Podcasts about Trump Tower Moscow

Day 1,154.Today, we ask how meaningful the weekend's so-called ‘Easter truce' really was, look at the new American peace proposals put to Kyiv and its allies – which include major concessions both in territory and sovereignty – then reflect on the legacy of Pope Francis in relation to the war. Later, we hear about a new book investigating Russian spies who spent decades undercover: what does it teach us about modern spycraft?Contributors:Francis Dearnley (Executive Editor for Audio). @FrancisDearnley on X.Dominic Nicholls (Associate Editor of Defence). @DomNicholls on XRoland Oliphant (Senior Foreign Correspondent). @RolandOliphant on X.Shaun Walker (Eastern Europe at the Guardian). @shaunwalker7 on X.Content Referenced:Special Ukraine: The Latest on Children:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/special-childhood-at-war/id1612424182?i=1000704331753 Special Ukraine: The Latest with Dom's Panel:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/special-how-the-west-fights-back/id1612424182?i=1000704022027 Shaun Walker's book ‘The Illegals: Russia's Most Audacious Spies and the Plot to Infiltrate the West':https://www.amazon.co.uk/Illegals-History-Moscows-Audacious-Program/dp/1788167775 Kremlin ‘satisfied' with US proposal to ban Ukraine from Nato (The Telegraph):https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/04/21/kremlin-satisfied-with-us-proposal-to-ban-ukraine-from-nato/Kyiv Is On the Clock to Respond to Trump Plan to End Ukraine Conflict (Wall Street Journal):https://www.wsj.com/world/europe/kyiv-is-on-the-clock-to-respond-to-trump-plan-to-end-ukraine-conflict-f3538799 Trump Tower Moscow, Rare Earths and Geopolitical Perks: How the Kremlin Plans to Bait Trump Into a Grand Bargain (The Moscow Times):https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2025/04/21/trump-tower-moscow-rare-earths-and-geopolitical-perks-how-the-kremlin-plans-to-bait-trump-into-a-grand-bargain-a88762Ukraine's Catholics express hurt over late Pope's war stance (Reuters):https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukraines-catholics-express-hurt-over-late-popes-war-stance-2025-04-21/Subscribe: telegraph.co.uk/ukrainethelatestEmail: ukrainepod@telegraph.co.uk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

White House logs that were given to the House committee investigating the attack on the U.S. Capitol have a gap of more than seven hours in former President Trump's phone records on Jan. 6, 2021, documents obtained by The Washington Post and CBS News reportedly show. The news outlets reported that the gap in Trump's communications stretches from 11:17 a.m. to 6:54 p.m. on the day of the attack, contradicting reports on several phone calls Trump had during that time period.  Trump has repeatedly promoted dubious claims of foreign business dealings by Hunter Biden, specifically alleging that he received millions of dollars from the wife of Moscow's late mayor, Yury Luzhkov. “She gave him $3.5 million so now I would think Putin would know the answer to that. I think he should release it,” Trump said, in an interview conducted at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. “I think we should know that answer.” Trump failed to mention that he himself sought to do business with Luzhkov's government in the late 1990's. Trump also was pursuing high-profile real estate deals in Russia as recently as 2016, including a proposed Trump Tower Moscow. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

White House logs that were given to the House committee investigating the attack on the U.S. Capitol have a gap of more than seven hours in former President Trump's phone records on Jan. 6, 2021, documents obtained by The Washington Post and CBS News reportedly show. The news outlets reported that the gap in Trump's communications stretches from 11:17 a.m. to 6:54 p.m. on the day of the attack, contradicting reports on several phone calls Trump had during that time period.  Trump has repeatedly promoted dubious claims of foreign business dealings by Hunter Biden, specifically alleging that he received millions of dollars from the wife of Moscow's late mayor, Yury Luzhkov. “She gave him $3.5 million so now I would think Putin would know the answer to that. I think he should release it,” Trump said, in an interview conducted at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. “I think we should know that answer.” Trump failed to mention that he himself sought to do business with Luzhkov's government in the late 1990's. Trump also was pursuing high-profile real estate deals in Russia as recently as 2016, including a proposed Trump Tower Moscow. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The fourth episode of Lawfare’s narrative audio documentary, The Report, which tells the story Robert S. Mueller lays out in his famous 448-page document.  This is the story of two Trump Towers, one in Moscow and one in New York. While Donald Trump was assuring Americans that he had no business in Russia, Mueller describes how he was simultaneously endeavoring to build a skyscraper with his name on it in Russia’s capital. And he describes as well the now infamous Trump Tower meeting in Manhattan, where Russians offered to give the candidate “dirt” on Hillary Clinton. Episode 1 covers the Russian social media campaign and the activities of the Internet Research Agency. Episode 2 focuses on the Russian hacking operation; the stealing of documents and emails from the Democratic National Committee, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and figures associated with the Clinton campaign; and the leaks of the stolen materials timed to affect the U.S. election. The second episode tells the story of the GRU operations, the Russian attempts to cover their tracks, and the involvement of Wikileaks and Julian Assange. Episode 3 covers the Trump campaign’s involvement in the distribution of hacked materials.  In the fourth episode, we take on two aspects of Volume I of the Mueller report that both involve Trump Towers. The first is the ill-starred effort to build a Trump Tower Moscow, which began long before the campaign and continued—notwithstanding repeated statements to the contrary by the candidate, his family, and hist campaign—through the spring of 2016. The second is the so-called Trump Tower meeting in July 2016, when a group of Russians met with Trump campaign officials offering “dirt” on Hillary Clinton—and the campaign welcomed them. This episode features Anthony Cormier, Jason Leopold, Julia Ioffe and Quinta Jurecic. We continue to be delighted by the reception to this podcast series. We hope people continue to engage at such a high level with the material we putting together. Please continue to subscribe, rate, and share it widely. We are grateful to the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Democracy Fund for their support for this project. If you want to support work of this type at Lawfare, please consider becoming a monthly donor by clicking here: Support Lawfare

As the Russians were engaged in operations to hack and dump emails, the Trump campaign and its associates were in communication with Wikileaks about the distribution of stolen materials. But that's far from the whole story of the Trump campaign's connections to Russia during the 2016 election. As Special Counsel Robert Mueller began to piece together the rest of that story, his investigation came to focus on two Trump Towers.The first is Trump Tower Moscow. Beginning all the way back in 2013 and through the spring of 2016, the Trump organization is pursuing a project to build a skyscraper in Russia. For a long time, the plans for Trump Tower Moscow had gone nowhere. But when Donald Trump announces he is running for president, things start to get interesting. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

If Robert Mueller had created a report based on his two year investigation into the assassination of JFK, would you read it? Martin Luther King? 911? Aliens? Would you believe it if you did read it? Would you listen to the audio version? During the 2015-16 American presidential campaign, Sater worked with Michael Cohen, former attorney for The Trump Organization, to broker a deal to build a Trump Tower Moscow, asserting to Cohen that he could boost Trump's election prospects through his Russian contacts. On June 21, 2019, Sater was issued a subpoena by the House Intelligence Committee after he refused a request to testify voluntarily. In 1998, Sater pleaded guilty to his involvement in a $40 million stock fraud scheme orchestrated by the Russian Mafia and became an informant for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and federal prosecutors, assisting with organized crime investigations. In 2017, Sater agreed to cooperate with investigators into international money laundering schemes George Demetrios Papadopoulos is a former member of the foreign policy advisory panel to Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. On October 5, 2017, Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to making false statements to FBI agents about the timing and the possible significance of his contacts in 2016 relating to U.S.-Russia relations and the Donald Trump presidential campaign This an an audio narration of the Mueller Report Summary of Volume 1. Download the android app for the full report audiol from play.google.com/store/apps/de... or visit MuellerReportAudioBook.com for a web player.

John details all the news surrounding Trump's overseas trip and the anniversary of D-Day. He then lists what he sees as the most obvious reasons that Trump deserves to be impeached.

