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WASHINGTON — Andrew G. McCabe, the former F.B.I. deputy director and a frequent target of President Trump’s scorn, was fired Friday after Attorney General Jeff Sessions rejected an appeal that would have let him retire this weekend.
Mr. McCabe promptly declared that his firing, and Mr. Trump’s persistent needling, were intended to undermine the special counsel’s investigation in which he is a potential witness.
Mr. McCabe is accused in a yet-to-be-released internal report of failing to be forthcoming about a conversation he authorized between F.B.I. officials and a journalist.
In a statement released late Friday, Mr. Sessions said that Mr. McCabe had shown a lack of candor under oath on multiple occasions.
“The F.B.I. expects every employee to adhere to the highest standards of honesty, integrity and accountability,” he said. “I have terminated the employment of Andrew McCabe effective immediately.”
Early Saturday morning, the president weighed in with another shot at Mr. McCabe, posting on Twitter that it was “a great day for the hard working men and women of the FBI.”
In an interview, Mr. McCabe was blunt. “The idea that I was dishonest is just wrong,” he said, adding, “This is part of an effort to discredit me as a witness.”
F.B.I. disciplinary officials recommended his dismissal. Mr. McCabe, who stepped down in January and took a leave of absence, denied the accusation and appealed this week to senior career officials in the Justice Department.
Lack of candor is a fireable offense at the F.B.I., but Mr. McCabe’s last-minute dismissal was carried out against a highly politicized backdrop.
Mr. McCabe was among the first at the F.B.I. to scrutinize possible Trump campaign ties to Russia. And he is a potential witness to the question of whether Mr. Trump tried to obstruct justice. Mr. Trump has taunted Mr. McCabe both publicly and privately, and Republican allies have cast him as the center of a “deep state” effort to undermine the Trump presidency.
As a witness, Mr. McCabe would be in a position to corroborate the testimony of the former F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, who kept contemporaneous notes on his conversations with Mr. Trump. Mr. Comey said Mr. Trump prodded him to publicly exonerate the president on the question of Russian collusion and encouraged him to shut down an investigation into his national security adviser.
In a statement released by his lawyers, Mr. McCabe said his firing was part of Mr. Trump’s “ongoing war on the F.B.I.” and Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel. He said he answered questions truthfully in the internal investigation and contacted investigators to correct the record when he believed they misunderstood him.
“I am being singled out and treated this way because of the role I played, the actions I took and the events I witnessed in the aftermath of the firing of James Comey,” he said.
Mr. McCabe, a 21-year F.B.I. veteran, was eligible for a government pension if he retired on Sunday. The firing jeopardizes that benefit, though it was not immediately clear how much he might lose.
“It’s incredibly unfair to my reputation after a 21-year career,” Mr. McCabe said. He said the president’s public attacks were aimed at several targets. “The real damage is being done to the F.B.I., law enforcement and the special counsel,” he said.
Mr. McCabe was the F.B.I.’s second in command during one of the most tumultuous periods in the bureau’s history. He oversaw investigations into both the Trump campaign and Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server — and he dealt with the fallout from both. He became the acting F.B.I. director after the sudden firing of his boss, Mr. Comey, and he publicly contradicted the White House on national television over whether Mr. Comey had lost the support of rank-and-file F.B.I. agents.
Since then, Mr. Trump has repeatedly singled him out for public attack, suggesting that he helped protect Mrs. Clinton from prosecution during the 2016 presidential campaign. As evidence, he pointed to the fact that Mr. McCabe’s wife, Jill, ran as a Democrat for a State Senate seat in Virginia and received hundreds of thousands of dollars from a political committee run by Terry McAuliffe, a longtime ally of the Clintons.
As recently as Thursday, even as the White House said it left Mr. McCabe’s fate in Mr. Sessions’s hands, officials there left little doubt where the president stood. “It is well documented that he has had some very troubling behavior and by most accounts a bad actor,” said the White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
Mr. McCabe’s lawyer called those comments “vile and defamatory” and said they were intended to put pressure on the Justice Department. “This intervention by the White House in the D.O.J. disciplinary process is unprecedented, deeply unfair and dangerous,” said the lawyer, Michael R. Bromwich.
Mrs. McCabe lost her race and Mr. McCabe was later promoted to deputy director, where he oversaw the investigation into Mrs. Clinton. No charges were filed in that case, and Mr. Trump has pointed to the donations to Mrs. McCabe’s campaign as evidence of F.B.I. bias.
The president is not involved in the firing decisions of career employees like Mr. McCabe. His firing had been recommended by veteran disciplinary officials. But Mr. Trump’s statements loom large over the decision, which is why previous presidents have typically refrained from wading into law enforcement and personnel matters.
The inspector general’s report faults Mr. McCabe for his lack of candor in interviews with internal investigators. The report has not been released, but people briefed on it say the allegations revolve around disclosures to The Wall Street Journal, which reported in October 2016 a dispute between the F.B.I. and the Justice Department over how to proceed in an investigation into the Clinton family’s foundation.
