WASHINGTON: The Trump administration’s back-to-back controversies over its Russian ties now have at least one thing in common: Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
Moscow’s top diplomat is a Washington fixture with a sprawling network, and he has emerged as the central figure in the investigations into Trump advisers’ connections with Russia. In a matter of weeks, contact with Kislyak led to the firing of a top adviser to the president and, on Thursday, prompted calls for the Attorney General Jeff Sessions to resign.
Separately, a White House official confirmed that Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and ousted National Security Adviser Michael Flynn met with Kislyak at Trump Tower in December for what the official called a brief courtesy meeting. Flynn was pushed out of the White House last month after officials said he misled Vice President Mike Pence about whether he and the ambassador had discussed US sanctions against Russia in a phone call.
At issue on Thursday were two meetings between Sessions and Kislyak — one in July and another in September, at the height of concern over Russia’s involvement in hacking of Democratic officials’ e-mail accounts. Intelligence officials have since concluded that Moscow ordered the hacks to tilt the election toward Trump. In his confirmation hearing, the Alabama Republican denied having contact with any Russian officials, neglecting to mention the meetings with Kislyak, which were first reported by the Washington Post.
The Russian Embassy did not respond to a request for comment.
Although the White House dismissed the revelation as part of a political witch hunt, Sessions’ former colleagues took the omission seriously. At the urging of some in his own party, Sessions recused himself from the Department of Justice’s investigation. Still, Democrats called for him to step down.
Observers note Kislyak is a somewhat unlikely figure to cause controversy. Over the course of a long diplomatic career, he has led the life of a somewhat typical global envoy — making himself a reliable presence on the circuit of receptions, teas and forums that make up the calendar of any ambassador.
Kislyak, who was appointed to his post in 2008, is regularly spotted walking around town, heading to and from meetings. Early in his tenure, he often opened the doors of the Russian Embassy, hosting dinners for foreign policy professionals, Pentagon officials, journalists and Capitol Hill staffers.
Those who have attended the events describe him as a gracious and amiable diplomat, although perhaps not as polished — nor as confrontational — as his more famous boss, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
In 2015, when Kislyak invited a group of Washington-based journalists, including one from the Associated Press, to the Russian Embassy for tea, he used the meeting to push warmer relations between the two nations — despite the conflict over Russia’s seizure of Crimea and the crisis in Ukraine.
Kislyak framed US-Russian relations as salvageable and hoped specifically to combat what he considered cartoonish, anti-Russian depictions of his government in the American press.
At a press conference where he recused himself from the investigation into the Trump campaign’s ties with Russia, Sessions said he discussed a number of things with Kislyak, including counterterrorism. He said the meeting became confrontational when the discussion turned to Ukraine.
Kislyak, 66, has bounced between the US and Russia for most of his long career.
His first foreign posting was to New York where he worked at the Soviet delegation at the UN in the early 1980s. He spent the following years as the first secretary and then councilor at the Soviet Embassy in Washington before returning to Moscow in 1989, where he took a succession of senior jobs at the Foreign Ministry.
He did a stint as Russian ambassador to Belgium and simultaneously served as Moscow’s envoy at NATO. He then returned to Moscow to serve as a deputy foreign minister, overseeing relations with the US and arms control issues before being sent to Washington.
Kislyak’s contacts have sparked questions about his role or involvement in the hacking, questions that are difficult to answer.
The US and Russia, along with many other countries, have made it a practice to separate their top diplomats from espionage activities, although it is not uncommon for an intelligence agent to operate under the cover of a senior-level diplomat. Foreign diplomats to the US likely expect that their activities will be monitored by US authorities in the same manner that American diplomats are monitored in countries like Russia.
Russian ambassadors most likely are aware of the intelligence agents operating under diplomatic cover, but are not believed to part of the security services themselves.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on Thursday ridiculed the claims of Kislyak’s involvement in espionage as “total disinformation” and part of efforts to sway public opinion.
“I’ll open a military secret for you: It’s the diplomats’ jobs to have contacts in the country they are posted to,” she said sarcastically. “It’s their obligation to meet with officials and members of the political establishment.”
Russia’s top diplomat in US in eye of political storm
Russia’s top diplomat in US in eye of political storm
Iranian hackers tried but failed to interest Biden’s campaign in stolen Trump info, FBI says
- The Trump campaign disclosed on Aug. 10 that it had been hacked and said Iranian actors had stolen and distributed sensitive internal documents
WASHINGTON: Iranian hackers sought to interest President Joe Biden’s campaign in information stolen from rival Donald Trump’s campaign, sending unsolicited emails to people connected to the Democratic president in an effort to interfere in the 2024 election, the FBI and other federal agencies said Wednesday.
There’s no evidence that any of the recipients responded, officials said, preventing the hacked information from surfacing in the final months of the closely contested election.
