James Comey, the former director of the FBI who has become a prime nemesis of Donald Trump, admitted on Sunday to being responsible for “real sloppiness” over the handling of surveillance of a Trump campaign adviser.
Related: The lies have it: Republicans abandon truth in Trump impeachment defence
Continue reading...Inspector general Michael Horowitz defends report that found FBI investigation into 2016 Trump campaign was justified – follow live
Two sources told CNN that the whistleblower whose account led to the impeachment inquiry is prepping for a potential subpoena from the Senate to testify. Donald Trump and his allies have made thinly veiled threats to the whistleblower, who is still anonymous, making some question the safety of revealing the whistleblower’s identity. Here’s more from CNN:
A subpoena would put the whistleblower in uncharted territory, and raise the risk that his or her identity could come out in the course of the trial in the Senate -- where, unlike in the Democrat-led House, some Republicans have expressed a desire to hear from the whistleblower. ...
Depending on how senators structure their likely trial, a subpoena could compel the whistleblower to cooperate with anything from written questions to a closed-door interview in a secure location to a public hearing that would expose the whistleblower’s identity.
Friendly reminder that the House judiciary committee’s debate on the two articles of impeachment will begin tonight at 7pm. Reports say that House Democrats plan to vote on each article separately.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler said there will be separate House votes on each article of impeachment when they go to the floor next week, even though the articles are written into a single resolution, per @jeremyherb
Continue reading...The former MI6 officer Christopher Steele had a “personal” relationship with Ivanka Trump and gifted her a “family tartan from Scotland” as a present, the long-awaited report by US Department of Justice inspector general, Michael Horowitz, revealed on Monday.
Horowitz’s review of the FBI’s 2016 investigation into Donald Trump’s 2016 election campaign and its links with Russia includes fresh details of Steele’s interactions with the FBI, and startling claims about his relationship with the Trumps dating back to the period before he wrote a controversial dossier on Trump.
Continue reading...Giuliani says of 2016 remarks implying he spoke to ‘active’ FBI agents: ‘I mean they are not old men, they can still do things’
Rudy Giuliani offered the FBI an extraordinary – and seemingly implausible – explanation for “misleading” remarks he made on television just a month before the 2016 election about a “surprise” that could derail the Hillary Clinton campaign.
Related: Rudy Giuliani says Trump will stay loyal to him but jokes that he has 'insurance'
Continue reading...The former FBI director James Comey joked he would move to New Zealand if Donald Trump was re-elected in 2020. Comey worked for the Obama administration, caused a storm over Hillary Clinton's emails in 2016 and was fired by Trump in May 2017. He also said US leaders 'can't be people who lie all the time'
Continue reading...Investigators have confirmed 50 of the homicides to which Samuel Little has confessed
The FBI is asking for the public’s help in identifying dozens of victims of the man who has confessed to strangling 93 people, claims the agency says are credible and make him the most prolific serial killer in US history.
Investigators who have interviewed Samuel Little at a Los Angeles-area prison say they have confirmed 50 of the homicides he admitted to carrying out between 1970 and 2005 and have released videotapes of his jailhouse confessions as they investigate the remaining killings.
Continue reading...A member of the US military has been arrested after he allegedly discussed plans to bomb a news network, suggested targeting the Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke and explained how to make an improvised explosive device, or IED.
The FBI charged Jarrett William Smith, a soldier stationed in Kansas, with distributing information related to explosives and weapons of mass destruction.
Continue reading...Josh Campbell worked for James Comey – his book is a must-read indictment of the ‘mob boss’ in the White House
Few people had better seats than Josh Campbell for the drama that has shaped the Trump presidency. A supervisory special agent at the FBI, he was special assistant to James Comey and stayed on into Robert Mueller’s first year as special counsel.
Related: Whistleblower's mysterious complaint over Trump sparks feverish speculation
Continue reading...Expert says financier’s death may reduce legal issues with evidence as search begins
The FBI has raided Jeffrey Epstein’s private island in the Caribbean, in a further sign the death of the financier will not halt scrutiny of his alleged sex trafficking crimes.
Mobile phone footage broadcast by NBC news showed agents arriving on Little Saint James, in the US Virgin Islands, on Monday morning.
Continue reading...Court filing says Trump and Hope Hicks spoke to Michael Cohen often as Daniels in 2016 threatened to go public with story of affair
Donald Trump and his press secretary were directly involved in discussions that led to an illegal hush-money payment to Stormy Daniels during the 2016 election campaign, according to the FBI.
