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Trump says he can't talk to Mueller unless it's 'fair

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday shifted his position over possible talks with U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller, saying his lawyers have advised him against any talks but that he would submit to questioning if it was "fair."

Trump has repeatedly said he wanted to talk to Mueller, a fellow Republican investigating alleged Russian meddling in the U.S. 2016 election and possible collusion by the Trump campaign.

"I would love to speak. I would love to. Nobody wants to speak more than me ... because we've done nothing wrong," Trump told reporters outside the White House on his way to the NRA Convention in Dallas. "But I have to find a way to be treated fairly."

"If I thought it was fair, I would override my lawyer," he added.

Trump says he can't talk to Mueller unless it's 'fair

“We don’t want anyone in this country with unfettered power. It’s unlikely you’re going to persuade me the special prosecutor has power to do anything he or she wants,” Ellis told Dreeben. “The American people feel pretty strongly that no one has unfettered power.”
When Dreeben answered Ellis’ question about how the investigation and its charges date back to before the Trump campaign formed, the judge shot back, “None of that information has to do with information related to Russian government coordination and the campaign of Donald Trump.”

The entertainment and journalism arms of the major mainstream media, except for Fox, have essentially become the alt-left.

No outlandish conspiracy theory, no half-assed accusation of lawbreaking by a Democrat, no leaked uncorroborated information by an anonymous source is too small for our biased journalists to beat us to death with on the front page.

Someone Call Sally Yates and the Special Counsel Because We Have a Logan Act Violation

As you know, the Logan Act is one of the most peculiar laws on the books. In brief, it criminalizes any Republican speaking with any foreign leader when a Democrat is in the White House but it allows Democrats to actively undercut the foreign policy of any Republican president. I am not kidding, It is right there in black and white.

So when Michael Flynn, already on the federal payroll as part of Trump’s transition team spoke with the Russian ambassador at Trump’s direction and maybe discussed sanctions relief, Flynn was accused by acting, and I do mean acting, Attorney General Sally Flynn of a Logan Act violation and he was interviewed by FBI agents. Because there is apparently another law, unnamed, that prevents a Republican president-elect from contacting foreign leaders until he’s actually inaugurated.

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Trump says he can't talk to Mueller unless it's 'fair

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday shifted his position over possible talks with U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller, saying his lawyers have advised him against any talks but that he would submit to questioning if it was "fair."

Trump has repeatedly said he wanted to talk to Mueller, a fellow Republican investigating alleged Russian meddling in the U.S. 2016 election and possible collusion by the Trump campaign.

"I would love to speak. I would love to. Nobody wants to speak more than me ... because we've done nothing wrong," Trump told reporters outside the White House on his way to the NRA Convention in Dallas. "But I have to find a way to be treated fairly."

"If I thought it was fair, I would override my lawyer," he added.

Reuters

This is what was done to President Clinton, resulting in his impeachment.

A Colorado university has apologised for two Native American brothers who were removed from a campus tour after a parent called the police.

The brothers' mother, Lorraine Kahneratokwas Gray, said they were taken off the tour because a parent was suspicious of how quiet they were.

Colorado State University (CSU) police searched the brothers, who drove seven hours to attend the admissions tour.

University officials apologised for the incident in a letter to students.

Thomas Kanewakeron Gray, 19, and Lloyd Skanahwati Gray, 17, had borrowed their family van to drive from Santa Cruz, New Mexico to Fort Collins, Colorado, to visit the college on Monday.

The boys got lost in the city and joined the CSU admissions tour about 30 minutes late.

As the tour moved through the gymnasium, they were stopped by campus police who demanded to know why they were on campus.

"Apparently, a parent on the tour called police because they were too quiet. That made them suspicious," Mrs Kahneratokwas Gray told the Denver Post. "They were trying to listen. Why should it be a crime to listen and not engage in a conversation?"

