Trump, Russia, and the News Story That Wasn’t
Liz Spayd

THE PUBLIC EDITOR JAN. 20, 2017



LATE September was a frantic period for New York Times reporters covering the country’s secretive national security apparatus. Working sources at the F.B.I., the C.I.A., Capitol Hill and various intelligence agencies, the team chased several bizarre but provocative leads that, if true, could upend the presidential race. The most serious question raised by the material was this: Did a covert connection exist between Donald Trump and Russian officials trying to influence an American election?

One vein of reporting centered on a possible channel of communication between a Trump organization computer server and a Russian bank with ties to Vladimir Putin. Another source was offering The Times salacious material describing an odd cross-continental dance between Trump and Moscow. The most damning claim was that Trump was aware of Russia’s efforts to hack Democratic computers, an allegation with implications of treason. Reporters Eric Lichtblau and Steven Lee Myers led the effort, aided by others.

Conversations over what to publish were prolonged and lively, involving Washington and New York, and often including the executive editor, Dean Baquet. If the allegations were true, it was a huge story. If false, they could damage The Times’s reputation. With doubts about the material and with the F.B.I. discouraging publication, editors decided to hold their fire.

But was that the right decision? Was there a way to write about some of these allegations using sound journalistic principles but still surfacing the investigation and important leads? Eventually, The Times did just that, but only after other news outlets had gone first.


I have spoken privately with several journalists involved in the reporting last fall, and I believe a strong case can be made that The Times was too timid in its decisions not to publish the material it had.

I appreciate the majority view that there wasn’t enough proof of a link between Trump and the Kremlin to write a hard-hitting story. But The Times knew several critical facts: the F.B.I. had a sophisticated investigation underway on Trump’s organization, possibly including FISA warrants. (Some news outlets now report that the F.B.I. did indeed have such warrants, an indication of probable cause.) Investigators had identified a mysterious communication channel, partly through a lead from anti-Trump operatives

more: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/20/public-editor/trump-russia-fbi-liz-spayd-public-editor.html?_r=0

Source: New York Daily News

The Lucchese family’s ruling hierarchy was charged Wednesday along with 16 other associates on charges of murder, drug-dealing and gambling in a lengthy federal indictment.

Named in the 30-page racketeering case were Lucchese street boss Matthew Madonna, his underboss Steven (Wonder Boy) Crea Sr., and consigliere Joseph DiNapoli.

Madonna, Crea, and the underboss’ namesake son Steven Jr. were charged as conspirators in the gruesome November 2013 murder of notorious mob killer Michael Meldish.

He was executed gangland-style, shot once in the head as he sat behind the wheel of a rusty Lincoln Continental in the Bronx. Meldish, 62, was suspected in at least 10 mob hits in the 1970s and 1980s.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/feds-cuff-19-massive-mob-takedown-new-york-article-1.3209306

By Steve Benen
Over the weekend, the Wall Street Journal reported that “a team of lawyers” may soon review Donald Trump’s social-media missives as the White House tries to grapple with the Russia scandal.

If that was the plan, it doesn’t appear to be going well. This morning, for example, the president published some tweets about the controversy that didn’t do Trump World any favors:

“So now it is reported that the Democrats, who have excoriated Carter Page about Russia, don’t want him to testify. He blows away their case against him & now wants to clear his name by showing ‘the false or misleading testimony by James Comey, John Brennan…’ Witch Hunt!”

Trump was apparently watching a Fox News segment this morning, which led to this little outburst.

And that’s a shame, because the president’s tweets are problematic for a variety of reasons.

For example, Trump, apparently quoting a letter Page sent to lawmakers seemed to argue this morning that the former directors of the FBI and the CIA delivered “false or misleading testimony” while under oath. That’s a pretty dangerous thing for a president to allege publicly without any evidence.

What’s more, Trump’s tweet follows Page’s claim that his interview with the House Intelligence Committee has been delayed, but it’s unclear if that interview had ever been scheduled in the first place.

But perhaps the most salient detail is Trump’s insistence that Carter Page has information that “blows away” the Democrats’ “case against him” in the Russia scandal. This, of course, leads to an awkward question: how exactly would the president know that?


A year ago, during the presidential campaign, Trump personally singled out Page, by name, as one of only a handful of people who were advising him on matters of foreign policy. That became highly problematic: the FBI has investigated Page as a possible agent of Russia.