Mr. McCabe, working through the F.B.I. press office, authorized a spokesman and a bureau lawyer to speak with The Journal in order to rebut allegations that Mr. McCabe had slowed down the Clinton Foundation investigation. To the contrary, the article ultimately noted, Mr. McCabe had insisted that his agents had the authority to investigate the foundation, even if the Justice Department refused to authorize grand jury subpoenas.
Mr. McCabe joined the F.B.I. after law school and rose quickly through the ranks. Mr. Comey groomed him for senior leadership from a young age, rankling some agents who saw him as too academic and not enough of a traditional crime-fighter. But senior F.B.I. officials and his counterparts in other agencies praised his intellect and ability to manage complicated worldwide national security issues.
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The FBI took it upon itself to determine whether the president of the United States is a threat to national security.
No one had ever before thought that this was an appropriate role for the FBI, a subordinate agency in the executive branch, but Donald Trump isn’t the only one in Washington trampling norms.
The New York Times reported the astonishing news. “Counterintelligence investigators,” the paper writes, “had to consider whether the president’s own actions constituted a possible threat to national security.” U.S. presidents over the decades have made many foolhardy decisions that have undermined our security; never before have they been deemed a fit subject for an FBI investigation.
The proximate cause for the probe into Trump was his firing of FBI Director James Comey, which the FBI considered both a potential crime and a national security matter because it might shut down the investigation into Russian efforts to influence the 2016 election.
Even if they were shocked by the treatment of Comey, top FBI officials should have been able to quickly ascertain that the Russia investigation continued unimpeded — indeed, it is still ongoing today.
If the Times reporting is correct, the FBI grew more suspicious of Trump’s conduct based on comments that have been widely misunderstood. Among the bill of particulars:
• During the campaign, he urged the Russians to hack Hillary Clinton’s email. Trump clearly meant this line sardonically, though.
• The GOP platform allegedly was softened toward Russia. Never mind that, as Byron York of the Washington Examiner has demonstrated, this didn’t actually happen.
• And in his Lester Holt interview after the Comey firing, Trump said that “this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story.” The president added, it’s worth noting, that he knew firing Comey probably extended the investigation rather than shortened it.
More legitimately, agents were disturbed by Trump’s continual praise for Vladimir Putin. These comments were blameworthy, but not a federal offense.
The Times implies that foreign policy played into the FBI internal debate whether to investigate Trump. “Many involved in the case,” the paper reports, “viewed Russia as the chief threat to American democratic values.” That is an entirely defensible and perhaps correct view (China is the other candidate for the dubious distinction). But there is no warrant for the FBI letting it influence the momentous decision whether to investigate the president of the United States.
As part of the executive branch, the FBI should brush up on the powers of the chief executive. The president gets to fire subordinate executive branch officials. He gets to meet with and talk to foreign leaders. He gets to make policy toward foreign nations. Especially important to the current investigation, he gets to say foolish, ill-informed and destructive things.
If the president wants to tilt toward Russia (not that Trump really has, except in his words), he can. If he wants to butter up China’s dictatorial president during high-stakes trade negotiations, he can. If he wants to announce a precipitous withdrawal from Syria and make it slightly less precipitous in a fog of confusion, he can.
And the FBI should have nothing to say about it.
The Times story is another sign that we have forgotten the role of our respective branches of government. It is Congress that exists to check and investigate the president, not the FBI. Congress can inveigh against his foreign policy and constrain his options. It can build a case for not re-electing him and perhaps impeach him. These are all actions to be undertaken out in the open by politically accountable players, so the public can make informed judgments about them.
Perhaps the Times report is exaggerated, or the FBI has serious evidence of a criminally corrupt quid pro quo between Trump and Moscow that there’s no public indication of yet.
Otherwise, the Times story is a damning account of an offense against our political order, and not by Donald Trump.
Rich Lowry is editor of the National Review.
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USA TODAY Published 4:04 p.m. ET Jan. 14, 2019 | Updated 4:47 p.m. ET Jan. 14, 2019
The New York Times reported Friday that after President Donald Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, the bureau began to investigate whether Trump was "knowingly working for Russia or had unwittingly fallen under Moscow’s influence."
This isn't newsworthy
By Arthur I. Cyr
The report in The New York Times and elsewhere of the FBI's focus on Russian influence on President Donald Trump has news media center stage, but is the item really so newsworthy? Yes, but not for the reasons usually given.
According to the reports, after Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, some in the agency began investigating whether the president was “working on behalf of Russia.” Trying to do business in Russia, while a candidate for president of the United States, is stupid but not illegal.
Then, after intelligence arose that Russia meddled in the 2016 election, special counsel Robert Mueller was formally appointed to investigate Russian involvement in the Trump campaign. The Justice Department, which includes the FBI, initiated this. The separate informal efforts by the FBI, if true, indicate malice as well as vigilantism.
The latest “news” provides Trump further ammunition to condemn Washington institutions and reinforce his committed public base. Along with the government shutdown over border security, this can be an applause theme for his 2020 re-election campaign.
But a more significant story is the long-term deterioration of the FBI. The partisan behavior exemplified by FBI representatives regarding Trump shouldn't be tolerated.
That's the real news story.
