Investigators confirm Trump campaign aides spoke to Russian intelligence officials

WASHINGTON Phone records and intercepted calls show that members of Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and other Trump associates had repeated contacts with senior Russian intelligence officials in the year before the election, according to four current and former U.S. officials. U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies intercepted the communications around the same time that they were discovering evidence that Russia was trying to disrupt the presidential election by hacking into the Democratic National Committee, three of the officials said.

Trump knew Flynn misled WH weeks before ouster: Officials

In this image made from a video taken on Dec. 10, 2015 and made available on Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2017, US President Donald Trump's former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, right, shakes hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin, in Moscow. Flynn, who resigned following reports that he misled White House officials about his contacts with Russia, was seen attending the 10th anniversary of the Russian television network RT in 2015 where Russian President Vladimir Putin gave a speech.

Obstruction?

Mike Flynn's resigned from Donald Trump's administration. Michael Tracey thinks the reason for it is nonsense: Bill Van Auken offers : In response to the latest revelations about Flynn's meetings with the Russian ambassador and denials of what the CIA has now leaked to the media, leading Democrats mounted a campaign demanding that Flynn be stripped of his security clearance, suspended as national security advisor or fired.

Flynn, fired once by a president, now removed by Trump

The White House said Tuesday that President Donald Trump asked for the resignation of his national security adviser, a hard-charging, feather-ruffling retired lieutenant general who just three weeks into the new administration had put himself in the center of a controversy. Flynn resigned late Monday.

Michael Flynn Resigned. Here’s Why He Still Needs to be Investigated.

With Michael Flynn's resignation, the Flynn story is not done - and neither is the need for an investigation of Flynn and his contacts with Russia. Late on Monday night, Flynn, Donald Trump's combative and controversial national security adviser, quit his post, after days of incoming fire following a Washington Post report that he had lied about his December contacts with Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak.

Michael Flynn: Pro-Russia and fixated on Islamic extremism

The 58 year-old retired three-star general - a slim, energetic figure with sharp facial features - however had accommodating views on Russia and China, two countries that former president Barack Obama regarded as the main US strategic opponents. President Donald Trump's national security adviser Michael Flynn, who resigned late Monday over his controversial contacts with Russia.

On Trump’s National Security Team, Insecurity Over Michael Flynn and Policy

National Security Adviser Michael Flynn is currently under scrutiny for a phone call he had with Sergey Kislyak, the Russian ambassador to the U.S., in December. President Donald Trump's national security team reportedly is in a state of crisis, tied largely to suspicions National Security Adviser Michael Flynn discussed lifting sanctions with a Russian envoy and then hid the nature of those conversations from colleagues including Vice President Mike Pence .

The Spy Revolt Against Trump Begins

The Spy Revolt Against Trump Begins In a recent column, I explained how the still-forming Trump administration is already doing serious harm to America's longstanding global intelligence partnerships. In particular, fears that the White House is too friendly to Moscow are causing close allies to curtail some of their espionage relationships with Washington-a development with grave implications for international security, particularly in the all-important realm of counterterrorism.

Host Alec Baldwin, a SNLa cast skewer Trump White House

Alec Baldwin, who has scored in guest shots on "Saturday Night Live" with his mocking impersonation of Donald Trump since the campaign's final weeks, presided Saturday night as guest host of the NBC comedy show, serving up yet another Trump masquerade. In his spoof, President Trump made good on a tweeted vow to "see you in court" directed at the three Ninth Circuit federal judges who last week refused to lift a stay preventing his immigration ban from being enforced.

Inaction on Syrian atrocities seen as normal

It's a pattern that experts say will likely continue with the revelation this past week that, since 2011, officials at a military prison in Syria have summarily executed as many as 13,000 people by hanging. Amnesty International, which documented the killings, concluded that they were part of a systematic government policy, and constituted crimes against humanity.

Romee Strijd wears super short skirt out at fashion week

The Supper Bowl! The Trumps, the Japanese prime minister and his wife are joined by New England Patriots owner for dinner at Mar-a-Lago after the First Family fly to Florida on Air Force One 'I love all my moms': Hundreds of polygamists led by the 'Sister Wives' family descend on the steps of Utah Capitol to demand the legal right to plural marriage 'He's gone.

Kremlin Denies Trump’s National Security Adviser Discussed Sanctions with Russian Ambassador

The Kremlin has denied that President Donald Trump's national security adviser, Michael Flynn, discussed U.S. sanctions against Russia with Moscow's ambassador to the U.S. ahead of Trump's inauguration. President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, confirmed that phone calls between Flynn and Russia's Washington ambassador, Sergey Kislyak, had taken place, but said reports that they had discussed sanctions were "wrong."

Nine Republican senators urge Trump to pursue tough Russia policy

Nine senators from his own Republican party urged President Donald Trump on Thursday to take a "tough-minded" approach to Russia, joining a growing chorus of lawmakers addressing concerns that he might be too conciliatory toward Moscow. The nine senators, including the Senate's number two Republican, John Cornyn, wrote in a letter to Trump that cooperation with Moscow is essential in many areas, but calling for tough action on Ukraine, Syria and cyber security.

Report: Trump Denounced Obama-era Nuclear Treaty in Call with Putin

U.S. President Donald Trump, flanked by Chief of Staff Reince Priebus , speaks by phone with Russia's President Vladimir Putin in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, U.S. January 28, 2017. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst - RTSXT9A In his first call as president with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump denounced a treaty that caps U.S. and Russian deployment of nuclear warheads as a bad deal for the United States, according to two U.S. officials and one former U.S. official with knowledge of the call.

World briefs: Putin critic, who said he was poisoned in 2015, falls into coma

A leader of the Russian opposition who has been a vocal critic of what he calls a Kremlin policy of assassinating political enemies has fallen into a life-threatening coma caused by an unknown poison, his wife said Monday. The diagnosis of what ailed Vladimir Kara-Murza came at a delicate political moment for the United States and Russia, as President Donald Trump had just brushed aside criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin as a "killer."

Moral Compass Exceptional in U.S.

Donald Trump is president in part because many Americans disliked his predecessor's habit of refusing to recognize the exceptional nature of our government and the American people. Too often, former President Barack Obama cited our nation's challenges - and there are many - in equating us with other, much more deeply flawed countries.