Rather than softening Donald Trump's rhetoric on Twitter, Hope Hicks added her own brand of venom.

Courtesy of Business Insider:  

Hope Hicks, the former White House communications director and President Donald Trump's longtime aide and confidante, was known among reporters for softening her boss's sharp edges and relaying his strongly-worded messages in more pleasant terms. 

But according to a New York Times report, Hicks, who exited her White House position on March 29, regularly conceived of some of the sharpest personal attacks in Trump's Twitter feed. 

Hicks, along with White House director of social media Dan Scavino, helped the then-presidential candidate craft many of his infamous tweets from the campaign trail, The Times reported in a new profile of Scavino. And Hicks would supply some of the most devastating attacks. 

"She'd have absolute daggers," a former campaign official told The Times of Hicks.

No wonder Trump liked Hicks so much, and felt so lost without her.

She was the nasty ass Yin to his nasty ass Yang.

Of course it is not as if her leaving has softened any of Trump's tweets, though they certainly somewhat less articulate.

Remember, it's always the quiet ones that you never want to turn your back on.

I think Donald Trump may have found a replacement for Hope Hicks.

Courtesy of TMZ: 

Caroline Sunshine -- best known for her role as Tinka Hessenheffer on the hit Disney show, "Shake It Up" -- is going to do her best to brighten up Trump's White House ... by working in his press office. 

The 22-year-old actress is joining the team as a press assistant, after serving recently as a White House intern. Her role will most likely involve lending a hand to Sarah Huckabee Sanders, President Trump's WH Press Secretary. 

According to a WH spokesperson, Caroline interned for the Office of House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, the College Republican National Committee and the California Republican Party before making the move to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

Pretty young ingenue joins the White House as a press secretary.

I think we all know who is going to be getting a crash course in steaming up Mr. Trump's pants.

Maybe Hopey gave her some tips on not burning the presidential peanut before she finished out her last day yesterday.

Axios gets its hands on Robert Mueller's hit list, and it's a doozy.

Yep, I'm still coming.

Courtesy of Axios:  

What Mueller is asking for: Mueller is subpoenaing all communications — meaning emails, texts, handwritten notes, etc. — that this witness sent and received regarding the following people: 

1. Carter Page 
2. Corey Lewandowski 
3. Donald J. Trump 
4. Hope Hicks 
5. Keith Schiller 
6. Michael Cohen 
7. Paul Manafort 
8. Rick Gates 
9. Roger Stone 
10. Steve Bannon 

The subpoena asks for all communications from November 1, 2015, to the present. Notably, Trump announced his campaign for president five months earlier — on June 16, 2015.

Ga-damn! Mueller is definitely not fooling around.

Take a look at how many of those on this list are no longer workign in the White House, and how many never even made it that far.

And you KNOW that Mueller has already gained access to these records from Rick Gates, Steve Bannon, and Carter Page.

I heard on cable new this morning that it appears Mueller is approaching this much the same way he did while investigating organized crime families.

Seems appropriate.

By the way it is clearly getting to Trump, who tweeted this out this morning.

Why did the Obama Administration start an investigation into the Trump Campaign (with zero proof of wrongdoing) long before the Election in November? Wanted to discredit so Crooked H would win. Unprecedented. Bigger than Watergate! Plus, Obama did NOTHING about Russian meddling.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 5, 2018

Not only is that completely inaccurate but it also indicates that Trump is freaking the hell out.

CNN reports that Hope Hicks suddenly decided to quit after being berated by Donald Trump.

Courtesy of Mediaite:  

On Tuesday, White House Communications Director Hope Hicks reportedly admitted to the House Intelligence Committee that she’s told “white lies” for President Donald Trump. On Wednesday, she announced her resignation. 

A new report suggests the two developments may not be unrelated. 

According to CNN, Trump was furious with the head of his communications shop following her testimony. In a report presented on OutFront with Erin Burnett, the host (citing an unnamed person identified as a Trump ally) said that the president “berated” Hicks following her testimony on Tuesday. 

