MATTHEW ROZSA FRIDAY, JUN 2, 2017
A number of recent developments have made the Russia scandal even more of a headache for President Donald Trump and his administration.
The investigation expands to Michael Flynn CLICK IMAGE ABOVE for link to salon.com story.
Special counsel Robert Mueller is going to probe former national security adviser Michael Flynn in his ongoing investigation into alleged ties between Trump’s campaign and the Russian government, according to a report by Reuters. This will include communications between Flynn and individuals connected to the Russian government both during and after the 2016 presidential election, as well as Flynn’s lobbying on behalf of Turkish businessman Ekim Alptekin. A source of concern is that Flynn’s work on a documentary about Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish cleric who currently lives in Pennsylvania. Turkish leader Tayyip Erdogan has accused Gulen of being involved in a 2016 coup attempt, while Alptekin is an Erdogan supporter.
Tough questions are being asked about Jared Kushner
Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and adviser, is under increasing scrutiny for a secret meeting held in December between himself and the chief executive of Vnesheconombank, a powerful Russian bank known for being an ally of President Vladimir Putin, according to a report by the Washington Post. While Vnesheconombank claims that they met with Kushner to discuss his family’s real estate business, the White House claims that the meeting was conducted for diplomatic reasons. Not surprisingly, the discrepancy in their stories is one of many things that have people asking questions.
One Democratic congresswoman on the House Intelligence Committee says that something’s not adding up. “Of all the people he could be talking to in a transition period where you’ve got lots of balls in the air, that you end up talking to a Russian banker who is under sanction and who is related to Putin and has a KGB background,” Rep. Jackie Speier, Calif., told ABC News. “I think the question has to be asked, was this about you trying to get financing for your troubled real estate that you have in New York City?”
Speier was referencing a Manhattan skyscraper purchased by the Kushner family — one that could be financially vulnerable. As Government Accountability Institute president Peter Schweizer told ABC News, the meeting had “conflict of interest written all over it” because if “you worry about a quid pro quo, you worry about Kushner getting some financial arrangement from a Russian financial institution, and you worry about White House policy being shaped in a way that benefits either those banks or Russia at large. That’s the concern.”
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