing him as a commentator.
• Media Matters has been promoting an ad boycott against Fox News host Sean Hannity, a friend of Lord's.
• Lord said Carusone was playing a "fascist game" by targeting Hannity's sponsors, and said Media Matters has been doing it for years against other conservatives.
• "This is America, Angelo. Not Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany or Communist Russia," he wrote.
• Lord tweeted the column at Carusone, who responded, "Your headline has a mistake in it."
• Carusone asked, "Why do you expect anyone to take you seriously when you don't take yourself seriously."
• Lord's response was "Sieg Heil!"
• The tweet caused a Twitter storm.
• There was renewed criticism both of Lord, personally, and of CNN for having him on the payroll.
• Under withering criticism from others on social media, Lord did not backtrack from the Nazi reference.
• He repeatedly told commenters that he was "mocking Nazis and Fascists."
• He asked, "Why would I delete something that mocks the Fascists at Media Matters Fascists?"
• Later, in a telephone interview with CNN, Lord said, "I think these people are very dangerous."
• "They run around bullying people, bullying advertisers to take people off the air," he added.
• Of the offensive tweet, he said, "I'm mocking people who are posing a serious threat to the American free press. That's what I'm mocking."

Katrina Pierson Top   |   Back

• Pierson voted for Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election, and has listed Malcolm X as her political idol, stating that Martin Luther King, Jr. was "too moderate."
• Pierson became an activist in the Tea Party movement in 2009.
• Speaking in April 2009 at a Dallas Tea Party event, she called for Texas to secede from the U.S. She founded a local Tea Party group in Garland, Texas.
• In 2012, Pierson actively supported Ted Cruz in the 2012 Senate race in Texas and appeared on stage with him on election night in November.
• In the 2014 Texas congressional elections, Pierson challenged incumbent congressman Pete Sessions in the Republican primary to represent Texas' 32nd district. Her candidacy was endorsed by Rafael Cruz and by Sarah Palin, who called her "a feisty fighter for freedom."
• While U.S. senator Ted Cruz offered praise, calling her an "utterly fearless principled conservative," he stopped short of an endorsement.
• In January 2015, Pierson attended a meeting for Tea Party activists in Myrtle Beach with Ted Cruz. While in Myrtle Beach, she also met with Donald Trump.
• After meeting with Trump or his aides a few more times, Pierson introduced Trump at a campaign rally held in Dallas in September.
• In November 2015 she was hired as the national spokesperson for Trump's campaign, subsequently appearing frequently on television in that capacity, often being seen as one of Trump's staunchest defenders amidst controversial comments.

Scottie Neil Hughes Top   |   Back

• She was a paid CNN commentator during the 2016 presidential election, often speaking in support of presidential candidate Donald Trump.
• Hughes began her career as an executive producer on the Steve Gill Show in Nashville, Tennessee.
• With an established radio careerShe also was in the first group of radio talk show hosts sent by the Department of Defense to travel to the front lines of Operation Enduring Freedom in Iraq and Kuwait, as well as the detention facilities at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
• She Has been a strong supporter of U.S. forces.
• Scottie Nell is the former news director of the Tea Party News Network and served as a political commentator for CNN until her contact expired in January 2017, and currently serves as political editor at RightAlerts.com.
  Controversies:
• In an interview with CNN's Don Lemon, Hughes got into a heated discussion with commentator Ana Navarro over the 2005 tape of Donald Trump making comments about assaulting women.
• In a live interview broadcast on CNN the day before the 2016 presidential election, she made an embarrassing gaffe by confusing the word "Molotov" with the Jewish expression of congratulations or good luck when she stated that a video by rap music artist and Hillary Clinton-supporter Jay-Z begins "with a crowd throwing mazel tov cocktails."
• In July 2017, a Fox Business Host released a statement to the National Enquirer referencing a 3year affair which some media outlets have speculated was Mrs. Hughes. To date, neither Hughes nor her attorneys have released a statement.

Jason Miller Top   |   Back

• Best known as the chief spokesman for the fall 2016 campaign and presidential transition of Donald Trump.
• Miller is currently employed at Teneo Strategy, and was formerly a partner and executive vice-president at Jamestown Associates.
• In 2017, he became a CNN political contributor.
• Says No - He was initially announced as the incoming White House Communications Director during the transition but withdrew days later.
• Donald Trump’s newly tapped White House communications director, Jason Miller, backed out of the job following claims that he had an affair with another transition official, according to three sources close to the Trump transition.
• Two days after his appointment as communications director was announced, Miller told POLITICO on Christmas Eve that he was stepping down because the White House job would be too demanding at a time when he needed to devote attention to his family. He and his wife are expecting their second child next month.
• In March 2015 he said it is clear they need to be my top priority right now "I need to put them in front of my career."
• But why? - But around the same time, campaign surrogate and transition aide A.J. Delgado began directing comments at Miller on Twitter.
• Delgado congratulated "the baby-daddy" on his promotion, and cryptically wrote: "The 2016 version of John Edwards."
• Edwards, the former North Carolina senator and Democratic presidential candidate, had an affair with Rielle Hunter, a campaign worker who became pregnant.
• By Saturday, Delgado used Twitter to call for Miller to resign and then deactivated her account once he had announced he wouldn’t join Trump’s White House.

Paris Dennard Top   |   Back

• He often appears as a conservative expert and commentator (as so-called pundit) in newsreels and discussion rounds at CNN and the NPR.
• Dennard studied at the Brophy College Preparatory, a Jesuit boys high school, in Arizona until 2000, where he was the chairman of the school's student affairs.
• He then studied as a scholarship holder of the Richard Eamer Scholars Program at the conservative Christian private Pepperdine University in Malibu Public Relations and Political Science.
• He spent a semester abroad in London and completed both subjects with a bachelor's degree.
• During his studies, he was President of the Student Government Association - a body of student representatives - at the Seaver College of the University.
• He served as the chairman of the Arizona Teenage Republicans, the new generation of the Republican Party.
• And appeared in the summer of 2000 as the latest speaker at the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia.
• Between 2005 and 2009 Dennard worked in the White House under President George W. Bush.
• During this time, he was involved in the Office of Legislative Affairs, the Office of Political Affairs and the Office of Public Liaison and Intergovernmental Affairs.
• In the latter, he served as Whitehouse Director of Black Outreach and was responsible for maintaining government contact with the African population.
• In addition, he coordinated the meetings and travels of the President, First Lady Laura Bush, and House of Representatives, and was responsible for the planning of various events in the White House.
• After leaving the White House, Dennard worked as an Associate Director for Coalitions at the Republican National Committee from 2009 to 2011.
• Subsequently, he served as Director of Public Affairs in a law firm in South Carolina in 2014 when as director of events in Washington, DC resident and the Arizona State University cooperating think-tank McCain Institute for International Leadership.
• In 2012 or 2013, he and PD Consulting Group established his own consulting office for strategic communication, political management, image and brand development and media training.
• In July 2015, he was appointed Legislative Director of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, which focuses on public HBCU.
• Since September 2016, Dennard has been acting as Director of Strategic Communications.
• In the presidential election campaign in 2016 , Dennard expressed his support for the Republican candidate Donald Trump, and often defended his positions and comments in the media.
• He gained prominent prominence in early February 2017, when the now elected President Trump in a speech to the Black History Month praised Denner's work as a pundit on CNN, Trump said:

  "And Paris has done an amazing job in a very hostile CNN community. He's all by himself. You'll have seven people, and Paris. And I'll take Paris over the seven. But I do not watch CNN, so I do not get to see you as much as I used to. I do not like watching fake news."

Nan Hayworth Top   |   Back

• Nan Alison Sutter Hayworth (born December 14, 1959) is the former U.S. Representative for New York's 19th congressional district.
• She was elected to that position in 2010 as a member of the Republican Party.
• In 2012, Hayworth lost her reelection bid to former Clinton White House staff secretary Sean Patrick Maloney.
• In 2014, she lost a re-match with Maloney.
• During her time in Congress, Hayworth focused on fiscal issues, while avoiding divisive stances on issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage.
• She endorsed Mitt Romney in November 2011.
• She supported repeal of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, and generally opposed additional gun control measures.
• Following Hurricane Irene in 2011, Hayworth made the following statement after touring her district: "I've written to the President to support Governor Cuomo's request for the farthest-reaching disaster declaration for the counties, to ensure that residents are eligible for individual assistance and municipalities are eligible for public assistance programs."
• She added that any additions to the disaster relief fund must be offset by federal budget cuts elsewhere.

Stephen Moore Top   |   Back

• American writer and economic policy analyst
• He founded and served as president of the Club for Growth from 1999 to 2004.
• Moore is a former member of the Wall Street Journal editorial board.
• In 2014, The Heritage Foundation announced that Moore would become its chief economist.
• In 2015, Moore's title at Heritage changed from Chief Economist to Distinguished Visiting Fellow.
• Moore is known for advocating free-market policies and supply-side economics.
• In 2017, he left Fox News Channel to join CNN as an economics analyst.
• On September 19, 2017, it was widely reported that Moore made the statement "...people want insurance for their own families, not for other people's families". This statement demonstrated a deep and profound lack of understanding on how insurance contracts and scaled allocation of risk work, despite decades of claimed expertise on his part.
• Bad facts - In a 2014 Kansas City Star opinion piece entitled "What's the matter with Paul Krugman?" Moore responded to Krugman's opinion piece entitled "Charlatans, Cranks and Kansas." In his piece, Moore claimed that job creation had been superior in low-taxation states during the five years following the recession ending June 2009. After substantial factual errors were uncovered in Moore's opinion piece, the Kansas City Star indicated that it would no longer print Moore's work without "thorough factchecking." Miriam Pepper, editor of the Kansas City Star, decided to stop publication of Moore's work due to inaccurate statements.
• No clue - Jonathan Chait, in his New York magazine column, in response to Moore's February 15, 2015 Washington Times column on Obamacare, stated "Perhaps the most revealing aspect of Moore’s column is the fact that, five years after its [Obamacare's] passage, the chief economist of the most influential conservative think tank in the United States [the Heritage Foundation] lacks even a passing familiarity with its [Obamacare's] fiscal objectives".

David Urban Top   |   Back

• David Urban (born c. 1964) is an American lobbyist, political operative, and political commentator who worked on the 2016 Donald Trump presidential campaign, helping to orchestrate the 2016 Republican National Convention and serving as a senior advisor in the successful effort to win Pennsylvania.
• In November 2016, it was reported that Urban was being considered as the next chair of the Republican National Committee, as well as the White House Deputy Chief of Staff, and in May 2017, it was reported that Trump was considering Urban to replace Reince Priebus as White House Chief of Staff. (Before Trump decided on John Kelly)
• Any staff appointment of Urdan and the White House will be forced to reckon with the potential ethics issues raised by Urban’s impressive roster of lobbying clients—nearly three dozen of them in 2017 alone, according to congressional disclosure forms—as it presses policy changes that dovetail with those clients’ interests.
• Urban worked with the Philadelphia-based law firm of Ballard Spahr as a public finance attorney from 1994 to 1997, when he became chief of staff to Senator Arlen Specter.
• Urban left his government position in 2002 and became a partner at the American Continental Group (ACG), where he now serves as President.
• ACG is a Washington-based lobbying firm that has worked with companies such as Comcast, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and Raytheon.
• He was recognized on The Hill's "Top Lobbyists" list in 2015 and 2016.
• In April 2016, Urban joined Donald Trump's presidential campaign as senior advisor.
• He was the deputy director of caucus operations and senior member on the ground in Cleveland for the 2016 Republican National Convention, spending over two months on that effort, and working to quell disruption by "Never Trump" delegates from the campaigns of other candidates.
• Urban developed a relationship of frequent cell phone contact with Trump.
• In November 2016, Urban helped gain the first presidential Republican win for Pennsylvania in over 28 years, and it was initially reported that he was being considered as the next chair of the Republican National Committee, or White House Deputy Chief of Staff.
• The potential appointment was supported by former Republican Senator Rick Santorum and former Democratic Governor Ed Rendell.
• As a political commentator for CNN, Urban has commented on matters such as the House passage of the ACHA, Trump's April 2017 NRA speech, and Trump's 100 day mark.
• As of May 2017, Urban was involved in the Pennsylvania gubernatorial campaign of businessman and fellow West Point graduate Paul Mango.
• Urban has worked to affect Medicare and Medicaid drug reimbursement rules on behalf of a pharmacy trade association as the White House and Congress hammer out details of a health care reform package.
• He represents major federal contractors such as General Dynamics, which signed a defense procurement deal with Saudi Arabia ahead of Trump’s visit to the country last week.
• In April, Urban signed a company that solicits foreign investment in exchange for U.S. visas—a program criticized over widespread fraud allegations, and employed to great effect by the family of Trump son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner.
• Urban’s firm also has a murky relationship with Goldman Sachs, the investment banking giant whose alumni include Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and White House deputy national security adviser Dina Powell.
• ACG inked a lobbying contract with Goldman on April 1, then canceled it the same day.
• Urban told Politico that the filing was made in error, but would not elaborate on the relationship.
• Urban’s current clients also include a Mexican company seeking to minimize trade restrictions and preserve a landmark free trade agreement that Trump has pledged to dismantle.
• His move to the White House, if it happens, would occur right as the White House plots changes to that free trade agreement, and weighs a new trade regime for the U.S.’ southern neighbor.

