Trump blasts Comey as acting FBI chief vows to press probe on campaign ties to Russia

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Thursday called ousted FBI chief James Comey a “showboat” and “grandstander,” but its acting leader contradicted the president and promised the agency’s probe into possible Trump campaign ties to Russia would proceed with vigor.

Trump, facing Democratic accusations that he fired Comey on Tuesday to hinder the FBI investigation into alleged meddling by Russia in the 2016 US presidential election, said he would have taken the action even without a recommendation to do so by the two top Justice Department officials. That ran counter to previous administration explanations of Comey’s dismissal.

The Republican president also gave further details of his account that Comey informed him three times that he was not under investigation.

Trump’s personal attack on Comey seemed designed to underline that Comey’s dismissal was about his performance at the Federal Bureau of Investigation and not a probe that has hung over Trump’s presidency since he took office in January and threatens to overwhelm his policy priorities.

In testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee, acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, testifying in place of Comey, promised to tell the panel of any White House meddling into the agency’s probe. Democrats have called for a special prosecutor to look into the Russia matter.

“He’s a showboat. He’s a grandstander,” Trump told NBC News in his first interview since firing Comey. “The FBI has been in turmoil. You know that, I know that, everybody knows that.”

The White House and Vice President Mike Pence have said Trump fired Comey on the recommendation of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and No. 2 Justice Department official Rod Rosenstein.

On Thursday, Trump said: “I was going to fire Comey. My decision.”

“I was going to fire regardless of recommendation.”

Trump told NBC News he never pressured Comey into dropping the FBI probe, adding: “If Russia did anything, I want to know that.” Trump said there was no “collusion between me and my campaign and the Russians,” but added that “the Russians did not affect the vote.”

McCabe’s testimony contradicted Trump’s appraisal of turmoil at the FBI under Comey.

“I can tell you also that Director Comey enjoyed broad support within the FBI and still does to this day,” McCabe said.

“I can tell you that I hold Director Comey in the absolute highest regard. I have the highest respect for his considerable abilities and his integrity,” McCabe added. “And it has been the greatest privilege and honor of my professional life to work with him.”

Trump will not visit FBI headquarters in Washington as expected after agency officials told the White House he would not be greeted warmly following his firing of Comey, MSNBC reported on Thursday.

‘Vigorously and completely’

McCabe vowed no letup in the investigation.

“It is my opinion and belief that the FBI will continue to pursue this investigation vigorously and completely,” McCabe told the senators. He said there was no “crisis of confidence within the leadership of the FBI.”

Trump told NBC he had asked Comey once over dinner and twice by telephone whether he was under investigation in the Russia matter.

“I said: ‘If it’s possible, would you let me know, am I under investigation?'” Trump told NBC. “He said: ‘You are not under investigation.'”

Trump said the dinner with Comey was at the White House and Comey wanted to discuss staying on as FBI chief. “We had a very nice dinner. And at that time, he told me: ‘You are not under investigation.'”

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said she believed it was not a conflict of interest for a president to ask the FBI chief such a question.

Comey has not publicly discussed any conversations he had with Trump.

McCabe testified it was not typical practice to tell people they were not a targets of an investigation.

The Republican chairman of the Senate panel, Richard Burr, asked McCabe whether he ever heard Comey tell Trump the president was not the subject of investigation. McCabe sidestepped the question, saying he could not comment on an ongoing probe.

In his letter firing Comey on Tuesday, Trump wrote: “While I greatly appreciate you informing me, on three separate occasions, that I am not under investigation, I nevertheless concur with the judgment of the Department of Justice that you are not able to effectively lead the Bureau.”

US intelligence agencies concluded that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an effort to disrupt the election that included hacking into Democratic Party emails and leaking them, with the aim of helping Trump.

Leaders of the US intelligence agencies, including Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and CIA chief Mike Pompeo, testified to the senators on Thursday that they agreed with that finding. Moscow has denied any such interference and the Trump administration denies allegations of collusion with Russia.

“For many people, including myself, it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that the president’s decision to remove Director Comey was related to this investigation, and that is truly unacceptable,” said the Senate Intelligence Committee’s top Democrat, Mark Warner.

The Trump administration has said Comey’s firing was unrelated to the Russia investigation. It said on Tuesday that Comey’s firing arose from his handling of an election-year FBI probe into Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server during her time as secretary of state.

“And while it’s clear to me now more than ever that an independent special counsel must be appointed, make no mistake our committee will get to the bottom of what happened during the 2016 presidential election,” Warner said.

