Exactly 30 days after Flynn resigned would be March 15th, 2017

Today in Trump: March 15, 2017

Last Updated Mar 15, 2017 9:51 PM EDT

Today in the Trump Administration

Federal judge in Hawaii puts Trump’s revised travel ban on hold

A federal judge in Hawaii has put President Donald Trump’s revised travel ban on hold.

U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson granted a temporary restraining order against key parts of Mr. Trump’s executive order on immigration, CBS News’ Paula Reid reports. He blocked enforcement of sections related to travel and refugees, and effectively gutted the order, which seeks to impose a 90-day ban on the issuance of new visas to people from six predominantly Muslim nations and suspend the U.S. refugee program for all countries for 120 days.

The ruling applies across the U.S. and around the world, and prevents the order from going into effect Thursday. It was set to go into effect March 16 at 12:01 a.m.

Trump says tax return leak was “illegal” and a “disgrace”

President Donald Trump says he doesn’t know who released part of his 2005 tax return and described the disclosure as “illegal.”

“I have no idea where they got it but it’s illegal and they’re not supposed to have it and its not supposed to be leaked and it’s certainly not an embarrassing tax return at all but it’s an illegal thing they’ve been doing it, they’ve done it before and I think it’s a disgrace,” Mr. Trump told Fox News’ Tucker Carlson in an interview airing Wednesday night.

Devin Nunes says “I don’t think there was an actual tap of Trump Tower”

The House Intelligence Committee’s top members, Chairman Devin Nunes and Ranking Member Adam Schiff, both of California, have so far not been presented by the Justice Department with any evidence backing up President Trump’s tweeted allegation that former President Obama tapped Donald Trump’s phones during the election. Nunes on Wednesday suggested the president could be wrong.

“I don’t think there was an actual tap of Trump Tower,” he told reporters at the Capitol, and he said that if Mr. Trump’s allegations are taken literally, then “clearly the president was wrong.”

A top Senate Dem calls for more information from Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch

With less than a week until Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch’s hearings, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee is calling for more information from the judge.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-California) wrote in a letter to Gorsuch Tuesday that he had not yet completed her request for a list of all “significant cases” in which he helped make decisions or “developed case strategy.”

Trump border wall: Texans receiving letters about their land

Even before Donald Trump was inaugurated, U.S. citizens who own land along the border reportedly began receiving letters from the Justice Department informing them that the federal government wants their land to build a fence (i.e. the president’s border wall), that it intends to acquire their land, and the amount of compensation the government is offering.

Yvette Salinas, a Texan whose ailing mother owns a small parcel of land with her siblings near the Rio Grande was informed by the “Declaration of Taking” letter sent by DOJ that her 1.2 acres was worth $2,900, according to a story in the Texas Observer. She told the Observer that the family’s 16 acres has been in her family for five generations. The government’s letter asks recipients to sign in order to receive compensation, acknowledge that they “do not have an interest” in the case or do not intend to make a claim. It doesn’t really say what landowners should do if, like Salinas, they don’t want to sell their land.

On Twitter, Trump criticizes reporter who revealed tax return

President Trump on Wednesday slammed the Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist who revealed part of Mr. Trump’s 2005 tax return a night earlier on prime-time TV.

In a tweet, Mr. Trump said that David Cay Johnston’s claim that he received the documents in his mailbox is “fake news.”

Trump tax return gives rare look at president’s finances

Americans are getting a rare look at President Trump’s finances.

The White House confirmed details of the president’s 2005 federal tax return after its first two pages were leaked Tuesday.

Mr. Trump reported more than $150 million in income in 2005. He paid $38 million in federal income taxes.

Dan Coats confirmed as Trump’s Director of National Intelligence

The Senate has confirmed President Donald Trump’s choice for national intelligence director.

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Senators voted 85-12 Wednesday to approve the nomination of former Indiana Sen. Dan Coats, making him the fifth person to hold the post created after the Sept. 11 attacks.

House GOP working on companion bill to Obamacare replacement to attract skeptics

House Republicans are working on a companion to their bill replacing “Obamacare,” a legislative second act that would ease cross-state sale of health insurance and limit jury awards for pain and suffering in malpractice lawsuits.

The problem: the so-called “sidecar” bill lacks the votes in the Senate.

