Papadopoulos Plea Ups the Ante in Russia Probe - NBC News

Papadopoulos Plea Ups the Ante in Russia Probe

by CHUCK TODD, MARK MURRAY and CARRIE DANN

First Read is your briefing from Meet the Press and the NBC Political Unit on the day's most important political stories and why they matter.

George Papadopoulos plea deal sends a message to others, legal analyst says

George Papadopoulos plea deal sends a message to others, legal analyst says 1:44

WASHINGTON — The most significant news Monday in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe wasn’t the indictments of Paul Manafort and Rick Gates — though it’s not every day that two high-ranking members of a president’s campaign team get indicted. Instead, the big news was from the guilty plea of a lower-ranking foreign adviser, George Papadopoulos.

Why? Because Papadopoulos’ plea (of lying to the FBI) contains what is now the SECOND known instance of Russians, using intermediaries, telling Trump officials that they have dirt on Hillary Clinton.

On or about April 26, 2016, defendant PAPADOPOULOS met [an overseas] Professor for breakfast at a London hotel. During this meeting, the Professor told defendant PAPADOPOULOS that he had just returned from a trip to Moscow where he had met with high-level Russian government officials. The Professor told defendant PAPADOPOULOS that on that trip he (the Professor) learned that the Russians had obtained "dirt" on then-candidate Clinton. The Professor told defendant PAPADOPOULOS, as defendant PAPADOPOULOS later described to the FBI, that "They [the Russians] have dirt on her"; "the Russians had emails of Clinton"; "they have thousands of emails."

That April 26 meeting came one month AFTER former Clinton Campaign Chair John Podesta’s emails were hacked.

The FIRST known instance of Russians, via intermediaries, telling Trump World they had dirt on Hillary Clinton was that June 3, 2016 Rob Goldstone email to Donald Trump Jr., which set up that meeting with a Kremlin-connected lawyer six days later:

Emin [Agalarov] just called and asked me to contact you with something very interesting.

The Crown prosecutor of Russia met with his father Aras this morning and in their meeting offered to provide the Trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father.

This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump — helped along by Aras and Emin.

What do you think is the best way to handle this information and would you be able to speak to Emin about it directly?

I can also send this info to your father via Rhona, but it is ultra sensitive so wanted to send to you first.

Donald Trump Jr. replied to that email, “If it’s what you say, I love it.”

Those two known examples of people offering Team Trump knowledge of Russian dirt on Hillary Clinton come as President Trump has denied any “collusion” with Russia, calling the investigation “phony” and a “witch hunt.”

Mueller starts squeezing witnesses

The other significant angle regarding Papadopoulos is that he’s cooperating with the Mueller probe. Bloomberg News: “Jeffrey Cramer, a former federal prosecutor who’s now managing director of consulting firm Berkeley Research Group LLC, said that after Papadopoulos’s arrest in July, Mueller may have used him to make recordings that could result in charges against others. ‘Anyone who’s had a conversation with that guy since July until last night should be thinking about what they said to him,’ Cramer said.”

And according to prosecutors, Papadopoulos corresponded with a high-ranking Trump official — whom NBC News has identified as Manafort — about his conversations with Russians and their intermediaries.

(“The government notes that the official forwarded defendant PAPADOPOULOS's email to another Campaign official (without including defendant PAPADOPOULOS) and stated: "Let[']s discuss. We need someone to communicate that DT is not doing these trips. It should be someone low level in the campaign so as not to send any signal.")

A “campaign supervisor” commented to Papadopoulos about his Russian contacts/conversations: “Great work.”

Bottom line: Yesterday’s news was about witness squeezing — either through the indictments against Manafort and Gates, or letting Trump World know that they’ve flipped Papadopoulos.

Mueller is sending the message that he hasn’t received a lot of cooperation in his probe, and that he’s going to get that cooperation — one way or another.

Corey Lewandowski: George Papadopoulos was merely a 'low-level volunteer' Facebook Twitter

Corey Lewandowski: George Papadopoulos was merely a 'low-level volunteer'

Wanna get away?

It’s not ideal for President Trump that he’s embarking on his big Asia trip later this week with the Russia/Mueller cloud over his head. Then again, maybe it’s not a bad idea to get far away from Washington.

