Later on in that same interview he also said:
So he says that he's seen enough evidence, whatever that alleged evidence is, to know that Russia is not our friend, but has kept his faculties with regards to the fact that Trump did not collude with Russia. So what exactly was presented to him that "proves beyond any evidentiary burden" that Russia is evil?
I'm wondering if it's what we've seen being touted in the media for the past several years with regards to Ukraine, Crimea, bombing innocent people in Syria, etc., but in his case he's getting it directly from intelligence agencies and not the media and so he's more willing to trust it. Don't know, but it's sad to see such a sharp mind get twisted by lies.
In layman terms, I think what might be confusing is the "legal terminology of the phase - “
It can be proven beyond any evidentiary burden ..."? Gowdy might be playing "a bait and switch " game - to help "drain the swamp" of Hillary/Obama left overs?
Evidentiary Standards and Burdens of Proof
Evidentiary Standards and Burdens of Proof Overview :: Justia
In almost every legal proceeding, the parties are required to adhere to important rules known as evidentiary standards and burdens of proof. These rules determine which party is responsible for putting forth enough evidence to either prove or defeat a particular claim and the amount of evidence necessary to accomplish that goal.
The Burden of Proof - The burden of proof determines which party is responsible for putting forth evidence and the level of evidence they must provide in order to prevail on their claim. In most cases, the plaintiff (the party bringing the claim) has the burden of proof.
The burden of proof has two components. First, the plaintiff must satisfy the burden of production, which has also been referred to as the burden of going forward. As the terms suggest, this burden requires the plaintiff to put forth evidence in the form of witness testimony, documents, or objects. After the plaintiff presents his or her case-in-chief, the burden of production shifts to the defendant, who then has the opportunity to provide evidence either rebutting the plaintiff’s evidence or supporting the defendant’s own arguments.
Evidentiary Standards in Civil Cases - Preponderance of the Evidence - Second, the plaintiff must satisfy the burden of persuasion. This burden determines which standard of proof the plaintiff must follow in presenting evidence to the judge or jury. A standard of proof determines the amount of evidence the plaintiff or defendant needs to provide in order for the jury to reach a particular determination. In most civil cases, the burden of persuasion that applies is called “a preponderance of the evidence.” This standard requires the jury to return a judgment in favor of the plaintiff if the plaintiff is able to show that a particular fact or event was more likely than not to have occurred. Some scholars define the preponderance of the evidence standard as requiring a finding that at least 51 percent of the evidence favors the plaintiff’s outcome.
July 22, 2018 - Gowdy Says Trump’s Advisers Should Quit Over Russia
https://politicalwire.com/2018/07/22/gowdy-says-trumps-advisers-should-quit-over-russia/
House Oversight Chairman Trey Gowdy chastised Donald Trump for inviting Russian President Vladimir Putin to Washington, saying that some members of the president’s administration should consider quitting if Trump won’t listen to their advice,
Politico reports.
Said Gowdy: “It can be proven beyond any evidentiary burden that Russia is not our friend and they tried to attack us in 2016. So the president either needs to rely on the people that he has chosen to advise him, or those advisers need to reevaluate whether or not they can serve in this administration. But the disconnect cannot continue.”
July 25, 2018 - Trump delays proposed Putin meeting until 2019
Trump delays proposed Putin meeting until 2019
The Trump administration on Wednesday sought to fend off accusations the president is too soft on Russia, putting off a proposed second summit with Russian leader Vladimir Putin and declaring the U.S. will never recognize Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea.
As members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee peppered Secretary of State Mike Pompeo with demands for details about last week's summit in Finland, the White House said President Donald Trump had opted against trying to arrange another meeting with Putin this fall. Putin already had sent signals that he wasn't interested in coming to Washington.
National security adviser John Bolton cited special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election as the reason for the delay, although many members of Congress had objected to the meeting and said Putin would not be welcome on Capitol Hill.
"The President believes that the next bilateral meeting with President Putin should take place after the Russia witch hunt is over, so we've agreed that it will be after the first of the year," Bolton said in a statement, using Trump's favored but highly controversial term for the Mueller probe.
While the statement signaled optimism that the Mueller probe would be completed by the end of this year, no timetable has been given for when it will be wrapped up and it could very well stretch into 2019.