Skeptics abound. Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas called it “mythical legislation” in an interview Tuesday on the Hugh Hewitt radio show. In a tweet, conservative Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., suggested “Easter basket” might be a better description.

Revised travel ban to be scrutinized in court a day before it takes effect Thursday

The day before it is supposed to go into effect President Donald Trump’s revised travel ban will be scrutinized in federal courtrooms across the country on Wednesday.

In Maryland, a U.S. judge will hear arguments from the American Civil Liberties Union and others who want to stop the new directive and more than a half-dozen states are trying to derail the executive order affecting travelers from six Muslim-majority nations.

Rex Tillerson embarks on Asia trip amid Korea concerns

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is taking off for Japan, South Korea and China this week for his maiden trip to the region. Amid North Korean missile testing and after a campaign in which President Trump criticized all three countries, the trip is designed to cement U.S. commitment to allies and initiate a conversation on how to best tackle the North’s provocations.

The four-day trip will immerse Tillerson in an intensive diplomatic crash course – he’ll meet each of the country’s foreign ministers and travel with the State Department’s top experts to the region.

As Tillerson makes connections with his counterparts, there are concerns about how seriously he will be taken, given his quiet posture thus far.

Rex Tillerson breaks precedent and brings only one reporter on trip to Asia

A reporter from a conservative-leaning website is the only media representative accompanying Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on his trip to Asia this week.

The website, the Independent Journal Review, said late Tuesday that IJR reporter Erin McPike is the lone journalist traveling with Tillerson on his tour to Japan, South Korea and China. The State Department confirmed the account. The trip is taking place amid escalating tensions with North Korea.

Rex Tillerson in Tokyo

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is in Tokyo, holds joint availability with Japanese Foreign Minister Kishida and they’ll hold a joint media availability, which will be Tillerson’s first press conference as secretary of state (time TBA).

Trump in Michigan, Nashville

He’ll speak in Ypsilanti, Michigan with automakers at 2 p.m. before heading to Nashville to lay a wreath and make remarks at the Hermitage (5:15 p.m.), Andrew Jackson’s birthplace and then at a campaign-style rally in the evening (7:30 p.m.).

Warren - Gorsuch

Sen. Elizabeth Warren holds press conference outside Supreme Court to protest nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch to be an associate justice, 9:30 a.m.

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Who leaked Trump's taxes to Maddow?? Was it No Name?

FBI probe into Trump and Russia was codenamed 'Crossfire Hurricane'

By Josh Delk - 05/16/18 02:02 PM EDT

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/387991-fbis-russia-probe-was-first-codenamed-crossfire-hurricane

The FBI investigation into the Trump campaign's ties to Russia was originally known as "Crossfire Hurricane" before it was widely known to the public and even the bureau itself, officials told The New York Times.

The case, named after a Rolling Stones lyric, was used by only the small group of agents sent to interview the Australian ambassador to the United Kingdom, who had evidence of possible collusion between Russia and a Trump adviser.

Five agents embarked to London in the summer of 2016 for a rare interview with the diplomat after deliberations between American and Australian officials, where they gathered information that would provide the basis for the Russia probe that is still ongoing.

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The Times previously reported that a young foreign policy aide on the Trump campaign, George Papadopoulos, revealed he knew of hacked Democratic Party emails to Australian Ambassador Alexander Downer over late-night drinks in London.

Downer reportedly notified U.S. intelligence officials of his run-in with Papadopoulos after the emails, which contained damaging information about 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton just as the aide had said, began to leak to the public.

From there, the tight group of FBI agents went forward in interviewing Trump associates, which was kept secret for fear of leaks that could sway the campaign.

The official look into the Trump campaign reportedly began just days after the bureau closed its investigation into Clinton for her use of a private email server while serving as secretary of State.

http://thefederalist.com/2018/05/25/code-name-crossfire-hurricane-evidence-fbis-russia-cover-story/

Was Halper an Informant, Spy, Or Agent Provocateur?

Taken together with the other significant revelation from last Times story, the purpose and structure of Crossfire Hurricane may be coming into clearer focus. According to the Times story: “At least one government informant met several times with [Trump campaign advisers Carter] Page and [George] Papadopoulos, current and former officials said.”