Related: Senior Democrats voice fears over Ilhan Omar's safety – live
Continue reading...Prosecutors allege Inzerillo clan was seeking to rebuild power base in Palermo with help from allied New York-based Gambino family
Italian and US police have launched a coordinated crackdown on a Sicilian mafia family that was seeking to rebuild its power base after years of exile in the United States, Italian investigators said on Wednesday.
More than 200 police, including officers from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), arrested 18 people in Sicily as part of their investigation into the Inzerillo clan in the island’s capital Palermo and the allied New York-based Gambino family.
Continue reading...President claims he would have no obligation to call the FBI, contradicting bureau director he appointed
Donald Trump has said he would be open to accepting damaging information on a 2020 election opponent from another country, adding that he would feel no obligation to inform the FBI.
“I think you might want to listen, there isn’t anything wrong with listening,” Trump said in an interview with ABC News on Wednesday. “If somebody called from a country, Norway, [and said] ‘we have information on your opponent’ oh, I think I’d want to hear it.”
Continue reading...The US congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has questioned the FBI over a potential double standard for perpetrators of violent extremism. She said Muslim mass killers tended to be charged with terrorism while massacres by white supremacists were considered only to be hate crimes. ‘Doesn’t it seem that because the perpetrator was Muslim that the designation would say it’s a foreign organisation?’ Ocasio-Cortez asked the assistant director of the FBI’s counterterrorism division Michael McGarrity, to which he responded: 'That’s not correct.' Ocasio-Cortez then asked him if white supremacy was not a global issue. 'It is a global issue,' the FBI official responded. 'So why are they not charged with foreign terror?'
Continue reading...Bannon, then Trump’s closest adviser, told FBI officials to put their past differences with the White House ‘behind them’
Steve Bannon urged two senior FBI officials to put their differences with the White House “behind them” at a meeting in 2017, on the day after Donald Trump asked James Comey, the then head of the FBI, to pledge his loyalty to the president.
The exchange, which occurred on 28 January 2017 and has never been publicly disclosed, offers new insights into the ways in which senior White House officials, including Bannon, Trump’s closest adviser at the time, sought to ensure the FBI saw itself as an ally of the White House.
Continue reading...Larry Mitchell Hopkins accused of illegal weapons possession after videos apparently showed men stopping migrants in New Mexico
A member of an armed rightwing militia group accused of illegally detaining migrants at the US-Mexico border has been arrested, officials said on Saturday.
Related: Videos appear to show armed militia detaining migrants at US-Mexico border
Continue reading...FBI Director Chris Wray has described white supremacist extremism as 'a persistent, pervasive threat' during a House committee appropriations hearing. According to congressman Jose Serrano, Wray did not mention the issue by name in his budget request to the House, but Wray reiterated the significance of the issue, describing the shift from organised white supremacist groups towards un-coordinated lone actors. His comments were in contrast to those of Donald Trump who, after the Christchurch shooting, said he 'didn't really' see white nationalism as a growing threat around the world but instead a 'small group of people with serious problems'.
One of 10 people who entered consulate by force in February contacted FBI, high court says
The details of how mysterious intruders raided North Korea’s embassy in Madrid last month, tricked the Spanish police and made off with a stash of stolen intelligence which they offered to the FBI have been laid out by a Spanish judge.
Spanish police were called to the embassy in the middle of the raid, but were warded off by the Mexican citizen Adrian Hong Chang who pretended to be a diplomat, the Spanish newspaper El País reported.
Continue reading...Robert Mueller has completed his Trump-Russia investigation without prosecuting additional associates of the president, and has reported his findings to William Barr, the US attorney general.
Related: What does the Mueller report say and what does it mean for Trump?
Continue reading...Former FBI chief says president believed Russian leader over US security agencies and ‘a crime may have been committed’ over Comey firing
A former FBI acting director has alleged Donald Trump dismissed advice from his own security agencies on the threat posed by North Korea’s missiles, saying “I don’t care. I believe Putin.”
Andrew McCabe made the claims in an interview with 60 Minutes, in which he discussed his tenure at the FBI after James Comey was fired by the president in 2017.
Continue reading...Trump ally Lindsey Graham has promised a Senate investigation into claims senior justice department officials discussed invoking the 25th amendment and removing the president from power.
Related: Andrew McCabe says officials discussed removing Trump after Comey firing
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