Mike Shields Top   |   Back

• Shields served as Chief of Staff to the Republican National Committee in 2013-2014, overseeing the reform and build-out of a $175 million data and ground operation that led to the historic victory in 2016.
• Most recently Shields served as the President of Congressional Leadership Fund – a 527 "SuperPAC" – that focuses on electing Republicans to Congress.
• In 2016 CLF raised a record $50 million and went 29-3 in the 32 house races it played in.
• Shields also brings a depth of policy and management experience, having served as President of American Action Network, a 501c4 issue advocacy organization.
• Prior to these posts Shields served as the Political Director and Independent Expenditure Director of the National Republican Congressional Committee.
• As IE Director in the historic 2010 congressional victory, Shields oversaw an operation that put up over 140 separate TV ads in 63 districts.
• The American Association of Political Consultants recognized Shields’ expertise by naming him the 2012 election’s "Most Valuable Player" for his leadership in creating a messaging program to defend House Republicans.
• Shields career began in earnest when he became the Political Communications Director to then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
• He also served as Chief of Staff to Congressman Dave Reichert of Washington State, helping steer him to upset victories in 2006 and 2008.
• Born in the United States on a U.S. Air Force Base to an American father and British mother, Clyde and Wendy, Shields moved with his family to Great Britain as a child where he lived for 10 years.
• Understanding – and translating – the British political scene and the consequences of Brexit is a passion for Shields, as is helping to decode American politics for his British colleagues.
• Shields lives in Alexandria, Virginia, and is blessed with a son, Aidan.