Before he became infamous for working on the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s emails and the Trump Russia investigation, former acting FBI chief Andrew McCabe investigated the Russian mob in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn. McCabe has been asking some of the questions we at Trump, Inc. have asked ourselves about Trump’s business. So today, we compare notes. In this conversation with Andrea Bernstein and Heather Vogell, of Trump, Inc., McCabe talks about why it makes sense that some of the people he investigated in the 1990s have resurfaced in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, what questions he still has after the Mueller report and why he and former FBI director Jim Comey have said Trump’s management style reminds them of the mob. Trump has long denied any wrongdoing, and he has said he was simply acting as an ordinary businessman in his Russia dealings. (This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.) WNYC’s Andrea Bernstein: I want to start by asking you about your FBI training. You write about being at Quantico and you say, “I embraced every bit of this culture, even the most arbitrary aspects of the discipline.” You say that you loved “wearing the same style of polo shirt every day for weeks on end, loved the fact that everybody around me wore the same polo shirt too.” Why was it important to you, to dress the part? Andrew McCabe: You know, I think each of those little details, though not significant individually, were a way of communicating to us that we had joined an organization that was much bigger and more significant than our individual preferences or our lives before that point.  Bernstein: I have to say, you definitely look like a G-man. McCabe: I'm going to say thank you. Bernstein: Early on in your career, you were assigned to investigate the Russian mob at a specific point in history in New York, and Brighton Beach was a big place where a lot of this activity was based. I'm wondering if you could paint a picture for listeners of what Brighton Beach was like then, and what the Russian mob was like then and how it all came to you? McCabe: So the FBI field office in New York City had experience with developing new programs in what we called nontraditional organized crime. The folks who ran the organized crime program recognized the situation that we had with a very large Russian-speaking population in New York — one with a deep historical connection to organized crime activity in Russia — and so they made the decision to start a Russian organized crime squad. So when I got there in ’96, it was really still in its infant stages. Pretty much everybody on the squad were very young, new agents. “First office agents,” as we call them in the Bureau. And so we found Brighton Beach to be just a fascinating, chaotic, confusing place filled with opportunity to identify and investigate criminal activity. Brighton in those days was a thriving, bustling, Russian-speaking community. You’d drive down Brighton Beach Avenue and all of the signs for all the stores were written in both English and Russian. It was not uncommon to walk down Brighton Beach Avenue and just not hear anyone speaking anything other than Russian. Places like Tatiana’s, Rasputin, the Odessa. All these very fancy restaurants that also operated as night clubs. And there was a thriving kind of social scene around those nightclubs, which often led to criminal activity and became the kind of focus of the organized crime community in New York at that time. ProPublica’s Heather Vogell: You wrote about how the Russian mob started turning more toward financial crimes and business to pursue its goals. Could you talk a little bit about that transformation? McCabe: Sure. This was one of the fascinating things about working on that squad. You could be working an extortion or kidnapping case one day, and then a really esoteric financial fraud the next. The thing that set the Russians apart from their Italian counterparts in the organized crime community was their creativity. They very quickly became the originators of the new scams. So they did things like the tax cheating scams on gasoline and diesel fuel that were very common in the New York-New Jersey area in those days. They really professionalized the auto insurance scams around false accidents and medical mills and clinics where people would go and get processed to increase the billings against auto insurance companies. We did a lot of that work. And then, of course, we spent a lot of time on what became known as the Bank of New York money laundering scandal. So a few enterprising employees of the Bank of New York essentially took their private banking and internal computer software, which they had access to because one of them had a position in, I believe, the private banking section of Bank of New York, and began operating their own financial institution with individuals for the purpose of transferring money from Russia first to New York and then to many other places around the world. Bernstein: We have spent the last year thinking about whether there is a line from some of the small-time crooks in Brighton Beach to Russian interference in the 2016 election. The list of people who seem to matter now were in some way connected to this scene. There's Felix Sater, who is connected to the Trump Tower Moscow deal; there was Michael Cohen. They later show up trying to build a Trump Tower Moscow. And then there's Yevgeny Dvoskin, who was convicted in the gasoline scam that you were just talking about in Brighton Beach and is now a banker in Russia. McCabe: That's right. Bernstein: So they were all connected to Brighton Beach years ago, and then they show up in negotiations and 2015 and 2016. What do you make of that? McCabe: Well, it is at first blush curious, and then when you think about it a little bit longer, it makes perfect sense. Brighton Beach — we thought of it as kind of the Normandy landing in America for Russian organized crime folks. So there were many people who had experience with organized crime in Russia who came to the United States and settled in Brighton Beach just because they thought it was the new frontier. And this is a place you can make a lot of money. And then there were some who we believe were actually sent by organized crime criminal organizations in Russia for the purpose of organizing and developing business and things like that. So if you are someone, or you are an organization, that is not opposed to dealing with people with that sort of background, with those sorts of connections, with that sort of history, then you're gonna find yourself negotiating with and being represented by people who had experience in those early ’90s heydays of Russian organized crime and Brighton Beach. That doesn't really surprise me that much that you see connections like that back to the Trump Organization. Bernstein: OK, so let's talk about that a little more, because to us we're like, wow! That is crazy that these characters keep re-emerging in the story, and a generation later. So when you say it doesn't seem strange to you when you think about it, can you unpack that a little more? I mean, why is it that they're coming to work with the Trump Organization and the man who is now the president of the United States?   McCabe: Well, as I said, it makes sense to me as an investigator. I don't mean to say that it's a good thing. But these are the same folks in many cases — guys like Felix Sater and others people — who we investigated back in the early and mid-’90s. If you are an organization that doesn't have a problem with dealing with someone who has a known organized crime past and has actually been convicted of federal crimes for that same sort of activity, then you know you're going to find yourself making deals with and being represented by Felix Sater. Bernstein: So how does that make you feel? Here's the president of the United States, who is in a business deal or talking about a business deal with somebody that you investigated when you started, and when the United States started, investigating the Russian mob. McCabe: It is to my recollection and experience absolutely unprecedented and deeply concerning. From a strictly counterintelligence perspective, these are the exact sort of connections and historical overlaps that you look for when you're trying to determine whether or not a person or an organization could be subject to foreign influence. If you think about it just in the context of a standard background check for access to classified information, one of the things that can slow down an unbelievably complicated background check for any individual is if they have a relative in a foreign country. That requires all kinds of other degrees of investigation because you have to understand who is that person and what position are they in and that sort of thing. Now think of that in terms of someone who is taking extraordinary steps to develop a potentially billion-dollar real estate investment not in any foreign country, but in Russia. I mean, that is incredibly concerning to any counterintelligence professional who is trying to make an assessment as to when, how and where will that foreign government attempt to influence this person. Vogell: So we have all these characters re-emerging from Brighton Beach. Can you talk about the significance of that in light of what we now understand in terms of the interplay between organized crime and the state security services and the top levels of the Russian government? McCabe: Yeah. So there's a lot there. But I would start, I think, by saying it is very hard to desegregate organized crime from the government in Russia. I mean, we learned from the Mueller report that Vladimir Putin met quarterly with the oligarchs. The oligarchs are the modern-day masters of organized crime in Russia. They are the folks who, by one way or another, rose to the top of that pile and now control massive assets as a result. Huge fortunes. Vogell: So how, in your understanding, did this tie back to the Russian government? McCabe: The place where those two things come together — the organized crime figures and the government — is through the intelligence services. So there's always been this kind of synchronicity between the arm of the government that understands organized crime, knows who the players are, understands the businesses and the things that different individuals are engaged in, and has the kind of boots on the ground, if you will, to make those sorts of connections. Those are the intelligence services in Russia. Bernstein: There is a mountain of evidence suggesting a Trump-Russia thing. But so far no one — not not us, not you, not Robert Mueller — has been able to say what that thing is. And as you have puzzled over this relationship, does it seem possible that there in fact isn't a thing? McCabe: I think that mountain of evidence that you referred to makes it strongly likely that there is a thing. Does that mean we'll ever figure out what it is? No. But it certainly means we should keep looking. If you look at even just the Trumps’ history with Deutsche Bank: It's almost impossible to look at those series of relationships and transactions and defaults and failures followed by more and more loans. There has to be a thing at the core of that relationship between the Trump Organization and Deutsche Bank. Do we know what it is just yet? No. Will we ever? I'm not sure, but we certainly should keep looking. Bernstein: So after the Mueller report was released, we locked ourselves in the big conference room and read it for hours. McCabe: I did the same thing. Bernstein: And then when we read it, we were like, well, we still have so many questions about Trump and his business dealings in Russia and how that might have linked to foreign influence in the election. If I'm hearing you correctly, I'm hearing you say that you still have a lot of questions, too.   