The White House said last week that Trump had directed Bolton to invite Putin to visit Washington in the fall, moving quickly for a follow-up meeting amid the backlash over Trump's performance at a news conference with Putin following their Helsinki summit.
In his testimony, Pompeo faced often-contentious questioning from senators demanding information about what Trump discussed with Putin while they were alone for nearly two hours with only translators present.
Pompeo struggled to answer, insisting the president is entitled to have private meetings but stressing that he had a full understanding of the discussion. Heated questions were also posed about North Korea, NATO and Iran.
"It's not for me to disclose the content of those conversations," Pompeo said in response to one such barrage of questions.
The committee chairman, Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., who set a contentious tone for the hearing by telling Pompeo that senators "are filled with serious doubts about this White House and its conduct of American foreign policy," later said those doubts are due to Trump's frequent contradictory statements on the Russia probe and assaults on allies.
"It's the president that causes people to have concerns," Corker said.
Pompeo replied by saying that some of Trump's comments "actually achieve important policy outcomes," but the administration should be judged by its actions rather than the president's words.
He later clarified that the president's words are indeed policy, prompting an angry exchange with the ranking committee member, Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J. Menendez said that Pompeo, a former Republican congressman from Kansas, would have been so angry that he would have had to have been peeled off the ceiling of the Capitol if President Barack Obama had said and done some of the same things as Trump.
Pompeo, whom Democrats accused of playing politics with the investigation into the 2012 attack on U.S. facilities in Benghazi, Libya, accused Menendez of pursuing a "political soliloquy" but then declined the opportunity to respond. Menendez had earlier accused the administration of holding "incoherent and contradictory views" on foreign policy and the president himself of being "misleading and untruthful" in describing his positions.
In an unsuccessful bid to blunt some of the hostile questioning, particularly on Russia, Pompeo before the hearing issued a statement titled the "Crimea Declaration" in which he said the U.S. will continue to insist that Ukraine's territorial integrity be restored. He said the U.S. would hold to its long-standing principle of refusing to recognize Kremlin claims of sovereignty over territory seized by force in violation of international law. And he called for Russia to respect principles it claims to respect and "end its occupation of Crimea."
The spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry brushed off the Crimea Declaration as just another U.S. policy that could easily change in the future. In a Facebook posting, Maria Zakharova cited the Iran nuclear deal and the Paris climate accord — two Obama-era deals that Trump scrapped.
"We know the value of these 'fateful declarations,'" she said.
Russia has said Crimean voters approved the annexation in a referendum. The U.S. and its European allies have said the referendum was deeply flawed and illegal, as it was held without the consent of the government in Kiev. Pompeo told senators that U.S. sanctions imposed in response to the annexation would remain in place until and unless Russia returns Crimea to Ukrainian sovereignty.
He also pushed back on allegations the Trump administration has been weak or subservient to Russia over Ukraine or its meddling in the election. He noted that the administration had just days ago provided the Ukraine government with an additional $200 million in military equipment and maintained that the administration was serious about combatting Russian interference in the U.S. and Western democracies. He said he agreed that additional sanctions could be "constructive" to that end.
Pompeo said he had personally told top Russian officials that there will be "severe consequences" for any interference in U.S. elections or the American democratic process. He said that Trump, despite his denigration of the Mueller probe, accepts that there was Russian interference in the 2016 election and fully understands the threat posed by Moscow.
"He has a complete and proper understanding of what happened," Pompeo said of Trump.
26.07.2018 - Pompeo Tight-Lipped in Senate Grilling, Defends Trump's Right to Private Talks
Pompeo Tight-Lipped in Senate Grilling, Defends Trump’s Right to Private Talks
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was grilled before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Wednesday over US President Donald Trump’s private meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Finland.
As is often the case for politically contentious Congressional testimonies, the substance of the senators' questioning was divided along party lines. But Republican senators didn't completely tow the line of the Trump administration: in opening statements, Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN), who chairs the committee, bemoaned "the lack of information the administration has provided to this committee."
