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Senior U.S. Republican senator: 'Let Mr. Mueller do his job'

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The special counsel investigation of links between Russia and President Trump’s 2016 election campaign should continue without interference in 2018, despite calls from some Trump administration allies and Republican lawmakers to shut it down, a prominent Republican senator said on Sunday. Lindsey Graham, who serves on the Senate armed forces and judiciary committees, said Department of Justice Special Counsel Robert Mueller needs to carry on with his Russia investigation without political interference. “This investigation will go forward. It will be an investigation conducted without political influence,” Graham said on CBS’s Face the Nation news program. “And we all need to let Mr. Mueller do his job. I think he’s the right guy at the right time.”  The question of how Russia may have interfered in the election, and how Trump’s campaign may have had links with or co-ordinated any such effort, has loomed over the White House since Trump took office in January. It shows no sign of receding as Trump prepares for his second year in power, despite intensified rhetoric from some Trump allies in recent weeks accusing Mueller’s team of bias against the Republican president. Trump himself seemed to undercut his supporters in an interview last week with the New York Times in which he said he expected Mueller was “going to be fair.”    Russia’s role in the election and the question of possible links to the Trump campaign are the focus of multiple inquiries in Washington. Three committees of the Senate and the House of Representatives are investigating, as well as Mueller, whose team in May took over an earlier probe launched by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Several members of the Trump campaign and administration have been convicted or indicted in the investigation.  Trump and his allies deny any collusion with Russia during the campaign, and the Kremlin has denied meddling in the election. Graham said he still wants an examination of the FBI’s use of a dossier on links between Trump and Russia that was compiled by a former British spy, Christopher Steele, which prompted Trump allies and some Republicans to question Mueller’s inquiry.   On Saturday, the New York Times reported that it was not that dossier that triggered an early FBI probe, but a tip from former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos to an Australian diplomat that Russia had damaging information about former Trump rival Hillary Clinton.  “I want somebody to look at the way the Department of Justice used this dossier. It bothers me greatly the way they used it, and I want somebody to look at it,” Graham said. But he said the Russia investigation must continue. “As a matter of fact, it would hurt us if we ignored it,” he said.

politicsNews

31-Dec-17

FAKE

 Drunk Bragging Trump Staffer Started Russian Collusion Investigation

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes is going to have a bad day. He s been under the assumption, like many of us, that the Christopher Steele-dossier was what prompted the Russia investigation so he s been lashing out at the Department of Justice and the FBI in order to protect Trump. As it happens, the dossier is not what started the investigation, according to documents obtained by the New York Times.Former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos was drunk in a wine bar when he revealed knowledge of Russian opposition research on Hillary Clinton.On top of that, Papadopoulos wasn t just a covfefe boy for Trump, as his administration has alleged. He had a much larger role, but none so damning as being a drunken fool in a wine bar. Coffee boys  don t help to arrange a New York meeting between Trump and President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt two months before the election. It was known before that the former aide set up meetings with world leaders for Trump, but team Trump ran with him being merely a coffee boy.In May 2016, Papadopoulos revealed to Australian diplomat Alexander Downer that Russian officials were shopping around possible dirt on then-Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. Exactly how much Mr. Papadopoulos said that night at the Kensington Wine Rooms with the Australian, Alexander Downer, is unclear,  the report states.  But two months later, when leaked Democratic emails began appearing online, Australian officials passed the information about Mr. Papadopoulos to their American counterparts, according to four current and former American and foreign officials with direct knowledge of the Australians  role. Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to lying to the F.B.I. and is now a cooperating witness with Special Counsel Robert Mueller s team.This isn t a presidency. It s a badly scripted reality TV show.Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images.