The more controversial Page became, the more eager Team Trump became to put distance between Page and the president. Sean Spicer told reporters during the transition period, for example, “Carter Page is an individual whom [Trump] does not know.” The Washington Post added this morning people close to the president have insisted that Trump and Page “never met.”



http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/trump-defends-carter-page-whom-he-not-supposed-know

Is this person serious? Sabotage much? Any Ohioans in DU?


Nina does not sound like a DEM friend: Both parties blah blah blah. She does not wish us DEMS well at all.

Of course Breitbart's got an article on her words. They eat up sh*t like that.

I googled: nina turner ohio russia ...and First result was from Breitbart.


https://www.google.com/search?q=nina+turner+ohio+russia&rlz=1C1CHFX_enUS527US527&oq=nina+turner+ohio+russia&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l5.9384j0j8&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

My main point in this OP is about the photo circulating with wrong Hotel & date.

Not Trump Hotel election night!

Yes Waldorf Hotel July 2016.


edit:



@LouiseMensch

A little note. @puppymnkey and Milo Yiannopoulous lied about this photo. It was taken last July. Not post-election

https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipOrvjn_KTF_6dDImf6QAL-gyH-DrzzCdL4QdXkRvWirD4QfZAvT4sjqpodacgJipA?key=MHkwTVVrYmpUalZRSzZvUjY0

https://twitter.com/LouiseMensch/status/ 869382376853516288


Here:

It wasn't on election night. did somebody say that?? It was last summer. I spent election night in Utah with @Evan_McMullin @MindyFinn

thats wrong. was in UT. summer photo, I could pull the date... hold on. July 24, 2016.

Except they were taken last summer at the Waldorf, spent Election night in Utah with patriots by the names of @Evan_McMullin and supporters

https://twitter.com/LouiseMensch/status/ 869234594268286976

https://twitter.com/LouiseMensch/status/ 869245826849230850

https://twitter.com/LouiseMensch/status/ 869235748146434048

End.



Thought it'd be nice to correct wrong info on that point.

I follow her and 10 other people I like. Will continue to do so.

CONTENTS
Introductions...................................................................... 4
Executive Summary ........................................................... 6
Background......................................................................... 8
The Kremlin Tool Kit ........................................................ 14
The Weaponization of Information ...................................... 14
The Weaponization of Culture and Ideas ........................... 18
The Weaponization of Money ............................................... 22
The New, Non-Linear Internationale ............................. 24
Ukraine and the Advent of Non-Linear War.................. 29
Responses to 21st-Century Challenges......................... 34
Defining Western Weak Spots............................................... 34
Best Practices ........................................................................... 38
Recommendations ........................................................... 40
For Weaponization of Information....................................... 40
For Weaponization of Money ................................................ 42
For Weaponization of Ideas ................................................... 42

http://www.interpretermag.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/PW-31.pdf

Defining Western Weak
Spots
• The Kremlin applies different approaches to different
regions across the world, using local rivalries
and resentments to divide and conquer.
• The Kremlin exploits systemic weak spots in the
Western system, providing a sort of X-ray of the
underbelly of liberal democracy.
• The Kremlin successfully erodes the integrity of
investigative and political journalism, producing
a lack of faith in traditional media.
• Offshore zones and opaque shell companies help
sustain Kremlin corruption and aid its influence.
For journalists, the threat of libel means few publications
are ready to take on Kremlin-connected
figures.
• Lack of transparency in funding and the blurring of
distinctions between think tanks and lobbying
helps the Kremlin push its agendas forward without
due scrutiny.