See also: Mike Shields (sorry Mike hasn't made it into Wikipedia yet) (Wikipedia)

``` Top   |   Back

See also: ``` (Wikipedia)

Intelligence Community
Top   |   Back

James Comey Top   |   Back

• James Brien Comey Jr. (born December 14, 1960) is an American lawyer who served as the seventh Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from September 4, 2013 until May 9, 2017.
• President Trump formally dismissed Comey on May 9, 2017, less than 4 years into his 10-year term as Director of the FBI.
• The White House initially stated the firing was on the recommendation of United States Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.
• Rosenstein had sent a memorandum to Sessions, forwarded to Trump, in which Rosenstein listed objections to Comey's conduct in the investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails.
• This allowed the Trump administration to attribute Comey's firing to Rosenstein's recommendation about the Clinton email controversy.
• It was later revealed that on May 8, Trump had requested Sessions and Rosenstein to detail in writing a case against Comey.
• Rosenstein's memo was forwarded to Trump on May 9 and was then construed as a recommendation to dismiss Comey, which Trump immediately did.
• In Trump's termination letter to Comey, he attributed the firing to the two letters from Sessions and Rosenstein.
• On May 10, Trump told reporters he had fired Comey because Comey "wasn't doing a good job".
• By May 11, however, in a direct contradiction of the earlier statements by the White House, Vice President Mike Pence, and the contents of the dismissal letter itself, President Trump stated to Lester Holt in an NBC News interview that Comey's dismissal was in fact "my decision" and "I was going to fire [Comey] regardless of recommendation [by Jeff Sessions and Rod Rosenstein]."
• Trump then admitted that the true reason for the dismissal was that "when I decided to just do it [fire Comey], I said to myself, I said 'You know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story.'"
• Also in that same televised interview, Trump labelled Comey "a showboat" and "grandstander".
• On May 12, Trump tweeted "James Comey better hope that there are no 'tapes' of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!", which the media, political and legal analysts, as well as opposition politicians, interpreted as a threat to Comey.
• On June 22, faced with a subpoena for the tapes that Trump alluded to, Trump issued a tweet stating "I have no idea [...] whether there are ‘tapes’ or recordings of my conversations with James Comey, but I did not make, and do not have, any such recordings."
• Hours later, when asked to clarify the non-denial denial wording of Trump's tweet regarding the tapes, Principal Deputy White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders stated that Trump's tweet was "extremely clear" and that she did "not have anything to add".
• Questions raised for clarification on Trump's tweet centred principally around whether Trump ever had knowledge of said tapes having ever existed and whether he is simply no longer privy to the knowledge of whether said tapes still exist; whether Trump currently has or ever had knowledge of a person or persons other than Trump having made said tapes or recordings, and; whether Trump currently has or ever had knowledge of a person or persons other than Trump currently having or previously having had in their possession said tapes or recordings.
• U.S. Representative for California, Democrat Adam Schiff, stated that Trump's tweet "raises as many questions as it answers," and that in any event, the tweet did not comply with the 23 June deadline, and that Schiff would move forward with subpoenas for the tapes, adding that "[r]egardless of whether the President intends his tweets to be an official reply to the House Intelligence Committee, the White House must respond in writing to our committee as to whether any tapes or recordings exist."
• Comey first learned of his termination from television news reports that flashed on screen while he was delivering a speech to agents at the Los Angeles Field Office.
• According to Comey associates interviewed by news organizations, Trump had asked Comey in January to pledge loyalty to him, to which Comey demurred, instead offering him "honesty".
• In the absence of a Senate-confirmed FBI director, Deputy Director Andrew McCabe automatically became Acting Director.
• On May 11, McCabe testified before the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence that "Director Comey enjoyed broad support within the FBI and still does" and that "the vast majority of FBI employees enjoyed a deep and positive connection to Director Comey".
• This contradicted White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who said she had heard from "countless" FBI agents in support of the firing.

Andrew McCabe Top   |   Back

• Andrew George McCabe (born May 5, 1968) is an American attorney who is the Deputy Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
• From May 9, 2017 to August 2, 2017, McCabe was the Acting Director of the FBI after James Comey was dismissed by President Donald Trump.
• U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions stated that McCabe was one of several candidates under consideration for Director.
• President Trump ultimately chose Christopher A. Wray, the former Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department's Criminal Division, to succeed Comey.
• Once Wray was sworn in, McCabe returned to the position of Deputy Director.
• McCabe is set to retire from his position at the FBI in early 2018.
  Hillary Clinton email inquiry
• In March 2015, Andrew McCabe's wife Jill McCabe announced her campaign for a Virginia State Senate seat.
• Her campaign received donations amounting to more than $675,000 from former Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe's political organization and from the Democratic Party of Virginia.
• In July 2015, the FBI initiated its investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server.
• At that time, Andrew McCabe was running the FBI’s Washington, D.C., field office, which provided personnel and resources to the Clinton email probe.
• Because of this, Republicans have criticized McCabe for not recusing himself from investigations regarding the Hillary Clinton email controversy.
• In 2016, the FBI released a statement about her candidacy, saying that Andrew McCabe "played no role, attended no events, and did not participate in fundraising or support of any kind.
• Months after the completion of her campaign, then-Associate Deputy Director McCabe was promoted to Deputy, where, in that position, he assumed for the first time, an oversight role in the investigation into Secretary Clinton’s emails."
• Trump referred to this controversy during his campaign at rallies held in Florida, where he said, "The man who was in charge of the investigation of Hillary Clinton accepted essentially from Hillary Clinton $675,000 that went to his wife."
• Some have attempted to refute any conflict of interest about McCabe on the basis that Jill McCabe's campaign finished several months before he became Deputy Director of the FBI and was brought in to oversee the Clinton email investigation.
  Trump slams FBI’s McCabe over planned retirement
• President Trump unloaded on embattled FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe Saturday amid reports that McCabe plans to jump from the agency in early March.
• Trump tweeted at 3:30 pm [12/23/2017] "FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe is racing the clock to retire with full benefits, 90 days to go?!!!"
• McCabe, 49, faced sharp GOP criticism in three congressional hearings. He plans to take early retirement as soon as he becomes eligible for benefits, The Washington Post reported.
• On January 29, 2018, McCabe stepped down from his position as Deputy Director of the FBI.
  Ex-FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe fired only 26 hours before his scheduled retirement
• On March 16, 2018, Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired Ex-FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe only 26 hours before his scheduled retirement.
• According to Sessions, both the Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz and the FBI's disciplinary office had found "that Mr. McCabe had made an unauthorized disclosure to the news media and lacked candor - including under oath - on multiple occasions."
• McCabe denied that he had ever been dishonest and charged that his firing was a politically-motivated "effort to discredit me as a witness" for the Special Counsel investigation of Trump-Russia ties and specifically of Trump's firing of Comey.
• On March 21, 2018, the FBI Director Christopher Wray stated that McCabe firing was not politically influenced but done "by the book."
• Also on March 21, immediately after McCabe's firing, a parallel situation was noted and reported: that just as Jeff Sessions had fired McCabe for lacking "candor", McCabe had, nearly a year previous to his own firing, authorized a criminal investigation into "whether Sessions lacked candor when testifying before Congress about contacts with Russian operatives".
  Justice Department's Office of Inspector General (OIG) report says the fireing was justified
• On April 13, 2018 the OIG report was released to Congress and obtained by the Associated Press, who published it.
• The Justice Department inspector general found that former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe "lacked candor" on four occasions when discussing the disclosure of information for a Wall Street Journal article about the FBI's Clinton Foundation investigation, according to a copy of the report obtained by CNN.
  (Definition of candor - 1 : unreserved, honest, or sincere expression : forthrightness 2 : freedom from prejudice or malice : fairness)
• McCabe issued a response to the report, disputing its conclusions.

See also: Andrew McCabe (Wikipedia)
Part of the Come and Gone crew.

Christopher A. Wray Top   |   Back

• Christopher Asher Wray (born December 17, 1967) is an American lawyer currently serving as the eighth Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
• From 2003 to 2005, Wray served as Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Criminal Division in the George W. Bush Administration.
• From 2005 to 2017, he was a litigation partner with the law firm King & Spalding.
• June 7, 2017, President Donald Trump announced his intention to nominate Wray to be the next Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, replacing James Comey, who was fired by Trump on May 9, 2017.
• Trump interviewed Wray for the vacant FBI Director job on May 30, 2017, according to Press Secretary Sean Spicer.
• Wray's Senate confirmation hearing commenced on July 12, 2017.
• Among other testimony, when asked if he believed that the investigation into Russian election interference and possible links to Trump's campaign is a "witch hunt", he stated that he did not.
• On July 20, 2017, the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously recommended to confirm Wray as the next Director of the FBI.
• Wray was officially confirmed by the Senate with bipartisan support on August 1, 2017; the vote was 92–5.
• He was sworn in by Attorney General Jeff Sessions in a private ceremony on August 2, 2017.
• Wray was formally sworn in on September 28, 2017, which was not attended by President Trump, marking the first time an FBI director has been sworn in without the attendance of the President who nominated him attending the ceremony.

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Top   |   Back

Mike Pompeo Top   |   Back

• Michael Richard Pompeo (born December 30, 1963) is an American intelligence officer and former politician who is the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
• Previously, he was the U.S. Representative for Kansas's 4th congressional district from 2011–17.
• He was a member of the Tea Party movement within the Republican Party.
• He was a Kansas representative on the Republican National Committee and a member of the Italian American Congressional Delegation.
• On November 18, 2016, he was nominated by President-elect Donald Trump to be Director of the Central Intelligence Agency and was confirmed by the U.S. Senate 66–32 on January 23, 2017.
• Once a WikiLeaks Fan, he now attacks it as hostile unit eager to do the bidding of Russia and other American adversaries.
• But Mr. Pompeo’s harshest words were reserved for Julian Assange, calling the WikiLeaks founder a "narcissist" and "a fraud — a coward hiding behind a screen."

Gina Haspel Top   |   Back

• Gina Cheri Haspel (born October 1, 1956) is an American intelligence officer serving as the Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), appointed by U.S. President Donald Trump in February 2017.
• She has been accused of being responsible for the torture of dozens of people and of running a torture site in Thailand.
• On March 13, 2018, Haspel was nominated by President Trump to become the CIA Director, succeeding Mike Pompeo. If confirmed, she would be the first woman to hold the position.
  Deputy Director National Clandestine Service
• In 2013, John Brennan, then the director of Central Intelligence, named Haspel as acting Deputy Director of the National Clandestine Service, which carries out covert operations around the globe.
• However, she was denied the position permanently due to criticism about her involvement in the Rendition, Detention and Interrogation program.
• Haspel has also served as the Deputy Director of the National Clandestine Service for Foreign Intelligence and Covert Action.
  Deputy Director
• On February 2, 2017, President Donald Trump appointed Haspel deputy director of the CIA.
• On February 8, 2017, several members of the Senate intelligence committee urged Trump to reconsider his appointment of Haspel as Deputy Director. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse quoted colleagues Ron Wyden and Martin Heinrich who were on the committee:

  I am especially concerned by reports that this individual was involved in the unauthorized destruction of CIA interrogation videotapes, which documented the CIA's use of torture against two CIA detainees. My colleagues Senators Wyden and Heinrich have stated that classified information details why the newly appointed Deputy Director is 'unsuitable' for the position and have requested that this information be declassified. I join their request.

• On February 15, 2017, Spencer Ackerman reported on psychologists Bruce Jessen and James Mitchell, the architects of the enhanced interrogation program that was designed to break Zubaydah and was subsequently used on other detainees at the CIA's secret prisons around the world.
• Jessen and Mitchell are being sued by Sulaiman Abdulla Salim, Mohamed Ahmed Ben Soud, and Obaid Ullah over torture designed by the psychologists.
• Jessen and Mitchell are seeking to compel Haspel, and her colleague James Cotsana, to testify on their behalf.
  --------------------
• Haspel was officially sworn in on May 21, 2018 becoming the first woman to serve as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency on a permanent basis.

See also: Gina Haspel (Wikipedia)
and: Gina Haspel, Complicity in torture (Wikipedia)

John O. Brennan Top   |   Back

• John Owen Brennan (born September 22, 1955) was the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency from March 2013 to January 2017.
• He has served as chief counterterrorism advisor to U.S. President Barack Obama; his title was Deputy National Security Advisor for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, and Assistant to the President.
• His responsibilities included overseeing plans to protect the country from terrorism and respond to natural disasters, and he met with the President daily.
• Previously, he advised President Obama on foreign policy and intelligence issues during the 2008 presidential campaign and transition.
• Brennan withdrew his name from consideration for Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the first Obama administration over concerns about his support for transferring terror suspects to countries where they may be tortured while serving under President George W. Bush.
• Instead, Brennan was appointed Deputy National Security Advisor, a position which did not require Senate confirmation.
• Brennan's 25 years with the CIA included work as a Near East and South Asia analyst, as station chief in Saudi Arabia, and as director of the National Counterterrorism Center.
• After leaving government service in 2005, Brennan became CEO of The Analysis Corporation, a security consulting business, and served as chairman of the Intelligence and National Security Alliance, an association of intelligence professionals.
• Brennan served in the White House as Assistant to the President for Homeland Security between 2009 and 2013.
• As such, he was put in charge of the Disposition Matrix.
• President Barack Obama nominated Brennan as his next director of the CIA on January 7, 2013.
• The ACLU called for the Senate not to proceed with the appointment until it confirms that "all of his conduct was within the law" at the CIA and White House.
• John Brennan was approved by the Senate Intelligence Committee on March 5, 2013, to succeed David Petraeus as the Director of the CIA by a vote of 12 to 3.
• Brennan's internet mail accounts have been hacked on numerous occasions.
• Files have been released by Wikileaks.
  --------------------
• Brennan serves as a senior national security and intelligence analyst for NBC News and MSNBC. His inaugural appearance was on Meet the Press with Chuck Todd on Sunday, February 4, 2018.
• On August 18, 2018, President Donald Trump, who Brennan has been an outspoken critic of, announced that Brennan's security clearance will be revoked. The revocation was criticized as political retribution from Brennan's comments.
  Brennan on Twitter & Repiles

  14 Aug 2018
  Brennan: It’s astounding how often you fail to live up to minimum standards of decency, civility, & probity. Seems like you will never understand what it means to be president, nor what it takes to be a good, decent, & honest person. So disheartening, so dangerous for our Nation.
  tRump: When you give a crazed, crying lowlife a break, and give her a job at the White House, I guess it just didn’t work out. Good work by General Kelly for quickly firing that dog!
  13 Aug 2018
  Brennan: You’re absolutely right. If you were “presidential,” you would focus on healing the rifts within our Nation, being truthful about the challenges we face, & showing the world that America is still that shining beacon of freedom, liberty, prosperity, & goodness that welcomes all.John O. Brennan added,
  tRump: While I know it’s “not presidential” to take on a lowlife like Omarosa, and while I would rather not be doing so, this is a modern day form of communication and I know the Fake News Media will be working overtime to make even Wacky Omarosa look legitimate as possible. Sorry!
  

See also: John O. Brennan (Wikipedia)

Dan Coats

• Daniel Ray Coats (born May 16, 1943) is an American politician and former diplomat serving as the fifth and current Director of National Intelligence since 2017 under the Trump Administration.