The hackers sent emails in late June and early July to people who were associated with Biden’s campaign before he dropped out. The emails “contained an excerpt taken from stolen, non-public material from former President Trump’s campaign as text in the emails,” according to a US government statement.
The announcement is the latest effort to call out what officials say is Iran’s brazen, ongoing work to interfere in the 2024 election, including a hack-and-leak campaign that the FBI and other federal agencies linked last month to Tehran. The Justice Department has been preparing charges in that breach, The Associated Press has reported.
The FBI, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency have said the Trump campaign hack and an attempted breach of the Biden-Harris campaign are part of an effort to undermine voters’ faith in the election and to stoke discord.
The Trump campaign disclosed on Aug. 10 that it had been hacked and said Iranian actors had stolen and distributed sensitive internal documents. At least three news outlets — Politico, The New York Times and The Washington Post — were leaked confidential material from inside the Trump campaign. So far, each has refused to reveal any details about what it received.
Politico reported that it began receiving emails on July 22 from an anonymous account. The source — an AOL email account identified only as “Robert” — passed along what appeared to be a research dossier that the campaign had apparently done on the Republican vice presidential nominee, Ohio Sen. JD Vance. The document was dated Feb. 23, almost five months before Trump selected Vance as his running mate.
In a statement, Morgan Finkelstein, a spokesperson for Kamala Harris’s campaign, said the campaign has cooperated with law enforcement since learning that people associated with Biden’s team were among the recipients of the emails.
“We’re not aware of any material being sent directly to the campaign; a few individuals were targeted on their personal emails with what looked like a spam or phishing attempt,” Finkelstein said.
Ukraine’s Zelensky says ‘victory plan’ is ready
President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Wednesday that his “Victory Plan,” intended to bring peace to Ukraine while keeping the country strong an avoiding all “frozen conflicts,” was now complete after much consultation.
Zelensky pledged last month to present his plan to US President Joe Biden, presumably next week when he attends sessions of the UN Security Council and General Assembly.
While providing daily updates on the plan’s preparation, Zelensky has given few clues of the contents, indicating only that it aims to create terms acceptable to Ukraine, now locked in conflict with Russia for more than 2 1/2 years.
“Today, it can be said that our victory plan is fully prepared. All the points, all key focus areas and all necessary detailed additions of the plan have been defined,” Zelensky said in his nightly video address.
“The most important thing is the determination to implement it.
There was, Zelensky said, no alternative to peace, “no freezing of the war or any other manipulations that would simply postpone Russian aggression to another stage.”
On Tuesday, the president said a meeting with top commanders had produced “good and strong content” in military terms, “precisely the kind that can significantly strengthen Ukraine.”
Zelensky has used as the basis for negotiations a peace plan he presented in late 2022 calling for a withdrawal of all Russian troops, the restoration of Ukraine’s post-Soviet borders and a means to bring Russian to account for its invasion.
The plan was the focal point of a “peace summit” hosted by Switzerland in June with participants pledging to convene a second summit later this year. Russia was not invited to the June summit and branded it as meaningless, though Ukraine and its allies say Moscow could attend the next gathering.
Zelensky has rejected any notion of negotiations while Russian troops occupy nearly 20 percent of the country’s territory.
Russia has repeatedly said it is willing to negotiate, but rules out discussions while Ukrainian forces remain in its southern Kursk region an incursion into the area last month.
Venezuelan opposition candidate says letter conceding election was coerced
CARACAS: Venezuela’s opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia said Wednesday he had been coerced into signing a letter distributed by Venezuelan authorities in which he supposedly conceded election defeat to strongman President Nicolas Maduro.
In the letter, dated September 7 and addressed to parliamentary leader Jorge Rodriguez, Gonzalez Urrutia said “I respect” the regime-aligned CNE electoral council’s proclamation of Maduro as the winner of the July 28 vote.
But on Wednesday, the 75-year-old retired diplomat published a message on X from Madrid, where he was given asylum after weeks in hiding in Venezuela, saying he was made to sign the letter in exchange for being allowed to leave.
Maduro aides brought him the letter at the Spanish embassy in Caracas and “I had to either sign it or deal with the consequences.”
Gonzalez Urrutia added “there were very tense hours of coercion, blackmail and pressure. At that point I considered I could be of more use free than if I were imprisoned.”
The letter, he said, was worthless as it was tainted by “coercion.”
Within hours of polls closing, the CNE declared Maduro the victor with 52 percent of votes cast.
The opposition immediately cried foul and dozens of countries refused to recognize Maduro’s claim to a third six-year term unless the CNE published a detailed vote breakdown, which it has not.
The United States has said there was “overwhelming evidence” that Gonzalez Urrutia had won.