Later, Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ), said he supported the Trump-Putin summit but objected to the fact that it took place privately, arguing that Russian media have been able to do far more reporting on the summit's details than US media. Pompeo countered by citing closed-door conversations with North Koreans he had. "We didn't issue a readout on the conversations, quite intentionally, and the North Korean press chose to characterize those conversations. We thought it was in America's best interest not to respond tit-for-tat about the nature of that conversation… it's the North Korean press," Pompeo said, laughing. "I assume that most reasonable people will discount it fairly significantly, the same way one might the Russian press."
Department of State
✔ @StateDept
.
@SecPompeo before Senate Foreign Relations Committee:
@POTUS has stated his firm conviction that diplomacy and engagement are preferable to conflict and hostility.
4:39 PM - Jul 25, 2018
Pompeo stressed that in private talks, you get to "have the chance to do that again because you thought you could make real progress with that person."
In his opening statements, Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) appeared to contradict himself in bemoaning various US posturings. "All we've come to expect is a sabre-rattling president who embraces and provides legitimacy to some of the world's most notorious bad actors and who denigrates our closest allies," he said. "We've not seen any substantive deals… we've seen our president look weak as he stands beside our adversaries."
When Pompeo's turn to open came, he assured the committee that Trump was being tough on Russia, announcing that the US will never recognize Crimea as part of Russia, and proceeding to cite a number of policies Trump has enacted that are hostile to Russia.
Menendez and Pompeo went through heated back-and-forths over what was discussed in the Helsinki meeting, with the secretary seeking to protect the privacy of the talks. "I understand the game you're playing," Pompeo said.
Published on Jul 25, 2018 (7:15 min.)
Later, Pompeo highlighted the previously disclosed topics discussed between the world leaders: increasing business-to-business exchange between nationals of the two countries; options for collaboration in Syria in terms of ensuring the ability of "externally displaced people," i.e. refugees to return through a political agreement in Geneva; and an agreement to disagree on Ukraine.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) took most of his allotted five minutes — in fact, he used up seven — to complain about China, but also stressed the importance of a bill to "define interference, okay? So it's not just five Russian guys on Twitter," underscoring the obfuscated nature of the meddling allegations against Russia. Other measures would be intended to ensure that the US is better prepared to retaliate should Russia or any other country interfere in US democratic processes, as has been alleged following the 2016 presidential election.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) asked Pompeo about whether Trump and Putin discussed decreasing the US presence in Syria, and Pompeo said that there had been no change in US policy since the summit. He kept his lips pressed on whether Iran's presence in Syria was discussed, saying that it was "not for me to disclose," but conceded that Iran has been central to US positioning in Syria and that he was "confident" it would remain so. Pompeo did confirm that issues with Syria as they relate to Israel were, in fact, discussed.
Published on Jul 25, 2018 (7:00 min.)
Pompeo told Flake that he wouldn't characterize North Korea as having "walked back on commitments" made to the US and would not disclose agreements with them made in private. In addition, he noted that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un agreed orally to things that weren't in the written agreement concluded with Trump in June, such as the disassembly of a missile engine test site which Pompeo confirmed is underway.
Pompeo told Menendez earlier in the hearing that North Korea "understands the US' definition of denuclearization" and has agreed to follow through on it. However, he later told Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) that North Korea "continues to produce fissile material."
When asked by Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO) whether North Korea is making advancements in their nuclear program, Pompeo asked to take the question behind closed doors.
Flake also referred back to Trump's floating of the idea of allowing former US Ambassador to the UN Michael McFaul to be interviewed by Russian officials in a criminal investigation. "It took the White House a full three days" to decline, he noted, "but the State Department quickly said that that was inappropriate."
"You give me a little bit too much credit," Pompeo replied. "I'm doing my level best every day to implement the president's policies. That statement was from the United States' president's State Department."
26.07.2018 - US Lawmakers File to Impeach DOJ's Rod Rosenstein, Who Oversees Mueller Probe (Copy of Resolution)
US Lawmakers File to Impeach DOJ's Rod Rosenstein, Who Oversees Mueller Probe
Two US House of Representatives members, Mark Meadows (R-NC) and Jim Jordan (R-OH), announced Wednesday they had filed a resolution to impeach Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who is overseeing Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe into alleged Russian meddling in the US election system.
Meadows announced the resolution filing via Twitter, saying "we have had enough."
