RUSSIA/РОССИЯ THREAD—ASSANGE CHRGD W/ SPYING—DJT IMPEACHED TWICE-US TREASURY SANCTS KILIMNIK AS RUSSIAN AGNT
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General Mills
More often than not I tend to take that L.
So there is another guy in the meeting besides the one they found out about this morning?
i am enjoying politics again.shyt is better than Flavor Of Love with all the fukkery.
Yet they'll still have him on. He'll probably be on a handful of CNN shows today alone.Looks like I missed a lot today
The Hill
2 hrs ·
CNN's Anderson Cooper dubbed White House advisor Seb Gorka "the Hungarian Don Rickles" for his series of "insults" during a TV interview.
Anderson Cooper calls Seb Gorka 'the Hungarian Don Rickles' after contentious interview
Cooper said the White House aide was leaning on "schtick" because he couldn't answer questions.
THEHILL.COM
MSM finally catching up to the story posted last summer about former GRU agent Rinat Akhmetshin who was allegedly Paul Manafort's handler
AGAIN
an ACTUAL RUSSIAN SPY (not just the lawyer) WAS IN THE TRUMP MEETING
Former Soviet counterintelligence officer at meeting With Donald Trump Jr. and Russian lawyer
Former Soviet Counterintelligence Officer at Meeting With Donald Trump Jr. and Russian Lawyer
by Ken Dilanian, Natasha Lebedeva and Hallie JacksonJul 14 2017, 9:35 am ET
WASHINGTON — The Russian lawyer who met with Donald Trump Jr. and others on the Trump team after a promise of compromising material on Hillary Clinton was accompanied by a Russian-American lobbyist — a former Soviet counterintelligence officer who is suspected by some U.S. officials of having ongoing ties to Russian intelligence, NBC News has learned.
The lobbyist, who denies any current ties to Russian spy agencies, accompanied the lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, to the June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower attended by Donald Trump Jr.; Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law; and Paul Manafort, former chairman of the Trump campaign.
The Russian-born American lobbyist served in the Soviet military and emigrated to the U.S., where he holds dual citizenship.
The Associated Press identified the lobbyist as Rinat Akhmetshin, and said he acknowledged attending the meeting, though he said it was not substantive. “I never thought this would be such a big deal, to be honest,” he told the AP.
Veselnitskaya acknowledged to NBC News that she was accompanied by at least one other man, though she declined to identify him.
The presence at the meeting of a Russian-American with suspected intelligence ties is likely to be of interest to special counsel Robert Mueller and the House and Senate panels investigating the Russian election interference campaign.
Related: What's Next in the Trump-Russia Saga? Here's What We Know Now
Contacted by NBC News, representatives for Kushner and Manafort declined to comment.
On April 4, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, wrote a letter to the Homeland Security department seeking information about Akhmetshin, saying that Akhmetshin admitted to being a Soviet counterintelligence officer. Grassley said Akhmetshin had failed to register as a foreign agent even though he had been lobbying in the U.S. for Russian interests. Grassley also charged that Akhmetshin had been working with Fusion GPS, an opposition-research firm that had compiled a highly disputed dossier on Donald Trump.
Alan Futerfas, the attorney retained by Donald Trump Jr., told NBC News two other people accompanied Veselnitskaya to the meeting — someone Futerfas described as a translator and someone he described as a "friend of Emin [Agalarov]’s and maybe as a friend of Natalia [Veselnitskaya]’s.”
Futerfas said he has talked with that individual. "He is a U.S. citizen. He told me specifically he was not working for the Russian government, and in fact laughed when I asked him that question.”
Agalarov is a pop star and a client of Rob Goldstone, a music publicist who arranged the meeting with Trump Jr. Agalarov appeared in a music video with Trump when the Miss Universe pageant, which Trump owned at the time, was held in Moscow in 2013.
Futerfas confirmed that, “for the purpose of security or otherwise, the names were reviewed” but said Trump Jr. knew nothing about the man's background at the time of the meeting.
When asked about whether he had concerns, knowing what he knows now, Futerfas responded: “I have absolutely no concerns about what was said in that meeting.”
Veselnitskaya, in an exclusive interview with NBC News, denied having any connection to the Kremlin and insisted the meeting was to discuss sanctions, not the presidential campaign.
In an email exchange released by Trump Jr., the president's eldest son wrote "I love it" to Goldstone when told about possibly getting his hands on material potentially damaging to the Clinton campaign.
