Ex-Watergate prosecutor guarantees Papadopoulos has been wearing a wire for months and...

Trump email after Manafort indictment asks for cash because dad's 'still standing'

Paul Manafort and Rick Gates get home detention after pleading not guilty to charges in Russia probe

Source: RawStory




ERIC W. DOLAN
30 OCT 2017 AT 14:09 ET

Paul Manafort and Rick Gates appeared in federal court on Monday and entered not guilty pleas.

The former Trump campaign officials have been indicted on 12 counts related to hiding foreign payments, including a charge of “conspiracy against the United States.” Manafort and Gate plead not guilty to all charges.

Bond for Manafort was set at $10 million, and bond for Gates was set at $5 million.

The special counsel team said that two men were a flight risk. The parties agreed to home detention. Both men must surrender their passports.

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Read more: https://www.rawstory.com/2017/10/paul-manafort-and-rick-gates-plead-not-guilty-to-charges-in-russia-probe/

'How is that not collusion?' Jim Acosta nails Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Papadopoulos and Trump Jr.

Obama blasts 'politics of division' on return to campaign trail

Source: Reuters




By John Whitesides

Reuters / 23 minutes ago


(Reuters) - Former President Barack Obama, back on the campaign trail on Thursday for the first time since he left the White House, called on voters to reject a growing "politics of division" that he said was corroding American democracy.

Without mentioning Republican President Donald Trump by name, Obama told campaign rallies in New Jersey and Virginia that voters could send a powerful message about the type of politics they want by backing Democrats in Nov. 7 elections in the two states.

"What we can’t have is the same old politics of division that we have seen so many times before, that dates back centuries," Obama told a cheering crowd in Newark, New Jersey, that chanted: "Four more years."

"Some of the politics we see now, we thought we put that to bed. That’s folks looking 50 years back," Obama said. "It’s the 21st century, not the 19th century."

Read more: https://au.news.yahoo.com/a/37672352/obama-blasts-politics-of-division-on-return-to-campaign-trail/

Backed by UnitedHealth, HHS nominee would now help oversee it

Source: Politico




Trump’s choice for assistant health secretary for policy has a long association with the insurance industry.

By DAN DIAMOND 10/30/2017 05:01 AM EDT

Five months after President Donald Trump nominated Stephen Parente to be an assistant secretary for Health and Human Services, the nation's largest health insurer quietly gave a $1.2 million gift to a tiny academic research center that Parente helped found and served as director over the past decade.

Parente, who is still awaiting confirmation as HHS’ assistant secretary of planning and evaluation, for which he was nominated in April, would head an office that often assesses policies that affect the insurance industry. It is currently researching the impact of Obamacare on the insurance market.

The gift — which comes after a long association between Parente and UnitedHealth Group, along with other major health-insurance carriers — raised concerns among watchdogs.

“The timing doesn’t look good,” said Scott Amey of the Project on Government Oversight. “I think Mr. Parente should take some steps to assure the public that he’s working in the public interest, and not on behalf of United Healthcare or other donors" to his center.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/story/2017/10/30/health-human-services-united-244219

Manafort Allegedly Spent $12M From Foreign Accounts On Personal Luxuries

By SAM THIELMAN Published OCTOBER 30, 2017 12:52 PM

Paul Manafort financed a lavish lifestyle with money laundered through offshore accounts, with expenditures including more than $1.3 million in purchases at Beverly Hills and New York clothing stores and more than $1 million on antique rugs, according to a federal indictment unsealed Monday.

The 12-count indictment against Manafort and his business partner Rick Gates charges that more than $75 million “flowed through” those offshore accounts. It alleges Manafort took $18 million through the accounts, while Gates is accused of transferring $3 million from those accounts to ones he controlled.

The bulk of Manafort’s alleged years-long spending spree took the form of $12 million in untaxed money he spent on luxury items and home improvements. The indictment spells out how Manafort would have one of his 15 offshore accounts—12 in Cyprus, two in St. Vincent and the Grenadines and one in the United Kingdom—wire in cash to each vendor for his purchases.

