2017-18 National Average Starting Teacher Salary: $39,249 (click here)
A bachelor prepared teacher needs an apartment/home, a car, clothes, insurances of several kinds, school supplies for their students and their student loan. All that out of less than $40,000 per year.
No candidate of any party is allowed to live in denial of this problem.
May 4, 2018
By David Carrig
...The combination of rising college costs (click here) and a starting salary that is lower-than-average for college graduates can put new teachers in a financial bind.
Grissom, 48, graduated from Metropolitan State College of Denver with a bachelor's degree in history and education in 1996 with about $60,000 in student loan debt and became a teacher with a starting salary of around $25,000.
Her monthly loan payment was $400 a month and she says at times it was a struggle to pay her rent. She has often had to work a second job to help pay her bills, including as a restaurant hostess and at greeting card store Papyrus in Denver’s Cherry Creek Mall....
There isn't a chance they could have gotten into the high paying jobs because the Ivy-League seats were all taken by the wealthy. They are working for a living and working at a job they wanted.
It wasn't their fault that every time limits on student loans and grants went up to provide a better quality of life to students while in school, that the colleges and universities sucked up that increase in the next tuition bill. And why the increases? To build more buildings with the wealthies name on them for donating about $2 million for the privilege. That $2 million didn't even touch the cost of the paint.
The higher education of our students has been corrupt for a long time. That is not even addressing the "Loans leading to nowhere" by private schools. This isn't their fault and it is time morality and the dignity of our democracy address their brain trust.
Tuesday, July 30, 2019
By Janet Golden
Happy 54th birthday, (click here) Medicare and Medicaid. What has happened to you since President Lyndon Johnson signed both into law on July 30, 1965? You’ve grown! Today, 44 million Americans, approximately 15% of the population, are on Medicare (including yours truly). An even larger share of the population, 20%, amounting to about 75 million people, is in the Medicaid program....
...Until the enactment of Medicare, the elderly were denied coverage by health insurers. Folks too old to work or lacking coverage from employers often found the costs of care out of reach. Medical expenses pushed other people into poverty or forced them to forgo necessities like food or heat in order to see a doctor or get hospital care. With the federal government paying some of the bill, Medicare, along with Social Security, lifted millions of our senior citizens out of poverty. Some facts are here.
If I understand the "Medicare for All" by some of the candidates, the change to this plan will happen gradually over time. THAT HAS BEEN THE WAY OF MEDICAID SINCE ITS INCEPTION. THIS IS NOT NEW. Americans need health care and they need the American Dream. How do you provide them both?
Medicaid has expanded enormously since its founding and is now comprised of numerous programs with different eligibility rules. The programs have had an undeniable impact on the young, decreasing infant and child mortality and improving long-term health. Some facts are here. The American Medical Association (AMA), once a staunch opponent of both Medicare and Medicaid, also grew up in the past decades and changed its tune. The AMA now supports the idea, proven by numerous studies, that better coverage equals better health. The organization now argues that any new legislation should not result in people losing health coverage and that Medicaid needs to be strengthened....
There are already many hospital closings. This a trend that has been going on for the past 20 years.
Twenty years ago, it was hospitals in the city that were closing, too. The "health care system" rather than hospitals took over healthcare promising to reduce health care costs. The only thing it did was to shrink the costs to CORPORATIONS and remove services to Americans.
March 20, 2019
By Avla Ellison
Of the 27 states (click here) that have seen at least one rural hospital close since 2010, those with the most closures are located in the South, according to research from the North Carolina Rural Health Research Program.
March 20, 2019
By Avla Ellison
Of the 27 states (click here) that have seen at least one rural hospital close since 2010, those with the most closures are located in the South, according to research from the North Carolina Rural Health Research Program.
Seventeen hospitals in Texas have closed since 2010, the most of any state. Tennessee has seen the second-most closures, with 10 hospitals closing since 2010. In third place is Georgia with seven closures.
Listed below are the 102 rural hospitals that closed between Jan. 1, 2010, and March 19, 2019, as tracked by the North Carolina Rural Health Research Program. For the purposes of its analysis, the NC RHRP defined a hospital closure as the cessation in the provision of inpatient services.
"We follow the convention of the Office of Inspector General that a closed hospital is 'a facility that stopped providing general, short-term, acute inpatient care," reads a statement on the North Carolina Rural Health Research Program's website. "We did not consider a hospital closed if it: merged with, or was sold to, another hospital but the physical plant continued to provide inpatient acute care, converted to critical access status, or both closed and reopened during the same calendar year and at the same physical location."
As of March 19, all the facilities listed below had stopped providing inpatient care. However, some of them still offered other services, including outpatient care, emergency care, urgent care or primary care....
We have been here before, but, not because capitalism took over healthcare for profit, but, because Americans needed health care in their communities. We solved the problem then, we can do it again. We need to rebuild hospitals.
When I was a kid, the Rescue Squad was a group of volunteers that were well trained and saved lives. They ran fundraising campaigns when most of the people gainfully employed were union members and had the money to provide donations to their community RESCUE SQUAD in state of the art ambulances. They took donations, they didn't send bills.
They were well-respected members of the community. The people worked 40 hour per week jobs with free time on their hands to live a life that was fulfilling. They were a force in their communities and cared for the health of their community because it was there to be done. No one was a stranger.
In 1946, (click here) Congress passed a law that gave hospitals, nursing homes and other health facilities grants and loans for construction and modernization. In return, they agreed to provide a reasonable volume of services to people unable to pay and to make their services available to all persons residing in the facility’s area.
We have been here before, but, not because capitalism took over healthcare for profit, but, because Americans needed health care in their communities. We solved the problem then, we can do it again. We need to rebuild hospitals.
When I was a kid, the Rescue Squad was a group of volunteers that were well trained and saved lives. They ran fundraising campaigns when most of the people gainfully employed were union members and had the money to provide donations to their community RESCUE SQUAD in state of the art ambulances. They took donations, they didn't send bills.
They were well-respected members of the community. The people worked 40 hour per week jobs with free time on their hands to live a life that was fulfilling. They were a force in their communities and cared for the health of their community because it was there to be done. No one was a stranger.
In 1946, (click here) Congress passed a law that gave hospitals, nursing homes and other health facilities grants and loans for construction and modernization. In return, they agreed to provide a reasonable volume of services to people unable to pay and to make their services available to all persons residing in the facility’s area.
The program stopped providing funds in 1997, but about 140 health care facilities nationwide are still obligated to provide free or reduced-cost care.
Since 1980, more than $6 billion in uncompensated services have been provided to eligible patients through Hill-Burton....
Continued from previous entry
The CNI is a very qualified organization that can effectively comment on the years past in foreign policy of the USA. I think there is a real problem with Trump, Kushner and the Trump family that advises the president in that they are operating under old world ideas and opinion. I think the CNI is a very valuable organization, however, it has it's limits. They don't impress me as an organization that actively seeks information that changes their ideas of US and Russia relations.
Here is why I see it this way, an old world assessment, brilliant as it might be, is applying it to the new circumstances.
February 4, 2016
By Henry A Kissinger
From 2007 into 2009, (click here) Evgeny Primakov (click here) and I chaired a group composed of retired senior ministers, high officials and military leaders from Russia and the United States, including some of you present here today. Its purpose was to ease the adversarial aspects of the U.S.-Russian relationship and to consider opportunities for cooperative approaches. In America, it was described as a Track II group, which meant it was bipartisan and encouraged by the White House to explore but not negotiate on its behalf. We alternated meetings in each other’s country. President Putin received the group in Moscow in 2007, and President Medvedev in 2009. In 2008, President George W. Bush assembled most of his National Security team in the Cabinet Room for a dialogue with our guests....
...In this way, paradoxically, we find ourselves confronting anew an essentially philosophical problem. How does the United States work together with Russia, a country which does not share all its values but is an indispensable component of the international order? How does Russia exercise its security interests without raising alarms around its periphery and accumulating adversaries? Can Russia gain a respected place in global affairs with which the United States is comfortable? Can the United States pursue its values without being perceived as threatening to impose them? I will not attempt to propose answers to all these questions. My purpose is to encourage an effort to explore them....
Kissinger goes on to discuss military confrontation and other aspects of the world order, It is my understanding that this is one of Trump's many secrets. He has taken the information and clout that can be discerned from CNI and believes he is as much an expert as Kissinger or better than Kissinger.
