Donald Trump Presidency-Day One

[Stavros]

This week's crisis:
The White House has insisted that reports about Donald Trump's meeting with the Russian foreign minister and ambassador are false - but has not denied he leaked classified information.

According to the Washington Post, Mr Trump revealed highly classified information about Isis to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during a White House meeting last week.
In a brief appearance outside the White House, HR McMaster, the President's national security advisor, said “the story that came out tonight, as reported, is false."

But the article concludes:
However, the Washington Post did not report that Mr Trump disclosed sources and intelligence-gathering methods. Instead, the article explained that Mr Trump revealed classified information from which sources and methods could be inferred. Conspicuously, none of of the President's spokespeople denied he had leaked classified information.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/wo...-a7737786.html

And the killer line from another article -
US law permits the president to de-classify information at his or her own discretion
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/wo...-a7737781.html

[broncofan]

https://www.lawfareblog.com/bombshel...changing-story

This article does a nice job of summarizing the implications of the leak to the Lavrov and Kislyak. The important aspects of this story are that it is code word information, which includes the most protected of state secrets, that he revealed that ISIS planned attacks in the U.S. and how we plan to thwart them, and most significantly the city that our source is from. The city our source is from could get that person killed.

Finally, the information we received was pursuant to an intelligence sharing agreement with another state, the identity of which the post is not reporting on, but the other state did not give us permission to share this intelligence with Russia.

It's hard for someone not familiar with this kind of protected information (myself) to know how significant this leak was but one can judge from everyone's reactions. Even Republicans are showing extreme concern which gives us some sense of how serious the matter is since they have not responded to previous scandals.

Stavros, this is also the information I am hearing, which is that Mcmaster's statement was a carefully worded non-denial. He denied that Trump revealed sources and methods but not information that could reveal those. As you indicate, the President's ability to de-classify info is being used as a defense of the legality of his actions but it doesn't wash since he didn't have a reason to de-classify. Nor does the strict legality of his actions protect him against the claim that he has violated the oath of his office.

[broncofan]

And the killer line from another article -
US law permits the president to de-classify information at his or her own discretion
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/wo...-a7737781.html

What's especially comical about this defense is that it is effective even if you don't know you're de-classifying state secrets in the form of a boast. According to national security lawyers, if any other person had revealed this information to a non-ally state they would be facing a long jail sentence, but since the President can use his discretion and wisdom to de-classify, his actions did not violate a statute (again, the President's obligations extend beyond not violating statutes). The information he shared is apparently not even known to our allies.

[Stavros]

Call it irony or a paradox, but the one person who doesn't need security clearance before having access to raw intel is the President of the USA. If they had to have security clearance, how would multiple bankruptcies and associations with figures who have been in and out of gaol get past the vetting process when running for the the White House -and would Hillary Clinton not have been challenged on that damn email server?
This was published online last July=
https://news.clearancejobs.com/2016/...president-get/

Yet again we are faced with the simple fact that this President doesn't know how to do the job, and his infantile need to brag to people about his inside knowledge and receive praise and adulation in return. If it is the case that Mossad was the source of the intel, this raises questions which many would not like to answer. Mossad has close connections to one Arab monarchy, no prizes for guessing which one not least because it has been bankrolled by the Americans since some time around 1958, and Mossad has been a covert partner of intelligence with Saudi Arabia, and in the war between that revolting Kingdom and Egypt in the Yemen in the 1960s US supplies of arms to the Kingdom were shipped through Israel to the Gulf of Aqaba and on to the Yemen to avoid the Suez Canal.

More worrying is that the Russians could share this intelligence with both the Syrian and the Turkish government, the latter deeply concerned at the thousands of US troops embedded with the Kurds in northern Syria. The opportunity for someone to make mischief out of the President's blunder is very real, and one hopes that people are not killed as a result.
And while Russia is the achilles heel of the Commandante, the Middle East, as usual, beckons all to its graveyards, and there are plenty of them, official and unofficial.

[broncofan]

https://takecareblog.com/blog/a-few-...pecial-counsel

So Rosenstein appointed Special Counsel. The appointee is Robert Mueller, former FBI director who at first glance seems to be well respected. This article discusses his remit, and how he is expected to carry out his duties. He can be fired by Rosenstein for cause, and Rosenstein can be fired by Trump and replaced with someone more willing to fire the special prosecutor but we'll have to see whether Trump would dare. I mean he would dare, but we'll see how this plays.

[broncofan]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...=.e7cf211c0a80

Kushner tried to set up a secret communications channel with the Russians in December during the transition. This information came to light through intercepts of Kislyak reporting this revelation to his superiors. According to the Post it's possible though unlikely that Kislyak revealed misinformation knowing he was being listened to.

Apparently Jared wanted to be able to use secure Russian facilities to communicate. This is the most eye-opening information I've seen in a while. What possible legitimate purpose would Jared have of setting up a secret line of communication between the administration and the Russian government, even going so far as to request access to Russian communications gear at its embassy?

I'm not going to speculate any further about this, but it's a very good starting point.

Edit: I like some of the quotes from intelligence officials in this article http://www.businessinsider.com/jared...a-trump-2017-5

[broncofan]

I didn't have the perspective of seeing the response to this revelation, but is this the end of the line for Jared? His security clearance would have to be revoked if they can confirm this information, right?

