December 1, 2018

CIA finds Saudi crown prince sent at least 11 messages to adviser who oversaw Khashoggi killing...

Source: The Hill



CIA finds Saudi crown prince sent at least 11 messages to adviser who oversaw Khashoggi killing around time of his death

BY CHRIS MILLS RODRIGO - 12/01/18 08:31 AM EST

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman sent at least 11 messages to his adviser, who oversaw the effort to kill Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, around the time of Khashoggi's killing, according to a classified CIA report obtained by The Wall Street Journal.

According to the excerpts of the assessment reported by the Journal, bin Salman told associates in August 2017 "we could possibly lure [Khashoggi] outside Saudi Arabia and make arrangements," if the crown prince could not convince the dissident Saudi journalist, who was living in Virginia, to return to Saudi Arabia.

The Journal noted that it was unclear from the excerpts whether the comments came directly from the crown prince or from someone describing his communications.

The report states that the communication "seems to foreshadow the Saudi operation launched against Khashoggi," according to the Journal.

Read more: https://thehill.com/policy/international/middle-east-north-africa/419242-cia-finds-saudi-crown-prince-sent-at-least-11

December 1, 2018

Putin pays tribute to George H.W. Bush: 'He was a genuine partner'

Source: The Hill

BY TAL AXELROD - 12/01/18 09:30

Russian President Vladimir Putin paid homage to former President George H.W. Bush on Saturday in a [link:http://kremlin.ru/events/president/letters/59282statement] addressed to the late president's son, former President George W. Bush.

"Please, accept my deepest condolences on the death of your father, George Herbert Walker Bush, former president of the United States. An outstanding man, who has faithfully served his country all his life - with a weapon in his hands during the war and in senior government positions during peaceful times - is no longer with us," the Russian leader said.

"Realizing the significance of the constructive dialogue between the two major nuclear powers, George Bush Sr. did much to strengthen Russian-American relations and cooperation on international security issues," he added.

Bush was president at the conclusion of the Cold War and is credited by many with helping to maintain peace in Europe as the Soviet Union dissolved. 1 AM EST

Read more: https://thehill.com/policy/international/russia/419250-putin-pays-tribute-to-george-hw-bush-he-was-a-real-partner

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The Statement of Vladimir Putin, as caught by DU'er highplainsdem ,different from the content suggested by the headline published by The Hill:

[div class"excerpt"]George Walker Bush

December 1, 2018 14:50 Condolences

Dear George,

Accept the deepest condolences over the death of your father - George Herbert Walker Bush, the former US President.

An outstanding man who had served his country faithfully all his life -- armed with arms during the war years and in high government positions in peacetime, passed away. Leading the United States at one of the most important stages of world history, he showed political wisdom and foresight, sought to make informed decisions even in the most difficult situations.

Realizing the significance of the constructive dialogue between the two major nuclear powers, George Bush Sr. did much to strengthen Russian-American relations and cooperation on international security issues.

I was lucky to meet your father more than once. I remember with particular warmth how he organized our meeting in his wonderful estate in Kennebunkport.

The fond memory of George Bush Sr. will forever remain in my heart and in the hearts of my countrymen. At such a sad time, I would like to convey the words of sincere sympathy and support to all members of your large family. Let courage not leave you in the face of this heavy, irreplaceable loss.

Vladimir Putin

http://kremlin.ru/events/president/letters/59282

December 1, 2018

A POTUS presser

(emphasis added)

Brian Stelter

The White House just announced that President Trump will hold a press conference toward the end of his G20 summit visit in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The presser is scheduled for 3:45 p.m. local time, which is 1:45 p.m. ET.

Trump’s most recent outside-the-US presser was in Helsinki. Hard to forget that one. His most recent presser at the White House was on November 7, one day after the midterms… His exchange there with CNN’s Jim Acosta led to a ban, a lawsuit, and a list of press conference “rules” that no one in the press corps agreed to follow. So tune in on Saturday afternoon…

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https://mailchi.mp/cnn/rs-nov-30-2018

December 1, 2018

Much at Stake When Xi and Trump Meet

December 1, 2018 at 7:54 am EST By Taegan Goddard

“When President Trump sits down with President Xi Jinping for dinner here on Saturday, their meeting will be about more than salvaging a cordial personal relationship or trying to contain a trade dispute between the United States and China,” the New York Times reports.

“It could foretell whether these two giants — one an established but anxious superpower, the other an ambitious, impatient rising power — are destined to enter a new era of Cold War-like confrontation.”

“Remarkably, given the stakes involved, the two sides plan no other formal meetings during this gathering of the Group of 20 industrialized nations that begins on Friday. Nor do they appear to have much of an agenda, beyond the trade grievances that Mr. Trump has complained about for months.”

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https://politicalwire.com/2018/12/01/much-at-stake-when-xi-and-trump-meet/

December 1, 2018

Trump to attend George H.W. Bush funeral

By ANDREW RESTUCCIA 12/01/2018 09:14 AM EST

BUENOS AIRES -- President Donald Trump will attend George H. W. Bush’s funeral in Washington, D.C., the White House announced on Saturday.