Arthur I. Cyr is the director of the A.W. Clausen Center for World Business at Carthage College in Kenosha, Wisconsin. You can reach him <a href="mailto:at acyr@carthage.edu">at acyr@carthage.edu</a>
Russian scandal (Photo: Dave <a href="http://Whamond/Canada/PoliticalCartoons.com" rel="nofollow">Whamond/Canada/PoliticalCartoons.com</a>)
What others are saying
Asha Rangappa, The Washington Post: "If the counterintelligence case against the president was eventually closed because it found that Donald Trump did not pose a threat to U.S. national security, Trump should welcome special counsel Robert Mueller’s report reaching Congress. This conclusion would stop the speculation about Trump’s relationship with Russia and reassure the American public that his loyalties remain with the United States. But if it wasn’t, and the threat to national security is ongoing, then informing Congress of the nature of the threat is paramount. This would be the only way that Congress can determine whether it should take the ultimate step to neutralize the damage that the president could inflict on the nation — through impeachment and removal from office."
Alan M. Dershowitz, The Hill: "The issue I am raising, which is the propriety of a special counsel report including information and opinions regarding alleged noncriminal political sins, is worthy of serious nonpartisan discussion. It goes to the proper functions of the FBI, prosecutors, special counsels and grand juries in a democracy that subjects them to checks and balances. This important national debate should take place before Mueller concludes his report."
Andrew McCarthy, FoxNews.com: "After Trump was elected, the FBI realized that Trump was soon going to have access to government intelligence files. If they honestly told the president-elect that they had been investigating his campaign in hope of making a case on him, they had to be concerned that he would shut the investigation down and clean house at the FBI and Department of Justice. So, they misleadingly told him the investigation was about Russia and a few stray people in his campaign, but they assured him he personally was not under investigation. This was not true. The investigation was always hoping to find something on Trump."
Man behind the curtain (Photo: Ed <a href="http://Wexler/PoliticalCartoons.com" rel="nofollow">Wexler/PoliticalCartoons.com</a>)
What our readers are saying
Almost two years of investigations and not a shred of criminal evidence presented against President Donald Trump. Only rehashing old news, harassing his associates, or punishing associates of old crimes that should have been brought up a long time ago.
— Jeffrey Lyons
No doubt Trump is compromised. No innocent person would act the way he acts when it comes to Russian President Vladimir Putin. He has never attacked Putin but has attacked everyone from Pope Francis to President Barack Obama ... and the FBI, Chief Justice John Roberts, the court and leaders of our Western allies.
— Abraham Eseku
When Trump was asked if he was a Russian agent, he could only say he was insulted. No "yes" or "no" response from him.
— Sam Nada
Interesting how many of the think pieces against Trump use terms like "suggest," "point to," "imply," "potential" or "seems to." I'm not a Trump fan, but I'll wait for definitive proof to be presented.
— Walt Kozlowski
To join the conversations about topics on USA TODAY or provide feedback to this newsletter, email jrivera@usatoday.com, comment on Facebook, or use #tellusatoday on Twitter.
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M.N.: I wish that the FBI would be able to "uncover" some missing "final pieces" of some "Monsters" closer to Home, Space, and Time. (Ziz iz zi advize for zi FBI Zpaze Cadetz-z.)
Mayan mystery SOLVED: FBI uncovered ‘final piece’ to missing ‘MONSTER’ statue
10:51 AM 1/16/2019Trump as the Kremlin's Tool: The Proof - The Globalist
Mayan mystery SOLVED: FBI uncovered ‘final piece’ to missing ‘MONSTER’ statue Express.co.uk
A MAYAN mystery was solved after the FBI helped an archaeologist's 20-year-long hunt for stolen artwork in San Diego, a bombshell documentary revealed.
As Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russia’s involvement in the 2016 U.S. Presidential campaign starts to wind down, recent revelations in the New York Times and Washington Post raise the possibility that President Donald Trump was working as an agent of the Russian government.
While there is scant evidence on the public record so far that this was the case, there has long been speculation about this matter. Ever since the ties between the Trump campaign and Russian operatives in the United States became evident, this matter has moved to the front pages of newspapers just about everywhere.
Why would Donald Trump make common cause with Russia?
Some people become foreign agents for the money. Others do it because they have been compromised and are subject to blackmail. Still others become foreign agents because of their egos. They are flattered by the attention of a foreign government and their ego tells them they can get away with it.
Stunningly, Donald Trump puts a check mark in each of these boxes.
But what about ideology? Is the President of the United States actually taking instructions from the Kremlin? This concept strains credulity among most Americans, especially Trump’s base of supporters.
But the reason it strains credulity is because of the implied assumption that Trump was retrofitted with a pro-Russian ideology and is dutifully following the political instructions of the Kremlin.
The truth is simple
The truth is far simpler than that. It’s hardly likely that Trump is being told to march to the Kremlin’s beat. But the curious fact is that he is marching to it nonetheless.
The reason – and the actual evidence – is that Trump came to the 2016 U.S. Presidential election with a pre-formed set of beliefs that line up perfectly with President Vladimir Putin’s core foreign policy objectives.