The Washington Post: “The president digested the news of the first indictments in special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s probe with exasperation and disgust, these people said. He called his lawyers repeatedly. He listened intently to cable news commentary. And, with rising irritation, he watched live footage of his onetime campaign adviser and confidant, Paul Manafort, turning himself in to the FBI.”

“Initially, Trump felt vindicated. Though frustrated that the media were linking him to the indictment and tarnishing his presidency, he cheered that the ­charges against Manafort and his deputy, Rick Gates, were focused primarily on activities that began before his campaign. Trump tweeted at 10:28 a.m., ‘there is NO COLLUSION!’”

“But the president’s celebration was short-lived. A few minutes later, court documents were unsealed showing that George Papadopoulos, an unpaid foreign policy adviser on Trump’s campaign, pleaded guilty to making a false statement to the FBI about his efforts to broker a relationship between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The case provides the clearest evidence yet of links between Trump’s campaign and Russian officials.”

A week out from the New Jersey and Virginia gubernatorial contests

We’re now a week out from Election Day 2017.

Worth noting: The Latino Victory Fund TV ad that’s getting attention for its portrayal of a truck with a Confederate flag and an Ed Gillespie bumper sticker terrorizing children of color has only a small amount of money behind it.

The organization has booked $14,000 on cable from Nov. 1-6 on CNN and MSNBC, as well as another $14,000 for on a local Telemundo affiliate. (For reference: The cable buy only translates into about three airings total.)

Mistake in Manafort Indictment Shows Case Was ‘Cooked Up,’ Russia Says - NBC News

by ALAN KAYTUKOV and ALEXANDER SMITH

MOSCOW — Russia's foreign ministry has cited a factual error in the indictment against Paul Manafort as proof the allegations are "cooked up" and not part of a "serious investigation."

President Donald Trump's former campaign manager and his business associate, Rick Gates, are accused of charges including conspiracy against the U.S., money laundering, being an unregistered foreign agent and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts.

But the spokeswoman for Russia's foreign ministry, Maria Zakharova, pointed out that the 31-page indictment document against Manafort wrongly describes Yulia Tymoshenko as a former president of Ukraine.

In fact, Tymoshenko twice served as the country's prime minister, before being jailed in 2011 on embezzlement charges that the U.S. and others said were politically motivated.

"I liked a lot the bit that, it turns out, according to the recent findings of American enforcers, the Ukrainian president before [Viktor] Yanukovych was Yulia Tymoshenko," Zakharova told the state-owned Russia 1 television station Monday. "We did not know that, but there you go."

She suggested that the mistake undermined the rest of the indictment.

"This is a very important moment showing the way how, once again, this document had been made, cooked up," Zakharova added. "You understand when you talk about serious investigation one cannot allow things like that."

The Manafort indictment says he and Gates "lobbied multiple members of Congress and their staffs about Ukraine sanctions, the validity of Ukraine elections, and the propriety of Yanukovych's imprisoning his presidential rival, Yulia Tymoshenko (who had served as Ukraine president prior to Yanukovych)."

The indictments against Manafort and Gates say that both men generated tens of millions of dollars as a result of their lobbying work in Ukraine.

Who Is Paul Manafort? Play Facebook Twitter Embed

Who Is Paul Manafort? 5:34

In addition, George Papadopoulos, who had been a foreign policy adviser to Trump during the campaign, pleaded guilty to making false statements to the FBI.

They are the first people known to be charged and Papadopoulos the first to plead guilty in the investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller into the Trump campaign's alleged ties to Russia and Moscow's interference in the election last year.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and other high-ranking government officials have repeatedly denied that Moscow meddled in the vote.

Alan Kaytukov reported from Moscow. Alexander Smith reported from London.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders can be as breezy as she likes, but there's no way she can minimise the Mueller indictments - Independent

Sarah Huckabee Sanders can be as breezy as she likes, but there's no way she can minimise the Mueller indictments

She agreed a photograph existed of Trump and Papadopoulos in a meeting together last year, but dismissed it as ephemera. He’s been in 'thousands' of pictures with 'millions' of people, she said

David Usborne

Like many around the world who watched her, you may have marvelled at Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ attempt at contemptuous breeziness in the West Wing press room in the wake of the not unarresting news that Robert Mueller had successfully obtained indictments for Donald Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, and a close associate, Rick Gates.