News

31-Dec-17

TRUE

Trump says Russia probe will be fair, but timeline unclear: NYT

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla (Reuters) - President Donald Trump said on Thursday he believes he will be fairly treated in a special counsel investigation into Russian meddling in the U.S. presidential election, but said he did not know how long the probe would last. The federal investigation has hung over Trump’s White House since he took office almost a year ago, and some Trump allies have in recent weeks accused the team of Justice Department Special Counsel Robert Mueller of being biased against the Republican president. But in an interview with the New York Times, Trump appeared to shrug off concerns about the investigation, which was prompted by U.S. intelligence agencies’ conclusion that Russia tried to help Trump defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton by hacking and releasing embarrassing emails and disseminating propaganda. “There’s been no collusion. But I think he’s going to be fair,” Trump said in what the Times described as a 30-minute impromptu interview at his golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida. Mueller has charged four Trump associates in his investigation. Russia has denied interfering in the U.S. election. U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said this month that he was not aware of any impropriety by Mueller’s team. Trump’s lawyers have been saying for weeks that they had expected the Mueller investigation to wrap up quickly, possibly by the end of 2017. Mueller has not commented on how long it will last. Trump told the Times that he did not know how long the investigation would take. “Timing-wise, I can’t tell you. I just don’t know,” he said. Trump said he thought a prolonged probe “makes the country look bad” but said it has energized his core supporters. “What it’s done is, it’s really angered the base and made the base stronger. My base is strong than it’s ever been,” he said. The interview was a rare break in Trump’s Christmas vacation in Florida. He has golfed each day aside from Christmas Day, and mainly kept a low profile, apart from the occasional flurry of tweets. He spent one day golfing with Republican Senator David Perdue from Georgia, who has pushed legislation to cap immigration numbers, and had dinner on Thursday with Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, an international trade hawk. Trump told the Times he hoped to work with Democrats in the U.S. Congress on a spending plan to fix roads and other infrastructure, and on protections for a group of undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children. Trump spoke about trade issues, saying he had backed off his hard line on Chinese trade practices in the hope that Beijing would do more to pressure North Korea to end its nuclear and missile testing program. He said he had been disappointed in the results. He also complained about the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which his administration is attempting to renegotiate in talks with Mexico and Canada. Trump said Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had played down the importance of Canadian oil and lumber exports to the United States when looking at the balance of trade between the two countries. “If I don’t make the right deal, I’ll terminate NAFTA in two seconds. But we’re doing pretty good,” Trump said.

politicsNews

29-Dec-17

FAKE

 Racist Alabama Cops Brutalize Black Boy While He Is In Handcuffs (GRAPHIC IMAGES)

The number of cases of cops brutalizing and killing people of color seems to see no end. Now, we have another case that needs to be shared far and wide. An Alabama woman by the name of Angela Williams shared a graphic photo of her son, lying in a hospital bed with a beaten and fractured face, on Facebook. It needs to be shared far and wide, because this is unacceptable.It is unclear why Williams  son was in police custody or what sort of altercation resulted in his arrest, but when you see the photo you will realize that these details matter not. Cops are not supposed to beat and brutalize those in their custody. In the post you are about to see, Ms. Williams expresses her hope that the cops had their body cameras on while they were beating her son, but I think we all know that there will be some kind of convenient  malfunction  to explain away the lack of existence of dash or body camera footage of what was clearly a brutal beating. Hell, it could even be described as attempted murder. Something tells me that this young man will never be the same. Without further ado, here is what Troy, Alabama s finest decided was appropriate treatment of Angela Williams  son:No matter what the perceived crime of this young man might be, this is completely unacceptable. The cops who did this need to rot in jail for a long, long time   but what you wanna bet they get a paid vacation while the force  investigates  itself, only to have the officers returned to duty posthaste?This, folks, is why we say BLACK LIVES MATTER. No way in hell would this have happened if Angela Williams  son had been white. Please share far and wide, and stay tuned to Addicting Info for further updates.Featured image via David McNew/Stringer/Getty Images

