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Background on the stories that make national news

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Why has government been instituted at all? ​Because the passions of men will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice, without constraint.
   ~ ​Alexander Hamilton









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Photo by Andrew Horne

New York Times Reporter Michael S. Schmidt Interviews President Trump at his Golf Club in Florida

12/28/2017

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Photo source: ​FameFlynet/People Magazine
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President Trump spoke Thursday with Michael S. Schmidt, a reporter with whom he has a friendly relationship.. The following are excerpts from that conversation, transcribed by The Times. They have been lightly edited for content and clarity, and omit several off-the-record comments and asides.

These are some of the important points about the interview:
  1. President Trump stated 16 times that there was “no collusion” between the Trump campaign/administration and representatives of the Russian government.      
  2. President Trump claims that he doesn’t know attorney Alan Dershowitz, who has been a fierce defender of Trump regarding Russia. Trump has met with Dershowitz multiple times since his Inauguration. (See this article in The Forward from March 2017, and this article in The Daily Beast from August 2017.)
  3. President Trump asserted that he can do anything he wants to do with the Justice Department. (He can’t.)
  4. President Trump asserted that he does not know Paul Manafort, his indicted former campaign manager, very well. “Paul only worked for me for a few months. Paul worked for Ronald Reagan. His firm worked for John McCain, worked for Bob Dole, worked for many Republicans for far longer than he worked for me.”
  
Regarding the recusal of Attorney General Jeff Sessions from the Russia investigation:


“I thought it was a terrible thing he did … I thought it was certainly unnecessary, I thought it was a terrible thing. But I think it’s all worked out because frankly there is absolutely no collusion, that’s been proven by every Democrat is saying it … Virtually every Democrat has said there is no collusion. There is no collusion. And even these committees that have been set up. If you look at what’s going on — and in fact, what it’s done is, it’s really angered the base and made the base stronger. My base is stronger than it’s ever been. Great congressmen, in particular, some of the congressmen have been unbelievable in pointing out what a witch hunt the whole thing is. So, I think it’s been proven that there is no collusion.”
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The article about Michael S. Schmidt’s interview, and excerpts from the transcript, can be found here.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/28/us/politics/trump-interview-mueller-russia-china-north-korea.html?mtrref=www.google.com&mtrref=www.nytimes.com&gwh=8509A0E99C7A07EE2A92BD149B2F7243&gwt=pay

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/28/us/politics/trump-interview-excerpts.html?mtrref=www.google.com



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Senator Feinstein Requests Interviews and Documents from Trump Aides

12/6/2017

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​Senator Dianne Feinstein has requested documents from senior Trump administration aides related to the Senate Judiciary Committee investigation into the Russia investigation.


Senator Feinstein has requested interviews and documents from the following people.
  • Former Chief of Staff Reince Priebus - documents relating to:
    • The firing of FBI Director James Comey
    • The firing of National Security Advisor Michael Flynn
    • The June 9 meeting at Trump Tower between the Trump campaign and Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya
    • Other contacts with Russia
  • Chief of White House Communications Hope Hicks - documents relating to:
    • The firing of FBI Director James Comey
    • The June 9 meeting at Trump Tower between the Trump campaign and Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya
    • Other contacts with Russia
  • Former Trump aide Keith Schiller - documents relating to:
    • Donald Trump’s trip to Moscow in 2013
    • The firing of James Comey.

The letters can be read here.
https://www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?id=957657CD-5E13-44C2-8A0C-E7EBB97A46D8
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Erik Prince Testimony to the House Intelligence Committee

12/6/2017

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Photo source: Wikipedia
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Erik Prince met with the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Thursday, November 30 in a closed hearing. The transcript of the meeting was released today.

Prince, founder of the private military contractor Blackwater and brother of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, was not represented by an attorney at the meeting. He said that he had no official or unofficial role in the Trump presidential campaign, but that he wrote policy papers for the campaign, which he passed to the campaign through Steve Bannon. He also said that he made monetary donations and put a sign in his front yard.

Prince asserted that he was not a representative of the Trump administration when he met in the Seychelles with Russian businessman Kirill Dmitriev, who has close ties to Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Prince asserted, without evidence, that a Washington Post article published in April about his Seychelles trip must have been based on leaked signals intelligence from U.S. intelligence. The article began:

“The United Arab Emirates arranged a secret meeting in January between Blackwater founder Erik Prince and a Russian close to President Vladi­mir Putin as part of an apparent effort to establish a back-channel line of communication between Moscow and President-elect Donald Trump, according to U.S., European and Arab officials.

“The meeting took place around Jan. 11 — nine days before Trump’s inauguration — in the Seychelles islands in the Indian Ocean, officials said. Though the full agenda remains unclear, the UAE agreed to broker the meeting in part to explore whether Russia could be persuaded to curtail its relationship with Iran, including in Syria, a Trump administration objective that would be likely to require major concessions to Moscow on U.S. sanctions.”


The Washington Post article from April 2017, about the January 11 meeting, can be read here.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/blackwater-founder-held-secret-seychelles-meeting-to-establish-trump-putin-back-channel/2017/04/03/95908a08-1648-11e7-ada0-1489b735b3a3_story.html?utm_term=.cad89af8755a

The transcript of the House Intelligence meeting with Prince can be read here.

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