Bout to eat this NothingCheesecake while I read the IC Brief
45РОССИЯ—ASSANGE CHRGD W/ SPYING—DJT IMPEACHED TWICE-US TREASURY SANCTS KILIMNIK AS RUSSIAN AGNT
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That's the main reason why I would Hold my Nose and Dive in alladat,cause I know her Southern Backwoods Heritage can enable her to cook a damn good Meal...if she can make Biscuits from Scratch then I'm keeping her
Remember Robert Mercer stepping down in November? 
Mueller is months ahead of the media
:ALERTRED:
Mueller Sought Emails of Trump Campaign Data Firm
Special counsel asked Cambridge Analytica to hand over employees’ emails, in sign of investigators’ interest in campaign data operation
Rebecca BallhausDec. 14, 2017 7:15 p.m. ET
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Special Counsel Robert Mueller has requested that Cambridge Analytica, a data firm that worked for President Donald Trump’s campaign, turn over documents as part of its investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election, according to people familiar with the matter.
Mr. Mueller asked the firm in the fall to turn over the emails of any Cambridge Analytica employees who worked on the Trump campaign, in a sign that the special counsel is probing the Trump campaign’s data operation.
The special counsel's request, which the firm complied with, wasn’t previously known. The emails had earlier been turned over to the House Intelligence Committee, the people said, adding that both requests were voluntary.
On Thursday, Cambridge Analytica Chief Executive Alexander Nix interviewed via videoconference with the House Intelligence Committee, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Mr. Mueller’s request for employee emails was made before media outlets reported in October that Mr. Nix had contacted WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange during the 2016 campaign, according to a person familiar with the matter. The Sweden-based WikiLeaks last year published a trove of Hillary Clinton -related emails that U.S. intelligence agencies later determined had been stolen by Russian intelligence and given to the website.
A spokesman for Cambridge Analytica didn’t immediately return a request to comment, nor did a spokesman for the special counsel. The House committee earlier this fall referred questions about its document request to the data firm. Cambridge Analytica at the time confirmed the House request and said the firm wasn’t under investigation for its activities in the 2016 campaign.
Mr. Mueller’s team and congressional investigators are probing whether Trump associates colluded in a Russian effort to interfere in the 2016 U.S. election. Mr. Trump has denied collusion by him or his campaign, and Moscow has denied meddling in the election. The U.S. intelligence community in January concluded that Russia had sought to influence the election.
Mr. Nix, in a Lisbon speech in November, said he had asked the office that handles his speaking engagements to contact Mr. Assange in “early June 2016,” after reading a newspaper report that WikiLeaks planned to publish the Clinton-related emails. He asked if Mr. Assange “might share that information with us.” Mr. Assange has said he declined the request. Mr. Nix’s outreach to WikiLeaks came at the same time as his firm started working for Mr. Trump’s campaign, the Journal has reported.
Rep. Adam Schiff (D., Calif.), the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, told the Journal earlier this year that ties between Cambridge Analytica and WikiLeaks were of “deep interest” to the committee. The House panel also asked Cambridge Analytica to preserve its data on Trump voters and supporters, but it hasn’t asked that the firm turn the data over, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Two months after Mr. Nix directed his speaker’s bureau to contact Mr. Assange, top Trump donor Rebekah Mercer asked him whether Cambridge Analytica could help better organize the emails WikiLeaks was releasing, the Journal has reported. Ms. Mercer and her father, hedge-fund billionaire Robert Mercer, are part owners of Cambridge Analytica.
Ms. Mercer and Mr. Nix haven’t commented on the matter.
During the campaign, Cambridge Analytica provided data, polling and research services to the campaign. Steve Bannon had introduced Mr. Nix to the campaign in mid-May. Mr. Bannon became the campaign’s chief executive officer in August 2016 and later joined the White House as a top strategist. He left the administration in August of this year.
—Julie Bykowicz contributed to this article.