News

25-Dec-17

TRUE

U.S. military to accept transgender recruits on Monday: Pentagon

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Transgender people will be allowed for the first time to enlist in the U.S. military starting on Monday as ordered by federal courts, the Pentagon said on Friday, after President Donald Trump’s administration decided not to appeal rulings that blocked his transgender ban. Two federal appeals courts, one in Washington and one in Virginia, last week rejected the administration’s request to put on hold orders by lower court judges requiring the military to begin accepting transgender recruits on Jan. 1. A Justice Department official said the administration will not challenge those rulings. “The Department of Defense has announced that it will be releasing an independent study of these issues in the coming weeks. So rather than litigate this interim appeal before that occurs, the administration has decided to wait for DOD’s study and will continue to defend the president’s lawful authority in District Court in the meantime,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. In September, the Pentagon said it had created a panel of senior officials to study how to implement a directive by Trump to prohibit transgender individuals from serving. The Defense Department has until Feb. 21 to submit a plan to Trump. Lawyers representing currently-serving transgender service members and aspiring recruits said they had expected the administration to appeal the rulings to the conservative-majority Supreme Court, but were hoping that would not happen. Pentagon spokeswoman Heather Babb said in a statement: “As mandated by court order, the Department of Defense is prepared to begin accessing transgender applicants for military service Jan. 1. All applicants must meet all accession standards.” Jennifer Levi, a lawyer with gay, lesbian and transgender advocacy group GLAD, called the decision not to appeal “great news.” “I’m hoping it means the government has come to see that there is no way to justify a ban and that it’s not good for the military or our country,” Levi said. Both GLAD and the American Civil Liberties Union represent plaintiffs in the lawsuits filed against the administration. In a move that appealed to his hard-line conservative supporters, Trump announced in July that he would prohibit transgender people from serving in the military, reversing Democratic President Barack Obama’s policy of accepting them. Trump said on Twitter at the time that the military “cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail.” Four federal judges - in Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Seattle and Riverside, California - have issued rulings blocking Trump’s ban while legal challenges to the Republican president’s policy proceed. The judges said the ban would likely violate the right under the U.S. Constitution to equal protection under the law. The Pentagon on Dec. 8 issued guidelines to recruitment personnel in order to enlist transgender applicants by Jan. 1. The memo outlined medical requirements and specified how the applicants’ sex would be identified and even which undergarments they would wear. The Trump administration previously said in legal papers that the armed forces were not prepared to train thousands of personnel on the medical standards needed to process transgender applicants and might have to accept “some individuals who are not medically fit for service.” The Obama administration had set a deadline of July 1, 2017, to begin accepting transgender recruits. But Trump’s defense secretary, James Mattis, postponed that date to Jan. 1, 2018, which the president’s ban then put off indefinitely. Trump has taken other steps aimed at rolling back transgender rights. In October, his administration said a federal law banning gender-based workplace discrimination does not protect transgender employees, reversing another Obama-era position. In February, Trump rescinded guidance issued by the Obama administration saying that public schools should allow transgender students to use the restroom that corresponds to their gender identity.

politicsNews

29-Dec-17

FAKE

White House, Congress prepare for talks on spending, immigration

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla./WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House said on Friday it was set to kick off talks next week with Republican and Democratic congressional leaders on immigration policy, government spending and other issues that need to be wrapped up early in the new year. The expected flurry of legislative activity comes as Republicans and Democrats begin to set the stage for midterm congressional elections in November. President Donald Trump’s Republican Party is eager to maintain control of Congress while Democrats look for openings to wrest seats away in the Senate and the House of Representatives. On Wednesday, Trump’s budget chief Mick Mulvaney and legislative affairs director Marc Short will meet with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan - both Republicans - and their Democratic counterparts, Senator Chuck Schumer and Representative Nancy Pelosi, the White House said. That will be followed up with a weekend of strategy sessions for Trump, McConnell and Ryan on Jan. 6 and 7 at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland, according to the White House. The Senate returns to work on Jan. 3 and the House on Jan. 8. Congress passed a short-term government funding bill last week before taking its Christmas break, but needs to come to an agreement on defense spending and various domestic programs by Jan. 19, or the government will shut down. Also on the agenda for lawmakers is disaster aid for people hit by hurricanes in Puerto Rico, Texas and Florida, and by wildfires in California. The House passed an $81 billion package in December, which the Senate did not take up. The White House has asked for a smaller figure, $44 billion. Deadlines also loom for soon-to-expire protections for young adult immigrants who entered the country illegally as children, known as “Dreamers.” In September, Trump ended Democratic former President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which protected Dreamers from deportation and provided work permits, effective in March, giving Congress until then to devise a long-term solution. Democrats, some Republicans and a number of large companies have pushed for DACA protections to continue. Trump and other Republicans have said that will not happen without Congress approving broader immigration policy changes and tougher border security. Democrats oppose funding for a wall promised by Trump along the U.S.-Mexican border.  “The Democrats have been told, and fully understand, that there can be no DACA without the desperately needed WALL at the Southern Border and an END to the horrible Chain Migration & ridiculous Lottery System of Immigration etc,” Trump said in a Twitter post on Friday. Trump wants to overhaul immigration rules for extended families and others seeking to live in the United States. Republican U.S. Senator Jeff Flake, a frequent critic of the president, said he would work with Trump to protect Dreamers. “We can fix DACA in a way that beefs up border security, stops chain migration for the DREAMers, and addresses the unfairness of the diversity lottery. If POTUS (Trump) wants to protect these kids, we want to help him keep that promise,” Flake wrote on Twitter. Congress in early 2018 also must raise the U.S. debt ceiling to avoid a government default. The U.S. Treasury would exhaust all of its borrowing options and run dry of cash to pay its bills by late March or early April if Congress does not raise the debt ceiling before then, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Trump, who won his first major legislative victory with the passage of a major tax overhaul this month, has also promised a major infrastructure plan.

