The Senate intelligence committee, as part of its ongoing investigation of the Trump-Russia scandal, has completed interviews with several key participants in the June 9, 2016 Trump Tower meeting between a Russian lawyer and members of Trump’s inner circle. Yet so far it has not questioned Donald Trump Jr., who organized the gathering, hoping to obtain dirt on Hillary Clinton as part of what he was told was a secret Russian government effort to help Donald Trump win the White House. This suggests the committee’s investigators have been looking to gather as much information as possible before zeroing in on the president’s son. 

Committee staff last week interviewed Ike Kaveladze, one of the meeting’s eight participants, according to sources familiar with the investigation. Kaveladze is a US-based employee of Aras Agalarov, the Russian construction magnate who with his son Emin, an aspiring pop singer, helped arrange the Trump Tower meeting. The Agalarovs partnered with Donald Trump for the 2013 Miss Universe contest held in Moscow and subsequently teamed up with Trump and his company to develop a Trump Tower project in Moscow. (That project ended up stalling.) Intelligence committee aides also recently interviewed Rinat Akhmetshin, a Russian-American lobbyist based in Washington, DC. Akhmetshin attended the Trump Tower meeting with his colleague Natalia Veselnitskaya, a Russian attorney with ties to the Kremlin who has been lobbying in the United States against a law imposing sanctions on certain Russians for being involved in human rights abuses. 

Senate intelligence committee chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) suggested at a news conference earlier this month that the panel had nearly completed investigating several aspects of the Russia scandal. Those include the Trump campaign’s softening of a Republican Party platform plank related to Russia’s incursion into Ukraine and a April 2016 meeting at Washington’s Mayflower Hotel where then-Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) spoke with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. But Burr did not mention the Trump Tower meeting.

The sequencing of the panel’s interviews regarding the Trump Tower meeting is notable and indicates the panel is proceeding differently than the Senate judiciary committee. The judiciary committee nabbed the first interview with Trump Jr. last month, but the panel’s Republican members treated the president’s eldest son deferentially. The committee’s majority staff allowed Trump to attend the session without being seen or photographed by the media. They also questioned him before speaking to other attendees of the Trump Tower meeting. Investigators typically prefer to interview their main investigative targets last. That makes it easier for the investigators to catch inaccurate claims by the target.

Read more:

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/10/senate-intelligence-committe...

Republican Congressman Trey Gowdy has criticized special counsel Robert Mueller after his team leaked to the media information about charges filed in the course of his investigation into alleged collusion between the presidential campaign of US President Donald Trump and Russian actors.

On Friday night, CNN reported that a federal grand jury had approved the first charges in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into alleged collusion between Trump's presidential campaign and Russian actors.

Trey Gowdy, who is chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, has slammed the inquiry for leaking news about the charges, which are reportedly still sealed under orders from a federal judge.

"In the only conversation I've had with Robert Mueller, I stressed to him the importance of cutting out the leaks," Gowdy told Fox News Sunday. 

"It's kind of ironic that the people charged with investigating the law and the violations of the law would violate the law," he added.

read more:

https://sputniknews.com/us/201710291058644700-trey-gowdy-leak-mueller-slam/

See toon at top...

...

Embarrassingly for Twitter, RT responded by immediately publishing details of meetings between RT and Twitter’s partnership teams before the 2016 election where Twitter brainstormed ad strategies with the Russians.

The details from RT are excruciating for Twitter in the current context, if they are accurate. The Russian broadcaster claims that Twitter approached RT with a comprehensive pre-election advertising plan. In order to entice RT to agree to the exclusive elections offer, Twitter promised a package of perks and bonuses.

The offer included such things as closed beta testing of new tools and products, a customised emoji hashtag that would help RT stand out with special election coverage; customised analytics and research solutions, and a dedicated team of Twitter experts to help with content curation and media strategy.

This kind of service is available from most platform “partner” teams at social media companies, whose job it is to encourage publishers to use their technologies and pay money to boost their presence on them. Perhaps the most ironic aspect of Twitter banning RT and Sputnik from buying advertising is that both Russian media outlets still have active accounts serving, in RT’s case, more than 2.5 million followers.And, to further highlight the problem with platform governance, they have accounts blue “verified” ticks.

