Special Counsel challenges Trump red line on investigation of financial affairs

Mueller Demands Trump’s Business Documents for 1st Time

Special Counsel Robert Mueller subpoenas the Trump Organization’s records, including those related to contacts with Russia, according to “two people briefed on the matter”.

The subpoena points to Mueller’s deepening inquiry into the financial affairs of Donald Trump and his inner circle. In recent weeks, the inquiry has moved beyond matters concerning Russia — such as Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner meeting the head of a Russian State bank in December 2016 — to discussions with entities from Qatar and the UAE, involving Kushner, his father, and Kushner Companies.

Mueller has already indicted 13 Russians and three companies accused of meddling in the 2016 presidential campaign. National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, Trump foreign policy advisor George Papadopoulos, and Rick Gates, the top aide to former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, have pleaded guilty to charges over Russia contacts and/or financial affairs.

Manafort, indicted in October, is still holding out against a plea and cooperation with Mueller’s team.

The Trump Organization’s lawyers indicated they would comply with the subpoena. Alan Futerfas said:

Since July 2017, we have advised the public that the Trump Organization is fully cooperative with all investigations, including the special counsel, and is responding to their requests.

This is old news and our assistance and cooperation with the various investigations remains the same today.

Last July, in an interview with the New York Times, Trump said the Special Counsel would be crossing a red line if he investigated the family’s financial affairs.

But White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on Thursday that Trump is cooperating with Mueller’s inquiry.

Trump Finally Implements Congressional Sanctions on Russia

The Trump Administration finally implements sanctions on Russia that were approved by Congress last summer.

Trump had reluctantly signed the measure but had made no move until yesterday to implement the restrictions over Moscow’s interference in the 2016 election.

The new sanctions on five entities and 19 individuals include measures against the Internet Research Agency, Russia’s center for intervention on social media platforms, and Yevgeniy Viktorovich Prigozhin, a financial backer of the IRA who is close to President Vladimir Putin.

Prigozhin was one of 13 Russians indicted by Special Counsel Mueller last month.

Two Russian intelligence agencies, the Federal Security Service (FSB) and the Main Intelligence Directorate, and some of their staff are also cited in the latest sanctions.

Trump missed a January deadline for implementation of the asset freezes and bans on travel to the US.

Thursday’s authorization came as a Department of Homeland Security report said Russia had tried to penetrate the US energy grid and carry out other cyber-attacks.

The Department said the strikes accelerated in late 2015, compromising some operators in North America and Europe by spring 2017. Russian hackers made their way to machines with access to critical control systems at power plants, but did not sabotage or shut down the computer systems that guide the operations.

Trump Finally Criticizes Russia Over Nerve Agent Attack in UK

During a White House meeting on Thursday with Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, Trump told reporters that “it certainly looks like” Russia is behind an attack with a rare nerve agent on a former spy in southern England.

Trump had maintained silence for more than a week after the March 4 attack on Sergey Skripal and his daughter Yulia with the “Novichok” agent, developed in the Soviet Union from the 1970s in programs and stocks which were supposedly eliminated by Russia. About 500 people were affected in Salisbury, England, including a police officer who is in serious but stable condition, while the Skripals are still critically ill.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson took the initative on Monday night, siding with the UK’s call on Russia to explain the attack, but he was fired hours later by Trump via a tweet.

Trump, who finally gave a muted response on Tuesday in answers to reporters, said yesterday:

It looks like [Russian responsibility]. I spoke with the [UK] Prime Minister and we are in deep discussions. A very sad situation. Something that should never ever happen, and we are taking it very seriously, as I think are many others.


Advisory Board on Trophy Hunting Packed with Trophy Hunters

A new U.S. advisory board created to rewrite federal rules for importing the heads and hides of African elephants, lions, and rhinos is stacked with trophy hunters, including some with ties to Donald Trump and his family.

The 16 board members of the International Wildlife Conservation Council have been appointed by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. One co-owns a private New York hunting preserve with Trump’s adult sons. Others are celebrity hunting guides, representatives from rifle and bow manufacturers, and wealthy sportspeople who boast of bagging the coveted “Big Five” — elephant, rhino, lion, leopard, and Cape buffalo.

Most are high-profile members of Safari Club International and the National Rifle Association, who both have sued the Fish and Wildlife Service to expand the list of countries from which trophy kills can be legally imported.

The Safari Club’s president, Paul Babaz and Erica Rhoad, the NRA’s director of hunting policy, are both on the council. So are Bill Brewster is a retired Oklahoma congressman and lobbyist who served on the boards of the Safari Club and the NRA, and Gary Kania, vice president of the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation.

The first meeting of the council is scheduled for Friday at the Interior Department’s headquarters in Washington.