McCabe: Well, I think anybody who follows these issues can't help but have a lot of questions. And I don't think that Director Mueller and his team went about their work assuming that they would answer every question about Donald Trump and about the Trump business enterprises and about his historical business entanglements with Russians or anyone else. They tried to be as narrowly tailored in their remit as they could possibly be. But sure, I still have many questions about the president and his associates’ connections with Russia. I think you can't help but but walk away from the report with a lot of things that you'd like to see more information about. Bernstein: So you just switched to the second person you said “you can't help.” But we're not you. We didn't actually start this investigation; we didn't work on this investigation; we weren't investigating the Russian mob two decades ago. So I'm wondering what we are to conclude from that. McCabe: What we are to conclude from the fact that I still have questions? Bernstein: Correct. McCabe: Well, I think you see it the same way that I do. I mean, I think that the issues that you address in the podcast are the best indication of that. I think even such basic things as, why is this president fighting tooth and nail to continue to withhold and conceal his own personal financial records in a way that no other president — Republican or Democrat — has ever endeavored to conceal? Those are the sorts of questions that, if you are an investigator, and you know this as well as I do, give rise to the curiosity that leads you to investigate. Like why is it that there are so many representatives, so many people, even if it's just a handful, people who have official connections to sanctioned entities or banks in Russia who are interacting with the president, with his associates, with his family members? Have we ever seen that before by any president or really any high-level government official? I haven't, in the years that I've been doing this. So those are questions that I think were outside the scope of what Director Mueller was doing to some extent, but certainly questions I'd love to see answered. Bernstein: Trump says in his Russia dealings he was acting like an ordinary businessman. So let's talk about the Trump administration for a moment. You know we are big students of the history of President Trump. And before he was President Trump, he was a businessman here in our city. And one of the tactics that he honed very well was to try to kill off investigations about him or that might potentially involve him before they started. And just observing from the outside seeing these sustained attacks by the president on you, on Peter Strzok, both of you, forced out, forced off the Russia beat, makes me feel like there's this incredible brain drain going on. Are you alarmed by that? McCabe: Well, I think that there's no question that this president, that's his approach to perceived adversity. He attacks people personally. He will stop at nothing to undermine reputations and employment and everything else. That's certainly what I've experienced. And Peter and others I think have been on the sharp end of that as well. Am I concerned that there's no one left in the FBI to investigate these sorts of things? No. The investigative experience in that organization is deep and significant and done, hopefully, by people whose names you and the president don't know, so they can continue doing that work carefully and quietly in the way that it needs to be done. Bernstein: In your book you write a lot about your private thoughts in the years that you were working in the Trump administration, and as you were having these strange and sometimes alarming conversations with the president. One of the strangest interactions at that time that you wrote about was a meeting with President Trump and the White House counsel Don McGahn when you were being pressured to say it was a good idea for the president to come and address the FBI. You were writing that your permission would somehow give him cover to do something he was planning to do. In the end, he didn't make the trip but you wrote, “The president and his men were trying to work me the way a criminal brigade would operate.” What did you mean by that? McCabe: You know, it's a method of operation that I'd seen many times before in my own investigative history working in Russian organized crime. The leader of the crew, the leader of an organized criminal enterprise doesn't come out and tell someone what to do. They throw it out as an option that they want that other person to select. And so that way after the fact they can say: “Oh, I was just doing what they asked me to do. I wasn't forcing them to pay me $100 a week to protect their furniture store. I simply gave him the option to do that, and he selected it for himself.” So it's a kind of a subtle, passive-aggressive kind of bullying that comes with an unspoken threat. That's very effective. I mean, organized criminal enterprises have been doing that for as long as organized crime enterprises have existed. And so that's what it felt like in the Oval Office that day as I was being kind of progressively backed into the corner to state the words that they wanted to hear me state. Bernstein: Just to follow up with that, Jim Comey in his book references La Cosa Nostra. He also says the way that the president operated reminded him of the way the mob operated. But what are you guys saying here? McCabe: It's impossible to interact with the president and the administration without drawing that comparison. If you're somebody who comes from an investigative background, somebody like Jim Comey or myself or anybody else who's had experience with organized crime, the parallels are undeniable. The parallels in the way business is conducted, the way conversations proceed, the way you are asked for personal loyalty rather than loyalty to the oath that you've taken, the way that everything is analyzed on this kind of black-and-white paradox: you're either with us or you're against us, you’re either on our team and a part of this effort or you are somebody that we need to destroy. It's just such an obvious comparison. I’m not try not trying to undermine Jim Comey or myself, but it is an undeniable parallel between the way this president conducts himself and those around him support him and conduct themselves and the things that we have seen from organized crime groups. Bernstein: So is there an inference to be made from that or is that just an observation. McCabe: That's just an observation. It certainly leads to another round of questions as to why somebody would conduct themselves that way. But until you see that entity actually conducting crimes, you're not really in a position to call it an organized crime enterprise, right? And I think that effort is ongoing. Vogell: So we wanted to talk a little bit more about Robert Mueller, who you worked very closely with when he was FBI director. McCabe: Yes. Vogell: You had some wonderful and revealing personal details about his work habits and his general demeanor in the book. Especially, the one I liked, was about how on charts that showed different networks of criminal connections, he hated it when there were too many bold colors on those. Tell us a little bit more about that and what that taught you about his personality and how that was important at the time. McCabe: You know, through your interactions with the director you would pick up those little gems like, oh my gosh, you can't use a diagonal line on your chart. They have to be straight lines and perpendicular lines. You can't use bold colors, as you've mentioned. He hated some case names, the code names that were used for major cases. And so you're constantly kind of navigating your work with an eye on like, oh you can't do this because the director wouldn’t like it, or you should do that because he’ll like it better. So it was hard to do at the time and it could be a cause of great stress, but it was also a very effective way of completely transforming the way that we approached our work at least in the terrorism area. Vogell: It was a level of discipline, is what you're saying? McCabe: That's right. A level of discipline and accountability. Vogell: There was at one point more recently when you were sort of pining for the old Bob Mueller “say nothing” FBI, right in the middle of all of these political firestorms that were going on. McCabe: Yeah. Vogell: Did you feel that you had gotten a long way from where you were just a few years earlier with him? And not entirely necessarily because of the directors themselves, but the whole climate and environment had changed, and did you feel the whole organization struggling to adjust to that? McCabe: You know, I did. It was a little bit of a nostalgic look back. There were many days I was in the Hoover Building wishing I was back in Brighton Beach. Those were simpler and in many ways more satisfying times. But we changed significantly as an organization, particularly in terms of the way that we approached our responsibilities to informing the public and informing Congress of what we were doing after Director Mueller left. And that's because those things had changed around us. In the age of 24-hour news cycles and social media and constant reporting and everything that we were doing, there was certainly a need for the Bureau to evolve in its approach to public relations and things of that nature. And Jim Comey was the perfect guy to do it, because he had such significant abilities as a communicator and brought a great understanding of the impact of social media and media in general to the Bureau. But it did get us to a place where, you know, once you invite that guest over you're kind of stuck entertaining that guest for as long as they stay, which in this case was forever. Bernstein: Forever is a long night. McCabe: It is. It is. Bernstein: So you have been through an awful lot in the last four years. How are you feeling now about the future of our country and national security? McCabe: You know, like many people, I am still surprised day in and day out by the things, the developments that I see in the news each day. This latest constitutional crisis that we seem to be stumbling our way towards causes me great concern. Understanding that maybe we're at a point in history now where the executive branch not only doesn't cooperate with the legislative branch, but completely denies and ignores their constitutional responsibilities to conduct oversight. That's not someplace I ever thought we'd end up. Seeing things like that is tough. And I think it reinforces for us the incredible challenges that we face with this current administration. However, I try to step back and take the long view. I try to remind myself that we as a nation have been through really infinitely tougher challenges before. We have made mistakes in the past, and we've gotten past those mistakes by owning up to them and acknowledging them transparently and honestly and having leadership with the courage and the moral backbone to do that and to guide us to a better place. And I think that that will happen for us this time as well. I've no reason to believe it won't. And so I am still confident and optimistic about the future. I don't know how long this kind of period of chaos will last, but it won't last forever. And I think at the end of the day we will navigate this in the same way we have every other challenge that's faced this country. Bernstein: Thank you very much, Andrew McCabe. McCabe: Sure. Thank you for having me. It's been really fun.   Stay up to date with email updates about WNYC and ProPublica’s investigations into the president's business practices. You can contact us via Signal, WhatsApp or voicemail at 347-244-2134. Here’s more about how you can contact us securely. You can always email us at tips@trumpincpodcast.org. And finally, you can use the Postal Service: Trump, Inc. at ProPublica 155 Ave of the Americas, 13th Floor New York, NY 10013 “Trump, Inc.” is a production of WNYC Studios and ProPublica. Support our work by visiting donate.propublica.org or by becoming a supporting member of WNYC. Subscribe here or wherever you get your podcasts.   Copyright © 2019 New York Public Radio and ProPublica. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use at www.wnyc.org and https://www.propublica.org/steal-our-stories/ for further information. Our transcripts are created on a rush deadline, often by contractors. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of our programming is the audio record.”

