Youd actually expect all the candidates to be pretty aggressively hawkish on russia, particularly after russia had just invaded one of their neighbors. But it was interesting. In that senate primary, that Republican Senate primary in 2014, this one primary candidate, the local talk radio host, he really went the other way. He called himself a former Pentagon Expert on russia and he told radio iowa that, quote, pushing the russians out of crimea is not a realistic option. He said, quote, i think a lot of people, im not sure they understand the history of russia. You go back, you know, 1,500 years to the foundation of the russian empire. It actually started in ukraine and was evolved out of that. This whole issue is about as russian as it gets, meaning russia should be allowed to take parts of ukraine. Thats russias business, not anybody elses. And this candidate apparently felt pretty passionately about it. He went on in some detail,
carter page also turns up in the indictment of a russian spy ring that was discovered operating out of new york city russian bank branch. Sam clovis is credited with bringing carter page on to the Trump Campaign and also credited with bringing on to the campaign George Papadopoulos, who has now become quite famous for lying with the fbi about his contacts with russia during the Trump Campaign. In the Plea Agreement revealed by a Federal Judge on monday, it was apparently sam clovis who was George Papadopoulos supervisor who told him he was doing great work when he initiated and maintained contact with russian resources. When George Papadopoulos suggested that there be an offtherecord meeting between Trump Campaign personnel and russian officials up to and including people from putins
office, sam clovis is reportedly the Campaign Supervisor who encouraged George Papadopoulos to take that trip. Well, now weve learned that clovis has not only spoken to investigators on the russia investigation, weve learned that sam clovis is also now reportedly testified to the grand jury in the Mueller Investigation. Now, this happened while sam clovis was working in the Trump Administration. And apparently tonight he remains the white house liaison to the u. S. Department of agriculture, which is apparently a job. Despite his ongoing white house role, abc news reports tonight that the white house had no idea that this senior figure from the Trump Campaign, national cochair of the Trump Campaign, the top Policy Official on the Trump Campaign, this guy who is currently an Administration Official working for the Trump Administration, apparently the white house had no idea that he testified to the grand jury until they read about it in the
press this week, which presumably means they have not been advised as to whether or not sam clovis sought immunity in exchange for his grand jury testimony. And just based on that Plea Agreement thats just been unsealed regarding George Papadopoulos, i mean, clovis as papadopouloss Campaign Supervisor, he has obvious exposure to matters that the Special Counsel is investigating. For example in the Plea Agreement, papadopoulos said that he was advised by his russian contacts that they had dirt on Hillary Clinton and that they had thousands of emails. It doesnt say anywhere in the Plea Agreement whether or not papadopoulos tried to obtain that dirt from the russians or those thousands of emails. It also doesnt say in the Plea Agreement if he told his superiors on the Trump Campaign that the russians told him they had dirt on clinton and thousands of emails. It doesnt say whether he ever tried to arrange any exchange or delivery of information from his russian sources up the chain of
command on the Trump Campaign. But we do know that sam clovis was his Campaign Supervisor and we do know from the Plea Agreement and papadopouloss guilty plea that he did have those conversations with the russians and he was in frequent contact with the Trump Campaign, including his supervisor, sam clovis, about the fact that he was talking to the russians. So, i mean, you want to ask, right, you want to ask what, you know, what papadopouloss supervisor heard from george. Hey, what did george tell you about his russia contacts . His supervisor was sam clovis and sam clovis was due to be in a Senate Nomination hearing, one week from today, because the Trump Administration nominated him to be the top scientist in that department, despite he is not a sicientist. At that hearing, democrats already started to signal they had things to ask him about besides his lack of scientific credentials and his potential role at the department of agriculture. Senator patrick leahy, a quote, member of the Agricultural Committee said he planned to ask sam clovis about the efforts of George Papadopoulos to the acquire stolen emails from the russians. Of course you would ask him that under oath in front of the United States senates about this the kid who, hey, he just reported to the Trump Cam Tain and plead guilty under the Mueller Investigation. Can we ask you what he was going to tell you . And knowing that is the character of the nomination next week and apparently the news that he started to talk to muellers investigation, and to the grand jury without ever notify i notifying the white house that he was doing so, today, cloviss nomination for the agricultural
job was yanked. I will post the old interview from iowa tonight at mad doe. Maddow. Com. Sam clovis representing himself as a Pentagon Expert on russia and on the soviet military. That was how he portrayed himself in iowa in 2014 when he was running for senate. But the collapse of his nomination and these revelations about clovis involvement with the Special Counsels office and the grand jury, thats just one of like a million fascinating things that happened today. This is one of those days when any one of these things would have been a blockbuster story. Today we have the Court Hearing for Campaign ManagerPaul Manafort and rick gates. At least until next week, we know that manafort and gates will be continued to be confined to their homes. We didnt know this before now, but apparently not just manafort, but both of them are subjected to Electron Theic monitoring devices while they are being held in their homes. And rick gates now, he does have a lawyer. Manaforts Associate Rick Gates was represented by a Public Defender at the initial ar arrest and Court Hearing. He has now picked up expensive lawyers of his own, like Paul Manafort has. I have to tell you, Paul Manaforts expensive lawyers appear to be having some trouble already in this case. The judge today harshly criticized Paul Manaforts lawyer for having spoken to reporters on the Courthouse Steps after mondays indictment. She asked, in fact, for arguments from the prosecution and the from the defense as to whether she should institute a gag order now that prevents either side from making any
