Lawyer Adam Waldman said during an appearance before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on Nov. 3 that he relayed information about possible links between billionaire activist George Soros and Fusion GPS.
Waldman said he received the information in a March 16.
Waldman said Daniel J. Jones asserted he was working with Fusion GPS and that the research firm was being funded by a “group of Silicon Valley billionaires and George Soros.”
An American lawyer who served as a back channel between dossier author Christopher Steele and Democratic Sen. Mark Warner is opening up about explosive testimony he gave to a Senate committee late last year.
Adam Waldman said that during an appearance before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) on Nov. 3, he relayed information about possible links between billionaire activist George Soros and Fusion GPS, the opposition research firm that commissioned the dossier.
Waldman said he received the information in a March 16 meeting he had with Daniel J. Jones, a consultant and former staffer to California Sen. Dianne Feinstein.
Waldman told The Daily Caller News Foundation that Jones asserted that he was working with Fusion GPS and that the research firm was being funded by a “group of Silicon Valley billionaires and George Soros.” Jones also described Fusion as a “shadow media organization helping the government.”
“He was there as Fusion GPS. He brought up Fusion GPS,” Waldman told TheDCNF of his interaction with Jones.
“It was very, very clear.”
Waldman, 49, also said that Jones mentioned Glenn Simpson, one of Fusion’s co-founders and Steele’s main partner on the dossier project.
Waldman’s testimony about the meeting was first revealed in a Daily Caller op-ed published last week by Oleg Deripaska, a Russian billionaire who is a client of Waldman’s.
In the op-ed, Deripaska, a former business partner of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort’s, largely criticized the so-called “Deep State,” which he alleges has pushed a false narrative about the Russia investigation. But the piece also broke news about his lawyer’s Senate testimony and the claims about Fusion GPS and Soros funding.
Jones, Fusion GPS, and a representative for Soros did not return repeated requests for comment. A spokesperson for the Senate panel declined to discuss Waldman’s testimony.
Reached by phone, Fusion GPS attorney Josh Levy declined to comment on Waldman’s testimony about Jones and Soros connections to the firm, saying “I’m not commenting for your story.”
Waldman’s link to key players in the Russia investigation is one of the more intriguing wrinkles in the dossier saga. On one side is Oleg Deripaska, an oligarch with close ties to Vladimir Putin. On the other are Steele, Jones and Warner, all of who are involved in one way or another in investigating the Kremlin’s meddling in the 2016
election.
How the two sides found a common link in Waldman remains a mystery, one that lawyer said he is presently unable to discuss in full.
Waldman, who runs Endeavor Law Firm and also represents actor Johnny Depp, entered the national spotlight last month after text messages that he exchanged last year with Warner were leaked to Fox News. The messages, which Waldman provided to SSCI in September, showed that he negotiated with Warner on behalf of the London-based Steele to set up an interview with the committee.
Warner sought the meeting in his capacity as the top Democrat on Senate Intel.
Steele, as is now widely known, was hired by Fusion GPS in June 2016 to investigate Donald Trump’s ties to Russia. The Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee paid Fusion for the project.
Waldman’s texts to Warner mention Steele, Deripaska, and Jones, who was an SSCI staffer for Feinstein when she chaired the panel.
Encrypted text messages provided to SSCI and obtained by TheDCNF corroborate some of Waldman’s claims, particularly regarding his meeting with Jones and a suggestion from him that he helped with anti-Trump news stories.
A March 15 message shows Jones contacted Waldman and introduced himself as being with an upstart non-profit group called the Democracy Integrity Project.
Signal messages from Daniel Jones to Adam Waldman
“Dan Jones here from the Democracy Integrity Project. Chris wanted us to connect,” reads the intro message, referring to Steele and to a newly formed non-profit group of which little is known.
Corporate registration documents show that a group by that name was formed in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 31, 2017, several weeks before Jones’ outreach to Waldman and several weeks after BuzzFeed News published the dossier.
Waldman’s contact with Warner began in February 2017 and initially centered on Deripaska and Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. Waldman suggested in his initial texts that he was in communication with Assange, who is living under asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in London.
The lawyer first mentioned Steele to Warner on March 17, a day after he met with Jones, who now runs a consulting firm called the Penn Quarter Group.
“Chris Steele asked me to call you,” Waldman wrote to Warner.
The text messages show that Warner, a Democrat, sought to meet with Steele separately from other members of the Senate committee. But Waldman said that Steele first wanted a letter signed by Warner and North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr, the Republican chairman of the committee, formally seeking an interview with Steele.