politicsNews

29-Dec-17

FAKE

 Pope Francis Just Called Out Donald Trump During His Christmas Speech

Pope Francis used his annual Christmas Day message to rebuke Donald Trump without even mentioning his name. The Pope delivered his message just days after members of the United Nations condemned Trump s move to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The Pontiff prayed on Monday for the  peaceful coexistence of two states within mutually agreed and internationally recognized borders. We see Jesus in the children of the Middle East who continue to suffer because of growing tensions between Israelis and Palestinians,  Francis said.  On this festive day, let us ask the Lord for peace for Jerusalem and for all the Holy Land. Let us pray that the will to resume dialogue may prevail between the parties and that a negotiated solution can finally be reached. The Pope went on to plead for acceptance of refugees who have been forced from their homes, and that is an issue Trump continues to fight against. Francis used Jesus for which there was  no place in the inn  as an analogy. Today, as the winds of war are blowing in our world and an outdated model of development continues to produce human, societal and environmental decline, Christmas invites us to focus on the sign of the Child and to recognize him in the faces of little children, especially those for whom, like Jesus,  there is no place in the inn,  he said. Jesus knows well the pain of not being welcomed and how hard it is not to have a place to lay one s head,  he added.  May our hearts not be closed as they were in the homes of Bethlehem. The Pope said that Mary and Joseph were immigrants who struggled to find a safe place to stay in Bethlehem. They had to leave their people, their home, and their land,  Francis said.  This was no comfortable or easy journey for a young couple about to have a child.   At heart, they were full of hope and expectation because of the child about to be born; yet their steps were weighed down by the uncertainties and dangers that attend those who have to leave their home behind. So many other footsteps are hidden in the footsteps of Joseph and Mary,  Francis said Sunday. We see the tracks of entire families forced to set out in our own day. We see the tracks of millions of persons who do not choose to go away, but driven from their land, leave behind their dear ones. Amen to that.Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images.

News

25-Dec-17

TRUE

 WATCH: Brand-New Pro-Trump Ad Features So Much A** Kissing It Will Make You Sick

Just when you might have thought we d get a break from watching people kiss Donald Trump s ass and stroke his ego ad nauseam, a pro-Trump group creates an ad that s nothing but people doing even more of those exact things. America First Policies is set to release this ad, called  Thank You, President Trump,  on Christmas Day and, well, we threw up a little in our mouths trying to watch this.Basically, the spot is nothing but people fawning all over Trump for all the stuff he hasn t actually done. The ad includes a scene with a little girl thanking Trump for bringing back  Merry Christmas,  which never went away (there are even videos of President Obama saying  Merry Christmas  himself). A man thanks him for cutting his taxes. And America First says that everyday Americans everywhere are thanking Trump for being such a great and awesome president.The best president.Nobody s ever done what he s done. He s breaking all kinds of records every day.Believe us.Anyway, the word  propaganda  comes to mind when watching this. That s what it is   literal propaganda promoting someone who shouldn t need this kind of promotion anymore. Watch this ad bullshit below:The way the MAGAs are kowtowing to Orange Hitler is both disgusting and frightening. The man has done nothing, and his policies will harm the very same Americans who are thanking him. Unfortunately, it will take an obscene amount of pain before they ll open their eyes and see they ve been duped by a con man with a bad hairdo.And his ongoing need for this kind of adoration is, at best, unbecoming of his office. This ad is vile.Featured image via Al Drago-Pool/Getty Images