“That source telling me Hicks departure was sudden,” Burnett continued. “The source saying Trump berated Hicks after her testimony to Congress yesterday, you know, the nine hours in which she admitted to telling lies on behalf of the president.” 

“According to the source, Trump asked Hicks after the testimony, how she could she be so stupid,” Burnett continued. “And apparently that was the final straw for Hope Hicks.”

Of course the official story is that Hicks has been planning this move for quite some time now, but no reporter had even hinted at that. And for the leakiest White House in America's history that simply did not pass the smell test.

So if this report is correct that Hicks was Trump's "last emotional crutch," and that she is abruptly leaving him high and dry after he berated her, I have no idea how much worse things are about to get inside that White House.

Hope Hicks is resigning as White House Communications Director.

Courtesy of the New York Times:  

Hope Hicks, the White House communications director and one of President Trump’s longest-serving advisers, said Wednesday that she was resigning. 

Ms. Hicks, 29, a former model who joined Mr. Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign without any experience in politics, became known as one of the few aides who understood his personality and style and could challenge the president to change his views. 

Ms. Hicks had been considering leaving for several months. She told colleagues that she had accomplished what she felt she could with a job that made her one of the most powerful people in Washington, and that there would never be a perfect moment to leave, according to White House aides. 

Her resignation came a day after she testified for eight hours before the House Intelligence Committee, telling the panel that in her job, she had occasionally been required to tell white lies but had never lied about anything connected to the investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.

I think that admission of telling "white lies" put a target on her back for the Mueller team and she knows it.

I also think that once she is out of the White House she is going to no longer be a reliable defender for Donald Trump and that she may start singing like a canary in order to get herself a deal like the one that Rick Gates just received.

Have to wonder who will read to Donald Trump, give him the bad news that he only wanted to hear from Hicks, and compose his tweets for him first thing in the morning with her now leaving?
I goddamn guarantee you that Trump is crapping his overweight adult size Depends right now. 

Hope Hicks finally testifies before the House Intelligence Committee. Decides to pull a "Bannon."

Courtesy of WaPo:

Hope Hicks, one of President Trump’s closest aides and advisers, met Tuesday with House investigators probing Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election. But she refused to answer any questions about events and conversations that occurred since Trump took office, according to a Republican lawmaker who was there during the proceedings. 

Emerging from the meeting with Hicks, panel member Rep. Chris Stewart (R-Utah) said that “there are some questions that she’s not going to answer,” adding that Hicks was not willing to detail anything from the inauguration forward. 

Her refusal to answer questions about the Trump administration’s tenure suggests lawmakers will have a difficult time learning her side of a key story: the drafting of a misleading statement to explain an un­or­tho­dox meeting at Trump Tower between top Trump campaign members and a Russian lawyer.

According to at least one Democrat on the committee to say "We got Bannoned."

However at least one interesting tidbit was revealed during the testimony:

Hope Hicks, the White House communications director, told House investigators on Tuesday that her work for President Trump, who has a reputation for exaggerations and outright falsehoods, had occasionally required her to tell white lies. 

But after extended consultation with her lawyers, she insisted that she had not lied about matters material to the investigations into Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election and possible links to Trump associates, according to three people familiar with her testimony. 

The exchange came during more than eight hours of private testimony before the House Intelligence Committee. Ms. Hicks declined to answer similar questions about other figures from the Trump campaign or the White House. 

One has to wonder if she means "white lies" in the sense that they were harmless in nature, or just that they were okay because white people were telling them.?

Once again while I want as many investigations as possible looking into the Russia issue, I simply do not trust this House committee to actually get to any truth.

In fact I heard that they have already started writing their final report with several witnesses still to see. (Well to be honest it's the Democrats who want to see many more witnesses, as far as the Republicans are concerned Hicks was the last one.)

I am actually more interested in what Hicks might tell Mueller.

And I imagine that Mueller will not allow little miss orange stained thighs to pull any of these shenanigans on him or his investigators.

Aw, Hope Hicks and wife beater Rob Porter are no longer dating? Say it ain't so!