Recommendations:
For the Weaponization of Information

• A Transparency International for Disinformation:
The creation of an NGO that would create
an internationally recognized ratings system for
disinformation and provide analytical tools with
which to define forms of communication.
• A “Disinformation Charter” for Media and Bloggers:
Top-down censorship should be avoided.
But rival media, from Al-Jazeera to the BBC, Fox
and beyond, need to get together to create a charter
of acceptable and unacceptable behavior. Vigorous
debate and disagreement is of course to be
encouraged—but media organizations that practice
conscious deception should be excluded from the
community. A similar code can be accepted by
bloggers and other online influencers.
• Counter-Disinformation Editors: Many newspapers
now employ “public editors,” or ombudsmen,
who question their outlet’s reporting or
op-ed selections and address matters of public
controversy that these might entail. “Counter-propaganda
editors” would pick apart what might be
called all the news unfit to print.
• Tracking Kremlin Networks: We must ensure
that Kremlin-supported spokesmen, officials and
intellectuals are held to account. Employees of
think tanks, pundits or policy consultants with
vested financial interests in the countries they
cover need to disclose their affiliations in public
statements.
• Public Information Campaigns: Stopping all
disinformation at all times is impossible. Public
information campaigns are needed to show
how disinformation works and shift the public’s
behavior towards being more critical of messages
that are being “buzzed” at them.
• Targeted Online Work: Audiences exposed to
systemic and intensive disinformation campaigns,
such as the Russian-speaking communities in
the Baltic states, need to be worked with through
targeted online campaigns that include the equivalent
of person-to-person online social work.

For the Weaponization of Money

• Strategic Corruption Research and a Journalists’
Libel Fund: Financial and institutional support
needs to be made available so that deep research
can be carried out in the sensitive area where
politics, security and corruption meet; this needs
to be backed up by a fund for journalists who
face potential libel litigation for the offense of
doing their jobs. A non-profit organization, based
in Western capitals, modeled on Lawyers Without
Borders but dedicated exclusively to defending
journalists, is long overdue.
• Target: Offshore: A network of stringers in offshore
jurisdictions is needed to carry out deep
research into the financial holdings of Russian
oligarchs and officials.
• Crowd-sourced Investigations: It is in the interest
of NGOs to enlist experienced bloggers, citizen
journalists or adept social media users to collaborate
on specific events or news stories that adhere
to the same standards of empirical rigor used
by traditional journalists. A handful of analysts
armed with YouTube, Google Maps, Instagram,
or foreign company registration websites can
generate headlines.

For the Weaponization of Culture and Ideas

• Re-establishing Transparency and Integrity in
the Expert Community: Self-disclosure of funding
by think tanks and a charter identifying clear
lines between funders and research would be a
first step in helping the sector regulate itself and
re-establish faith in its output.
• The Valdai Alternative: A broad gathering should
be convened to bring together think tanks, experts
and policymakers to focus on:
- addressing fears around the erosion of tradition,
religion and national sovereignty;
- mainstreaming Russia’s neighbors such as Ukraine,
Georgia and Estonia in the debate about Russian
policy; and
- engaging with “swing states” such as the BRICs and
others in the Middle East, Asia and South America
that are being courted by the Kremlin to join
its anti-Western Internationale.

Overall, the struggle against disinformation, strategic
corruption and the need to reinvigorate the global
case for liberal democracy are not merely Russia-specific
issues: today’s Kremlin might perhaps
be best viewed as an avant-garde of malevolent
globalization. The methods it pursues will be taken
up by others, and these counter-measures could
and should be adopted worldwide


More as in 44 pages here: http://www.interpretermag.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/PW-31.pdf

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Friday, May 26, 2017, 6:59 PM
A federal judge on Friday tossed out two life sentences for one of Virginia’s most notorious criminals, sniper Lee Boyd Malvo, and ordered Virginia courts to hold new sentencing hearings.

In his ruling, U.S. District Judge Raymond Jackson in Norfolk said Malvo is entitled to new sentencing hearings after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that mandatory life sentences for juveniles are unconstitutional.

Malvo was 17 when he was arrested in 2002 for a series of shootings that killed 10 people and wounded three over a three-week span in Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia, causing widespread fear throughout the region.

His accomplice, John Allen Muhammad, was executed in 2009.

Series of shootings on Kansas City highways leave 3 injured
Malvo also was sentenced to life in prison in Maryland for the murders that occurred there. But his lawyers have made an appeal on similar grounds in that state.

A hearing is scheduled in June. Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Ray Morrogh, who helped prosecute Malvo in 2003, said the Virginia attorney general can appeal Jackson’s ruling.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/federal-judge-orders-re-sentencing-sniper-lee-boyd-malvo-article-1.3199239

By JASMINE C. LEE UPDATED MAY 26, 2017

This year, there will be seven special House and Senate elections, five to fill vacancies left by members of the Trump administration. Democrats will need to gain 24 seats to take control of the House in 2018.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/us/elections/election-calendar.html


APRIL 4
California House Primary
Two Democrats, Jimmy Gomez and Robert Ahn, advanced to a June 6 runoff to fill the seat vacated by Xavier Becerra, now California's attorney general, in the 34th Congressional District.

