Okay, now it is becoming a pattern where the republican President Donald Trump has taken proactive steps to derail the FBI’s Trump-Russian probe by first approaching the FBI Director James Comey by attempting to enlist his loyalty, then requesting for the FBI to lay off on investigating the former NSA adviser, General Mike Flynn, and finally firing the FBI director on 5/9/17.
Let’s not forget the president administration’s firing of the Department of Justice’s acting Attorney General Sally Yates on 1/30/17, for daring to do her job by reporting US national security issues about General Flynn continuing to work for the president as his national security adviser.
But now news outlets are reporting that the president also approached the Director of National Intelligence Dan Coates and the Director of the NSA Admiral Mike Rogers to publicly state that he was not part of the Trump/ Russia probe.
There is nothing innocent about President Trump’s obvious tactics to direct the Trump/ Russian probe away from being focused on himself and/ or General Flynn.
Here is the rest of the story…
On 5/22/17, Adam Entous and Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post have penned the following report, “Trump asked intelligence chiefs to push back against FBI collusion probe after Comey revealed its existence.”
Excerpts:
“Trump made separate appeals to the director of national intelligence, Daniel Coats, and to Adm. Michael S. Rogers, the director of the National Security Agency, urging them to publicly deny the existence of any evidence of collusion during the 2016 election.”Coats and Rogers refused to comply with the requests, which they both deemed to be inappropriate, according to two current and two former officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private communications with the president.
Trump sought the assistance of Coats and Rogers after FBI Director James B. Comey told the House Intelligence Committee on March 20 that the FBI was investigating “the nature of any links between individuals associated with the Trump campaign and the Russian government and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and Russia’s efforts.”Trump’s conversation with Rogers was documented contemporaneously in an internal memo written by a senior NSA official, according to the officials. It is unclear if a similar memo was prepared by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to document Trump’s conversation with Coats. Officials said such memos could be made available to both the special counsel now overseeing the Russia investigation and congressional investigators, who might explore whether Trump sought to impede the FBI’s work.
“White House officials say Comey’s testimony about the scope of the FBI investigation upset Trump, who has dismissed the FBI and congressional investigations as a “witch hunt.” The president has repeatedly said there was no collusion.”
“Current and former senior intelligence officials viewed Trump’s requests as an attempt by the president to tarnish the credibility of the agency leading the Russia investigation.” A senior intelligence official said that Trump’s goal was to “muddy the waters” about the scope of the FBI probe at a time when Democrats were ramping up their calls for the Justice Department to appoint a special counsel, a step announced last week.
“The problem wasn’t so much asking them to issue statements, it was asking them to issue false statements about an ongoing investigation,” a former senior intelligence official said of the request to Coats.”
“The White House does not confirm or deny unsubstantiated claims based on illegal leaks from anonymous individuals,” a White House spokesperson said. “The president will continue to focus on his agenda that he was elected to pursue by the American people.”
“In addition to the requests to Coats and Rogers, senior White House officials sounded out top intelligence officials about the possibility of intervening directly with Comey to encourage the FBI to drop its probe of Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser, according to people familiar with the matter. The officials said the White House appeared uncertain about its power to influence the FBI.”
“Can we ask him to shut down the investigation? Are you able to assist in this matter?” one official said of the line of questioning from the White House.”
“The new revelations add to a growing body of evidence that Trump sought to co-opt and then undermine Comey before he fired him May 9. According to notes kept by Comey, Trump first asked for his loyalty at a dinner in January and then, at a meeting the next month, asked him to drop the probe into Flynn. Trump disputes those accounts.”
“Current and former officials said either Trump lacks an understanding of the FBI’s role as an independent law enforcement agency or does not care about maintaining such boundaries.”
“Trump’s effort to use the director of national intelligence and the NSA director to refute Comey’s statement and to say there was no evidence of collusion echoes President Richard Nixon’s “unsuccessful efforts to use the CIA to shut down the FBI’s investigation of the Watergate break-in on national security grounds,” said Jeffrey H. Smith, a former general counsel at the CIA. Smith called Trump’s actions “an appalling abuse of power.”
“Trump made his appeal to Coats days after Comey’s testimony, according to officials.”
“That same week, Trump telephoned Rogers to make a similar appeal.”
“In his call with Rogers, Trump urged the NSA director to speak out publicly if there was no evidence of collusion, according to officials briefed on the exchange.”
“Rogers was taken aback but tried to respectfully explain why he could not do so, the officials said. For one thing, he could not comment on an ongoing investigation. Rogers added that he would not talk about classified matters in public.”
