As a supplement to my ongoing timeline on the Trump-Russia scandal I’ve decided to post periodic updates as they come in because at this point it’s like trying to drink from a firehose.
Here’s just the last few days:
May 22nd — Michael Flynn ignores Senate subpoena and prepares to plead the 5th. Manafort and Stone provide docs to Senate Intel. While in Israel Trump claims he never mentioned “the name Israel” to the Russians in the oval office, which was never the issue. Comey’s testimony is postponed as he says he wants to talk to Mueller the Special Prosecutor first. Mueller visits FBI headquarters meets with agents on the case and is briefed on the Comey memos. Trump reportedly eyes bringing back Lewandowski for “crisis management”, except that after leaving CNN he’d become a lobbyist and can no longer work in the White House due to Trump’s own rules, not that he really followed them anyway. Fox News officially retracts the Seth Rich hacked the DNC story, Hannity keeps plugging it. May 23rd — Former CIA Director Brennen testifies before the House Intel Committee. He states that the Active Measures of Russia are a continuing threat and that CIA had seen intel that the Trump campaign may have been ‘actively conspiring, colluding with Russia’ which had been referred to the FBI, and that he didn’t request any unmasking of U.S. Citizens, such requests were made downstream from his position. He also states that CIA didn’t use any of the Steele dossier in their assessment of the Russia threat. WH says the “real problems” are leaks. Pigued by the Time report from May 18th, the FEC considers an investigation into whether Russia illegal paid for Facebook ads and whether this was coordinated with Kushner’s voter micro-targeting with Cambridge Analytica in support of Trump. Kushner reportedly calls Christie for advice, he tells him Trump “‘better lawyer up and keep his mouth shut.” Christie associates deny this happened, yet Trump does apparently start looking for a Lawyer. Senate issues two more subpeonas for Flynn docs. Hannity agrees to shut up about Seth Rich May 24th — House Democrats send letter for financial information on Trump businesses to Deusche Bank which holds $300 Million of his debt and who were fined $10 Billion for their connection to a Russia Money-Laundering Scheme in 2015. Trump lawyers up, hiring his longtime attorney Marc Kasowitz as outside counsel on the Russia probe, Kasowitz had also been counsel for Russia’s Sberbank which had employed a Russian spy who was prosecuted in 2016 by Preet Bharara. Rep. Al Green (D-TX) publicly states that he has begun drawing up articles of impeachment against Donald Trump. Carter Page agrees to testify before House Intel. Rep. Cummings says docs show Flynn falsified his security forms by saying the $45k he received from RT was paid by “U.S. Companies.” Jeff Sessions didn’t list his meetings with Russians on his security forms either. Hannity goes on twitter rant about George Soros and Seth Rich again. Britain complains loudly about U.S. Intel leaks which may damage their investigation of the Manchester Bombing, this lessons likelyhood that FBI & Mueller may gain access to GCHQ intercepts of Russians. Spicer gets shutout on meeting the Pope even though he’s a devout Catholic, indicating his rapidly shrinking shelf-life. GOP candidate. Gianforte bodyslams a Guardian reporter as he asks about the new CBO score for Trumpcare or maybe it was because they’d previously reported about his investments in sanctioned Russian companies like Rosneft May 25th — Trump gives disastrous NATO shake-down speech that would make Putin proud. Hannity goes on abrupt unplanned “vacation” as advertisers flee his show. DOJ refuses to give copies of Comey docs to Congress to prevent interfering with Mueller investigation. Assault charges are filed against Greg Gianforte, Rep Trent Frank’s says the attack was “precipitated by the Left.” NBC reports Kushner is under FBI investigation potentially for his contacts with Kislyak and Gorkov, failing to include meeting them on his Security applications, and to see if his micro-targeting operations with Cambridge Analytics was co-opted by Russia’s targeted bot/troll disinformation campaign. Gianforte wins his election even with assault charges pending, apologies and admits his initial story was a lie. Rep Jeff Duncan attacks CNN’s story about Session’s failure to disclose his meetings with Russians — CNN doesn’t retract. May 26th — Reports surface that NSA Director Mike Rogers made an agency wide announcement that “There is no question that we [meaning NSA] have evidence of election involvement and questionable contacts with the Russians.” WH advisor Gary Cohn says that while at NATO summit in Brussels Trump is “looking at” lifting sanctions on Russia over Crimea. Former Kushner employee at the New York Observer and NSA reporter John Schindler claims Euro IC services are ready to dump “Dirt” on Trump after his public punking of NATO leaders in Brussels “Now we know he’s Putin’s boy”. Reports are the FBI is investigating an overseas launched cyber-attack on the Trump organization. An ex-Kushner employee says “He’s a Shithead, unqualified to hold any job.” Mike Flynn’s Turkey lobbying client Kamil Ekim Alptekin who paid him $530k denies any wrong doing or ill intent. CNN Reports that Jim Comey knew the Lynch/Wasserman-Schultz memos were fake, but feared they might become public and undermine the DOJ. Preibus, Bannon and Kushner setup a “War Room” to push back on Russia allegations but staffers complain “‘ill-advised tweets’ keep blowing up efforts to combat Russia scandal.” Hillary Clinton gives fiery speech at her alma mater calling out Trump for, well, everything. Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska who has ties to Manafort and allegedly organized crime seeks full immunity to testify to congress. Senate Intel committee seeks all Trump campaign documents, emails and phone records. Wapo confirms that intercepted communications reveal Kushner was the point man for Trump’s attempted secure back channel to Putin using Russian diplomatic communications gear.
Whew!