Courtesy of the Daily Mail: 

White House Communications Director Hope Hicks and former staff secretary Rob Porter are no longer dating, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the bygone relationship's status. 

One person close to Hicks told DailyMail.com on Wednesday that the dating came to an end after Porter resigned last week when his two ex-wives came forward to accuse him of abuse. 

The revelations by DailyMail.com have set of a crisis in the White House over the handling of Porter's past. 

The pair were on their way to becoming a bona fide Washington power couple, as two of President Donald Trump's most trusted and closest aides. 

But their falling out was seen as inevitable, one West Wing aide said Wednesday, after Porter's two ex-wives accused him of spousal abuse. 

Gee, first Dakota Meyer and Bristol Palin call it quits, and now this?

It's like dysfunctional relationships just don't stand a chance anymore.

Robert Mueller hones in on fake story put out by Trump team about meeting with Russian lawyer in Trump Tower.

Courtesy of the New York Times:  

Aboard Air Force One on a flight home from Europe last July, President Trump and his advisers raced to cobble together a news release about a mysterious meeting at Trump Tower the previous summer between Russians and top Trump campaign officials. Rather than acknowledge the meeting’s intended purpose — to obtain political dirt about Hillary Clinton from the Russian government — the statement instead described the meeting as being about an obscure Russian adoption policy. 

The statement, released in response to questions from The New York Times about the meeting, has become a focus of the inquiry by Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election. Prosecutors working for Mr. Mueller in recent months have questioned numerous White House officials about how the release came together — and about how directly Mr. Trump oversaw the process. Mr. Mueller’s team recently notified Mr. Trump’s lawyers that the Air Force One statement is one of about a dozen subjects that prosecutors want to discuss in a face-to-face interview of Mr. Trump that is still being negotiated.

We all know this story, right?

Claim is made that Russian lawyer has dirt on Hillary,  meeting happens in Trump Tower which includes, Junior, Michael Flynn, and Jared Kushner, when meeting is exposed Trump team makes up story that it was about Russian adoptions.

But here's a new wrinkle:

The latest witness to be called for an interview about the episode was Mark Corallo, who served as a spokesman for Mr. Trump’s legal team before resigning in July. Mr. Corallo received an interview request last week from the special counsel and has agreed to the interview, according to three people with knowledge of the request. 

Mr. Corallo is planning to tell Mr. Mueller about a previously undisclosed conference call with Mr. Trump and Hope Hicks, the White House communications director, according to the three people. Mr. Corallo planned to tell investigators that Ms. Hicks said during the call that emails written by Donald Trump Jr. before the Trump Tower meeting — in which the younger Mr. Trump said he was eager to receive political dirt about Mrs. Clinton from the Russians — “will never get out.” That left Mr. Corallo with concerns that Ms. Hicks could be contemplating obstructing justice, the people said.

Uh oh, not Trump's Girl Friday.

 Of course the lawyer for Hicks has already said this is, altogether now, "fake news." 

However let's keep in mind that Mr. Carallo will be testifying under oath, will Hope Hicks do the same?

Does anybody else get a kick that this always seems to go back to emails?

Much anticipated Hope Hicks interview before the House Intelligence Committee postponed.

Courtesy of CNN: 

Hope Hicks' highly anticipated testimony before the House Intelligence Committee was abruptly delayed Thursday amid questions about whether the White House communications director would be able to respond to inquiries about topics after the campaign season, four sources told CNN. 

The surprise move came after Steve Bannon refused to answer scores of questions about topics during the transition and his time as President Donald Trump's chief strategist, with Bannon's attorney saying he had been instructed by the White House not to answer those questions over concerns that it could breach executive privilege. 

Hicks' appearance Friday was anticipated given her close ties to Trump, which predate the campaign, and the central role she has played through the election season and in the White House.

The committee made the decision to delay Hicks' appearance in order to give investigators time to sort out with the White House what she could and could not discuss, one of the sources said. She is still expected to speak with the panel at a later date.

Yeah that's a great way to run an investigation, by asking the subject's boss, and focus of the investigation, what they are allowed to reveal. 