Mark Meadows ✔ @RepMarkMeadows
I just filed a resolution with
@Jim_Jordan and several colleagues to impeach Rod Rosenstein. The DOJ has continued to hide information from Congress and repeatedly obstructed oversight--even defying multiple Congressional subpoenas.
We have had enough.
7:01 PM - Jul 25, 2018
The resolution has nine co-sponsors.
ABC noted that since this is not a privileged resolution, it doesn't have to be acted on quickly.
US President Donald Trump has made no secret of his enmity toward Rosenstein, either.
Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump
I am being investigated for firing the FBI Director by the man who told me to fire the FBI Director! Witch Hunt
9:07 AM - Jun 16, 2017
Interestingly, both Meadows and Jordan were "shadow banned" on Twitter earlier Wednesday, Sputnik News reported, a practice that Twitter denies engaging in but in which searching for certain accounts on the social media site via the drop-down menu becomes impossible. Vice News published an expose of shadow-banning in practice Wednesday.
In the press release distributed Wednesday night, the lawmakers said: The impeachment articles come as evidence continues to mount regarding the Department of Justice's problematic decision-making during the 2016 campaign and conduct surrounding the transition to President Trump's administration in 2017.
The impeachment articles are the result of nearly 9 months of unsuccessful Congressional attempts to force the Department of Justice (DOJ) to comply with oversight requests.
The failures cited within the articles include intentionally withholding embarrassing documents and information, knowingly hiding material investigative information from Congress, various abuses of the FISA process, and failure to comply with Congressional subpoenas, among others."
Multiple times we've caught DOJ officials hiding information from Congress, withholding relevant documents, or even outright ignoring Congressional subpoenas — and now we have evidence that Mr. Rosenstein signed off on a document using unverified political opposition research as a cornerstone of a FISA application to spy on an American citizen working for the Trump campaign."
"Multiple times we've caught DOJ officials hiding information from Congress, withholding relevant documents, or even outright ignoring Congressional subpoenas — and now we have evidence that Mr. Rosenstein signed off on a document using unverified political opposition research as a cornerstone of a FISA application to spy on an American citizen working for the Trump campaign."
"This level of conduct, paired with the failure to even feign and interest in transparency, is reprehensible. And whether you're a Republican or a Democrat, this kind of obstruction is wrong — period."
"The stonewalling over this last year has been just as bad or worse than under the Obama administration," Meadows said in a statement released Wednesday evening. "For 9 months we've warned them consequences were coming, and for 9 months we've heard the same excuses backed up by unacceptable conduct. Time is up and the consequences are here. It's time to find a new Deputy Attorney General who is serious about accountability and transparency."
Despite its claim to be investigating supposed Russian meddling in the US electoral process and possible collusion with Trump's presidential campaign, Mueller's indictments of Trump's campaign officials have only targeted white collar crimes that happened before Trump even announced his candidacy. House lawmakers have pressed for the Mueller indictment to end and as Number 2 in the DOJ, Rosenstein is the person in charge of that process.
26.07.2018 - Trump Advised by Kissinger to Cozy Up with Russia to Contain China - Reports
Trump Advised by Kissinger to Cozy Up With Russia to Contain China – Reports
The former secretary of state is best known for his concept of triangular diplomacy, which Washington used during the Nixon administration in the 1970s to break the Sino-Soviet alliance and to improve US relations with Beijing.
Henry Kissinger advised President Donald Trump to try to improve relations with Russia in a bid to try to isolate China during the presidential transition in late 2016 and early 2017, five sources said have been briefed on Kissinger's discussions with the president
told The Daily Beast.
Kissinger offered similar advice to senior Trump advisor Jared Kushner, one source said. White House and Capitol Hill insiders told the outlet that officials from the State Department, the Pentagon and the National Security Council proposed a similar strategy to Trump.
A source told the outlet that "looking out over [the] long term, there is a belief in the administration that Moscow will see Beijing as its greatest geopolitical foe – just like Washington does now – and that could set up a rapprochement with America."
"But it is very far out into the future," the source added.
Kissinger voiced his support for last week's summit between President Putin and President Trump in Helsinki, but lamented that the meeting had been "submerged by American domestic issues."
"It was a meeting that had to take place. I have advocated it for several years," Kissinger
said. Stressing that nations today face a "very, very grave period for the world," the former secretary of state said that
Trump "may be one of those figures in history who appears from time to time to mark the end of an era and to force it to give up its old pretenses."