The opposition presented its own figures based on polling station-level counts which it says proves Gonzalez Urrutia won by a landslide.
Gonzalez Urrutia vowed on Wednesday that “as the president elected by millions and millions of Venezuelans who voted for change, democracy and peace, I will not be silenced.”
He left for Spain under the cloud of an arrest warrant condemned by the international community for “serious crimes” related to his insistence that Maduro had stolen the vote.
Gonzalez Urrutia had ignored three successive summonses to appear before prosecutors investigating him for alleged crimes including “usurpation” of public functions, “forgery” of a public document, incitement to disobedience and sabotage.
The charges stem from the opposition’s publication of voting results, which the government says only authorized institutions have the right to do.
The CNE has said it cannot publish the voting records as hackers had corrupted the data, though observers have said there was no evidence of such interference.
Gonzalez Urrutia replaced opposition leader Maria Corina Machado on the ballot at the last minute after she was barred from running by institutions loyal to the Maduro regime.
She, too, has been mostly in hiding since the vote, except for appearing at a handful of organized demonstrations.
Maduro has said both Gonzalez Urrutia and Machado belong “behind bars,” blaming them for the deaths of 25 civilians and two soldiers in protests that broke out spontaneously after his alleged victory was announced.
Nearly 200 people were injured and more than 2,400 arrested.
Maduro has managed to cling to power despite sanctions stepped up after his 2018 reelection, also dismissed as a sham by dozens of countries.
Harvey Weinstein pleads not guilty to new sex crime charge
NEW YORK: Disgraced US movie producer Harvey Weinstein pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to a new sex crime charge in New York.
Weinstein, 72, who had emergency heart surgery just over a week ago, appeared in a Manhattan courtroom in a wheelchair to enter his plea to a single charge of committing a criminal sexual act.
The once-powerful movie mogul was unshaven and appeared pale and visibly frail during his brief court appearance.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said the new indictment of Weinstein is for the sexual assault of a woman in a Manhattan hotel between April 29, 2006 and May 6, 2006.
“Thanks to this survivor who bravely came forward, Harvey Weinstein now stands indicted for an additional alleged violent sexual assault,” Bragg said in a statement.
Weinstein is serving a 16-year prison sentence after being convicted on rape charges in California.
He was also convicted in New York in 2020 of the rape and sexual assault of an actress and of forcibly performing oral sex on a production assistant.
He was sentenced to 23 years in prison in that case.
A New York appeals court, however, overturned that conviction in April and Weinstein is now awaiting a retrial on those charges.
Judge Curtis Farber scheduled a next court hearing for Weinstein for October 2.
The one-time Hollywood heavyweight has suffered from a raft of health issues while in prison and has spent time in a secure hospital unit.
On September 9, Weinstein was rushed to Bellevue Hospital from New York’s Rikers Island prison for emergency heart surgery.
Allegations against Weinstein helped launch the #MeToo movement in 2017, a watershed moment for women fighting sexual misconduct.
More than 80 women accused him of harassment, sexual assault or rape, including prominent actors Angelina Jolie, Gwyneth Paltrow and Ashley Judd.
Weinstein claimed any sexual relations in question were consensual.
Weinstein and his brother Bob co-founded Miramax Films.
Their hits included 1998’s “Shakespeare in Love,” for which Weinstein shared a best picture Oscar.
Sanders preparing resolutions to block $20 billion in US arms sales to Israel
WASHINGTON: Sen. Bernie Sanders is preparing several resolutions that would stop more than $20 billion in US arms sales to Israel, a longshot effort but the most substantive pushback yet from Congress over the devastation in Gaza ahead of the first year anniversary of the Israel-Hamas war.
In a letter to Senate colleagues on Wednesday, Sanders said the US cannot be “complicit in this humanitarian disaster.”
The action would force an eventual vote to block the arms sales to Israel, though majority passage is highly unlikely.
“Much of this carnage in Gaza has been carried out with US-provided military equipment,” Sanders, I-Vermont, wrote.
As the war grinds toward a second year, and with the outcome of President Joe Biden’s efforts to broker a ceasefire deal and hostage release uncertain, the resolutions from Sanders would seek to reign in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s assault on Gaza.
The war has killed some 41,000 people in Gaza after the surprise Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack that killed about 1,200 people in Israel, and abducted 250 others, with militants still holding around 100 hostages.
While it’s doubtful the politically split Senate would pass the measures, the move is designed to send a message to the Netanyahu regime that its war effort is eroding the US’ longtime bipartisan support for Israel. Sanders said he is working with other colleagues on the measures.
Key Senate Democrats have been pushing the Biden administration to end the Israel-Hamas war and lessen the humanitarian crisis, particularly in Gaza, where people’s homes, hospitals, schools and entire Palestinian families are being wiped out.
