Professional news: Excited to announce that I've accepted a full-time job as a news editor withย
@Axios
!
I'll continue to work with reporters on national breaking news, as well as more original/enterprise work moving forward.
Send tips: emma.loop
@axios
.com
Burr confirms SSCI is investigating Jill Stein's campaign, saying there are TWO campaigns the committee has just started looking at.
I asked what he's looking for from Stein's campaign.
"Collusion with the Russians," he said.
A Silicon Valley engineer with no medical supply background tweeted at Trump saying he could provide ventilators. Days later, New York state paid him $69.1 million โ at the recommendation of the White House task force. But the ventilators never arrived.
Just asked Feinstein about her comment yesterday about being "pressured" to release the Simpson transcript.
"I made no statement to that effect," she said.
Me: but there are recordings of you saying you felt pressured
"I don't believe there are. I don't believe I said that."
Whoa โ big
@mikeallen
scoop on the secret campaign by top Trump allies to get Texas AG Ken Paxton acquitted.
"It was made clear to Texas GOP senators that they'd face a very well-funded primary opponent in their next election if they voted to impeach."
I bring this up because it's not the first time in my career male colleagues have been given credit for a collaborative effort. I'm not saying what happened here had anything to do with gender, but after it happens a few times, you do start to wonder -- and get frustrated.
Some news: I found out this morning that I'm one of the reporters affected by the cuts at BuzzFeed News. I'm completely gutted and will miss my coworkers so much. It's been an insane, wonderful ride, and I'm incredibly proud of our work.
NEW: Weโve obtained access to scores of banking records on Lev Parnas & Igor Fruman, the two men working with Giuliani to dig up dirt on Biden.
The records reveal more than $200K in spending across the globe as the backchannel campaign was gaining steam.
.
@ewarren
says Alan Dershowitz' arguments tonight were "contrary to both law and fact."
"His characterization of the law simply is unsupported. He is a criminal law professor who stood in the well of the Senate and talked about how law never inquires into intent..."
It's official: the final version of the NDAA contains major reforms to the United States' anti-money laundering regime. Most notably, shell companies will be forced to disclose their true owners to Treasury -- a major gap in the regime that has been criticized for years.
"Mr. Manchin appeared to have single-handedly shattered Mr. Bidenโs ambitious climate agenda and what would have been the largest single federal investment in American history toward addressing the toll of climate change."
Rudy Giuliani calls Sen. Tuberville to urge him to object to more states to buy them more time.
Except Giuliani called the wrong senator, and that senator shared it with the media:
.
@MurphTWN
gets hit by a gust of wind in St.Johnโs, as a raging blizzard brings eastern Newfoundland to a standstill (He's OK). Read the lastest about the storm here:
Reminder: Per the Mueller report and our 302s, McFarland was so concerned by a request from the president at the end of her tenure as deputy NSA that she consulted a top NSC lawyer & wrote a memo about the request that Mueller's team eventually obtained.
Gen.Mattis has served our nation with great distinction. He will not be easy to replace.
For the sake of our national security I hope his decision to resign was motivated solely by a desire to enjoy a well deserved retirement.
SCOOP: A grand jury has demanded legal documents that include bank records on Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, two key operatives who worked on the Ukrainian backchannel campaign with Rudy Giuliani. By
@MikeSallah7
,
@JasonLeopold
, and me:
Sens. Thom Tillis, Lindsey Graham, Cory Booker, and Chris Coons -- who had previously introduced two separate bills to protect the special counsel -- will introduce a merged bipartisan bill today that would protect Bob Mueller and any other special counsel:
John Boltonโs legal team has told the House Intelligence Committee that Bolton will take them to court if heโs subpoenaed, per a committee official.
โ[T]he White House instruction that he not appear will add to the evidence of the Presidentโs obstruction of Congress."
A newly uncovered video shows Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg in 2019 describing transgender people as an โhe, she, or itโ and โsome guy in a dressโ who enters girlsโ locker rooms,
@dominicholden
reports.