John details a ton of news related to Trump's possible impeachment. He also claims vindication on recent news related to Michael Cohen's perjury about The Trump Tower Moscow Project.

John reviews all the recent Trump-related news, including what we can learn from the demise of his golf business. He then details the heavy price conservatives will pay for choosing to protect Trump at all costs.

Part 1 of 8 from Section IV: Russian Government Links To And Contacts With The Trump Campaign. This subsection of Volume 1, pages 67-80, focuses on the Trump Organization and the Trump Campaign's contacts with Russia surrounding the Trump Tower Moscow Project. Trump Tower Moscow Project (0:10) Trump Tower Moscow Venture with the Crocus Group (2013-2014) (1:16) Communications with I.C. Expert Investment Company and Giorgi Rtskhiladze (Summer and Fall 2015) (3:40) Letter of Intent and Contacts to Russian Government (October 2015-January 2016) (7:16) Trump Signs the Letter of Intent on behalf of the Trump Organization (7:24) Post-LOI Contacts with Individuals in Russia (10:38) Discussions about Russia Travel by Michael Cohen or Candidate Trump (December 2015-June 2016) (18:01) Sater's Overtures to Cohen to Travel to Russia (18:09) Candidate Trump's Opportunities to Travel to Russia (22:07) Mueller Report Audio - muellerreportaudio.com Presented by Timberlane Media Support via PayPal: donate@timberlanemedia.com Donate with Crypto Music by Lee Rosevere

Documented Evidence of the Trump-Russia ConspiracyInvestigative reporter Scott Stedman has made waves worldwide with his hard-hitting investigative journalism, going as far as anyone has to uncover the deep roots of the Trump-Russia Conspiracy. His research has been cited by the Washington Post, BBC, Reuters, CNN, McClatchy, the Daily Mail, the Guardian, and Vice, and has even helped guide Congress’s investigations.Real News collects, for the first time in print, Stedman’s eye-opening research into and evidence of every level of the Trump-Russia Conspiracy, from the 2016 Trump Tower Meetings to the dirty-money deal for Trump Tower Moscow, from the “coffee boy” George Papadopoulos and his mysterious wife to Russian infiltration of the National Rifle Association, from Cambridge Analytica’s sketchy business deals and influence operations to the battle for true journalism that will combat cries of “Fake News!”Full of real, exclusive evidence including ownership records, flight logs, banking information and statements, meeting transcripts, maps, quotes, stats and figures, cease and desist letters, and more, Real News not only enables readers to see and evaluate the arguments for the existence of the Trump-Russia Conspiracy for themselves, it also fully explains how Stedman went about his investigations to discover the truth.Anyone who is interested in the evidence—the real news about the Trump-Russia Conspiracy—needs to read this book. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

For more on Lev Leviev and Afrika Israel The Times of Israel: Diamond smuggling scandal spotlights shadowy Israeli tycoon Lev Leviev Haaretz: Who is Lev Leviev, the Israeli billionaire with ties to Jared Kushner and Putin? For more on the Moscow hotel Yahoo Finance: 'Country bumpkins:' Five business problems with Trump’s Russia project The Mueller report: Special counsel's report on Russian interference in the 2016 election, Trump Tower Moscow project, Pages 67-76 For viewpoints on the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting The Guardian: Rob Goldstone on Trump: 'I think he likes Russia because Russia liked him' The Observer: Emin Agalarov gets candid about geopolitical trolling and Trump Tower Moscow For more on the Magnitsky Act The Atlantic: Why does the Kremlin care so much about the Magnitsky Act? NPR: What really irritates Vladimir Putin? The Magnitsky Act

On Thursday, the “Trump, Inc.” team gathered with laptops, pizza and Post-its to disconnect — and to read special counsel Robert Mueller’s report. What we found was page after page of jaw-dropping details about the inner workings of the administration of President Donald Trump, meetings with foreign officials and plots to affect our elections. But we also found rich details on how Trump ran his business dealings in Russia, itself the subject of our recent episode on his Moscow business partners. It backed up a lot of our earlier reporting: The deal with Andrey Rozov, a relatively unknown developer whose claim to international prominence was the purchase of a building in Manhattan’s garment district, did go further than agreements with other developers. The type of development they were hoping for would need signoff from Russia’s powers that be — namely, President Vladimir Putin — potentially putting Trump in the position of owing favors to a hostile foreign power. And the deal went on longer than the Trump campaign wanted the public to know, with the then-candidate rebuffing Michael Cohen’s concerns about the accuracy of his portrayal of his relationships with Russia. Here are a few of our takeaways: The deal was bigger… The Mueller report puts the terms of Trump’s most infamous Trump Tower deal side by side with a failed prior deal with the family of Russian pop star Emin Agalarov. In doing so, it proposes an answer to why Trump chose to move forward with Rozov: he offered Trump a much better deal. In fact, Cohen said the tower overall "was potentially a $1 billion deal.” Under the terms of the agreement, the Trump Organization would get an upfront fee, a share of sales and rental revenue, and an additional 20% of the operating profit. The deal offered by the well-known Agalarov developers, in contrast, would have brought in a flat 3.5%. We’d tried to reach Rozov to talk about the deal for our earlier reporting. He never responded. For Trump, this agreement promised to be the deal of a lifetime. There were more Russian contacts… The report says Cohen and Felix Sater, a fixer who brought the Trump Organization together with the potential developer for the Moscow deal, both believed securing Putin’s endorsement was key. There was also plenty of outreach from Russians, many of them offering to make that very connection. But even as the two were figuring out how to pitch the tower plan to Putin, at least three intermediaries who claimed to have connections to the Russian president were reaching out to Trump and his associates. They promised help with Trump’s business interests and his campaign, the report says. One was Dmitry Klokov, whom Cohen looked up online and mistakenly identified as a former Olympic weightlifter. Klokov, in fact, worked for a government-owned electric company and was a former aide to Russia’s energy minister. He told Cohen he could facilitate a meeting with a “person of interest” — that is, Putin — and also offered help creating “synergy on a government level.” But Klokov’s overtures for talks on matters beyond mere business interests were rebuffed by Cohen. The report also clarified that it was Sater who approached the Russian developer with the idea of a Trump Tower Moscow — and later brought his pitch to the Trump Organization. This sequence of events raises new questions about whether the tower deal, which Trump had wanted for decades, was part of the Russian government’s multiple intelligence approaches to Trump and his advisers at the time. One other figure in our previous Trump Moscow episode surfaced again in the Mueller report: Yevgeny Dvoskin, a Russian national with a U.S. criminal record and alleged ties to organized crime. Dvoskin is now a part-owner of Genbank, a small Russian bank sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury. He grew up in Brighton Beach at the same time as Sater, who, in 2016, called on Dvoskin to invite Trump and Cohen to Russia for an exploratory visit. To arrange the invitation, Dvoskin asked for copies of Cohen’s and Trump’s passports, which Cohen was happy to provide. The Mueller report says that Trump’s personal assistant even brought Trump’s passport to Cohen’s office, but that it is not clear whether it was ever passed on to Sater. Sater declined to comment for the podcast. Genbank and Dvoskin did not respond to earlier requests for comment. And there was more cover-up… Mueller describes continued efforts to mislead investigators and the public about the Trump Moscow deal and associates’ contacts with Russian officials. Many of the details are gleaned from Cohen’s cooperation. Cohen confronted Trump after he denied having business ties to Russia in July 2016 and pointed out that Trump Tower Moscow was still in play. “Trump told Cohen that Trump Tower Moscow was not a deal yet and said, ‘Why mention it if it is not a deal?’” according to the Mueller report. To maintain Cohen’s loyalty during the investigation, multiple Trump staff members and friends told him the “boss” “loves you,” according to the Mueller report. “You are loved,” another associate told him in an email. Cohen also said the president’s lawyer told him he’d be protected as long as he didn’t go “rogue.” The report concludes that active negotiations in Moscow continued into the summer of 2016. Cohen told Mueller’s team that the project wasn’t officially dead until January 2017, when it was listed with other deals that needed to be “closed out” ahead of the inauguration. After admitting to lying to Congress about when the Moscow deal fizzled, Cohen told Mueller about the “script,” or talking points he’d developed with Trump to downplay his ties to Russia. He also said he believed lawyers associated with his joint defense agreement — including attorneys for the president — edited out a key line about communications with Russia from his congressional testimony. The offending line: “The building project led me to make limited contacts with Russian government officials.” You can contact us via Signal, WhatsApp or voicemail at 347-244-2134. Here’s more about how you can contact us securely. You can always email us at tips@trumpincpodcast.org. And finally, you can use the Postal Service: Trump, Inc. at ProPublica 155 Ave of the Americas, 13th Floor New York, NY 10013 “Trump, Inc.” is a production of WNYC Studios and ProPublica. Support our work by visiting donate.propublica.org or by becoming a supporting member of WNYC. Subscribe here or wherever you get your podcasts.