...Ukraine needs to be embedded in the structure of European and international security architecture in such a way that it serves as a bridge between Russia and the West, rather than as an outpost of either side....
Kissinger is not recognizing Minsk I and Minsk II of which both Putin has abandoned in any kind of working trust between the two countries. There have been calls for Russia to return to Minsk, but, Putin has not made that attempt. There is every reason to believe he won't.
I think it is unfortunate Trump in his campaign went this route and maintains it in his presidency. In the year 2019, it is full of pitfalls. Who sent the Trump campaign to this organization? That is what I want to know.
b. National Interest Hosts a Foreign Policy Speech at the Mayflower Hotel
During both their March 24 phone call and their March 31 in-person meeting, Simes and Kushner discussed the possibility of CNI hosting a foreign policy speech by candidate Trump.611 Following those conversations, Simes agreed that he and others associated with CNI would provide behind-the-scenes input on the substance of the foreign-policy speech and that CNI officials would coordinate the logistics of the speech with Sessions and his staff, including Sessions' chief of staff, Rick Dearborn.612
Rick Dearborn, (click here) seated on the couch with his left hand raised, will serve as Deputy Chief of Staff in President-elect Donald Trump’s White House.
For the past thirty years (click here) Rick Dearborn has served two U.S. Presidents, six U.S. Senators, a premier think tank and a major trade association on Capitol Hill.
From January of 2017 until mid-March of 2018, Mr. Dearborn served The President of the United States as his Deputy Chief of Staff. Mr. Dearborn was responsible for the day-to-day operations of ~100 staff in five separate Executive Office of the President (EOP) departments
Three days after the 2016 election, President-Elect Trump tapped Vice President-elect Mike Pence to serve as Chairman of the Presidential Transition Team and asked Mr. Dearborn to serve as the Executive Director. Daily responsibility included the direction and management of the core components of the Transition Team’s 600+ members....
November 16, 2018
Washington, D.C.— Rick A. Dearborn, (click here) former White House deputy chief of staff to President Donald Trump, is joining The Heritage Foundation as a distinguished visiting fellow whose scholarship will focus on the issue of federalism.
Dearborn’s research will involve developing solutions for the return of power back to the state and local level consistent with the 10th Amendment. He’ll also serve as a counselor to Heritage on educating Executive Branch officials on public policy matters....
February 13, 2019
By Alex Gangitano
Rick Dearborn, (click here) President Trump’s former deputy chief of staff, is launching the Pass USMCA Coalition to advocate for Trump’s trade agreement with Mexico and Canada.
The group includes former Gov. Gary Locke (D-Wash.) as an honorary co-chair. It plans to create a membership of trade associations, businesses and advocacy groups to promote a swift passage of the deal....
...In mid-April 2016, Kushner put Simes in contact with senior policy advisor Stephen Miller
and forwarded to Simes an outline of the foreign-policy speech that Miller had prepared.
613 Simes
sent back to the Campaign bullet points with ideas for the speech that he had drafted with CNI Executive Director Paul Saunders (click here)...
Paul J. Saunders is Chairman and President of Energy Innovation Reform Project and a Senior Fellow in U.S. Foreign Policy at the Center for the National Interest. His current work focuses on U.S.-Russia relations,..
Russia, again.
and board member Richard Burt.614
October 23, 2018
By Jacob Heilbrunn
On Tuesday, (click here) National Interest Editor Jacob Heilbrunn interviewed Richard Burt to discuss the impact of the Trump administration’s declaration that it intends to withdraw from the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. Burt, who is a partner at McLarty Associates and chairman of the National Interest’s Advisory Council, has enjoyed a distinguished diplomatic career. During the Reagan administration he served as Assistant Secretary of State for European and Canadian Affairs before becoming U.S. Ambassador to Germany in 1985. He has been intimately involved with arms-control issues throughout his career; in 1989, President George H.W. Bush appointed him chief negotiator for the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty between the U.S. and Soviet Union. The Trump administration’s decision to withdraw from the INF Treaty, which national security adviser John Bolton reiterated today during a visit to Moscow, is evoking fears of a recrudescence of the nuclear arms-race that characterized the cold war, when each superpower vied for nuclear superiority over the other and created fears of the annihilation of mankind. So what are the actual implications of Trump’s audacious move? Burt offers a sweeping assessment below....
Jacob Heilbrunn: What is the best way to analyze President Trump’s move?
Richard Burt: I think that the way to think about this is at two different levels. One is political and the other diplomatic. The way the administration has approached this decision is simply atrocious. For a start, you don't make a significant decision like this in the aftermath of a political rally in Denver and not provide any kind of context to the public....
Trump has betrayed the very people that trusted him to make the best and right decisions.
...Simes received subsequent draft outlines from Miller, and he and Saunders spoke to Miller by phone about substantive changes to the speech.615 It is not clear, however, whether CNI officials received an actual draft of the speech for comment; while Saunders recalled having received an actual draft, Simes did not, and the emails that CNI produced to this Office do not contain such a draft.616...
Steven Miller wrote the speech. He probably drained the brains of these men and then took what he wanted, but, he wrote the speech, CNI didn't.
...After board members expressed concern to Simes that CNl's hosting the speech could be perceived as an endorsement of a particular candidate, CNI decided to have its publication, the National Interest, serve as the host and to have the event at the National Press Club.617 Kushner later requested that the event be moved to the Mayflower Hotel, which was another venue that Simes had mentioned during initial discussions with the Campaign, in order to address concerns about security and capacity.618
On April 25, 2016, Saunders booked event rooms at the Mayflower to host both the speech and a VIP reception that was to be held beforehand. 619 Saunders understood that the reception at which invitees would have the chance to meet· candidate Trump--would be a small event.620 Saunders decided who would attend by looking at the list of CNI' s invitees to the speech itself and then choosing a subset for the reception.621 CNI's invitees to the reception included Sessions and Kislyak.622 The week before the speech Simes had informed Kislyak that he would be invited to the speech, and that he would have the opportunity to meet Trump.623
When the pre-speech reception began on April 27, a receiving line was quickly organized so that attendees could meet Trump.624 Sessions first stood next to Trump to introduce him to the members of Congress who were in attendance.625 After those members had been introduced, Simes stood next to Trump and introduced him to the CNI invitees in attendance, including Kislyak.626 Simes perceived the introduction to be positive and friendly, but thought it clear that Kislyak and Trump had just met for the first time.627 Kislyak also met Kushner during the prespeech reception. The two shook hands and chatted for a minute or two, during which Kushner recalled Kislyak saying, "we like what your candidate is saying ... it's refreshing." 628
Several public reports state that, in addition to speaking to Kushner at the pre-speech reception, Kislyak also met or conversed with Sessions at that time.629 Sessions stated to investigators, however, that he did not remember any such conversation.630 Nor did anyone else affiliated with CNI or the National Interest specifically recall a conversation or meeting between Sessions and Kislyak at the pre-speech reception.631 It appears that, if a conversation occurred at the pre-speech reception, it was a brief one conducted in public view, similar to the exchange between Kushner and Kislyak.
Footnote 611 Simes 3/8/18 302, at 7.
Footnote 612 Simes 3/8/18 302, at 8-11; C00008923 (4/6/16 Email, Simes to Burt (2:22:28 p.m.)); Burt 2/9/18 302, at 7.
Footnote 613 C00008551 (4/17/16 Email, Kushner to Simes (2:44:25 p.m.)); C00006759 (4/14/16 Email Kushner to Simes & S. Miller (12:30 p.m.)).
Footnote 614 Burt 2/9/18 302, at 7; Saunders 2/15/18 302, at 7-8.
Footnote 615 Simes 3/8/18 302, at 13; Saunders 2/15/18 302, at 7-8.
Footnote 616 Simes 3/8/18 302, at 13; Saunders 2/15/18 302, at 7-8.
Footnote 617 Saunders 2/15/18 302, at 8; Simes 3/8/18 302, at 12; C00003834-43 (4/22/16 Email, Simes to Boyd et al. (8:47 a.m.)).
Footnote 618 Simes 3/8/18 302, at 12, 18; Saunders 2/15/18 302, at 11.
Footnote 619 Saunders 2/15/18 302, at 11-12; C00006651-57 (Mayflower Group Sales Agreement).
Footnote 620 Saunders 2/15/18 302, at 12-13.
Footnote 621 Saunders 2/15/18 302, at 12.
Footnote 622 C00002575 (Attendee List); C00008536 (4/25/16 Email, Simes to Kushner (4:53:45 p.m.)).