Responding to Trump’s latest comments about Comey, Burr and Warner praised the ousted FBI chief’s integrity. Warner said he was offended at Trump’s remarks.

Former Republican Representative Mike Rogers is being considered as a candidate to replace Comey, a senior White House official said. The nominee must be confirmed by the US Senate.

source: beta.interaksyon.com

Trump son-in-law met with Russian bank sanctioned by US

WASHINGTON -- A Russian bank under US economic sanctions over Russia's incursion into Ukraine disclosed on Monday that its executives had met Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump's son-in-law and a top White House adviser, during the 2016 election campaign.

Kushner, 36, married to Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump, has agreed to testify to a Senate committee investigating whether Russia tried to interfere in the election.

Allegations by US intelligence agencies that Russian actors were behind hacking of senior Democratic Party operatives and spreading disinformation linger over Trump's young presidency. Democrats charge the Russians wanted to tilt the election toward the Republican, a claim dismissed by Trump. Russia denies the allegations.

But there has been no doubt that the Russian ambassador to the United States, Sergei Kislyak, developed contacts among the Trump team. Trump's first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, was forced to resign on February 13 after revelations that he had discussed US sanctions on Russia with Kislyak and misled Vice President Mike Pence about the conversations.

Executives of Russian state development bank Vnesheconombank had talks with Kushner during a bank roadshow in 2016 when it was preparing a new strategy, the bank said.

"As part of the preparation of the new strategy, executives of Vnesheconombank met with representatives of leading financial institutes in Europe, Asia and America multiple times during 2016," VEB said in an emailed statement.

It said roadshow meetings took place "with a number of representatives of the largest banks and business establishments of the United States, including Jared Kushner, the head of Kushner Companies."

There was no immediate comment from Kushner.

In an article posted on December 18, Forbes estimated that Jared Kushner, his brother Josh and his parents, Charles and Seryl, have a fortune worth at least $1.8 billion, more than half of which Forbes estimates is held in real estate.

Forbes did not provide a specific estimate for Jared Kushner’s net worth on his own.

VEB declined to say where the meetings took place or the dates. US officials said that after meeting with Russian Kislyak at Trump Tower last December, a meeting also attended by Flynn, Kushner met later in December with Sergei Gorkov, the CEO of Vnesheconombank. White House spokeswoman Hope Hicks confirmed the meetings.

On Monday, White House spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters that Kushner is willing to testify to the Senate Intelligence Committee chaired by US Senator Richard Burr, a North Carolina Republican.

“Throughout the campaign and the transition, Jared served as the official primary point of contact with foreign governments and officials ... and so, given this role, he volunteered to speak with Chairman Burr's committee, but has not received any confirmation regarding a time for a meeting," Spicer told reporters at his daily briefing.

The Republican and Democratic leaders of the Senate panel also said Kushner had agreed to be interviewed.

Simply meeting with representatives of a US-sanctioned entity is not a violation of sanctions or against the law.

Evgeny Buryakov, 41, a Russian citizen who worked at Vnesheconombank and whom US authorities accused of posing as a banker while participating in a New York spy ring, pleaded guilty to a criminal conspiracy charge on Friday. Buryakov admitted in federal court in Manhattan to acting as an agent for the Russian government without notifying US authorities.

Classified information
Also on Monday, a mystery rooted in Trump's claim that he was wiretapped by then President Barack Obama during the election campaign deepened with the disclosure that a top congressional Republican reviewed classified information on the White House grounds about potential surveillance of some Trump campaign associates.

US Representative Devin Nunes, chairman of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, visited the White House the night before announcing on Wednesday that he had information that indicated some Trump associates may have been subjected to some level of intelligence activity before Trump took office on Jan. 20.

Democrats have said Nunes, who was a member of Trump's transition team, can no longer run a credible investigation of Russian hacking, the US election and any potential involvement by Trump associates. Top House Democrat Nancy Pelosi last week called Nunes "a willing stooge of Trump."

Nunes spokesman Jack Langer said in a statement that Nunes "met with his source at the White House grounds in order to have proximity to a secure location where he could view the information provided by the source."

White House spokesman Spicer did not shed any light on who at the White House helped Nunes gain access to a secure location.

It was the latest twist in a saga that began on March 4 when Trump said on Twitter without providing evidence that he "just found out that Obama had my 'wires tapped' in Trump Tower just before the victory."

FBI Director James Comey told Congress last Monday he had seen no evidence to support the claim.