This week, we’re exploring President Donald Trump’s efforts to do business in Moscow. Our team — Heather Vogell, Andrea Bernstein, Meg Cramer and Katie Zavadski — dug into just who Trump was working with and just what Trump needed from Russia to get a deal done. (Listen to the podcast episode here.) First, the big picture. We already knew that Trump had business interests involving Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign — which he denied — that could have been influencing his policy positions. As the world has discovered, Trump was negotiating to develop a tower in Moscow while running for president. Former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen has admitted to lying to Congress about being in contact with the Kremlin about the project during the campaign. All of that explains why congressional investigators are scrutinizing Trump’s Moscow efforts. And we’ve found more: •  Trump’s partner on the project didn't appear to be in a position to get the project approved and built. On Oct. 28, 2015 — the same day as a Republican primary debate — Trump signed a letter of intent with the partner, a developer named Andrey Rozov, to build a 400-unit condominium and hotel tower in Moscow. In a letter Rozov wrote to Cohen pitching his role, he cited his work on a suburban development outside of Moscow, a 12-story office building in Manhattan’s Garment District (which he bought rather than constructed) and two projects in Williston, North Dakota, a town of around 30,000.We looked into each of them. Rozov’s Moscow project has faced lawsuits from homeowners, some of which have settled and some of which are ongoing, and the company developing it filed for bankruptcy. It remains unfinished. Property records show that Rozov owned his New York building for just over a year. He bought it for about $35 million in cash, took out an almost $13 million loan several months later, made no significant improvements and then sold it for a 23 percent profit. Trump’s former business associate, Felix Sater, who once pleaded guilty to financial fraud and reportedly later became an asset for U.S. intelligence agencies, is listed on the sale as an “authorized signatory.” We did find a developer with a workforce housing project in Williston, as well as approved plans for a mall/hotel/water-park. (The town attracted interest from developers as the center of North Dakota’s oil boom earlier in the decade.) Rozov’s name doesn’t appear on materials relating to the company, but a person familiar with the project confirmed that this is what Rozov was bragging about in his letter. Oil prices cratered and the mega-mall was never built. Rozov did not respond to an email seeking comment. Here is a rendering of the plan: Plans for "Williston Crossing," a 218 acre site in Williams County, North Dakota. (Williston Crossing Major Comprehensive Plan Amendment Presentation/Gensler) •  An owner of a sanctioned Russian bank that vouched for the Trump Organization in Moscow had a criminal history that included involvement in a Russian mafia gas-bootlegging scheme in the U.S. Making a business trip to Russia requires an official invitation. According to correspondence published by BuzzFeed, Sater arranged for an invitation from Genbank, a small Russian bank that expanded significantly in Crimea after Russia invaded in 2014. One of Genbank’s co-owners is Yevgeny Dvoskin, a Russian-born financier who grew up in Brighton Beach at the same time as Sater. Dvoskin pleaded guilty to tax evasion in federal court in Ohio for the bootlegging scheme and spent time in prison. He was later deported to Russia, according to press accounts. In Russia, he remained tied to criminal networks, according to the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project. (We were unable to reach Dvoskin for comment.) •  We also get a hint about why Trump may have needed the Kremlin to get his deal done. Some of the sites under consideration for a potential Trump Tower Moscow were in historic areas with strict height restrictions. Just a few years before the 2015 letter of intent that Trump signed, Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin pledged to do all he could to prevent the city from being overrun by skyscrapers. If Trump’s deal was to move forward in some place like the Red October Chocolate Factory, one of the spots that was considered, getting around zoning restrictions would need help from the very top. Sater and Cohen were also kicking around a plan to offer Putin the building’s $50 million penthouse, according to BuzzFeed. That need for special help, combined with the potential offer of a valuable asset, raises questions about whether the plan ran afoul of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, according to Alexandra Wrage, the president and founder of Trace International, an organization that helps companies comply with anti-bribery laws. “What you describe is certainly worrying,” she said. The Trump Organization, the White House, and Michael Cohen did not respond to requests for comment. For his part, Sater is scheduled to testify before the House Intelligence Committee on March 27. The committee members will undoubtedly have plenty of questions. You can contact us via Signal, WhatsApp or voicemail at 347-244-2134. Here’s more about how you can contact us securely. You can always email us at tips@trumpincpodcast.org. And finally, you can use the Postal Service: Trump, Inc. at ProPublica 155 Ave of the Americas, 13th Floor New York, NY 10013 “Trump, Inc.” is a production of WNYC Studios and ProPublica. Support our work by visiting donate.propublica.org or by becoming a supporting member of WNYC. Subscribe here or wherever you get your podcasts.

These congressional hearings are quickly becoming must-watch TV.  Michael Cohen gave his public testimony about all his dealings with President Trump and there were some big moments.  Cohen testified that Trump is a racist, a conman and a cheat.  He accused the President of having knowledge of and directing hush money payments to Stormy Daniels, he said the president know that there would be a WikiLeaks dump of DNC emails, and also that he knew about conversations about a Trump Tower Moscow project.   Republicans all the while, tried to paint Cohen as a liar who can't be trusted.  Ginger Gibson, political reporter for Reuters, was in the room for the testimony and helps break down the highlights. Next, another crazy story of a teacher having a sexual relationship with a student.  27 year old Brittany Zamora was arrested after having sex with her 13 year old student.  They would send each other text messages, pass notes in class, and even had another student stand watch while they had sex in the classroom.  It was all thanks to the boy's parents for noticing something different about their boy that brought the whole thing to light. My producer Miranda joins us for the details. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

In a special episode from "The Investigation," the ABC News investigative team breaks down the day's events on Capitol Hill. As President Trump is overseas meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jung Un, his former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen appeared before the House Oversight Committee, addressing everything from Trump Tower Moscow to hush money payments to President Trump's SAT scores. Just recently, Cohen's lawyer Lanny Davis told "The Investigation" in episode two that his client was ready to share his personal experiences with Trump "behind closed doors" and many would agree that today, his client did just that.   Follow Kyra on Twitter @kyraphillips Follow Chris on Twitter @vlasto Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmosk Follow John on Twitter @santucci Support this podcast with a review on Apple Podcasts: http://bit.ly/2UJIsJs Recommended listening... -- Start Here: The daily 20-minute news podcast from ABC News. http://bit.ly/2SA62eg -- Powerhouse Politics: Headliner interviews and in-depth looks at the people and events shaping U.S. politics. http://bit.ly/2SsGwr7 -- FiveThirtyEight Politics: Nate Silver and the FiveThirtyEight team cover the latest in politics, tracking the issues and "game-changers" every week. https://53eig.ht/2RF3eb1 ==================== The Investigation is produced by ABC Radio. More info: http://www.abcnewspodcasts.com

Joining us this week is Andrew Torrez from Opening Arguments! Plus, Jaleesa is going to be covering a crazy interview with Senator Burr, Jordan has the story of the Buzzfeed document dump of the Trump Tower Moscow timeline, and AG covers investigations in the House and how they connect to Mueller. Enjoy!  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

S3E6 - Joining us this week is Andrew Torrez from Opening Arguments! Plus, Jaleesa is going to be covering a crazy interview with Senator Burr, Jordan has the story of the Buzzfeed document dump of the Trump Tower Moscow timeline, and AG covers investigations in the House and how they connect to Mueller. Enjoy!  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this bonus podcast, listen to Ari Melber's entire unprecedented exclusive interview with 4 key witnesses involved in Bob Mueller’s Russia probe. The witnesses – Jerome Corsi, Sam Nunberg, Michael Caputo and Carter Page – are each linked to President Trump, are each directly involved in the Russia probe and have each given testimony to Federal investigators. Topics in the wide-ranging interview included Roger Stone, Trump Tower Moscow, the question of Russian collusion and possible additional indictments.