Warner rebuffed the idea and pressed for a private meeting with Steele, going as far as offering to travel to England.
“We want to do this right private in London don’t want to send letter yet cuz if we can’t get agreement wud rather not have paper trail,” Warner wrote on March 30.
Waldman’s texts to Warner also refer to Jones.
“[Steele] said he will also speak w Dan Jones whom he says is talking to you,” Waldman wrote in an April 25 message. “I encouraged him to engage with you for the sake of the truth and of vindication of the dossier,” the text continued.
Later that day, he wrote that “[Steele] said Dan Jones is coming to see you.”
“I suggest you explain to Dan why a call is the necessary first step rather than a letter from your perspective.”
Waldman had only a few text exchanges with Jones, but the messages provide some insight into Jones’ investigative work on Trump.
“Our team helped with this,” Jones wrote in a March 17 message that included a link to a Reuters article about Russian nationals’ investments in Trump-owned buildings. The article focuses heavily on Russians’ investments in Trump real estate properties in Sunny Isles Beach, Fla.
Jones did not describe who was included on his team, but Glenn Simpson, the Fusion GPS co-founder, testified to two congressional committees last year that his firm conducted research into Trump’s real estate deals in Sunny Isles Beach.
“I spoke w Warner and he did mention you as discussed. He obliquely brought your org up so it was natural,” Waldman wrote on March 19.
Waldman and Warner’s leaked texts show that the two called each other multiple times around that date.
The two sets of text messages, and Waldman’s testimony, raises numerous questions about the dossier.
It remains unclear why Jones reached out to Waldman. Jones and Waldman’s relationships to Steele are also a mystery. Waldman declined to comment on that particular matter, and a request for comment from Steele’s lawyers in London was forwarded to a legal adviser who said they could not speak to the media on Steele’s behalf.
Little else is known about Jones’ work with Fusion GPS or on the dossier. The only reporting on those connections comes from The Federalist which recently reported that Jones was working with Fusion as part of a post-election effort to validate the dossier.
Republican lawmakers remain puzzled by the Warner-Waldman and the possible links between Deripaska and Steele.
Republican Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, recently sent letters to Waldman and Deripaska’s London-based attorney, Paul Hauser, inquiring whether they or Deripaska have ever hired Steele or his private intelligence firm, Orbis Business Intelligence.
Grassley also sent letters in January to members of the Clinton campaign and DNC asking about any communications with more than 20 individuals, including Fusion GPS employees, Waldman and Jones.
Grassley appears interested in exploring what implications any links between Steele and Deripaska would have for the dossier, which BuzzFeed News published on Jan. 10, 2017. Waldman denies one lead that lawmakers appear to be chasing: that Deripaska was a source for the dossier.
Waldman has represented Deripaska since 2009, largely on visa issues. The oligarch has fought the State Department over its decision in 2006 to revoke his visa after the agency became concerned about the industrialist’s alleged ties to Russian organized crime.
The aluminum magnate pays Waldman $40,000 a month for the work, according to documents filed by under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
Deripaska has also worked in the past with Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman who was recently indicted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller on money laundering and bank fraud charges.
While Manafort was on the campaign, he and Deripaska were in a dispute over a failed business venture involving cable TV stations in Ukraine. Deripaska accused the Republican consultant of squandering $19 million from the deal.
“If he needs private briefings we can accommodate,” Manafort wrote to an associate on July 7, 2016, while he was still with the Trump campaign.
And just before joining the campaign in April 2016, Manafort sent a cryptic message to his associate: “How do we use to get whole?”
The emails have fueled speculation that Manafort sought to use his position on the campaign to help settle his debts to Deripaska.
I bet he believes in God Now. When Billy Graham Died Atheist and Liberals Mocked him but we will see who gets the last laugh.
Billy Graham is doing fine right now but I bet you can’t say the same for Stephen Hawking.
THIS IS A QUOTE FROM STEPHEN HAWKINS
“When people ask me if a god created the universe, I tell them that the question itself makes no sense. Time didn’t exist before the big bang, so there is no time for god to make the universe in. It’s like asking directions to the edge of the earth; The Earth is a sphere; it doesn’t have an edge; so looking for it is a futile exercise. We are each free to believe what we want, and it’s my view that the simplest explanation is; there is no god. No one created our universe,and no one directs our fate. This leads me to a profound realization; There is probably no heaven, and no afterlife either. We have this one life to appreciate the grand design of the universe, and for that I am extremely grateful.”
Stephen Hawking, who sought to explain some of the most complicated questions of life while working under the shadow of a likely premature death, has died at 76.
