By Natasha Bertrand

The underlying context for the request, the people said, is that Durham believes Steele’s notes could contain evidence that FBI agents improperly disclosed classified information about Crossfire Hurricane, as the bureau dubbed its Russia probe, in the course of questioning Steele about his own findings regarding a potential conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia, the people said. For the U.S. government to hire a commercial […]

“During the fall of 2019 to February 2020, I became aware of legal compliance and ethics violations involving Robert O’Brien, Assistant to the President and National Security Advisor (NSA) and Alex Gray, Deputy Assistant to the President (DAP) and National Security Council (NSC) Chief of Staff (CoS),” the memo reads, according to the Democrats’ letter. “Specifically, there were allegations of sexism, violations of standards of ethical […]

The Rotenbergs, who made a fortune through contracts related to the Sochi Olympics, were sanctioned and had their U.S. assets frozen in March 2014 as part of the Obama administration’s decision to punish Russian President Vladimir Putin and his close associates over Russia’s annexation of Crimea. Arkady Rotenberg was later chosen by Putin to direct the construction of a bridge connecting Russia with mainland Crimea. The […]

Kent was recently promoted to a new rank in the Senior Foreign Service, and is one of the few impeachment witnesses who was not purged from government following his impeachment testimony. He told lawmakers in closed and open sessions late last year that Trump’s then-personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani conducted a “campaign of lies” about the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, that led to her early […]

“Is this someone who reads? Someone who likes a story? Operates on visuals?” Sanner said. “You figure out before you go in what that person needs from you.” Sanner’s comments offered a window into how she approaches briefings with the president, as questions swirl about why Trump—who is not known to read Presidential Daily Brief, a classified document outlining key national security threats—was apparently never “orally” […]

A senior DHS official forwarded the assessment to security stakeholders on Friday, noting that “while it identifies Washington D.C. as an attractive target, the boogaloo ideology is not restricted to a specific region and those who wish to cause division are routinely using peaceful protests as means of cover. Heading into a weekend of more planned protests, we believe this information to be useful to all […]

Pompeo ran the CIA from early 2017 until April 2018, when he moved over to run the State Department. As part of his request to the CIA, Lynch asked for “a complete and unredacted list” of Pompeo’s external advisory board members, which the agency has declined to divulge publicly. Former officials told POLITICO last month that members included the billionaire entrepreneur Marc Andreessen; a top executive […]

According to a statement posted by Reed’s family on a website they made to draw attention to his case, Reed was initially charged on the night of August 15 with a minor violation of failing to properly register at his Russian girlfriend’s apartment, which Reed admitted to by signing a Russian-language document without an interpreter present, according to his family. Reed spent the night in jail, […]

The advisory board events were orchestrated primarily by two of Pompeo’s closest confidants: his wife Susan and one of his best friends and fellow West Point alum, businessman Brian Bulatao, whom Pompeo tapped as CIA’s chief operations officer in 2017. Bulatao would dictate who was present at the board’s meetings and be present for all of the events, which is not unprecedented for the CIA’s top […]

As the committee’s top Democrat, Warner has no power to compel Grenell to comply. It’s not clear whether Republicans will endorse any aspects of Warner’s request, though the Senate intel panel has operated on a more bipartisan basis than its more raucous House counterpart. The incoming chairman, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), recently replaced Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), who stepped aside amid a probe of his financial […]

He added that “stressors caused by the pandemic may contribute to an individual’s decision to commit an attack or influence their target of choice.” The letter comes two weeks after DHS circulated a memo to law enforcement officials around the country warning that violent extremists’ efforts to exploit the pandemic “will intensify in the coming months,” according to ABC News. The FBI also warned that extremists […]

“As the COVID-19 threat expands throughout the United States, the violent extremist threat will also continue to evolve, potentially increasing in frequency and severity,” the April 23 memo reads. While social distancing measures have made mass gatherings less ubiquitous and therefore more difficult for bad actors to target, “the pandemic has created a new source of anger and frustration for some individuals,” the memo says. “As […]

“As we do in all crises, the Community’s experts respond by surging resources and producing critical intelligence on issues vital to U.S. national security,” the statement reads. “The IC will continue to rigorously examine emerging information and intelligence to determine whether the outbreak began through contact with infected animals or if it was the result of an accident at a laboratory in Wuhan.” Current and former […]