It might have gone a little better for her if Mueller HQ had stopped at that. But no. Swift on the heels of the first bulletin had come the revelation that a former foreign policy advisor to the Trump campaign named George Papadopoulos had already pleaded guilty to lying about contacts with Russia directly to do with providing “dirt” on Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election.

Donald Trump is done

Ms Sanders was clearly nervous. Actually she looked at times like she wanted to be sick. Trump had been huddled in the presidential apartments upstairs in the White House, not showing up in the Oval Office, for most of the morning fretting and fulminating as both pieces of news dropped and cable TV went into overdrive digging through it all. Obviously, he would be watching again as she set about telling reporters that what had happened was of no concern to him at all. None!

She agreed a photograph existed of Trump and Papadopoulos in a meeting together last year, but dismissed it as ephemera. He’s been in “thousands” of pictures with “millions” of people, she said. If she means being snapped at his rallies, I could almost make the same claim. Oh, and yes, she stood by her assessment that Mueller would be ending his work soon. No, he won’t.

Of course the White House will continue to distance itself from the Mueller problem and do everything it can to obfuscate and throw up distractions. Thus Sanders’ repeated insistence that charges against Minafort and Gates, including money laundering, related to work done for a pro-Putin political party in Ukraine that pre-dated the campaign. And watch as they continue to push the narrative that it’s Hillary Clinton who should be investigated, not them.

Pity Sanders; this will be a mission largely impossible. There are questions to be answered by the Clinton campaign as to money paid secretly to a firm called Fusion GPS to research past Trump activities in Russia. But there is no equivalency between that affair and the Trump collusion probe. Nor would any wrong done by Clinton right any wrongs done by Trump. As for Trump’s assertions that Clinton personally profited from a 2010 deal involving the purchase by Russia of a North American uranium mining company, they are demonstrably false.

There really is no minimising, meanwhile, the events of Monday. The first charge against Manafort and Gates, regarding “conspiracy against the United States” turned on allegations of their “impeding, impairing, obstructing and defeating the lawful governmental functions of a government agency, namely the Department of Justice and the Department of the Treasury”—relates to actions “from in or about and between 2006 and 2017.” 2016 is in there somewhere.

Nor is it is easy to pretend that neither man was anything but central to Trump and his campaign. His nominating convention in Cleveland was entirely engineered by Manafort, who was campaign chairman at the time. Although he was depart the campaign soon after following press reports of his Ukraine links, Gates stuck around, including through the Trump transition.

Trump-Russia investigation: who has been charged in the Mueller probe

Then there’s young Papadopoulus who plead guilty to lying to investigators about a meeting with a professor in Italy in April 2016 who told him the Russians had emails to share that might be damaging to Clinton. True, he was only a volunteer on the Trump campaign and seemingly that meeting that Trump also attended was seemingly a one-off. But over the succeeding months, he repeatedly attempted to persuade the campaign it should follow the Russia trail. He even attempted to flog the notion of a “historic” meeting between Trump and Vladimir Putin.

His surfacing will have obliterated any sense of relief the White House may have felt when the story was at first only about Manafort and Gates. (They had been deeply afraid that the promised indictments might have targeted former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.) It is a signal from Mueller he has no intention of skirting clear of the campaign itself. It also shows what many had long expected: that Mueller means to to flip participants, however small-fry, so they will help bring bigger fish to justice. Assuming there are any, of course.

However minor his role, the Papadopoulos factor is important because it tells us that the Trump campaign was aware of Russia’s interest in subverting the election as early as April 2016. And it was aware well before Manafort, Donald Trump Jr and Jared Kushner attended a meeting in Trump Tower in June 2016 with a lawyer with Kremlin connections.

What is missing still is any clarity about whether anyone in the Trump campaign actually conspired to take delivery and make use of whatever Russia was offering and, more importantly, whether they gave any encouragement to Moscow. Papadopoulos may have attempted collusion with Russia, but does that mean the campaign did? And if so, who on the campaign did?