While the spotlight has shone brightly on the Russian advertising issue, it seems likely that activities that had no financial component were more influential in moving or subduing voters. A blend of “organic” – unpaid – activity promoted with a light sprinkling of cash is what really propels brands, arguments, events and other “content” to the top of people’s social media feeds. (Jonathan Albright, a research director at Columbia University’s Tow Center, has collected data showing that the overall reach and activity of the Russian propagandists vastly exceeds the reach of the 3,000 ads Facebook admits to selling.)

read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/oct/29/media-symbiotic-relationsh...

Now, when will Silicon Valley be investigated for selling little devious averts made by the Murdoch Empire?... This would actually go to the heart of electing the Dumb One instead of the Female Angel (of war)... The Russians had nothing to do with Hillary's defeat.

Paul Manafort, the onetime chairman of Donald Trump's campaign, has been indicted by a federal grand jury on 12 counts including conspiracy against the US, following an investigation into possible Russian meddling in the 2016 US election.

• Charges against Paul Manafort include being an unregistered agent of a foreign principal
• Manafort and his associate Rick Gates have pleaded not guilty
• A third former campaign aide has pleaded guilty to giving the FBI false information

The charges were the first stemming from special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into possible ties between Mr Trump's presidential campaign and Russia.

The indictment filed in a federal court in Washington accused Manafort and his associate Rick Gates of funnelling tens of millions of dollars in payments through foreign companies and bank accounts.

Manafort and Gates surrendered to federal authorities, and were expected in court later on Monday (US time) to face the charges brought by Mr Mueller's team — both men later pleaded not guilty.

"The indictment contains 12 counts: conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading FARA statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts," the special counsel statement said.

FARA is an acronym for Foreign Agents Registration Act.

read more:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-10-30/paul-manafort-donald-trump-russia-...

Yep, here the fall guy is not even a small fry with no connection to the Cream-de-la-Kremlin but this "arrest" will give the anti-Ruskies in the USA a boost of confidence in their burning flag. This appears more like a "conspiracy" by Mueller to show he is doing "sumpthin'" to appease the god of the mucked up elections that had decided on Angel-of-war Clinton through all the "neo-liberal" press of the NYT and the WP. Meanwhile, Uncle Rupe is laughing his head off.

The announcement of the brother of Hillary Clinton's campaign chair John Podesta comes after he has been probed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Democratic lobbyist Tony Podesta has announced the departure from his lobbying firm, the Podesta Group, according to Politico, citing multiple sources.

All operational and financial control of the lobbying firm will reportedly go to its CEO Kimberley Fritts, who will launch a new firm this week together with senior executives of the Podesta Group.

Podesta's move comes a week after US media reported that Special Counsel Robert Mueller has shifted the focus of the ongoing investigation into Russia's alleged interference in the 2016 US presidential election to Tony Podesta and his Democratic-leaning lobbying firm. According to NBC sources, the inquiry grew out of Mueller's examination of the finances of President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, according to the sources.

READ MORE: Tony Podesta, Brother of Clinton Campaign Chief, Now Engulfed in RussiaGate

Manafort had reportedly organized a public relations campaign for the non-profit organization European Centre for a Modern Ukraine (ECMU), to promote Ukraine's image in the West. Podesta's company was allegedly engaged in the campaign.

Manafort Indicted

Earlier on Monday, the former chairman of US President Donald Trump campaign, Paul Manafort, and his deputy Richard Gates were indicted on 12 charges, including "conspiracy against the United States," acting as unregistered foreign agents, and money laundering.

read more:

https://sputniknews.com/us/201710301058671925-tony-podesta-lobyying-firm...

Of course, Manaford pleads NOT GUILTY, but will be hanged by the neo-liberal press nonetheless... In regard to "money laundering", everyone who has a bank account in the Bahamas (or any of the 96 world tax haven) should be brought to justice, but pigs will fly in V-formation before this happens.

Speaking after his client's appearance in court, where he pleaded not guilty to 12 charges including conspiracy, the lawyer representing Donald Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort said that special counselor Robert Mueller's allegations were "ridiculous" and relied on a "very novel theory."

"You see an indictment brought by an office of special counsel that is using a very novel theory to prosecute Mr. Manafort," Manafort's lawyer Kevin Downing said, in particular regarding the Foreign Agents Registration Act charges against him. Such a FARA filing has only been applied in six cases "since 1996, and only resulted in one conviction," he said.

