Trump russia blackmail

WACO, Texas — In the last 28 months, former President Donald J. Trump has been voted out of the White House, impeached for his role in the Capitol riot and criticized for marching many of his fellow Republicans off an electoral cliff in the 2022 midterms with his drumbeat of election-fraud lies. He dined at home with a white supremacist in November. He called for the termination of the Constitution in December. He declared himself “ more angry ” than ever in January. He vowed to make retribution a hallmark of a second term in the White House in March. He has embraced the QAnon conspiracy theory movement, described President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia as a genius and used a gay joke to mock a fellow Republican. He has become the target of four criminal investigations, including one in New York that he warned might result in “ potential death & destruction .” Still, Mr. Trump remains a strong front-runner for the Republican Party’s 2024 presidential nomination. … [Read more...] about As Trump Rallies in Waco, His Followers Shore Up His 2024 Bid

Mary Trump, a political commentator and the niece of former President Donald Trump , issued a warning on Friday to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg as he faces continued attacks from her uncle. Bragg and his office are currently leading a long-term investigation into allegations of Trump's involvement in a 2016 plan to pay $130,000 in "hush money" to adult film star Stormy Daniels , in exchange for her staying quiet about an affair the two allegedly had a decade prior. Recent moves have indicated to legal experts that Bragg is nearing a criminal indictment against Trump for falsifying business records pertaining to the payment, which would be the first such indictment brought against a former president in American history. Trump, for his part, has denied that the affair with Daniels ever happened and has consistently attacked the legitimacy of the Manhattan district attorney's investigation, accusing Bragg of being a politically motivated "rogue" prosecutor. Last … [Read more...] about Mary Trump shares ominous advice for Alvin Bragg as Donald Trump attacks

Former President Donald Trump was criticized by the New York Post after he warned on social media about "death & destruction" if he's indicted in relation to the hush money payment investigation involving adult film star Stormy Daniels . "He hasn't changed in the slightest. There is no shame," the newspaper's editorial team wrote in an op-ed article that was published Friday. "After riling up rioters, cheering for a coup, and agreeing that his vice president needed to be hanged, he's back to making violent threats against fellow Americans," the editorial read in reference to the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, when Trump's supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol building in an attempt to stop the certification of Joe Biden 's 2020 election victory. The New York Post was once Trump's favorite and one of his supporting media outlets, endorsing him for the 2020 presidential election. However, the Trump-leaning, Rupert Murdoch -owned newspaper, changed its stance after … [Read more...] about Donald Trump blasted by his old favorite newspaper after “unhinged” threats

Secretive talks in the waning days of a campaign. Furtive phone calls. Ardent public denials. American history is full of October surprises — late revelations, sometimes engineered by an opponent, that shock the trajectory of a presidential election and that candidates dread. In 1880, a forged letter ostensibly written by James A. Garfield claimed he wanted more immigration from China, a position so unpopular it nearly cost him the election. Weeks before the 1940 election, Franklin D. Roosevelt’s press secretary kneed a Black police officer in the groin, just as the president was trying to woo skeptical Black voters. (Roosevelt’s response made history: He appointed the first Black general and created the Tuskegee Airmen.) But the scandal that has ensnared Donald J. Trump, the paying of hush money to a pornographic film star in 2016 , is in a rare class: an attempt not to bring to light an election-altering event, but to suppress one. The payoff to Stormy Daniels that has a … [Read more...] about Donald Trump, and the Sordid Tradition of Suppressing October Surprises

The Russian and Ukrainian armed forces have been accused of torturing and executing prisoners of war over the past year by the United Nations, which said that such actions could amount to war crimes. A report from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) claimed that both Russia and Ukraine have engaged in the summary execution of prisoners of war, which contravenes numerous international human rights laws and treaties on war. The OHCHR said that they documented cases of summary executions of at least 25 Russian prisoners of war (POWs) under the authority of Ukrainian forces. “Such cases amount to gross violations of [international human rights law] and serious violations of [international humanitarian law] that may constitute war crimes,” the report said. The UN body went on to claim to have documented poor treatment of POWs at eight of the 31 transit or permanent camps run by the Ukrainian government, in which they found documented … [Read more...] about U.N. Accuses Both Russia and Ukraine of Potential War Crimes

