Section: POLITICO – U.S. Edition (USA)
How Paul Manafort could put the FBI on trial
Paul Manafort’s legal team faces a critical choice as he heads to trial: how aggressively the former Trump campaign chairman should base his defense on alleged political bias and misconduct by federal investigators. Manafort, a criminal defendant fighting two separate cases, is uniquely positioned to try to dredge up information on bias or...
Manafort moves to suppress evidence found in storage unit
Lawyers for former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort are arguing that what could be key evidence against him should be kept out of court because the FBI violated his Constitutional rights by illegally entering a storage locker belonging to Manafort’s firm.The FBI first got into the Alexandria, Va. storage unit last May with the...
Space war is coming — and the U.S. is not ready
War is coming to outer space, and the Pentagon warns it is not yet ready, following years of underinvesting while the military focused on a host of threats on Earth.Russia and China are years ahead of the United States in developing the means to destroy or disable satellites that the U.S. military depends on for everything from gathering...
Dutch attorney gets 30 days in first sentence for Mueller probe
Special counsel Robert Mueller obtained the first sentence in his high-profile investigation Tuesday, as a Dutch attorney who admitted to lying to investigators was ordered into federal custody for 30 days. Former Skadden Arps associate Alex van der Zwaan, 33, pleaded guilty in February to lying to FBI agents about his contacts with former Trump...
Playbook: ‘THE TRUMP SLUMP’
BREAKING OVERNIGHT … CNN’S KATELYN POLANTZ: “Mueller authorized by DOJ to investigate alleged Manafort collusion with Russian government”: “Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein told special counsel Robert Mueller in a classified August 2, 2017, memo that he should investigate allegations that President Donald Trump’s former campaign...
How the Great War could reign on Trump’s parade
Many of President Donald Trump’s critics fear he will start World War III.But he may bring good news for devotees of World War I.This coming Veterans Day, the weekend selected for Trump’s $30 million military parade, is also the 100th anniversary of the armistice that ended the First World War on Nov. 11, 1918. That’s the...
Playbook scoop: Amazon slashes outside consultants
PLAYBOOK SCOOP: AMAZON SLASHES OUTSIDE CONSULTANTS — ANNA, MARIANNE LEVINE and THEO MEYER are reporting that tech giant Amazon nixed multiple contract lobbying firms recently from its roster, including Squire Patton Boggs and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld. “This was a specific project that we were working on to institute a national...
Inside the lobbying campaign that caught Mueller’s attention
The lobbyists hired by Paul Manafort launched a lobbying blitz barely a week after the Senate began weighing a resolution to publicly condemn the man who was effectively their client, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, for throwing a political opponent in jail.A lobbyist for one prominent Washington firm, the Podesta Group, emailed the staff...
Power Briefing: Bolton said U.S. response to Russia should be ‘disproportionate’
THE NEXT NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER — JOHN BOLTON on the U.S. responding to Russian interference last month, per WaPo’s Josh Rogin: “I don’t think the response should be proportionate, I think it should be very disproportionate.” https://wapo.st/2urkDxL SPOTTED: Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Josh Bolten, Ed Gillespie, Rep....
Mueller: Rick Gates spoke to person with Russian spy ties in late 2016
Rick Gates, a senior official on President Donald Trump’s campaign, was in contact in September and October 2016 with an associate that the FBI assessed had ongoing ties to Russia’s intelligence services, special counsel Robert Mueller said in a new court filing.In a federal court filing Tuesday, Mueller described the associate of...