The government's claim — that Manafort's use of offshore accounts to transfer his money into the US constitutes concealment — is "ridiculous," Downing added.  

"I think you all saw today that President Donald Trump was correct," Downing said. "There is no evidence that Mr. Manafort or the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government."

​"The second thing about this indictment that I myself find most ridiculous is a claim that maintaining offshore accounts to bring all your funds into the united states as a scheme to conceal from the United States government is ridiculous," Downing said following Manafort's appearance before court. 

Read more; 

https://sputniknews.com/us/201710301058673407-manafort-lawyer-calls-char...

Ridiculous is the word... RIDICULOUS! is the emphasis. Anyone with an offshore banking arrangement should quake in their boots and that would be about 99.9 per cent of the rich people, including our own Prime Minister Macolmius the First (and last hopefully)... 

Sure such tax evasion has been legalised and we don't like it. But to charge Manaford for it is RIDICULOUS!

He[Donald] made no comment on the guilty plea by Mr. Papadopoulous, who admitted lying to the F.B.I. about his efforts to connect Mr. Trump’s campaign with Russian government officials.

At her briefing, Ms. Sanders repeatedly insisted that Mr. Papadopolous was just “a volunteer” in the president’s campaign, and she downplayed his role by saying that he was “a volunteer member of an advisory council that literally met one time.”

Ms. Sanders insisted that Trump campaign officials rebuffed all of his efforts to put them in touch with Russians. “You mean the outreach that was repeatedly denied, and pushed away?” she said. “He reached out and nothing happened beyond that.”

read more:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/30/us/politics/trump-reaction-manafort-indictment.html

Meanwhile Papadopoulos sings... Note the various spelling of the "Russian spook" Papadopoulous in the NYT and other publication. they can't even get his name right...

"Mr. Papadopoulos was quietly arrested at Washington Dulles Airport on July 27 and has since been cooperating with the special counsel," Blah blah blah... Was Papadopoulos working for the Democrats in disguise, trying to trip the Trump campaign? 

And the western media goes into a frenzy... Stupid... illiterate and sloping like a cliff-face...

http://rall.com/comic/special-counsel-arrests-hillary-clinton-robert-mue...

Pay attention to the cartoon: Clinton is the one arrested...

The statement made public by special counsel Robert Mueller on Monday morning announcing the guilty plea of former Trump foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos produced a stunning revelation: a professor who touted his close ties to Russian officials told Papadopoulos in late April 2016 that he had learned on a trip to Moscow that the Russians had “dirt” on Hillary Clinton in the form of “thousands of emails.” (This was two months before the Russian hack of the Democratic National Committee became public.)

read more:

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/10/mystery-professor-in-mueller...

There is nothing wrong done by professor Mifsud...  ("This mystery professor is likely Joseph Mifsud of the University of Stirling in Scotland".) and the release of the Clinton and DNC emails came from Wikileaks (https://wikileaks.org/clinton-emails/, https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/) — THERE WAS NO RUSSIAN HACKING OF THE DNC — but Mother Jones is trying to link the release to the Russians. Julian Assange has categorically denied that the Russians have been his source and he has been far more trustworthy than the boffins at Mother Jones. This is pissing them off — and Mother Jones is wanking in public. Ugly. We don't like Trump either but fabricating links and bashing the Russians won't prevent the fact that another Australian (Assange is an Australian) got Trump elected. By this person I mean Uncle Rupe, who is now a US citizen, because George W Bush needed him to sell the war against Saddam. Gee... Papadopoulos is likely to have been a Democrat agent employed to derail the Trump campaign. Think about this ... and he was a tiny little guy at the back, not involved in the running of Trump's camp. This would not be the first time something like this happened in politics...

The ongoing investigation headed by Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller into alleged collusion between the campaign of then-candidate Donald Trump and the Russian government has moved into a new phase, with a focus on purported money laundering. On Monday, indictments were filed against former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his longtime associate Rick Gates.

But even more is emerging that could take the Russia story in a totally new direction—namely that the infamous dossier compiled by former British Secret Intelligence Service officer Michael Steele was bought and paid for by a law firm, Perkins Coie, working on behalf of both the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC).  