• A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a United States Senator from Indiana from 1989 to 1999 and again from 2011 to 2017.
• He was the United States Ambassador to Germany from 2001 to 2005, and was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1981 to 1989.
• Coats served on the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence while in the U.S. Senate.
• Born in Jackson, Michigan, Coats graduated from Wheaton College in Illinois and Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law.
• He served in the U.S. Army (1966–1968).
• Before serving in the U.S. Senate, Coats was a member of the United States House of Representatives, representing Indiana's 4th congressional district from 1981 to 1989.
• He was appointed to fill the Senate seat vacated by Dan Quayle following Quayle's election as Vice President of the United States.
• Coats won the 1990 special election to serve the remainder of Quayle's unexpired term, as well as the 1992 election for a full six-year term.
• He did not seek reelection in 1998 and was succeeded by Democrat Evan Bayh.
• After retiring from the Senate, Coats served as the U.S. Ambassador to Germany from 2001 to 2005 and then worked as a lobbyist in Washington, D.C.
• He was reelected to the Senate by a large margin in 2010, succeeding Bayh, who announced his own retirement shortly after Coats declared his candidacy.
• Coats declined to run for reelection in 2016 and was succeeded by Todd Young.
• On January 5, 2017, Coats was announced as U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for the post of Director of National Intelligence, to succeed James R. Clapper.
• His term in office commenced on March 16, 2017.
  --------------------
• Gun laws - On multiple occasions, Coats has supported gun control measures. In 1991, he voted in favor of the Biden-Thurmond Violent Crime Control Act of 1991. In 1991, he voted in favor of the Biden-Thurmond Violent Crime Control Act of 1991. This act, which did not become law, would have created a waiting period for handgun purchases and placed a ban on assault weapons. Subsequently, he supported the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act that President Clinton signed into law in 1993. The legislation imposed a waiting period before a handgun could be transferred to an individual by a licensed dealer, importer, or manufacturer.
• LGBT issues - In 1993, Coats emerged as an opponent of President Clinton's effort to allow LGBT individuals to serve openly in the armed forces. Coats was one of the authors of the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy and opposed its 2011 repeal. He does not support same-sex marriage but opposes interference with "alternative lifestyles".
• Russia - Coats pressed President Barack Obama to punish Russia harshly for its March 2014 annexation of Crimea. For this stance, the Russian government banned Coats and several other U.S. lawmakers from traveling to Russia.
• Iran and Iraq - Coats supported the 2003 invasion of Iraq under the pretext of uncovering Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. Coats opposed the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers – the U.S., U.K., Russia, France, China, and Germany. He described Iran as the foremost "state sponsor of terrorism".

See also: Dan Coats (Wikipedia)

James Clapper Top   |   Back

• James Robert Clapper Jr. (born March 14, 1941) is a retired lieutenant general in the United States Air Force and is the former director of national intelligence.
• He served as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) from 1992 until 1995.
• He was the first director of defense intelligence within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and simultaneously the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence.
• Clapper has held several key positions within the United States Intelligence Community.
• He served as the director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) from September 2001 until June 2006.
• On June 5, 2010, President Barack Obama nominated Clapper to replace Dennis C. Blair as United States Director of National Intelligence.
• Clapper was unanimously confirmed by the Senate for the position on August 5, 2010.
• Following the June 2013 leak of documents detailing NSA practice of collecting telephony metadata (see Snowden) on millions of Americans’ telephone calls, two U.S. representatives accused Clapper of perjury for telling a congressional committee that the NSA does not collect any type of data on millions of Americans earlier that year.
• One senator asked for his resignation, and a group of 26 senators complained about Clapper’s responses under questioning.
• In November 2016, Clapper resigned as director of national intelligence, effective at the end of President Obama's term.
• In May 2017, he joined the Washington, D.C.-based think tank the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) as a Distinguished Senior Fellow for Intelligence and National Security.

FISA Top   |   Back

• The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 ("FISA" Pub.L. 95–511, 92 Stat. 1783, 50 U.S.C. ch. 36) is a United States federal law which establishes procedures for the physical and electronic surveillance and collection of "foreign intelligence information" between "foreign powers" and "agents of foreign powers" suspected of espionage or terrorism.
• The Act created the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) to oversee requests for surveillance warrants by federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies. It has been repeatedly amended since the September 11 attacks.
• In addition to electronic surveillance, FISA permits the "physical search" of the "premises, information, material, or property used exclusively by" a foreign power. The requirements and procedures are nearly identical to those for electronic surveillance.
• Generally, the statute permits electronic surveillance in two different scenarios
  (With a court order and Without a court order).

  ---

  Without a court order
• The President may authorize, through the Attorney General, electronic surveillance without a court order for the period of one year, provided that it is only to acquire foreign intelligence information, that it is solely directed at communications or property controlled exclusively by foreign powers, that there is no substantial likelihood that it will acquire the contents of any communication to which a United States person is a party, and that it be conducted only in accordance with defined minimization procedures.
• The code defines "foreign intelligence information" to mean information necessary to protect the United States against actual or potential grave attack, sabotage or international terrorism.
• "Foreign powers" means a foreign government, any faction of a foreign nation not substantially composed of U.S. persons, and any entity directed or controlled by a foreign government. The definition also includes groups engaged in international terrorism and foreign political organizations. The sections of FISA authorizing electronic surveillance and physical searches without a court order specifically exclude their application to groups engaged in international terrorism.
• A "U.S. person" includes citizens, lawfully admitted permanent resident aliens, and corporations incorporated in the United States.
• "Minimization procedures" limit the collection of information concerning United States persons by protecting their identities and requiring a court order to retain the communications for longer than 72 hours. The communications can be retained without court order if there is evidence of a crime. Identification of a US person, known as "unmasking", may also be authorized if an agency believes it is necessary in order to understand the intelligence or believes that the person was committing a crime.
• The Attorney General is required to make a certification of these conditions under seal to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, and report on their compliance to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
• Since 50 U.S.C. § 1802(a)(1)(A) of this Act specifically limits warrantless surveillance to foreign powers as defined by 50 U.S.C. §1801(a) (1),(2), (3) and omits the definitions contained in 50 U.S.C. §1801(a) (4),(5),(6) the act does not authorize the use of warrantless surveillance on: groups engaged in international terrorism or activities in preparation thereof; foreign-based political organizations, not substantially composed of United States persons; or entities that are directed and controlled by a foreign government or governments. Under FISA, anyone who engages in electronic surveillance except as authorized by statute is subject to both criminal penalties and civil liabilities.
• Under 50 U.S.C. § 1811, the President may also authorize warrantless surveillance at the beginning of a war. Specifically, he may authorize such surveillance "for a period not to exceed fifteen calendar days following a declaration of war by the Congress".

  ---

  With a court order
• Alternatively, the government may seek a court order permitting the surveillance using the FISA court. Approval of a FISA application requires the court find probable cause that the target of the surveillance be a "foreign power" or an "agent of a foreign power", and that the places at which surveillance is requested is used or will be used by that foreign power or its agent. In addition, the court must find that the proposed surveillance meet certain "minimization requirements" for information pertaining to U.S. persons. Depending on the type of surveillance, approved orders or extensions of orders may be active for 90 days, 120 days, or a year.

  ---

  FISA court
• The Act created the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) and enabled it to oversee requests for surveillance warrants by federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies (primarily the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the National Security Agency) against suspected foreign intelligence agents inside the U.S. The court is located within the E. Barrett Prettyman United States Courthouse in Washington, D.C. The court is staffed by eleven judges appointed by the Chief Justice of the United States to serve seven-year terms.
• Proceedings before the FISA court are ex parte and non-adversarial. The court hears evidence presented solely by the Department of Justice. There is no provision for a release of information regarding such hearings, or for the record of information actually collected.
• Denials of FISA applications by the FISC may be appealed to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review. The Court of Review is a three judge panel. Since its creation, the court has come into session twice: in 2002 and 2008.
• FISC meets in secret, and approves or denies requests for search warrants. Only the number of warrants applied for, issued and denied, is reported. In 1980 (the first full year after its inception), it approved 322 warrants. This number has steadily grown to 2,224 warrants in 2006. In the period 1979–2006, a total of 22,990 applications for warrants were made to the Court of which 22,985 were approved (sometimes with modifications; or with the splitting up, or combining together, of warrants for legal purposes), and only 5 were definitively rejected.

  ---

See also: Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (Wikipedia)
and: United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (Wikipedia)
and: United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review (Wikipedia)
and: NSA warrantless surveillance controversy (Wikipedia)

Special Counsel
Top   |   Back

Robert Mueller Top   |   Back

• American lawyer and civil servant who was the sixth Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, serving from September 4, 2001, to September 4, 2013.
• A Republican, he was appointed by President George W. Bush and his original ten-year term was given a two-year extension by President Barack Obama, making him the longest-serving FBI director since J. Edgar Hoover.
• On May 17, 2017, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed Mueller to serve as special counsel for the United States Department of Justice. In this capacity, Mueller oversees the investigation into "any links and/or coordination between Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump, and any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation".
• The appointment followed a series of events which included the firing of the FBI director and the "disclosure that Mr. Trump asked Mr. Comey to drop the investigation of his former national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn."
• Upon his appointment as Special Counsel, he and two colleagues, former FBI agent Aaron Zebley and former assistant special prosecutor on the Watergate Special Prosecution Force James L. Quarles III.
• On May 23, 2017, the U.S. Department of Justice ethics experts announced they had declared Mueller ethically able to function as special counsel.
• Rosenstein said he would recuse himself from supervision of Mueller, if he himself were to become a subject in the investigation due to his role in the dismissal of James Comey.

Members of the Mueller investigation team
Top   |   Back

• Zainab Ahmad: assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, specializing in terrorism cases
• Greg Andres: former deputy assistant attorney general, managed foreign bribery division
• Rush Atkinson: trial attorney in the DOJ fraud section
• Peter Carr: team spokesman, a veteran DOJ spokesperson
• Michael Dreeben: Deputy Solicitor General, who oversees the Justice Department's criminal appellate docket; an expert in criminal law
• Kyle Freeny: attorney for the money laundering unit at the Department of Justice
• Andrew D. Goldstein: former leader of the public corruption unit, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York
• Adam Jed: Attorney in the DOJ Civil Division, appellate section
• Robert Mueller: team leader; Special counsel for the United States Department of Justice
• Lisa C. Page (departed): DOJ trial attorney in the FBI's Criminal Division Organized Crime Section; formerly an attorney in the office of the FBI general counsel Her departure from the team was reported in late September 2017.
• Elizabeth Barchas Prelogar: Assistant with the Solicitor General's office; fluent in Russian; former law clerk to Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Elena Kagan
• James L. Quarles III: former assistant special prosecutor on the Watergate Special Prosecution Force
• Jeannie S. Rhee: Partner at WilmerHale, specializing in white-collar crime; a former attorney in the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel and Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Columbia
• Peter Strzok (departed): a veteran counterintelligence investigator. He departed from the team in August 2017, reportedly for exchanging anti-Trump text messages with a colleague.
• Brandon Van Grack: United States Department of Justice National Security Division Prosecutor
• Andrew Weissmann: Chief of the DOJ Criminal Division's Fraud Section
• Aaron Zebley: former chief of staff to Mueller at the FBI
• Aaron S. J. Zelinsky: an attorney on detail from the United States Attorney for the District of Maryland
• --------------------
• Mueller has also added unidentified agents of the IRS Criminal Investigations Division to his team.
  "This unit—known as CI—is one of the federal government's most tight-knit, specialized, and secretive investigative entities. Its 2,500 agents focus exclusively on financial crime, including tax evasion and money laundering. A former colleague of Mueller's said he always liked working with IRS' special agents, especially when he was a U.S. Attorney." A former director of the IRS Criminal Investigation Division stated that it has over a 90% conviction rate in cases presented in court since it was formed in 1919.
• --------------------
• In December 2017, a Mueller deputy a part of the investigation was accused of an anti-Trump bias as evidenced by emails praising actions taken against the President.

Andrew Weissmann Top   |   Back

• Andrew Weissmann (born c. 1958) is an American attorney.
• Since 2015 he has been the chief of the criminal fraud section of the U.S. Department of Justice.
• In June 2017 he was appointed to a management role on the 2017 special counsel team headed by Robert Mueller.
• To assume that position, Weissmann took a leave from his current DOJ post.
• From 1991 to 2002 Weissmann worked in the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
• While there he tried more than 25 cases involving members of the Genovese, Colombo and Gambino crime families.
• From 2002 to 2005, he was deputy director and then director of the task force investigating and prosecuting the Enron scandal.
• In 2005 he worked as special counsel under Mueller at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, then went into private practice at Jenner & Block in New York.
• In 2011 he returned to the FBI, serving as General Counsel under Mueller.
• Since 2015 he has headed the criminal fraud section at DOJ.
• Weissmann has taught at NYU School of Law, Fordham Law School, and Brooklyn Law School.
• On June 19, 2017 he joined Special counsel Mueller's team in investigating the Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections.

Michael Dreeben Top   |   Back

• Michael R. Dreeben (born c. 1954) is the Deputy Solicitor General in charge of the U.S. Department of Justice criminal docket before the United States Supreme Court.
• He is recognized as an expert in U.S. criminal law.
• In 2017, he was enlisted by special counsel Robert Mueller to assist the investigation of Russia's interventions into the 2016 U.S. Presidential election.
• Dreeben has a lengthy career in the Solicitor General's office, starting as an Assistant in 1988, then promoted to Deputy in 1995.
• In his first case before the Supreme Court, United States v. Halper (1989), he was opposed by John Roberts, who later became Chief Justice.
• In 2016 Dreeben became only the second person—after Edwin Kneedler—to argue 100 cases before the Supreme Court.
• Dreeben has taught as visiting faculty member at Duke Law and as adjunct professor at Georgetown Law.

Jeannie Rhee Top   |   Back

• Jeannie S. Rhee, Former attorney in the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel and Assistant United States Attorney in the District of Columbia.
• She serves as chair of the Senior Associates Committee and co-chair of the Diversity Committee.
• Her practice focuses on defending clients who are the subject of government-related litigation and investigation, including white collar criminal and securities enforcement cases.
• During her time with the US Department of Justice, she tried over 30 cases.
• She also advised the Attorney General, the White House, and senior agency officials on issues regarding criminal law, criminal procedure, executive privilege, civil rights and national security.
• Partner at WilmerHale, specializing in white-collar crime.
• Several lawyers on the team, particularly those who came from the private sector, left behind substantial salaries to work on the Russia case. Jeannie Rhee drew more than $2 million from her partnership.

James Quarles III Top   |   Back

