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Tag: Robert Mueller

  • Trump’s re-election campaign raises $10m so far in 2018

    U.S. President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign raised 10 million dollars in the first quarter of the year, leaving his re-election operation with 28 million dollars in cash, his campaign has said.

    Trump spent 3.9 million dollars in the first quarter.

    Trump has opted – unlike presidents before him – to begin actively fundraising in the early part of his first term.

    He could use some of the money which he has already raised to help Republicans in the upcoming midterm election in November.

    In addition to raising money for his own campaign, Trump has also collected funds for joint efforts with the Republican National Committee, which uses that money to help congressional candidates.

    His re-election campaign finished 2017 with 22 million dollars in cash.

    Read Also: Oil prices hit over $73 on Trump’s Russia warning

    During the first quarter of the year, Trump spent about 834,000 dollars on legal expenses – down from the 1.1 million dollars he spent in each of the previous two quarters, according to disclosures filed with Federal Election Commission.

    Trump’s campaign has used millions of his campaign cash in the past year to pay legal fees – including some fees associated with responding to the Russia investigation being conducted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

    His campaign spent over three million dollars in 2017 in legal fees.

    In addition to legal fees, he has also used that money to keep a small campaign staff, to fund campaign rallies and to pay for digital advertising focused on his supporters.

    Trump filed for re-election the day he took office, an unusual move for an incumbent president.

    Traditionally, incumbent presidents have waited until after their second year in office to begin their re-election campaign.

    Trump will stand for re-election in November 2020.

    NAN

     

  • Republicans warn Trump over Russia probe

    United States President, Donald Trump, has been warned by fellow Republicans against interfering in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigations.

    It came after Mr. Trump attacked Mr. Mueller’s inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S presidential election, the BBC reports.

    In tweets at the weekend, the President reiterated that there had been “no collusion” between his team and Russia and called the probe a “witch hunt.”

    He added that it was dominated by “hardened Democrats.”

    Mr. Mueller, a highly regarded former head of the FBI, is a Republican.

    Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said Mr. Mueller should be allowed to proceed without interference, and that many Republicans shared his view.

    He also warned Mr. Trump against any attempt to dismiss Mr. Mueller.

    “If he tried to do that, that would be the beginning of the end of his presidency, because we’re a rule of law nation,” Mr. Graham said.

    Republican Senator Jeff Flake, a frequent Trump critic, said it appeared the President’s latest comments seemed to be preparing the ground for the firing of Mr. Mueller.

    “I don’t know what the designs are on Mueller, but it seems to be building toward that, and I just hope it doesn’t go there. We can’t in Congress accept that,” he told CNN.

    “I’m just puzzled by why the White House is going so hard at this, other than that they’re very afraid of what might come out.”

    AshLee Strong, a spokeswoman for the Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives, Paul Ryan, said: “As the Speaker has always said, Mr. Mueller and his team should be able to do their job.”

    Senate Democratic Leader, Charles Schumer, accused Mr. Trump of “floating trial balloons about derailing” the investigation.

    “Our Republican colleagues, particularly the leadership, have an obligation to our country to stand up now and make it clear that firing Mueller is a red line for our democracy that cannot be crossed,” he said in a statement.

  • Ex CIA director assumes Trump ‘afraid’ of Putin amid Russia meddling probe

    Ex CIA director assumes Trump ‘afraid’ of Putin amid Russia meddling probe

    Former CIA Director John Brennan suggested that U.S. President Donald Trump might be “afraid” of Russian President Vladimir Putin, amid Russia meddling probe.

    On Saturday, Trump said after a brief on-the-go meeting at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit with Putin that he believed the Russian leader when he said “he absolutely did not meddle in our election.”

    Trump said that the Russian president was insulted by the ongoing investigation, which is not good for the United States.

    Read also: Trump requests additional $4bn for missile defence programmes

    “I think Mr Trump is, for whatever reason, either intimidated by Mr Putin, afraid of what he could do, or what might come out as a result of these investigations,” Brennan told CNN.

    The U.S. Congress is currently investigating Russia’s alleged meddling in 2016last year’s US presidential election.

    The FBI has been carrying out a similar investigation under Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

    A number of hearings regarding the issue have been held in Congress, but intelligence service officials did not provide any evidence, claiming that the information was confidential.

    Russia denies meddling in the 2016 US election, calling the accusations absurd and groundless.

