Mueller asks rich Russians about Don $
SPECIAL COUNSEL Robert Mueller has reportedly started questioning Russian oligarchs about potentially illegal donations to President Trump's campaign.
An unnamed wealthy Russian was recently stopped at a New York area airport and had his electronic devices searched by investigators, multiple sources familiar with the matter told CNN.
A second unidentified oligarch was also apprehended during a recent trip to the U.S., according to the sources. It was unclear if his devices were scanned.
A third Russian, who has not traveled to the U.S. recently, received an informal document and interview request from the special counsel’s office, sources said.
All three oligarchs were asked about whether wealthy, Kremlinconnected Russians illegally siphoned cash directly or indirectly into Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, sources said.
The revelation signals that Mueller is aggressively exploring a broad range of angles into whether there was any type of coordination between the Russian government and Trump's campaign.
White House counsel Ty Cobb, who’s coordinating the administration's response to the Mueller probe, said the development was news to him.
“We’re not aware of Cobb told the Daily Wednesday afternoon. this,” News PRESIDENT TRUMP signed an executive order late Wednesday authorizing the deployment of National Guard troops to the Mexican border, as comprehensive funding for his long-desired border wall remained nowhere to be seen.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen announced the order during a White House press conference earlier Wednesday, but did not say how long the deployment will last, how many troops will be involved or how much the plan will cost.
“The threat is real,” Nielsen said at the afternoon briefing, adding the order would take effect as soon as Trump signed it. “It’s time to act.”
The order came one day after Trump made the surprise announcement that the U.S. will be “guarding our border with the military” until his “big, beautiful wall” is one day built.
Asked if the National Guard’s role could change or if it would be tasked with enforcement measures, such as arresting undocumented immigrants, Nielsen said it would not “as of now.”
But such measures would likely never happen, as federal law prohibits active-duty military members from operating as part of domestic law enforcement agencies, unless specifically authorized by Congress.
Critics blasted Trump’s move as cheap political theater.
“This is pure symbolism playing to Trump’s base,” Christopher Sabatini, a lecturer at Columbia University, told the Daily News. “Stamping passports and checking visas is not what the National Guard does, nor should it. They are sent there as a show of force. They can’t even, nor are they equipped to, patrol the border.”
Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush both deployed National Guard troops to the border during their tenure.
Nielsen hinted that Trump’s effort will mirror a 2006 operation in which Bush deployed 6,000 National Guard members to assist the Customs and Border Protection agency while additional border agents were being trained.
Trump, frustrated over a lack of funding for his border wall proposal, has railed against immigrants in recent days.
He spent much of the weekend tweeting and talking about a “refugee caravan” of migrants from Honduras who are traveling through Mexico. He also incorrectly asserted that Central American immigrants were trying to take advantage of the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which he rescinded after taking office.
“We cannot have people flowing into our country illegally, disappearing and, by the way, never showing up for court,” Trump said Tuesday.
The President insists a border wall is essential for national security, even though the majority of people in the U.S. illegally overstay their visas. Construction on the unpopular wall stalled after Congress only approved $1.6 billion, rather than the $25 billion Trump had requested for it.
Nielsen said DHS and the Pentagon will work closely with governors in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas to implement the National Guard deployment.
Immigration advocates characterized Trump’s latest order as an attempt to distract the public from the chaos he created by reversing DACA, which protected about 800,000 young immigrants from deportation.
“Communities in the border region have among the lowest crime rates in the country and there is record-low unauthorized migration,” the American Civil Liberties Union said in a statement. “President Trump is trying to create crisis where there is none.” U.S. TROOPS will be staying in Syria until ISIS is defeated. The White House announced Wednesday that the “United States and our partners remain committed to eliminating the small ISIS presence in Syria that our forces have not already eradicated.” The U.S. has roughly 2,000 troops on the ground in Syria fighting the terrorist organization. While the group has been forced out of nearly 95% of the territory it once controlled, the remaining fighters could be difficult to deal with, military officials have warned. The fight against ISIS is coming a “rapid end,” according to the Trump administration, but no timetable for withdrawal was offered. The decision comes less than 24 hours after President Trump said he wants to bring troops home. Syria has been torn apart by a brutal civil war over the last seven years that has led to an international presence, including Russian and U.S. air support and the alleged use of chemical weapons on civilians.