Goldstone told Trump Jr. that the meeting would be with a "Russian government attorney" and that the information was "part of Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump." Trump Jr. responded enthusiastically, "If it's what you say I love it especially later in the summer."
Related: Trump's Lawyer Says President Was Unaware of Son's Russian Emails
Trump Jr. said after releasing the emails that, "in retrospect, I probably would have done things a little differently."
President Trump has defended his son's decision to meet with Veselnitskaya, saying "most people would have taken that meeting."
"My son is a wonderful young man. He took a meeting with a Russian lawyer, not a government lawyer but a Russian lawyer," Trump said Thursday in a joint press conference in Paris with French President Emmanuel Macron. "From a practical standpoint most people would have taken that meeting. It's called opposition research or research into your opponent."
Ken Dilanian and Natasha Lebedeva reported from Washington. Hallie Jackson reported from Paris.
Russian-American lobbyist says he was in Trump son's meeting
Russian-American lobbyist says he was in Trump son’s meeting
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Russian-American lobbyist says he attended a June 2016 meeting with President Donald Trump’s son, marking another shift in the account of a discussion that was billed as part of a Russian government effort to help the Republican’s White House campaign.
Rinat Akhmetshin confirmed his participation to The Associated Press on Friday. Akhmetshin has been reported to have ties to Russian intelligence agencies, though he denies those links.
House Democrats are renewing calls for a vote on an independent commission to investigate Russia's election meddling and ties to the Trump administration. (July 14)
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House Democrats are renewing calls for a vote on an independent commission to investigate Russia’s election meddling and ties to the Trump administration. (July 14)
The meeting has heightened questions about whether Trump’s campaign coordinated with the Russian government during the election, which is the focus of federal and congressional investigations. In emails posted by Donald Trump Jr. earlier this week, an associate who arranged the meeting said a Russian lawyer wanted to pass on negative information about Democrat Hillary Clinton and stated that the discussion was part of a Russian government effort to help the GOP candidate.
While Trump Jr. has confirmed that Russian attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya was in the meeting, he did not disclose Akhmetshin’s presence. The president’s son has tried to discount the meeting, saying that he did not receive the information he was promised.
Akhmetshin said Trump Jr. asked the attorney for evidence of illicit money flowing to the Democratic National Committee, but Veselnitskaya said she didn’t have that information. She said the Trump campaign would need to research it more, and after that Trump Jr. lost interest, according to Akhmetshin.
“They couldn’t wait for the meeting to end,” Akhmetshin said.
Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and current White House senior adviser, and then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort also attended the meeting.
Asked about Akhmetshin’s participation in the meeting, Manafort spokesman Jason Maloni declined comment. A spokesman for Kushner did not respond to inquiries, nor did Trump Jr.’s attorney.
Akhmetshin said the attorney brought with her a plastic folder with printed-out documents. He said he was unaware of the content of the documents or whether they were provided by the Russian government, and it was unclear whether she left the materials with the Trump associates.
Akhmetshin said the meeting was “not substantive” and he “actually expected more serious” discussion.
“I never thought this would be such a big deal to be honest,” he told AP.
The Russian government has denied any involvement in or knowledge of the June 2016 meeting. Asked Friday about Akhmetshin, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov, told reporters: “We don’t know anything about this person.”
In reports this week, Akhmetshin has been identified as a former Russian counterintelligence officer. He denied ever serving in such a capacity.
“That is not correct,” Akhmetshin said. He said he served in the Soviet Army from 1986 to 1988 after he was drafted but was not trained in spy tradecraft.
Akhmetshin said he has not been contacted by the special counsel’s office or the FBI about the meeting with Trump Jr., but said he is willing to talk to investigators.
“I think I have a legal right to tell my story,” he said.
___
AP writers Julie Pace, Chad Day, Eric Tucker and Stephen Braun contributed to this report.
@DonKnock @SJUGrad13 @88m3 @Cali_livin @Menelik II @wire28 @smitty22 @Reality @fact @Hood Critic @ExodusNirvana @Blessed Is the Man @THE MACHINE @OneManGang @duckbutta @TheDarceKnight @dtownreppin214 @The Taxman @JKFrazier @tmonster
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Senior FBI official just jumped on board too.
They about to give Trump and everyone associated with him that work
ExodusNirvana
Change is inevitable...