    NAN

  • Comey is a leaker, says Trump

    Comey is a leaker, says Trump

    U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday called James Comey, former Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), “a leaker”.

    Trump on his Twitter handle on Friday also said that many statements made by the former FBI chief on Thursday were false.

    “In spite of so many false statements and lies, total and complete vindication…and WOW, Comey is a leaker!” Trump tweeted.

    Trump’s reaction followed the admission by Comey that he gave the memos of his conversations with Trump to a friend to leak to the media.

    The former FBI chief also revealed for the first time that he turned over memos about his conversations with Trump to the Special Counsel investigating the Russian scandal, Robert Mueller.

    Comey had, while testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee investigating the alleged Russian collusion with Trump Campaign during the 2016 presidential election, made some damming remarks about Trump.

    The former FBI boss, at the public hearing televised live, accused Trump of suggesting to him to “let Michael Flynn”, the president’s former National Security Adviser, “go”.

    Comey had testified that Trump and others in his administration lied when they said FBI agents had lost confidence in him to continue leading the bureau.

    Referring to Trump’s suggestion that he may have recorded their conversations, Comey said: “Lordy, I hope there are tapes”.

    Comey had also described Trump as a liar but stressed that Trump was not under investigation and the Russian interference did not affect the votes of the election.

    Trump’s personal lawyer, Marc Kasowitz, issued a statement afterwards denying Comey’s testimony that the president pressured him to drop his investigations into the Trump campaign’s possible collusion with Russia.

    Kasowitz also said Trump never demanded “I need loyalty, I expect loyalty” as Comey testified on Thursday.

    “Contrary to numerous false press accounts leading up to today’s hearing, Mr Comey has now finally confirmed publicly what he repeatedly told the president privately:

    “The president was not under investigation as part of any probe into Russian interference.”

    “He also admitted that there is no evidence that a single vote changed as a result of any Russian interference,” Kasowitz’s statement said.

    NAN also reports that a source close to the Trump legal team said on Friday that Kasowitz  plans to file a complaint on Monday about former Comey’s disclosure of conversations with the president,

    A source, who declined to be identified because the matter was not public, said Kasowitz will file the complaint with the Justice Department’s inspector-general.

    The source also added that Kasowitz will also make a “submission” to the Senate Judiciary and Senate Intelligence committees about Comey’s testimony.

  • Trump calls Russia probe biggest ‘witch hunt in American history’

    Trump calls Russia probe biggest ‘witch hunt in American history’

    President Donald Trump on Thursday called the appointment of a special counsel to lead the Russia probe as “the single greatest witch hunt” in U.S. history, hours after he said he looked forward to a thorough investigation.

    In the face of rising pressure from Capitol Hill, the U.S. Justice Department named former FBI Director Robert Mueller on Wednesday as special counsel to investigate alleged Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election and possible collusion between Trump’s campaign and Moscow.

    Trump said in a statement that “a thorough investigation will confirm what we already know; there was no collusion between my campaign and any foreign entity.”

    In a pair of Twitter posts on Thursday morning, Trump made clear he was unhappy with the latest development to roil his administration.

    “With all of the illegal acts that took place in the Clinton campaign and Obama Administration, there was never a special counsel appointed!” Trump wrote, misspelling the word counsel as he referred to former President Barack Obama and former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

    “This is the single greatest witch hunt of a politician in American history!”

    The comments mirrored a speech by Trump on Wednesday, before Mueller’s appointment was announced, in which he said no politician in history “has been treated worse or more unfairly.”

    Russia has denied U.S. intelligence agencies’ conclusion that it interfered in the election campaign to try to tilt the vote in Trump’s favor. Trump, a Republican, has long bristled at the notion that Russia played any role in his November election victory, and has denied any collusion between his campaign and Moscow.

    The appointment of a special counsel to take over the Russia probe was widely praised by Democrats and Trump’s fellow Republicans.

    Republican Representative Charlie Dent said there was no question the Russians meddled in the election.

    The goal of the special counsel probe, he said, was to determine whether there was collusion between Trump associates and Russia to do so.

    “I believe that’s why we’re having this investigation, to find out if in fact there was collusion.

    “I certainly hope there wasn’t any but if there is there are going to be very serious consequences,” Dent told CNN.

    Moments before Trump weighed in on Twitter, Democratic Senator Joe Manchin welcomed the special counsel investigation and said it was important to get facts in the Russia probe.

    “I am not on a witch hunt. I am on a fact-finding mission,” he said on CNN.