So we still have far to go. And so does Mueller. If you believe this affair might be wound up by Christmas, you have spent too much time listening to Sanders. Out on $10m bail, Manafort now faces a trial that is unlikely to get under way for at least year - maybe just in time for next November’s mid-term elections. Unless he switches his plea and decides to cooperate with the government. That might speed things up. The White House should be careful what it wishes for.

And so Trump must forge on, trying to look like a successful president with Mueller settling round his neck like a poisoned ermine shawl. He must wear it on his trip to Asia that starts on Friday. And it will be there as as he tries to chivvy Congress to passing his promised tax overhaul. Sanders can be as breezy as she likes, but the bouts of nausea won’t let up soon

Collapse at North Korea nuclear test site 'leaves 200 dead' - Telegraph

Collapse at North Korea nuclear test site 'leaves 200 dead'

Our Foreign Staff

31 OCTOBER 2017 • 10:09AM

As many as 200 North Korean labourers have been killed after a mine shaft being dug at the regime's nuclear test site collapsed, according to Japan's Asahi TV.

Sources in North Korea told the news channel that a tunnel being excavated by around 100 workers at the Punggye-ri test site collapsed earlier this month.

An additional 100 labourers sent to rescue their colleagues were reportedly killed when the tunnel suffered a second collapse.

An exact date for the disaster has not been provided, but it comes shortly after North Korea conducted its sixth - and most powerful - underground nuclear test at the site.

North Korea claims the September 3 test beneath Mount Mantap was of a hydrogen bomb, with monitors suggesting the detonation was equivalent to an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.1 on the Richter scale.

Some analysts put the yield of the weapon as high as 280 kilotons, while seismologists picked up signs of underground collapses in the hours and days after the blast.

A man watches a TV news program reporting North Korea's nuclear test at Seoul Railway Station in September 2017

A man watches a TV news program reporting North Korea's nuclear test at Seoul Railway Station in September 2017

Satellite images of the Punngye-ri site taken immediately after the test revealed significant damage to surface features, including landslips.

On October 17, a study published by the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University and published on the 38 North web site suggested the sixth underground test at the site had caused "substantial damage to the existing tunnel network under Mount Mantap".

It added that there is a possibility that the site is suffering "Tired mountain syndrome", although there were no indications that it was being abandoned for future nuclear tests.

Nam Jae-chol, the head of South Korea's Meteorological Administration, warned in testimony before parliament on Monday that further tests at Punggye-ri could cause the mountain to collapse and release radioactivity into the environment.

"Based on our analysis of satellite imagery, we judge that there is a hollow space, which measures about 60 metres by 100 metres beneath Mount Matap", he said. "Should another nuclear test take place, there is a possibility [of a collapse]".

Chinese scientists have issued similar warnings, suggesting that nuclear fallout could spread across "an entire hemisphere" if the mountain did collapse.

Catalan separatists are seeking refuge in Belgium — causing an awkward rift between EU nations - CNBC News

Catalan separatists are seeking refuge in Belgium — causing an awkward rift between EU nations

Catalonia's leaders are reportedly seeking safety in Brussels as they face criminal charges for spearheading the region's independence movement, throwing up a potentially awkward situation between Belgium, the EU and Spain.

Deposed Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont and several members of his pro-independence administration traveled to Brussels in Belgium on Monday.

Puigdemont has hired a lawyer, fueling speculation that they will try to seek asylum there in order to avoid possible prison sentences for trying to secede from Spain.

People hold signs reading 'No to the impunity of coup plotters' and '(Catalan regional president Carles) Puigdemont to prison' while waving Spanish flags during a demonstration calling for unity at Plaza de Colon in Madrid on October 28, 2017

Catalonia's leaders are reportedly seeking safety in Brussels as they face criminal charges for spearheading the region's independence movement, throwing up a potentially awkward situation between Belgium, the EU and Spain.

Deposed Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont and several members of his pro-independence administration travelled to Brussels in Belgium on Monday and hired a lawyer, fueling speculation that they will try to seek asylum there in order to avoid possible prison sentences for trying to secede from Spain.

