It’s Friday.
President Trump has tweeted 3 times, re-tweeted 4 times, so far.
1. Finally, Mainstream Media is getting involved – too “hot” to avoid. Pulitzer Prize anyone?…This is bigger than WATERGATE, but the reverse!
On Thursday The New York Times reported that a woman called Azra Turk arranged a meeting with Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos in a London Bar, the two met in September of 2016, according to the article, Turk asked Papadopoulos a direct question: Was the Trump campaign working with Russia?
The woman who called herself a research assistant, was “actually a government investigator,” The New York Times cites, people familiar with the operation.
They explain the FBI sent “Turk,” whose real name is not publicly known, “as part of the counterintelligence inquiry opened that summer to better understand the Trump campaign’s links to Russia.”
According to the report, Turk, “went to London to help oversee the politically sensitive operation, working alongside a longtime informant, the Cambridge professor Stefan A. Halper.”
The operation “yielded no fruitful information, but F.B.I. officials have called the bureau’s activities in the months before the election both legal and carefully considered under extraordinary circumstances.”
In May of 2018, as the News Blender reported, The New York Times reported on an FBI operation called “Crossfire Hurricane: The Secret Origins of the Trump Investigation.”
That article led to #SpyGate being tweeted by the President of the United States, Donald Trump.
At the time, the Intelligence Community denied that spying occurred on the Trump Campaign, instead they explained it was part of the counterintelligence investigation into Russia, and what in fact the Russian Government was doing to reach out to both presidential campaigns.
As the New York Times story from Thursday notes, both operations are being investigated by “Michael E. Horowitz, the Justice Department inspector general,” Attorney General William Barr has said, the results of that internal review could be made public as early as May or June. Horowitz announced the investigation in March of 2018.
What does the Mueller Report say about George Papadopoulos?
Spring 2016. Campaign foreign policy advisor George Papadopoulos made early contact with Joseph Mifsud, a London-based professor who had connections to Russia and traveled to Moscow in April 2016. Immediately upon his return to London from that trip, Mifsud told Papadopoulos that the Russian government had “dirt” on Hillary Clinton in the form of thousands of emails.
One week later, in the first week of May 2016, Papadopoulos suggested to a representative of a foreign government that the Trump Campaign had received indications from the Russian government that it could assist the Campaign through the anonymous release of information damaging to candidate Clinton. Throughout that period of time and for several months thereafter, Papadopoulos worked with Mifsud and two Russian nationals to arrange a meeting between the Campaign and the Russian government. No meeting took place.
July 2016 was also the month WikiLeaks first released emails stolen by the GRU from the DNC. On July 22, 2016, WikiLeaks posted thousands of internal DNC documents revealing information about the Clinton Campaign. Within days, there was public reporting that U.S. intelligence agencies had “high confidence” that the Russian government was .behind the theft of emails and documents from the DNC.
And within a week of the release, a foreign government informed the FBI about its May 2016 interaction with Papadopoulos and his statement that the Russian government could assist the Trump Campaign.
On July 31, 2016, based on the foreign government reporting, the FBI opened an investigation into potential coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the Trump Campaign.
The above taken from the Mueller Report, are taken from the introduction. The detailed background on Papadopoulos starts on Volume 1 page 80 (PDF page 88.) FWIW if you use the find option in the CNN provided searchable Mueller Report, Papadopoulos’ name appears 329 times in the Mueller Report.
Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to lying to FBI investigators in October 2017, in September 2018 as the News Blender reported he was sentenced to 14 days in prison, fined $9,500, 200 hours of community service, and one year supervision.
For more on George Papadopoulos who was given the moniker Coffee Boy @ the News Blender.
2. JOBS, JOBS, JOBS!
3. Breitbart Article.
CNBC News reports that “Nonfarm payroll growth easily beat Wall Street expectations of 190,000 and a 3.8% jobless rate.”
They add, “Unemployment was last this low in December 1969 when it hit 3.5%. At a time when many economists see a tight labor market, big job growth continues as the economic expansion is just a few months away from being the longest in history.”
According to the article the “broader unemployment,” number that includes people “who quit looking for work” remains at 7.2 percent since February.
They note, “Those counted as not in the labor force surged by 646,000 to a fresh high of 96.2 million.”
CNBC News explains revisions for February and March, “Previous months saw net upward revisions, with February going from a scant 33,000 growth to 56,000, though March’s total was reduced to 189,000 from 196,000, for a net gain of 16,000. Year to date, job gains have averaged 205,000 a month.”
This post will be update within reason.