[trish]

Hell, I think Donald's security clearance should be revoked!

[Stavros]

Kushner tried to set up a secret communications channel with the Russians in December during the transition. This information came to light through intercepts of Kislyak reporting this revelation to his superiors. According to the Post it's possible though unlikely that Kislyak revealed misinformation knowing he was being listened to.
Apparently Jared wanted to be able to use secure Russian facilities to communicate. This is the most eye-opening information I've seen in a while. What possible legitimate purpose would Jared have of setting up a secret line of communication between the administration and the Russian government, even going so far as to request access to Russian communications gear at its embassy?
I'm not going to speculate any further about this, but it's a very good starting point.
Edit: I like some of the quotes from intelligence officials in this article

Broncofan, ask yourself the one most obvious question: Why Russia? It is not an enquiry into secret channels of communication with Suriname, or Cyprus, or Scotland. An answer to the question is also obvious:money, how to get it, and where to get it from, particularly if you boast about being rich after being made bankrupt as the presenter of the US version of The Apprentice tv programme has done. Or you could search for information on names such as Paul Manafort, and Felix Sater. In the case of the latter, you may get a taste of the criminal elements that directly or indirectly link the President and his son-in-law to organized crime in the US and Russia, with a still obscure roster of tenants in the Soho Tower where it is alleged apartments may have been purchased as part of a money-laundering operation based in Kazakhstan. I don't know if Jared Kushner is squeaky clean, his father was not, but it may just be that he sees himself as a powerful man who needs to protect the President and Father-in-Law as well as their investments in a wide range of countries where democracy is neither a thing of the past nor probably the future. Curiously, John Boehner has pointed out that Impeachment is a political, not a legal act, and we have yet to see the full FBI allegations to get to the 'what did he know, and when did he know it' phase, whereupon we will probably be told the President had no idea any of these things were going on....not even for a control freak who spies of on his own employees...again and again one asks the other question --why did the Republican Party allow this man to run for office on their ticket when they could have done due diligence and told him to go far, far away?

Our investigation also may explain why the FBI, which was very public about its probe of Hillary Clinton’s emails, never disclosed its investigation of the Trump campaign prior to the election, even though we now know that it commenced last July.

Such publicity could have exposed a high-value, long-running FBI operation against an organized crime network headquartered in the former Soviet Union. That operation depended on a convicted criminal who for years was closely connected with Trump, working with him in Trump Tower — while constantly informing for the FBI and the Department of Justice (DOJ), and being legally protected by them.

Some federal officials were so involved in protecting this source — despite his massive fraud and deep connections to organized crime — that they became his defense counsel after they left the government.
https://whowhatwhy.org/2017/03/27/fb...-trump-russia/


http://www.salon.com/2017/04/23/trum...e-white-house/

http://www.nationalmemo.com/felix-sa...uclear-plants/

[broncofan]

Broncofan, ask yourself the one most obvious question: Why Russia?. I don't know if Jared Kushner is squeaky clean, his father was not, but it may just be that he sees himself as a powerful man who needs to protect the President and Father-in-Law as well as their investments in a wide range of countries where democracy is neither a thing of the past nor probably the future.

http://nymag.com/nymag/features/57891/index1.html

Thank you for those links. Very useful to know what kind of people Trump works with. I'm including a link that I think provides a bit of insight on Kushner. Though written back in 2009, it's the best description of Jared I've seen for anyone curious.

It's a well-written article in that its aim is not singularly to make one dislike Charlie Kushner or Jared, but that is the inevitable result of learning more about them, including their family feuds, their sense of entitlement, their vanity, and audacity. It's a long article but if you get to the end, I think it's important to look back to Jared's initial reaction to his father being sent away. We all have blind spots when it comes to family, but if this is your response to the sequence of events described herein, something is very wrong. I like looking back at this quote at the end, because it is such a delusional response to the abusive way Charlie treated his siblings and the blackmail of his brother in law which was really designed to destroy his sister's marriage.

And, the crimes notwithstanding, he sees his father as a victim. “His siblings stole every piece of paper from his office, and they took it to the government,” Jared maintained. “Siblings that he literally made wealthy for doing nothing. He gave them interests in the business for nothing. All he did was put the tape together and send it. Was it the right thing to do? At the end of the day, it was a function of saying ‘You’re trying to make my life miserable? Well, I’m doing the same.’ ” (Charlie’s brother Murray and sister Esther wouldn’t return calls.)

The article also does a good job of describing Jared's strengths and weaknesses as a businessman. The purchase of the Observer, though probably a vanity purchase, may have been smart in that it got him access to powerful circles but his purchase of 666 is an albatross. He overpaid by hundreds of millions of dollars. His admission to both Harvard and NYU law were based on corruption which is described here. It's depressingly common but given how hard other students work to get accepted to those schools, despicable.

In the end, I get the sense that Jared is not that different from his father in law Donald Trump, except without the bombast. He's vindictive, not as bright as he thinks he is, doesn't mind taking on projects he's not qualified for (look at how he treated seasoned media ppl at the observer), and unbelievably vain. Maybe the financial travails of Trump and Kushner, their similar vanity and tolerance for dealing with underworld types led them to the same place.