Belgian lawyer Paul Bekaert confirmed he has taken on Puigdemont as a client, according to Reuters, but didn't comment on whether he is working on an asylum claim in Belgium. Puigdemont is expected to make a public appearance in Brussels on Tuesday. Paul Bekaert was not immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC.

Puigdemont's self-imposed exile came after Spain's chief prosecutor on Monday called for charges of rebellion, sedition and embezzlement to be leveled against the Catalan leader, his deputies and other Catalan officials. The charge of rebellion alone carries a maximum prison sentence of 30 years.

Jose Ramon García-Hernández, secretary of international relations in Spain's ruling Partido Popular (PP), told CNBC Tuesday that he had no confirmation whether Puigdemont was in Brussels but said it would be very strange if Belgium granted the Catalan politician asylum.

"The law is the law and to concede asylum for any government inside the EU you have to fulfil criteria and there is a protocol that is linked to Lisbon Treaty and it will be very, very strange for him to get asylum there," he said.

"Spain is a modern democracy, you see the rest of the pro-independence politicians are back in Catalonia and we never prosecute anyone for their political ideas, it's because they are outside the law," he added, insisting that Madrid had no control over how and whether judges would proceed with charges against the Catalan secessionists.

"The government doesn't have a say regarding justice," he said.

At the weekend, Belgium's migration minister suggested Puigdemont could seek asylum in the country and Puigdemont is believed to have travelled to Brussels on Monday when Spain took control of the region's governmental institutions.

The constitutional crisis between Spain and Catalonia came to a head Friday after the pro-independence Catalan government declared independence. Spain promptly responded by imposing direct rule on the wealthy northeastern region, sacking the Catalan government and calling for snap elections on December 21.

Desperate measures

Puigdemont's presence in Brussels could potentially jeopardize diplomatic relations between Spain and Belgium and put the country at odds with its EU counterparts who have all expressed support for the government in Madrid.

Puigdemont was effectively offered asylum in Belgium by the country's migration minister, Theo Francken, who said at the weekend that his asylum application was "not unrealistic" and questioned whether Puigdemont would have a fair trial in Spain.

Francken's comments provoked a furious response from Madrid.

Esteban Gonzalez Pons, a spokesman for the Partido Popular, said the comments by Belgian's migration minister were "unacceptable."

"Without having any reason or powers to do so, and ahead of any event, Francken is allowed to assess a possible trial Puigdemont making serious accusations to the Spanish judicial system, the work of Spanish judges, and the rule of law in Spain," Gonzalez Pons said on Sunday.

"This is an unacceptable attack by a member of the Belgian Government to another state of the EU such as Spain, which I hope will be corrected immediately," he added.

Meanwhile, Belgium's Prime Minister Charles Michel appeared to counter Francken's comments, however, saying Sunday that an asylum request was "absolutely not on the agenda" and asking his colleague "not to fan the flames" with regards to the crisis between Spain and Catalonia.

'Impeccable reaction from the EU institutions'

Brussels is effectively the European Union's capital with many of its government institutions there and the EU has shown unequivocal support for Madrid and Spanish unity, thus making Puigdemont's potential asylum in Belgium problematic.

Spain's ruling conservatives met in Madrid on Monday and one official from Prime Minister Marian Rajoy's Partido Popular (PP) said that Puigdemont's trip to Brussels was proof of the ousted leader's "desperation."

"Him going to Brussels, the headquarters of the European institutions, where one of the great values of the EU is the defense of the rule of law, the defense of legality, of constitutional values, it's a contradiction in itself," Fernando Martinez Maillo told reporters.

Need to restore legal certainty in Catalonia, Spain's Toledo says Need to restore legal certainty in Catalonia, Spain's EU affairs minister says

"He'd rather have stayed home. Sincerely, it's a folly thing to do. And it's a sign of desperation, hopelessness. Apart from that, well, one can always find solace in whatever one wants, but the unanimous position of all countries in the EU … is the defense and the support of the Spanish constitution and the measures (taken) by the Spanish government," he said.

Jorge Toledo Albinana, the EU affairs minister of Spain, told CNBC Monday that Spain was happy with the EU's reaction so far. "We have got an immaculate, impeccable reaction from the EU institutions. And we are very happy. But we expected that," he said.