Mueller certainly will not be asking Mother May I.

Steve Bannon is currently testifying before the House Intelligence Committee. Next up, Hope Hicks. Update!

Steve Bannon is on Capitol Hill to give private testimony to House Intel Committee in Russia probe: https://t.co/xsWc8V42Di

— AP Politics (@AP_Politics) January 16, 2018

Courtesy of AP:

Steve Bannon, the onetime close confidant to President Donald Trump, arrived early Tuesday for his interview before the House Intelligence Committee. 

His interview follows his spectacular fall from power after being quoted in a book that he sees the president’s son and others as engaging in “treasonous” behavior for taking a meeting with Russians during the 2016 campaign.

I imagine that Bannon is spilling his guts right now.

After all what more could he possibly lose at this point?

Next one the barrel is apparently Trump's side piece. (Oh come on! You know it's true.)

Courtesy of CNN:  

White House Communications Director Hope Hicks is expected to meet with the House Intelligence Committee as soon as this week, making her one of President Donald Trump's closest confidantes to be privately interviewed in the panel's Russia investigation, multiple sources with knowledge of the matter told CNN. 

Hicks, a trusted Trump aide for years, was one of then-candidate Trump's first hires as he put together an improbable run for the White House. During the campaign, she was often by Trump's side and attended nearly every rally, while she was in frequent communication with other senior officials as they plotted their tactics to win the White House. 

The House panel plans to interview her about any knowledge she has of contacts that occurred between other Trump associates and Russians. And she is bound to be questioned about other controversies as well, namely the White House's involvement in crafting a misleading response last summer once a June 2016 meeting between Russians and Donald Trump Jr. was revealed in the press. 

The meeting is expected to occur as soon as Friday, the sources said.

I know that Hope Hicks and Stephen Bannon have a potpourri of potentially damaging information about Trump and the campaign to share, but I still lack confidence that the House Intelligence Committee is actually interested in revealing that information.

I am much more interested in what Mueller and his team manage to squeeze out of these two.

And we just learned today that Mueller has issued a subpoena for Bannon to testify before a grand jury.

Courtesy of the New York Times:

Stephen K. Bannon, President Trump’s former chief strategist, was subpoenaed last week by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, to testify before a grand jury as part of the investigation into possible links between Mr. Trump’s associates and Russia, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter. 

The move marked the first time Mr. Mueller is known to have used a grand jury subpoena to seek information from a member of Mr. Trump’s inner circle. The special counsel’s office has used subpoenas before to seek information on Mr. Trump’s associates and their possible ties to Russia or other foreign governments. 
The subpoena could be a negotiating tactic. Mr. Mueller is likely to allow Mr. Bannon to forgo the grand jury appearance if he agrees to instead be questioned by investigators in the less formal setting of the special counsel’s offices about ties between Mr. Trump’s associates and Russia and about the president’s conduct in office, according to the person, who would not be named discussing the case. But it was not clear why Mr. Mueller treated Mr. Bannon differently than the dozen administration officials who were interviewed in the final months of last year and were never served with a subpoena.

Popcorn anyone?

Update: I stand corrected, Bannon was uncooperative until he was subpoenaed during the hearing.  

Sources say Bannon told by WH not to answer questions before House Intel Cmte about the White House and the transition. Did not assert executive privilege. Committee subpoenas him during the meeting to comply while in the hearing.

— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) January 16, 2018

Earlier this year FBI officials sat down with Hope Hicks to warn her that Russian operatives were trying to make contact with her.

Courtesy of the New York Times:  

F.B.I. officials warned one of President Trump’s top advisers, Hope Hicks, earlier this year about repeated attempts by Russian operatives to make contact with her during the presidential transition, according to people familiar with the events. 

The Russian outreach efforts show that, even after American intelligence agencies publicly accused Moscow of trying to influence the outcome of last year’s presidential election, Russian operatives were undaunted in their efforts to establish contacts with Mr. Trump’s advisers.