Write to Rebecca Ballhaus at Rebecca.Ballhaus@wsj.com
@DonKnock @SJUGrad13 @88m3 @wire28 @smitty22 @fact @Hood Critic @ExodusNirvana @Blessed Is the Man @OneManGang @dtownreppin214 @JKFrazier @tmonster @blotter @BigMoneyGrip @Soymuscle Mike @.r. @GinaThatAintNoDamnPuppy! @GnauzBookOfRhymes @Dracudiddy @Dameon Farrow @TheNig
Mueller is months ahead of the media
:ALERTRED:
Mueller Sought Emails of Trump Campaign Data Firm
Special counsel asked Cambridge Analytica to hand over employees’ emails, in sign of investigators’ interest in campaign data operation
Rebecca BallhausDec. 14, 2017 7:15 p.m. ET
Special Counsel Robert Mueller has requested that Cambridge Analytica, a data firm that worked for President Donald Trump’s campaign, turn over documents as part of its investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election, according to people familiar with the matter.
Mr. Mueller asked the firm in the fall to turn over the emails of any Cambridge Analytica employees who worked on the Trump campaign, in a sign that the special counsel is probing the Trump campaign’s data operation.
The special counsel's request, which the firm complied with, wasn’t previously known. The emails had earlier been turned over to the House Intelligence Committee, the people said, adding that both requests were voluntary.
On Thursday, Cambridge Analytica Chief Executive Alexander Nix interviewed via videoconference with the House Intelligence Committee, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Mr. Mueller’s request for employee emails was made before media outlets reported in October that Mr. Nix had contacted WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange during the 2016 campaign, according to a person familiar with the matter. The Sweden-based WikiLeaks last year published a trove of Hillary Clinton -related emails that U.S. intelligence agencies later determined had been stolen by Russian intelligence and given to the website.
A spokesman for Cambridge Analytica didn’t immediately return a request to comment, nor did a spokesman for the special counsel. The House committee earlier this fall referred questions about its document request to the data firm. Cambridge Analytica at the time confirmed the House request and said the firm wasn’t under investigation for its activities in the 2016 campaign.
Mr. Mueller’s team and congressional investigators are probing whether Trump associates colluded in a Russian effort to interfere in the 2016 U.S. election. Mr. Trump has denied collusion by him or his campaign, and Moscow has denied meddling in the election. The U.S. intelligence community in January concluded that Russia had sought to influence the election.
Mr. Nix, in a Lisbon speech in November, said he had asked the office that handles his speaking engagements to contact Mr. Assange in “early June 2016,” after reading a newspaper report that WikiLeaks planned to publish the Clinton-related emails. He asked if Mr. Assange “might share that information with us.” Mr. Assange has said he declined the request. Mr. Nix’s outreach to WikiLeaks came at the same time as his firm started working for Mr. Trump’s campaign, the Journal has reported.
Rep. Adam Schiff (D., Calif.), the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, told the Journal earlier this year that ties between Cambridge Analytica and WikiLeaks were of “deep interest” to the committee. The House panel also asked Cambridge Analytica to preserve its data on Trump voters and supporters, but it hasn’t asked that the firm turn the data over, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Two months after Mr. Nix directed his speaker’s bureau to contact Mr. Assange, top Trump donor Rebekah Mercer asked him whether Cambridge Analytica could help better organize the emails WikiLeaks was releasing, the Journal has reported. Ms. Mercer and her father, hedge-fund billionaire Robert Mercer, are part owners of Cambridge Analytica.
Ms. Mercer and Mr. Nix haven’t commented on the matter.
During the campaign, Cambridge Analytica provided data, polling and research services to the campaign. Steve Bannon had introduced Mr. Nix to the campaign in mid-May. Mr. Bannon became the campaign’s chief executive officer in August 2016 and later joined the White House as a top strategist. He left the administration in August of this year.
—Julie Bykowicz contributed to this article.