Footnote 623 Simes 3/8/18 302, at 19-20.
Footnote 624 Simes 3/8/18 302, at 21.
Footnote 625 Simes 3/8/18 302, at 21.
Footnote 626 Simes 3/8/18 302, at 21.
Footnote 627 Simes 3/8/18 302, at 21.
Footnote 628 Kushner 4/11/18 302, at 4.I
Footnote 629 See, e.g., Ken Dilanian, Did Trump, Kushner, Sessions Have an Undisclosed Meeting With Russian?, NBC News (June 1, 2016); Julia Ioffe, Why Did Jeff Sessions Really Meet With Sergey Kislyak, The Atlantic (June 13, 2017).
I
Footnote 630 Sessions 1/17/18 302, at 22.
Footnote 631 Simes 3/8/18 302, at 21; Saunders 2/15/18 302, at 14, 21; Boyd 1/24/18 302, at 3-4; Heilbrunn 2/1/18 302, at 6; Statement Regarding President Trump's April 27, 2016 Foreign Policy Speech at the Center for the National Interest, CNI (Mar. 8, 2017).
I am going to end here for today and will resume tomorrow. I find it unfortunate Trump became the RNC nominee. Evidently, everyone ever vested in the party felt a strong sense of need to avail themselves to Trump and his entourage to increase expertise and provide support for at the very least international policy. I think the CNI organization was used for whatever purpose the Trump Campaign saw fit and then discarded any loyalty to those involved.
continued in later entry - thank you
Here is why I see it this way, an old world assessment, brilliant as it might be, is applying it to the new circumstances.
February 4, 2016
By Henry A Kissinger
From 2007 into 2009, (click here) Evgeny Primakov (click here) and I chaired a group composed of retired senior ministers, high officials and military leaders from Russia and the United States, including some of you present here today. Its purpose was to ease the adversarial aspects of the U.S.-Russian relationship and to consider opportunities for cooperative approaches. In America, it was described as a Track II group, which meant it was bipartisan and encouraged by the White House to explore but not negotiate on its behalf. We alternated meetings in each other’s country. President Putin received the group in Moscow in 2007, and President Medvedev in 2009. In 2008, President George W. Bush assembled most of his National Security team in the Cabinet Room for a dialogue with our guests....
...In this way, paradoxically, we find ourselves confronting anew an essentially philosophical problem. How does the United States work together with Russia, a country which does not share all its values but is an indispensable component of the international order? How does Russia exercise its security interests without raising alarms around its periphery and accumulating adversaries? Can Russia gain a respected place in global affairs with which the United States is comfortable? Can the United States pursue its values without being perceived as threatening to impose them? I will not attempt to propose answers to all these questions. My purpose is to encourage an effort to explore them....
Kissinger goes on to discuss military confrontation and other aspects of the world order, It is my understanding that this is one of Trump's many secrets. He has taken the information and clout that can be discerned from CNI and believes he is as much an expert as Kissinger or better than Kissinger.
...Ukraine needs to be embedded in the structure of European and international security architecture in such a way that it serves as a bridge between Russia and the West, rather than as an outpost of either side....
Kissinger is not recognizing Minsk I and Minsk II of which both Putin has abandoned in any kind of working trust between the two countries. There have been calls for Russia to return to Minsk, but, Putin has not made that attempt. There is every reason to believe he won't.
I think it is unfortunate Trump in his campaign went this route and maintains it in his presidency. In the year 2019, it is full of pitfalls. Who sent the Trump campaign to this organization? That is what I want to know.
b. National Interest Hosts a Foreign Policy Speech at the Mayflower Hotel
During both their March 24 phone call and their March 31 in-person meeting, Simes and Kushner discussed the possibility of CNI hosting a foreign policy speech by candidate Trump.611 Following those conversations, Simes agreed that he and others associated with CNI would provide behind-the-scenes input on the substance of the foreign-policy speech and that CNI officials would coordinate the logistics of the speech with Sessions and his staff, including Sessions' chief of staff, Rick Dearborn.612
For the past thirty years (click here) Rick Dearborn has served two U.S. Presidents, six U.S. Senators, a premier think tank and a major trade association on Capitol Hill.
From January of 2017 until mid-March of 2018, Mr. Dearborn served The President of the United States as his Deputy Chief of Staff. Mr. Dearborn was responsible for the day-to-day operations of ~100 staff in five separate Executive Office of the President (EOP) departments
Three days after the 2016 election, President-Elect Trump tapped Vice President-elect Mike Pence to serve as Chairman of the Presidential Transition Team and asked Mr. Dearborn to serve as the Executive Director. Daily responsibility included the direction and management of the core components of the Transition Team’s 600+ members....
November 16, 2018
Washington, D.C.— Rick A. Dearborn, (click here) former White House deputy chief of staff to President Donald Trump, is joining The Heritage Foundation as a distinguished visiting fellow whose scholarship will focus on the issue of federalism.
Dearborn’s research will involve developing solutions for the return of power back to the state and local level consistent with the 10th Amendment. He’ll also serve as a counselor to Heritage on educating Executive Branch officials on public policy matters....
February 13, 2019
By Alex Gangitano
Rick Dearborn, (click here) President Trump’s former deputy chief of staff, is launching the Pass USMCA Coalition to advocate for Trump’s trade agreement with Mexico and Canada.
The group includes former Gov. Gary Locke (D-Wash.) as an honorary co-chair. It plans to create a membership of trade associations, businesses and advocacy groups to promote a swift passage of the deal....
Paul J. Saunders is Chairman and President of Energy Innovation Reform Project and a Senior Fellow in U.S. Foreign Policy at the Center for the National Interest. His current work focuses on U.S.-Russia relations,..
Russia, again.
and board member Richard Burt.614
October 23, 2018
By Jacob Heilbrunn
On Tuesday, (click here) National Interest Editor Jacob Heilbrunn interviewed Richard Burt to discuss the impact of the Trump administration’s declaration that it intends to withdraw from the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. Burt, who is a partner at McLarty Associates and chairman of the National Interest’s Advisory Council, has enjoyed a distinguished diplomatic career. During the Reagan administration he served as Assistant Secretary of State for European and Canadian Affairs before becoming U.S. Ambassador to Germany in 1985. He has been intimately involved with arms-control issues throughout his career; in 1989, President George H.W. Bush appointed him chief negotiator for the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty between the U.S. and Soviet Union. The Trump administration’s decision to withdraw from the INF Treaty, which national security adviser John Bolton reiterated today during a visit to Moscow, is evoking fears of a recrudescence of the nuclear arms-race that characterized the cold war, when each superpower vied for nuclear superiority over the other and created fears of the annihilation of mankind. So what are the actual implications of Trump’s audacious move? Burt offers a sweeping assessment below....
Jacob Heilbrunn: What is the best way to analyze President Trump’s move?
Richard Burt: I think that the way to think about this is at two different levels. One is political and the other diplomatic. The way the administration has approached this decision is simply atrocious. For a start, you don't make a significant decision like this in the aftermath of a political rally in Denver and not provide any kind of context to the public....
Trump has betrayed the very people that trusted him to make the best and right decisions.
...Simes received subsequent draft outlines from Miller, and he and Saunders spoke to Miller by phone about substantive changes to the speech.615 It is not clear, however, whether CNI officials received an actual draft of the speech for comment; while Saunders recalled having received an actual draft, Simes did not, and the emails that CNI produced to this Office do not contain such a draft.616...
Steven Miller wrote the speech. He probably drained the brains of these men and then took what he wanted, but, he wrote the speech, CNI didn't.