Sami and Alise are back to break down a truly insane week in news. First, Alise gives us some highlights from her trip to Cuba and Sami tells us about a strange series of books from the 1800s that low-key predicted Trump's rise. Then they get into the news of the week, starting with Senator Kamala Harris' announcement that she'll be running in 2020, and the latest on the government shutdown which is into its 34th day. Next they talk about the cancelled State of the Union, and a Buzzfeed report with damning new info on the Trump Tower Moscow project. Finally, they talk about Rudy Giuliani's latest on-camera f*ckup, SCOTUS upholding the trans military ban, and a very, very scary climate update.

This week on Look Forward, Jay and Andy return to discuss the government still being shut down and moving into month two, HamberderGate, Rand Paul surgery hypocrisy, Gillibrand and Harris are running for POTUS, more NK missiles found, MAGA teens vs. Vets, Buzzfeed report appears to have inaccuracies but largely correct, Pelosi's move on the State of the Union speech, Cohen is a sex symbol (?), and much more! SHOW NOTES Government is still shutdown Trump offers amazing deal to end the shutdown! Dems shockingly say NO Senate to vote on this compromise next week HamberderGate Rand Paul going to Canada for surgery Kirsten Gillibrand officially running for POTUS Kamala Harris officially running for POTUS Second meeting with Kim Jong-un in the works for next month North Korean secretive ballistic missile site just found MAGA teens harrass Native American vets at rally Trump and Cohen discussed Trump Tower Moscow right up until 2016 election PayPal CEO offering $25M in interest free loans for federal workers Buzzfeed reports that Trump directed Michael Cohen to lie to Congress Mueller team makes rare statement about inaccuracy of Buzzfeed article Pelosi suggesting Trump’s State of the Union on TV not happening Trump responds Cohen helped Trump rig online polls

Photo: (Laura Stone/Global News) Former Mississauga mayor Hazel McCallion has been appointed advisor to Premier Ford. Guest: Christo Aivalis, Social Sciences and humanities Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow in History at the University of Toronto There few signs that a breakthrough is going to happen when it comes to the Plan B Brexit deal.   Guest: Marvin Ryder. Business Professor, DeGroote School of Business, McMaster University.  During an interview with NBC, Rudy Giuliani stated that the president did pursue a business deal to erect a tower in Moscow. ALSO: the fallback of the Buzzfeed report from last week. Guest: Elliot Tepper, Emeritus Professor of Political science, Carleton University.  

This week marked 29 days of the government being shuttered, with no end in sight. Agencies continued to feel the effects, as thousands of furloughed employees were called back to work unpaid. Federal workers formed blocks-long lines at food banks, and borrowed from retirement accounts to make ends meet. Trump's approval continued to fall this week, with one poll indicating he is losing support from his base. Conversely, House Speaker Pelosi's popularity hit a 10-year high as the two did battle, and Trump reckoned with the first check on his power. This week was full of bombshell stories which, along with the continued shutdown, rocked the country and made people increasingly anxious and scared about the direction of the country. Major storylines included Trump concealing contents of meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Trump's continued fixation of withdrawing the U.S. from NATO — a boon to Russia, and Michael Cohen paying an IT firm to rig online polls to boost Trump. Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani made headlines, telling CNN, “I never said there was no collusion between the campaign or between people in the campaign,” which he later retracted. A bombshell BuzzFeed News story suggesting Trump directed Cohen to lie to Congress on Trump Tower Moscow was refuted by Mueller's team, which Trump and his allies quickly weaponized to attack the credibility of the media. Read the full list here: https://theweeklylist.org/weekly-list/week-114/

On this week's episode: Eli will be deemed nonessential during the ongoing shutdown ... Donald Trump gets stuck with a truck full of watermelons after he's forced to change his catering plans last minute ... And all of you promise not to Eli this isn't a federal job.   To support our show on Patreon, go here: https://www.patreon.com/skepticrat   To hear more from Evil Giraffes on Mars, go here: https://www.facebook.com/EvilGiraffesOnMars/?fref=ts   Headline Sources: Trump cancels Pelosi's flights for spite over SOTU remark as shutdown continues: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46911478 Buzzfeed: Trump directed Cohen to lie to congress about Trump Tower Moscow negotiations: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/jasonleopold/trump-russia-cohen-moscow-tower-mueller-investigation Steve King removed from committee assignments after latest white supremacy remark: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/14/us/politics/steve-king-white-supremacy.html?module=inline William Barr confirmation hearings: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/barr-confirmation-hearing-trumps-attorney-general-nominee-likely-to-face-tough-questioning-today-from-senate-panel/2019/01/15/02467a16-15e0-11e9-803c-4ef28312c8b9_story.html?utm_term=.f298ad3c032f Trump serves fast food buffet to Clemson football team during White House visit: https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/1/15/18183617/trump-clemson-mcdonalds-burger-king-wendys-dominos Man injects semen into his arm to cure back pain: https://www.sciencealert.com/patient-injected-himself-with-semen-thinking-it-would-cure-his-back-pain

Jailed Press TV anchor Marzieh Hashemi appeared in court in Washington, DC , today before a grand jury. Her children were also called in to testify and were not allowed to speak with her. No charges have been filed. We are desperately trying to get any detail on her detention from the FBI; but we have not been able to. Her son Hossein Hashemi told The Associated Press that his mother would have been willing to cooperate with the FBI and did not need to be jailed as a material witness. He says no one in his family can fathom why she would be considered a material witness for federal investigators. She hasn't been charged with a crime. She was born Melanie Franklin, in New Orleans, Louisiana, and is most famous for anchoring news programs and presenting shows for Press TV. She was detained upon arrival at St. Louis Lambert International Airport in St. Louis, Missouri, on Sunday, according to her family and friends. She was then transferred by the FBI to a detention facility in Washington, DC. The US officials have so far refused to provide any reasons for her apprehension either to her or her family. At the time of this program, the FBI has not replied to Sputnik News' request for a statement on charges and her status.Cook County Associate Judge Domenica Stephenson has found three Chicago police officers not guilty of covering up details in the 2014 killing of Laquan McDonald, a black teenager. Former Detective David March, former Officer Joseph Walsh and Officer Thomas Gaffney had been accused of falsifying police reports to protect Officer Jason van Dyke, who was found guilty in October of second-degree murder in McDonald's death. They faced charges of conspiracy, official misconduct and obstruction of justice, but Associate Judge Stephenson said in her ruling the state had not proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the officers engaged in a conspiracy to prevent a criminal investigation, and acquitted the officers of all charges. What does this mean going forward? BuzzFeed News published a bombshell report Thursday night claiming President Donald Trump directed his former lawyer Michael Cohen to lie during Congressional testimony over discussions between the Trump Organization and Russian authorities about a Trump Tower Moscow project. We now find out that neither of the reporters, Anthony Cormier and Jason Leopold, has seen the evidence supporting their report. Leopold has a “dubious past” at best. He came under scrutiny for faulty reporting for Salon 2002 that led to an article getting removed. In 2006, he incorrectly reported that Karl Rove had been indicted. He has been in trouble for perhaps claiming to have sources he really didn't have. His stories didn't wash. Executive directors and editors have had to apologize after some of his big blockbuster stories. President Trump will meet with North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Un, in late February, the White House announced on Friday, continuing a high-level diplomatic dialogue that has eased tensions but shown little progress in eliminating the North's nuclear arsenal. The announcement came after Mr. Trump met for 90 minutes in the Oval Office with Kim Yong Chol, the former North Korean intelligence chief who has acted as the chief nuclear negotiator for Mr. Kim. The White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, said the date and the location of the meeting would be announced later, suggesting that the two sides were still haggling over the site or other logistical details. Vietnam, Thailand and Hawaii have all been mentioned as potential sites.A bombing in Syria claimed by Daesh killed at least four Americans on Wednesday, the Pentagon said, hardening divisions in Washington over President Trump's plan to withdraw troops from the country. The president and vice president told us that Daesh has been defeated. The four Americans — two military service members, a civilian Defense Department employee and a Pentagon contractor — were among 19 believed killed in the blast, including allied fighters with the Syrian Democratic Forces. They were there in a support capacity but still the focus of Daesh ire and attacks. Brexit: Prime Minister Theresa May's deal is voted down in historic House of Commons defeat. The vote was 432 to 202 to reject the deal, which sets out the terms of Britain's exit from the EU on March 29. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn organized a vote of no confidence in the government, which took place on Wednesday. May won that vote 325 to 306. Rebel Tory MPs and the DUP — which 24 hours earlier rejected the PM's Brexit plan by a huge margin — voted to keep her in Downing Street. Corbyn argued that Mrs. May's "zombie" administration had lost the right to govern.GUESTS:John Burris — Lead attorney and founder of the Law Office of John L. Burris. He is primarily known for his work in the area of civil rights, with an emphasis on police misconduct and excessive force cases.Colin Campbell — PhD student in the Department of Communication, Culture and Media Studies at Howard University's School of Communication. He has been a TV news reporter for more than 20 years. As a senior Washington, DC, correspondent since 2008, he has been a reporter-at-large, covering two presidencies, Congress and the State Department.

