Donald Trump suggested in tweets early on Wednesday that former FBI director James Comey had decided to spare Hillary Clinton from prosecution “long before investigation was complete” into her government email practices, calling the process “a fix”.

“FBI confirms report that James Comey drafted letter exonerating Crooked Hillary Clinton long before investigation was complete,” Trump tweeted, continuing, “Many people not interviewed, including Clinton herself. Comey stated under oath that he didn’t do this-obviously a fix? Where is Justice Dept?”

Trump was referring to documents released by the FBI on Monday which show that Comey had composed a draft entitled: “Drafts of Director Comey’s July 5, 2016 Statement Regarding Email Server Investigation Part 01 of 01” about two months before the statement was actually made and before Clinton was interviewed.

read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/oct/18/trump-calls-james-comeys...

Meanwhile at Russia Interference Central:

• Attorney General Jeff Sessions is testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee for the first time, eight months into his tenure as the nation’s chief law enforcement officer.

• Mr. Sessions told lawmakers he would not discuss his conversations with President Trump, citing executive privilege, a tack he has taken before that angered Democrats because Mr. Trump has not invoked the privilege.

• Do not expect Mr. Sessions to talk much about the Justice Department’s Russia investigation. He has recused himself from overseeing it because of his role as a campaign adviser to Mr. Trump.

read more:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/18/us/politics/sessions-senate-judiciary-committee-hearing.html

US President Donald Trump took to Twitter to blast “fake media” for sweeping under the carpet revelations about a controversial Obama-era uranium deal with Russia that was tied to Hillary Clinton.

Trump, who often derides the mainstream media as "fake news," on Thursday lashed out at the networks again, this time for ignoring what he felt was a bombshell story. That day, The Hill published a report that the FBI had investigated corruption in the nuclear industry before the State Department, at that time headed by Clinton, and the Obama administration approved a 2010 deal giving Moscow control of one-fifth of all uranium production capacity in the US.

According to The Hill, the controversial deal that made Russian atomic energy agency Rosatom one of the world's largest uranium producers, was inked despite substantial evidence obtained by the FBI during the probe. There was also speculation that Clinton, then secretary of state, approved the agreement benefiting Russia in exchange for donations to the Clinton Foundation from Canadian mining industry leaders involved in the deal. Clinton denied that she helped support the donors' interests.

"Uranium deal to Russia, with Clinton help and Obama Administration knowledge, is the biggest story that Fake Media doesn't want to follow!" Trump tweeted Thursday, criticizing news outlets for keeping silent on the issue.

The Senate Judiciary Committee recently launched an investigation into the matter and sought permission to interview an FBI informant who helped agents uncover the scheme.

"To me what this shows is what Julian Assange has frankly been saying all along, that what he is seeing is not any collusion between Trump and his people and Russia, but that in fact Hillary herself was compromised, let's put it that way, in her dealings with folks in Russia," Dan Kovalik, human rights and labor lawyer, told Radio Sputnik in an interview.

He said he found it absurd that Clinton, who bears some responsibility for starting and promoting the RussiaGate witch hunt, is now being drawn into the narrative.

"She did start it. Her campaign folks, John Podesta, we know, intentionally came up with the RussiaGate claims within 24 hours of her concession speech… in order to deflect blame away from herself and her campaign for what seemed to be an impossible loss to Donald Trump."

Meanwhile, Clinton continues to accuse Moscow and WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange of conspiring to disrupt her presidential bid. The FBI's special counsel, Robert Mueller, as well as the US House of Representatives and Senate Intelligence Committees, are examining Russia's alleged meddling in the 2016 election and whether collusion with Trump associates took place.

Kovalik pointed out that in fact Trump's policy is in some ways more hostile to Russia than that of the Obama administration, during which major sales to Russian corporate entities of strategic commodities like uranium were approved.

Read more:

https://sputniknews.com/us/201710201058389196-clinton-russiagate-uranium-deal/

With the Trump-Russia scandal expanding—it now includes new revelations regarding Moscow’s use of social media in the United States to influence the 2016 campaign—Capitol Hill sources are questioning whether the House intelligence committee has devoted sufficient resources to conduct a thorough and comprehensive investigation of this wide-ranging matter.

The committee’s to-do list includes a long list of subjects to probe: the Russian intelligence hack-and-dump operations targeting Democrats and the Clinton campaign, the Russian effort to penetrate state election systems, the pre- and post-election interactions and ties between Trump associates and Russians, the financial links between Donald Trump and Russian entities, the memos compiled by former British intelligence officer Christopher David Steele, the firing of FBI director Jim Comey, the Obama administration’s response to the Russian assault, the role of WikiLeaks and other possible cut-outs in Moscow’s information warfare against the United States, and more. Yet according to committee sources, only a modest number of staffers have been assigned the task of investigating all of this. These sources note that the Republicans who control the committee have only put four or five full-time staffers on the case. The Democrats, who are granted a much smaller share of the committee’s resources because they are in the minority, have fewer people working full-time on the investigation.

Read more:

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/10/does-the-house-intel-committ...

Mother Jones found a bone... It's one of those plastic toys for dogs that whistles when you put your teeth on it. Okay. Putin and the Russian government did not interfere with the US Presidential elections. But the thought of such interference via devious channels keeps a few reporters busy, looking under any Facebook advert for people (Russians — no Ukrainians allowed) who did not want Hillary to win. Nor Donald for that matter... There would be some of these as well on Facebook, but let's not look here.

So how many people should the House Intelligence Committee put on this investigation? Six? Twenty? One hundred? As many as it takes to dig a hole and suddenly find that La Clinton was also a Uranium agent for Russia? Or find that Wikileaks got their info from within the DNC? Or find nothing that has not already been explored, including Trump's attempts at befriending Russia against the wishes of the "establishment" and of the MMMM (mediocre mass media etc) who need Russia as a boogey man to justify their own existence?

...

There is no Senate Estimates-style oversight by Republicans in Congress over what Mr Trump is doing, and whether he is, pursuant to his oath of office, taking care that the laws are faithfully executed.

The House and Senate investigations of Russia and its interference in the 2016 election, and whether officials in the Mr Trump campaign committed treason in colluding with the Russians, have ground to a halt.

The mood in Washington right now is that even if Special Counsel Robert Mueller finds criminal activity at the highest levels of the Trump campaign, including possible obstruction of justice by trying to shut down the probe, the Republicans in the House will not vote to impeach Mr Trump.

Mr Trump is not going anywhere. He is prosecuting [enforcing] his agenda with abandon. He has overpowered those in his party in Congress who resist his leadership.

Democrats have not translated Mr Trump's unpopularity into a potent political counterforce.

For those who voted for Mr Trump, their man is on the hustings keeping full faith with his campaign policies and blaming all those standing in his way — Republicans and Democrats — for not getting with the program. The economy is growing at 3 per cent. The stock market is near all-time highs.

One year on from his shock election over Hillary Clinton, this is Mr Trump at his zenith.

Bruce Wolpe worked with the Democrats in Congress in Barack Obama's first term. He is chief of staff to former prime minister Julia Gillard.

read more:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-11-01/donald-trump-is-at-his-zenith/9105062