...After board members expressed concern to Simes that CNl's hosting the speech could be perceived as an endorsement of a particular candidate, CNI decided to have its publication, the National Interest, serve as the host and to have the event at the National Press Club.617 Kushner later requested that the event be moved to the Mayflower Hotel, which was another venue that Simes had mentioned during initial discussions with the Campaign, in order to address concerns about security and capacity.618
On April 25, 2016, Saunders booked event rooms at the Mayflower to host both the speech and a VIP reception that was to be held beforehand. 619 Saunders understood that the reception at which invitees would have the chance to meet· candidate Trump--would be a small event.620 Saunders decided who would attend by looking at the list of CNI' s invitees to the speech itself and then choosing a subset for the reception.621 CNI's invitees to the reception included Sessions and Kislyak.622 The week before the speech Simes had informed Kislyak that he would be invited to the speech, and that he would have the opportunity to meet Trump.623
When the pre-speech reception began on April 27, a receiving line was quickly organized so that attendees could meet Trump.624 Sessions first stood next to Trump to introduce him to the members of Congress who were in attendance.625 After those members had been introduced, Simes stood next to Trump and introduced him to the CNI invitees in attendance, including Kislyak.626 Simes perceived the introduction to be positive and friendly, but thought it clear that Kislyak and Trump had just met for the first time.627 Kislyak also met Kushner during the prespeech reception. The two shook hands and chatted for a minute or two, during which Kushner recalled Kislyak saying, "we like what your candidate is saying ... it's refreshing." 628
Several public reports state that, in addition to speaking to Kushner at the pre-speech reception, Kislyak also met or conversed with Sessions at that time.629 Sessions stated to investigators, however, that he did not remember any such conversation.630 Nor did anyone else affiliated with CNI or the National Interest specifically recall a conversation or meeting between Sessions and Kislyak at the pre-speech reception.631 It appears that, if a conversation occurred at the pre-speech reception, it was a brief one conducted in public view, similar to the exchange between Kushner and Kislyak.
Footnote 611 Simes 3/8/18 302, at 7.
Footnote 612 Simes 3/8/18 302, at 8-11; C00008923 (4/6/16 Email, Simes to Burt (2:22:28 p.m.)); Burt 2/9/18 302, at 7.
Footnote 613 C00008551 (4/17/16 Email, Kushner to Simes (2:44:25 p.m.)); C00006759 (4/14/16 Email Kushner to Simes & S. Miller (12:30 p.m.)).
Footnote 614 Burt 2/9/18 302, at 7; Saunders 2/15/18 302, at 7-8.
Footnote 615 Simes 3/8/18 302, at 13; Saunders 2/15/18 302, at 7-8.
Footnote 616 Simes 3/8/18 302, at 13; Saunders 2/15/18 302, at 7-8.
Footnote 617 Saunders 2/15/18 302, at 8; Simes 3/8/18 302, at 12; C00003834-43 (4/22/16 Email, Simes to Boyd et al. (8:47 a.m.)).
Footnote 618 Simes 3/8/18 302, at 12, 18; Saunders 2/15/18 302, at 11.
Footnote 619 Saunders 2/15/18 302, at 11-12; C00006651-57 (Mayflower Group Sales Agreement).
Footnote 620 Saunders 2/15/18 302, at 12-13.
Footnote 621 Saunders 2/15/18 302, at 12.
Footnote 622 C00002575 (Attendee List); C00008536 (4/25/16 Email, Simes to Kushner (4:53:45 p.m.)).
Footnote 623 Simes 3/8/18 302, at 19-20.
Footnote 624 Simes 3/8/18 302, at 21.
Footnote 625 Simes 3/8/18 302, at 21.
Footnote 626 Simes 3/8/18 302, at 21.
Footnote 627 Simes 3/8/18 302, at 21.
Footnote 628 Kushner 4/11/18 302, at 4.I
Footnote 629 See, e.g., Ken Dilanian, Did Trump, Kushner, Sessions Have an Undisclosed Meeting With Russian?, NBC News (June 1, 2016); Julia Ioffe, Why Did Jeff Sessions Really Meet With Sergey Kislyak, The Atlantic (June 13, 2017).
I
Footnote 630 Sessions 1/17/18 302, at 22.
Footnote 631 Simes 3/8/18 302, at 21; Saunders 2/15/18 302, at 14, 21; Boyd 1/24/18 302, at 3-4; Heilbrunn 2/1/18 302, at 6; Statement Regarding President Trump's April 27, 2016 Foreign Policy Speech at the Center for the National Interest, CNI (Mar. 8, 2017).
I am going to end here for today and will resume tomorrow. I find it unfortunate Trump became the RNC nominee. Evidently, everyone ever vested in the party felt a strong sense of need to avail themselves to Trump and his entourage to increase expertise and provide support for at the very least international policy. I think the CNI organization was used for whatever purpose the Trump Campaign saw fit and then discarded any loyalty to those involved.
continued in later entry - thank you
Continued from a previous entry
4. Dimitri Simes and the Center for the National Interest
Members of the Trump Campaign interacted on several occasions with the Center for theNational Interest (CNI) (click here),...
Board of Directors (click here)
Henry Kissinger, Honorary Chairman
Maurice R. Greenberg, Chairman Emeritus
General Charles Boyd, Chairman
Drew Guff, Vice Chairman
Richard Plepler, Vice Chairman
Dov Zakheim, Vice Chairman
Senator Pat Roberts
Graham Allison
Jeffrey Bewkes
Ambassador Richard Burt
Kris Elftmann
Leslie Gelb
David Keene
Admiral Michael Mullen
Julie Nixon Eisenhower
Grover Norquist
William Ruger
Paul J. Saunders
Dimitri K. Simes
J. Robinson West
David Zalaznick
...principally through its President and Chief Executive Officer, Dimitri Simes....
Dimitri Simes and his alleged handler, Sergei Lavrov (click here)
Dimitri K. Simes (click here) is President and CEO of the Center for the National Interest and Publisher of its foreign policy magazine, The National Interest. Mr. Simes was selected to lead the Center by former President Richard Nixon, to whom he served as an informal foreign policy advisor and with whom he traveled regularly to Russia and other former Soviet states, as well as Western and Central Europe....
... CNI is a think tank with expertise in and connections to the Russian government. Simes was born in the former Soviet Union and immigrated to the United States in the 1970s. In April 2016, candidate Trump delivered his first speech on foreign policy and national security at an event hosted by the National Interest, a publication affiliated with CNI. Then-Senator Jeff Sessions and Russian Ambassador Kislyak both attended the event and, as a result, it gained some attention in relation to Sessions's confirmation hearings to become Attorney General. Sessions had various other contacts with CNI during the campaign period on foreign-policy matters, including Russia. Jared Kushner also interacted with Simes about Russian issues during the campaign. The investigation did not identify evidence that the Campaign passed or received any messages to or from the Russian government through CNI or Simes.
a. CNI and Dimitri Simes Connect with the Trump Campaign
CNI is a Washington-based non-profit organization that grew out of a center founded by former President Richard Nixon. 593 CNI describes itself "as a voice for strategic realism in U.S. foreign policy," and publishes a bi-monthly foreign policy magazine, the National Interest.594 CNI is overseen by a board of directors and an advisory council that is largely honorary and whose members at the relevant time included Sessions, who served as an advisor to candidate Trump on national security and foreign policy issues.595
Dimitri Simes is president and CEO of CNI and the publisher and CEO of the National Jnterest.596 Simes was born in the former Soviet Union, emigrated to the United States in the early 1970s, and joined CNI' s predecessor after working at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.597 Simes personally has many contacts with current and former Russian government officials,598 as does CNI collectively. As CNI stated when seeking a grant from the Carnegie Corporation in 2015, CNI has "unparalleled access to Russian officials and politicians among Washington think tanks," 599 in part because CNI has arranged for U.S. delegations to visit Russia and for Russian delegations to visit the United States as part of so-called "Track 11" diplomatic efforts.600
Example of Track II diplomatic efforts:
"Talking to the Enemy: Track II and It's Significance in Afghanistan" (click here)
...On March 14, 2016, CNI board member Richard Plepler organized a luncheon for CNI and its honorary chairman, Henry Kissinger, at the Time Warner Building in New York.601 The idea behind the event was to generate interest in CNI's work and recruit new board members for CNI.602 Along with Simes, attendees at the event included Jared Kushner, son-in-law of candidate Trump.603 Kushner told the Office that the event came at a time when the Trump Campaign was having trouble securing support from experienced foreign policy professionals and that, as a result, he decided to seek Simes's assistance during the March 14 event.604
Just as a reality check, I find all this very curious. As of July 21, 2016 the nomination of Donald J. Trump was secured. At no point in time was he accepting any National Security Assessments, as Hillary Clinton did, during his campaign. He was refusing National Security Assessments even after his election in November. But, here in March of 2016 they were soliciting the assistance of a very esteemed foreign policy organization and Jared Kushner was involved.
I guess by the end of July 2016 they knew it all.
