[quote]
The former British spy who authored a controversial dossier on behalf of Donald Trump’s political opponents alleging ties between Trump and Russia reached an agreement with the FBI a few weeks before the election for the bureau to pay him to continue his work, according to several people familiar with the arrangement.
The agreement to compensate former MI6 agent Christopher Steele came as U.S. intelligence agencies reached a consensus that the Russians had interfered in the presidential election by orchestrating hacks of Democratic Party email accounts.[/quote]
[quote]
Ultimately, the FBI did not pay Steele. Communications between the bureau and the former spy were interrupted as Steele’s now-famous dossier became the subject of news stories, congressional inquiries and presidential denials, according to the people familiar with the arrangement, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter.[/quote]
[quote]
Steele was familiar to the FBI, in part because the bureau had previously hired him to help a U.S. inquiry into alleged corruption in the world soccer organization FIFA. The FBI sometimes pays informants, sources and outside investigators to assist in its work. Steele was known for the quality of his past work and for the knowledge he had developed over nearly 20 years working on Russia-related issues for British intelligence. The Washington Post was not able to determine how much the FBI intended to pay Steele had their relationship remained intact.[/quote]
[quote]
In October, anticipating that funding supplied through the original client would dry up, Steele and the FBI reached a verbal understanding: He would continue his work looking at the Kremlin’s ties to Trump and receive compensation for his efforts.
But Steele’s frustration deepened when FBI Director James B. Comey, who had been silent on the Russia inquiry, announced publicly 11 days before the election that the bureau was investigating a newly discovered cache of emails Clinton had exchanged using her private server, according to people familiar with Steele’s thinking.
Those people say Steele’s frustration with the FBI peaked after an Oct. 31 New York Times story that cited law enforcement sources drawing conclusions that he considered premature.[/quote]
Many fear the group’s activities are far from over. Cyber attacks on Nato are up 60 per cent in the past year, according to one official at the alliance. Attacks against EU institutions are up 20 per cent, says one senior security source at the commission.
The trail of evidence left by these attacks, while far from comprehensive, goes some way toward indicating the way Russia under President Vladimir Putin sees the world, and how the modern Russian state must secure its place within it. It is one of tactical opportunism and flexibility, but also deep and considered strategic commitments, lines of attack and influence, that have been years in development.
The previously undisclosed discussions could fuel new congressional calls for the appointment of a special counsel to investigate Russia’s alleged role in the 2016 presidential election. As attorney general, Sessions oversees the Justice Department and the FBI, which have been leading investigations into Russian meddling and any links to Trump’s associates. He has so far resisted calls to recuse himself.
When Sessions spoke with Kislyak in July and September, the senator was a senior member of the influential Armed Services Committee as well as one of Trump’s top foreign policy advisers. Sessions played a prominent role supporting Trump on the stump after formally joining the campaign in February 2016.
[…]
When asked to comment on Sessions’s contacts with Kislyak, Franken said in a statement to The Washington Post on Wednesday: “If it’s true that Attorney General Sessions met with the Russian ambassador in the midst of the campaign, then I am very troubled that his response to my questioning during his confirmation hearing was, at best, misleading.
Franken added: “It is now clearer than ever that the attorney general cannot, in good faith, oversee an investigation at the Department of Justice and the FBI of the Trump-Russia connection, and he must recuse himself immediately.”
“There was absolutely nothing misleading about his answer,” said Sarah Isgur Flores, Sessions’s spokeswoman.
Justice officials said Sessions met with Kislyak on Sept. 8 in his capacity as a member of the armed services panel rather than in his role as a Trump campaign surrogate.
“He was asked during the hearing about communications between Russia and the Trump campaign — not about meetings he took as a senator and a member of the Armed Services Committee,” Flores said.
She added that Sessions last year had more than 25 conversations with foreign ambassadors as a senior member of the Armed Services Committee, including the British, Korean, Japanese, Polish, Indian, Chinese, Canadian, Australian and German ambassadors, in addition to Kislyak.
I haven’t watched the video posted on twitter, but it sounded like he was asked if he had contact. Such a stupid thing too, all he had to say was he’d met with the ambassador as part of his work on the ASC.
OK I’ll admit it, I’m losing the thread here. Could anyone give me the non-paranoid opinion, is there a legitimate reason nearly everyone on Trump’s staff appears to have been in contact with Russia? Because this stuff is getting weird.
Oh, sure. I mean, as a byproduct of his work as a Senator and the work of many other people in politics and international business, you naturally come into contact with members of foreign governments. With Russia figuring prominently in the world, you’re more likely to run into them than, say, someone from Liechtenstein.
Of course, none of this excuses any of them for lying through their teeth.
Edit - to clarify, I used to spend a LOT of time in DC for school and then work. I was (and am) a “nobody” but I’ve had lunch or drinks with people who would eventually come to figure prominently in the political landscape, and that’s just as a nobody. Someone with a billion dollar company or who is already on that landscape surely rubbed many more elbows than I ever did.
Honestly, it could easily amount to nothing, but the fact they have been so evasive about it and most of the republicans refuse to do anything about it sure makes it look worse and worse. And again, this is why Trump’s connection to his businesses is such a problem. It invites speculation. The thing with the Chinese trademark is a perfect example. It could be complete coincidence that a decade-long legal battle was finally resolved just after the election, but it looks fishy.
Yes, that’s exactly the problem. Everything these guys do just feels so shifty it’s hard to see an innocent explanation. But I figured this is probably a lack of imagination on my part? Maybe?
This is the difference between thinking people and blind and crazed ideologues. The willingness to examine one’s position with a clear mind and re-examine premises and discard the blatantly false and wrong ones.
“When Senator Sessions testified under oath that ‘I did not have communications with the Russians,’ his statement was demonstrably false, yet he let it stand for weeks – and he continued to let it stand even as he watched the President tell the entire nation he didn’t know anything about anyone advising his campaign talking to the Russians," Cummings said in a statement.
“Attorney General Sessions should resign immediately, and there is no longer any question that we need a truly independent commission to investigate this issue.”
In a statement, Pelosi said Sessions committed “apparent perjury.”
“Jeff Sessions lied under oath during his confirmation hearing before the Senate,” Pelosi said. “Under the penalty of perjury, he told the Seante Judiciary Committee, ‘I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and I did not have communications with the Russians.’ We now know that statement is false.
“Now, after lying under oath to Congress about his own communications with the Russians, the attorney general must resign,” she continued. “Sessions is not fit to serve as the top law enforcement officer of our country.”
