Trump Transition

Ex-White House Official Revises Statement on Flynn

September 22, 2018 at 10:24 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“A former top White House official has revised her statement to investigators about a key event in the probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election, after her initial claim was contradicted by the guilty plea of former national security adviser Michael Flynn,” the Washington Post reports.

“K.T. McFarland, who briefly served as Flynn’s deputy, has now said that he may have been referring to sanctions when they spoke in late December 2016 after Flynn’s calls with Russia’s ambassador to the United States. When FBI agents first visited her at her Long Island home in the summer of 2017, McFarland denied ever talking to Flynn about any discussion of sanctions between him and the ambassador, Sergey Kislyak, in December 2016 during the presidential transition.”

Manafort Turned to Kushner to Get Banker a Trump Job

August 14, 2018 at 8:59 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Paul Manafort turned to Jared Kushner for help in an attempt to secure a Trump administration job for a Chicago banker at the center of Manafort’s fraud trial,” Bloomberg reports.

“Manafort… got a quick response.”

“‘On it!’’ Kushner replied on Nov. 30, 2016, according to an email submitted by prosecutors into evidence Monday at Manafort’s trial on bank and tax-fraud charges.”

Mueller Eyes Russians Granted Access to Inaugural Events

June 28, 2018 at 12:37 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Several billionaires with deep ties to Russia attended exclusive, invitation-only receptions during Donald Trump’s inauguration festivities,” guest lists obtained by ABC News show.

“These powerful businessmen, who amassed their fortunes following the collapse of the Soviet Union — including one who has since been sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department — were ushered into events typically reserved for top donors and close political allies and were given unprecedented access to Trump’s inner circle.”

“Their presence has attracted the interest of federal investigators probing Russian efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election.”

Kushner Friend Now Under Scrutiny of Mueller

June 1, 2018 at 7:17 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“A close friend of Jared Kushner has come under scrutiny by special counsel Robert Mueller for his proximity to some key meetings between Trump associates and foreign officials,” NBC News reports.

“Richard Gerson, a hedge-fund manager in New York, was in the Seychelles in January 2017, less than two weeks before President Trump’s inauguration and around the time Trump associate Erik Prince secretly met with Russian and United Arab Emirates officials, including Crown Prince Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan of Abu Dhabi.”

“While in the remote Indian Ocean island nation, Gerson met with Prince Mohammed — also known by his initials as MBZ — and communicated with a Lebanese-American businessman with close ties to the UAE, George Nader, who had organized the Erik Prince meeting, according to text messages Gerson sent at the time and a person familiar with the meeting.”

Cohen Discussed Russian Relations with Oligarch

May 25, 2018 at 11:52 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Eleven days before the presidential inauguration last year, a billionaire Russian businessman with ties to the Kremlin visited Trump Tower in Manhattan to meet with Donald Trump’s personal lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen,” the New York Times reports.

“In Mr. Cohen’s office on the 26th floor, he and the oligarch, Viktor Vekselberg, discussed a mutual desire to strengthen Russia’s relations with the United States under President Trump… The men also arranged to see one another at the inauguration.”

Kushner Had Second Interview with Mueller’s Team

May 23, 2018 at 4:10 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Washington Post: “Kushner has had two interview sessions with the special counsel’s team. The first set of questions in November centered largely around former national security adviser Michael Flynn… Then, in mid-April, Kushner sat for six to seven hours of questions that covered many topics, including his work on the Trump campaign, the transition and in the White House and about Trump’s decision in May 2017 to fire Comey.”

“The special counsel’s questioning focused only on Kushner’s work with Trump and did not include topics such as Kushner’s personal finances or those of his family business, Kushner Companies.”

Navarro Pushed Suspected FBI Informant for Trump Job

May 21, 2018 at 4:52 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

President Trump’s top trade adviser, Peter Navarro, “recommended appointing Stefan Halper, an academic and suspected FBI informant on the Trump campaign, to a senior role in the Trump administration,” Axios has learned.

“During the transition everyone involved in Trump’s presidential campaign were asked to submit resumes for administration positions. Halper, who already knew Navarro in the context of being a China scholar and interviewing for his anti-China book and film, pitched himself for an ambassadorship in Asia… Navarro says he submitted Halper’s name for the Asian ambassadorship — we have not been able to confirm the country — along with around a dozen other people for roles in the region.”

Details Emerge About Russian Plane in the Seychelles

May 17, 2018 at 4:41 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“A Russian plane linked to the country’s government flew into the Seychelles the day prior to a 2017 meeting now under review by special counsel Robert Mueller,” according to NJ Advance Media.

“Much speculation has centered on one particular meeting that took place between Erik Prince, founder of the security company Blackwater, Kirill Dmitriev, the director of one of Russia’s sovereign wealth funds, and Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, the effective ruler of the United Arab Emirates.”