As we now know, the informant is Stefan Halper, a former classmate of Bill Clinton’s at Oxford University who worked in the Nixon, Ford, and Reagan administrations. Halper is known for his good connections in intelligence circles. His father-in-law was Ray Cline, former deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Halper is also reported to have led the 1980 Ronald Reagan campaign team that collected intelligence on sitting U.S. President Jimmy Carter’s foreign policy.

So what was Halper doing in this instance? He wasn’t really a spy (a person who is generally tasked with stealing secrets) or an informant (a person who provides information about criminal activities from the inside). Rather, it seems he was more like an agent provocateur, whose job was to ask leading questions to get Trump campaign advisers to say things that would corroborate—or seem to corroborate—evidence that the bureau believed it already had in hand.

It appears Halper’s job was to induce inexperienced Trump campaign figures to say things.

Halper met with at least three Trump campaign advisers: Sam Clovis, Page, and George Papadopoulos. The latter two he met with in London, where Halper had reason to feel comfortable operating.

Halper’s close contacts in the intelligence world weren’t limited to the CIA. They also include foreign intelligence officials like Richard Dearlove, the former head of the United Kingdom’s foreign intelligence service, MI6. According to a Washington Times report, Halper and Dearlove are partners in a UK consulting firm, Cambridge Security Initiative.

Dearlove is also close to Steele. According to the Washington Post, Dearlove met with Steele in the early fall of 2016, when his former charge shared his “worries” about what he’d found on the Trump campaign and “asked for his guidance.”

London was therefore the perfect place for Halper to spring a trap — outside the direct purview of the FBI, but on territory where he knew he could operate safely. It appears Halper’s job was to induce inexperienced Trump campaign figures to say things that corroborated the 35-page series of memos written by Steele—the centerpiece of the Russiagate investigation—in order to license a broader campaign of government spying against Trump and his associates in the middle of a presidential election.

Halper Reached Out to Trump Campaign Members

Chuck Ross’s reporting in The Daily Caller provides invaluable details and insight. As Ross explained in The Daily Caller back in March, Halper emailed Papadopoulos on September 2, 2016 with an invitation to write a research paper, for which he’d be paid $3,000, and a paid trip to London. According to Ross, “Papadopoulos and Halper met several times during the London trip,” with one meeting scheduled for September 13 and another two days later.

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Ross writes: “According to a source with knowledge of the meeting, Halper asked Papadopoulos: ‘George, you know about hacking the emails from Russia, right?’ Papadopoulos told Halper he didn’t know anything about emails or Russian hacking.” It seems Halper was looking to elaborate on the claims made in Steele’s September 14 dossier memo: “Russians do have further ‘kompromat’ on CLINTON (e-mails) and considering disseminating it.”

Halper’s fishing expedition therefore came up with nothing to suggest the Steele dossier was true.

Had Papadopoulos confirmed that a shadowy Maltese academic had told him in April about Russians holding Clinton-related emails, presumably that would have entered the dossier as something like, “Trump campaign adviser PAPADOPOULOS confirms knowledge of Russian ‘kompromat.’”

Another Trump campaign adviser Halper contacted was Page. They first met in Cambridge, England at a July 11, 2016 symposium. Halper’s partner Dearlove spoke at the conference, which was held just days after Page had delivered a widely reported speech at the New Economic School in Moscow. According to another Ross article reporting on Page and Halper’s interactions, the Trump adviser “recalls nothing of substance being discussed other than Halper’s passing mention that he knew then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort.”

Page and Manafort both figure prominently in the Steele dossier’s July 19 memos. According to the document, Manafort “was using foreign policy advisor, Carter PAGE, and others as intermediaries.” Page had also, according to the dossier, met with senior Kremlin officials—a charge he later denied in his November 2, 2017 testimony before the House Intelligence Committee. Evidently, he also gave Halper nothing to use in verifying the charges made against him.

Halper’s fishing expedition therefore came up with nothing to suggest the Steele dossier was true. The real story is therefore the continuing attempt to assert that the dossier, or key parts of it, are true, after large-scale investigations by the FBI, and now by special counsel Robert Mueller, have failed to turn up any evidence of a plot hatched between Trump and Vladimir Putin to take over the White House.