The boys, who are members of the Mohawk tribe, were only released after they provided police with an email showing they had pre-registered for the tour.

The tour continued while the boys were questioned, and they were unable to complete it.

"I think it's pretty discriminatory," Thomas told the Associated Press on Thursday.

"Me and my brother just stayed to ourselves the whole time. I guess that was scaring people; that we were just quiet."

"Our family is shocked and saddened over this incident of racial profiling, and disappointed that the school didn't take a more proactive stand in protecting my boys from being shamed in this hostile way," their mother said.

In a letter to students, officials say that the Office of Admissions, Office of the Vice President for Diversity, Native American Cultural Center and the CSU Police Department will be meeting to discuss how to better handle similar cases in the future.

"The incident is sad and frustrating from nearly every angle, particularly the experience of two students who were here to see if this was a good fit for them as an institution," the letter said.

The statement added that the university had been speaking to the family of the prospective students.

"As a University community, we deeply regret the experience of these students while they were guests on our campus."

A US university faces a fine of $8,500 (£6,280) for apparently losing a small amount of weapons-grade plutonium.

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) said Idaho State University is unable to account for 1 gram (0.03oz) of the material.

The plutonium is used in reactors and to make nuclear bombs but the NRC says the amount missing is too small to make a nuclear weapon.

The university says documents show the material was on campus from 2003-04.

However, an NRC report says that in October 2017 three teams at the university conducted a physical search for the material and failed to find it.

"The NRC considers the loss of control of licensed radioactive material a significant regulatory concern because of the potential for unauthorised possession or use of licensed radioactive material or the unnecessary exposure of members of the public to radiation," a statement said.

Experts say that although the amount of plutonium is not sufficient to build a weapon, it could be used in a "dirty bomb" to spread radiation.

The university has not yet responded to the latest NRC statement.

However, an NRC report says that in October 2017 three teams at the university conducted a physical search for the material and failed to find it.

Opposition demonstrations are being held across Russia on the eve of Vladimir Putin's inauguration for a fourth term as president.

Alexei Navalny, who was prevented from standing in the election in March, is organising the protests but was arrested as soon as he arrived for the Moscow rally.

Dozen of people have been arrested at demonstrations across the country.

The Moscow and St Petersburg protests were not approved by the authorities.

Crowds gathered on Moscow's Pushkin Square shouting slogans such as "Down with the Tsar!" and "Russia without Putin".

But activists from the pro-Kremlin National Liberation Movement are staging a rival rally at the same location.

Mr Navalny was seen arriving for the demonstration, but reports of his arrest followed almost immediately.

Reports say he had been forced to stay at a secret location on Friday night in order to make it to the rally at all.

Trump Exaggerates Mueller Team’s Ties to Obama and Democrats

President Trump said:

“So you have all these investigators; they’re Democrats. In all fairness, Bob Mueller worked for Obama for eight years.”

THE FACTS

This is exaggerated.

At least nine of the 17 lawyers on the team led by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, have donated to Democratic campaigns, according to Federal Election Commission records. One has previously identified as a Democrat in a blog post.

Three others are registered as Democrats, The Washington Post and PolitiFact have reported. But the political affiliations of the remaining four lawyers are unclear.

A spokesman for the special counsel’s office confirmed the names of the lawyers who are on the team.

Mr. Mueller is a registered Republican and Mr. Trump’s characterization of his work history is not entirely accurate.

A Republican president, George W. Bush, chose Mr. Mueller to lead the F.B.I. for a 10-year term that began in 2001. Mr. Mueller was asked to stay on by President Barack Obama in 2011. Two years later, Mr. Mueller retired from the F.B.I. after having served under Mr. Obama for around four and a half years.

And Mr. Mueller was appointed to lead the Russia investigation by the deputy attorney general, Rod J. Rosenstein, also a Republican.

Cambridge Analytica has been ordered to hand over all the data and personal information it has on an American voter, including details of where it got the data and what it did with it, or face a criminal prosecution.

The UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) served the enforcement notice to the company on Friday in a landmark legal decision that opens the way for up to 240 million other American voters to request their data back from the firm under British data protection laws.

The test case was taken to the ICO by David Carroll, an associate professor at Parsons School of Design in New York. As a US citizen, he had no means of obtaining this information under US law, but in January 2016 he discovered Cambridge Analytica had processed US voter data in the UK and that this gave him rights under British laws. Cambridge Analytica had refused to accept this and told the ICO that Carroll was no more entitled to make a so-called “subject access request” under the UK Data Protection Act “than a member of the Taliban sitting in a cave in the remotest corner of Afghanistan”.

The ICO did not accept this as a valid legal argument and has now told SCL Elections, which acted as the data controller for Cambridge Analytica, that it has 30 days to comply or appeal. Cambridge Analytica and its affiliates announced this week that they had gone into liquidation, but the ICO has made it clear that it cannot avoid its responsibilities under UK law and states that “failure to comply with this enforcement notice is a criminal offence”.

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The nationwide demonstrations are taking place under the slogan: "He is not our tsar".

Vladimir Putin, Supertsar".

Israeli agency told to find incriminating material on Obama diplomats who negotiated deal with Tehran

Aides to Donald Trump, the US president, hired an Israeli private intelligence agency to orchestrate a “dirty ops” campaign against key individuals from the Obama administration who helped negotiate the Iran nuclear deal, the Observer can reveal.

People in the Trump camp contacted private investigators in May last year to “get dirt” on Ben Rhodes, who had been one of Barack Obama’s top national security advisers, and Colin Kahl, deputy assistant to Obama, as part of an elaborate attempt to discredit the deal.

The extraordinary revelations come days before Trump’s 12 May deadline to either scrap or continue to abide by the international deal limiting Iran’s nuclear programme.

Jack Straw, who as foreign secretary was involved in earlier efforts to restrict Iranian weapons, said: “These are extraordinary and appalling allegations but which also illustrate a high level of desperation by Trump and [the Israeli prime minister] Benjamin Netanyahu, not so much to discredit the deal but to undermine those around it.”

One former high-ranking British diplomat with wide experience of negotiating international peace agreements, requesting anonymity, said: “It’s bloody outrageous to do this. The whole point of negotiations is to not play dirty tricks like this.”

Sources said that officials linked to Trump’s team contacted investigators days after Trump visited Tel Aviv a year ago, his first foreign tour as US president. Trump promised Netanyahu that Iran would never have nuclear weapons and suggested that the Iranians thought they could “do what they want” since negotiating the nuclear deal in 2015. A source with details of the “dirty tricks campaign” said: “The idea was that people acting for Trump would discredit those who were pivotal in selling the deal, making it easier to pull out of it.”

According to incendiary documents seen by the Observer, investigators contracted by the private intelligence agency were told to dig into the personal lives and political careers of Rhodes, a former deputy national security adviser for strategic communications, and Kahl, a national security adviser to the former vice-president Joe Biden. Among other things they were looking at personal relationships, any involvement with Iran-friendly lobbyists, and if they had benefited personally or politically from the peace deal.

Investigators were also apparently told to contact prominent Iranian Americans as well as pro-deal journalists – from the New York Times, MSNBC television, the Atlantic, Vox website and Haaretz, the Israeli newspaper among others – who had frequent contact with Rhodes and Kahl in an attempt to establish whether they had violated any protocols by sharing sensitive intelligence. They are believed to have looked at comments made by Rhodes in a 2016 New York Times profile in which he admitted relying on inexperienced reporters to create an “echo chamber” that helped sway public opinion to secure the deal. It is also understood that the smear campaign wanted to establish if Rhodes was among those who backed a request by Susan Rice, Obama’s final national security adviser, to unmask the identities of Trump transition officials caught up in the surveillance of foreign targets.

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