[Special] Independent: Former MI6 Agent Christopher Steele's Frustration as FBI Sat on Donald Trump Russia File for Months

By Kim Sengupta:

Christopher Steele, the former MI6 agent who investigated Donald Trump’s alleged Kremlin links, was so worried by what he was discovering that at the end he was working without pay, The Independent has learned.

Mr Steele also decided to pass on information to both British and American intelligence officials after concluding that such material should not just be in the hands of political opponents of Mr Trump, who had hired his services, but was a matter of national security for both countries.

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In [July 2016]  Mr Steele produced a memo, which went to the  FBI, stating that Mr Trump’s campaign team had agreed to a Russian request to dilute attention on Moscow’s intervention in Ukraine. Four days later Mr Trump stated that he would recognise Moscow’s annexation of Crimea. A month later officials involved in his campaign asked the Republican party’s election platform to remove a pledge for military assistance to the Ukrainian government against separatist rebels in the east of the country.

Mr Steele claimed that the Trump campaign was taking this path because it was aware that the Russians were hacking Democratic Party emails. No evidence of this has been made public, but the same day that Mr Trump spoke about Crimea he called on the Kremlin to hack Hillary Clinton’s emails.

The Full Story (January 14, 2017)

[Special] Quick Hits & Nasty Cuts, December 2016 Edition

News of note from December 2016: 

• Talking Points Memo: It Comes So Easily by Josh Marshall (December 12, 2016)

It's all inconsequential in a way, just one more random nonsensical remark. But it shows the casual disregard for the truth or even basic commonsense that is pervasive with all of the President-Elect's leading sycophants. And of course, let's be honest, the President-Elect himself. It's a culture of casual lying and nonsense. It's an empire of word salad.

• Bloomberg: Trump Says No Deals While in Office; Sons Will Run Company by Kevin Cirilli, Caleb Melby, and Ben Brody (December 12, 2016)

President-elect Donald Trump gave his first clues as to how he’ll step away from his businesses, saying he would put his two sons Don and Eric in charge by Inauguration Day Jan. 20 but offering no information about his own role.

• Talking Points Memo: Judiciary Dem Flags Missing Documents In Sessions' AG Questionaire by Tierney Sneed (December 14, 2016)

According to [Diane] Feinstein's letter, Sessions' submission was missing copies of a number of speeches he has given over the years, including a a speech at an event called “Restoration Weekend” from 2003 and a 2007 speech for an event with the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a group that seeks to decrease immigration.

[Special] Donald Trump, Environmentalist

Washington Post: Energy Dept. Rejects Trump’s Request to Name Climate-Change Workers, Who Remain Worried by Joe Davidson (December 13, 2016)

“The Department of Energy received significant feedback from our workforce throughout the department, including the National Labs, following the release of the transition team’s questions. Some of the questions asked left many in our workforce unsettled,” said Eben Burnham-Snyder, a department spokesman. “Our career workforce, including our contractors and employees at our labs, comprise the backbone of DOE (Department of Energy) and the important work our department does to benefit the American people. We are going to respect the professional and scientific integrity and independence of our employees at our labs and across our department.

Washington Post: Scientists are Frantically Copying U.S. Climate Data, Fearing it Might Vanish Under Trump by Brady Dennis (December 13, 2016)

The efforts include a “guerrilla archiving” event in Toronto, where experts will copy irreplaceable public data, meetings at the University of Pennsylvania focused on how to download as much federal data as possible in the coming weeks, and a collaboration of scientists and database experts who are compiling an online site to harbor scientific information.

Think Progress: Trump Taps Rep. Ryan Zinke for Interior, Adds Another Climate Denier to the Cabinet by Samantha Page (December 13, 2016)

Zinke’s nomination could be great news for big fossil fuel interests. The congressman has made it clear that he favors coal — over U.S. taxpayers. Zinke opposed efforts to reform the federal coal leasing program, which is estimated to cost U.S. taxpayers billions each year, by undervaluing public land. He was also a strong supporter of the successful effort to repeal the oil export ban, a move that is expected to increase U.S. exports while tying the country even more closely to the international oil market.

Washington Post: Trump Taps Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry to Head Energy Department He Once Vowed to Abolish by Juliet Eilperin and Steven Mufson (December 14, 2016)

His nomination — announced officially by Trump’s transition team a day after sources leaked the decision — stirred further alarm from environmental groups and others worried that the Trump administration will roll back efforts to expand renewable energy and give a powerful platform for officials questioning the scientific consensus on climate change.

[Special] Talking Points Memo: Hall of Mirrors

By Josh Marshall:

The Post's David Ignatius has a column out tonight with a number of observations. But the big news is this ...

According to a senior U.S. government official, Flynn phoned Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak several times on Dec. 29, the day the Obama administration announced the expulsion of 35 Russian officials as well as other measures in retaliation for the hacking. What did Flynn say, and did it undercut the U.S. sanctions? The Logan Act (though never enforced) bars U.S. citizens from correspondence intending to influence a foreign government about “disputes” with the United States. Was its spirit violated? The Trump campaign didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
This is, at a minimum, highly irregular and inappropriate. We don't know if it is more than that. It would be good to find out.