Jon, Jon, and Crooked Media editor-in-chief Brian Beutler break down the bombshell BuzzFeedNews story that President Trump committed a crime by directing Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about the Trump Tower Moscow deal.

For the first time since President Trump took office, several members of Congress are now freely throwing around the "I" word--that is impeachment, and it's based off of a BuzzFeed News report that the President instructed his long-time personal lawyer to lie to Congress over the Trump Tower Moscow project. Does this news, if it's proven to be true, drag Trump across that impeachment red line? We'll ask the new chairman of the House Intel Committee. As the LAUSD teachers' strike spans a full week, the District stands to lose tens of millions of dollars; while teachers go without pay. What's the path toward a deal to end the strike? With the video of her perfectly scored floor exercise being viewed some 40 million times, UCLA gymnast Katelyn Ohashi is using her fame to take on body shamers--and she'll take on In Depth. Home sales in California are slowing way down, and so are the price increases of homes on the market---is our overheated real estate market finally cooling off? And Tesla might be the most innovative car company in history, but it has a very uncertain future after big losses and layoffs. See omnystudio.com/policies/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In episode 298, Jack and Miles are joined by Stuff You Should Know co-host and The End Of The World host Josh Clark to discuss Twitter trends including Will Smith as the Genie, the Carlton dance coming from Bruce Springsteen,  Paul Ryan's final speech, James Harden, some more absurd Rudy Giuliani comments about Trump's Russia connections, Trumps disdain for Christmas, Tucker Carlson losing sponsors, Steph Curry's response to his moon landing comments, and more! FOOTNOTES: 1. Take Your First Look at Will Smith as Aladdin's Live-Action Genie 2. We Can Thank Bruce Springsteen for the Gift That Is Alfonso Ribeiro's Carlton Dance 3. Ryan reflects on 'great and lasting difference' in farewell address to Congress 4. The 6 funniest things about James Harden’s double-step-back travel that wasn’t called 5. Giuliani indicates conversations with Trump on Trump Tower Moscow occurred later than previously known 6. The Damning, Damning Letter 7. Rudy Giuliani Is Definitely Losing It 8. War on Christmas? Trump Was For ‘Happy Holidays’ Before He Was Against it, and Ivanka Still Is 9. Trump Is Milking the War on Christmas for Every Last Penny 10. Donald Trump Hates Christmas Parties 11. Donald Trump Jr. says his dad ‘regifted’ monogrammed presents — including one that he gave him 12. In the 1980s, Donald Trump banned Christmas decorations to harass his elderly tenants 13. NEW YORK; DONALD HUMBUG 14. "Obviously, they’re men": Tucker Carlson, guest kvetch about "gingerbread people." 15. Advertisers are dropping Tucker Carlson's Fox News show after he said immigration makes the US 'dirtier' 16. Here Are The Advertisers Boycotting Tucker Carlson’s Show 17. Kyrie Irving Responds to Outcry over Stephen Curry's Moon Landing Comments 18. The End Of The World with Josh Clark 19. WATCH: Sam Gendel & Sam Wilkes - BOA Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

Sami and Bryan are back. They start by talking about the idiotic plan to build a wall at the US-Mexico border. At 7:00 they talk about the Manhattan Supreme Court forcing the Trump foundation to dissolve. At 9:40 they talk about Michael Flynn’s sentencing being postponed until at least March 2019 after the judge ripped him a new one. At 16:40 they talk about Trump declaring “victory” against ISIS in the Middle East. At 22:40 they talk about the emergence of Trump’s signed letter of intent for Trump Tower Moscow.

It's not looking like Donald Trump is going to have a merry Christmas. After avoiding talking about impeachment or legal consequences for Donald Trump, the Democrats are suddenly dangling the threat of jail time over the President's head. So what's changed? Michael Cohen. He's been telling the Mueller investigation all sorts of juicy information. It's changed what we knew about the Trump Tower Moscow timeline. Russia, If You're Listening has this SPECIAL UPDATE to explain what's new.

It's not looking like Donald Trump is going to have a merry Christmas. After avoiding talking about impeachment or legal consequences for Donald Trump, the Democrats are suddenly dangling the threat of jail time over the President's head. So what's changed? Michael Cohen. He's been telling the Mueller investigation all sorts of juicy information. It's changed what we knew about the Trump Tower Moscow timeline. Russia, If You're Listening has this SPECIAL UPDATE to explain what's new.

It's not looking like Donald Trump is going to have a merry Christmas. After avoiding talking about impeachment or legal consequences for Donald Trump, the Democrats are suddenly dangling the threat of jail time over the President's head. So what's changed? Michael Cohen. He's been telling the Mueller investigation all sorts of juicy information. It's changed what we knew about the Trump Tower Moscow timeline. Russia, If You're Listening has this SPECIAL UPDATE to explain what's new.

Can anyone actually manage an administration run by Donald Trump? That’s just one of the questions tackled on the latest episode of OMNISHAMBLES, in which Sam Stein, Erin Banco and Asawin Suebsaeng break down another chaotic week in Washington. There were big staffing shakeups, Special Counsel sentencing memos, and detailed descriptions of just how much Paul Manafort lied to prosecutors. Swin gets into the blow by blow of John Kelly’s time as Chief of Staff in the White House, and how his removal is welcomed news among some at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and many outside of it. He also breaks down why Trump’s first choice as a replacement, Nick Ayers, refused to serve for a two year term, and whether anyone who does take the role will ever be good enough for the president. Erin jumps into a conversation about what’s still to come in the Mueller investigation, including revelations on how the infamous Trump Tower Moscow deal died. And Sam talks about the fabulous life of a D.C. media superstar—including managing his kid’s 4:48 AM wakeup time.

This week started with escalations, both between Russia and Ukraine, and at the U.S.-Mexico border. Heartbreaking images and video surfaced from Tijuana of migrants from Central America, including women and children, some in diapers, being showered with tear gas from U.S. Customs and Border Protection. As Trump and the regime sought to justify the use of force, and Republicans remained almost universally silent, other condemned the action, including the Auschwitz Museum which invoked the uprise of Hitler. This, as data and reporting continues to point to a dangerous uptick in right-wing violence and acts of, and normalization of, hate. This week the Mueller probe was center stage, as Trump stepped up his attacks to discredit Mueller ahead of the findings being released. The week started with focus on Jerome Corsi and Roger Stone as possible conduits between the Trump campaign and WikiLeaks. Until a bombshell Thursday, when Michael Cohen outlined in a plea agreement how he misled Congress about negotiating on the Trump Tower Moscow. Cohen said negotiations continued until June 2016, and that Trump and his children were also in the loop. Cohen's documents made clear that other members of the regime, including Donald Jr., may have lied to Congress, and also called into question Trump's written answers in the Mueller probe, submitted under oath in recent days, on his and his campaign's contact with Russians. Read the full list here: https://theweeklylist.org/weekly-list/week-107/

Seth Hettena, author of “Trump/Russia,” talks about Donald Trump's pursuit of a real estate deal in Moscow dating back decades....