“Rogers met with Trump in New York shortly after the election, and Trump’s advisers at the time held him out as the leading candidate to be the next director of national intelligence.”
“Ultimately, Trump decided to nominate Coats (as Director of Intelligence), rather than Rogers. Coats was sworn in just days before the president made his request.”
“In February, the Trump White House also sought to enlist senior members of the intelligence community and Congress to push back against suggestions that Trump associates were in frequent contact with Russian officials. But in that case, the White House effort was designed to refute news accounts, not the testimony of a sitting FBI director who was leading an open investigation.”
“As the director of national intelligence, Coats leads the vast U.S. intelligence community, which includes the FBI. But that does not mean he has full visibility into the FBI probe. Coats’s predecessor in the job, James R. Clapper Jr., recently acknowledged that Comey did not brief him on the scope of the Russia investigation. Similarly, it is unclear to what extent the FBI has brought Coats up to speed on the probe’s most sensitive findings.”
Gronda Morin 
Dear Mz. Gronda,
It should be interesting to hear the supporters of tRump use their own version of alt facts in an attempt to explain away this latest news about the illegal activities of the tRump.. If anyone ever had even the least amount of doubt that the tRump did not want to be the president but instead he thought he would be allowed to be King and have to answer to no one, they should now know the true intent of the man…
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Dear Crustyolemothman,
DDT is learning the hard way that his methods which allowed him a measure of success as a businessman are not effective from the White House.
There are folks that he is dealing with who refuse to compromise their integrity who are causing him the most pain.
You are right. He chose the wrong country to become its president.
Ciao, Gronda
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Gronda, as I mentioned with the latest Flynn revelation, there is a lot of lying, omitting and obstructing going on. I am not an attorney, but Congress may reach the conclusion the President has repeatedly obstructed justice, before they prove collusion with Russians. He may be innocent on the latter, but he sure is acting guilty. Keith
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Dear Keith,
He is like the little boy who has in hand in the cookie jar with crumbs dripping down his chin. He knows that he is not allowed to eat them close to dinnertime. But he tries to tell the adults observing him that he was checking out the jar to make sure there were cookies left and then he tells them that it looks like the same amount as before.
If the adults are like the republican legislators, they will laugh at this incident as being of no serious consequence. Whereas the adults who really care about the child and the stability of the family will make sure that the child pays the appropriate consequence for his misdeed and for lying.
Ciao, Gronda
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Good analogy with the cookie jar. This President has eaten more of others’ cookies than anyone.
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More is being revealed day by day. I am wondering: 1. aren’t Russian ties good ? Didn’t Hillary herself try to press the reset button with Russia (failed miserably) ? The more interdependent we are with Russia the better chance to enhance peace ? Be on the same side ? Of course cultivating Russian ties to influence election is beyond illegal. It’s treason. But this has gone on for decades. US landed troops 1918 at Archangel(now Murmansk) to support the White Russians against the Reds(Bolsheviks) to keep Russia in WW 1 after 1917 surrender. We intervened in their civil war with troops ! We blasted Radio Free Europe against Soviets for decades and Free Cuba radio from Miami for decades. We supported Gorbachev in every possible way. This influence is the history of east/west political and intrigue. Why is this so shocking ? Suppose people don’t know the history. 2. Is it possible that Trump asked FBI and others if there was any proof as Trump himself asserts no collusion from him and that if no proof stop it so we can focus on problems we face? I would think if there was nothing there Trump would want to cut the nonsense and move on ?. Is that possible ? But if there is obstruction then that is impeachable. The US intervention in South America in their politics is well documented and US even ordered Allende assassinated. We also propped up evil dictators because they were “anti communist”. US has been world’s biggest interventionist and manipulators of all.
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Dear Carl D’Agostino,
I almost didn’t know where to begin to answer you.
First, it is a given that we in the USA have made major errors like the invasion of Iraq. But that we do wrong is not an excuse to let off another country for its wrongdoings.
Just recently, we tried cooperating with the Russians in the hopes that the Russians were serious about wanting to attack ISIS in Syria. We shared intelligence with them but, instead they used the data to target US backed rebels. We cannot deal with Russia as a friend because they are not. Unless the US and Russian interests are truly aligned, we can’t afford to take their word for anything and we have to deal with them, accordingly.
What separates us from totalitarian type countries is that we practice freedom of speech, we can peacefully protest and confront our lawmakers without fearing harm (with rare exceptions);; we have a free press where journalists can challenge its leaders in power without being put in jail or worse (with rare exceptions); where there is separation of powers to be a check; where “we the people” have the power in our votes, even if we have to fight to exercise it.