Additional reporting by CNBC's Willem Marx

With the indictment of Paul Manafort, Donald Trump is done - Washington Post

With the indictment of Paul Manafort, Donald Trump is done

He couldn't get elected dogcatcher in New York, his hometown

Garrison Keillor

When his old campaign manager was indicted Monday, Mr Trump called me on the phone, crying like a baby, and begged me to endorse him. I said, “You're already President, Mr President. You were elected.” He said, “I'd still like your endorsement.” I have a recording of the phone call. It's so sad. Donald Trump is done. He couldn't get elected dogcatcher in New York, his hometown. I was very very nice about it. Very nice. But New Yorkers love dogs and he does not. There are 14 recorded instances of him kicking small dogs, and I have documentary proof of all but two of them.

Plus many other instances of him running around grabbing women's cats. Knocked on the door, grabbed the cat, walked away. Just to show that a famous rich guy could get away with it. Where is the apology? No, the man couldn't even get a job as a school crossing guard in New York. Look at him leading his grandchildren toward the helicopter - thank God there's a Marine there to keep them from walking into the rotor.

He's very wary of children, afraid they'll pull off the wig. It's from La Bouffant on 8th & 45th, 3rd floor. Horsehair. Palomino filly. I have receipts.

Mueller indicts three members of Trump's campaign in day of rare drama

Trump shot a man on Fifth Avenue last year just to see if he could get away with it and he did. His base said, “Well, some people just need to be shot, that's all. As a warning to the others.” Why is he so hung up on virility? Because the Army rejected him on account of bone spurs that you get from wearing high heels. Everybody knows that.

Just look at how he salutes the Marine honour guard - TOTAL DISASTER - it's not a salute, it's a little yoo-hoo. Uniforms are a huge turn-on for him. And when he salutes the flag, he doesn't even look at it. Total disrespect for the flag. And the salute is very weak in the wrists. Know why there's ABSOLUTELY NO video of him hitting a golf ball? Because (pardon me for being politically incorrect) he swings like a girl. And when he slices it into the parking lot, he tees up another ball. Mr Mulligan. Mr Multi-Mulligan.

He sits at that ridiculous little desk in the Oval Office and signs a presidential proclamation as if he's Kim Jong-un or something and he holds it up like a kid holding up his school project that his mama wrote for him. The man can barely read, that's why he hates TelePrompter. Total lightweight.

He is NOT A NICE PERSON and so the name Trump is as popular as herpes these days. Trumpet players have taken up the cornet. Card players refer to the lead suit as the jump suit. Tramps prefer to be called hoboes, town dumps are now refuse heaps, and girls named Dawn are becoming Cheryls. To residents of his crummy building on Fifth Avenue, it's now known as Chump Tower because it's caused so much grief and tragedy for people. It wasn't constructed - it was fabricated. FABRICATED. Plywood modules shipped down from Canada and installed by minimum-wage temps from Hoboken. I can prove this. I have documentation. The wind whistles through the tower at night, roaches the size of rats. Ask anybody.

People who voted for him are humiliated. So his ratings have tanked. The same people who admire him tend to drive Dodge Darts and wear sweatshirts from schools they didn't attend. Nobody stays in his hotels except foreign CEOs and their tootsies. He is weak. Weak on #s, weak on 1st Amendment, worst President in history. Failed @ real estate and now @ politics. His record = BAD. First President in my lifetime who DOES NOT KNOW the words to “The Star-Spangled Banner.” The lips are not even moving....

He quit holding rallies in stadiums because nobody wants to go hear a loser brag about his manliness for an hour, you can hear that in any barroom. Only places he can draw a crowd are rural areas where billboards are riddled with bullet holes, shot by men angry because they can't read. He is so over. Totally irrelevant, exhausted, flamed out. The sleepytime eyes and la-di-da hair and the tweet-tweet-tweet say it all. Real men don't tweet. Ask anybody. We bark, we protest, we thunder, condemn, denounce, we give 'em hell, sometimes we post. Wimps tweet. And now the perps are going to start walking and talking. And the fat lady is waiting in the wings.

The Washington Post