Write to Rebecca Ballhaus at Rebecca.Ballhaus@wsj.com
@DonKnock @SJUGrad13 @88m3 @wire28 @smitty22 @fact @Hood Critic @ExodusNirvana @Blessed Is the Man @OneManGang @dtownreppin214 @JKFrazier @tmonster @blotter @BigMoneyGrip @Soymuscle Mike @.r. @GinaThatAintNoDamnPuppy! @GnauzBookOfRhymes @Dracudiddy @Dameon Farrow @TheNig
Have some self-respectThat's the main reason why I would Hold my Nose and Dive in alladat,cause I know her Southern Backwoods Heritage can enable her to cook a damn good Meal...if she can make Biscuits from Scratch then I'm keeping her
Mantis Toboggan M.D.
Drink wolf cola
I might hate this shythead as much as his old man. He behaves exactly like you’d expect the son of a dictator to. When the charges get filed and he’s finally held accountable for his own crimes just like his old manLock this family up and throw away the key
Mantis Toboggan M.D.
Drink wolf cola
Russia tried to meet up with Trump in fukking 2015.
Music promoter dangled possible Putin meeting for Trump during campaign
Music promoter dangled possible Putin meeting for Trump during campaign
About a month after Donald Trump launched his presidential bid, a British music promoter suggested his Russian pop-star client could arrange for the new candidate to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to an email obtained by The Washington Post.
The July 2015 offer by publicist Rob Goldstone came about a year before he set up a meeting for Trump’s eldest son with a Russian lawyer who he said had incriminating information about Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.
Goldstone’s overture came as he unsuccessfully urged Trump to travel to Moscow later that year to attend a birthday celebration for his client’s father.
“Maybe he would welcome a meeting with President Putin,” Goldstone wrote in a July 24, 2015, email to Trump’s longtime personal assistant, Rhona Graff. There is no indication Trump or his assistant followed up on Goldstone’s offer.
The invitation is the latest example to emerge of efforts to broker a meeting between the Kremlin and Trump Tower during the campaign. The timing of Goldstone’s offer served as a reminder of the high-level contacts that Trump had in Russia as he ramped up his White House run.
The email exchange is among thousands of pages of internal Trump documents that have been turned over to investigators examining Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Scott Balber, an attorney for the pop star Emin Agalarov, said Agalarov asked Goldstone to invite Trump to his father’s party but was not aware that the publicist dangled the possibility of meeting with Putin.
“It is certainly not the case that Emin Agalarov can arrange a meeting with Vladimir Putin for anybody,” Balber said.
Goldstone’s attorney, Robert Gage, declined to comment, as did Alan Futerfas, an attorney for Graff.
But Futerfas expressed concern that material provided to investigators has been shared with the media.
“We are disappointed that documents continue to be selectively leaked from confidential investigations,” said Futerfas, who last week called for an investigation into the leaking of information provided to the House Intelligence Committee.
Trump’s relationship with Emin Agalarov and his father, Aras, a wealthy Moscow developer, dated to 2013, when they licensed the Trump-owned Miss Universe pageant and brought it to Moscow. During Trump’s visit to Moscow for the event, he appeared in a music video for an Emin Agalarov song that was filmed at the Ritz-Carlton hotel. Following the pageant, Aras Agalarov discussed a possible real estate development deal with Trump in Moscow, but the project never materialized.
Goldstone, a publicist for Emin Agalarov, reached out several times to Trump’s inner circle during the presidential race. In early 2016, he sent an email to Donald Trump Jr. to discuss the idea of setting up a page for Trump’s campaign on VK, the Russian equivalent of Facebook. Later in the year, he brokered a meeting between Trump Jr. and Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya.
Congressional investigators have sought more information about his interactions with the Trump Organization. Goldstone was interviewed Thursday, according to people familiar with the session.
Graff is set to be questioned by House Intelligence Committee staff in New York next week, according to people familiar with the plans. Trump Jr. spent nine hours Wednesday answering questions from the Senate Intelligence Committee’s staff, his third such interview on Capitol Hill.
[Who is Rob Goldstone, whose email to Trump Jr. on Russia caused a sensation?]
Goldstone’s brief 2015 exchange with Graff began on July 22, when he wrote to invite the elder Trump to attend Aras Agalarov’s 60th birthday party. Goldstone asked if Trump would send a congratulatory note to Agalarov.