According to The Daily Beast's sources, US strategists promoting a pivot toward Russia were also looking to engage the Philippines, India, Japan, Middle Eastern countries and other actors to serve as a "counterweight" to the presumed Chinese threat to US hegemony.
The practicality of Kissinger's vision of turning Russia against China is questionable. Last month, President Putin paid a state visit to Beijing on the invitation of President Xi, where he said that cooperation with the People's Republic had reached
"an unprecedented level." In Beijing, Putin signed numerous economic agreements and treaties on cooperation in nuclear power, space, and the Arctic. Moscow and Beijing also announced their intention to
deepen strategic cooperation and coordination in the face of a "complex international situation."
Following last week's summit between Putin and Trump, a former Trump administration official told the outlet that the president was trying to pull a reverse "Nixon-China play." The official added that Russia and China were "cozying up to each other," and
warned that it would be "a lethal combination" for the United States "if they're together."
Relations between the US and China have suffered a hit under Trump's presidency, with long-term tensions over the South China Sea exacerbated by the trade war launched by the president in a bid to improve the trade balance. The Chinese government has
condemned Washington's tariff policy and vowed to respond in kind. Trump had attacked China over trade throughout his 2016 presidential campaign.
26.07.2018 - Iranian Commander to Trump: You Will Start War, We Will End It
Iranian Commander to Trump: You Will Start War, We Will End It
Tensions between Iran and the United States have been mounting rapidly, with Washington trading threats with Tehran and vowing to impose oil trade blockade.
Major-General Qassem Soleimani, head of the elite Quds Force of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, said, addressing to US President Donald Trump, that his forces are "ready to confront the US" if Trump proceeds with his warnings that Iran will bear consequences "the likes of which few throughout history have ever suffered."
"You know that this war will destroy all that you possess. You will start this war but we will be the ones to impose its end. Therefore you have to be careful about insulting the Iranian people and the president of our Republic," the top Iranian general said in a speech quoted by Iran's Al Alam TV broadcaster in the Arabic language.
The day before, Iran's Revolutionary Guards' Chief Major-General Mohammad Ali Jafari stated that the US oil threats against Iran
"can be easily answered."
Soleimani's statement comes in response to Washington’s efforts to force the US allies to completely abandon imports of Iranian oil. Tehran, in turn, has threatened to block oil from passing through the Strait of Hormuz, which could lead to global markets' disruption since 30 percent of all seaborne crude oil is shipped through this strait.
Tensions between the two countries began to rise after Trump odered to withdraw the US from the nuclear deal with Iran, also called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Actions (JCPOA), in May. After abandoning the agreement, which stipulated lifting of anti-Iranian sanctions in exchange for concessions on its nuclear program, Washington vowed to re-impose restrictive measures. In addition, US Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin emphasized that the United States was ready to slap sanctions on every country that continued to import oil from Iran after the November 4 deadline.
24.07.2018 - Trump Says US Ready to Make 'Real Deal' on Iran Nuke Program
Trump Says US Ready to Make 'Real Deal' on Iran Nuke Program
US President Donald Trump stated that Washington was ready to make a "real deal" on the Iranian nuclear program.
"We'll see what happens, but we're ready to make a real deal, not the deal that was done by the previous administration, which was a disaster," the American head of state said during his address to the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
Rouhani had directed his warning at the US president on Sunday, stating that "America should know that peace with Iran is the mother of all peace, and war with Iran is the mother of all wars." Trump responded in all caps, warning Rouhani against "ever threatening the US again," stressing potential dire consequences "the likes of which few throughout history have ever suffered before."
US-Iranian relations have soured to a great extent since May 8, when President Donald Trump announced the United States's pullout from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which oversaw the step-by-step lifting of the anti-Iran sanctions in exchange for Tehran maintaining the peaceful nature of its nuclear program. In addition, Trump voiced a decision to reinstate harsh sanctions against the country.
In late June, the
US State Department said that the White House was seeking to talk its allies into completely halting their imports of Iranian oil and having any business ties with the country by early November. US Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin emphasized that the United States was ready to slap sanctions on any country which would continue to import oil from Iran after the deadline of November 4.