After he took office, senior F.B.I. counterintelligence agents met with Ms. Hicks in the White House Situation Room at least twice, gave her the names of the Russians who had contacted her, and said that they were not who they claimed to be. The F.B.I. was concerned that the emails to Ms. Hicks may have been part of a Russian intelligence operation, and they urged Ms. Hicks to be cautious.

The meetings with Ms. Hicks, what the F.B.I. calls a “defensive briefing,” went beyond the standard security advice that senior White House officials routinely receive upon taking office. Defensive briefings are intended to warn government officials about specific concerns or risks. A lawyer for Ms. Hicks declined to comment. 

The contents of the emails to Ms. Hicks are unclear, as are the identities of the Russians who sent them. The people who described the briefing and the emails spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to openly discuss intelligence matters. The F.B.I. declined to comment.

Now some are suggesting that this indicates that the Russians were having trouble gaining access to Trump's inner circle.

However since they had already made contact with George Papadopoulos, Michael Flynn, Paul Manafort, and even Donald Trump Jr., it actually appears they had worked their way up the food chain to the one person who had interactions with Trump on a daily basis.

If they wanted Trump to get their message, then getting the opportunity to whisper sweet nothings into the ear of his Girl Friday was essentially hitting the jackpot.

The article says that there is no evidence that Hicks did anything wrong, but it also does not say whether she ever responded to the emails or forwarded them to her boss or others.

Well whatever the case, Robert Mueller was sure keen to talk to her:

On Thursday and Friday, investigators working for Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel, interviewed Ms. Hicks as part of his investigation into Russia’s efforts to influence the 2016 election and whether any of Mr. Trump’s advisers assisted the Russian campaign. It is not clear whether the Russian efforts to contact Ms. Hicks were discussed during that interview.

I have said it before but it bears repeating, Hope Hicks is likely the one person that the Mueller team should pay special attention to as I am convinced that she knows WAY more than most of Trump's associates.

New book paints Donald Trump as glutton for fast food and raving lunatic. And this was written by supporters.

So the Washington Post got their hands on a preview copy of Corey Lewandowski's tell all book about the Trump campaign called "Let Trump Be Trump."

Which is kind of an ironic title since the book is filled with examples of what a terrible personality Trump has and how volatile and mercurial his temper can be.

Here are a few examples.

Trump's temper: 

“Sooner or later, everybody who works for Donald Trump will see a side of him that makes you wonder why you took a job with him in the first place,” the authors wrote. “His wrath is never intended as any personal offense, but sometimes it can be hard not to take it that way. The mode that he switches into when things aren’t going his way can feel like an all-out assault; it’d break most hardened men and women into little pieces.”

The authors “both had moments where they wanted to parachute off Trump Force One,” but they said they got used to it

.In a section of the book written by Lewandowski, Trump is described as flying on his helicopter when he learns that Manafort has said “Trump shouldn’t be on television anymore, that he shouldn’t be on the Sunday shows” and that Manafort should appear instead. Trump was angrier than Lewandowski had ever seen him, ordering the pilot to lower the altitude so he could make a cellphone call. 

“Did you say I shouldn’t be on TV on Sunday? I’ll go on TV anytime I g--dam f---ing want and you won’t say another f---ing word about me!” Trump yelled at Manafort, according to Lewandowski. “Tone it down? I wanna turn it up! . . . You’re a political pro? Let me tell you something. I’m a pro at life. I’ve been around a time or two. I know guys like you, with your hair and skin . . .” 

Lewandowski called it “one of the greatest takedowns in the history of the world.”

Trump's gluttony:

Trump’s fast-food diet is a theme. “On Trump Force One there were four major food groups: McDonald’s, Kentucky Fried Chicken, pizza and Diet Coke,” the authors write. 

The plane’s cupboards were stacked with Vienna Fingers, potato chips, pretzels and many packages of Oreos because Trump, a renowned germaphobe, would not eat from a previously opened package. 

The book notes that “the orchestrating and timing of Mr. Trump’s meals was as important as any other aspect of his march to the presidency,” and it describes the elaborate efforts that Lewandowski and other top aides went through to carefully time their delivery of hot fast food to Trump’s plane as he was departing his rallies.