* His children Lucy, Robert and Tim:
“He was a great scientist and an extraordinary man whose work and legacy will live on for many years. His courage and persistence with his brilliance and humor inspired people across the world. He once said: ‘It would not be much of a universe if it wasn’t home to the people you love.’ We will miss him forever.”
* Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web:
“We have lost a colossal mind and a wonderful spirit. Rest in peace, Stephen Hawking.”
* Actor Eddie Redmayne, who played Hawking in the 2014 film ‘The Theory of Everything’: “We have lost a truly beautiful mind, an astonishing scientist and the funniest man I have ever had the pleasure to meet. My love and thoughts are with his extraordinary family.”
* Professor Stephen Toope, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge:
“Professor Hawking was a unique individual who will be remembered with warmth and affection not only in Cambridge but all over the world. His exceptional contributions to scientific knowledge and the popularization of science and mathematics have left an indelible legacy. His character was an inspiration to millions. He will be much missed.”
* Professor Lord Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal, Fellow of Trinity College, and Emeritus Professor of Cosmology and Astrophysics at the University of Cambridge:
“Soon after I enrolled as a graduate student at Cambridge University in 1964, I encountered a fellow student, two years ahead of me in his studies; he was unsteady on his feet and spoke with great difficulty. This was Stephen Hawking. He had recently been diagnosed with a degenerative disease, and it was thought that he might not survive long enough even to finish his PhD. But, amazingly, he lived on to the age of 76.
“Even mere survival would have been a medical marvel, but of course he didn’t just survive. He became one of the most famous scientists in the world – acclaimed as a world-leading researcher in mathematical physics, for his best-selling books about space, time and the cosmos, and for his astonishing triumph over adversity.
“Tragedy struck Stephen Hawking when he was only 22. He was diagnosed with a deadly disease, and his expectations dropped to zero. He himself said that everything that happened since then was a bonus. And what a triumph his life has been. His name will live in the annals of science; millions have had their cosmic horizons widened by his best-selling books; and even more, around the world, have been inspired by a unique example of achievement against all the odds – a manifestation of amazing will-power and determination.”
* NASA:
“His theories unlocked a universe of possibilities that we and the world are exploring. May you keep flying like superman in microgravity, as you said to astronauts on @Space_Station in 2014.”
*Paul Nurse, Chief Executive and Director of the Francis Crick Institute:
“Stephen Hawking was a great physicist, a great public communicator, and a great icon for science and rationalism throughout the world. He will be sorely missed.”
* Matthew Colless, professor of astronomy & astrophysics at The Australian National University:
“Hawking was a great scientist and an inspirational figure. The universe is better understood and more interesting because he was in it.”
* British Prime Minister Theresa May:
“Stephen Hawking was a brilliant and extraordinary mind – one of the great scientists of his generation. His courage, humor and determination to get the most from life was an inspiration. His legacy will not be forgotten.”
* Katherine Mathieson, chief executive of the British Science Association: “He was a true genius who had a great admiration of and connection to the public. Most people, when he published ‘A Brief History of Time’, would have thought a book about physics would not sell. But Stephen knew people would want to read it – and it turned out they did. He simplified and explained, but without gimmicks. His assumption that people are curious about the universe and black holes was true. He inspired us all to wonder.”
“Importantly, he showed that disability and difference are no barriers to success; he challenged perceptions. On a personal note, I remember him – from when I was a student at his University – speeding down the middle of the road to get around, because the pavements were too bumpy. It sent out a message that ‘it doesn’t matter what you look like, you can be a scientist here’.
* Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang:
“Mr Hawking was a remarkable scientist and also was a fighter for science in his long and bitter struggle against illness. He made great contributions to science and to humanity.
“China’s leaders have met with him. China’s scientists and science lovers have had very enjoyable interactions with him. Mr Hawking followed China’s development closely. He gave a high assessment of China’s developments and progress in science. Mr Hawking also had a keen fondness for Chinese culture.
“As I understand it, under his strong persistence and with the help of his assistant, he was finally able to see China’s Great Wall. We express condolences for Mr Hawking’s passing and our sympathies to his family. I have faith that Mr Hawking and his contribution will never be forgotten.”
* Professor Paul Hardaker, Chief Executive of the Institute of Physics:
“A quite remarkable physicist and certainly a remarkable person. He made several fundamental and lasting contributions to cosmology but is probably best known by the public for his passion and enthusiasm in sharing his knowledge of how the universe works.”
God Bless You Is Offensive But Not Cutting Off Heads.
If you happen to be in the library at Simmons College in Boston – and somebody sneezes — whatever you do — don’t say “God bless you.”
