Paul Manafort's associate Sam Patten charged with lobbying law violation

A former associate of Paul Manafort, Sam Patten, was charged Friday with failing to register in the US as a foreign agent for his work lobbying on behalf of a Ukrainian political party. US Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office referred the case to the US Attorney in the District of Columbia, according to William Miller, a spokesman for US Attorney Jessie Liu. From 2014 until now, Patten worked with a Russian national on lobbying and political consulting services, including on behalf of a Ukrainian oligarch and a Ukrainian political party, according to a document filed by the U.S. in federal court in Washington. As part of his lobbying work, he violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act, the US said. The charge is a felony and carries a maximum prison sentence of five years, Miller said. Because it’s a pending case, the US Attorney declined to comment further.

Trump morally unfit to be prez, causing damage to US: Ex-FBI chief Comey

Donald Trump is "morally unfit" to be president, former FBI chief James Comey asserted on Monday as he claimed "it's possible" that Russia may have some information on him that Moscow could use to compromise him.

Comey, 57, who was unceremoniously fired by the US president in May last year, in a wide-ranging interview to ABC News warned that "The foundation of this country is in jeopardy when we stop measuring our leaders against that central value of the truth."

He also cautioned that if Trump ever tries to sack special counsel Robert Mueller, then it would be his "most serious attack yet on the rule of law" and causing "tremendous damage" to the country's institutions.

Mueller is investigating alleged Russian interference in the 2016 US election and any potential ties between Trump campaign and Russia. Trump has repeatedly called the investigation a witch hunt and denied any collusion.

Comey led the federal probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election before he was fired by Trump

How Trump may imperil his presidency by firing Mueller ahead of mid-terms

President Donald Trump risks plunging his administration into political calamity ahead of a crucial midterm election and deepening his legal jeopardy if he takes the drastic step of firing Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

A decision to remove the man investigating his 2016 campaign’s ties to Russia could paralyse his administration, alienate some of his supporters and force even Republican allies in Congress to either tie themselves to the president or abandon him.

In that instance, Democrats almost surely would amplify the drumbeat toward impeaching Trump -- so far mostly the province of the party’s liberal flank -- and if Trump persisted in precipitating a constitutional crisis, even some Republicans might join the call to remove him.

Trump denied in a Thursday morning Twitter post that he’d wanted to fire Mueller late last year. "If I wanted to fire Robert Mueller in December, as reported by the Failing New York Times, I would have fired him. Just more Fake News from a biased newspaper!"

FBI raids Cohen; Trump brands Mueller's probe an 'attack on country'

President Donald Trump branded special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into Russian election meddling "an attack on our country", escalating his criticism of the yearlong investigation after federal authorities raided the offices of his personal attorney.

Agents today seized records from the offices of longtime Trump attorney and fixer Michael Cohen, on topics including a $130,000 payment made to a porn actress who says she had sex with Trump more than a decade ago.

Hours later, flanked by the nation's top military brass, Trump unleashed his sharpest invective against the sweeping investigation to date, calling the search "a disgrace."

"It's an attack on our country in a true sense," Trump said. "It's an attack on what we all stand for." He added it marked a "whole new level of unfairness" by Mueller and his team.

Trump called the probe a "witch hunt," suggesting it was a distraction from serious issues, like the consideration of a military response to Syria's apparent use of a chemical weapon on civilians over the weekend which was a subject of his meeting with the defense secretary, the joint chiefs of staff and US combatant commanders.

In Russia probe, Robert Mueller's first charges a show of force

President Donald Trump brushed off the first indictments in the probe of his campaign’s ties to Russian election meddling, but the charges sent a clear signal to the White House and other Trump associates: Robert Mueller means business.

By going after Trump’s campaign manager and another aide on money-laundering charges and securing a guilty plea from a third campaign adviser, the special prosecutor showed he would delve deeply into the past in search of criminal activity and use his broad powers aggressively.

That left some Trump associates worried about what or whom Mueller would target next, despite the White House’s public dismissal of the developments as unrelated to the president and his campaign.

“They’re flexing their muscles for anybody that they approach in this investigation and letting them know we really mean it,” said former federal prosecutor Patrick Cotter. “So if we come to you, you should talk to us. Manafort didn’t and look what happened to him.”

Manafort and Rick Gates are charged with money laundering, tax fraud, conspiracy to defraud the United States, and other counts. They pleaded not guilty on Monday.

The indictments, which closely detail the alleged crimes, appeared to be an opening salvo from Mueller.
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Trump meets two candidates for FBI chief

US President Donald Trump has met two candidates to head the FBI at the White House, presidential spokesman Sean Spicer said.

The two candidates are Chris Wray, who served as an assistant attorney general from 2003-2005, and John Pistole, the former head of the Transportation Security Administration who also served as deputy FBI chief from 2004-2010, Spicer said on Tuesday, Efe news reported.

"The president will be meeting with two additional candidates this afternoon, both Chris Wray and John Pistole," Spicer told reporters at his daily press briefing.

"When the president feels as though he's met with the right candidate he'll let us know," he said.

Currently, Wray is a partner at the law firm of King & Spalding, where he heads a group involved in government investigations.

Meanwhile, Pistole, who left the government in 2014, served at the FBI under Robert Mueller, whom the Justice Department on May 17 named special counsel for the investigation into Russian involvement in the November presidential election and possible coordination between the Kremlin and the Trump campaign to favor the mogul.

Mueller was succeeded at the FBI by James Comey, who was abruptly fired by Trump on May 9, a decision that ignited a political firestorm in Washington.

Finding a new FBI director has become an issue of crucial importance for the White House, which has not clearly explained why, how and when Trump made the decision to fire Comey, who at the time was heading the agency's investigation into the links between the Kremlin and the president.

The favorite so far to take over the FBI had been former Sen. Joe Lieberman, who on May 25 told the White House that he was not interested in the post.

Besides Lieberman, Trump has interviewed three other candidates for FBI chief: Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, who took over from Comey, former FBI agent Richard McFeely and Frank Keating, the former Republican governor of Oklahoma.
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