Trump-Russia investigation

carter page

According to a new Republican memo, the Justice Department has reason to suspect that former Trump campaign associate Carter Page was a Russian spy. The memo, which recently trended on Twitter by some Russian bots, and some Republicans asking for the memo to be released was another way to discredit the Russian investigation headed by the Mueller investigators.

According to the memo, the FBI and Justice Department failed to adequately present to the judge that they were relying on the information of a dossier from a British intelligence officer, Christopher Steele. The dossier from Steele was the document the FBI relied on to renew a warrant for surveillance of Page from the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Court (FISA).

                   

The memo is reported to be put together by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes. This will be used to attack Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein for approving the application of a warrant spy on page without properly vetting the application.

The memo also claims that the FBI and Justice Department abuse of FISA by using the dossier for its application to renew the warrant. The White House is currently asking for the memo to be made public, while Democrats are asking that the Justice Department be consulted on the memo before it is declassified.

The House Intelligence Committee is looking to vote on whether the memo should be released to the public.

Trump is reportedly not happy with Rosenstein after he approved and hire Mueller to investigate the Trump's team connection to the 2016 U.S. election, and Trump is looking to firing Rosenstein.

Carter Page is  an oil industry consultant and former investment banker who worked on the 2016 Trump campaign, and also had a long relationship with Russia. He also visited Russia during the campaign period, but claims he did so on personal capacity only.

 

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Robert Mueller, special counsel investigating Trump-Russia scandal was about to be last June, after Donald Trump told White House counsel to fire the investigator so as to stop the investigation, but White House counsel threatened to resign rather than fire Mueller.

When Don McGahn received the order to fire Mueller, he refused to ask Justice Department to fire Mueller, as this will have a very adverse effect on Trump presidency. Mueller gets to know of the Presidential order after investigators interviewed Senior White House officials.

The White House has declined to comment on the news of the President obstruction in trying to fire Robert Mueller, White House lawyer, Ty Cobb and John Dowd, Trump lead private attorney have also declined to comment on the recent development.

In August, when the special counsellor to the President, Kellyanne Conway was asked on ABC if the President is considering firing Mueller, she said "The president has not even discussed that, I can tell you as his counselor, he is not discussing that."

Ty Cobb on Dec 16 also reported that the President was not considering firing Mueller on CNN, he said "There is no consideration of firing the special counsel." and after his interview with CNN, four days later, he sang the same song to Washington Post saying; "For five months or more the White House has persistently and emphatically stated there is no consideration of firing the Special Counsel and the White house willingly affirms, yet again, as it has every day this week, there is no consideration being given to the termination of the Special Counsel"

Trump argued that Mueller is not fit to investigate the case for three reasons;

-A previous dispute over membership fees at the Trump National Golf Club in Virginia.

-Working at a law firm that had previously represented Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner.

-Mueller previously interviewing with the FBI to potentially return to lead the agency after the firing of James Comey.

Both Democrats and Republicans have said that firing Mueller will be a major red line for the President Trump presidency. Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee in a statement said that;

I’ve said it before, and I am saying it again: firing the Special Counsel is a red line that the president cannot cross.Any attempt to remove the special counsel, pardon key witnesses, or otherwise interfere in the investigation, would be a gross abuse of power, and all members of Congress, from both parties, have a responsibility to our Constitution and to our country to make that clear immediately.

Sen. James Lankford, a Republican who also sits on the Intelligence committee said;

The White House and the president have said repeatedly, most recently yesterday, that they will comply with the special counsel and investigating Committees. So, I think we should take the White House at their word.

Mueller was not the one Trump was considering to fire, Trump was also looking to fire Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein,the man who appointed Mueller after the attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from the Russia investigation.

The Mueller investigation is still going on, and four people who had been filed charges includes Paul Manafort, former Trump campaign manager and his associates, Rick Gates; former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn; and former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos.

Trump while on his way to World Economic Forum in Davos told reporters he was looking forward to speak with special counsel Mueller in two or three weeks time.

 

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Many US politicians that had met with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak have all been in the news for colluding with the Russian government to hack the US election.

Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak was the reason that Michael Flynn got fired, he was the reason Attorney Jeff Sessions had to face the US congress and recuse himself from the Trump-Russia investigation, and Jared Kushner, Trump son-in-law is also under scrutiny after he failed to disclose his meeting with Kislyak.

             

The controversial diplomat has now been called home by its government rather than install him in a senior role at the country’s U.N. mission in New York. He has also served as the country's ambassador for 10 years, but his name will remain in the US media for another few months as the US intelligence investigates Russia collusion in the 2016 elections.

The country's deputy foreign minister, Anatoly Antonov is said to take over Kislyak job.

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House Congressional Republicans are taking their stand with Special counsel Robert Mueller, who is leading the investigation of Trump-Russia investigation. According to the Donald Trump friend, Trump is considering firing Robert Mueller, and once again stopping the investigation.

Republicans are not asking the president not to entertain such thoughts as it will send a bad signal across Washington and the country.

                     

 Rep. Adam Kinzinger said "That would obviously be a bad move. I don’t think he’s really pondering it, My thought is more it’s somebody like Newt Gingrich floating it because he’s got a book coming out."

Donald Trump friend is Christopher Ruddy,  CEO of Newsmax Media while speaking to PBS on Monday and CNN on Tuesday says that Trump is considering Mueller, as he finds him “illegitimate, ” another Trump's supporter, Newt Gingrich who floated the idea, calling for Mueller's removal.

White House did not corroborate on Ruddy's statement, but instead distanced itself from the statement.

Congressional Republicans are now asking that the President allows Mueller to do this job, and some of the Republicans that have supported Mueller includes House speaker Paul Ryan.

At a press conference, Paul Ryan said;

I know Bob Mueller and I have confidence in Bob Mueller,I think the best thing to do is to let Robert Mueller do his job. I think the best vindication for the president is to let this investigation go on independently and thoroughly.

Though President Trump can't fire Mueller, he can only be fired by AG Sessions, but since Sessions already recused himself from the investigations, Trump can ask Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who was also the one that asked him to come aboard, and also is behind Mueller.

Though if Rosenstein refuses to fire Mueller, Trump could asks for his resignation letter or fire him, and ask Roseintein successor to let Mueller dissolve the investigation, or it gets better, Trump could ask that the Justice Department amend the regulation that will allow him fire Mueller from the investigation.

It will also be a dramatic turn of events of Trump decides to fire Mueller, because of the outrage and bad new coverage he got when the fired former FBI director, James Comey.

 

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