Simes and Kushner spoke again on a March 24, 2016 telephone call,605 three days after Trump had publicly named the team of foreign policy advisors that had been put together on short notice.606 On March 31, 2016, Simes and Kushner had an in-person, one-on-one meeting in Kushner's New York office.607 During that meeting, Simes told Kushner that the best way to handle foreign-policy issues for the Trump Campaign would be to organize an advisory group of experts to meet with candidate Trump and develop a foreign policy approach that was consistent with Trump's voice.608 Simes believed that Kushner was receptive to that suggestion.609
Simes also had contact with other individuals associated with the Trump Campaign regarding the Campaign's foreign policy positions. For example, on June 17, 2016, Simes sent J.D. Gordon...
Same Gordon. He is very qualified. What the heck is he doing with Butina? I think the GRU was all over this campaign and it continued to steer the Trump Campaign back into the arms of Vladimir Putin and whatever money it took.
August 4, 2019
By Emily Stewart
...Rosalind Helderman (click here) at the Washington Post reported on Friday that Butina and Gordon, who served as director of national security for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, exchanged multiple emails in September and October of 2016. He had already left Trump’s campaign at the time, though he was offered a role in the transition team....
...an email with a "memo to Senator Sessions that we discussed at our recent meeting" and asked Gordon to both read it and share it with Sessions. The memorandum proposed building a "small and carefully selected group of experts" to assist Sessions with the Campaign, operating under the assumption "that Hillary Clinton is very vulnerable on national security and foreign policy issues." The memorandum outlined key issues for the Campaign, including a "new beginning with Russia."610
That doesn't make sense. Hillary Clinton was hardly new at national security or foreign policy. It doesn't make sense these men underestimated Clinton's abilities. Besides being Obama's Secretary of State, she served in the US Senate on the US Armed Services Committee from 2003 - 2009. Odd, very odd.
593 Simes 3/8/18 302, at 1-2.
594 About the Center, CNI, available at https://cftni.org/about/.
595 Advisory Counsel, CNl, available at https://web.archive.org/web/20161030025331/ http://cftni.org/about/advisory-council/;
Simes 3/8/18 302, at 3-4; Saunders 2/15/18 302, at 4; Sessions 1/17/18 302, at 16.
Footnote 596 Simes 3/8/18 302, at 2.
Footnote 597 Simes 3/8/18 302, at 1-2; Simes 3/27/18 302, at 19.
Footnote 598 Simes 3/27 /18 302, at 10-15.
Footnote 599 C000l 1656 (Rethinking US-Russia Relations, CNI (Apr. 18, 2015)).
Footnote 600 Simes 3/8/18 302, at 5; Saunders 2/15/18 302, at 29-30; Zakheim 1/25/18 302, at 3.
Footnote 601 Simes 3/8/18 302, at 6; C00006784 (3/11/16 Email, Gilbride to Saunders (3:43:12 p.m.); cf Zakheim 1/25/18 302, at 1 (Kissinger was CNI's "Honorary Chairman of the Board"); Boyd 1/24/1 8 302, at 2; P. Sanders 2/15/18 302, at 5.
Footnote 602 Simes 3/8/18 302, at 5-6; Simes 3/27/18 302, at 2.
Footnote 603 Simes 3/8/18 302, at 6; Kushner 4/11/18 302 at 2.
Footnote 604 Kushner 4/ 11/ 18 302, at 2.
Footnote 605 Simes 3/8/18 302, at 6-7.
Footnote 606 Grand Jury see Volume I, Section IV.A.2, supra
Footnote 607 Simes 3/8/18 302, at 7-9.
Footnote 608 Simes 3/8/18 302, at 7-8.
Footnote 609 Simes 3/8/18 302, at 8; see also Boyd 1/24/18 302, at 2
Footnote 610 C00008187 (6/17/16 Email, Simes to Gordon (3:35:45 p.m.)).
continued in following entry - thank you
Members of the Trump Campaign interacted on several occasions with the Center for theNational Interest (CNI) (click here),...
Board of Directors (click here)
Henry Kissinger, Honorary Chairman
Maurice R. Greenberg, Chairman Emeritus
General Charles Boyd, Chairman
Drew Guff, Vice Chairman
Richard Plepler, Vice Chairman
Dov Zakheim, Vice Chairman
Senator Pat Roberts
Graham Allison
Jeffrey Bewkes
Ambassador Richard Burt
Kris Elftmann
Leslie Gelb
David Keene
Admiral Michael Mullen
Julie Nixon Eisenhower
Grover Norquist
William Ruger
Paul J. Saunders
Dimitri K. Simes
J. Robinson West
David Zalaznick
...principally through its President and Chief Executive Officer, Dimitri Simes....
Dimitri K. Simes (click here) is President and CEO of the Center for the National Interest and Publisher of its foreign policy magazine, The National Interest. Mr. Simes was selected to lead the Center by former President Richard Nixon, to whom he served as an informal foreign policy advisor and with whom he traveled regularly to Russia and other former Soviet states, as well as Western and Central Europe....
... CNI is a think tank with expertise in and connections to the Russian government. Simes was born in the former Soviet Union and immigrated to the United States in the 1970s. In April 2016, candidate Trump delivered his first speech on foreign policy and national security at an event hosted by the National Interest, a publication affiliated with CNI. Then-Senator Jeff Sessions and Russian Ambassador Kislyak both attended the event and, as a result, it gained some attention in relation to Sessions's confirmation hearings to become Attorney General. Sessions had various other contacts with CNI during the campaign period on foreign-policy matters, including Russia. Jared Kushner also interacted with Simes about Russian issues during the campaign. The investigation did not identify evidence that the Campaign passed or received any messages to or from the Russian government through CNI or Simes.
a. CNI and Dimitri Simes Connect with the Trump Campaign
CNI is a Washington-based non-profit organization that grew out of a center founded by former President Richard Nixon. 593 CNI describes itself "as a voice for strategic realism in U.S. foreign policy," and publishes a bi-monthly foreign policy magazine, the National Interest.594 CNI is overseen by a board of directors and an advisory council that is largely honorary and whose members at the relevant time included Sessions, who served as an advisor to candidate Trump on national security and foreign policy issues.595
Dimitri Simes is president and CEO of CNI and the publisher and CEO of the National Jnterest.596 Simes was born in the former Soviet Union, emigrated to the United States in the early 1970s, and joined CNI' s predecessor after working at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.597 Simes personally has many contacts with current and former Russian government officials,598 as does CNI collectively. As CNI stated when seeking a grant from the Carnegie Corporation in 2015, CNI has "unparalleled access to Russian officials and politicians among Washington think tanks," 599 in part because CNI has arranged for U.S. delegations to visit Russia and for Russian delegations to visit the United States as part of so-called "Track 11" diplomatic efforts.600
Example of Track II diplomatic efforts:
"Talking to the Enemy: Track II and It's Significance in Afghanistan" (click here)
...On March 14, 2016, CNI board member Richard Plepler organized a luncheon for CNI and its honorary chairman, Henry Kissinger, at the Time Warner Building in New York.601 The idea behind the event was to generate interest in CNI's work and recruit new board members for CNI.602 Along with Simes, attendees at the event included Jared Kushner, son-in-law of candidate Trump.603 Kushner told the Office that the event came at a time when the Trump Campaign was having trouble securing support from experienced foreign policy professionals and that, as a result, he decided to seek Simes's assistance during the March 14 event.604
Just as a reality check, I find all this very curious. As of July 21, 2016 the nomination of Donald J. Trump was secured. At no point in time was he accepting any National Security Assessments, as Hillary Clinton did, during his campaign. He was refusing National Security Assessments even after his election in November. But, here in March of 2016 they were soliciting the assistance of a very esteemed foreign policy organization and Jared Kushner was involved.
I guess by the end of July 2016 they knew it all.
Simes and Kushner spoke again on a March 24, 2016 telephone call,605 three days after Trump had publicly named the team of foreign policy advisors that had been put together on short notice.606 On March 31, 2016, Simes and Kushner had an in-person, one-on-one meeting in Kushner's New York office.607 During that meeting, Simes told Kushner that the best way to handle foreign-policy issues for the Trump Campaign would be to organize an advisory group of experts to meet with candidate Trump and develop a foreign policy approach that was consistent with Trump's voice.608 Simes believed that Kushner was receptive to that suggestion.609
Simes also had contact with other individuals associated with the Trump Campaign regarding the Campaign's foreign policy positions. For example, on June 17, 2016, Simes sent J.D. Gordon...
Same Gordon. He is very qualified. What the heck is he doing with Butina? I think the GRU was all over this campaign and it continued to steer the Trump Campaign back into the arms of Vladimir Putin and whatever money it took.