Like you, I wish these probes didn’t appear to have political motivations. But I want the truth. That is why I prefer the establishment of a 9/11 type investigative body to get to the bottom of what Russia did to meddle in our elections.
Unlike you, I am concerned by President Trump’s actions regarding Russia, and this is why, (just the tip of the iceberg):
1.) Outside of Russia, a favorite tool of its spy craft has been to co-opt unwitting foreigners as assets, by becoming financially entangled with them and/ or their businesses. This is where our president and some of his associates are most vulnerable.
In short, just as foreigners including US citizens who become financially involved with the mafia can expect to be eventually compromised, the same can be said of those who deal with the Russians. The U.S. president is not an exception to this rule.
2.) For over 20 years, the president hasn’t been able to finance his projects with monies from US banks because of his past bankruptcy filings, but he has managed to obtain the assistance of Russian monies to the tune of millions of dollars over a period of decades.
3.) .) Deutsche Bank is our president’s largest creditor.
4.) “Deutsche Bank has already been fined millions of dollars in January 2017 for laundering Russian dirty monies to the tune of $10 billion dollars via various methods and entities including the Bank of Cypress.”
5.) “The head of Deutsche Bank during this dark period, Josef Ackermann became the chairman of the Bank of Cypress in 2014.”
6.) “The largest shareholder of the Bank of Cypress, Dmitry Rybolovlev is the same Russian oligarch who purchased the president’s Palm Beach home in 2008 for the inflated price of $95 million to $100 million dollars when it was appraised 5 years after purchase for about $60 million dollars.”
7.) “Around the time that the Russian oligarch Dmitry Rybolovlev purchased the president’s property in Palm Beach in 2008, the president was suing Deutsche Bank in 2008 over a $40 million loan that came due. He claimed that the 2008 downward spiral in property values, due to the US recession was as an “Act of God” which absolved him from having to honor this obligation. Somehow this whole incident was taken care of and Deutsche Bank has continued to loan the president monies.”
8.) Coincidentally, the newly confirmed Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross became the Vice Chairman of the Bank of Cypress in 2014. He has stepped down from this role.
9.) The Bank of Cypress has a lengthy history of laundering Russian dirty monies which has supposedly been corrected. However, a 2/2/17 EUobserver article by Andrew Rettman reports the following:
“Pieter Omtzigt, from the christian-democrat CDA party, put forward the criticism in a letter, on Saturday (January 30, 2017), to a financial crimes unit in The Council of Europe in Strasbourg.”
“Recent developments in Cyprus in relation to the Magnitsky case have shown the failure of Cyprus to apply money laundering legislation in practice,” he said.”
“This case is a litmus test for whether Cyprus is now really paying attention to proper controls or whether it is only paying lip service to recommendations.”
10.) And finally, one reason that the highly esteemed US prosecutor, Preet Bharara may have been recently fired by the White House could be because he had been in charge of pursuing legally the Deutsche Bank for its Russian money laundering schemes.
You need to know that the Russians take the craft of spying and espionage very seriously.Read the following:
“Russian espionage operates on different principles. The agencies there spend large amounts of time and money building up long-term assets, with little concern for an immediate payoff. If you recruit a bright Danish student, it may be twenty years before he becomes useful. But when he does, the consequences will be devastating. Russia is also far better at operating what in espionage parlance are known as “false flag” operations, in which the target is recruited under the guise of a different cause, perhaps involving environmentalism or digital freedom.”
“Abundant resources and ruthless ingenuity mean that the Russian espionage adversary is a shape-shifter: In one manifestation it may be a legitimate-seeming energy company, then a curious student apparently from a NATO country, then a jovial official from the Russian embassy, then a supposedly independent charitable outfit offering a large donation to anyone who conducts the right research, then a hard-working secretary, then a Portuguese business consultant. This gives Russia what American intelligence theorists call “natural capacity”: the ability to operate in the guise of a legitimate business or organization. For Western intelligence agencies, this involves formidable legal and bureaucratic obstacles. Russia adopts it without a qualm.”
“For more than twenty years, the West has tried to integrate Russia—diplomatically, financially, economically, and institutionally. True, Western policymakers have accepted (belatedly in many cases) that Russia is an authoritarian kleptocracy. True, many also accept (reluctantly and tentatively in many cases) that it is a revanchist power that menaces its neighbors. But few are willing to accept the seriousness of the threat and give it the priority it deserves. These days it is one threat among many.”
Ciao, Gronda
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