NEW: More than five hours after we published our story, a spokesperson for Ivanka Trumpโs attorney wrote that he "inadvertently" left off part of her statement โ the part confirming our reporting:
Finally, I can share the project I worked on for nearly two years at
@BuzzFeedNews
:
The
#FinCENFiles
โ 1000s of SARs & other docs โ offer an unprecedented view of global financial corruption, the banks enabling it & the govt agencies that fail to stop it.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar announces that her husband John has tested positive for the coronavirus. She says he got tested after he started coughing up blood and is in the hospital on oxygen.
"...and that we should not be using the president's intent as part of understanding impeachment. Criminal law is all about intent. Mens rea is the heart of criminal law. That's the very basis of it. So it makes his whole presentation just nonsensical. I truly could not follow it"
@JasonLeopold
@a_cormier_
@RepAdamSchiff
@JoaquinCastrotx
@RepSwalwell
: "If a candidate for president is offering a foreign adversary a $50 million-gift while that adversary through his own backchannels is offering support of the campaign, thatโs betrayal at the highest level; thatโs conspiracy.โ
House Intelligence Committee Chairman
@RepAdamSchiff
: "The retirements of Dan Coats and Sue Gordon represent a devastating loss to the Intelligence Community, and the men and women who serve in it."
Lev Parnas was using Joseph Ahearn, America First Actionโs director of development, to send things to Donald Trump Jr. to tweet about Ukraine. โSent,โ Ahearn wrote in March, per docs
@politico
has written about here:
SCOOP: House Democrats will keep at least some of their Trump investigations and court fights active once he leaves the White House.
"This was a very dark period in the American presidency,โ one lawmaker says.
Also, guys, this isn't supposed to be that serious or a hit piece! It's just a fun look inside the White House from a daily newsletter. Reporters swear like sailors ๐
NEW: The House Intelligence Committee will investigate the Trump Organizationโs plan to give Putin a $50 million penthouse in Trump Tower Moscow.
Follow-up to stellar reporting today by
@JasonLeopold
and
@a_cormier_
.
Reuters reports that Deutsche Bank is looking at ways to cut ties with President Donald Trump after the election because the bank is tired of the bad publicity.
NEW:
@RepAdamSchiff
says ODNI has provided a "classified annex" to Congress about the killing of Jamal Khashoggi. But by law, the report must be unclassified. Schiff is asking ODNI to "immediately declassify the annex."
The chairmen of seven House committees have sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin demanding answers on the decision to ease sanctions on businesses connected to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska. They also want Treasury to delay implementation.
House Judiciary Committee Chair
@RepJerryNadler
sends another letter to Acting AG Matt Whitaker basically warning him that heโs going to need to answer questions on Friday.
Background:
Sen. Richard Burr, chairman of Senate Intel Committee, with some fairly devastating shade for House Intel Committee Republicans as it relates to their final Russia report: โIโm not sure that the House was required to substantiate every conclusion with facts."
Among other things, WaPo reports that when HHS Secretary Azar got ahold of Pres. Trump to talk about the coronavirus in mid-January, "the president interjected to ask about vaping and when flavored vaping products would be back on the market."
.
@SenSherrodBrown
says that should Democrats win back the Senate next month, he would use his new position as Banking Committee chairman next year to scrutinize the lack of prosecutions & those banks that blatantly allow dirty money to flow.
#FinCENFiles
Top Senate Democrats have sent a letter to Trump urging him not meet alone with Putin.
"Mr. Putin is a trained KGB intelligence veteran who will come to this meeting well-prepared," the letter says.
Dems also want election interference to be "the top issue" of the meeting.
UPDATE:
@RepAdamSchiff
issues another statement on our story, saying the House Intelligence Committee "is already working to secure additional witness testimony and documents related to the Trump Tower Moscow deal and other investigative matters.โ
Burr was asked just before that about the committee's progress in the investigation.
"I think it's safe to say that we've got two other campaigns that we're just starting on," Burr said.
Scoop from me: A former campaign staffer says the Senate Intelligence Committee wants documents from Jill Stein's campaign as part of the Russia investigation
After a regular committee briefing, a guy in a suit comes out of the Senate Intel SCIF holding a shiny purple hula hoop. I ask
@SenatorBurr
what it's for.
Burr: "We were doing exercises."