Putin’s interest has long been to diminish the power and influence of the United States and its allies on the world stage. Donald Trump, for his part, is an incompetent semi-autocrat who has long embraced policies that would undermine and diminish America’s central role in global politics, economy and society.
In that sense, the 45th U.S. President may well have been a Russian agent for a very long time, albeit a self-directed one.
NATO is bad, but for different reasons
For Putin, NATO is public enemy number one. He sees NATO’s expansion into Eastern Europe following the collapse of the Soviet Union as a security threat.
NATO expansion into the Baltic states is seen as an assault on Russia’s “near abroad,” countries the Kremlin wrongly views as part of Russia itself. And the possibility of Ukraine becoming a NATO member is seen as a knife aimed at the very heart of “Mother Russia.”
To the Kremlin, it does not matter at all that there is no legitimacy in denying sovereign states the right to choose their own foreign policy and security outcomes. The simple reality is that NATO is seen as a threat.
President Trump for his part is a less than enthusiastic supporter of NATO. Trump has frequently stated that he resents giving the other NATO members a “free ride” in terms of national security.
For Trump, NATO expects everything from the United States and provides little in return. He is unafraid to ask whether the United States alone should be saddled with the burden of defending Europe, while NATO’s member states freely engage with the countries against which they expect America to provide defense.
Since becoming President, Trump has worked hard to drive wedges into the Atlantic alliance, against the wishes and goals of the U.S. foreign policy establishment. In fact, he has asked his security staff about withdrawing from the Alliance on multiple occasions.
But President Trump’s position vis-a-vis NATO was well-established long before he ran for President. And although his position and Putin’s align, they derive from totally different reasons. Trump couldn’t care less about the Baltic states and Ukraine, while Putin couldn’t care less about who foots the bill for NATO.
The evidence thus shows that Putin and Trump make common cause in trying to tear down the structures of NATO – albeit for different reasons.
The global economy
Beyond NATO, Russia resents and opposes the United State’s global economic hegemony and the centrality of the U.S. dollar in the world economy.
In the heyday of peak oil, Vladimir Putin strongly advocated for the inclusion of the ruble in the panoply of reserve currencies and promoted its use as a trade settlement currency. His ideas didn’t sell very well, but they provided a clear indication of Russia’s intentions and goals.
The United States does play an outsized role in the global economy. It has traditionally promoted globalization through multilateralism and set the rules for economic interaction based on an unflagging belief in the market economy, including free trade.
Furthermore, the U.S. dollar is used to settle approximately 52% of world trade and constitutes a whopping 63% of the world’s allocated currency reserves.
In setting the rules of the global economy, U.S. prosperity, prestige and power is enhanced, while other countries must play by America’s rules.
While increasingly resentful, other countries – including in Europe – do benefit from the arrangement. American consumerism, for example, creates a near-endless demand for foreign goods. This creates an abundant supply of global wealth, as U.S. dollars flow into the profit and loss accounts of foreign companies and, perhaps more importantly, into the reserve accounts of the world’s central banks.
The new “gold”
Simply put, the U.S. dollar is the new “gold.” It provides the foundation for growth in all of the world’s economies. Americans, as the global buyers of last resort, get a free ride in this process. The United States’ annual trade deficit of some $600 billion in goods and services is put on the country’s near-limitless credit card.
Not only does Putin’s Kremlin resent the United States’s hegemonic role in the global economy. Worse, Russia’s own economic initiatives are circumscribed by the U.S.-dominated structures that govern it.
The World Bank undermines Russia’s initiatives in emerging markets. The IMF imposes limitations on the flexibility Russia is able to employ in managing its fiscal accounts.
As a result, the Kremlin is decidedly against the U.S.-led economic world order. This became especially evident after the IMF’s failed intervention in the collapse of the ruble in 1998. Not that Vladimir Putin personally minded. This economic event helped propel him to power, as he became Prime Minister the following year.
Trump, for his part, takes a page from old school right-wing ideologue Patrick Buchanan’s playbook, namely, that the United States of America is the nation that loses through globalism and multilateralism.
Accordingly, Trump is eager to discard multilateralism in favor bilateralism. He disregards the role of the Bretton Woods institutions, in favor of deal-making on a one-to-one basis.
This is so far evident in everything Trump has done, from his withdrawal from the Trans Pacific Partnership to arm-twisting bi-lateral negotiations with Mexico, Canada and, of course, China.
The evidence thus shows that Putin and Trump make common cause in trying to tear down the structures that govern the global economy – albeit for different reasons.
From autocrats to the Middle East to climate change
There are other areas where Trump makes common cause with Putin. Trump, for example, has enunciated an amoral view of world politics that says that autocrats may do as they choose within their own borders.
Trump has so far said kind words about Xi, Un, Roderigo, Recep, MBS, as well as about just about every other dictator on the face of the earth.
To Trump, this is simply about showing a preference for making deals with people who have the authority to make them, because they control their domestic politics – instead of being controlled by them.
Whatever Trump’s motivation, Vladimir Putin gains much-desired legitimacy. While Trump in his own view simply gets to pursue the “art of the deal,” Putin gains immensely as the United States’ sometimes hypocritical moral authority is cast aside.