Trumps biggest problem is himself right now. His lawyers keep telling him to STFU but if he did that, he'd be acknowledging that everything that is being reported is 100% FACTS and not "Fake News".
His ego is the shyt that keeps making him take shots at the media and the IC, and every time he does it, something new leaks because the media is not gonna let you sit there and question their integrity, at least not the NYT and WaPo. As for the IC, you already know they are not having it with this idiot and collusion with the Russians. Remember, there are people out there in the field right now, probably in deep cover, who are not even sure that their commander in chief has their back.
That's why I think it's Kushner that's doing a lot of the leaking on one end and Bannon doing the leaking on the other end because both are opposed to each other but both probably realize that Mueller and his peoples are probably getting closer and closer to what they need and knowing that, they are taking steps to avoid being sent to jail.
Keep it coming, Donald. Don't let these snowflakes deter you. Tell us all what you REALLY feel
How about a press conference?
His ego is the shyt that keeps making him take shots at the media and the IC, and every time he does it, something new leaks because the media is not gonna let you sit there and question their integrity, at least not the NYT and WaPo. As for the IC, you already know they are not having it with this idiot and collusion with the Russians. Remember, there are people out there in the field right now, probably in deep cover, who are not even sure that their commander in chief has their back.
That's why I think it's Kushner that's doing a lot of the leaking on one end and Bannon doing the leaking on the other end because both are opposed to each other but both probably realize that Mueller and his peoples are probably getting closer and closer to what they need and knowing that, they are taking steps to avoid being sent to jail.
Keep it coming, Donald. Don't let these snowflakes deter you. Tell us all what you REALLY feel
How about a press conference?
Meet the ex-Soviet intel officer at Don Jr.'s Trump Tower meeting
Lazaro Gamio / Axios
Rinat Akhmetshin, the former Soviet intelligence officer who attended a June 2016 meeting with Donald Trump Jr. and a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer, is a superlative Washington political operator who over the last two decades has repeatedly been at the center of cases involving corruption, dictators and sometimes war.
Akhmetshin was apparently hired to work with Natalia Veselnitskaya, the lawyer who met with Trump on June 9, 2016, in a lobbying effort against the Magnitsky Act, a congressional measure that sanctions Russia and Russian figures. He confirmed to the AP on Friday morning that he was in that meeting, saying: "I never thought this would be such a big deal to be honest."
I met Akhmetshin in 1998 in the Kazakhstan city of Almaty, where I was writing for The New York Times and he was representing the country's opposition leader in a quixotic effort to oust President Nursultan Nazarbayev.
scoop in the paper, a high-profile investigation by the U.S. Justice Department, and, later, a thick section of a book I wrote about those years on the Caspian Sea.
How he made his mark: At that time and over the subsequent years, Akhmetshin proved again and again to be surprisingly adept at influencing politics in Washington, DC, not his homeland. A profane and fast talker who likes to dress well, a quick study who understands the world of geopolitics, local politics and technology, he managed to ingratiate himself with important members of Congress, and through them and his contacts with reporters single-handedly tarnished Nazarbayev's and Kazakhstan's reputation. If today the Kazakh leader and his country have reputations for chronic corruption, a primary reason is Akhmetshin.
Akhmetshin openly described his years as an officer in the Soviet GRU, the military intelligence arm, serving in Afghanistan. He ultimately took American citizenship. As we met again and again over the years, he represented opposition figures in Ukraine and Afghanistan, too. I never found him having cultivated the man in power anywhere. In a world in which no one is clean, Akhmetshin was someone you could trust.
The original NBC News reports suggested that Akhmetshin's intelligence past somehow has rolled forward until now, putting Russian spies in the same room with Donald Trump, Jr. Nothing I picked up in numerous intense reporting experiences with Akhmetshin over the years — in the former U.S.S.R. and the U.S. — suggested any current such relationships.
Last year, Akhmetshin took on clients attempting to tarnish Bill Browder, the former high-rolling American investor in Moscow and defender of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who only turned on the Russian president when he kicked him out of the country. Browder has since become one of Putin's fiercest critics, driven by the murder of his lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, in a Moscow prison.
Four days after the Trump Tower meeting, Akhmetshin was responsible for arranging the high-profile showing of a revisionist anti-Magnitsky film at Washington, DC's Newseum.
I last communicated with Akhmetshin on July 11. When the news of this story broke this morning, I attempted to reach him via email, phone and text. He has not yet responded.
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