Trump's mention of wiretapping drew attention away from US intelligence agencies having said that Russia tried to help Trump in the election against Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Nunes told reporters on Wednesday that he had briefed Trump "on the concerns I had about incidental collection and how it relates to President-elect Trump and his transition team and the concerns that I have."

After an uproar over the allegations and the fact that he briefed Trump first before members of his own committee, Nunes apologized on Thursday for the way he handled the information.

source: interaksyon.com

At long last, Americans decide between Clinton and Trump

NEW YORK - Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump face the judgment of the voters on Tuesday as millions of Americans turn out on Election Day to pick the next US president and end a bruising campaign that polls said favored Clinton.

In a battle centered largely on the character of the candidates, Clinton, 69, a former secretary of state and first lady, and Trump, 70, a New York businessman, made their final, fervent appeals to supporters late on Monday to turn out to vote.

Their final week of campaigning was a grinding series of get-out-the-vote rallies across battleground states where the election is likely to be decided.

"We choose to believe in a hopeful, inclusive, big-hearted America," Clinton said in Philadelphia before a crowd of 33,000 - the biggest of her campaign.

She was joined by Democratic President Barack Obama, his wife Michelle, and Clinton's husband, former President Bill Clinton

Trump made one of his final appearances late on Monday in Manchester, New Hampshire, where polls showed a tight race.

“Tomorrow, the American working class will strike back,” Trump said. “It’s about time.”

He brought much of his family on stage for his last rally in the state where he scored his first victory in the Republican nomination fight.

First woman president

Clinton went into Election Day as the favorite to become the first US woman president after spending eight years in the White House as the first lady in the 1990s.

A Reuters/Ipsos States of the Nation poll gave Clinton a 90 percent chance of defeating Trump and said she was on track to win 303 Electoral College votes out of 270 needed, to Trump's 235.

But Trump advisers said the level of his support was not apparent in the polling and believed the New York businessman was in position for an upset victory along the lines of the "Brexit" vote in June to pull Britain from the European Union.

"We have seen enormous momentum," said deputy Trump campaign manager Dave Bossie.

Financial markets brightened in reaction to the latest twists in what has been a volatile presidential campaign. Global stock markets and the US dollar surged, putting them on track for their biggest gains in weeks.

Investors, who see Clinton as a known quantity, were buoyed by an announcement on Sunday by FBI Director James Comey that cleared Clinton of a cloud of controversy involving her use of a private email server while President Barack Obama's secretary of state from 2009 to 2013.

While opinion polls showed a close race, but tilting toward Clinton, major bookmakers and online exchanges were more confident of a Clinton victory. PredictIt put her chances of capturing the White House at 81 percent.

Both Clinton and Trump planned to vote on Tuesday - she in Chappaqua, New York, and he in Manhattan. They were then to hold victory rallies about a mile apart in the evening in New York City.

Eyes on Florida, North Carolina
An early indicator of the strength of each candidate could come in North Carolina and Florida, two must-win states for Trump that have been the subject of frantic last-minute efforts by both the Republican and Democratic campaigns.

Races in both those states were shifting from favoring Clinton to being too close to call.

A strong vote for Clinton could jeopardize Republican control of the US Senate, as voters choose 34 senators of the 100-member chamber. Democrats needed a net gain of five seats to win control. The 435-seat House of Representatives was expected, however, to remain in Republican hands.

Voters had to choose between Clinton, who has vowed to largely continue the policies of Democrat Obama, and Trump, who has never held public office and has positioned himself as a change agent. Both were viewed unfavorably by majorities of voters.

The long-running US election campaign has been one of the most negative in American history with each candidate accusing the other of lacking the character and judgment to be president.

Trump, a former reality TV star, reveled in the drama and seized the spotlight time and again with provocative comments about Muslims and women, attacks against the Republican establishment and bellicose appeals to build a wall along the US southern border with Mexico to stem illegal immigration.

But the spotlight was not always kind to Trump, with the release of a 2005 video in which he boasted about groping women damaging his campaign and leaving him on the defensive for critical weeks.

Clinton, a former US senator with a penchant for secrecy, sustained damaging blows of her own linked to her handling of classified information as the country's top diplomat. FBI Director Comey shook up the race and slowed her momentum with an Oct. 28 announcement the agency was reviewing newly discovered emails that might pertain to her email practices.