Lewandowski described a typical Trump dinner order  as consisting of  "Two Big Macs, two Filet-o-fish sandwiches, and a chocolate malt."

And this was not a weekend binge meal, this was a consistent meal choice.

Hope Hicks: 

One of Hicks’s jobs was to make sure that Trump’s suits were pressed when they flew on his plane. “ 

‘Get the machine!’ ” Trump would yell, according to the book. “And Hope would take out the steamer and start steaming Mr. Trump’s suit, while he was wearing it! She’d steam the jacket first and then sit in a chair in front of him and steam his pants.” 

One day, when Hicks forgot the steamer, Trump became angry. 

“G--dammit, Hope! How the hell could you forget the machine?” 

The authors wrote, “It was a mistake she would never make again.”

Oh yeah, she's doing him.

Lewandowski and his co-author, former senior campaign aide David Bossie, still express support for Trump which kind of makes you wonder what the books that come out about Trump from people who eventually turned on him will contain.

Hope Hicks loves Donald Trump like a father. Yeah, I'll bet.

Courtesy of Newsweek: 

In an administration rocked by staff shakeups, resignations and infighting, Hope Hicks is a survivor. 

The 29-year-old White House communications director has been a steady hand at the center of Donald Trump’s campaign and presidency, outlasting a rotating cast of political operatives and weighing in on everything from which media interviews to grant to the administration’s response to allegations of Russian collusion. 

“She has a great ‘Trump radar’ [in] understanding how he thinks...She loves him like a father in some ways, and I think that is an important loyalty to the family,” Brad Parscale, digital director for Trump’s 2016 campaign, told Newsweek.

Now, that allegiance is being tested because federal investigators have sought to interview her as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s wide-ranging Russia investigation. The White House didn’t immediately respond Wednesday to questions about Hicks's status in the federal inquiries, and her personal attorney, Robert Trout, declined comment. But she is one of the few people who could provide deep insight into the president’s thinking—and, moreover, his reactions to the scandal that looms over his presidency.

So what do we think?

Will Hope Hicks crack under pressure from Robert Mueller, or will she stay loyal to "Daddy?" 

Whatever happens this whole thing just gets creepier every day.

Robert Mueller to question White House Communications Director Hope Hicks about possible lies she told on behalf of her boss, and the investigation now includes a sitting member of Congress.

Courtesy of Newsweek: 

Hope Hicks, who worked for Trump's campaign before becoming White House communications director, will be grilled by Mueller's team as early as next week, a source told Newsweek — and the questions will center on possibly fabricated statements she helped produce about the campaign's contacts with Russian operatives during the 2016 election. 

At issue is a statement provided to the media just days after the election, when Hicks flatly denied any campaign member conducted meetings with Russian representatives. 

"It never happened," she said at the time, even as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov was admitting "there were contacts" made with the Trump team. "There was no communication between the campaign and any foreign entity during the campaign." 

It is increasingly clear that Hicks's statement is untrue.

I know that Trump demands absolute loyalty from his people but it is hard to imagine that this young woman would be willing to do hard time to protect that orange tinged asshole.

Pretty sure she will spill the beans.

Speaking of spilling the beans, Mueller is now also shifting some of his focus to Rep. Dana Rohrabacher. Oooh now we're talking!

Courtesy of the LA Times:  

As part of his investigation into Russian attempts to influence the 2016 presidential campaign, FBI special counsel Robert Mueller is questioning witnesses about a meeting that allegedly took place shortly before the election between Rep. Dana Rohrabacher and former Trump advisor Michael Flynn, NBC is reporting. 

Rohrabacher (R-Costa Mesa) has long advocated for a friendlier relationship between the United States and Russia. His name has tangentially come up in relation to the investigation, but this is the first direct mention that the FBI is looking at a meeting in which Rohrabacher participated.

Rohrabacher's name has been bouncing around since this whole Russia investigation first began, I figured it was only a matter of time before the Mueller team would shift their attention his way.