August 4, 2019
By Emily Stewart
...Rosalind Helderman (click here) at the Washington Post reported on Friday that Butina and Gordon, who served as director of national security for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, exchanged multiple emails in September and October of 2016. He had already left Trump’s campaign at the time, though he was offered a role in the transition team....
...an email with a "memo to Senator Sessions that we discussed at our recent meeting" and asked Gordon to both read it and share it with Sessions. The memorandum proposed building a "small and carefully selected group of experts" to assist Sessions with the Campaign, operating under the assumption "that Hillary Clinton is very vulnerable on national security and foreign policy issues." The memorandum outlined key issues for the Campaign, including a "new beginning with Russia."610
That doesn't make sense. Hillary Clinton was hardly new at national security or foreign policy. It doesn't make sense these men underestimated Clinton's abilities. Besides being Obama's Secretary of State, she served in the US Senate on the US Armed Services Committee from 2003 - 2009. Odd, very odd.
593 Simes 3/8/18 302, at 1-2.
594 About the Center, CNI, available at https://cftni.org/about/.
595 Advisory Counsel, CNl, available at https://web.archive.org/web/20161030025331/ http://cftni.org/about/advisory-council/;
Simes 3/8/18 302, at 3-4; Saunders 2/15/18 302, at 4; Sessions 1/17/18 302, at 16.
Footnote 596 Simes 3/8/18 302, at 2.
Footnote 597 Simes 3/8/18 302, at 1-2; Simes 3/27/18 302, at 19.
Footnote 598 Simes 3/27 /18 302, at 10-15.
Footnote 599 C000l 1656 (Rethinking US-Russia Relations, CNI (Apr. 18, 2015)).
Footnote 600 Simes 3/8/18 302, at 5; Saunders 2/15/18 302, at 29-30; Zakheim 1/25/18 302, at 3.
Footnote 601 Simes 3/8/18 302, at 6; C00006784 (3/11/16 Email, Gilbride to Saunders (3:43:12 p.m.); cf Zakheim 1/25/18 302, at 1 (Kissinger was CNI's "Honorary Chairman of the Board"); Boyd 1/24/1 8 302, at 2; P. Sanders 2/15/18 302, at 5.
Footnote 602 Simes 3/8/18 302, at 5-6; Simes 3/27/18 302, at 2.
Footnote 603 Simes 3/8/18 302, at 6; Kushner 4/11/18 302 at 2.
Footnote 604 Kushner 4/ 11/ 18 302, at 2.
Footnote 605 Simes 3/8/18 302, at 6-7.
Footnote 606 Grand Jury see Volume I, Section IV.A.2, supra
Footnote 607 Simes 3/8/18 302, at 7-9.
Footnote 608 Simes 3/8/18 302, at 7-8.
Footnote 609 Simes 3/8/18 302, at 8; see also Boyd 1/24/18 302, at 2
Footnote 610 C00008187 (6/17/16 Email, Simes to Gordon (3:35:45 p.m.)).
continued in following entry - thank you
July 30, 2019
Toledo - If you're looking (click here) for some new journalistic talent to follow this election season, there's an 11-year-old right here in Toledo who is probably on the top of your list. Jaden Jefferson, a student at Maumee Valley Country Day, is going viral after joining the press pool during Elizabeth Warren's recent stop in Toledo.
Jaden got in a few questions during the press availability after the event and even scored an exclusive interview with the presidential candidate.
And he's got the respect of his fellow reporters as well. CNN Political Reporter, MJ Lee, snapped a photo of the young journalist covering the event and it's going viral. As of this writing, he is up over 11,000 followers on Twitter and has received encouragement from journalists all over the country....
The Traverse City Film Festival begins this evening.
TCFF Media Hub (click here)
It is safe to bring the children. There are venues for children, tweens, teens and adults. There are panel discussions, plenty of really great documentaries from all over the world. There are also free venues and every evening there is a film for the family at the outdoor "Open Space."
Film schedule and online tickets (click here) No one is ever sorry they came.
It is safe to bring the children. There are venues for children, tweens, teens and adults. There are panel discussions, plenty of really great documentaries from all over the world. There are also free venues and every evening there is a film for the family at the outdoor "Open Space."
Film schedule and online tickets (click here) No one is ever sorry they came.
Continued from a previous entry
d. Later Campaign Work and Removal from the Campaign
In July 2016, after returning from Russia, Page traveled to the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.583 While there, Page met Russian Ambassador to the United States Sergey Kislyak;...
Carter Page was being ushered into the position the Russians wanted him. He was being supervised. Why would a Russian Ambassador have such intense interest in a person returning from Russia, when he had a higher priority as a person involved with a winning presidential campaign? Putin didn't want to take his "eyes" of him because of the sanctions. They didn't have their priority landed yet.
There he is shaking hands with the big fish.
November 16, 2017
By Tucker Higgins
"Russian Ambassador says he won't name all the Trump officials he has met because the 'list is so long.'"
...that interaction is described in Volume I, Section IV.A.6.a, infra. 584 Page later emailed Campaign officials with feedback he said he received from ambassadors he had met at the Convention, and he wrote that Ambassador Kisliak was very worried about candidate Clinton's world views. 585 Grand Jury 586
What?
Ambassador Kisliak was very worried about candidate Clinton's world views
Russia, the country with sanctions, is worried about Clinton's world view.
Sooooooo.
Following the Convention, Page's trip to Moscow and his advocacy for pro-Russia foreign policy drew the media's attention and began to generate substantial press coverage.
Ah, oh. Page let the cat out of the bag.
The Campaign responded by distancing itself from Page,
Ya, think.
describing him as an "informal foreign policy advisor" who did "not speak for Mr. Trump or the campaign."587 On September 23, 2016, Yahoo! News reported that U.S. intelligence officials were investigating whether Page had opened private communications with senior Russian officials to discuss U.S. sanctions policy under a possible Trump Administration.588 A Campaign spokesman told Yahoo! News that Page had "no role" in the Campaign and that the Campaign was "not aware of any of his activities, past or present."
That is a lie. The campaign knew what his role in Moscow was and even turned down an appear for Trump. They disavowed his activities, but, they knew full well what Page was doing in Moscow. And the fact remains that while in Moscow was in conversation with Page, as a foreign policy advisor for the Trump campaign. No different than Manafort, at first the campaign never relieved Page of his duties to Trump.
589 On September 24, 2016, Page was formally removed from the Campaign.590 After the press was onto issues with the campaign and Page became a liability he was let go. Same thing with Manafort.
Why do I think that is significant? It is repeated behavior. What does Trump know and do that the press is unaware of that is a violation of the public trust and quite possibly the law?
Trump is secretive. He lies because the truth does not please his base. The truth is a secret.
Although Page had been removed from the Campaign, after the election he sought a position in the Trump Administration.591 On November 14, 2016, he submitted an application to the Transition Team that inflated his credentials and experiences, stating that in his capacity as a Trump Campaign foreign policy advisor he had met with "top world leaders" and "effectively responded to diplomatic outreach efforts from senior government officials in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, [and] the Americas."592 Page received no response from the Transition Team. When Page took a personal trip to Moscow in December 2016, he met again with at least one Russian government official. That interaction and a discussion of the December trip are set forth in Volume I, Section IV.B.6, infra.
Footnote 583 Page 3/10/17 302, at 4; Page 3/16/17 302, at 3.
Footnote 584 Page 3/10/17 302, at 4; Page 3/16/17 302, at 3.
Footnote 585 Grand Jury ; 7/23/16 Email, Page to Clovis; 7/25/16 Email, Page to Gordon & Schmitz.
Footnote 586 Grand Jury
Footnote 587 See, e.g., Steven Mufson & Tom Hamburger, Trump Advisor's Public Comments, Ties to Moscow Stir Unease in Both Parties, Washington Post (Aug. 5, 2016).
Footnote 588 Michael Isikoff, US. Intel Officials Probe Ties Between Trump Adviser and Kremlin, Yahoo! News (Sept. 23, 2016).
Footnote 589 Michael Isikoff, US. Intel Officials Probe Ties Between Trump Adviser and Kremlin, Yahoo!News (Sept. 23, 2016) (click here); see also 9/25/16 Email, Hicks to Conway & Bannon (instructing that inquiries about Page should be answered with "[h]e was announced as an informal adviser in March. Since then he has had no role or official contact with the campaign. We have no knowledge of activities past or present and he now officially has been removed from all lists etc.").