On Sunday, Comey told Congress that investigators had found no reason to change their July finding that there was no criminal wrongdoing in Clinton's use of the server. (Additional reporting by Emily Stephenson and Amanda Becker)

source: interaksyon.com

Clinton camp dares FBI to tell about Trump's Russia ties

WASHINGTON/FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- A top aide to Hillary Clinton urged the FBI on Tuesday to disclose what it knows about any ties between Donald Trump and Russia, accusing the agency of unfairly publicizing its inquiry into Clinton's email practices while staying quiet about the Republican presidential candidate.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation opened a preliminary inquiry in recent months into allegations that Trump or his associates might have had questionable dealings with Russian people or businesses, but found no evidence to warrant opening a full investigation, according to sources familiar with the matter. The agency has not publicly discussed the probe.

A week before Election Day, the Clinton campaign was trying to contain damage from the announcement by FBI Director James Comey on Friday that his agency was looking into newly discovered emails that might relate to Clinton's use of a private server while she was secretary of state.

Clinton has voiced confidence the FBI will not find anything problematic.

She campaigned on Tuesday in the battleground state of Florida, where she was joined in Dade City by former Miss Universe Alicia Machado, whom Trump had mocked for gaining weight. Chants of “Lock her up!” from dozens of Trump supporters gathered nearby could be faintly heard while Clinton spoke.

In Ft. Lauderdale, a young man who yelled, "She's a liar" was escorted out of the rally. Several other protesters removed during the course of her speech.

"I am sick and tired of the negative, dark, divisive, dangerous vision and behavior from people who support Donald Trump," Clinton said as another protester was removed from the rally.

Trump and other Republicans have seized on Comey's announcement, which did not indicate any wrongdoing by Clinton, to ratchet up criticism of the Democratic candidate. She leads in most opinion polls ahead of the Nov. 8 election.

Trump urged people on Tuesday who voted early for his Democratic rival to cancel their ballots and switch to him.

"This is a message for any Democratic voters who have already cast their ballots for Hillary Clinton and who are having a bad case of buyer's remorse, in other words you want to change your vote," Trump told a Wisconsin rally.

“So if you live here or in Michigan or Pennsylvania or Minnesota, you can change your vote to Donald Trump."

Several states, including those cited by Trump, have a process to allow voters who cast early ballots to change their votes, either by submitting new ballots or showing up at their polling place on Election Day.

'Connections to the Russians'

Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook questioned why the FBI director had not released any information about the agency's Russia inquiries.

"If you're in the business of releasing information about investigations on presidential candidates, release everything you have on Donald Trump. Release the information on his connections to the Russians," Mook said on CNN.

The FBI inquiry reviewed allegations that Trump or his associates might have violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act or engaged in contacts or commerce with people in Russia who are subject to US or international financial sanctions.

The US government has blamed Russia for cyberattacks on Democratic Party organizations. Democrats criticize Trump for taking what they say is a pro-Russia foreign policy stance.

Russia's possible role in the campaign again came into focus when online magazine Slate said a group of computer scientists had been alarmed by records showing thousands of apparent connection attempts between an email server operated on behalf of the Trump Organization and computers inside a Russian company, Alfa Bank in Moscow.

Trump campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks said the server, which had been used to send out hotel marketing material, had been dormant for years.

Prominent US cyber security company FireEye said it had been hired by Alfa Bank to investigate the records and had been granted access to the bank’s systems in Moscow to look for evidence of any relationship with Trump’s company or any signs of hacking or infection. FireEye said so far it had found no emails being sent back and forth or any other link.

Opinion polls showed Clinton's lead has narrowed slightly since early last week but it was too early to say whether the email controversy was hurting her.

Clinton led businessman Trump in the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll of likely voters released on Monday, by 44 percent to 39 percent. Clinton, hoping to be the first woman elected president, strengthened her lead over Trump in polls after the release last month of a 2005 video in which the Republican bragged in vulgar terms about groping women.

But in a dramatic twist, Comey told Congress in a letter on Friday that the FBI was reviewing the newly discovered emails.

Comey had announced in July that the FBI had completed a probe into the email practices, concluding there were no grounds to bring any charges.

Clinton's team has been pressing the FBI to provide details on the new trove of emails, which Comey said may or may not be significant in the case.

Little is publicly known yet about the emails, other than that they were found during an unrelated probe into former US Representative Anthony Weiner, the estranged husband of top Clinton aide Huma Abedin.

Comey's letter has provided Republicans with fresh fodder for attack in the waning days of the campaign. US House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan said on Tuesday that a Clinton presidency would bog down in "scandal baggage."

Congressional Republicans, who had been concerned Trump risked damaging their majorities in the House and Senate, were also encouraged by his recent statements on efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare. A campaign aide said if Trump wins, he would ask Congress to begin working on legislation to repeal the law before the Jan. 20 inauguration.

source: interaksyon.com