• James L. Quarles III (born 1946), American lawyer and member of Watergate Special Prosecution Force
• Quarles worked with Mueller at the law firm in the 1990s.
• His practice has been exclusively devoted to litigation.
• For the past 15 years, his practice has focused on intellectual property litigation matters.
• Most recently, he has tried (or co-tried with Bill Lee) to a successful conclusion 9 matters before the International Trade Commission, and, together with Mr. Lee, represented Broadcom Corporation in its litigation against Qualcomm Corporation.
• He has extensive experience with the trial of complex civil matters, ranging from the successful trial defense of Legent Corporation in a shareholders' class action to the defense of ITT Corporation in a claim arising out of the construction of the Nine Mile Point II Nuclear station in Oswego, New York (selected as one of the 15 outstanding defense jury verdicts of 1992 by The National Law Journal).
• He has argued before the United States Supreme Court and Court of Appeals for the Federal, First, Second, Third, Fourth, Sixth and District of Columbia Circuits.
• Prior to joining the firm, he clerked for the Honorable Frank A. Kaufman of the US District Court for the District of Maryland.
• After his clerkship, he was appointed an assistant special prosecutor on the Watergate Special Prosecution Force and served from 1973 to 1975.

Aaron Zebley Top   |   Back

• (Former) Senior Counselor in the National Security Division at the Department of Justice.
• Prior to his role as Chief of Staff to former FBI Director Mueller, Zebley was a Special Agent of the FBI in the Counterterrorism Division for seven years.
• In between his two tours at the FBI, Zebley served as an Assistant US Attorney (AUSA) in the National Security and Terrorism Unit in Alexandria, Virginia.
• During his tenure as an AUSA, he investigated and prosecuted crimes related to national security, terrorism, and violent crime.

Peter Strzok Top   |   Back

• Peter P. Strzok II (born c. 1970) is a United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Agent currently assigned to its Human Resources Branch.
• Strzok was the Section Chief of the Counterespionage Section in 2015 and 2016 during the FBI's investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a personal email server.
• In July 2016, Strzok was the Deputy Assistant Director of the Counterintelligence Division and led the FBI's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections.
• In June and July 2017, Strzok was the top FBI agent working on Robert Mueller's Special Counsel investigation into any links or coordination between Donald Trump's presidential campaign and the Russian government.
  Mueller removes Strzok from the Russia investigation.
• Mueller removesed Strzok from the Russia investigation when he became aware of criticisms of Trump contained in personal text messages sent by Strzok to a colleague.
• These text messages received widespread coverage in the press and Congress.
  
• Strzok was demoted by FBI Special Counsel Robert Mueller after he discovered anti-Trump texts exchanged between Strzok and fellow FBI official Lisa Page.
• While many of the messages were critical of Trump, there was one message in particular that raised eyebrows and caused debate:

  "I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in [Deputy Director Andrew McCabe’s] office—that there’s no way [Trump] gets elected—but I’m afraid we can’t take that risk. It’s like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before you’re 40…"

• The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday [12/19/2017] that the "insurance policy" was not a secret plan, but pushing the Russia probe — a probe that is still ongoing a year into Trump’s first term.

Other Influences
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Sam Nunberg Top   |   Back

• Sam Nunberg (born June 21, 1981) is an American public affairs consultant based in Manhattan.
• He was a political advisor to Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.
• In March 2018, Nunberg was subpoenaed by a grand jury for testimony and documents relating to the Special Counsel's Russia investigation.
• On March 5, 2018, Nunberg spoke to multiple cable news outlets and newspaper reporters without the knowledge of his attorney.
• He said he had been subpoened by a grand jury to testify and provide documents relating to Robert Mueller's Russia investigation, including all his email exchanges with Donald Trump, Roger Stone, and eight other people.
• He insisted he did not intend to comply with the subpoena, saying "Let him (Mueller) arrest me!" He also had in-person interviews with CNN's Jake Tapper and Erin Burnett and MSNBC's Katy Tur and Ari Melber.
• He later backtracked, saying that he would cooperate fully with the subpoena, while expressing frustration at the large amount of documentation requested.
• On March 9, 2018 Nunberg testified before a federal grand jury for more than six hours, saying it was his, "duty as an American, whether I like it or not."
• Regarding the Mueller investigation, when asked whether he believed that the special counsel may have something on Trump, Nunberg responded, "I think they may. " He added: "I think that he may have done something during the election. But I don't know that for sure. "
• He also said "I have no knowledge or involvement in Russian collusion or any other inappropriate act" and that: "Donald Trump won this election on his own. He campaigned his ass off. And there is nobody who hates him more than me."
• Regarding Trump's former foreign-policy advisor Carter Page, Nunberg said that he believed that Page did collude with the Russians."
• On July 13, 2018, Nunberg spoke to Ari Melber who asked Nunberg, "People in politics say we knew there was hacking, but the man you used to work for, Donald Trump, and many people around him doubt about how it happened, whether it mattered. Do you think today's indictment, which Donald Trump was briefed on, should change his mind about undermining both the fact that the Russians did this and attacking the probe?" Nunberg replies with, "First of all I think this should change the mind of any Republican voter that doesn't want Donald Trump to be impeached."

See also: Sam Nunberg (Wikipedia)

Bill Browder Top   |   Back

• William Felix Browder (born 23 April 1964) is the Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of the investment fund Hermitage Capital Management ("Hermitage"), an investment firm that at one time was the largest foreign portfolio investor in Russia.
• Bill Browder, born into a notable Jewish family in Chicago, is the grandson of Earl Browder, the former leader of the Communist Party USA, and the son of Eva (Tislowitz) and Felix Browder, a mathematician. He grew up in Chicago, Illinois, and attended the University of Chicago where he studied economics. He received an MBA from Stanford Business School in 1989. His classmates included Gary Kremen and Rich Kelley.
• In 1998, Browder gave up his US citizenship and became a British citizen. Prior to setting up Hermitage, Browder worked in the Eastern European practice of the Boston Consulting Group in London and managed the Russian proprietary investments desk at Salomon Brothers.
• In 2006, after ten years doing business in the country, Browder was blacklisted by the Russian government as a "threat to national security" and denied entry to the country.
• The Economist wrote that the Russian government blacklisted Browder because he interfered with the flow of money to "corrupt bureaucrats and their businessmen accomplices".
• Browder had been a supporter of Russian president Vladimir Putin before, though.
• As reported by The New York Times in 2008, "over the next two years several of his associates and lawyers, as well as their relatives, became victims of crimes, including severe beatings and robberies during which documents were taken".
• The raids in June 2007 enabled corrupt law enforcement officers to steal the corporate registration documents of three Hermitage holding companies, permitting them to perpetrate a fraud, claiming (and receiving) the $230 million of taxes paid by those companies to the Russian state in 2006.
• In November 2008 one of Hermitage's lawyers, Sergei Magnitsky, was arrested. He was charged with the very tax evasion that he had uncovered. Magnitsky died on November 16, 2009, after eleven months in pretrial detention.
• His death eventually led directly to the passage, by the U.S. Congress, of the Magnitsky Act, signed into law by President Barack Obama on December 14, 2012.
• The act directly targeted individuals involved in the Magnitsky affair by prohibiting their entrance to the United States and their use of its banking system, and prompted the Russian government to retaliate by prohibiting adoption of Russian children by American citizens, and prohibiting certain individuals from entering Russia.
  2017 testimony to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee
• On July 27, 2017, Browder testified to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on Russia's alleged interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election in regards to the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) and Fusion GPS.
• The latter is the opposition research firm based in Washington D.C. that commissioned former MI6 staffer Christopher Steele to collect information on Donald Trump's ties with Russia.
• The hearing was set up to examine the firm's separate work on a legal case involving the Magnitsky Act.
• He directly discussed the President of Russia Vladimir Putin.
• Browder testified that President Putin is "the biggest oligarch in Russia and the richest man in the world", building a fortune by threatening Russian oligarchs and getting a 50% cut of their profits:

  I estimate that he has accumulated $200 billion of ill-gotten gains from these types of operations over his 17 years in power. He keeps his money in the West and all of his money in the West is potentially exposed to asset freezes and confiscation. Therefore, he has a significant and very personal interest in finding a way to get rid of the Magnitsky sanctions.

• Browder concluded his statement by reviewing the circumstances that led to U.S. passage of the Magnitsky Act:

  I hope that my story will help you understand the methods of Russian operatives in Washington and how they use U.S. enablers to achieve major foreign policy goals without disclosing those interests. I also hope that this story and others like it may lead to a change in the FARA enforcement regime in the future.

  Vladimir Putin statement in Helsinki
• On July 16, 2018, during a joint press conference with President Donald Trump in Helsinki, Finland, Russian president Vladimir Putin stated that Browder had funneled $400 million dollars to Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign, an effort that involved members of the U.S. intelligence community who, Putin said, "accompanied and guided these transactions."
• The statement was made after Putin said he would allow special counsel Robert Mueller's team to come to Russia for their investigation – as long as there was a reciprocal arrangement for Russian intelligence to investigate in the U.S.
  Putin:

  For instance, we can bring up Mr. Browder, in this particular case. Business associates of Mr. Browder have earned over $1.5 billion in Russia and never paid any taxes neither in Russia or the United States and yet the money escaped the country. They were transferred to the United States. They sent huge amount of money, $400,000,000, as a contribution to the campaign of Hillary Clinton. (Later, the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office spokesman Alexander Kurennoy clarified that it was not $400 million, but rather $400,000.) Well that’s their personal case. It might have been legal, the contribution itself but the way the money was earned was illegal. So we have solid reason to believe that some [US] intelligence officers accompanied and guided these transactions. So we have an interest in questioning them.

• Politifact, The Washington Post and The New York Times rated Putin's claim about the funding false, noting that there is no evidence to substantiate it.Bill Browder, in his own article for Time, called the accusation "so ludicrous and untrue that it falls into delusion." He maintains that Putin continues to accuse him of false allegations in response to Browder's involvement with the Magnitsky Act. Browder also points out that he is a British citizen and no longer American, therefore Trump would be unable to respond to Putin's request.

Paul Erickson Top   |   Back

• Paul Erickson is an American conservative political operative and lawyer who has been involved in several Republican presidential campaigns.
• He has strong ties to the National Rifle Association and Russian interests and, as of 2017, was subject to federal investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections.
  Paul Erickson: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know
  • 1. Paul Erickson & Maria Butina First Met Years Ago in Moscow & Later Formed a Business Together
  • 2. Erickson Emailed Trump’s Campaign About Setting Up a Meeting Between Trump & Putin During an NRA Convention in 2016, & He Used to Spend His Summers "Helping Freedom Fighters"
  • 3. Erickson Has Worked with Numerous Republican Campaigns, Including Pat Buchanan & Mitt Romney
  • 4. Paul Erickson Created a Fritzbusters Democratic Parody That Was Shown at the 1984 RNC
  • 5. He’s Been Taken to Court Multiple Times By Investors Over His Businesses & Promises That Weren’t Kept

See also: Paul Erickson (activist) (Wikipedia)
and: Maria Butina (Wikipedia)

Rob Goldstone Top   |   Back

• Robert Goldstone (born 3 December 1960) is an English publicist and former tabloid journalist, who gained international visibility through his activities in the 2016 US Presidential election.
• Attended the June 2016 meeting with Donald Trump Jr
• There were at least two other people in the room as well, a translator and a representative of the Russian family who had asked Goldstone to set up the meeting. The source did not provide the names.

Mark Corallo Top   |   Back

• A spokesman for Trump's attorney Marc Kasowitz.
• The co-founder and co-principal of Corallo Comstock.
• He also formed Corallo Media Strategies, a public relations firm.
• Corallo is a Washington communications veteran who has worked on Capitol Hill, in the executive branch, for campaigns, and with grass roots organizations.
• In 2007, Corallo signed on as spokesman for possible Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson.
• He has also gained prominence by publicly calling for the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.
• He is currently a senior adviser with The Ashcroft Group.
• Shortly before the indictment of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, related to Libby's alleged involvement in the outing of Valerie Plame, Corallo became a part of Karl Rove's "public relations defense team."
• Corallo spoke to the media on Rove's behalf, and correctly denied reports that Rove was under indictment for his involvement in "Plamegate".
• Corallo has also attended a fundraiser to raise money for Libby's legal defense fund at the residence of James Carville and Mary Matalin.
• In December 1998, during the House debate over the Clinton impeachment, Speaker-elect Bob Livingston, whose own claimed infidelities were soon to be exposed, allegedly called for ending the impeachment process.
• Corallo, then Livingston's press secretary, is alleged to have urged his boss to continue with the process.
• Clinton was later impeached for perjury, but was not convicted.

Rick Clay Top   |   Back

• Rick Clay, (born 1963) has been identified by CNN as the man who reached out to the Trump campaign last year to try to set up a meeting between high-level aides (Rick Dearborn) and a group of Russians (Aleksander Torshin).
  Rick said the aim of the potential meeting was for the campaign and the Russians to discuss their "shared Christian values."
  Rick Clay: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know (CNN)
  
   1. Clay Told CNN He Reached Out to a Trump Aide & a West Virginia Senator to Try to Set Up the Meeting With the Russians.
   2. In Online Comments, Clay Has Bashed the Media for Creating Hysteria Over Russia ‘Fake News’
   3. Clay Is a Marine Veteran Who Worked as a Contractor in Iraq Until He Was Wounded in a 2009 Convoy Attack
   4. He Has Worked With Organizations Supporting Veterans & Was Involved in a Still-Unfinished Plan to Bring an Ammo Plant to West Virginia
   5. Clay Has Been a Vocal Critic of the Iran Nuclear Deal, Creating a Group Called ‘West Virginia Veterans Against the Deal’
  
  Rick Clay wrote several op-eds about the topic.

  "Iran has called for the destruction of Israel and death of all Jews and Americans. They now come to the world bodies saying they are seeking a peaceful accord but in the same breath chant "Death to America", "Death to Israel" and produce recruitment videos showing Iranian Quds Force fighters looking over the nuclear destruction of Jerusalem," he wrote in a 2015 op-ed published by the Gazette-Mail.
  
  Clay concluded, "Ratify the agreement or go to war is a false argument. Israel has destroyed and crippled two nuclear weapons programs already in Iraq and in Syria, yet no war resulted. Even if the U.S. were to conduct an airstrike or missile strike on Iran’s nuclear weapons facilities, that is not necessarily war. … This so called agreement should have been presented to the U.S. Senate as a treaty. I implore Senator Manchin to vote no on this agreement and press for a verifiable agreement, and not reward a regime that has killed many of our nation’s heroes, a number of whom hail from West Virginia."

Kristin M. Davis Top   |   Back

• Kristin M. Davis (born July 7, 1977), formerly known as the Manhattan Madam, is a former madam who was famous for running a high-end prostitution ring in New York City which claimed to have offered its services to several high-profile clients, including Eliot Spitzer, Alex Rodriguez and David Beckham.
• After her conviction for her prostitution activities, Davis ran a novelty campaign for Governor of New York in 2010 and was poised to run for New York City Comptroller in 2013 before being arrested (and later convicted) for drug dealing.
• In July 2018, Davis was contacted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller in connection with his investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election campaign.
  Early career
• In 1994, Davis began working in an administrative position at Brookhaven Capital Management in Menlo Park, California. She said that she was repeatedly promoted, becoming the organization's controller at age 25. She worked at third-party administrators Conifer Securities from February 2002 to March 2003; she said she left that company to go to Hemisphere Management, a hedge fund operation with assets of over $2 billion, where she said that she was vice president of operations in charge of a staff of 40 in the firm’s Boston office.
  Involvement in prostitution industry
• Davis said that after leaving her hedge fund job (she has variously claimed to have been "unfairly fired" and to have quit voluntarily), she started her business as a madam after her mother suffered serious health problems and could no longer work.