Footnote 590 Page 3/16/17 302, at 2; see, e.g., 9/23/16 Email, J. Miller to Bannon & S. Miller (discussing plans to remove Page from the campaign).
Footnote 591 Grand Jury , "Transition Online Form," 11/14/ 16 Grand Jury
Footntoe 592 Grand Jury , "Transition Online Form," 11/14/16 Grand Jury
continued in following entry - thank you
In July 2016, after returning from Russia, Page traveled to the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.583 While there, Page met Russian Ambassador to the United States Sergey Kislyak;...
Carter Page was being ushered into the position the Russians wanted him. He was being supervised. Why would a Russian Ambassador have such intense interest in a person returning from Russia, when he had a higher priority as a person involved with a winning presidential campaign? Putin didn't want to take his "eyes" of him because of the sanctions. They didn't have their priority landed yet.
November 16, 2017
By Tucker Higgins
"Russian Ambassador says he won't name all the Trump officials he has met because the 'list is so long.'"
Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak (click here) said on Wednesday that it would take him more than 20 minutes to name all of the Trump officials he’s met with or spoken to on the phone.
“First, I’m never going to do that,” he said. “And second, the list is so long that I’m not going to be able to go through it in 20 minutes.”
Kislyak made the remarks in a sprawling interview with Russia-1, a popular state-owned Russian television channel. In the interview, which a Russian media expert said resembled “late night American television,” he also joked about American investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, called U.S. President Donald Trump “witty,” and said that U.S.-Russian relations were worse than at any point since the end of the Cold War....
Kisliyak was ordered back to Russia after the Special Counsel became interested in him. He is a former nuclear scientist. Interesting ambassador to send to the USA. Russia stated the transfer was planned for some time. Sure. But, it actually took place when Trump was in trouble.
Kisliyak was ordered back to Russia after the Special Counsel became interested in him. He is a former nuclear scientist. Interesting ambassador to send to the USA. Russia stated the transfer was planned for some time. Sure. But, it actually took place when Trump was in trouble.
...that interaction is described in Volume I, Section IV.A.6.a, infra. 584 Page later emailed Campaign officials with feedback he said he received from ambassadors he had met at the Convention, and he wrote that Ambassador Kisliak was very worried about candidate Clinton's world views. 585 Grand Jury 586
What?
Ambassador Kisliak was very worried about candidate Clinton's world views
Russia, the country with sanctions, is worried about Clinton's world view.
Sooooooo.
Following the Convention, Page's trip to Moscow and his advocacy for pro-Russia foreign policy drew the media's attention and began to generate substantial press coverage.
Ah, oh. Page let the cat out of the bag.
The Campaign responded by distancing itself from Page,
Ya, think.
describing him as an "informal foreign policy advisor" who did "not speak for Mr. Trump or the campaign."587 On September 23, 2016, Yahoo! News reported that U.S. intelligence officials were investigating whether Page had opened private communications with senior Russian officials to discuss U.S. sanctions policy under a possible Trump Administration.588 A Campaign spokesman told Yahoo! News that Page had "no role" in the Campaign and that the Campaign was "not aware of any of his activities, past or present."
That is a lie. The campaign knew what his role in Moscow was and even turned down an appear for Trump. They disavowed his activities, but, they knew full well what Page was doing in Moscow. And the fact remains that while in Moscow was in conversation with Page, as a foreign policy advisor for the Trump campaign. No different than Manafort, at first the campaign never relieved Page of his duties to Trump.
589 On September 24, 2016, Page was formally removed from the Campaign.590 After the press was onto issues with the campaign and Page became a liability he was let go. Same thing with Manafort.
Why do I think that is significant? It is repeated behavior. What does Trump know and do that the press is unaware of that is a violation of the public trust and quite possibly the law?
Trump is secretive. He lies because the truth does not please his base. The truth is a secret.
Although Page had been removed from the Campaign, after the election he sought a position in the Trump Administration.591 On November 14, 2016, he submitted an application to the Transition Team that inflated his credentials and experiences, stating that in his capacity as a Trump Campaign foreign policy advisor he had met with "top world leaders" and "effectively responded to diplomatic outreach efforts from senior government officials in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, [and] the Americas."592 Page received no response from the Transition Team. When Page took a personal trip to Moscow in December 2016, he met again with at least one Russian government official. That interaction and a discussion of the December trip are set forth in Volume I, Section IV.B.6, infra.
Footnote 583 Page 3/10/17 302, at 4; Page 3/16/17 302, at 3.
Footnote 584 Page 3/10/17 302, at 4; Page 3/16/17 302, at 3.
Footnote 585 Grand Jury ; 7/23/16 Email, Page to Clovis; 7/25/16 Email, Page to Gordon & Schmitz.
Footnote 586 Grand Jury
Footnote 587 See, e.g., Steven Mufson & Tom Hamburger, Trump Advisor's Public Comments, Ties to Moscow Stir Unease in Both Parties, Washington Post (Aug. 5, 2016).
Footnote 588 Michael Isikoff, US. Intel Officials Probe Ties Between Trump Adviser and Kremlin, Yahoo! News (Sept. 23, 2016).
Footnote 589 Michael Isikoff, US. Intel Officials Probe Ties Between Trump Adviser and Kremlin, Yahoo!News (Sept. 23, 2016) (click here); see also 9/25/16 Email, Hicks to Conway & Bannon (instructing that inquiries about Page should be answered with "[h]e was announced as an informal adviser in March. Since then he has had no role or official contact with the campaign. We have no knowledge of activities past or present and he now officially has been removed from all lists etc.").
Footnote 590 Page 3/16/17 302, at 2; see, e.g., 9/23/16 Email, J. Miller to Bannon & S. Miller (discussing plans to remove Page from the campaign).
Footnote 591 Grand Jury , "Transition Online Form," 11/14/ 16 Grand Jury
Footntoe 592 Grand Jury , "Transition Online Form," 11/14/16 Grand Jury
continued in following entry - thank you
Ah, the world according to Goldman Sachs. Will Munchkin visit the other Former US Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson?
Paulson spent more time in China than his own office in DC when Secretary of the Treasury. He eventually opened his own financial company in China. After the market collapsed and TARP was passed into law. Yep.
July 23, 2019
By Gina Herb
Trade delegations (click here) from the US and China reportedly plan to meet in Shanghai next Monday, which would mark the first high-level talks between the two sides since they stalled in May.
Bloomberg reported on Tuesday that US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and other senior negotiators are set to be in China through next Wednesday for the talks.
The White House and the Office of the USTR did not immediately respond to emails requesting comment. Asked about similar reports from Chinese state media outlets on Monday, the USTR said that it "has no announcements on this at this time."...
July 22, 2019
By Yusuf Khan
Chinese foreign direct investment into the United States (click here) has plummeted since Trump took office, with real estate, autos, tech and agriculture — industries which have all benefited from China's boom — set to lose out.
In 2016, FDI peaked at $46.5 billion, but now nearly 90% of this has gone, with just $5.4 billion in 2018 according to data from Rhodium Group.
Previously money has streamed into America from China. As the New York Times notes, places like Michigan, South Carolina, Missouri and Texas all benefited from job growth due to Chinese investment....
July 23, 2019By Gina Herb
Trade delegations (click here) from the US and China reportedly plan to meet in Shanghai next Monday, which would mark the first high-level talks between the two sides since they stalled in May.
Bloomberg reported on Tuesday that US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and other senior negotiators are set to be in China through next Wednesday for the talks.
The White House and the Office of the USTR did not immediately respond to emails requesting comment. Asked about similar reports from Chinese state media outlets on Monday, the USTR said that it "has no announcements on this at this time."...
July 22, 2019
By Yusuf Khan
Chinese foreign direct investment into the United States (click here) has plummeted since Trump took office, with real estate, autos, tech and agriculture — industries which have all benefited from China's boom — set to lose out.
In 2016, FDI peaked at $46.5 billion, but now nearly 90% of this has gone, with just $5.4 billion in 2018 according to data from Rhodium Group.
Previously money has streamed into America from China. As the New York Times notes, places like Michigan, South Carolina, Missouri and Texas all benefited from job growth due to Chinese investment....
Mitch "Moscow" McConnell stated of the two US House bills regarding election security they were too partisan. He could not have read the bills in that period of time. Moscow Mitch always makes these inflammatory political statements without stating exactly was is so objectionable. I thought the US Senate was the place where great deliberations took place, so where are the deliberations?
