Senior adviser who worked for disgraced Trump appointee at federal volunteer agency - banned by Uber

Source: CNN




Senior adviser who worked for disgraced Trump appointee at federal volunteer agency was banned by Uber over allegations of racial comments

By Andrew Kaczynski and Chris Massie, CNN

Updated 4:53 PM ET, Tue January 30, 2018

(CNN)A senior adviser who worked for disgraced Trump appointee Carl Higbie was banned from using Uber after an incident early last year in which he allegedly made racially charged and anti-Muslim comments to a driver.

Daniel Pollack is the senior adviser for public affairs at the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), the federal agency that oversees national volunteering organizations like AmeriCorps. Pollack works in the office of external affairs, which was formerly headed by Carl Higbie, who resigned earlier this month over a slew of racist and of other inflammatory comments unearthed by CNN's KFile.

Pollack is a political appointee at CNCS appointed by the White House. It's unclear when Pollack joined CNCS, but a review of his social media accounts and the ones of his small PR firm, Callidus Communications, show Pollack hasn't posted publicly since August, when Higbie was appointed to CNCS by the Trump administration.

Pollack worked with Higbie at the Trump-aligned Great America Pac during the 2016 presidential campaign. Before that, Pollack worked as a spokesman for Project Veritas, the organization run by conservative provocateur James O'Keefe.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/30/politics/kfile-daniel-pollack-uber-cncs/index.html

ПЕРЕГОВОРЫ. Russia's Sanctioned Spy Chief Reportedly Met CIA Director in the U.S.

Source: The Daily Beast



The head of Moscow’s foreign intel service, which masterminded 2016 election interference, supposedly talked to Mike Pompeo about working together on terrorism.

KATIE ZAVADSKI
SPENCER ACKERMAN
01.30.18 4:02 PM ET

Russia’s sanctioned spy chief recently visited the United States and reportedly met with CIA Director Mike Pompeo, Russian state media reported Tuesday.

Sergey Naryshkin, director of Russia’s foreign intelligence service, the SVR, was spotted aboard a commercial Aeroflot flight to the United States, Russian state-owned news channel Rossiya-1 reported. The SVR is blamed by the U.S. government for a key role in the Kremlin’s interference with the 2016 election. A reporter for the network said Naryshkin landed in New York and met with the CIA director.

Representatives for the CIA and the office of the Director of National Intelligence declined comment to The Daily Beast about whether Pompeo or any other U.S. intelligence official recently met with with Naryshkin—who has been under U.S. sanctions for the past three years.

“While we do not discuss the schedules of U.S. intelligence leaders, rest assured that any interaction with foreign intelligence agencies would have been conducted in accordance with U.S. law and in consultation with appropriate Departments and agencies," a CIA spokesman told The Daily Beast.


Read more: https://www.thedailybeast.com/russias-sanctioned-spy-chief-reportedly-met-cia-director-in-the-us?ref=home

LOST IN TRANSLATION? Trump Team Puts Putin Victims on Russian 'Oligarch List'

Source: The Daily Beast




Kremlin watchers say they’re shocked the U.S. bunched critics of the regime together with people potentially linked to interference in the 2016 U.S. election.

ANNA NEMTSOVA
ANDREW DESIDERIO
01.30.18 1:20 PM ET

MOSCOW—On Tuesday morning, Russia woke to news of the so-called Oligarch List issued by the U.S. Treasury department. On it were more than 200 names of the country’s top bureaucrats and businessmen. But the statement that accompanied it said that it should not be read as a roster of people who were being sanctioned. Or, for that matter, who will not be sanctioned. Some part of it, we were told, remains classified.

Analyzing the list that was made available, Russian observers wondered if its authors had just copied and pasted names of officials from the Kremlin’s website and from the Forbes list of Russian billionaires (this much eventually was confirmed by the administration) without much thought, just to demonstrate to the U.S. Congress that Trump is complying with the letter of a sanctions law he never wanted.

The purpose of the sanctions bill, which Trump signed reluctantly in August only when confronted with a nearly unanimous vote by the Senate, is to punish Russian President Vladimir Putin and his cronies for the concerted effort to influence American elections and undermine American democracy.

By Feb. 1, the law says, the U.S Congress is supposed to receive a list of Russian decision-makers closely affiliated with Putin. The idea was to name names of the most important players in and around the Kremlin. But what Treasury published to meet the deadline is, to say the least, perfunctory.

Read more: https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-team-puts-putin-victims-on-russian-oligarch-list?ref=home

NON-DENIAL. Devin Nunes Won't Say if He Worked With White House on Anti-FBI Memo

Source: The Daily Beast




The House intel committee GOP leader refused to answer behind closed doors if he coordinated with the president’s team on his report blasting Rosenstein, Comey, and McCabe.

BETSY WOODRUFF
SPENCER ACKERMAN

01.30.18 6:17 PM ET

The Republican chairman of the House intelligence committee refused to answer when a colleague asked him if he had coordinated his incendiary surveillance memo with the White House, The Daily Beast has learned.

During Monday’s contentious closed-door committee meeting, Rep. Mike Quigley, a Democrat, asked Nunes point-blank if his staffers had been talking with the White House as they compiled a four-page memo alleging FBI and Justice Department abuses over surveillance of President Trump’s allies in the Russia probe.

According to sources familiar with the exchange, Nunes made a few comments that didn’t answer the question before finally responding, “I’m not answering.” Spokespeople for Nunes and for the White House did not immediately respond.

Now that the committee Republicans voted to release the memo, it has been reportedly delivered to the White House. Under Congressional rules, Trump has four more days to decide if he will assent to the memo’s public release.