• Davis was arrested in March 2008 during a string of arrests surrounding the then-current Governor of New York Eliot Spitzer. (Davis was not, however, involved with the Emperors Club VIP, the prostitution ring at the center of the scandal that led to Spitzer's resignation.)
• Along with Wall Street therapist Johnathan Alpert in the Academy Award-winning documentary film Inside Job, Davis estimates her pre-financial crisis customer base at around 10,000 clients, of which 40-50% of her high-end escort services were purchased by those working on Wall Street.
• Use of Davis and her prostitute services extended to senior management of all major Wall Street firms, with Morgan Stanley a "little less", and Goldman Sachs being "pretty, pretty big" into using the services.
• She held black cards from the various financial firms and services would be expensed on corporate accounts disguised as computer repair, trading research, consulting for market compliance, etc. Prostitution services "absolutely" extended to executives at the very top of financial firms.
• Davis claimed in 2011 that her agency provided prostitutes to Dominique Strauss-Kahn (Former French Minister of the Economy, Finance and Industry) in 2006, but that he was "rough and angry", and according to her, "When men abuse women I'm no longer going to protect their identities."
• Davis served four months in Rikers Island for her involvement in the Spitzer scandal.
• She claimed that she witnessed "psychosexual torture" during her time on Rikers Island.
• Davis said that she ended her involvement in the prostitution industry as a madam after serving jail time.
• Her sentencing also included five years of probation, which was cut short in November 2010 after two and a half years.
  Drug dealing
• On August 5, 2013, Davis was arrested and charged with four counts of distributing and possessing with intent to distribute a controlled substance (including prescription drugs like Adderall and Xanax) to an FBI cooperating witness between January 7 to April 24, 2013.
• If convicted, she faced a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for each count.
• According to prosecutors, Davis had bought ecstasy, Adderall and Xanax pills from an FBI cooperating witness at least once a month from 2009 through 2011, paying hundreds of dollars for each purchase and allegedly providing these drugs to guests at her house parties.
• Based on information provided by this witness, the FBI set up the aforementioned sting operation, during which Kristin sold pills to the witness, whom she believed to be a drug dealer.
• The deals were recorded both on video and on audiotape; according to court papers, the FBI plant wore a wire.
• Davis pleaded guilty to one of the four charges in a plea bargain with federal authorities on March 7, 2014.
• In September 2014 she was sentenced to two years in prison.
  Political activity
• Davis was a candidate in the New York gubernatorial election, 2010 on the Anti-Prohibition line. She ran on a platform of legalizing prostitution, marijuana and same sex marriage, and firearms rights. Among her unorthodox campaign strategies was the naming of her campaign committee as "Friends of Kristin Davis," which abbreviated to FOKD. She stated a goal of raising $2 million for her campaign. She admits she knew that she was a long shot to win the race. She also stated:

  "I am confident that I can collect more than enough signatures from cadres of escorts, ex-escorts, strippers, dancers, dommes, gays, lesbians, Libertarians, Ron Paul supporters, U.S. Marines, rappers who revere the pimp or other lovers of freedom moving my petitions under the direction of my communications consultant Frank Morano"

• Roger Stone, who had worked as an operative for former Presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, was named as Davis's campaign manager, and was still listed as so as of April 2010, though he also cooperated with his protégé, Michael Caputo, on a competing campaign by Buffalo developer Carl Paladino.
• Stone stated that the two candidates had distinct goals - Davis was only seeking to gain the requisite 50,000 votes, while Paladino, in Stone's view, had an actual chance to win - and as such he did not believe there to be a conflict of interest.
  --------------------
• Fresh off a 19-month stint in federal prison, the last third of which she served in a halfway house that allowed her to leave for "social visits," was where Davis became pregnant.
• Roger Stone is also one of the two godfathers to Kristin M. Davis' son.
   

See also: Kristin M. Davis (Wikipedia)
and: Dominique Strauss-Kahn (Wikipedia)
and: Rodger Stone (Local link - Use the "back" button to return)

Andrew Miller Top   |   Back

• Roger Stone's former aide held in contempt for refusing to testify before special counsel Robert Mueller's grand jury.
• Andrew Miller has been held in contempt for defying an order to testify in special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe.
• Miller lost a legal challenge earlier this month in U.S. District Court against Mueller's subpoena for him to appear before a grand jury.
• August 10, 2018 U.S. District Chief Judge Beryl Howell made the ruling Friday after a sealed hearing to discuss Andrew Miller’s refusal to appear before the grand jury.
• Miller is a former aide to political operative and longtime confidant of President Donald Trump, Roger Stone.
• Miller’s lawyer Paul Kamenar said after the hearing that Miller was "held in contempt, which we asked him to be in order for us to appeal the judge’s decision to the court of appeals."
• Howell stayed her order while Miller’s legal team appeals her decision.
• Miller lost a court battle this month to quash a subpoena after Howell issued a 93-page opinion saying he must testify before the grand jury.
• Kamenar said he believes that Miller’s challenge could ultimately rise to the Supreme Court.

See also: Rodger Stone (Local link - Use the "back" button to return)

David Pecker Top   |   Back

• David J. Pecker (born c. 1953) is the Chairman and CEO of American Media, Inc. He is the publisher of National Enquirer, Star, Sun, Weekly World News, Globe, Men's Fitness, Muscle and Fitness, Flex, Fit Pregnancy and Shape.
• Pecker has described himself as a close friend of Donald Trump. Pecker supported Trump's initial run for president as part of the Reform Party in 2000.
• As of April 2018, Pecker and AMI were under investigation for using so-called "catch and kill" payments in which AMI purchased the exclusive rights to stories that might have been damaging to Trump's 2016 campaign for President but then failed to publish them.
• Such a tactic might have represented illegal and/or undeclared "in-kind" campaign donations under Federal Election Commission rules.
• In March 2018, Karen McDougal filed a lawsuit against American Media in Los Angeles Superior Court, aiming to invalidate the non-disclosure agreement preventing her from speaking about an alleged affair with Donald Trump.
• Pecker had allegedly directed American Media to purchase the exclusive rights to the story for $150,000 so as to keep it from the public.
• On April 19, 2018, American Media settled with McDougal; the settlement allows her to speak about the alleged affair.
• In April 2018 FBI agents searched the office and residences of Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, in part to search for evidence of Trump's involvement in the payment.
• On July 20, 2018, a tape became public which confirmed this payment; the tape was secretly recorded by Michael Cohen during a conversation with then candidate Trump in 2016.
• AMI paid $30,000 to a doorman at Trump Tower to obtain the rights to his story in which he alleged that Donald Trump had an affair in the 1980s that resulted in the birth of a child.
• AMI researched the story thoroughly and were given the names of the woman and the alleged child.
• Federal investigators subpoenaed Pecker and AMI in April 2018, with Pecker providing prosecutors details about the hush payments Michael Cohen had arranged.
• He was granted immunity from prosecution by federal prosecutors for providing information about Michael Cohen and President Trump in the criminal investigation into hush-money payments for two women during the 2016 presidential campaign, according to people familiar with the matter.

See also: David Pecker (Wikipedia)
and: American Media, Inc. (Wikipedia)

Bruce Ohr Top   |   Back

• Bruce Genesoke Ohr (born March 16, 1962) is a United States Department of Justice official.
• A former associate deputy attorney general and former director of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF), as of February 2018 Ohr was working in the Justice Department's Criminal Division.
• He is an expert on transnational organized crime and has spent most of his career overseeing gang- and racketeering-related prosecutions, including Russian organized crime.
• Ohr was little-known until 2018, when he became a subject of conservative conspiracy theories and Republican scrutiny over his purported involvement in starting the probe on Russian interference in the 2016 election.
• He was criticized by President Donald Trump.
• There is no evidence that Ohr was involved in the start of the Russia probe.
• According to a comprehensive review by ABC News, Ohr "had little impact on the FBI’s growing probe into Trump and his associates."
• Ohr served as the Justice Department contact for Christopher Steele, the former MI6 agent commissioned to author the Trump–Russia dossier.
• The dossier was prepared, under a contract to the DNC and the Clinton campaign, by the opposition research firm Fusion GPS.
• According to a Republican-led investigation, during the 2016 election, Fusion GPS hired Bruce's wife Nellie Ohr, an independent contractor and Russia specialist, to conduct "research and analysis" of Donald Trump.
• A comprehensive report done by ABC News disputes that Ohr's wife worked on the dossier, instead stating that she "was not directly involved in the 'dossier' while she worked for Fusion GPS."
• In 2018, Ohr became the subject of right-wing conspiracy theories which alleged that he played an important role in starting the probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
• The conspiracy theories allege that the origins of the Russia probe were biased and were intended to undermine then-candidate Trump.
• This theory assumes that the probe was started because of the Steele dossier.
• But in fact the July 2016 launch of the FBI investigation was triggered, not by the dossier, but by a report that Trump campaign advisor George Papadopoulos knew, before it became public knowledge, that the Russians possessed damaging information about Hillary Clinton in the form of "thousands" of stolen emails.
• This origin of the probe is confirmed in the Nunes memo itself.
• Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has stated that as far as he knew, Ohr was not involved with the Russia investigation, and told the House Judiciary Committee that Ohr had "no role" in the investigation.
• The claim that the origins of the Russia probe were tainted is unsubstantiated.
• The FBI did not publicly reveal the ongoing investigation into the Trump campaign during the campaign, in part so as not to hurt his electoral chances, contradicting the claim that the probe was an attempt to undermine Trump's candidacy.
• On August 28, 2018, Ohr gave testimony in a closed hearing to two Republican-led House committees looking into decisions made by the DOJ ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
• Bruce Ohr, who testified behind closed doors this week to the House Judiciary and Oversight committees, said dossier author Christopher Steele shared the information with him at a July 2016 breakfast, that he was told Russian intelligence thought they had the then-candidate Trump "over a barrel."

See also: Bruce Ohr (Wikipedia)
and: Nunes memo (Wikipedia)

W. Samuel Patten Top   |   Back

• Sam Patten is a political consultant who received international attention in 2018 as a subject of the Special Counsel investigation led by former FBI director Robert Mueller.
• On August 31, 2018 Washington lobbyist W. Samuel Patten pleaded guilty to acting as an unregistered foreign lobbyist, and admitted to lying to the Senate Intelligence Committee and funneling a Ukrainian oligarch's money to Donald Trump's Presidential Inaugural Committee.
• Patten's plea and cooperation agreement is connected to special counsel Robert Mueller's ongoing investigation into Russian interference in the election and coordination with the Trump campaign -- even apparently reaching into former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort's inner circle in Ukraine.
• This is the first time the Justice Department has publicly charged a person for helping a foreigner secretly funnel money into a Trump political event.
• Under his deal with prosecutors, Patten is charged only with one criminal count.
• He faces a maximum of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine for the felony charge. A sentencing date has not been set.
• Patten sought tickets to Trump's inauguration on behalf of an unnamed prominent Ukrainian oligarch, according to court documents released Friday, ultimately paying $50,000 for four tickets.
• Patten used another American as a "straw purchaser," funneling the Ukrainian's money secretly to the inaugural committee through a Cypriot bank account.
• "Patten was aware at the time that the Presidential Inauguration Committee could not accept money from foreign nationals," prosecutors wrote in the filing.
• Overall, Patten, 47, was paid more than $1 million for his Ukrainian opposition bloc work including meeting with members of the executive branch, Senate Foreign Relations Committee members and members of Congress, according to a charging document filed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia on August 31, 2018.
• He also worked with an unnamed Russian -- believed to be former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort's close associate Konstantin Kilimnik -- to place op-ed articles in US media in 2017, the Justice Department says.

See also: W. Samuel Patten (Wikipedia)

Splinter and Fringe Groups
Top   |   Back

David Duke Top   |   Back

• David Ernest Duke (born July 1, 1950) is an American white nationalist, politician, antisemitic conspiracy theorist, Holocaust denier, convicted felon, and former Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.
• A former Republican Louisiana State Representative, he was a candidate in the Democratic presidential primaries in 1988 and the Republican presidential primaries in 1992.
• Duke unsuccessfully ran for the Louisiana State Senate, United States Senate, United States House of Representatives, and Governor of Louisiana.
• In 2002, Duke pleaded guilty to defrauding supporters by claiming to be in dire financial straits.
• Duke used the money for investments and gambling trips.
• Duke speaks against what he describes as Jewish control of the Federal Reserve Bank, the U.S. federal government, and the media.
• Duke supports the preservation of what he considers to be Western culture and traditionalist Christian family values, abolition of the Internal Revenue Service, voluntary racial segregation, anti-communism, and white separatism.
• In 1988, Duke ran initially in the Democratic presidential primaries but his campaign failed to make much of an impact, with the one notable exception—winning the little-known New Hampshire Vice-Presidential primary.
• In December 1988, Duke changed his political affiliation from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party.
• In 1988, Republican State Representative Charles Cusimano of Metairie resigned his District 81 seat to become a 24th Judicial District Court judge, and a special election was called early in 1989 to select a successor.
• Duke entered the race to succeed Cusimano and faced several opponents, including fellow Republicans John Spier Treen, a brother of former Governor David C.
• Treen; Delton Charles, a school board member; and Roger F. Villere, Jr., who operates Villere's Florist in Metairie.
• Duke finished first in the primary with 3,995 votes (33.1%).
• As no one received a majority of the vote in the first round, a runoff election was required between Duke and Treen, who polled 2,277 votes (18.9%) in the first round of balloting.
• Treen's candidacy was endorsed by U.S. President George H. W. Bush, former President Ronald Reagan, and other notable Republicans, as well as Democrats Victor Bussie (president of the Louisiana AFL-CIO) and Edward J. Steimel (president of the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry and former director of the "good government" think tank, the Public Affairs Research Council).
• Duke, however, hammered Treen on a statement the latter had made indicating a willingness to entertain higher property taxes, anathema in that suburban district.
• Duke, with 8,459 votes (50.7%), defeated Treen, who polled 8,232 votes (49.3%).
• He served in the House from 1989 until 1992.
• Duke's "tenure in the House was short and uninspired. Never has anyone parlayed an election by such a narrow margin to such a minor position to such international prominence.
• He has run for numerous other positions without success but has always had some effect, usually negative, on the outcome."
• Duke joined the Reform Party in 1999 while working for Pat Buchanan's 2000 presidential campaign. Duke and Buchanan would both leave the party after the election.
• On July 22, 2016, Duke announced that he was planning to run for the Republican nomination for the United States Senate seat in Louisiana being vacated by Republican David Vitter.
• He stated that he was running "to defend the rights of European Americans".
• He claimed that his platform has become the Republican mainstream and added, "I'm overjoyed to see Donald Trump and most Americans embrace most of the issues that I've championed for years."
• However, Trump's campaign reaffirmed that Trump disavows Duke's support, and Republican organizations said they will not support him "under any circumstances".
• On August 5, 2016, National Public Radio aired a controversial interview between Duke and Steve Innskeep in which Duke claimed that there was widespread racism against European Americans, that they have been subject to vicious attacks in the media, and that Trump's voters were also his voters.
  Affiliations: KKK, NAAWP, Holocaust denier, Alt-right
• In 1974, Duke founded the Louisiana-based Knights of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), shortly after graduating from LSU.
• He became Grand Wizard of the KKK.
• A follower of Duke, Thomas Robb, changed the title of Grand Wizard to National Director, and replaced the Klan's white robes with business suits.
• In 1980, Duke left the Klan and formed the National Association for the Advancement of White People (NAAWP), a white nationalist organization.
• Duke has expressed his support for Holocaust denier Ernst Zündel, a German emigrant in Canada.
• Duke made a number of statements supporting Zündel and his Holocaust denial campaign.
• After the aging Zündel was deported from Canada to Germany and imprisoned in Germany on charges of inciting the masses to ethnic hatred, Duke referred to him as a "political prisoner".