APRIL 11
Kansas Special House Election
Ron Estes, a Republican, won the special election to fill the seat vacated by Mike Pompeo, now C.I.A. director, in the Fourth Congressional District.
Full results »

APRIL 18
Georgia Special House Election
Jon Ossoff, a Democrat, and Karen Handel, a Republican, advanced to a June 20 runoff to replace Tom Price, now secretary of health and human services, in the Sixth Congressional District.
Full results »

MAY 2
South Carolina House Primary
The Republicans Tommy Pope and Ralph Norman advanced to a May 16 primary runoff to replace Mick Mulvaney, now director of the Office of Management and Budget, in the Fifth Congressional District. The winner of the runoff will face Archie Parnell, who won the Democratic primary, on June 20.

Also, primaries for two state legislature seats.
Full results »

MAY 16
South Carolina House Primary Runoff
Ralph Norman narrowly defeated Tommy Pope in the Republican primary to replace Mick Mulvaney, now director of the Office of Management and Budget, in the Fifth Congressional District. Mr. Norman will face Archie Parnell, who won the Democratic primary, on June 20.
Full results »

MAY 25
Montana Special House Election
Greg Gianforte, a Republican technology executive who was charged with assault the night before the election, will fill the seat vacated by Ryan Zinke, now interior secretary, in Montana's at-large House seat.
Full results »

JUNE 6
California Special House Election
To replace Xavier Becerra, now California's attorney general, in the 34th Congressional District. Both candidates are Democrats.
First results expected around 11:30 p.m. Eastern.
New Jersey Primary
Governor, state legislature and mayor
First results expected around 8:15 p.m. Eastern.

JUNE 13
Virginia Primary
Governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general and state legislature
First results expected around 7:11 p.m. Eastern.

JUNE 20
Georgia House Election Runoff
South Carolina Special Election
To replace Mick Mulvaney, now director of the Office of Management and Budget, in the Fifth Congressional District.

Also, elections for two state legislature seats.

AUG. 15
Alabama Senate Primary
To replace Jeff Sessions, now U.S. Attorney General. A primary runoff will be held if no candidate receives a majority.
Utah House Primary
If there is a primary, it will be to choose candidates for the special election to replace Jason Chaffetz, who will resign from Congress on June 30, in the Third Congressional District.

SEPT. 12
New York Primary
New York City mayor, city council and other municipal offices

SEPT. 26
Alabama Senate Primary Runoff
New York Primary Runoff

NOV. 7
Utah Special House Election
To replace Jason Chaffetz, who will resign from Congress on June 30, in the Third Congressional District.
New Jersey
Governor, state legislature and mayor
Virginia
Governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general and state legislature
New York
New York City mayor, city council and municipal offices. Statewide referendum.
Maine
Statewide questions
Ohio
Statewide ballot measure
Georgia
Atlanta mayor

DEC. 12
Alabama Special Senate Election
To replace Jeff Sessions, now U.S. Attorney General.


https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/us/elections/election-calendar.html

https://twitter.com/BFriedmanDC/status/866821564225998848

Source: Ted Lieu's twitter

I am on the House Judiciary Committee. This is what I am going to read this evening.

https://twitter.com/tedlieu/status/865772627469754368

This is the House Judiciary Committee. Fun fact: If there are impeachment proceedings, this is where it would start. Just sayin'.


https://twitter.com/tedlieu/status/865219791539372032


So it’s notable that Lieu, who also has a Judicial Doctorate and practiced law while he was an Air Force JAG, has confirmed that he’s researching the impeachment process while stressing that he sits on the committee where impeachment begins.
https://www.palmerreport.com/politics/impeach-ted-lieu-trump/2963/


I found this info on Impeachment:

Impeachment Primer

1. A motion for impeachment is made in the house with the charges described [ Indictment ]
2. Debate ensues
3. Vote
4. Majority vote means House has determined that probable cause does exist thus The accused is now Impeached
5. The charges move to the senate for the trial
6. The trial Judge is the Chief Justice ( Roberts )
7. Evidence presented
8. Testimony
9. Defense
10. It takes a 2/3 majority vote for conviction 67 senators
In the history of our country no President has ever been convicted
https://twitter.com/RickNCincy/




Read more: Link to source