Read more: https://www.thedailybeast.com/devin-nunes-wont-say-if-he-worked-with-white-house-on-anti-fbi-memo?ref=home

Trump's top health official traded tobacco stock while leading anti-smoking efforts

Source: Politico




CDC Director Brenda Fitzgerald bought shares in a global tobacco giant even as her previous holdings were under review.

By SARAH KARLIN-SMITH and BRIANNA EHLEY 01/30/2018 05:44 PM EST Updated 01/30/2018 06:41 PM EST

The Trump administration’s top public health official bought shares in a tobacco company one month into her leadership of the agency charged with reducing tobacco use — the leading cause of preventable disease and death and an issue she had long championed.

The stock was one of about a dozen new investments that Brenda Fitzgerald, director of the CDC, made after she took over the agency’s top job, according to documents obtained by POLITICO. Fitzgerald has since come under congressional scrutiny for slow walking divestment from older holdings that government officials said posed potential conflicts of interest.

Buying shares of tobacco companies raises even more flags than Fitzgerald’s trading in drug and food companies because it stands in such stark contrast to CDC’s mission to persuade smokers to quit and keep children from becoming addicted. Critics say her trading behavior broke with ethical norms for public health officials and was, at best, sloppy. At worst, they say, it was legally problematic if she didn't recuse herself from government activities that could have affected her investments.

“You don’t buy tobacco stocks when you are the head of the CDC. It’s ridiculous, it gives a terrible appearance,” said Richard Painter, who served as George W. Bush’s chief ethics lawyer from 2005 to 2007. He described the move as “tone deaf,” given CDC’s role in leading anti-smoking efforts.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/story/2018/01/30/cdc-director-tobacco-stocks-after-appointment-316245

Dem bringing 'Dreamer' to SOTU: You'll have to 'break my bones' before threatening my guest

Source: The Hill


BY AVERY ANAPOL - 01/30/18 06:25 PM EST

Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) fired back Tuesday at a GOP lawmaker who called for Capitol Police to arrest undocumented immigrants on the spot at the State of the Union address.

Connolly, like dozens of other lawmakers, is bringing a “Dreamer” as his guest to President Trump’s speech Tuesday night.

https://twitter.com/GerryConnolly/status/958427423988682752

Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) tweeted Tuesday morning that he had contacted the Capitol Police and Attorney General Jeff Sessions to urge them to arrest undocumented immigrants in attendance.

In September, Trump rescinded the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, the Obama-era program designed to protect undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children, now known as Dreamers.

Read more: http://thehill.com/homenews/house/371495-dem-lawmaker-bringing-dreamer-to-sotu-youll-have-to-break-my-bones-before

Trump needles 'monster' Chuck Todd at off-the-record anchors' lunch

Source: Politico




The president used his traditional pre-State of the Union sit-down to air his grievances with news coverage of his presidency, again.

By MICHAEL CALDERONE 01/30/2018 05:51 PM EST

Hours before his first formal State of the Union address, President Donald Trump gathered top news anchors at the White House and vented his spleen.

The president took a needling tone with Chuck Todd, the host of NBC’s “Meet the Press,” telling the group that Todd’s the nicest guy in the world until he gets on the show and then becomes “a monster.”

He had a more pointed exchange with NBC News anchor Lester Holt regarding a May 2017 interview in which the president said he considered the “Russia thing” when deciding to fire former FBI director James Comey. The president accused Holt of editing the interview to remove Trump comments the president claimed were almost “Shakespearean,” according to attendees. Holt responded that the entire interview ran online.

Trump, who starred in NBC’s “The Apprentice,” also commented during the lunch about how much money he made for the network and suggested the company’s brass, rather than the specific journalists, were to blame for coverage he doesn’t like.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/story/2018/01/30/trump-chuck-todd-state-union-379208

'No smoking gun': Republican who has seen Nunes' controversial memo blows up GOP's talking points

Adult star Stormy Daniels denies affair with Trump hours before State of the Union speech

Source: RawStory

TOM BOGGIONI
30 JAN 2018 AT 18:02 ET

Adult film star Stormy Daniels, who was reportedly given $130,000 by President Donald Trump’s personal attorney, has issued a statement saying nothing untoward happened between her and the president back in 2006.

While in a 2011 interview she gave lurid details about sexual escapades with Trump, she now calls accusation of an affair not true, and attacked the Wall Street Journal which reported the story am “an overseas tabloid.”

The actress posted the statement to her Instagram account — urging interested parties to “follow her” on the social media platform.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Daniels is slated for a guest appearance on ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live,’ following Trump’s address to the nation.

https://twitter.com/TomNamako/status/958458685197611013

It 'feels a bit like 2006' for stocks and the economy. That should scare us.

By Heather Long January 30 at 10:27 AM

The world's elite are partying like it's 2006, and that should probably scare us. Top business and political leaders, who met last week in the quaint ski chalet town of Davos, Switzerland, couldn't stop talking about the booming global economy, record stock markets and President Trump's tax cuts. They toasted the good times with bottles of bourbon that cost several thousand dollars each. But there is something unnerving about all of this: 2006 was followed by 2008, the worst financial crisis of just about everyone's lifetime. Some of the wisest minds at Davos said it feels eerily similar right now, and that's not comforting.

“The biggest concern I have is no one thinks there's a chance of a recession this year or next,” Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein said. “The conventional wisdom is usually wrong.”

Harvard economist Kenneth Rogoff said, “I’ve never seen it so complacent. I mean never.”

Citigroup chief executive Michael Corbat noted, “My biggest concern is the market is ignoring all the risks.”

more
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2018/01/30/it-feels-a-bit-like-2006-for-stocks-and-the-economy-that-should-scare-us/