Kushner's security clearance restored, met with Mueller team a second time

President Donald Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, had his White House security clearance restored Wednesday, a person familiar with the matter said, after months of uncertainty stemming in part from his role in the ongoing investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller.

Kushner was stripped of his interim clearance in February amid an overhaul of procedures governing access to the nation's most sensitive secrets following the resignation of Rob Porter, the President's staff secretary, who had been allowed to remain in his post for months despite allegations of spouse abuse.

The Mueller probe has also hung over Kushner's status in the White House, in part because some of the matters under investigation relate to his role during the campaign and the transition, including contacts with Russians, as well as events that occurred in the early months of the Trump presidency, such as the firing of former FBI Director James Comey.

In April, Kushner met with Mueller's investigators for a second time and answered questions for seven hours, according to his attorney, Abbe Lowell. He had previously sat for an interview last November that was largely focused on former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who soon after pleaded guilty to charges of making false statements to the FBI.

White House officials have blamed the delay in Kushner receiving his security clearance on administrative backlogs normal to a new administration, as well as the complicated nature of his application. But Kushner's troubles were compounded at least in part because his initial security clearance application didn't list dozens of foreign contacts that he later included in updated submissions to the FBI.

Kushner's initial SF-86 form did not mention any foreign contacts, though he quickly supplemented it to indicate that he would provide that information. He updated the form in the spring, listing about 100 contacts, but did not mention the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting he attended with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, Donald Trump Jr., and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort. Kushner updated the SF-86 forms once more in June to include that meeting.

https:// www.cnn.com/2018/05/23/politics/jared-kushner-security-clearance/index.html

China Disinvited from Participating in 2018 RIMPAC Exercise

Citing actions in the South China Sea that run counter to international norms and a pursuit of free and open seas, Department of Defense spokesman Marine Lt. Col. Christopher Logan said the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) would not be participating in the exercise despite its participation in submarine safety and other non-warfighting components of the exercise in previous years.

“The United States is committed to a free and open Indo-Pacific. China’s continued militarization of disputed features in the South China Sea only serve to raise tensions and destabilize the region. As an initial response to China’s continued militarization of the South China Sea we have disinvited the PLA Navy from the 2018 Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) Exercise. China’s behavior is inconsistent with the principles and purposes of the RIMPAC exercise,” Logan said.

“We have strong evidence that China has deployed anti-ship missiles, surface-to-air missile (SAM) systems, and electronic jammers to contested features in the Spratly Islands region of the South China Sea. China’s landing of bomber aircraft at Woody Island has also raised tensions,” he continued.

“We believe these recent deployments and the continued militarization of these features is a violation of the promise that President Xi made to the United States and the World not to militarize the Spratly Islands.”

China participated in the 2016 exercise despite tensions at the time. Then-Defense Secretary Ash Carter said in April 2016, “Our approach to security in the region, as I indicated there, has always been to try to include everyone, so that’s our basic approach. So even as we stand strong and improve all of our systems and stand strong with our allies – and develop new partnerships with countries like India and Vietnam that we don’t have decades of experience with, like the Philippines; they’re all coming to us, in part because they’re concerned about China – but we’re still taking the approach of, everybody ought to work together here. So if the Chinese want to participate, I think it’s the right place for us to be. Come on, and instead of standing apart from everybody and isolating yourself and excluding yourself, try to be part of the system of cooperative nations that have made, as I said, the Asian miracle possible.”

More:https:// news.usni.org/2018/05/23/china-disinvited-participating-2018-rimpac-exercise

'Good For Him'

Liberal NYT Columnist Admits He's Not Feeling Too Great About The Russia Investigation

New York Times columnist Frank Bruni expressed his alarm on Tuesday that special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling could actually be helping President Donald Trump.

The Mueller investigation, Bruni argued, is dominating media coverage to the extent it’s crowding out coverage of what Trump and his administration are actually doing.

“Maybe the just-published Politico report of Trump’s deliberate, cavalier use of a cellphone that doesn’t have strict security safeguards would be getting extra attention” if not for the Mueller investigation, Bruni pondered.