That’s because the librarians believe that the phrase “God Bless You” can spark something worse than a microagression. They fear it could spark an Islamophobic microaggression.
Which is worst, saying God Bless You or Marrying A child? I’m sure they are mature for 6 and 7.
That’s right, folks – saying “God Bless you” is considered a form of “Islamomisia.”
That bit of information is tucked inside the college’s Anti-Oppression Library Guide – an exhaustive collection of words and phrases that could trigger perpetually offended collegiate snowflakes.
Islamomisia is a fairly new malady that until recently was known as Islamphobia.
“In North America (and throughout much of the western world), people who follow Christianity have institutional power, therefore Islamomisia is a systematized discrimination or antagonism directed against Muslim people due to their religion or perceived religious, national or ethnic identity associated with Islam,” the document states.
It’s not an official college policy, mind you, but — you know the drill.
The librarians — a real sensitive bunch – warn that phrases like “God bless you” and “Merry Christmas” and “Happy Easter” can make Muslims feel slighted.
The resource guide also warned students to be wary of something called “Christian privilege.”
“In the United States and many other Western nations, Christianity and its various denominations and religious practices hold institutional and cultural power,” the guide states. “Christian privilege is the unearned benefit that Christians in the US receive that members of other faiths (or non-religious people) do not.”
For example, if you expect to get a day off on Good Friday or Christmas Eve — you have Christian privilege.
If you can worship freely, without fear of violence of threats, you have Christian privilege.
Clearly, the librarians at Simmons College have plenty of book smarts — but they don’t have the sense the Good Lord gave a goose.
Hell yes Trump’s Lawyer paid her for Trump. Who are we kidding.
Stephanie Clifford, a pornographic actress known professionally as “Stormy Daniels,” offered Monday to return the $130,000 payment she received in Oct. 2016 for her continued silence about an alleged affair with President Donald Trump.
A remittance, her lawyers propose, would invalidate the “hush agreement” she reached with Trump attorney Michael Cohen, permitting her to speak publicly about her relationship with the president.
The New York Times obtained a copy of a letter Clifford’s lawyer, Michael Avenatti, sent to Cohen, which offers to wire the full $130,000 sum to an account of the president’s choosing on the understanding that the 2016 agreement is nullified.
I don’t think that Melania is happy about this.
The contract, known as a nondisclosure agreement (NDA), was executed on Oct. 28, 2016. Under its terms, Clifford agreed not to disclose her alleged affair with the president in exchange for a $130,000 payment from a shell company in Delaware. Cohen officially represents the shell company, known as Essential Consultants LLC, and not the president in this dispute.
The affair allegedly ran from the summer of 2006 to early 2007.
Avenatti’s letter gave Cohen until noon Tuesday to make a decision and promised to transmit payment by Friday.
Once the NDA is voided, Clifford would be at liberty to “(a) speak openly and freely about her prior relationship with the president and the attempts to silence her and (b) use and publish any text messages, photos and/or videos relating to the president that she may have in her possession, all without fear of retribution and legal liability for damages,” according to TheNYT’s copy of the Avenatti proposal.
It also demands that the president’s lawyers take no action to prevent publication of Clifford’s interview with the CBS news magazine “60 Minutes,” which is slated for broadcast Sunday. Sources familiar with the Trump legal team’s thinking say they plan to seek an injunction barring its release.
Clifford is suing Cohen and Essential Consultants in a California state court, arguing the NDA is invalid because Trump himself never signed it. As such, they argue she is not bound by any confidentiality obligations. In turn, Cohen obtained a preliminary restraining order against her in private arbitration, binding her to silence for the time being.
“She Will Not Take To Test Because She Knows She Is Lying”
by PAM KEY11 Mar 201816,117
Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) said she knew who she was when host Chuck Todd when pressed her on her claims of a Native-American heritage.
When asked about taking a DNA test, Warren said, “Look, I do know. I know who I am and never used it for anything. Never got any benefit from it anywhere.”
How Is It That The Parents And Others Did Not Know He Was A Time-bomb. Guns Don’t Kill But Idiots With Guns Do. “We Have Banned Murder and Cocaine But But Are Still Here”
He preened with guns and knives on social media, bragged about shooting rats with his BB gun and got kicked out of school — in part because he had brought bullets in his backpack, according to one classmate. He was later expelled for still-undisclosed disciplinary reasons.
The portrait of Nikolas Cruz, suspected of fatally shooting 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland and wounding 15 others at his former school, is a troubled teen with few friends and an obsessive interest in weapons. Administrators considered him enough of a potential threat that one teacher said a warning was emailed last year against allowing him on the campus with a backpack.