Bringing together Russia and Iran
In the Middle East, Trump’s repudiation of the Iran deal, in effect, helped cement a close alliance between Russia and Iran. And Trump’s decision to pull out of Syria cedes influence in that country to the Iran/Russia coalition.
As a result, Russian influence extends in an arc through the Middle East, from Iran, to Iraq to Syria and finally to the Mediterranean in Lebanon. For Putin, this means that he has succeeded in making his country a serious player in the Middle East again. Better yet, the Iran-Russia alliance offsets the U.S.-Saudi arrangement.
And then there is climate change. Trump and Putin, along with Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, are all eager to protect their domestic fossil fuel industries.
Common cause is once again established, this time for the mutually beneficial purpose of expanding the market for fossil fuels. In this case, though, Trump is not doing Russia’s bidding any more than Russia is doing America’s bidding. It’s just another identity of interests.
Still, the evidence on all of these important global policy matters shows that Putin and Trump stand shoulder to shoulder, whatever their respective motivation may be.
Russia’s role in U.S. domestic politics
What stands out in the analysis presented above is that there is a deep, even instinctive community of interest between what Donald Trump and the Kremlin both want.
The Putin/Trump “community of interest” ranges from NATO and the global economy to the Middle East and climate change. It goes all the way to hollowing out democracy and democratic principles around the world.
But it is in domestic U.S. politics where the Kremlin may realize its biggest bonus from Trump’s Presidency.
The Kremlin stands to gain because President Trump has found ways of dividing the American domestic political consensus in a manner that had heretofore been unthought-of.
On issues of race, immigration, guns, gay rights and abortion, the Trump Administration has promoted strident right-wing policy positions that drive wedges into the fault lines of U.S. politics.
Central to Trump’s policies are nativism, misogyny and bigotry, all of which turn political divides into emotional ones, inflaming passions all around.
Assaulting democracy
Since taking office, Trump has mounted a direct assault on the mechanisms of American democracy, launching ad hominem attacks on the press, the judiciary, the policy establishment and the legislature.
In pursuing his domestic change agenda, it has not been sufficient for Trump to merely complain about perceived injustices. He attacks with an abandon that appeals to the ugly rabble on the periphery of American society, thereby undermining civil discourse and democratic processes.
The evidence on U.S. domestic politics shows that, whatever Russia’s influence may have been, Trump’s actions weaken American democracy — which Putin sees as beneficial to Russia.
At the same time, Trump’s brand of harsh political discourse was encoded in his DNA long ago
Was Trump’s role that of a Russian agent?
As to the central question of Trump’s role as a Russian agent, it may all come down to the question of the chicken or the egg and defining which came first.
It seems clear that the egg predated the chicken, because Trump’s policy choices and his political posturing pre-existed the 2016 election cycle.
Yes, nearly everything Trump says or does actually falls within the Kremlin’s foreign policy strike zone. The assertion that the Kremlin is calling the shots for Trump — an assertion that is not proven, at least not yet — is almost immaterial, however.
This is because there is little need for Russia’s leaders to direct Trump to do what he is doing. Consciously or not, he is following Russian doctrine and supporting Russia’s national interests in many policy domains in an uncannily consistent manner.
Despite this incredible, but proven “community of interests,” it is also important to keep in mind that just because Trump holds views that line up with the Kremlin’s does not necessarily mean that they are all bad for the United States.
There certainly is a valid debate to be had about NATO members paying their fair share, about bilateralism versus multilateralism, about abuses in trade, about Iran and about climate change.
Conclusion
Trump may simply be a convenient dupe for the Kremlin. The central issue – the so far legally unproven assertion that the Kremlin is calling the shots for Trump – is material to Trump, the United States and the world only in one regard, the legal consequences.
And that is where Robert Mueller’s investigation comes in. If Mueller ends up proving that Trump took money from Russian political interests, or that he coordinated social media initiatives with them, or that he took receipt of stolen or hacked information that benefited his 2016 campaign, it would no longer be a simple matter of him being a Russian tool.
It would be proven that he was a willing tool in league with a foreign power. That may well be treasonous.
Read the whole story
· · · · · · · · · · · · · · · ·
Trump as the Kremlin's Tool: The Proof The Globalist
Whether intentional or not, Donald Trump serves the Kremlin's interests.
Donald Trump’s Pattern of Deference to the Kremlin Is Clear The Atlantic
When Donald Trump gives interviews, it's usually to Fox News. When he gives interviews to Fox, it's usually to the channel's opinion side, not to tougher ...
Read the whole story
· · · · · · · · · · · · · · · ·
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Mayan mystery SOLVED: FBI uncovered ‘final piece’ to missing ‘MONSTER’ statue Express.co.uk
A MAYAN mystery was solved after the FBI helped an archaeologist's 20-year-long hunt for stolen artwork in San Diego, a bombshell documentary revealed.
As Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russia’s involvement in the 2016 U.S. Presidential campaign starts to wind down, recent revelations in the New York Times and Washington Post raise the possibility that President Donald Trump was working as an agent of the Russian government.