News

21-Dec-17

TRUE

Factbox: Trump on Twitter (Dec 29) - Approval rating, Amazon

The following statements were posted to the verified Twitter accounts of U.S. President Donald Trump, @realDonaldTrump and @POTUS.  The opinions expressed are his own. Reuters has not edited the statements or confirmed their accuracy.  @realDonaldTrump : - While the Fake News loves to talk about my so-called low approval rating, @foxandfriends just showed that my rating on Dec. 28, 2017, was approximately the same as President Obama on Dec. 28, 2009, which was 47%...and this despite massive negative Trump coverage & Russia hoax! [0746 EST] - Why is the United States Post Office, which is losing many billions of dollars a year, while charging Amazon and others so little to deliver their packages, making Amazon richer and the Post Office dumber and poorer? Should be charging MUCH MORE! [0804 EST] -- Source link: (bit.ly/2jBh4LU) (bit.ly/2jpEXYR)

politicsNews

29-Dec-17

FAKE

 Former CIA Director Slams Trump Over UN Bullying, Openly Suggests He’s Acting Like A Dictator (TWEET)

Many people have raised the alarm regarding the fact that Donald Trump is dangerously close to becoming an autocrat. The thing is, democracies become autocracies right under the people s noses, because they can often look like democracies in the beginning phases. This was explained by Republican David Frum just a couple of months into Donald Trump s presidency, in a piece in The Atlantic called  How to Build an Autocracy. In fact, if you really look critically at what is happening right now   the systematic discrediting of vital institutions such as the free press and the Federal Bureau of Investigation as well the direct weaponization of the Department of Justice in order to go after Trump s former political opponent, 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, and you have the makings of an autocracy. We are more than well on our way. Further, one chamber of Congress, the House of Representatives, already has a rogue band of Republicans who are running a parallel investigation to the official Russian collusion investigation, with the explicit intent of undermining and discrediting the idea that Trump could have possibly done anything wrong with the Russians in order to swing the 2016 election in his favor.All of that is just for starters, too. Now, we have Trump making United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley bully and threaten other countries in the United Nations who voted against Trump s decision to change U.S. policy when it comes to recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish State. Well, one expert, who is usually quite measured, has had enough of Trump s autocratic antics: Former CIA Director John O. Brennan. The seasoned spy took to Trump s favorite platform, Twitter, and blasted the decision:Trump Admin threat to retaliate against nations that exercise sovereign right in UN to oppose US position on Jerusalem is beyond outrageous. Shows @realDonaldTrump expects blind loyalty and subservience from everyone qualities usually found in narcissistic, vengeful autocrats.  John O. Brennan (@JohnBrennan) December 21, 2017Director Brennan is correct, of course. Trump is behaving just like an autocrat, and so many people in the nation are asleep when it comes to this dangerous age, in which the greatest threat to democracy and the very fabric of the republic itself is the American president. Fellow Americans, we know the GOP-led Congress will not be the check on Trump that they are supposed to be. It s time to get out and flip the House and possibly the Senate in 2018, and resist in the meantime, if we want to save our country from devolving into something that looks more like Russia or North Korea than the America we have always know. We re already well on our way.Featured image via BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images

News

22-Dec-17

TRUE

 Trump Is So Obsessed He Even Has Obama’s Name Coded Into His Website (IMAGES)