Then there's this.

The Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth has an article which claims that American intelligence officials told their Israeli counterparts in recent meetings that they should be cautious about sharing their closest held secrets with the Trump administration for fear it might be shared with Russia and by Russia with Iran.

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These are, needless to say, highly disturbing claims.

To evaluate them, we should bear in mind that what we are hearing is what American intelligence officials supposedly told Israeli intelligence officials and which Israeli intelligence officials, by whatever means, passed on to an Israeli journalist. The sourcing is at best attenuated. But we should also note that the paper is Israel's largest circulation daily and the reporter is a highly respected investigative journalist, Ronen Bergman.

The Full Story (January 13, 2017)

[Special] Donald Trump: Perpetual Liar, Vainglorious Blowhard (Russian Hacking Edition)

• Yahoo News: Donald Trump Rips ‘NBC Nightly News’ as ‘Biased, Inaccurate and Bad’ by Brian Flood (December 12, 2016) - 

President-elect Donald Trump blasted “NBC Nightly News” as “biased, inaccurate and bad,” adding another twist to his bizarre relationship with the network continues.

Trump apparently didn’t like an NBC segment that showed excerpts of his “Fox News Sunday” interview with Chris Wallace in which he said he rejects CIA findings regarding Russia hacking the election and opts not to receive daily intelligence briefings.

• NBC News: Trump Has Been Strikingly Consistent in Denying Russian Hacking Role by Chuck Todd (January 6, 2017) - 

As President-elect Donald Trump today receives his intelligence briefing from top officials on Russia's role in the 2016 presidential race, it's worth listing his remarkable consistency denying Russian interference, which dates back to the debate season.

[Todd lists eight (8) separate direct quotes from Trump denying Russia was behind the hack]

• Washington Post: Trump Admits to Russian Hacking Even As He Attacks U.S. Intelligence Committee by Philip Rucker and Ashley Parker (January 12, 2017) - 

President-elect Donald Trump acknowledged for the first time here Wednesday that Russia was responsible for hacking the Democratic Party during last year’s election, but he denied that the leaks were intended to boost him and argued that Moscow would cease cyberattacks on the United States once he is sworn in.

In a rollicking hour-long news conference, Trump furiously denounced as “fake news” the reports that Russia had obtained salacious intelligence that could compromise him. He suggested that any damaging information collected by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s administration would already have been released — and he celebrated what had leaked out about Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

“As far as hacking, I think it was Russia,” Mr. Trump said. “Hacking’s bad, and it shouldn’t be done. But look at the things that were hacked, look at what was learned from that hacking.”

Washington Post: Trump to Name Goldman Sachs Veteran Gary Cohn to Head National Economic Council

By Renae Merle, Ylan Q. Mui and Philip Rucker:

President-elect Donald Trump is expected to name a top Goldman Sachs executive, Gary Cohn, to lead the National Economic Council, handing the Wall Street veteran significant sway over his administration’s economic policy.

The council includes the heads of various departments and agencies and works within the administration to coordinate economic policy. As director, Cohn would be in position to advise Trump as he attempts to fulfill some of his chief campaign promises, including lowering corporate taxes and rethinking U.S. trade policy.

Trump intends to formally name Cohn to the post, which does not require Senate confirmation, but additional details remained unclear, according to a transition official who spoke on the condition of anonymity and was not authorized to speak publicly. The expected appointment was first reported by NBC News.

In Cohn, Trump would once again be picking a veteran of a New York investment bank that he repeatedly denounced during the campaign. During the campaign Trump argued that Goldman held “total control” over both Democrat Hillary Clinton and GOP rival Ted Cruz and he even released a television ad that flashed an image of Goldman Sachs chief executive Lloyd Blankfein and warned of a “global power structure” that was robbing American workers.

The Full Story (December 9, 2016)

See also: Trump Said to Offer Goldman's Cohn National Economic Council Job by Dakin Campbell and Saleha Mohsin of Bloomberg News.

Washington Post: Trump Names Scott Pruitt, Oklahoma Attorney General Suing EPA on Climate Change, to Head the EPA

By Chris Mooney, Brady Dennis and Steven Mufson:

President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday nominated Scott Pruitt, the attorney general of the oil and gas-intensive state of Oklahoma, to head the Environmental Protection Agency, a move signaling an assault on President Obama’s climate change and environmental legacy.

Pruitt has spent much of his energy as attorney general fighting the very agency he is being nominated to lead.

He is the third of Trump’s nominees who have key philosophical differences with the missions of the agencies they have been tapped to run. Ben Carson, named to head the Department of Housing and Urban Development, has expressed a deep aversion to the social safety net programs and fair housing initiatives that have been central to that agency’s activities. Betsy DeVos, named education secretary, has a passion for private school vouchers that critics say undercut the public school systems at the core of the government’s mission.

The Full Story (December 8, 2016)