“Without Mueller and Russia, Scott Pruitt would be closer to center stage, with an even brighter, harsher spotlight on him,” the liberal columnist continued.

“He’s not exactly evading scrutiny, but he’s being spared the relentless top-of-the-screen, start-of-the-newscast treatment that he would likely endure if lawmakers, journalists and other watchdogs weren’t so mesmerized by the convoluted twists of Mueller v. Trump.”

Bruni also expressed his concern the Mueller investigation might not find evidence of collusion between Trump and Russia.

Trump “knows that if he sets the bar at incontrovertible evidence of him and Putin huddled over a Hillary Clinton voodoo doll, he just might clear it,” the columnist wrote.

“And he knows that if Americans are fixated on collusion, they aren’t concentrating on much else. That’s good for him and terrible for the country.”

http:// dailycaller.com/2018/05/22/mueller-russia-investigation-helping-trump/

Scarborough Demands To Know If Anti-Mueller Clinton Aide Works For Fox News

MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough angrily demanded to know Wednesday if a former Clinton aide is working for Fox News because the aide published an op-ed criticizing Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

During Wednesday’s edition of “Morning Joe,” Scarborough brought up Mark Penn’s recent article saying Mueller’s Russian investigation should be stopped.

“What exactly is Mark Penn selling?” Scarborough whined. “Here’s a guy who lost Hillary Clinton’s campaign. … He left that campaign responsible for her loss to Barack Obama. What is Mark Penn selling coming to the defense of Donald J. Trump?”

Scarborough alleged that Penn is angling for some conservative favor and maybe a contract with Fox News.

“In Washington, D.C., often when people do strange things like this — creatures of the swamp — they’re doing it for a reason,” Scarborough said. “Does he got a Fox News contract? Does he show up on Fox News a lot?”

Penn worked on Bill Clinton’s 1996 re-election campaign and his op-ed was published in The Hill.

http:// dailycaller.com/2018/05/23/scarborough-anti-mueller-fox-news/

>>1519944

I think this ends the need for IBOR doesn't it?

George Papadopoulos agrees with Robert Mueller to move to sentencing phase

Lawyers for special counsel Robert Mueller and former Trump foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos told a judge Wednesday they are both ready to move on to the sentencing phase of the Papadopoulos trial.

The request was made in a joint filing by both sides in federal court in Washington.

Papadopoulos, who joined the Trump campaign foreign policy team in March 2016, pleaded guilty in October to making false statements to the FBI about contacts he had with Russians in 2016.

Under his plea deal, Papadopoulos will face zero to six months in prison and a fine anywhere between $500 and $9,500. A Dutch attorney who was sentenced on similar charges was sentenced to 30 days in jail.

As part of his guilty plea, Papadopoulos said he would cooperate with Mueller’s team and "provide information regarding any and all matters as to which the government deems relevant."

It was recently revealed that Papadopoulos made contact with Stefan A. Halper, an emeritus professor at the University of Cambridge, who was also an FBI informant. Halper made contact with three people affiliated with Trump’s foreign policy advisory team in 2016, including former adviser Carter Page.

Trump and his allies have said Halper was used for political purposes and have tied Halper with the Russia investigation into his presidential campaign. Trump has also cited the infamous dossier compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele as a reason for the investigation.

However, Papadopoulos and Page were already under investigation by the FBI before ever making their first contact with Halper.

The New York Times reported in December that the FBI’s investigation into Russian efforts to meddle in the election began in July 2016, after Papadoplous told an Australian diplomat that Russia had political dirty on Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

Australian officials then told their counterparts in the U.S. intelligence community, and the FBI’s investigation began.

Mueller took over the investigation in May 2017 after Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed him. Mueller is tasked with investigating Russian interference, possible links with the Trump campaign, and “any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation.”

Papadopoulos was the first person charged by Mueller’s team.

https:// www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/george-papadopoulos-agrees-with-robert-mueller-to-move-to-sentencing-phase

>>1520003

So here is my next question on IBOR, who regulates or becomes the internet police on this?

>>1520139

Understand what you are saying here, but following your logic, it leaves a lot of people who are not financially secure, without options to fight their rights to free speech.