The current controversy isn’t so much over the contents of the dossier—despite some of the reporting, none of the relevant claims contained within have been verified. Rather, the issue in question is how opposition research derived from foreign intelligence sources and paid for by the Clinton campaign and the DNC ended up influencing the decision to prepare the January 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election, the contents of that assessment, and the subsequent investigations by the U.S. Congress and a special prosecutor.   

The extent to which the Steele Dossier influenced the intelligence underpinning Mueller’s probe has yet to be determined with any certainty. In January, the U.S. intelligence community published the unclassified ICA, which was derived from a compilation of intelligence reports and assessments conducted by the FBI, CIA, and NSA. Many of the allegations made in the ICA mirror reporting contained in the Steele Dossier. So striking are the similarities that there are real concerns among some senior Republican lawmakers that the ICA merely reflects “echoes” of the Steele Dossier reported back via liaison with foreign intelligence services who had access to it (namely the British Secret Intelligence Service) or whose own sources were also utilized by Steele.

According to Robert Litt, who served as general counsel to former Director of National Intelligence (DNI) James Clapper, this mirroring was nothing more than coincidence. “The dossier itself,” Litt wrote in a recent Lawfare blog, “played absolutely no role in the coordinated intelligence assessment that Russia interfered in our election. That assessment, which was released in unclassified form in January but which contained much more detail in the classified version that has been briefed to Congress, was based entirely on other sources and analysis.”

Moreover, Litt noted, the decision in December 2016 to brief President-elect Trump on the existence of the Steele Dossier and provide him with a two-page summary of that document, was not a reflection that “the Intelligence Community had relied on it in any way, or even made any determination that the information it contained was reliable and accurate.” It was rather, Litt said, a need to share with Trump the fact that the document existed and was being passed around Congress and the media.

An examination of the nexus between the dossier and the publication of the Russian ICA, however, shows that Litt was less than truthful in his denials. Material from the Steele Dossier was, in fact, shared with the FBI and U.S. intelligence community in July of 2016, and seems to have been the driving force behind the intelligence briefings provided to the so-called Gang of Eight who served as the initial impetus for an investigation into Russian meddling that eventually morphed into the 2017 Russian ICA.

read more:

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/russia-perkins-coie-clin...

Examples of Russian ads on Facebook pages included:

1. “Back the Badge” a community that supported police officers that was created Oct. 19, 2016 and paid for in 111,000 Rubles (or $1,900 US dollars). It generated 1.3 million ad impressions and 73,000 clicks.
2. A “Blacktivist” page with the tagline “Say it loud: I’m black and I’m proud” was also paid in Rubles worth about $2,100 on Dec.10, 2015 and generated 531,000 ad impressions and 32,000 clicks.
3. The “Being Patriotic” ad had images of American flags and a bald eagle that said “welcome every patriot we can reach.” It cost 330,000 Rubles ($5,700) and generated 530,000 impressions and 72,000 ad clicks.
4. A “South United’” page used a confederate flag graphic and said “the South will rise again!” It cost just 78,000 rubles ($1,300 US dollars) and netted 511,000 ad impressions.

Other Russia ads shared promoted pages for “Danney Williams” who it claimed was “the out-of-wedlock son of former President Bill Clinton.”

Others were about banning Sharia law and Muslim women from wearing burqas and anti-Hillary Clinton propaganda including images of the Democratic nominee dressed as the devil.

After a real US user liked the page, subscribers would continue to grow.

Postings would continue to spread that were shared in users news feeds. The ideologically-charged images were aimed at exploiting divisions and eroding trust.

Rep. Will Hurd (R-Texas), a former CIA undercover officer, said the online campaign “is going to go down in history as the greatest covert action campaign in history” by Russia.

Earlier Wednesday at a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing, Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) showed two Facebook groups created by Russians – one called “Heart of Texas” that peddled anti-immigrant messages and one called “United Muslims of America” that promoted Islamic pride.

Both Facebook pages posted an event for noon on May 21, 2016 at a Houston Islamic center — one to protest Muslims and the other to promote Muslims. What was orchestrated in St. Petersburg, Russia for a cost of about $200 in Facebook ads resulted in a real-life clash covered by local news.

