Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
A working group of U.S. intelligence agencies have investigated National Security Adviser Michael Flynn over his contacts with Russian government officials, The Wall Street Journal is reporting. The story , which cites unnamed federal sources, broke on Sunday, just hours after Flynn, a retired lieutenant general, was sworn into office.
Two senior Republican lawmakers on Sunday said they would vote to approve President Donald Trump's nominee for secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, despite their concerns over the former ExxonMobil chief's relationship with Russia's president. "After careful consideration, and much discussion with Mr. Tillerson, we have decided to support his nomination to be secretary of state," Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said in a statement.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is ready to meet U.S. President Donald Trump but preparations for the possible meeting may take months, not weeks, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying by TASS news agency. Donald Trump took power as the 45th president of the United States on Friday after winning the presidential contest against Hillary Clinton.
Since civil rights icon John Lewis called the Trump presidency illegitimate, more than 50 of his Democratic colleagues in the House of Representatives have echoed his call to boycott the inauguration. Yet no Democratic senator has joined Lewis in the past few days, nor so explicitly questioned the validity of the presidential election.
President Vladimir Putin took a parting shot at the Obama administration Tuesday, accusing it of trying to undermine Donald Trump's legitimacy with fake allegations and "binding the president-elect hand and foot to prevent him from fulfilling his election promises." In his first public remarks about an unsubstantiated dossier outlining unverified claims that Trump engaged in sexual activities with prostitutes at a Moscow hotel, Putin dismissed the material as "nonsense."
Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at a joint news conference with Moldovan President Igor Dodon in the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2017.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said he doesn't believe that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump met with prostitutes in Russia, calling the accusations part of a campaign to undermine the election result. Unsubstantiated allegations made against Trump are "obvious fabrications," Putin told reporters in the Kremlin on Tuesday.
Russia's top diplomat on Tuesday said Moscow was looking forward to cooperating with the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump in the war on terrorism and bringing peace to Syria, and took a shot at the Obama administration for what he called "double standards." "If we hear that in the foreign policy of Donald Trump the main thing will be the fight against terrorism, then we, of course, can only welcome that, since that is exactly the thing that has been lacking with our American partners," Sergei Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister, told a nationally televised press conference.
With eager anticipation, the Kremlin is counting the days to Donald Trump's inauguration and venting its anger at Barack Obama's outgoing administration, no holds barred. Careful not to hurt chances for a thaw in U.S.-Russia relations, President Vladimir Putin and other Russian officials have deferred questions about their plans for future contacts with Trump and any agenda for those talks until he takes office on Friday.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein said Sunday that the future of American democracy is at stake, referencing Russia's hacking of Democratic political organizations. "I'm certainly not going to leave this in limbo, because this is the future of America.
Outgoing CIA Director John Brennan ripped into Donald Trump on Sunday for "talking and tweeting" about possibly easing sanctions against Russia, saying the president-elect lacks a full understanding of the threat Moscow poses to the United States. "I think he has to be mindful that he does not have a full appreciation and understanding of what the implications are of going down that road," Brennan said on "Fox News Sunday," a show Trump routinely watches.
Two top aides to President-elect Donald Trump denied a published report on Saturday that he is planning to hold a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin weeks after taking office. The Sunday Times of London reported that Trump had told British officials that such a summit was being planned, possibly to be staged in the Icelandic capital of Reykjavik.
Some of President-elect Donald Trump's picks for high-level positions in his administration this week split with him on key issues like trade, torture, and the US relationship with Iran and Russia. Trump has taken some controversial stances on many issues throughout his campaign and after the election.
The US presidential election was barely a week away when the two men first met. David Corn, Washington editor of the liberal news website Mother Jones, had agreed to meet with his contact, a former spy, under the condition that he would neither name him, reveal his identity or the spy service where he had worked for nearly two decades.
Trump told the Wall Street Journal he is prepared to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin some time after he is sworn in on January 20. Photo: Reuters President-elect Donald Trump has hinted that he may lift sanctions on Russia and won't stand by the "One China" policy unless Beijing improves its currency and trade practices. Trump told The Wall Street Journal in an interview published Friday that he would keep intact "at least for a period of time" sanctions President Barack Obama's administration imposed on Russia last month over Moscow's alleged cyberattacks to influence the US election.
In this Dec. 12, 2016 file photo, National Security Adviser-designate Michael T. Flynn waits for an elevator in the lobby at Trump Tower in New York. The Obama administration is aware of frequent contacts between President-elect Donald Trump's top national security adviser Michael Flynn and Russia's ambassador to the United States, including on the day President Barack Obama hit Moscow with sanctions in retaliation for election-related hacking, a senior U.S. official said Friday, Jan. 13, 2017.
Some of the incoming president's most important Cabinet choices are at odds with him on matters that were dear to his heart as a campaigner and central to his promises to supporters. Trump says he doesn't mind the disconnect.
Some of the incoming president's most important Cabinet choices are at odds with him on matters that were dear to his heart as a campaigner and central to his promises to supporters. Trump says he doesn't mind the disconnect.
"As part of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence's oversight responsibilities we believe that it is critical to have a full understanding of the scope of Russian intelligence activities impacting the United States," the statement said. The U.S. intelligence community issued a report earlier this month saying that the Russian government and intelligence agencies, at the direction of the country's president, Vladimir Putin, waged a campaign in an attempt to influence the U.S. election.