The October, 2016 application to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court named Carter Page, a former foreign policy advisor to the campaign of Donald Trump, according to the top secret documents which The New York Times published. The newspaper, along with USA Today and others, filed Freedom of Information Act lawsuits to obtain the material, which the Justice Department released but with many details redacted. "The FBI believes Page has been the subject of targeted recruitment by the Russian government," the initial FBI application says before it is blacked out and continues: "undermine and influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election in violation of U.S. criminal law." Release of the documents comes just over one week after Special Counsel Robert Mueller, probing possible collusion between Trump's 2016 campaign and Russia, indicted 12 Russian intelligence officers, accusing them of hacking Democratic challenger Hillary Clinton's campaign to steal documents, which were … [Read more...] about Trump aide’s ‘Russia ties’ alleged in secret US documents
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Trump says he told Putin ‘we can’t have meddling’ in US vote
US President Donald Trump speaks during a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, DC. (Nicholas Kamm/AFP) "I let him know we can't have this, we're not going to have it, and that's the way it's going to be," Trump said in an interview with CBS. Asked if he held Putin personally responsible for interference in the November 2016 presidential vote, Trump replied: "Well, I would, because he's in charge of the country, just like I consider myself to be responsible for things that happen in this country." Trump said he had been "very strong on the fact that we can't have meddling, we can't have any of that." Trump has been under bipartisan fire in Washington for failing to publicly confront Putin over the election interference at the press conference that followed their Helsinki talks. Trump has also appeared on several occasions to question the US intelligence findings that Russia interfered in the 2016 vote in a bid to undermine Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. He did … [Read more...] about Trump says he told Putin ‘we can’t have meddling’ in US vote
Trump, Merkel clash at NATO summit
US President Donald Trump is demanding that NATO allies "reimburse" Washington for the cost of defending the continent. (Photo: AFP/Denis Charlet) The two-day meet in Brussels is shaping up as the alliance's most difficult in years, with Europe and the US engaged in a bitter trade spat and Trump demanding that NATO allies "reimburse" Washington for the cost of defending the continent. Merkel shot back that Germany had the right to make its own policy choices, setting up an explosive one-on-one meeting with Trump later in the afternoon. European alliance members were braced for criticism from Trump on defence spending, but his blistering attack on Germany at a breakfast meeting with NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg took the summit by surprise. "Germany is a captive of Russia because it is getting so much of its energy from Russia," Trump said, taking particular aim at the proposed Nord Stream II gas pipeline, which he has previously criticised. "Everybody's talking about it all over the … [Read more...] about Trump, Merkel clash at NATO summit
Trump says will raise election meddling with Putin in Helsinki meeting
By Reuters  June 30, 2018 | 08:49 am GMT+7 Russia's President Vladimir Putin talks to U.S. President Donald Trump during their bilateral meeting at the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, July 7, 2017. Photo by Reuters During the July 16 summit, 'I'll talk to him about everything,' Trump said. U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday he would raise the issue of alleged Russian meddling in U.S. elections during his planned meeting with President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki next month. Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on his way to New Jersey, Trump also said he would discuss the conflicts in Syria and Ukraine and other international issues with Putin during the July 16 summit. "I'll talk to him about everything," Trump said. "We're going to talk about Ukraine, we're going to be talking about Syria. We'll be talking about elections ... we don't want anybody tampering with elections." Russia has denied U.S. intelligence agencies' assessment that … [Read more...] about Trump says will raise election meddling with Putin in Helsinki meeting
Trump ran White House like a ‘mob boss’: ex-FBI chief Comey
Former FBI director James Comey says in a new book that President Donald Trumpreminded him of a mafia boss who demanded absolute loyalty, saw the entire world against him, and lied about everything. According to excerpts of the book leaked by U.S. media on Thursday, Trump was also obsessed with the alleged existence of a video in which Russian prostitutes said to be hired by Trump urinated on the bed in a Moscow hotel room. In the book to be released officially next Tuesday, Comey, whom Trump fired in May 2017, says the U.S. president lives in "a cocoon of alternative reality" that he tried to pull others around him into, according to The Washington Post. Meetings with Trump gave Comey "flashbacks to my earlier career as a prosecutor against the Mob," he writes. "The silent circle of assent. The boss in complete control. The loyalty oaths. The us-versus-them worldview. The lying about all things, large and small, in service to some code of loyalty that put the organization above … [Read more...] about Trump ran White House like a ‘mob boss’: ex-FBI chief Comey