Trump, who has a strained relationship with the Bush family and did not attend Barbara Bush’s funeral, is scheduled to talk to George W. Bush by phone on Saturday to offer his condolences, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement. She said that the president and First Lady Melania Trump were notified of Bush’s death last night.

“A state funeral is being arranged with all of the accompanying support and honors,” Sanders said, adding that Trump will designate this Wednesday as a National Day Of Mourning.

The funeral in Washington, D.C.,is scheduled to take place at the National Cathedral.

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https://www.politico.com/story/2018/12/01/trump-attending-bush-funeral-1037037

December 1, 2018

California Republicans Didn't See It Coming

December 1, 2018 at 8:12 am EST By Taegan Goddard

Politico: “It was one of several nasty midterm shocks for California Republicans: Internal polling described to Politico showed Knight and Reps. Dana Rohrabacher and Mimi Walters — all of whom lost — narrowly leading their Democratic opponents at the end of the campaign. Not only did the GOP get crushed in California, the party also got taken by surprise by the intensity of the backlash in the nation’s largest state, where Republicans projected confidence nearly all year before watching Democrats flip a whopping six House districts — and possibly a seventh.”

“The nightmare results were the end result of a toxic brew of overconfidence and presidential unpopularity, as some Republicans failed to recognize and reckon with the unprecedented negative reaction to President Trump in districts from Orange County to California’s agriculture-heavy Central Valley.”

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https://politicalwire.com/2018/12/01/california-republicans-didnt-see-it-coming/

December 1, 2018

Chuck Todd slams Scott Walker

December 1, 2018

The USDOJ just filed court documents arguing that Trump has no idea what he's talking about

The US Justice Department just filed court documents arguing that Trump has no idea what he’s talking about

MATTHEW CHAPMAN, ALTERNET - COMMENTARY
01 DEC 2018 AT 07:12 ET

One of the most popular arguments on the right to excuse President Donald Trump from wrongdoing ahead of any findings from the Russia investigation is to claim that the investigation itself is corrupt — and these arguments typically center on the idea, with no evidence whatsoever, that the FBI lied to the judges on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court when pursuing a warrant to probe Trump’s presidential campaign.

Trump himself has made this claim on Twitter, saying that “the Trump Campaign for President was illegally being spied upon” for “the political gain of Crooked Hillary Clinton and the DNC,” and that “the DOJ, FBI and Obama Gang need to be held to account” because they “Misled the Court to provide a pretext to SPY on the Trump Team.” And he even recklessly moved to declassify sensitive documents surrounding the surveillance of former Trump campaign aide Carter Page, in the attempt to try to prove this misconduct.

But Trump is wrong. And in fact, he is so stunningly wrong that his own lawyers with the Department of Justice had to take the extraordinary step of saying, in a filing to the D.C. District Court for a Freedom of Information Act case, that Trump essentially has no idea what he’s talking about on FISA classification, and that what he says on Twitter cannot be presumed to be evidence of anything:

https://twitter.com/bradheath/status/1068638150665404416
https://twitter.com/bradheath/status/1068639034598150144
https://twitter.com/bradheath/status/1068639899191033857

The idea that the FBI misled FISA judges to get a warrant against the Trump campaign has been debunked by the release of the FISA applications, revealing that there was a perfectly solid legal basis to investigate Carter Page amid his suspicious travel to Russia.

more
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/12/us-justice-department-just-filed-court-documents-arguing-trump-no-idea-hes-talking/

December 1, 2018

Cohen: Trump Knew I Called Kremlin for Help With Trump Tower Moscow

Source: The Daily Beast



The president downplays his knowledge of the project, but his ex-fixer says he knew a lot—and that a cover-up before Congress was crafted while talking to Trump’s lawyers.

Justin Miller
12.01.18 2:32 AM ET


Another bombshell lobbed by Michael Cohen exploded late Friday night: He says he told Donald Trump about a phone call to the Kremlin asking for the Russian government’s help to build a Trump Tower in Moscow in 2016.

And Cohen also claims he was talking to Trump’s lawyers and White House staff in 2017 while he crafted a misleading statement to Congress seeking to cover up the truth about the Moscow project and the level of Trump’s involvement.

The twin accusations were made late Friday by Cohen’s lawyers in a case being prosecuted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. They were contained in a sentencing memo in which Cohen asked for a no-jail sentence in exchange for his cooperation with Mueller’s investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

Cohen told the House and Senate intelligence committees last year that he only briefed Trump three times about the plan to build a 100-story skyscraper in Russia’s capital. Cohen also said his general inquiry to the Kremlin went unanswered.

Read more: https://www.thedailybeast.com/cohen-trump-knew-i-called-kremlin-for-help-with-trump-tower-moscow?ref=home