April 28, 2018

THE lEFT IS THE rIGHT:

JILL STEIN DEFIES SENATE INTELLIGENCE DOCUMENT REQUEST, CALLING IT "OVERBROAD" AND UNCONSTITUTIONAL (Zaid Jilani, April 26 2018, the Intercept)


THE JILL STEIN campaign is refusing to comply fully with a Senate intelligence committee request for documents and other correspondence, made as part of the committee's probe into Russian activities in the 2016 election, according to a letter to be delivered Thursday to the panel by an attorney for the campaign. [...]

Stein, who was also the party's presidential nominee in 2012, traveled to Russia in 2015 and attended a dinner marking the 10th anniversary of the Russian-backed news service RT. Russian President Vladmir Putin made an appearance at the event.

The committee also asked for communications related to any trips to Russia, including any discussion with Russian government officials, and the Stein campaign is willing to provide those.

The request also calls for "all communications with Russian persons, or representatives of Russian government, media, or business interests, including but not limited to any communications, discussions, or offers related to opposition research, from February 6, 2015 to the present."

Stein's campaign told The Intercept that they have already provided to the committee all communications with people affiliated with the Russian government and Russian media, but not with all people of Russian descent.

In the view of the Stein campaign, this is a request that unfairly puts all people of Russian descent under suspicion.




MORE:
The Photo That May Help Unlock the Trump-Russia Scandal: Congressional investigators say Trump's former national security adviser lied about being paid to dine with Putin. (DAVE GILSONMAY. 23, 2017, Mother Jones)

Vladimir Putin's guests that night included Flynn and future Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein--an odd couple who reflected the Russian president's efforts to court fringe figures on both the right and the left and otherwise meddle in US politics. (Also at the table were Putin's spokesman, chief of staff, and deputy chief of staff.)

Stein said the soiree was "a great opportunity to lay out some of my foreign policy proposals and get Russian reactions to them." Flynn, who commanded a $45,000 fee to speak at the event, said he didn't ask to be seated next to Putin. "I found it a great learning opportunity," he told the Washington Post.

According to Cummings' letter, Flynn told security investigators that "I didn't take any money from Russia" in connection with the event. Yet Cummings wrote that his committee has documents showing how the $45,000 payment was transferred from RT to Flynn's lobbying firm, as well as an email in which an RT official states, "We will be covering the payment of General Flynn's fee."

Posted by at April 28, 2018 6:45 AM

  

« ONLY DONALD CAN SLOW THE BOOM HE INHERITED FROM THE UR: | Main | IT'S A THRESHOLD ERROR: »