Continued from preivous entry
On July 7, 2016, Page delivered the first of his two speeches in Moscow at NES. 566 In the
speech, Page criticized the U.S. government's foreign policy toward Russia, stating that
"Washington and other Western capitals have impeded potential progress through their often
hypocritical focus on ideas such as democratization, inequality, corruption and regime change."567
On July 8, 2016, Page delivered a speech during the NES commencement.568 After Page delivered
his commencement address, Russian Deputy Prime Minister and NES board member Arkady
Dvorkovich spoke at the ceremony and stated that the sanctions the United States had imposed on
Russia had hurt the NES. 569 Page and Dvorkovich shook hands at the commencement ceremony,
and Weber recalled that Dvorkovich made statements to Page about working to ether in the
future. 570 Grand Jury 571
Page said that, during his time in Moscow, he met with friends and associates he knew from when he lived in Russia, including Andrey Baranov (click here),...
Page testimony corroborates the Steele Dossier (click here)
...a former Gazprom (click here) employee who had become the head of investor relations at Rosneft (click here), a Russian energy company. 572 Page stated that he and Baranov talked about "immaterial non-public" information.573 Page believed he and Baranov discussed Rosneft president Igor Sechin,...
I wrote about the 19.5 percent sale (click here) of Russian energy giant Rosneft during the transition, on January 11th, 2017. It was topical at the time because I wanted the Senate to ask Steve Mnuchin and Rex Tillerson about the transaction during the upcoming hearings to confirm them, respectively, as the secretaries of Treasury and State. It was also of particular interest during that period because, although the sale had been announced on December 7th, 2016, it was a topic of discussion in the Steele Dossier that had been published by BuzzFeed on January 10th.
The first reference was from a dispatch dated July 19th, 2016.
...and he thought Baranov might have mentioned the possibility of a sale of a stake in Rosneft in passing. 574 Page recalled mentioning his involvement in the Trump Campaign with Baranov, although he did not remember details of the conversation. 575 Page also met with individuals from Tatneft (click here), a Russian energy company, to discuss possible business deals, including having Page work as a consultant.576
On July 8, 2016, while he was in Moscow, Page emailed several Campaign officials and stated he would send "a readout soon regarding some incredible insights and outreach I've received from a few Russian legislators and senior members of the Presidential Administration here. " 577 On July 9, 2016, Page emailed Clovis, writing in pertinent part:
Russian Deputy Prime minister and NES board member Arkady Dvorkovich (From the World Economic Forum - click here) also spoke before the event. In a private conversation, Dvorkovich expressed strong support for Mr. Trump and a desire to work together toward devising better solutions in response to the vast range of current international problems. Based on feedback from a diverse array of other sources close to the Presidential Administration, it was readily apparent that this sentiment is widely held at all levels of government.578
Despite the representation to the Campaign Grand Jury 579 580 581 582
The Office was unable to obtain additional evidence or testimony about who Page may have met or communicated with in Moscow; thus, Page's activities in Russia-as described in his emails with the Campaign-were not fully explained.
Footnote 566 Page 3/10/17 302, at 3
.
Footnote 567 See Carter W. Page, The Lecture of Trump's Advisor Carter Page in Moscow, YouTube Channel Katehon Think Tank, Posted July 7, 2016, available at
https://www.youtube.com/watch? time_continue=28&v= lCYF29saA9w.
Page also provided the FBI with a copy of his speech and slides from the speech. See Carter Page, "The Evolution of the World Economy: Trends and Potential," Speech at National Economic Speech (July 7, 2016).
Footnote 568 Page 3/10/17 302, at 3.
Footnote 569 Page 3/16/ 17 302, at 3. 570 S. Weber 7/28/17 302, at 4.
Footnote 570 S. Weber 7/28/17 302, at 4.
Footnote 571 Grand Jury
Footnote 572 Page 3/10/17 302, at 3; Page 3/30/17 302, at 3; Page 3/31/17 302, at 2.
Footnote 573 Page 3/30/17 302, at 3.
Footnote 574 Page 3/30/17 302, at 9. Grand Jury
Footnote 575 Grand Jury Page 3/30/17 at 3.
Footnote 576 Page 3/10/17 302, at 3; Page 3/30/17 302, at 7; Page 3/31/17 302, at 2.
Footnote 577 Grand Jury 7/8/ 16 Email, Page to Dahl & Gordon.
Footnote 578 Grand Jury 7/9/16 Email, Page to Clovis
Footnote 579 Grand Jury
Footnote 580 Grand Jury
Footnote 581 Grand Jury
Footnote 582 Grand Jury
continued in following entry
Page said that, during his time in Moscow, he met with friends and associates he knew from when he lived in Russia, including Andrey Baranov (click here),...
Page testimony corroborates the Steele Dossier (click here)
...a former Gazprom (click here) employee who had become the head of investor relations at Rosneft (click here), a Russian energy company. 572 Page stated that he and Baranov talked about "immaterial non-public" information.573 Page believed he and Baranov discussed Rosneft president Igor Sechin,...
I wrote about the 19.5 percent sale (click here) of Russian energy giant Rosneft during the transition, on January 11th, 2017. It was topical at the time because I wanted the Senate to ask Steve Mnuchin and Rex Tillerson about the transaction during the upcoming hearings to confirm them, respectively, as the secretaries of Treasury and State. It was also of particular interest during that period because, although the sale had been announced on December 7th, 2016, it was a topic of discussion in the Steele Dossier that had been published by BuzzFeed on January 10th.
The first reference was from a dispatch dated July 19th, 2016.
...and he thought Baranov might have mentioned the possibility of a sale of a stake in Rosneft in passing. 574 Page recalled mentioning his involvement in the Trump Campaign with Baranov, although he did not remember details of the conversation. 575 Page also met with individuals from Tatneft (click here), a Russian energy company, to discuss possible business deals, including having Page work as a consultant.576
On July 8, 2016, while he was in Moscow, Page emailed several Campaign officials and stated he would send "a readout soon regarding some incredible insights and outreach I've received from a few Russian legislators and senior members of the Presidential Administration here. " 577 On July 9, 2016, Page emailed Clovis, writing in pertinent part:
Russian Deputy Prime minister and NES board member Arkady Dvorkovich (From the World Economic Forum - click here) also spoke before the event. In a private conversation, Dvorkovich expressed strong support for Mr. Trump and a desire to work together toward devising better solutions in response to the vast range of current international problems. Based on feedback from a diverse array of other sources close to the Presidential Administration, it was readily apparent that this sentiment is widely held at all levels of government.578
Despite the representation to the Campaign Grand Jury 579 580 581 582
The Office was unable to obtain additional evidence or testimony about who Page may have met or communicated with in Moscow; thus, Page's activities in Russia-as described in his emails with the Campaign-were not fully explained.
Footnote 566 Page 3/10/17 302, at 3
.
Footnote 567 See Carter W. Page, The Lecture of Trump's Advisor Carter Page in Moscow, YouTube Channel Katehon Think Tank, Posted July 7, 2016, available at
https://www.youtube.com/watch? time_continue=28&v= lCYF29saA9w.
Page also provided the FBI with a copy of his speech and slides from the speech. See Carter Page, "The Evolution of the World Economy: Trends and Potential," Speech at National Economic Speech (July 7, 2016).
Footnote 568 Page 3/10/17 302, at 3.
Footnote 569 Page 3/16/ 17 302, at 3. 570 S. Weber 7/28/17 302, at 4.
Footnote 570 S. Weber 7/28/17 302, at 4.
Footnote 571 Grand Jury
Footnote 572 Page 3/10/17 302, at 3; Page 3/30/17 302, at 3; Page 3/31/17 302, at 2.
Footnote 573 Page 3/30/17 302, at 3.
Footnote 574 Page 3/30/17 302, at 9. Grand Jury
Footnote 575 Grand Jury Page 3/30/17 at 3.
Footnote 576 Page 3/10/17 302, at 3; Page 3/30/17 302, at 7; Page 3/31/17 302, at 2.
Footnote 577 Grand Jury 7/8/ 16 Email, Page to Dahl & Gordon.
Footnote 578 Grand Jury 7/9/16 Email, Page to Clovis
Footnote 579 Grand Jury
Footnote 580 Grand Jury
Footnote 581 Grand Jury
Footnote 582 Grand Jury
continued in following entry
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