“What neither side could have known is that Russia trolls were encouraging both sides to battle in the streets and create division between real Americans,” Burr said. “…You must do better to protect the American people and frankly all of your users from this kind of manipulation.”

read more:

http://nypost.com/2017/11/01/these-were-the-russian-bought-political-fac...

I've got news for you... "encouraging both sides to battle in the streets and create division between real Americans", the Americans have been divided for a long time and these little ads did not add to the long-standing divisions, nor to the street battles. It shows that some people (probably Americans in Macedonia, NOT Russia, but paying in Roubles (!???)) were playing both sides of the fence — AS WERE THE CANDIDATES IN DEBATES AND ON TV, including Clinton's "deplorables". This insult was worth far more points in favour of Trump than all the little so-called "Russian" ads on Facebook. "I am a deplorable and proud of it" would have been the psychological resultant in many US swinging voters. Social media can be inane, but sometimes can reflect true concerns, whether they come in paid "fake" adverts on Facebook... More time should be spend by the investigators to uncover how Uncle Rupe managed to sway voters to vote for El Dumbo rather than for the dangerous woman.

So far, there is no link to the Russians in all this.

Initial results of the work of the Robert Mueller commission to investigate the "collusion" of Putin and Trump to ensure the victory of the latter in the US presidential election showed that Russiagate was falling apart, smoothly evolving into Ukrainegate. Paul Manafort may face life in prison, but it makes no difference to Trump.
Manafort and Ukraine

Former director of the US National Intelligence, James Clapper, stated that the efforts to discredit Hillary Clinton by hacking into her email produced the results that surpassed all expectations. According to Clapper, the charges announced by Robert Mueller's special commission cast a shadow not only on Trump, but on the very institution of presidency, the US administration, the government and the country on the whole.

However, a closer look at the charges indicates that they target Ukraine, rather than Russia. According to The New York Times,  Manafort and Gates served as unregistered agents to carry out political consultations and lobbying activities in Ukraine, at least from 2006 to 2015. The two officials worked in various fields with Yanukovych, the former president of Ukraine, a pro-Russian politician.

As a result of that work, Manafort and Gates made tens of millions of dollars, which they tried to conceal from the US tax authorities and the public in a number of foreign companies and bank accounts, the indictment says. The NYT specifies that it goes about more than $75 million on offshore accounts and $18 million that Manafort laundered for real estate, luxury goods and various services in the United States.

The New York Times further claims that the documents from the Mueller commission lack any charges against Manafort and Gates about the actions they had taken in cooperation with Russia. "Conspicuously absent from the charging documents against Mr. Manafort and Mr. Gates: any mention of campaign-related interaction between the two men and Russia or between the Trump campaign and Russia," the article says.

US intelligence agencies, the newspaper wrote, concluded that Russia was working to help Trump during the election, whereas a part of Robert Mueller's task is to find out whether the campaign  between them was coordinated. The intrigue is about Trump's ex-adviser George Papadopoulos, who lied to the FBI about contacting a professor who had ties with Kremlin officials.

Papadopoulos has been cooperating with federal authorities for a while already, and it is strange that his cooperation has not yielded any results yet.

Therefore, one is left to speculate about the ties of Paul Manafort with Russia through Yanukovych the "pro-Russian" toppled president of Ukraine. The very description of the ex-president of Ukraine suggests that US special services are completely incompetent when it comes to the Russian-Ukrainian relationship. Calling Yanukovych a "pro-Russian" politician is naive to say the least, but it is unacceptable to assert that Yulia Tymoshenko served as President of Ukraine before Yanukovych came to power.

Who is Paul Manafort? In 1980, he founded Black, Manafort, Stone & Kelly, a consulting firm, and started working for Republicans Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan in supporting Jonas Savimbi in Angola, the Daily Beast wrote. Savimbi was the leader of UNITA, who contained the Soviet-Cuban cooperation.

It was also said that Manafort's company was one of the top five lobbying firms that was receiving  money from political regimes in Central and South Americas and Africa that were "violating human rights" (the Torturer's Lobby report). In exchange, the lobbyists guaranteed that they would not be subjected to the pressure of the American "democracy."

On the money of Pakistani intelligence, Manafort conducted a campaign in the United States about the suffering of Kashmir residents under India's occupation. In 1995, he lobbied for the interests of French presidential candidate Edouard Balladur and was paid from arms contracts concluded by Balladur's government.