“But new details about a Russian aircraft that landed in the Seychelles the day before Prince has raised questions about the scope of the meetings that week and whether sanctions were a topic of conversation among participants.”

Conservative Activists Behind Mystery $1 Million Gift

May 14, 2018 at 6:02 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“One of the largest contributions to President Trump’s inaugural committee in 2016 appears to have been orchestrated by a set of powerful conservative legal activists who have since been put in the driver’s seat of the administration’s push to select and nominate federal judges,” McClatchy reports.

“The $1 million inaugural gift came from a Northern Virginia company called BH Group, LLC. Unlike other generous corporate inaugural donors, like Bank of America and Dow Chemical, though, BH Group was a cipher, and likely was set up solely to prevent disclosure of the actual donor’s name.”

“While the source of the money used to make the gift was masked from the public, a trail of clues puts the contribution at the doorstep of some of the same actors — most notably Leonard Leo, an executive vice president at the conservative Federalist Society — who have helped promote Trump’s mission, and that of his White House counsel, Don McGahn, to fill judicial vacancies as quickly as he can with staunchly conservative, preferably young jurists.”

Mueller Probing Donors to Trump Inauguration

May 11, 2018 at 11:53 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Special counsel Robert Mueller’s team has questioned several witnesses about millions of dollars in donations to President Trump’s inauguration committee last year, including questions about donors with connections to Russia, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar,” sources with direct knowledge told ABC News.

Trump Jr. Stayed In Contact with Oligarch’s Family

April 29, 2018 at 9:03 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“A direct line of communication between the Kremlin-connected Agalarov family and the Trump family was open during the transition after President Trump’s presidential election,” BuzzFeed News reports.

“The ‘first of a series’ of text messages was sent between Emin Agalarov and Donald Trump Jr. two days after the 2016 election… The communications continued through at least mid-December 2016.”

Russian Trolls Tried to Torpedo Romney as Top Diplomat

March 8, 2018 at 10:20 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Weeks after Donald Trump was elected president, Russia-backed online ‘trolls’ flooded social media to try to block Mitt Romney from securing a top job in the incoming administration,” a Wall Street Journal analysis shows.

“The operatives called the 2012 GOP presidential nominee, then a contender for secretary of state, a ‘two headed snake’ and a ‘globalist puppet,’ promoted a rally outside Trump Tower and spread a petition to block Mr. Romney’s appointment to the top diplomatic job, according to a review of now-deleted social-media posts.”

Mueller Has Evidence of Secret Backchannel Effort

March 7, 2018 at 7:48 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Special counsel Robert Mueller “has gathered evidence that a secret meeting in the Seychelles just before the inauguration of Donald Trump was an effort to establish a back-channel between the incoming administration and the Kremlin — apparently contradicting statements made to lawmakers by one of its participants,” the Washington Post reports.

“In January, 2017, Erik Prince, the founder of the private military company Blackwater, met with a Russian official close to President Vladimir Putin, and later described the meeting to congressional investigators as a chance encounter that was not a planned discussion of U.S.-Russia relations.”

“A witness cooperating with Mueller has told investigators the meeting was set up in advance so that a representative of the Trump transition could meet with an emissary from Moscow to discuss future relations between the two countries.”

Romney Says He’s Not a Fan of Putin Either

March 7, 2018 at 3:57 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Mitt Romney told KSL-TV that he can’t comment on a recent report that suggested the Kremlin had blocked him from becoming Secretary of State.

Said Romney: “I don’t know what the president’s process was in determining his secretary of state, or why he chose to ask me to come in, or decided not to have me as his secretary of state. So, I really can’t comment on the Steele dossier in that regard.”

He added: “I do believe it’s pretty clear that I’m not a fan of Vladimir Putin’s and I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s not a fan of mine either.”

Did the Kremlin Block Romney as Secretary of State?

March 5, 2018 at 10:46 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Christopher Steele, the former British spy who authored the controversial “dossier” about Donald Trump, also wrote a later memo in November 2016 alleging that Russia blocked Mitt Romney from being named secretary of state, the New Yorker reports.

“The memo said that the Kremlin, through unspecified channels, had asked Trump to appoint someone who would be prepared to lift Ukraine-related sanctions, and who would cooperate on security issues of interest to Russia, such as the conflict in Syria. If what the source heard was true, then a foreign power was exercising pivotal influence over U.S. foreign policy — and an incoming president.”

Inaugural Committee Paid $26M to First Lady’s Friend

February 15, 2018 at 11:05 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“President Trump’s inaugural committee paid nearly $26 million to an event planning firm started by an adviser to First Lady Melania Trump, while donating $5 million — less than expected — to charity,” the New York Times reports.