• Duke has written in praise of the alt-right, describing one broadcast as "fun and interesting" and another as "this great show".
• Duke described them as "our people" when describing their role in Donald Trump's election victory.
• During a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va. on Saturday (08/12/2017), former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke said the event is in line with President Trump’s "promises."

  "This represents a turning point for the people of this country.
  We are determined to take our country back," Duke said.
  "We are going to fulfill the promises of Donald Trump.
  That’s what we believed in.
  That’s why we voted for Donald Trump, because he said he’s going to take our country back."

  
  
• 
  See also: David Duke (Wikipedia)

Richard B. Spencer Top   |   Back

• Richard Bertrand Spencer (born May 11, 1978) is an American white supremacist.
• He is president of the National Policy Institute, a white nationalist think tank, as well as Washington Summit Publishers.
• As head of the National Policy Institute (NPI), Richard Bertrand Spencer is one of the country’s most successful young white nationalist leaders—a suit-and-tie version of the white supremacists of old, a kind of professional racist in khakis.
• Spencer has stated that he rejects the label of white supremacist, and prefers to describe himself as an identitarian.
• He has advocated for a white homeland for a "dispossessed white race" and called for "peaceful ethnic cleansing" to halt the "deconstruction" of European culture.
• Although not the first to use it Richard Spencer coined the term Alt-Right in 2010 in reference to a movement centered on white nationalism, and has been accused by some media publications of doing so to excuse overt racism, white supremacism, and neo-Nazism.
• The National Policy Institute (NPI) according to their mission statement, is "to elevate the consciousness of whites, ensure our biological and cultural continuity, and protect our civil rights.
• The institute ... will study the consequences of the ongoing influx that non-Western populations pose to our national identity."
• NPI lost its tax-deductible status with the IRS for failing to file returns with the Internal Revenue Service after 2012.
• Spencer advocates for an Aryan homeland for the supposedly dispossessed white race and calls for "peaceful ethnic cleansing" to halt the "deconstruction" of European culture.
• But even some of the Europeans he lionizes have rejected him; in October 2014, his attempt to hold an NPI conference in Budapest, Hungary, resulted in his arrest and expulsion.
  In His Own Words:
• "Martin Luther King Jr., a fraud and degenerate in his life, has become the symbol and cynosure of White Dispossession and the deconstruction of Occidental civilization. We must overcome!"
• "Immigration is a kind a proxy war—and maybe a last stand—for White Americans, who are undergoing a painful recognition that, unless dramatic action is taken, their grandchildren will live in a country that is alien and hostile."
• "Our dream is a new society, an ethno-state that would be a gathering point for all Europeans. It would be a new society based on very different ideals than, say, the Declaration of Independence."
• "When we hear any professional ‘Latino’ support this or that social program, we sense in our guts that her policy proscriptions are rationalizations for nationalism. She might say ‘more immigration is good’; she means ‘The Anglos are finished!’"
• "What blocks our progress is the meme that has been carefully implanted in White people’s minds over the course of decades of programming, from Mississippi Burning to Lee Daniel's The Butler—that any kind of positive racial feeling among Whites is inherently evil and stupid and derives solely from bigotry and resentment. And that the political and social advancement of non-Whites is inherently moral and wonderful."
• Miller has been criticized on multiple occasions for making false or unsubstantiated claims regarding public policy.

Alt-Right's meme of Trump's shock troops	Pepe the Frog, a common meme used to express alt-right beliefs.
meme ¬ - a humorous image, video, piece of text, etc., that is copied (often with slight variations) and spread rapidly by Internet users.

Alt-Right - a loosely defined group of people with far-right ideologies who reject mainstream conservatism in favor of white nationalism

• The alt-right, or alternative right, is a loosely defined group of people with far-right ideologies who reject mainstream conservatism in favor of white nationalism, principally in the United States, but also to a lesser degree in Canada and Europe.
• Paul Gottfried is the first person to use the term "alternative right", when referring specifically to developments within American right-wing politics, in 2008.
• The term has since gained wide currency with the rise of the so-called "alt-right".
• White supremacist Richard Spencer coined the term in 2010 in reference to a movement centered on white nationalism, and has been accused by some media publications of doing so to excuse overt racism, white supremacism, and neo-Nazism.
• The term drew considerable media attention and controversy during and after the 2016 US presidential election.
• Alt-right beliefs have been described as isolationist, protectionist, antisemitic, and white supremacist, frequently overlapping with Neo-Nazism, nativism and Islamophobia, antifeminism and homophobia, right-wing populism, and the neoreactionary movement.
• The concept has further been associated with multiple groups from American nationalists, neo-monarchists, men's rights advocates, and the 2016 presidential campaign of Donald Trump.
• The alt-right has its roots on Internet websites such as 4chan and 8chan, where anonymous members create and use Internet memes to express their ideologies.
• It is difficult to tell how much of what people write in these venues is serious and how much is intended to provoke outrage.
• Members of the alt-right use websites like Alternative Right, Twitter, Breitbart, and Reddit to convey their message.
• Alt-right postings generally support Donald Trump and oppose immigration, multiculturalism and political correctness.
• The alt-right has also had a significant influence on conservative thought in the United States, such as the Sailer Strategy for winning political support, along with having close ties to the Trump Administration.
• It has been listed as a key reason for Trump's win in the 2016 election.
• The Trump administration includes several figures who are associated with the alt-right, such as White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon.
• In 2016, Bannon described Breitbart as "the platform for the alt-right", with the goal of promoting the ideology.
• There is no formal organization and it is not clear if the alt-right can be considered as a movement; according to a 2016 description in the Columbia Journalism Review: "Because of the nebulous nature of anonymous online communities, nobody's entirely sure who the alt-righters are and what motivates them.
• It's also unclear which among them are true believers and which are smart-ass troublemakers trying to ruffle feathers."
• Many of its own proponents often claim they are joking or seeking to provoke an outraged response.
• It has been said to include elements of white nationalism, white supremacism, antisemitism, right-wing populism, nativism, and the neoreactionary movement.
• Andrew Marantz includes "neo-monarchists, masculinists, conspiracists, belligerent nihilists".
• Newsday columnist Cathy Young noted the alt-right's strong opposition to both legal and illegal immigration and its hard-line stance on the European migrant crisis.
• Robert Tracinski of The Federalist has written that the alt-right opposes miscegenation (race mixing) and advocates collectivism as well as tribalism.
• Nicole Hemmer stated on NPR that political correctness is seen by the alt-right as "the greatest threat to their liberty".
• According to economist Jeffrey Tucker of the Foundation for Economic Education the alt-right proponents "look back to what they imagine to be a golden age when elites ruled and peons obeyed", and believe that "identity is everything and the loss of identity is the greatest crime against self anyone can imagine".

Breitbart Top   |   Back

• Breitbart News Network (known commonly as Breitbart News, Breitbart or Breitbart.com) is a far-right American news, opinion and commentary website founded in 2007 by conservative commentator Andrew Breitbart.
• Conceived by Breitbart during a visit to Israel in mid-2007 as a website "that would be unapologetically pro-freedom and pro-Israel", Breitbart News later aligned with the European populist right and American alt-right under the management of former executive chairman Steve Bannon.
• Andrew Breitbart died in March 2012. Following his death, former board member Bannon became executive chairman and Laurence Solov became CEO.
• Bannon declared the website "the platform for the alt-right" in 2016, but denied all allegations of racism and later stated that he rejected the "ethno-nationalist" tendencies of the alt-right movement.
• One of Bannon's coworkers said he was not referring to white supremacist Richard Spencer but instead to "the trolls on Reddit or 4Chan."
• Breitbart News voiced support for Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, and political scientist Matthew Goodwin described Breitbart News as being "ultra-conservative" in orientation.
• After the election, more than 2,000 organizations removed Breitbart News from ad buys following Internet activism campaigns denouncing the site's controversial positions.
• The site has published a number of falsehoods and conspiracy theories, as well as intentionally misleading stories.
• Its journalists are ideologically driven, and some of its content has been called misogynist, xenophobic and racist.
• The owners of Breitbart News deny their website has any connection to the alt-right or has ever supported racist or white supremacist views.
• Internal emails leaked and reported on in October 2017, show how Breitbart's management, together with writer Milo Yiannopoulos, solicited ideas for stories from, and worked to advance and market ideas of neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups and individuals.
• Steve Bannon was appointed White House Chief Strategist in the administration of US President Donald Trump, serving during the first seven months of his term before his dismissal and his return to Breitbart.

One America News NetworkTop   |   Back

• One America News Network (OANN), also known as One America News (OAN), is a far-right cable channel founded by Robert Herring, Sr., and owned by Herring Networks, Inc., launched on July 4, 2013.
• The network is headquartered in San Diego, California, and operates news bureaus in Washington, D.C. and New York City.
• OAN was announced on March 14, 2013 by Herring Networks, Inc., a family-owned national video programming company, which also owns sister channel AWE.
• The OAN channel originally debuted in partnership with The Washington Times, which had drawn criticism for racist content, including commentary and conspiracy theories about then-U.S. President Barack Obama, supporting neo-Confederate historical revisionism, and promoting Islamophobia.
• On television, the network predominantly uses the acronym "OAN", whereas on Twitter it is more frequently known as "OANN".
• The network's web URL domain is at "OANN.com", but the site banner reads "OAN".
• The channel is prominent for promoting falsehoods and conspiracy theories.
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  Pro-Trump content
• OAN is pro-Trump. The father of Charles Herring, Robert Herring, Sr., founder and CEO of the network, has ordered producers to promote pro-Trump stories, anti-Clinton stories, and anti-abortion stories, and to minimize stories about Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
• Its prime time political talk shows have a conservative perspective, and the channel regularly features pro-Donald Trump stories.
• The channel described itself as one of the "greatest supporters" of Trump, and Trump has repeatedly promoted the network.
• Herring prohibited the network from running stories about polls which did not show Trump in the lead during the 2016 election.
  Russia
• OAN is known for downplaying threats posed to the United States by Russia.
• According to a former OAN producer, on his first day at OAN he was told, "Yeah, we like Russia here. "
• One of OAN's reporters, Kristian Brunovich Rouz, simultaneously works for the Russian propaganda outlet and news agency Sputnik, which is state-owned; when Rouz runs favorable segments on OAN that relate to Russia, OAN does not disclose that he also works for Sputnik.
  Conspiracy theorist reporter Jack Posobiec
• Since 2018, far-right conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec has been employed by OANN as a political correspondent.
• Posobiec was a prominent proponent of the Pizzagate conspiracy theory and of the murder of Seth Rich conspiracy theory.
• In 2020, during the George Floyd protests in Buffalo, New York, Posobiec falsely reported and promoted another unsubstantiated conspiracy theory regarding pipe bombs.
  Conspiracy theories: (for details see the One America News Network link below)
• Murder of Seth Rich conspiracy theories
• Roy Moore sexual misconduct report controversy
• Conspiracy theory about David Hogg
• Syria chemical attack
• False story about Bible ban
• Unsubstantiated claims about Ammar Campa-Najjar
• Interview subject with a fake name
• George Soros false claims
• Coronavirus outbreak conspiracy theories
• Killing of George Floyd protests
• Main article: George Floyd protests
• Buffalo police shoving incident

  See also: One America News Network (Wikipedia)
  and: Conservatism in the United States (Wikipedia)

QAnon Top   |   Back

• QAnon refers to a conspiracy theory centered on Q, an online handle used on several image boards by a presumably American pseudonymous individual or group of individuals claiming to have access to classified information involving the Trump administration and its opponents in the United States.
• The theory details a supposed secret conspiracy by a "deep state" against President Trump and his supporters.
• Q has also accused numerous Hollywood actors, politicians, and other high-ranking officials of engaging in an international child sex trafficking ring.
• The conspiracy theory, mainly popularized by supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump under the names The Storm and The Great Awakening , has been widely characterized as "baseless", "unhinged", and "evidence-free".
• Its proponents have been likened to a "deranged conspiracy cult".
  Origin
• A person identifying as "Q Clearance Patriot" first appeared on the /pol/ board of 4chan ( political discussion board on 4chan.) on October 28, 2017, posting messages in a thread entitled "Calm Before the Storm", which was a reference to Trump's cryptic description during a gathering of himself and United States military leaders as "the calm before the storm".
• Q later moved to 8chan, citing concerns that the 4chan board had been compromised by "bad actors".
• The poster's handle implied that the anonymous poster holds Q clearance, a United States Department of Energy security clearance required for access to Top Secret information about nuclear weapons and materials.
  Predictions
• Starting with the first posts stating Hillary Clinton's imminent arrest and followed by more failed predictions, QAnon's posts have become more cryptic and vague allowing followers to map their own beliefs into them.
  False claims
• QAnon's posting campaign has a history of false, baseless and unsubstantiated claims.
• For example, QAnon has claimed on multiple occasions that North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un is a puppet ruler installed by the Central Intelligence Agency.
• On February 16, 2018, QAnon falsely accused U.S. Representative and former Democratic National Committee chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz of hiring El Salvadorian gang MS-13 to murder DNC staffer Seth Rich.
  Incidents
• Accusations of inciting violence
  On March 14, 2018, Reddit banned one of its communities discussing QAnon, /r/CBTS_Stream, for "encouraging or inciting violence and posting personal and confidential information". Following this, some followers moved to Discord.
• Hoover Dam incident
  On June 15, 2018, Matthew Phillip Wright of Henderson, Nevada, was arrested on terrorism and other charges for driving an armored vehicle, containing an AR-15 and handgun, to the Hoover Dam and blocking traffic for 90 minutes. He said he was on a mission involving QAnon: to demand that the Justice Department "release the OIG report" on the conduct of FBI agents during the investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server. Since a copy of the OIG report had been released the day prior, the man had been motivated by a Q "drop" which claimed the released version of the OIG report had been heavily modified.
• QDrops
  An app called "QDrops" which promoted the conspiracy theory was published on the Apple App Store and Google Play. It became the most popular paid app in the "entertainment" section of Apple's online store in April 2018, and the tenth most popular paid app overall. Apple pulled the app after an inquiry from NBC News.
• Harassment of Jim Acosta and condemnation from the White House
  Responding to a question by David Martosko of The Daily Mail asking if the White House encouraged the support of "QAnon fringe groups"—in light of their hostile behavior toward CNN chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta at a Trump rally in Tampa, Florida—White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders denounced "any group that would incite violence against another individual", without specifically responding to the QAnon mention. She added that President Trump "certainly doesn't support groups that would support that type of behavior".

See also: QAnon (Wikipedia)

Boogaloo movement Top   |   Back

• The Boogaloo movement, members of which are often referred to as Boogaloo boys or Boogaloo bois, is a loosely organized American far-right extremist movement.
• Members of the boogaloo movement say they are preparing for a coming second American Civil War, which they call the "boogaloo".
• Members use the term to refer to violent uprisings against the federal government or left-wing political opponents, often anticipated to follow government confiscation of firearms.
• The movement consists of anti-government and anti-law enforcement groups, as well as white supremacist groups who specifically believe the unrest will be a race war.
• Groups in the boogaloo movement primarily organize online (particularly on Facebook), but have appeared at in-person events including the 2020 United States anti-lockdown protests and the May 2020 George Floyd protests, identified by their attire of Hawaiian shirts and military fatigues.

Never Trump Groups
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The Lincoln Project Top   |   Back

• The Lincoln Project is an American political action committee formed in late 2019 by several prominent Republicans and former Republicans.