While there is scant evidence on the public record so far that this was the case, there has long been speculation about this matter. Ever since the ties between the Trump campaign and Russian operatives in the United States became evident, this matter has moved to the front pages of newspapers just about everywhere.
Why would Donald Trump make common cause with Russia?
Some people become foreign agents for the money. Others do it because they have been compromised and are subject to blackmail. Still others become foreign agents because of their egos. They are flattered by the attention of a foreign government and their ego tells them they can get away with it.
Stunningly, Donald Trump puts a check mark in each of these boxes.
But what about ideology? Is the President of the United States actually taking instructions from the Kremlin? This concept strains credulity among most Americans, especially Trump’s base of supporters.
But the reason it strains credulity is because of the implied assumption that Trump was retrofitted with a pro-Russian ideology and is dutifully following the political instructions of the Kremlin.
The truth is simple
The truth is far simpler than that. It’s hardly likely that Trump is being told to march to the Kremlin’s beat. But the curious fact is that he is marching to it nonetheless.
The reason – and the actual evidence – is that Trump came to the 2016 U.S. Presidential election with a pre-formed set of beliefs that line up perfectly with President Vladimir Putin’s core foreign policy objectives.
Putin’s interest has long been to diminish the power and influence of the United States and its allies on the world stage. Donald Trump, for his part, is an incompetent semi-autocrat who has long embraced policies that would undermine and diminish America’s central role in global politics, economy and society.
In that sense, the 45th U.S. President may well have been a Russian agent for a very long time, albeit a self-directed one.
NATO is bad, but for different reasons
For Putin, NATO is public enemy number one. He sees NATO’s expansion into Eastern Europe following the collapse of the Soviet Union as a security threat.
NATO expansion into the Baltic states is seen as an assault on Russia’s “near abroad,” countries the Kremlin wrongly views as part of Russia itself. And the possibility of Ukraine becoming a NATO member is seen as a knife aimed at the very heart of “Mother Russia.”
To the Kremlin, it does not matter at all that there is no legitimacy in denying sovereign states the right to choose their own foreign policy and security outcomes. The simple reality is that NATO is seen as a threat.
President Trump for his part is a less than enthusiastic supporter of NATO. Trump has frequently stated that he resents giving the other NATO members a “free ride” in terms of national security.
For Trump, NATO expects everything from the United States and provides little in return. He is unafraid to ask whether the United States alone should be saddled with the burden of defending Europe, while NATO’s member states freely engage with the countries against which they expect America to provide defense.
Since becoming President, Trump has worked hard to drive wedges into the Atlantic alliance, against the wishes and goals of the U.S. foreign policy establishment. In fact, he has asked his security staff about withdrawing from the Alliance on multiple occasions.
But President Trump’s position vis-a-vis NATO was well-established long before he ran for President. And although his position and Putin’s align, they derive from totally different reasons. Trump couldn’t care less about the Baltic states and Ukraine, while Putin couldn’t care less about who foots the bill for NATO.
The evidence thus shows that Putin and Trump make common cause in trying to tear down the structures of NATO – albeit for different reasons.
The global economy
Beyond NATO, Russia resents and opposes the United State’s global economic hegemony and the centrality of the U.S. dollar in the world economy.
In the heyday of peak oil, Vladimir Putin strongly advocated for the inclusion of the ruble in the panoply of reserve currencies and promoted its use as a trade settlement currency. His ideas didn’t sell very well, but they provided a clear indication of Russia’s intentions and goals.
The United States does play an outsized role in the global economy. It has traditionally promoted globalization through multilateralism and set the rules for economic interaction based on an unflagging belief in the market economy, including free trade.
Furthermore, the U.S. dollar is used to settle approximately 52% of world trade and constitutes a whopping 63% of the world’s allocated currency reserves.
In setting the rules of the global economy, U.S. prosperity, prestige and power is enhanced, while other countries must play by America’s rules.
While increasingly resentful, other countries – including in Europe – do benefit from the arrangement. American consumerism, for example, creates a near-endless demand for foreign goods. This creates an abundant supply of global wealth, as U.S. dollars flow into the profit and loss accounts of foreign companies and, perhaps more importantly, into the reserve accounts of the world’s central banks.
The new “gold”
Simply put, the U.S. dollar is the new “gold.” It provides the foundation for growth in all of the world’s economies. Americans, as the global buyers of last resort, get a free ride in this process. The United States’ annual trade deficit of some $600 billion in goods and services is put on the country’s near-limitless credit card.
Not only does Putin’s Kremlin resent the United States’s hegemonic role in the global economy. Worse, Russia’s own economic initiatives are circumscribed by the U.S.-dominated structures that govern it.
The World Bank undermines Russia’s initiatives in emerging markets. The IMF imposes limitations on the flexibility Russia is able to employ in managing its fiscal accounts.
As a result, the Kremlin is decidedly against the U.S.-led economic world order. This became especially evident after the IMF’s failed intervention in the collapse of the ruble in 1998. Not that Vladimir Putin personally minded. This economic event helped propel him to power, as he became Prime Minister the following year.
Trump, for his part, takes a page from old school right-wing ideologue Patrick Buchanan’s playbook, namely, that the United States of America is the nation that loses through globalism and multilateralism.
