‘People are scared’: Paranoia seizes Trump’s White House
Staffers are leaving their phones at home, using secret apps and monitoring each other’s social media.

By Alex Isenstadt and Kenneth P. Vogel

03/15/17 05:13 AM EDT

...snip

Some rank-and-file White House aides, meanwhile, have become convinced that intelligence agents may be monitoring their phone calls, emails, and text messages. Those fears intensified last week when WikiLeaks released a trove of CIA documents outlining how the agency can break into phones and computers.

In an interview, one White House aide described the elaborate steps he was taking to shield himself. Once he gets home in the evening, he turns off his work phone and stores it in a drawer because, he said, he believes it could be used to listen to him even when it’s off. If he makes a call during off-hours, he uses a separate, personal phone in an adjoining room, where the stowed work device wouldn’t be able to pick up his voice as clearly.

The fact that so much sensitive information from the White House was making its way to news outlets, he said, had raised suspicions that national security officials were listening in.

“I’m paranoid,” said the aide. “Anything significant seems to be on the front page the next day.”

snip

“I wouldn't call it paranoia under the circumstances,” said a Republican who communicates with many administration aides through encrypted apps. “It’s not paranoia if people really are out to get you, and everybody actually is out to get everyone else.”

Link: http://www.politico.com/story/2017/03/trump-white-house-paranoia-236069

Trump in Graham's cross hairs as Russia probe kicks off
The South Carolina senator vows 'to find out all things Russia.'

Lindsey Graham lacks the resources and access that the House and Senate Intelligence Committees have to investigate Russia’s meddling in the presidential election.

But his Senate Judiciary subcommittee has something the intelligence panels don’t: a Republican chairman viewed not as a Donald Trump ally but as a fierce critic, who has no qualms with bucking party leaders to unravel the mystery of Russia’s interference in the election.

Graham and his Democratic partner, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, will seize the spotlight Wednesday during a public hearing on Russia’s election interference, to be held by Graham’s Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism, which has jurisdiction over the FBI.

...snip

“We’re trying to build a case,” Graham added. “So, this is what Russia's doing in other places. Then we're going to dig into what they did here.”

Link: http://www.politico.com/story/2017/03/lindsey-graham-trump-russia-236043

Wikileaks is Connected to Russia – Despite Their Claims

March 12, 2017 ~ patribotics
By Laurelai Bailey

Wikileaks has time and time again denied any connections to Russia or the Russian state, but – like Donald Trump – they are lying. This weekend, it was exposed on Twitter that they acquired major Russian servers – from a known hacker – one week before the Podesta emails were released.

...snip

In turn, this proves Wikileaks gained Russian hosting on September 30th 2016, one week before the Podesta emails were made public. Wikileaks got Russian Federation virtual addresses one week before the Podesta emails. Let that sink in.



Now the actual owner of the IP addresses is a man by the name of Peter Chayanov, whose IP addresses have hosted spammers and hackers, according to my sources, who work in internet backbone companies.

...snip

Mr. Chayanov did not disguise his hosting carefully enough. And when he was exposed this weekend on Twitter, he made matters worse by deleting his account at once.

More: https://patribotics.wordpress.com/2017/03/12/wikileaks-is-connected-to-russia-despite-their-claimswikileaks-is-connected-to-russia-despite-their-claims/

Trump lawyers knew Flynn might register as foreign agent

An attorney for former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn told President Donald Trump's transition team before the inauguration that Flynn might register with the government as a foreign agent, White House officials acknowledged.

According to a person with knowledge of the discussions, Flynn's representatives also had a second conversation with the White House counsel's office after the inauguration and made clear the national security adviser would indeed be registering with the Justice Department.

On Friday, the White House said it had no recollection of the second conversation. But on Saturday, a White House official said the post-inauguration conversation did occur.

Both the White House official and person with knowledge of the discussions insisted on anonymity in order to disclose the private conversations.

Link: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/trump-lawyers-knew-flynn-register-foreign-agent-46063278

Top Democrat sent letter to Mike Pence in November warning of Michael Flynn's Turkey lobbying

President Donald Trump was not aware that his former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, was being paid to lobby for Turkish interests in the months before the US election, the White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, said Thursday.

"I don't believe that was known," Spicer said when asked whether Trump knew about Flynn's work before he appointed Flynn to his Cabinet.

In an interview with Fox News on Thursday night, Vice President Mike Pence said he was not aware either and that he only first heard about it as reports surfaced Thursday that Flynn had registered as a foreign agent with the Justice Department earlier this week.

Link: http://www.businessinsider.com/elijah-cummings-letter-to-mike-pence-about-flynn-turkey-lobbying-2017-3

FBI investigation continues into 'odd' computer link between Russian bank and Trump Organization
By Pamela Brown and Jose Pagliery, CNN
Updated 5:09 PM ET, Thu March 9, 2017

(CNN)Federal investigators and computer scientists continue to examine whether there was a computer server connection between the Trump Organization and a Russian bank, sources close to the investigation tell CNN.
Questions about the possible connection were widely dismissed four months ago. But the FBI's investigation remains open, the sources said, and is in the hands of the FBI's counterintelligence team -- the same one looking into Russia's suspected interference in the 2016 election.

One U.S. official said investigators find the server relationship "odd" and are not ignoring it. But the official said there is still more work for the FBI to do. Investigators have not yet determined whether a connection would be significant.

...snip

The story -- of a possible connection between computer servers -- is a strange tale because there are no specific allegations of wrongdoing and only vague technical evidence.

Internet data shows that last summer, a computer server owned by Russia-based Alfa Bank repeatedly looked up the contact information for a computer server being used by the Trump Organization -- far more than other companies did, representing 80% of all lookups to the Trump server.

More: http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/09/politics/fbi-investigation-continues-into-odd-computer-link-between-russian-bank-and-trump-organization/index.html