• The goal of the committee is to prevent the reelection of Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election.
• In April 2020, the committee announced their endorsement of Joe Biden, a Democrat, after Biden became the presumptive Democratic nominee.
• The Lincoln Project has produced a number of anti-Trump and pro-Biden television advertisements.
• Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin called the project's ads "devastating for several reasons: They are produced with lightning speed, and thereby catch the public debate at just the right moment; they hammer Trump where he is personally most vulnerable (e.g., concerns about his vigor, concerns about foreign corruption); and they rely to a large extent on Trump himself—his words and actions. "
• About two-thirds of the group's television advertisements focus on the 2020 presidential election, but the Lincoln Project has also created ads backing Democrats in other races, such as an ad in Montana promoting Governor Steve Bullock's Senate candidacy.
• On March 17, 2020, the committee released a video, titled Unfit, which criticized Trump for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.
• On May 4, 2020, the group released Mourning in America, a video styled after Ronald Reagan's Morning in America 1984 campaign ad. It focused on Trump's handling of the coronavirus crisis, and asserted that the country was "weaker and sicker and poor[er]" under President Trump's leadership.
• On June 1, 2020, the Lincoln Project released another ad, Flag of Treason, that blasted Trump's record on race relations in the U.S., highlighted the use of the Confederate battle flag by Trump supporters at Trump rallies, and emphasized the support Trump has received from white nationalists. Both ads ran on television in crucial swing states.
• Although the Lincoln Project has raised and spent far less than other PACs, the group has achieved success in having its ads go viral and with its "nontraditional strategy of playing mind games with the president."
• In a series of angry tweets over a series of two days responding to the Mourning in America ad, Trump called the group's founders "losers" and "Republicans in name only".
• The Lincoln Project's feud with Trump enhanced its national profile, including through earned media, and the group said it raised $1.4 million after Trump's tweets.
• Writing in the Washington Post, Jennifer Rubin said the Lincoln Project stood "head and shoulders above all the rest in the hard work of beating back President Trump and Trumpism" and wrote of the group's founders: "They made their careers helping to elect Republicans, but in the era of Trump, they have put partisanship aside in the cause of patriotism and defense of American democracy.
• Their ads have been the most effective and memorable of the presidential campaign, singeing Trump in a way Democrats have not quite mastered."
• In a series of angry tweets over a series of two days responding to the Mourning in America ad, Trump called the group's founders "losers" and "Republicans in name only".
• The Lincoln Project's feud with Trump enhanced its national profile, including through earned media, and the group said it raised $1.4 million after Trump's tweets.

See also: The Lincoln Project (Wikipedia)
and: Trumpism (Wikipedia)

Republican Voters Against Trump Top   |   Back

• Republican Voters Against Trump is a political initiative launched in May 2020 by Defending Democracy Together for the 2020 US presidential election cycle.
• The project was formed to produce a US$10 million advertising campaign focused on 100 testimonials by Republicans, conservatives, moderates, right-leaning independents, and former Trump voters explaining why they would not vote for Donald Trump in 2020.
• The advertising campaign targets white college-educated suburban voters in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Florida, North Carolina and Arizona.
• Paul Waldman, writing for The Washington Post compared the campaign to a similar 1964 Lyndon Johnson ad called "Confessions of a Republican" giving Republicans "permission" to vote against Barry Goldwater.

See also: Republican Voters Against Trump (Wikipedia)

Leftest Groups
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Antifa ¬ (short for anti-fascists) Top   |   Back

Peter Beinart writes that "in the late ’80s, left-wing punk fans in the United States began following suit, though they initially called their groups Anti-Racist Action, on the theory that Americans would be more familiar with fighting racism than fascism."

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(Trump's Triangle) The Upside-down Red triangle is not used by Antifa Top   |   Back

Media Matters Top   |   Back

• Media Matters for America (MMfA) is a politically progressive media watchdog in the United States.
• Media Matters for America was founded in May 2004 by David Brock, a former conservative journalist who became a liberal.
• Brock said that he founded the organization to combat the conservative journalism sector that he had once been a part of.
• He founded the group with help from the Center for American Progress.
• Initial donors included Leo Hindery, Susie Tompkins Buell, and James Hormel.
• The organization has a stated mission of "comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media".
• Set up as a tax-exempt, nonprofit organization, MMfA was founded in 2004 by journalist and political activist David Brock as a counterweight to the conservative Media Research Center.
• It is known for its aggressive criticism of conservative journalists and media outlets, including its "War on Fox News."
• Media Matters analyzes American news sources including NBC, ABC, CBS, PBS, CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, and Fox News Channel.
• Its techniques include content analysis, fact checking, monitoring, and comparison of quotes or presentations from media figures to primary documents such as Pentagon or Government Accountability Office reports.
• MMfA started with the help of $2 million in donations.
• According to Byron York, additional funding came from MoveOn.org and the New Democrat Network.

David Brock Top   |   Back

Angelo Carusone Top   |   Back

Anomalies
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|   Michael Avenatti   |   Blacks For Trump   |   David Clarke   |   Roy Cohn   |   Stormy Daniels   |   The Steele Dossier   |   Karen McDougal   |   Nunes Memo   |   Devin Nunes   |   Richard "Ricky" Pinedo   |   Edward Snowden   |   Christopher Steele   |   Jill Stein   |   Taylor Weyeneth   |   Michael Wolff   |   Summer Zervos   |   Alex Van Der Zwaan   |  

Michael Wolff Top   |   Back

• Michael Wolff is an American author, essayist, and journalist, and a regular columnist and contributor to USA Today, The Hollywood Reporter, and the UK edition of GQ.
• He is also the controversial media columnist who embedded himself inside the White House during the chaotic early months of the Trump administration.
  Career
• In 1988, Wolff took over the management of the magazine Campaigns & Elections. He became involved in advising start-up magazines, including Wired. He also raised financing for media companies and new businesses.
• In 1991, he launched Michael Wolff & Company, Inc., specializing in book-packaging and creating one of the first guides to the Internet, albeit in book form.
• In 1995, the company took a round of venture capital investment, with shareholders including Patricof & Co., the New York venture capital firm.
• It began to convert its print directories into a website and digital directory called Your Personal Network.
• At one point, the company was valued by bankers seeking to take the company public at more than $100 million.
• The venture collapsed in 1997, and Wolff was expelled from the company.
  Return to writing
• Wolff returned to writing, from which he had been absent for more than ten years, and recounted the details of the financing, positioning, personalities, and ultimate breakdown of a start-up Internet company. The book, Burn Rate, became a bestseller.
• Wolff wrote Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, which was scheduled to be released on January 9, 2018 but moved up to January 5 after an excerpt was released online on January 3. The book reached number one on Amazon.com before its release.
  Criticism (of his earlier works)
• In its review of Wolff's book Burn Rate, Brill's Content (a media watchdog publication) criticized Wolff for "apparent factual errors" and said that 13 people, including subjects he mentioned, complained that Wolff had "invented or changed quotes".
• In a 2004 cover story for The New Republic, Michelle Cottle wrote that Wolff was "uninterested in the working press," preferring to focus on "the power players—the moguls" and was "fixated on culture, style, buzz, and money, money, money." She also noted that "the scenes in his columns aren’t recreated so much as created—springing from Wolff’s imagination rather than from actual knowledge of events." Calling his writing "a whirlwind of flourishes and tangents and asides that often stray so far from the central point that you begin to wonder whether there is a central point."
• The Columbia Journalism Review criticized Wolff in 2010 when he suggested that The New York Times was aggressively covering the breaking News International phone hacking scandal as a way of attacking News Corporation chairman Rupert Murdoch.
  How author Michael Wolff got his 'fly-on-the-wall' access to the Trump White House
• According to USA Today — Eight days before President Trump's inauguration, reporters crammed into the lobby of Trump Tower to chronicle the comings-and-goings of diplomats, CEOs, lobbyists and former campaign officials — many of whom would become future White House officials.
• The one reporter who crossed the press gauntlet that day to make his way to the elevators was Michael Wolff, a long-time New York writer, author and media executive. Asked whether he was meeting with the president-elect, Wolff just smiled.
• Upstairs, Wolff said he told Trump he'd like to write a book. "A book?" Trump responded, according to an account Wolff published Thursday in the Hollywood Reporter. "I hear a lot of people want to write books."
• Over the next few months, Wolff would get similarly conspicuous access at the White House. With his distinctive bald head and New York fashion affectations, he stood out from the throngs of Washington media seeking inside information from Trump's inner circle.
• Armed with a blue "appointment" badge from the Secret Service — unlike the grey press badges that gain access to the press briefing room — he walked into the West Wing and, he says, took up semi-permanent residence on a couch in the lobby, where he could see the daily interactions of top players in the Trump White House.
• Adding to the intrigue, the White House now says that it was Trump's chief strategist, Steve Bannon, who signed off on most of Wolff's access.
  Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House
  The most explosive tell-all book of the Trump presidency so far.
• That "fly-on-the-wall" access has now resulted in what's become the most explosive tell-all book of the Trump presidency so far — Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House.
• How explosive? The book portrays Trump as ignorant and mercurial, and his White House as in a near-constant state of chaos.
• 01/04/2018 Trump tweet -- I authorized Zero access to White House (actually turned him down many times) for author of phony book! I never spoke to him for book. Full of lies, misrepresentations and sources that don’t exist. Look at this guy’s past and watch what happens to him and Sloppy Steve!
• Why is Fire & Fury having such an impact? Drew Magary writes (for GQ) it's because Wolff was willing to throw decorum away and torch his access—and more journalists should do the same. He prefaced his post with:

  I’m gonna begin this post with the same disclaimer that needs to come with every post about Michael Wolff, which is that Wolff is a fartsniffer whose credibility is often suspect and who represents the absolute worst of New York media cocktail circuit inbreeding. But in a way, it’s fitting that our least reliable president could finally find himself undone at the hands of one of our least reliable journalists.
  Wolff got it all. Wolff nailed them. And look how he did it. He did it by sleazily ingratiating himself with the White House, gaining access, hosting weird private dinners, and then taking full advantage of the administration's basic lack of knowledge about how reporting works. Some of the officials Wolff got on tape claim to be unaware that they were on the record. Wolff denies this, but he's very much upfront in the book's intro about the fact that he was able to take full advantage of the incredible "lack of experience" on display here. In other words, Wolff got his book by taking advantage of a bunch of naive dopes.

  (Note: The term "fartsniffer" has the same definition as "fart smeller" which the Urban Dictionary defines as someone who like gossip too much)

  Some of the effects and insights from Fire & Fury
• Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, meanwhile, has come under fire from the Trump family for quotes he seems to have given to Wolff.
• Bannon evidently talked to Wolff a great deal, and he hasn’t disputed any of the controversial quotes attributed to him that have already earned him a presidential tongue lashing.
• Bannon opined to Wolff that Donald Trump Jr.’s meeting with a Russian lawyer in search of dirt on Hillary Clinton was "treasonous."
• Katie Walsh, a deputy chief of staff who lasted only about two months in Trump’s White House, is quoted saying that working with Trump was "like trying to figure out what a child wants."
• One excerpt claims to describe Trump’s methodology for getting "friends’ wives into bed," which he purportedly likes to say is "one of the things that made life worth living." (The process involves a speakerphone.)
• A claims that Trump has "a longtime fear of being poisoned," which supposedly explains his love of McDonald’s.
• Mark Corallo, who served as a spokesperson for Trump’s legal team before resigning this summer, privately confided that he thought an Air Force One meeting in which Trump’s team strategized about how to respond to the news that Don Jr. had met a Russian lawyer "represented a likely obstruction of justice."
• When former Fox News chief Roger Ailes suggested John Boehner as a potential chief of staff for Trump during the transition, Trump responded, "Who’s that?"
• Wolff claims that Ivanka Trump made fun of her father’s hair, and has said to Kushner that she wants to be the first woman president.
• He also claims that Melania Trump was in tears, "and not of joy," on election night when learning Trump would win.
  But the questioning of Trump's mental state seems to be gaining traction.
• Wolff makes some allusions to Trump’s mental state:

  “Everybody was painfully aware of the increasing pace of his repetitions. It used to be inside of 30 minutes he’d repeat, word-for-word and expression-for-expression, the same three stories — now it was within 10 minutes.” (“At Mar-a-Lago, just before the new year, a heavily made-up Trump failed to recognize a succession of old friends,” he adds in his Hollywood Reporter column.)

Richard "Ricky" Pinedo Top   |   Back

• On Friday February 16, 2018 Richard Pinedo pleaded guilty to identity fraud in a second case unsealed Friday by special counsel Robert Mueller in his investigation into Russian interference in the US presidential election.
• According to (CNN) The guilty plea results in the first criminal conviction related to Mueller's investigation into the Russian-backed ring of social media users aiming to interfere with the 2016 presidential election, prosecutors told a federal judge this month, according to unsealed court filing.
• Richard Pinedo's guilty plea was unsealed by the federal court in DC on Friday (02/16/2018), minutes after the Justice Department announced charges against 13 Russian nationals.
• Pinedo's attorney said Friday his client was not aware of the identity or motivations of those buying the accounts.
• Pinedo faces up to 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, according to the plea agreement. It said he has no criminal history and that he agrees to cooperate with Mueller’s office.
• Pinedo ran a scheme that helped his customers use dummy bank accounts to bypass the security of online companies like PayPal, which can be used to transfer money and pay for online services.
• The Russians had opened accounts on PayPal using stolen identities of people in the US, prosecutors said. The related indictment of the Russians listed 14 bank accounts they used.
• Pinedo's service, called Auction Essistance, helped users circumvent the online security feature that tests whether a person's identity is real, by depositing and withdrawing small amounts from a bank account then asking the person to identify the amounts in the deposits. The separate indictment of 13 Russians described how they illegally obtained bank account numbers to evade PayPal's security measures.
• Pinedo's business, Auction Essistance, appears to have gone dark on the internet as of Friday, despite previously having Facebook and Twitter pages and a sizable amount of public customer reviews. But cached versions of the business' homepage and a promotional Medium post from 2015 show a business pitching itself as a trusted aid to webcrawlers who'd like privacy online.
• The homepage touts "quick turnaround," "competitive rates" and "trusted and secured" services. For about $35, customers who've been banned from sites like PayPal, eBay and Amazon could buy verified accounts through Auction Essistance.
• "We guarantee our accounts are legitimate and not hacked or stolen like most other sellers offer," the site's homepage said. The site advises its international customers to use a US-based IP address with a fake account.
• Though he didn't register bank accounts using stolen identities, "he willfully and intentionally avoided learning about the use of stolen identities," the prosecutors said.
• Pinedo agreed to cooperate with the special prosecutors' office in exchange for his guilty plea on February 12.
• In a statement to the press on Friday, Pinedo's attorney admitted Pinedo's guilt in the fraudulent online banking scheme, but said he did not know he was helping Russians.
• "Through an online website, Mr. Pinedo sold bank information which allowed individuals to fraudulently verify and establish accounts with online financial institutions. Doing so was a mistake, and Mr. Pinedo has accepted full responsibility for his actions," the statement said. "However, Mr. Pinedo had absolutely no knowledge of the identities and motivations of any of the purchasers of the information he provided. To the extent that Mr. Pinedo's actions assisted any individuals, including foreign nationals, from interfering in the American presidential election was done completely without his knowledge or understanding."
• The attorney, Jeremy Lessem, declined to comment further, "given the ongoing nature of this investigation."

See also: Richard Pinedo (Wikipedia [part of the Special Counsel investigation])
and of special note: Results of the Investigation

Alex Van Der Zwaan Top   |   Back