For the record,
@desiderioDC
has a recording and
@mkraju
reported the comments as well.
Feinstein's office said yesterday she misspoke -- and she corrected herself as well at the time. But now she's saying she never made the comments, which seems...odd.
Hereโs what
@a_cormier_
,
@JasonLeopold
, and I reported in June about Russian Olympic weightlifter Dmitry Klokovโs communications with the Trump Org. about Trump Moscow, and hereโs what Mueller says in todayโs sentencing memo for Michael Cohen:
NEW: As President-elect Joe Biden prepares to takes the reins in January, former federal prosecutors, academics, and lawmakers say the new administration is poised to crack down on financial crime.
My latest for
@thisisinsider
:
This is a big, especially in light of the
#FinCENFiles
:
@MarkWarner
says his bipartisan bill to fight money laundering & terrorist financing has been included in the NDAA, the yearly defence spending bill.
His bill forces shell companies to reveal their true owners to Treasury.
NEW: The Senate Intelligence Committee has just released the first volume of its bipartisan Russia investigation report. This volume deals with election security. You can read it here:
Once again,
@JasonLeopold
gets the receipts: The DEA has been granted sweeping new authority to โconduct covert surveillanceโ and collect intelligence on people participating in protests over the murder of George Floyd, according to a two-page memorandum.
@JoaquinCastrotx
.
@RepSwalwell
: This is โpowerful evidence of collusion.โ
Asked whether the committee will be investigating the revelation, Swalwell told BuzzFeed News: โOh yes. It will be.โ
GOP Sen. David Perdue says he hasn't read the story but just saw it:
"It's devastating. I think if those allegations are true, he should step aside. I mean, I'm sorry but this is untenable -- if they're true. I have no facts, I just saw the story. But it's very serious."
Things go off the rails a bit as Rep. Tlaib says itโs racist for a black woman to be used as a prop (referring to Lynne Patton earlier) and Meadows is furious.
.
@RepAdamSchiff
says today's briefing with Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin about the decision to ease sanctions on companies connected to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska "did not resolve [his] concerns."
"It will be incumbent upon Congress to maintain pressure on the Treasury"
A sad but necessary story. Feinstein's legacy and accomplishments deserve respect. But she still represents millions of people, and has clearly been having trouble for a while. Reporters on the Hill know this, and it's really tricky to navigate.
And more, for the record: I specifically asked her if she just made a mistake when she was talking yesterday. That's when she said, "No, no. I made no statement to that effect."
NEWS: Source tells me that after House Republicans tried flooding the SCIF with non-committee members, โmany brought their cell phones too into the classified area.โ
โStand off in progress,โ source adds.
BREAKING: President Donald Trump has told Congress that he is firing Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson, per a letter obtained by BuzzFeed News. Atkinson found that the whistleblower complaint that led to Trumpโs impeachment was credible.
New from
@JasonLeopold
,
@a_cormier_
, and me:
In New Documents, Cohen Says Trump "Instructed" Him To Lie
Trump โencouraged Cohen to lie and say all Moscow Tower project contacts ended as of January 31, 2016 using โcodeโ language."
so, i guess canada has permanently banned me ? โ๐ค ๐๐จ๐ฆ
@CitImmCanada
denied entry b/c of convictions similar to "treason" offense ๐ค๐๐
The Black Capitol Police officer seen on video single-handedly trying to stop the insurrectionists from making their way up to the Senate held them off *just* long enough for police in the chamber to seal it off.
Chuck Schumer has just put out a statement on Schiffโs letter to Nunes: "If Speaker Ryan cares about the integrity of the House or the rule of law, he will put an end to this charade once and for all.โ
Rep. Welch, one of the Dem rookies, asked:
"But making that decision [not to prosecute] does not mean your investigation failed to turn up evidence of conspiracy?"
Mueller: "Absolutely correct."
The demand for the documents comes after at least one US bank raised concerns about a series of suspicious transactions in Parnasโs accounts, which had hallmark signs of money laundering and fraud, according to two senior law enforcement officers.
lol they chose to live in a brand new building that's way more expensive than other apartments in the area
$4,500 for a one bedroom in Capitol Hill is not normal