National Climate Assessment dropped like a bomb the day after Thanksgiving. Despite Trump admin attempts to bury the report under the weight of Black Friday shopping deals. The report paints a devastating picture of our future including a 10% drop in the U.S. economy. Trump says he doesn’t believe it. Trump gives a barely intelligible interview to the Washington Post revealing what his gut says about climate change and a host of other issues. The Congressional Progressive Caucus is at its largest ever and now they are demanding important committee positions in order to support Nancy Pelosi for House Speaker.  David Dayen lays out the argument for supporting Pelosi. On the other hand, Chuck Schumer said that Democrats are willing to give $1.6 billion to Trump for the border wall in order to avert a government shutdown.  Here’s a noble idea, how about ZERO dollars for Trump’s racist border wall? Sinclair Media forces nearly 200 of its affiliates to run a segment defending the use of tear gas on migrant children and families. Meanwhile, the Trump administration waived safety checks for all staff working at the nation’s largest detention camp for migrant children. That camp keeps growing by the way. 2,324 migrant kids and counting. Michael Cohen pleads guilty and implicates Trump further when it comes to the Russia investigation. Looks like Putin may have been getting a $50 million floor of a Moscow Trump Tower had the deal gone through.   Facebook scandals continue to grow as new revelations that Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg ordered staff to do oppo research on George Soros after he criticized FB and Google and other tech giants at the World Economic Forum earlier this year. Facebook then pushed out critical stories to reporters about Soros’s funding of American advocacy groups critical of FB. Rider University in New Jersey says no way to Chick-fil-A. Given the restaurant chain’s anti-LGBTQ record, Rider officials say Chick-fil-A is not faithful to the university’s values of inclusiveness. A Chinese researcher claims to have helped make the world’s first genetically modified babies. And, Ivanka Trump found to be sending emails from a non-government server. Conservative base starts chants of “Lock Her Up…” Not. Daryl Metcalfe is looking for some new committee positions. What will it be? Will it be House Judiciary committee chair or House Education committee chair? The ever-so-swanky PA Society is this weekend and it was launched with a reception hosted by Christine Toretti, who is a Trustee to the Scaife Foundation and Trump’s Ambassador to Malta. This high-end event was hosted at Club Macanudo. Senate Republicans are threatening to not seat Lindsey Williams because of a potential resident. In today’s Last Call, it was a big week in Space News. The InSight Lander successfully touched down on Mars and prepares for several years of scientific study of the interior of the Red Planet. NASA selected nine companies to be eligible for future contracts to deliver payloads to the surface of the moon. The news had Mike Pence all tingly in the panties and galactic capitalists licking their chops at the prospects of colonizIng the new frontier. Time is running out for the Space Force. Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan will meet with Mike Pence to try and ready legislation to drop a legislative proposal in December. And, it’s 2001 a Space Odyssey all over again as the International Space Station “wakes up” its first onboard AI called CIMON. Let’s hope this has a better ending. Huge news in my neck of the woods: The Bread Box & Bakery have moved to a new prime location at the corner of Market and 7th Street in Perkasie. Their new location now has an awesome menu, kombucha on tap, great bread, and all sorts of sustainable goods in one place. Go check them out at 1 North 7th Street and tell them you heard about it on Raging Chicken’s Out d’Coup podcast. Free Will Brewing and The Bread Box & Bakery are teaming up on Wednesday, December 5th for “Let’s Get Lit!” at the main brewery in Perkasie for Free Will’s annual Brewery Tree Lighting & Merriment! A complimentary special toast (beer for those 21+, soda for those under 21) and Christmas cookies from our Friends at The Bread Box and Bakery will be provided to those in attendance. Festivities and the countdown to illumination get underway at 7 pm.

Robert Mueller's quiet period appears to be over. On Thursday he struck a deal with Michael Cohen, who pleaded guilty...

Thursday saw another plea deal from Michael Cohen: this time with Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Cohen pleaded guilty to one count of lying to Congress regarding how long into the 2016 campaign the Trump Organization sought to build Trump Tower in Moscow and who exactly knew about the efforts. The criminal information validates to a remarkable degree a May 2018 report from Anthony Cormier and Jason Leopold of Buzzfeed news, chronicling the details of Michael Cohen and associate Felix Sater’s efforts to cement the real estate deal (you can also listen to a special edition of the Lawfare Podcast on the story here).   Immediately after new of the plea broke, Benjamin Wittes sat down with Cormier, Susan Hennessey and Paul Rosenzweig to discuss the story, the implications of the plea for the Mueller investigation, and who just might have legal exposure and for what.

Also, should the public fund NASA's planned missions to the moon and Mars? (11/29/18)

Putin Was To Get $50 Million Penthouse In Trump Tower Moscow; Michael Cohen And FBI Informant Negotiated Failed Deal President Trump’s ex-longtime personal attorney Michael Cohen worked with an FBI informant known as “The Quarterback” to negotiate a deal for Trump Tower Moscow during the 2016 US election, according to BuzzFeed News. “The Quarterback,” Felix Sater – a longtime FBI and CIA undercover intelligence asset who was busted running a $40 million stock scheme, leveraged his Russia connections to pitch the deal, while Cohen discussed it with Putin’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, according to BuzzFeed, citing two unnamed US law enforcement officials. The Trump Tower Moscow plan is at the center of Cohen’s new plea agreement with Special Counsel Robert Mueller after he admitted to lying to congressional committees investigating Trump-Russia collusion. ✪ Solar Powered Patriot Flashlight - Holiday Special 20% OFF [Enter Promo Code P20] http://patriotflashlight.com ✪

Responding to the reports of Michael Cohen's Trump Tower Moscow lies and guilty plea, the rising star Congressman from California, Rep. Eric Swalwell, reveals where the new Congress is likely to take investigations into Trump's business ties and their consequences when it assumes office in January. He asserts the Congress will examine Trump Organization money laundering that his colleagues have reason to believe took place and that Mueller may not be exploring as closely. He says instances of suspected lying to the Congress suppressed by Rep. Devin Nunes will be immediately forwarded to Mueller. He suggests the president and his family's financial ties to Saudi Arabia are comparable to those with Russia and will get similar investigative treatment. He does not hesitate to say collusion took place. And he says he believes the word that best describes the president's actions is "betrayal"--selling out the American people to serve his own financial and political interests. It is a news-making interview you won't want to miss--available exclusively on Deep State Radio.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/deepstateradio. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

And it'll probably be as big a disappoint with audiences... heyo.. Yea sorry, it's just me as Rachel's under the weather and busy and I'm so sorry, she'll be back this week. Meanwhile, Ivanka's hunky Russian eightlifter "friend" promises her naming and design rights to her own spa in the Trump Tower Moscow and tells Michael Cohen to handle it, but he's got his own deal going, they both fail, and this was all happening DURING THE F'NG CAMPAIGN. So whatever YOYO nothing matters. 

Virginia Heffernan talks to BuzzFeed's Anthony Cormier about his story that broke today on Ivanka Trump's Olympic weightlifter connection to Vladimir Putin and what that has to do with Trump Tower Moscow. Plus, insight into the relationship between Michael Cohen and the president's daughter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Virginia Heffernan talks to BuzzFeed's Anthony Cormier about his story that broke today on Ivanka Trump's Olympic weightlifter connection to Vladimir Putin and what that has to do with Trump Tower Moscow. Plus, insight into the relationship between Michael Cohen and the president's daughter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this week's Curmudgeon's Corner, Sam and Ivan's first topic is about racist morons like Schlossberg, Cunningham, and others. Second up is all the latest on Trumpgate, including ZTE and China, Qatar and Kushner, Trump Tower Moscow, Ice Cube, and of course more Cohen. Finally, some thoughts on the latest developments in Israel and Gaza. Before all that, they also squeeze in a few thoughts on the Santa Fe shooting, and on Sam finally canceling services he has been wasting money on for years. Fun stuff! Show Details: Recorded 2018-05-19 Length this week - 1:36:55 (0:00:45-0:16:52) Intro Agenda Santa Fe shooting Unused services (0:18:35-0:49:53) Racist Morons Schlossberg Calling the Cops Swatting Cunningham Trump (0:52:07-1:18:13) Trumpgate ZTE and China 666 5th Ave and Qatar Scandal Fatigue Trump Tower Moscow Ice Cube Thing Informant outed Cohen SARs (1:18:49-1:36:34) Israel / Gaza The incidents Rosenberg's 13 truths Longer view The Curmudgeon's Corner theme music is generously provided by Ray Lynch. Our intro is "The Oh of Pleasure" (Amazon MP3 link) Our outro is "Celestial Soda Pop" (Amazon MP3 link) Both are from the album "Deep Breakfast" (iTunes link) Please buy his music and support his GoFundMe.

Benjamin Wittes speaks to Buzzfeed reporter Anthony Cormier about his latest story, co-authored with Jason Leopold, about the negotiations to build a Trump Tower in Moscow.

Folks, give money to Houston and give it to charities with ratty carpet.   Jackie and Dunlap on Trump in Houston, USA hat, FLOTUS stilettos, Ted Cruz, Joel Osteen, Lakewood, germophobes, Trump Tower Moscow emails, North Korea missiles at Japan, Cyber security staff resigns, the Nashville Statement, Gorka's out, Transgender ban, Arpaio pardon, Jeff Flake, McCain, Tillerson & Gary Cohn & Mattis ignoring Trump, Arizona rally size, Bannon, Breitbart, pimento cheese, Christy Lane. New segment Distant Memories! Sponsors: Indiscretions Budoir Pix and Private Suggestions; Taint Honey  

TRUMP TOWER MOSCOW

TRUMP TOWER MOSCOW