Russia's 155th Naval Infantry Brigade has been "destroyed and reconstituted as many as eight times" since Moscow's invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, according to a new report. The claim was made by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a Washington D.C.-based think tank, in its update on the Ukraine conflict published on Friday. Russian troops are continuing to assault the Donbas town of Bakhmut. They have suffered huge casualties in trying to seize it since August 2022, amidst growing speculation that the Ukrainian military is preparing for a major counter-offensive . Russian efforts to seize Vuhledar, a small town to the southwest of Donetsk, are also continuing, with the 155th Naval Infantry Brigade involved in the battle. However, according to the ISW, the operation has been sharply criticized by Russian military bloggers, or milbloggers, who generally support the war but have sometimes been critical of the tactics used. "The milbloggers claimed that … [Read more...] about Russian brigade destroyed and reconstituted up to 8 times after losses: ISW

The Biden administration needs to openly state that it wants Ukraine to "win" in its war against Russia, retired Lieutenant General Ben Hodges has told Newsweek . As the battle for Bakhmut in the Donetsk Oblast grinds on, the former U.S. Army Europe commanding general told Newsweek that the "liberation of Crimea" would be the "decisive" part of the war, but believes it would require a more overt declaration by the U.S. about a Ukrainian victory. "You could kill every Russian within 200 kilometres of Bakhmut and it would not change the strategic outcome, but you liberate Crimea and then I think you completely change the entire strategic context," he said. Hodges has consistently argued that Kyiv should be provided with all the weapons it needs to retake Crimea and said that Ukrainians will never feel secure or able to rebuild their economy while Moscow occupies the peninsula Vladimir Putin illegally annexed in 2014. The weapons could include ATACMS , (Army Tactical … [Read more...] about Joe Biden not going far enough on Ukraine stance: Ex-general

A Moscow police officer could face a lengthy prison term after the wiretapping of his phone revealed that he had criticized the Kremlin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Sergei Vedel, who was originally from Bucha, Ukraine, the scene of alleged Russian atrocities last year, had made disparaging comments about the war in conversations with his relatives, according to an indictment that was reported on the Telegram channel of opposition politician Ilya Yashin. He had worked as a driver for one of the chiefs of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. A month before the start of the war, his phone was wiretapped, which Yashin said could have been as part of an investigation into his boss or because of his Ukrainian origins. It was discovered that during his phone conversations with friends last March, Vedel denied that Ukraine was run by Nazis, a stance that was one of the Kremlin's justifications for its war. He also said that one of the reasons for the war was a bid by Moscow to … [Read more...] about Russian charged with “badmouthing” military after private call wire-tapped

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – The top commander of Ukraine’s military said Saturday that his forces are pushing back against Russian troops in the long and grinding battle for the town of Bakhmut, and British military intelligence says Russia appears to be moving to a defensive strategy in eastern Ukraine. “The Bakhmut direction is the most difficult. Thanks to the titanic efforts of the defence forces, the situation is being stabilized,” Gen. Valerii Zaluzhnyi said in a post on Telegram giving a synopsis of a telephone call with Adm. Sir Tony Radakin, Britain’s chief of defence staff. The seven-month battle for Bakhmut, where Russian forces have closed in on three sides, is the longest clash of the war, with Russia deploying both regular soldiers and fighters of the mercenary Wagner Group. Russian forces must go through Bakhmut to push deeper into parts of the eastern Donbas region, though Western officials say that the capture of the city would have limited impact on the course of the … [Read more...] about Bakhmut Situation Being ‘Stabilised’ by ‘Titanic Efforts’ of Defenders – Kyiv

Michael Steele, the former chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC), slammed House Republicans for visiting a jail where January 6 defendants are being held. A bipartisan group of lawmakers serving on the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability visited the Washington, D.C. jail on Friday. The visit reignited criticism from some over the GOP's response to the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol building , which saw a group of former President Donald Trump 's supporters violently protest in a failed attempt to force Congress to block President Joe Biden 's Electoral College victory. Some Republicans have condemned the treatment of these defendants , arguing they are being unfairly held for political purposes. Critics, however, have accused GOP lawmakers of siding with the rioters who sought to block the peaceful transfer of power after the 2020 presidential election. "We have to work as hard as possible to defund the two-tiered 'Injustice … [Read more...] about Former GOP chair outraged at Republicans’ visit to Jan. 6 rioters