Parkland school shooting suspect Nikolas Cruz arrives at Broward County Jail on Thursday, February 15, 2018. Reliable News Media
Late Wednesday, detectives were digging into the past of the 19-year-old who had no previous arrests but had displayed plenty of troubling behavior before officers took him into custody after what ranks as the third-deadliest school shooting in American history.
“Our investigators began dissecting social media,” Broward Sheriff Scott Israel told reporters. “Some of the things thatcome to mind are very, very disturbing.”
Cruz, who was arrested soon after the shooting and taken to BSO headquarters, could face multiple state charges of first-degree murder and attempted murder.
At Stoneman Douglas High, he was part of the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps during his freshman year, classmates said. Charo said he spoke little and “was into some weird stuff.”
“He used to tell me he would shoot rats with his BB gun and he wanted this kind of gun, and how he liked to always shoot for practice,” Charo said.
Cruz’s Instagram page, identified by friends as his but which has since been removed from the popular site, underscored his love of weapons.
In the images, he sported dark bandanas over his face and beanies and baseball caps on his head.In one post, he wielded knives between his fingers as though they were claws. In another, he showed off a small black handgun.
“Pistol fun a– f–k” he wrote in that post.
One post on his Instagram was for an online ad for a Mossberg Maverick 88 slug shotgun. Another post showed the definition of “Allahu Akbar” — an Arabic phrase meaning God is great. Federal authorities, however, said Wednesday that they did not believe the shooting was connected to terrorism.
On Wednesday, police said, he was armed with an AR-15 rifle.
Friends said he spoke little of his relatives. He and his brother were adopted when they were young by Lynda and Roger Cruz, of Long Island, New York, according to relatives. They raised the boys in Parkland.
Roger Cruz died over a decade ago and Lynda struggled with the boys, said Barbara Kumbatovich, a former sister-in-law. “She did the best she could. They were adopted and had some emotional issues,” she said.
Kumbatovich said she believed Nikolas Cruz was on medication to deal with his emotional fragility. “She was struggling with Nikolas the last couple years,” she said.
After his mother died, Cruz moved in with a friend, whose family in Broward took him in and even gave him own bedroom. He worked at a dollar store and went to a school for at-risk youth, said Fort Lauderdale attorney Jim Lewis, who is representing the family.
Cruz had his AR-15, but the family asked that gun remain locked up in a cabinet, Lewis said. On Wednesday morning, Cruz slept in and gave only a cryptic reason why.
“He said, ‘It’s Valentine’s Day and I don’t go to school on Valentine’s Day,’” Lewis said.
The family had no idea what was going to happen, Lewis said. “Nobody saw this coming,” Lewis said. “They’re shocked.”
Charo, his former classmate, said Cruz had earlier been suspendedfrom Stoneman Douglas High for fighting — and also because he was found with bullets in his backpack. Sheriff Israel said at a news conference that Cruz had been expelled for “disciplinary reasons” but he did not provide any details of what led to that action.
Math teacher Jim Gard remembered that the school administration earlier sent out an email warning teachers about Cruz.
“We were told last year that he wasn’t allowed on campus with a backpack on him,” said Gard, who had him in class. “There were problems with him last year threatening students, and I guess he was asked to leave campus.”
Drew Fairchild, a Stoneman Douglas High student stranded at the Marriott Heron Bay, where students were taken after the shooting, said he shared a class with Cruz during their freshman year.
“He used to have weird, random outbursts, cursing at teachers,” Fairchild said. “He was a troubled kid.”
The parent of another student agreed, saying his son, Daniel, had warned him about Cruz.
“If you were to pick one person you might predict in the future would shoot up a school or do this, it would be this kid,” said John Crescitelli, quoting his son.
Superintendent Robert Runcie told reporters on Wednesday afternoon that he did not know of any concerns raised about the student. “We received no warnings,” Runcie said. “Potentially there could have been signs out there. But we didn’t have any warning or phone calls or threats that were made.”
Runcie, citing federal student privacy laws, declined to discuss the suspect’s school record. But he confirmed that Cruz was still a Broward schools student, despite having been kicked out of Stoneman Douglas High.
Another former classmate, Nicholas Coke, called Cruz a “loner” who left the school and moved away a few months ago. Coke said he recalls an incident in middle school when Cruz kicked out a glass window and ran out of his classroom before getting caught.
“He had a lot of problems in middle school,” Coke said. “You never think anyone you know is going to do something like this.”