On Christmas day, Donald Trump announced that he would  be back to work  the following day, but he is golfing for the fourth day in a row. The former reality show star blasted former President Barack Obama for playing golf and now Trump is on track to outpace the number of golf games his predecessor played.Updated my tracker of Trump s appearances at Trump properties.71 rounds of golf including today s. At this pace, he ll pass Obama s first-term total by July 24 next year. https://t.co/Fg7VacxRtJ pic.twitter.com/5gEMcjQTbH  Philip Bump (@pbump) December 29, 2017 That makes what a Washington Post reporter discovered on Trump s website really weird, but everything about this administration is bizarre AF. The coding contained a reference to Obama and golf:  Unlike Obama, we are working to fix the problem   and not on the golf course.  However, the coding wasn t done correctly.The website of Donald Trump, who has spent several days in a row at the golf course, is coded to serve up the following message in the event of an internal server error: https://t.co/zrWpyMXRcz pic.twitter.com/wiQSQNNzw0  Christopher Ingraham (@_cingraham) December 28, 2017That snippet of code appears to be on all https://t.co/dkhw0AlHB4 pages, which the footer says is paid for by the RNC? pic.twitter.com/oaZDT126B3  Christopher Ingraham (@_cingraham) December 28, 2017It s also all over https://t.co/ayBlGmk65Z. As others have noted in this thread, this is weird code and it s not clear it would ever actually display, but who knows.  Christopher Ingraham (@_cingraham) December 28, 2017After the coding was called out, the reference to Obama was deleted.UPDATE: The golf error message has been removed from the Trump and GOP websites. They also fixed the javascript  =  vs  ==  problem. Still not clear when these messages would actually display, since the actual 404 (and presumably 500) page displays a different message pic.twitter.com/Z7dmyQ5smy  Christopher Ingraham (@_cingraham) December 29, 2017That suggests someone at either RNC or the Trump admin is sensitive enough to Trump s golf problem to make this issue go away quickly once people noticed. You have no idea how much I d love to see the email exchange that led us here.  Christopher Ingraham (@_cingraham) December 29, 2017 The code was f-cked up.The best part about this is that they are using the  =  (assignment) operator which means that bit of code will never get run. If you look a few lines up  errorCode  will always be  404          (@tw1trsux) December 28, 2017trump s coders can t code. Nobody is surprised.  Tim Peterson (@timrpeterson) December 28, 2017Donald Trump is obsessed with Obama that his name was even in the coding of his website while he played golf again.Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images.

News

29-Dec-17

TRUE

FBI Russia probe helped by Australian diplomat tip-off: NYT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos told an Australian diplomat in May 2016 that Russia had political dirt on Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, the New York Times reported on Saturday. The conversation between Papadopoulos and the diplomat, Alexander Downer, in London was a driving factor behind the FBI’s decision to open a counter-intelligence investigation of Moscow’s contacts with the Trump campaign, the Times reported. Two months after the meeting, Australian officials passed the information that came from Papadopoulos to their American counterparts when leaked Democratic emails began appearing online, according to the newspaper, which cited four current and former U.S. and foreign officials. Besides the information from the Australians, the probe by the Federal Bureau of Investigation was also propelled by intelligence from other friendly governments, including the British and Dutch, the Times said. Papadopoulos, a Chicago-based international energy lawyer, pleaded guilty on Oct. 30 to lying to FBI agents about contacts with people who claimed to have ties to top Russian officials. It was the first criminal charge alleging links between the Trump campaign and Russia. The White House has played down the former aide’s campaign role, saying it was “extremely limited” and that any actions he took would have been on his own. The New York Times, however, reported that Papadopoulos helped set up a meeting between then-candidate Donald Trump and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and edited the outline of Trump’s first major foreign policy speech in April 2016. The federal investigation, which is now being led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, has hung over Trump’s White House since he took office almost a year ago. Some Trump allies have recently accused Mueller’s team of being biased against the Republican president. Lawyers for Papadopoulos did not immediately respond to requests by Reuters for comment. Mueller’s office declined to comment. Trump’s White House attorney, Ty Cobb, declined to comment on the New York Times report. “Out of respect for the special counsel and his process, we are not commenting on matters such as this,” he said in a statement. Mueller has charged four Trump associates, including Papadopoulos, in his investigation. Russia has denied interfering in the U.S. election and Trump has said there was no collusion between his campaign and Moscow.

politicsNews

30-Dec-17

FAKE