{"id":49574,"date":"2017-10-30T05:20:56","date_gmt":"2017-10-30T05:20:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=49574"},"modified":"2017-10-30T05:20:56","modified_gmt":"2017-10-30T05:20:56","slug":"as-russia-case-unfolds-trump-and-republicans-go-to-battle-with-clinton-and-democrats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/politics\/as-russia-case-unfolds-trump-and-republicans-go-to-battle-with-clinton-and-democrats.html","title":{"rendered":"As Russia case unfolds, Trump and Republicans go to battle with Clinton and Democrats"},"content":{"rendered":"

As Russia case unfolds, Trump and Republicans go to battle with Clinton and Democrats<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

Tensions between Republicans and Democrats over the investigation of Russian involvement in the 2016 presidential election intensified Sunday, with President Trump demanding to know why his campaign is under federal scrutiny while his former opponent Hillary Clinton is not.<\/span><\/p>\n

The president\u2019s latest outburst over the inquiry led by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III surfaced on Twitter as his administration braced for the possibility that the first batch of charges in the case could be publicly announced as soon as Monday. CNN reported that a federal grand jury had approved an indictment, although details of the possible charges and the name of a defendant remained unclear.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trump issued four tweets over 24 minutes, attacking the Mueller probe as unfair and citing various Clinton controversies that he said warranted investigation.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cInstead they look at phony Trump\/Russia, \u2018collusion,\u2019 which doesn\u2019t exist,\u201d the president said. \u201cThe Dems are using this terrible (and bad for our country) Witch Hunt for evil politics, but the R\u2019s are now fighting back like never before. There is so much GUILT by Democrats\/Clinton, and now the facts are pouring out. DO SOMETHING!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Later in the morning, Trump added: \u201cAll of this \u2018Russia\u2019 talk right when the Republicans are making their big push for historic Tax Cuts & Reform. Is this coincidental? NOT!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

On Sunday talk shows, Republicans rallied around Trump and questioned how CNN could have received information about secret grand jury proceedings.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere are very, very strict laws on grand jury secrecy, so depending on who leaked this to CNN, that\u2019s a criminal violation, potentially,\u201d New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), a longtime friend of Trump\u2019s, said on CNN\u2019s \u201cState of the Union\u201d on Sunday. \u201cFor us to have confidence in this process, we\u2019ve got to make sure that the grand jury process remains confidential, remains secret, so that the special counsel can work effectively to be able to get to the bottom of all that he\u2019s looking into.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) cast doubt on the objectivity of Mueller\u2019s team, noting that the prosecutor\u2019s staff includes \u201ca lot of individuals, attorneys who played in politics, who\u2019ve given money on the Democratic side.\u201d Of the eight attorneys on the team who have been publicly identified, four made donations to Democrats, including President Barack Obama and Clinton.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis president won the election solely on the idea that he connected with the American people. No other influence involved,\u201d McCarthy said on Fox\u2019s \u201cSunday Morning Futures.\u201d \u201cBut the idea of what I\u2019ve watched, of what the Democrats have been doing, it sure raises a lot of questions.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), chairman of the House Oversight Committee, came to Mueller\u2019s defense and said that he doesn\u2019t agree with Republicans who are calling for Mueller to resign or stop his investigation.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI would encourage my Republican friends \u2014 give the guy a chance to do his job,\u201d Gowdy said on Fox News Sunday. \u201cThe result will be known by the facts, by what he uncovers. .\u2009.\u2009. I would say give the guy a chance to do his job.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Democratic lawmakers mostly stayed out of the Sunday fray after a week in which Clinton\u2019s 2016 campaign came under fresh scrutiny. The campaign funded political opposition research into Trump that helped create a highly publicized \u201cdossier\u201d on the Republican candidate and fueled some allegations now under scrutiny by Mueller.<\/span><\/p>\n

The 35-page dossier is composed of 17 memos containing raw intelligence, some of it highly salacious and not independently confirmed. It relies on Kremlin-linked sources and alleges that the Russian government had been trying to support Trump\u2019s candidacy while gathering compromising information that could be used as blackmail. The dossier was published in full by BuzzFeed in January.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear how much the Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee paid for the opposition research by Fusion GPS, a Washington firm that conducts investigations for private clients. The Clinton campaign paid $5.6 million in legal fees to a law firm from June 2015 to December 2016, according to campaign finance records, and the DNC paid the firm $3.6 million in \u201clegal and compliance consulting\u2019\u2019 since November 2015. It\u2019s impossible to tell from the filings how much of that work was for other legal matters and how much of it related to Fusion GPS.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trump tweeted Sunday morning that the dossier, which he called \u201cClinton made Fake Dossier,\u201d could have cost as much as $12 million, although he did not explain how he reached that number.<\/span><\/p>\n

Compiled by former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele, the dossier mirrors a separate conclusion reached by U.S. intelligence agencies that the Russian government intervened in the U.S. election in an effort to bolster Trump and harm Clinton, such as through hacking the DNC and distributing materials to WikiLeaks to publish at key moments.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fusion GPS, which hired Steele to gather information, was first employed to investigate Trump during the Republican primaries by the Washington Free Beacon, a conservative publication that receives financial support from billionaire GOP donor Paul Singer, according to two people familiar with Singer. The Beacon said in a statement that its research ended before Fusion GPS hired Steele and that none of the research that it commissioned is included in the dossier.<\/span><\/p>\n

In April 2016, an attorney representing Clinton\u2019s presidential campaign and the DNC hired Fusion GPS, which then hired Steele. Brian Fallon, a former spokesman for the Clinton campaign, said he learned about Steele and the dossier after the election. People familiar with the matter told The Washington Post that the Clinton campaign and the DNC did not direct Steele\u2019s activities.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rep. Adam B. Schiff (Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said Sunday that \u201ca lot\u201d of the information in the dossier has been corroborated.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI certainly would have liked to know who paid for it earlier, but nonetheless, that\u2019s just one factor to be considered,\u201d Schiff said on ABC\u2019s \u201cThis Week\u201d on Sunday. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t answer the ultimate question, which is: How much of the work is accurate? How much of it is true? And my colleagues don\u2019t seem particularly interested in that question, but that is really the most important question for the American people.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Schiff said he has not been told anything about any impending indictments in Mueller\u2019s investigation, noting that such notification would not have been appropriate.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trump also tweeted Sunday about Clinton\u2019s involvement in what he called the \u201cUranium to Russia deal,\u201d demanding that the matter receive greater scrutiny.<\/span><\/p>\n

The 2010 deal approved by the Obama administration while Clinton was secretary of state allowed a Russian nuclear energy agency to acquire a controlling stake in a Canadian-based company that had mining licenses for about 20\u2008percent of U.S. uranium extraction capacity. The company cannot export the uranium.<\/span><\/p>\n

Earlier this month, House and Senate Republican leaders announced they would investigate the uranium deal, and the House Oversight Committee launched a probe into how the FBI investigated Clinton during the campaign. In the latter investigation, Republicans say they want to know why then-FBI Director James B. Comey publicly announced that the bureau was investigating Clinton but waited months before making a similar announcement about its inquiries into the Trump campaign.<\/span><\/p>\n

Source:-\u00a0https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/politics\/as-russia-case-unfolds-trump-and-republicans-go-to-battle-with-clinton-and-democrats\/2017\/10\/29\/9733575e-bcb6-11e7-8444-a0d4f04b89eb_story.html?utm_term=.66fd52b6b3d8<\/span><\/p>\n

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