Graff responded two days later, telling Goldstone that Trump would probably not be able to attend the party.
“Given his presidential campaign, it’s highly unlikely he would have time on his calendar to go to Moscow,” she wrote. “Regardless, I am sure he will want to write a congratulatory note.”
“I totally understand re: Moscow,” Goldstone wrote back. “Unless maybe he would welcome a meeting with President Putin which Emin would set up.”
The email chain does not indicate that Graff responded.
Goldstone was known to sometimes be prone to exaggeration, according to people familiar with his reputation in Trump Tower.
Last month, he told the Telegraph, a British newspaper, that he was not part of any Russian effort to interfere in the U.S. election.
“If I’m guilty of anything, and I hate the word guilty, it’s hyping the message and going the extra mile for my clients,” he said. “Using hot-button language to puff up the information I had been given.”
Trump did not attend the November 2015 party, which coincided with the opening of a Nobu restaurant in the Crocus City Mall, the shopping and entertainment complex in Moscow owned by Aras Agalarov.
However, Trump did send a birthday note to the Russian developer.
In an April 2016 interview with The Post, Agalarov said he had remained in touch with the then-presidential candidate during the campaign and cited the note Trump had written him for his birthday.
“You have to pay attention [to] that,” he said of the birthday greeting. “He signed it himself, and he just wrote it himself. It’s not like he gave it to a secretary asking her to type. . . . It’s like the future president of the United States just wrote something to his friend from Moscow.”
In the interview, Agalarov said Trump had been eager for Putin to attend the 2013 Miss Universe pageant. The Russian president at first said he would be there but canceled at the last minute because of a scheduling conflict, Agalarov said.
“That was a very complicated situation then because I promised Trump that he would meet Putin and then there will be no meeting,” Agalarov said. The developer said he asked Putin’s protocol director to get on the phone with Trump and explain the cancellation personally.
Later, Putin sent Trump a warm note and a traditional Russian wooden box, Agalarov said.
Goldstone’s 2015 invitation to Trump was among several offers that were made to broker meetings between the Kremlin and Trump or his associates during the campaign.
Foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos sought repeatedly to organize a meeting for Trump or his campaign with Putin, according to court documents. Papadopoulos pleaded guilty in October to lying to the FBI about his Russia contacts. Former Trump business associate Felix Sater urged Trump lawyer Michael Cohen to go to an economic conference in St. Petersburg in June 2016, offering in an email to organize meetings with the Russian prime minister or even Putin, as The Post previously reported
Republican operative Paul Erickson sought to organize a meeting at the National Rifle Association convention in May 2016 between Trump and Alexander Torshin, a former Russian senator. Erickson referred to Torshin in an email to Trump campaign staffers as “Putin’s emissary” for building stronger ties with the United States, according to an email first reported by the New York Times and confirmed by The Post.
None of those meetings took place.
rosalind.helderman@washpost.com
tom.hamburger@washpost.com
Karoun Demirjian in Washington and Michael Birnbaum in Moscow contributed to this report.
@DonKnock @SJUGrad13 @88m3 @wire28 @smitty22 @fact @Hood Critic @ExodusNirvana @Blessed Is the Man @OneManGang @dtownreppin214 @JKFrazier @tmonster @blotter @BigMoneyGrip @Soymuscle Mike @.r. @GinaThatAintNoDamnPuppy! @GnauzBookOfRhymes @Dracudiddy @Dameon Farrow @TheNig
:ALERTRED:
SATER AND GRAFF ARE BEING INTERVIEWED IN NYC BY CONGRESSIONAL AIDES, NOT MEMBERS
SATER AND GRAFF ARE BEING INTERVIEWED IN NYC BY CONGRESSIONAL AIDES, NOT MEMBERS
POLITICS
Interviews in Russia Probe Are Scheduled for New York, Angering Democrat
Intelligence committee plan means panel staff, not lawmakers, will question Trump associates
Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat of the House Intelligence Committee, criticized the panel for scheduling witness interviews in its Russia investigation in New York instead of Washington. PHOTO: JACQUELYN MARTIN/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Byron Tau
Updated Dec. 14, 2017 4:21 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON—The Republican-led House Intelligence Committee has scheduled staff interviews with two witnesses in its probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election to take place in New York City next week while Congress is in session on Capitol Hill, meaning committee members won’t be able to question them directly.