further statements outside of the courtroom, because she was so annoy ed of what he said to e reporters on monday. Gates lawyers and manaforts lawyers both submitted requests to the court today that the terms of confinement for manafort and gates be loosened. There again, problems for manaforts lawyer. The judge criticized manaforts lawyer for submitting his argument that his house arrest should be loosened and criticized him for not submitting that argument as a formal motion to the court. So manaforts lawyer today had to issue an apology in court for the inappropriate form of his application on his clients behalf. The judge appeared to not be impressed by the apology, told him to turn around and refile in proper form tonight. Okay. We got to see today filings that included repeated misspellings of the word cypress. Remember how he had all of those accounts in cypress and the words there on the lefthand side of the screen, cypress and that is the ending of the country ends in us and that is the way that manaforts lawyer spelled it throughout the brief. Cypress is the tree, and cyprus is where your client held the millions of dollars without telling the irs. Treetrouble. Treetrouble. The judge today indicated that the trial for manafort and gates may start in april. She also indicated shes not inclined to release either manafort or gates from Home Confinement or lower the terms of their bail or set them free from their electronic monitoring devices. The judge said in court today that their charges are significant, their ties abroad are significant and she said, quote, i have concerns about flight. Shortly after that Court Hearing broke up today, cnn broke this news about senior white house adviser and president ial soninlaw Jared Kushner that he has turned over documents to Special CounselRobert Muellers office. We dont know if Jared Kushner has testified to muellers inquiry but according to cnn, muellers investigators have expressed interest in kushner as part of its probe into meddling including potential Obstruction Of Justice in the firing fbi director james comey and also sources telling cnn that, quote, others have asked about jared cu kushners role in firing james comey. And also, a statement was issued from donald trump jr. At trump tower with a meeting involving donald, jr. , and Paul Manafort and a whole bunch of russian, and also, cnn asked about
circumstances surrounding the e departure of other white house aides. Why those would be related to Obstruction Of Justice or any other potential criminal matter, i dont know. But theyre asking about jared and other people leaving the white house . No idea what any of that is about. But if cnns right and those inquiries are being made by the Special Counsels office, that would indicate at the very least that muellers investigators arent just looking at things that happened during the campaign. They really are pursuing matters that occurred after the inauguration once trump was sworn in, actions by white house officials. And theyre not just looking at people who used to be white house officials and theyre now gone, theyre looking at people who are currently in senior positions in the Trump Administration. And that brings us to what i think is probably the biggest uhoh in the news today for the Trump Administration, which is Attorney GeneralJeff Sessions. Part of the reason that president ial soninlaw Jared Kushner has been in interest in
terms of the potential contacts between the Trump Campaign and russia is because kushner has appare apparently tried to conceal those ties, conceal a number of Contact Contacts he had with are russian officials, his stillunexplainedmeeting with an ambassador close to putin. He left all those contacts with russian officials off his Security Clearance. Attorney general Jeff Sessions, he was also secretive and concealing about his own meetings with russians and about his knowledge of other Trump Campaign officials meeting are russians. But the problem for Jeff Sessions is that unlike Jared Kushner, he didnt just do it on a Security Clearance application. Jeff sessions did it repeatedly under oath. If there is any evidence that anyone affiliated with the Trump Campaign communicated with the russian government in the course
of this campaign, what will you do . Senator franken, im not aware of any of those activities. I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and i did not have communications with the russians and im unable to comment on it. That was under oath. Then senator Jeff Sessions during his Confirmation Hearings to become Attorney General telling the senate He Didnt Have Communications with russians during the campaign. It was later reported that senator sessions did have communications with russians during the campaign. When that emerged in march, senator sessions at first continued to deny it, then he admitted it while recusing himself while overseeing any Justice Department matters involving the campaign but still insisted these meetings that he did take with russians that hed forgotten about, he still insisted they werent about the campaign. Let me be clear i never had meetings with russian
operatives or russian intermediaries about the Trump Campaign. Senator sessions later appeared before the Senate Intelligence committee and whittled that denial down a little further, admitting, okay, he might have had conversations with russians in which they did discuss the campaign but when he was meeting with russians and talking about the campaign with them, he wasnt talking about russians interfering in the campaign. I have never met with or had any conversation with any russians or any foreign officials concerning any type of interference with any campaign or election in the United States. Further, i have no knowledge of any such conversations by anyone connected to the Trump Campaign. That, too, was under oath. Now, though, in the Plea Agreement just unsealed involving Trump Campaign adviser George Papadopoulos, the government asserts and papadopoulos affirms that its
true that not only did he as part of the Trump Campaign have contacts with the russian government while he was working with the campaign, those conversations really were about the russians interfering in the campaign. By Collecting Dirt OnHillary Clinton and obtaining thousands of email. Papadopoulos asserts in a meeting during the campaign, which is pictured on the president s instagram account, papadopoulos told that National Security meeting at which trump was present, and it was a group being chaired by Jeff Sessions, papadopoulos says he told that meeting that day that he was in contact with the russian government and was in a position to link the Trump Campaign up with the putin government, including for highlevel meeting. The Attorney General was there
for that meeting, clearly. You see him on the left side of your screen. He said papadopoulos did raise that issue that that meeting with Jeff Sessions there but nevertheless repeatedly under oath, including just a couple of weeks ago, sessions insisted that nothing like that ever happened. He never heard of it happening and it certainly didnt involve him. Was that what youre saying that you dont believe that surrogates from the Trump Campaign had communications with the russians, is that what youre saying . I did n