Peter W. Smith, GOP operative who sought Clinton's emails from Russian hackers, committed suicide

Peter W. Smith, GOP operative who sought Clinton's emails from Russian hackers, committed suicide, records show
https://twitter.com/BraddJaffy/status/885623105632206848
Peter W. Smith, GOP operative who sought Clinton's emails from Russian hackers, committed suicide, records show

A Republican donor and operative from Chicago's North Shore who said he had tried to obtain Hillary Clinton's missing emails from Russian hackers killed himself in a Minnesota hotel room days after talking to the Wall Street Journal about his efforts, public records show.

In a room at a Rochester hotel used almost exclusively by Mayo Clinic patients and relatives, Peter W. Smith, 81, left a carefully prepared file of documents, which includes a statement police called a suicide note in which he said he was in ill health and a life insurance policy was expiring.

Days earlier, the financier from suburban Lake Forest gave an interview to the Journal about his quest, and it published stories about his efforts beginning in late June. The Journal also reported it had seen emails written by Smith showing his team considered retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, then a top adviser to Republican Donald Trump's campaign, as an ally. Flynn briefly was President Trump's national security adviser and resigned after it was determined he had failed to disclose contacts with Russia.

... snip

However, the Chicago Tribune obtained a Minnesota state death record filed in Olmsted County that says Smith committed suicide in a hotel near the Mayo Clinic at 1:17 p.m. on Sunday, May 14. He was found with a bag over his head with a source of helium attached. A medical examiner's report gives the same account, without specifying the time, and a report from Rochester police further details his suicide.

Link: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/politics/ct-peter-smith-death-met-0713-20170713-story.html

Reminder: VP Pence Met Privately With Top Russian Cleric in May

Vice President Mike Pence Met Privately With Top Russian Cleric

Elizabeth Dias

Updated: May 12, 2017 8:55 AM ET | Originally published: May 11, 2017

A top cleric of the Russian Orthodox Church and ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin met privately with Vice President Mike Pence Thursday morning and urged the U.S. to cooperate with Russia to combat terrorism in the Middle East.

Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev of Moscow, who chairs the Russian Orthodox Church’s external relations department, spoke with Pence backstage at evangelist Franklin Graham’s Washington summit on religious violence against Christians.

“It is only one united, international anti-terrorist coalition which can combat terrorism and win,” Hilarion told TIME during an interview in a suite at the Trump International Hotel in D.C., a few blocks down Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House. “The two countries should put these political differences aside.”

A White House spokesman confirmed Pence's meeting with Hilarion and said the cleric's comments also reflected President Trump's views. Additional religious leaders were also present backstage. Hilarion says that after talking with Pence, he feels “very positive” about the future of the relationship between the U.S. and Russia.

More: http://time.com/4776717/mike-pence-russian-cleric-hilarion-alfeyev/

So, Paul Ryan's PAC raised more than $10.5 million in Q2. His top donors: Robert and Diana Mercer

You know, the Mercer's of Cambridge Analytica fame. Yeah, them.

Paul Ryan's PAC raised more than $10.5 million in Q2. His top donors: Robert and Diana Mercer
https://twitter.com/lachlan/status/885499672797872128

John Schindler: HUMINT in 2014 that Kremlin wanted Trump 4 POTUS in 2016

1 Western FI svc had HUMINT in 2014 that Kremlin wanted Trump 4 POTUS in 2016. Was dismissed as impossible fantasy.
https://twitter.com/20committee/status/885281108497190912

HUMINT - Human intelligence

FI - Five Eyes??

Donald Trump Jr.s Russian Connection Has Ties to Former Kremlin Spies

Donald Trump Jr.’s Russian Connection Has Ties to Former Kremlin Spies

The lawyer who offered up Hillary dirt to the Trump campaign totally swears she doesn’t work for the Russian government. Her client list suggests otherwise.

Lachlan Markay
07.11.17 9:05 PM ET


The Russian lawyer who peddled dirt on Hillary Clinton to Donald Trump Jr. has ties to former Russian military and intelligence officials, a key congressional committee will hear in testimony next week.

William Browder, an American financier who has investigated Russian corruption for more than a decade, will brief the Senate Judiciary Committee at a hearing next week on the lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya’s ties to the Russian government—including to former top members of the GRU and the FSB, two of the Kremlin’s main intelligence agencies. Those ties were spelled out in documents that Browder shared with the committee and provided to The Daily Beast this week.

“Veselnitskaya may have had her own agenda in requesting a meeting with Trump,” according Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, a former CIA officer who led the agency’s European directorate of operations. “But Russian intelligence practice is to co-opt such a person by arming them with secret intelligence information and tasking them to pass it to Trump’s people and get their reaction.”

“The key point is that essentially no Russian citizen or lawyer has compromising material on Hillary Clinton which has not been supplied to them from Russian intelligence,” Mowatt-Larssen wrote on Tuesday. “The simple assertion that she had such information is tantamount to declaring that Veselnitskaya was acting as agent of Russian government in this particular role.”