A Republican familiar with the committee’s deliberations said one of the attorneys for a witness suffered an injury and a New York interview was seen as more convenient. Both Republican and Democratic staff will participate in the interviews.
Up to this point, interviews by the House Intelligence Committee in its wide-ranging probe into whether President Donald Trump or any of his associates colluded with Russia during the presidential campaign last year have largely been open to everyone on the 22-person committee.
The panel, made up of 13 Republicans and nine Democrats, typically conducts its investigative work on the Russia probe in closed-door sessions held in a room designed for secure, classified discussions in the basement of the U.S. Capitol.
The plan for staff interviews to be held in New York drew protests from the top Democrat on the intelligence panel, who accused his Republican colleagues on the committee of trying to protect Mr. Trump by rushing through the investigation in order to bring it to a premature conclusion.
He questioned the decision of his Republican colleagues to schedule key witnesses for remote interviews during a busy week in Washington where important votes are expected on major tax legislation and a spending bill to keep the government from shutting down.
“These witnesses would be interviewed out of state at a time when we’re in session and may be voting on the tax bill," said Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the ranking Democrat on the committee. “These steps are clearly not in the interest of the investigation.”
Mr. Schiff declined to give the names of the witnesses, but two other people familiar with the matter say they are Felix Sater and Rhona Graff. Mr. Sater is a longtime business associate of Mr. Trump. Ms. Graff is Mr. Trump’s longtime personal assistant.
Mr. Schiff said both expressed willingness to travel to Washington, D.C., to appear and there was no reason to have them interviewed elsewhere.
Ms. Graff and an attorney for Mr. Sater didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. Mr. Trump has long denied his campaign colluded with Russia, and Moscow has denied interfering in the U.S. election.
Both Ms. Graff and Mr. Sater are seen as important figures in the committee’s work to determine whether there was any U.S. assistance in Russia’s campaign of election interference.
Mr. Sater is a Russian-born businessman who has worked with Mr. Trump since 2010. In a November 2015 email to Mr. Trump’s lawyer, he wrote that he planned to enlist the help of Russian President Vladimir Putin in getting Mr. Trump a business deal in Russia that could boost his U.S. political fortunes.
“Our boy can become President of the USA and we can engineer it,” he wrote in an email previously described to The Wall Street Journal by two people. “I will get all of Putins team to buy in on this, I will manage this process.”
Ms. Graff has worked for Mr. Trump for nearly three decades, starting as a secretary in the Trump organization and rising to senior vice president. She is considered an important gatekeeper to Mr. Trump. Ms. Graff’s name was mentioned in emails setting up a controversial Trump Tower meeting between a Russian lawyer linked to the Kremlin and top campaign aides to Mr. Trump.
Mr. Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr. , was originally told the purpose of the meeting was for the Russian government to provide allegedly incriminating information about Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, according to emails he released this summer.
According to a January report from the U.S. intelligence community, the highest levels of the Russian government were involved in directing the electoral interference to boost Donald Trump at the expense of Mrs. Clinton.
Write to Byron Tau at byron.tau@wsj.com
@DonKnock @SJUGrad13 @88m3 @wire28 @smitty22 @fact @Hood Critic @ExodusNirvana @Blessed Is the Man @OneManGang @dtownreppin214 @JKFrazier @tmonster @blotter @BigMoneyGrip @Soymuscle Mike @.r. @GinaThatAintNoDamnPuppy! @GnauzBookOfRhymes @Dracudiddy @Dameon Farrow @TheNig
Even if Ryan shuts down the probe on some last hurrah shyt, I expect the majority of major media outlets (not Focks) to keep reporting and investigating which in turn will make the GOP look really bad going into 2018.