The list of Manafort’s lavish expenditures from his offshore accounts runs across eight of the indictment’s 31 pages. More than $5.4 million went to a “home improvement company” in the Hamptons from a mix of Cypriot entities, notably LOAV Advisors and Yiakora Ventures (An NBC News story about the Manafort’s debts to Russian oligarch and Putin confidant Oleg Deripaska said Manafort’s other companies were a primary influence over Yiakura’s business dealings).



more
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/manafort-offshore-accounts-alleged-lauundering

Flake Considers Independent Senate Run

Source: U.S. News & World Report




The Centrist Project plans to poll how the Trump critic and Arizona Republican would fare in a three-way race for his seat.

By David Catanese, Senior Politics Writer |Oct. 30, 2017, at 12:43 p.m.

Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona is considering running for his seat as an independent and has given his blessing to an outside organization to conduct polling to explore the possibility, a source familiar with his thinking tells U.S. News.

Flake announced last Tuesday he would not seek re-election to a second Senate term next year in light of his dire chances of winning a Republican primary and his frustration with the tenure of President Donald Trump. Polling showed him trailing his insurgent challenger, Kelli Ward, by double digits. But The Centrist Project, a group created to recruit independent candidates, has approached Flake about running outside the dominant two-party system, and he is open to the possibility.

The group is planning to poll Flake's chances as an independent in a three-way race this week.

While Flake is skeptical about the feasibility of an independent run, the source says, he's open to the idea if he's provided a viable path to victory. Since Flake's announcement last week, a segment of GOP and independent-leaning donors also have been encouraging the option

Read more: https://www.usnews.com/news/the-run/articles/2017-10-30/jeff-flake-considers-independent-senate-run-in-arizona

Tony Podesta stepping down from lobbying giant amid Mueller probe

Source: Politico




By ANNA PALMER 10/30/2017 01:02 PM EDT

Democratic power lobbyist Tony Podesta, founder of the Podesta Group, is stepping down from the firm that bears his name after coming under investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller. Podesta announced his decision during a firm-wide meeting Monday morning and is alerting clients of his impending departure.

Podesta is handing over full operational and financial control to longtime firm CEO Kimberley Fritts, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the meeting. Fritts and a senior group of the Podesta team will be launching a new firm in the next one or two days. Sources said the transition has been in the works for the past several months.

“[Tony] was very magnanimous and said, “This is an amazing group of people,” a source said of Podesta’s remarks. Podesta also told staff he “doesn’t intend to go quietly, or learn how to play golf.” He said he “needs to fight this as an individual, but doesn’t want the firm to fight it.”

Fritts also addressed the gathering, telling staff that she is “thrilled at this opportunity” and that, “This is not about me, this is about y’all.” Several other senior staff spoke about their excitement about the future of the firm. The meeting ended with a standing ovation for Podesta.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/story/2017/10/30/tony-podesta-stepping-down-from-lobbying-giant-amid-mueller-probe-244314

Bannon Declares War on Top GOP Donor

October 30, 2017 at 7:40 am EDT By Taegan Goddard

Jonathan Swan: “In a Friday night phone call, President Trump’s former chief strategist and enforcer Steve Bannon told Trump he was going ‘off the chain’ to destroy Paul Singer, a New York hedge fund billionaire who is one of the most influential donors to the Republican Party.”

“Trump agreed with Bannon that it needed to be done, according to two sources familiar with the conversation. (Though I’m also told that Trump has since told at least one other person that Singer is ‘on the team’ — suggesting that maybe he’s telling everyone what they want to hear.)”

“Bannon spoke to Trump shortly after the New York Times broke the news that a Singer-funded conservative website first paid for anti-Trump research by the firm, Fusion GPS, that later produced the infamous Russia dossier.”

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https://politicalwire.com/2017/10/30/bannon-declares-war-top-gop-donor/