Accordingly, Trump is eager to discard multilateralism in favor bilateralism. He disregards the role of the Bretton Woods institutions, in favor of deal-making on a one-to-one basis.
This is so far evident in everything Trump has done, from his withdrawal from the Trans Pacific Partnership to arm-twisting bi-lateral negotiations with Mexico, Canada and, of course, China.
The evidence thus shows that Putin and Trump make common cause in trying to tear down the structures that govern the global economy – albeit for different reasons.
From autocrats to the Middle East to climate change
There are other areas where Trump makes common cause with Putin. Trump, for example, has enunciated an amoral view of world politics that says that autocrats may do as they choose within their own borders.
Trump has so far said kind words about Xi, Un, Roderigo, Recep, MBS, as well as about just about every other dictator on the face of the earth.
To Trump, this is simply about showing a preference for making deals with people who have the authority to make them, because they control their domestic politics – instead of being controlled by them.
Whatever Trump’s motivation, Vladimir Putin gains much-desired legitimacy. While Trump in his own view simply gets to pursue the “art of the deal,” Putin gains immensely as the United States’ sometimes hypocritical moral authority is cast aside.
Bringing together Russia and Iran
In the Middle East, Trump’s repudiation of the Iran deal, in effect, helped cement a close alliance between Russia and Iran. And Trump’s decision to pull out of Syria cedes influence in that country to the Iran/Russia coalition.
As a result, Russian influence extends in an arc through the Middle East, from Iran, to Iraq to Syria and finally to the Mediterranean in Lebanon. For Putin, this means that he has succeeded in making his country a serious player in the Middle East again. Better yet, the Iran-Russia alliance offsets the U.S.-Saudi arrangement.
And then there is climate change. Trump and Putin, along with Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, are all eager to protect their domestic fossil fuel industries.
Common cause is once again established, this time for the mutually beneficial purpose of expanding the market for fossil fuels. In this case, though, Trump is not doing Russia’s bidding any more than Russia is doing America’s bidding. It’s just another identity of interests.
Still, the evidence on all of these important global policy matters shows that Putin and Trump stand shoulder to shoulder, whatever their respective motivation may be.
Russia’s role in U.S. domestic politics
What stands out in the analysis presented above is that there is a deep, even instinctive community of interest between what Donald Trump and the Kremlin both want.
The Putin/Trump “community of interest” ranges from NATO and the global economy to the Middle East and climate change. It goes all the way to hollowing out democracy and democratic principles around the world.
But it is in domestic U.S. politics where the Kremlin may realize its biggest bonus from Trump’s Presidency.
The Kremlin stands to gain because President Trump has found ways of dividing the American domestic political consensus in a manner that had heretofore been unthought-of.
On issues of race, immigration, guns, gay rights and abortion, the Trump Administration has promoted strident right-wing policy positions that drive wedges into the fault lines of U.S. politics.
Central to Trump’s policies are nativism, misogyny and bigotry, all of which turn political divides into emotional ones, inflaming passions all around.
Assaulting democracy
Since taking office, Trump has mounted a direct assault on the mechanisms of American democracy, launching ad hominem attacks on the press, the judiciary, the policy establishment and the legislature.
In pursuing his domestic change agenda, it has not been sufficient for Trump to merely complain about perceived injustices. He attacks with an abandon that appeals to the ugly rabble on the periphery of American society, thereby undermining civil discourse and democratic processes.
The evidence on U.S. domestic politics shows that, whatever Russia’s influence may have been, Trump’s actions weaken American democracy — which Putin sees as beneficial to Russia.
At the same time, Trump’s brand of harsh political discourse was encoded in his DNA long ago
Was Trump’s role that of a Russian agent?
As to the central question of Trump’s role as a Russian agent, it may all come down to the question of the chicken or the egg and defining which came first.
It seems clear that the egg predated the chicken, because Trump’s policy choices and his political posturing pre-existed the 2016 election cycle.
Yes, nearly everything Trump says or does actually falls within the Kremlin’s foreign policy strike zone. The assertion that the Kremlin is calling the shots for Trump — an assertion that is not proven, at least not yet — is almost immaterial, however.
This is because there is little need for Russia’s leaders to direct Trump to do what he is doing. Consciously or not, he is following Russian doctrine and supporting Russia’s national interests in many policy domains in an uncannily consistent manner.
Despite this incredible, but proven “community of interests,” it is also important to keep in mind that just because Trump holds views that line up with the Kremlin’s does not necessarily mean that they are all bad for the United States.
There certainly is a valid debate to be had about NATO members paying their fair share, about bilateralism versus multilateralism, about abuses in trade, about Iran and about climate change.
Conclusion
Trump may simply be a convenient dupe for the Kremlin. The central issue – the so far legally unproven assertion that the Kremlin is calling the shots for Trump – is material to Trump, the United States and the world only in one regard, the legal consequences.
And that is where Robert Mueller’s investigation comes in. If Mueller ends up proving that Trump took money from Russian political interests, or that he coordinated social media initiatives with them, or that he took receipt of stolen or hacked information that benefited his 2016 campaign, it would no longer be a simple matter of him being a Russian tool.