More: http://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-jrs-russian-connection-has-ties-to-former-kremlin-spies

The lawyer Don Jr. hired has a history of handling high-profile organized crime and cybercrime cases

Buzzfeed: The lawyer Don Jr. hired has a history of handling high-profile organized crime and cybercrime cases.
https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/884516480729133059

Donald Trump Jr. Has Hired A Lawyer Who Has Handled Organized Crime And Cybercrime Cases

Donald Trump Jr. has hired New York criminal defense lawyer Alan Futerfas as the president’s son faces scrutiny for his meeting last year with a Russian lawyer

... snip

Unlike Kasowitz, however, Futerfas’ practice is steeped in high-profile white collar matters, as well as the occasional political controversy. News archives show that Futerfas has long represented clients with alleged ties to organized crime, including alleged members of the Bonanno, Gambino, Genovese, and Colombo crime families. Last year, he represented the son of a New York pizzeria owner who was found guilty of drug-related charges in a case that stemmed from an investigation into drug trafficking by the Italian mafia.

He’s also handled several cybercrime cases. His clients have included a Russian man who created computer malware and rented it out to criminals to rob banks, and an Israeli man who was one of several defendants charged in a massive hack of consumer data from JPMorgan Chase and other financial institutions.

According to Futerfas’ law firm website, he graduated from The Julliard School and is a bass-trombonist. He was once a member of an orchestra comprised of New York lawyers.

More: https://www.buzzfeed.com/zoetillman/donald-trump-jr-has-hired-a-lawyer-who-has-handled?utm_term=.opOK4Ebqg#.ehO5eYBam


Credit where credit is due. Jr hired somebody with experience in representing mobsters and with cybercrime experience.

WH racing to stop Congress from sending Russia sanctions bill to Trump's desk that may tie his hands

WH racing to stop Congress from sending Russia sanctions bill to Trump's desk that may tie his hands in negotiations
https://twitter.com/Evan_Rosenfeld/status/884209506384662528
(Make sure you read the last paragraph.)

... snip

In meetings in secure rooms, administration officials are quietly making the case to Republican members that the sanctions bill they rushed through the Senate on a 97-2 vote needs waivers to give Trump the flexibility to negotiate with Putin.

Administration officials believe the longer the bill gets delayed, the better their chances of convincing members that the bill is bad for diplomacy and bad for American companies — especially in the energy sector — who would be punished for doing international business with Russian companies.

Marc Short, whose White House legislative affairs team is working to amend the bill, says, "We support the sanctions on Iran and Russia; however, this bill is so poorly written that neither Republican nor Democratic administrations would be comfortable with the current draft because it greatly hampers the executive branch's diplomatic efforts."

Behind-the-scenes: Paul Ryan and House Foreign Affairs Committee chair Ed Royce want the bill passed fast, and in its tough current form. Both men are Russia hawks, and unlikely to insert waivers into the legislation just to make the White House happy. They will, however, take seriously the concerns of a range of U.S. companies, from Exxon to Boeing, who believe the current bill disadvantages American businesses.

GOP leadership isn't entirely on the same page. White House officials are still hopeful because they've found House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and John Cornyn in the Senate more open to their requests than other leaders, including Ryan.

The nightmare scenario for the White House: Trump is forced to either sign the bill, which would make it impossible to establish a broader cooperative relationship with Putin, or veto the bill and risk a two-thirds majority in Congress overriding his wishes.

Administration officials are acutely aware of the political pickle this puts them in. "He can't veto Russia sanctions," one told me. "Are you f---ing kidding me? Your first veto of the administration is to protect Russia?"

Link: https://www.axios.com/axios-sneak-peek-2455628998.html


Note: This is 4 paragraphs w/ the bullet points.

Agalarov (set up mtg w/ Trump Jr) had cameo in Steele dossier

Elder Agalarov had a cameo in the Steele dossier - Agalarov would know "most ... details" about Trump in Russia:
https://twitter.com/cjcmichel/status/884199732922519553

Dossier alleges Agalarov, Trump's Miss Universe partner, knows details of certain activities:
https://twitter.com/cjcmichel/status/818978084854566912

New: Anton Nosik, Russian anti Putin journalist and blogger dead of suspected heart attack at 51

Russian Internet Pioneer Nosik Dead Of Suspected Heart Attack

Well-known Russian journalist, blogger, and Internet pioneer Anton Nosik has died in Moscow at the age of 51.

Nosik's friend and current owner of The Moscow Times and Vedomosti newspaper, Demyan Kudryavtsev, posted on Twitter on July 9 that Nosik died during the night of July 8-9.

According to preliminary information, Nosik died of a sudden heart attack.

Nosik played important roles in the founding of several pioneering Russian Internet projects, including Newsru.com, Lenta.ru, and Gazeta.ru.

... snip

In 2016, Nosik was fined 300,000 rubles for a blog post in which he criticized Russia's military intervention in the war in Syria and compared the government of President Vladimir Putin to Nazi Germany.



More: https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-nosik-dead-heart-attack-blogger-internet-pioneer/28604276.html




A suspected heart attack after openly criticizing Putin. Right!

Richard Engel on the body count of journalists and Putin's political opponents in Russia.