It would be proven that he was a willing tool in league with a foreign power. That may well be treasonous.
Read the whole story
· · · · · · · · · ·
Trump as the Kremlin's Tool: The Proof The Globalist
Whether intentional or not, Donald Trump serves the Kremlin's interests.
Donald Trump’s Pattern of Deference to the Kremlin Is Clear The Atlantic
When Donald Trump gives interviews, it's usually to Fox News. When he gives interviews to Fox, it's usually to the channel's opinion side, not to tougher ...
President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner expressed great willingness to help former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort when he requested a White House job for a banker caught up in Manafort’s trial on bank and tax fraud charges.
“On it!’’ Kushner wrote in an email response to Manafort on November 30, 2016, that prosecutors handed over as evidence in Manafort’s trail on Monday.
Manafort, whose case is being prosecuted by Russia probe special counsel Robert Mueller, was trying to secure a Trump administration job for Stephen Calk, who is the CEO of the Federal Savings Bank and loaned Manafort $16 million that prosecutors claim was part of a ploy to help Manafort extract cash from his properties.
The emails show that Manafort reached out to Kushner three weeks after Trump won the 2016 presidential election, asking that the Trump administration make a “major appointment” for Calk.
“Calk was an active supporter of campaign (sic) since April,’’ Manafort wrote in the email, mentioning that Calk served as an economic adviser for the Trump campaign and supported the future president in television interviews. “His background is strong in defense issues, management and finance. His preference is Secretary of the Army.’’
Manafort also made appointment recommendations for Vernon Parker, a Republican from Arizona who worked for both Bush administrations, and Pat Sink, a Republican labor leader.
"The 3 indivituals (sic) are people who I believe advance DT agenda,” Manafort wrote in the email to Kushner. “They will be totally reliable and responsive to the Trump White House.”
Despite Manafort’s communication and Kushner’s seemingly promising response, Calk did not land a job within the Trump administration.
It is unclear whether Kushner knew about Calk’s loan to Manafort, or if Trump’s transition team seriously considered Manafort’s recommendations.
A spokesman for Kushner’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Newsweek on Tuesday.
Calk in an interview with Bloomberg on Sunday said, “We’re fully cooperating with the Special Counsel’s office, and in fairness to both sides we cannot make any comment at this time.’’
Jared Kushner, White House senior adviser to the president, participates in a conversation with Haim Saban at Saban Forum, in Washington, D.C., on December 3, 2017. Kushner agreed in an email to help Paul Manafort. Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Kushner, who was a key player during the transition and serves as a senior White House adviser, has been under Mueller’s watch as well. The special counsel has reportedly looked into whether Kushner used his official position to benefit his family-owned real estate business. He has spent several hours meeting with Mueller’s investigators as a witness.
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(Reuters) - Paul Manafort, the convicted former chairman of Donald Trump's presidential campaign, told a business associate in January 2017 he was using middlemen to get people appointed to the Trump administration, according to a court filing on Tuesday.
U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller had been given until Monday by a federal court in Washington to provide evidence of his accusations that Manafort had lied to prosecutors on five subjects, which would put Manafort in breach of a plea agreement under which he was meant to be cooperating with Mueller's probe.
The heavily redacted 188-page filing included some new details about Manafort's communications with Trump administration officials, which continued even after he left the campaign in August 2016 due to a scandal over cash payments related to his work for pro-Russia politicians in Ukraine.
In January 2017 Manafort told his former business partner Richard Gates that he was using intermediaries to "get people appointed in the Administration," according to the sworn statement of an FBI agent working for Mueller included in the filing.
Gates, who also served on Trump's presidential transition team, pleaded guilty last year to lying to the FBI and conspiracy against the United States and agreed to cooperate with Mueller's probe.
The filing also touched on Manafort's other alleged lies, including about his interactions with Konstantin Kilimnik, a former business partner who Mueller has accused of having Russian intelligence ties. But due to heavy redactions it was unclear if the filing contained any major new revelations.
Last week, Manafort's lawyers in court papers inadvertently disclosed that Manafort had shared polling data related to the Trump 2016 presidential campaign with Kilimnik.
The mistaken disclosure - caused by a formatting error that allowed redacted material to be viewed - triggered new concerns among legal experts and Democratic lawmakers about the extent of Manafort's Russia ties during his time on Trump's campaign, which included three months as chairman.
Mueller is investigating whether Russian interfered in the election and whether Trump campaign members coordinated with Moscow officials. Trump, who denies any campaign collusion with Russia, says he did not know Manafort shared the data. Russia denies interfering in U.S. elections.
In addition to the polling data revelation, the filing also showed that Mueller believed Manafort lied to prosecutors about his discussions with Kilimnik on a "Ukrainian peace plan" and a previously undisclosed meeting between Manafort and Kilimnik in Madrid. Manafort's lawyers said any incorrect statements by him were unintentional.
U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson has said she would review the evidence submitted by Mueller and any reply by Manafort's team before deciding whether a hearing on the matter is necessary.
(Reporting by Nathan Layne and Karen Freifeld in Washington; Editing by James Dalgleish and Rosalba O'Brien)
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