I actually think there are far more American politicians besides Trump and Rohrabacher that Putin has managed to put under his control, and I am hoping that Mueller will be able to flush a number of them out into the open.

Carter Page's testimony before the House Intelligence Committee is....enlightening.

Courtesy of NBC News: 

Former Trump campaign volunteer Carter Page, who has come under scrutiny in the investigation of Russian election interference, told a House committee that he sought permission for a July 2016 trip to Moscow from senior Trump campaign officials, and reported to other Trump officials about the trip when he returned. 

It’s long been known that Page traveled to Moscow in July 2016, but he has said it was in his private capacity, unrelated to his role with the Trump campaign. 

Page, whose sworn testimony was released Monday night, told the House Intelligence Committee last week that he sought permission to make the trip from campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, and also notified Hope Hicks, who is now the White House communications director. 

Lewandowski told Page he was clear to go on the trip as long as the travel was not associated with his work on the campaign, Page told the committee.

However as it turns out Page was kind of representing the campaign to some degree on the trip, and he DEFINITELY talked with Russian government officials about the campaign.  So that sort makes it feel that it WAS associated with his work on the campaign.

Reporter Natasha Bertrand also points out that some of Page's testimony reinforces the documentation in the Christopher Steele Russian dossier.

Steele dossier panning out: Page met w/ both the head of investor relations for Rosneft AND members of Russia’s PA while in Moscow last July pic.twitter.com/k2mCTLIGUP

— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) November 7, 2017

Courtesy of Business Insider: 

Page revealed during his testimony that he met with both members of Russia's presidential administration and with the head of investor relations at the state-owned Russian oil giant Rosneft during his trip to Moscow last July. 

He also congratulated members of the Trump campaign's foreign policy team on July 14 for their "excellent work" on the "Ukraine amendment" — a reference to the Trump campaign's decision to "intervene" to water down a proposed amendment to the GOP's Ukraine platform. 

The original amendment proposed that the GOP commit to sending "lethal weapons" to the Ukrainian army to fend off Russian aggression. But it was ultimately altered to say "provide appropriate assistance" before it was included in the party's official platform. The dossier alleges that the campaign "agreed to sideline" the issue of Russia's invasion of Crimea and interference in eastern Ukraine in exchange for dirt on Hillary Clinton. 

Apparently Page was a confounding witness who attempted to plead with Fifth in response to some questions and then became quite chatty in response to others. 

Adam Schiff Asking Carter Page Whether He's Invoking The Fifth Amendment Is Something Else. pic.twitter.com/aNchV7MnTG

— Chris Geidner (@chrisgeidner) November 7, 2017

He also provided testimony which often seemed to contradict itself, and he probably perjured himself on several occasions.

Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff confronted Page with an email he wrote on July 8 from Moscow to Trump campaign adviser J.D. Gordon saying that he had received "incredible insights and outreach from a few Russian legislators and senior members of the presidential administration here." 

Former British spy Christopher Steele wrote in the dossier that an "official close to Presidential Administration Head, S. IVANOV, confided in a compatriot that a senior colleague in the Internal Political Department of the PA, DIVYEKIN (nfd) also had met secretly with PAGE on his recent visit." 

According to that official in the dossier, Diveykin told Page that the Kremlin had a dossier of kompromat on Hillary Clinton that they wanted to give to the Trump campaign. 

In his congressional testimony, Page denied meeting with Diveykin and said the "senior members of the presidential administration" that he had referred to in his email was actually just "a brief, less-than-10-second chat with [deputy Prime Minister] Arkadiy Dvorkovich." 

He said his mention of "legislators" was a reference to "a few people who were shaking hands" with him in passing. 

Like I said, "enlightening." 

Robert Mueller now has his sights set on Trump's newest communications director Hope Hicks.

Courtesy of Politico: 

President Donald Trump’s longtime aide and current communications director, Hope Hicks, is scheduled to speak with special counsel Robert Mueller’s team in mid-November, following the president’s trip to Asia, multiple people familiar with the schedule told POLITICO. 

Mueller’s team is also expected to interview three or four other current White House officials as early as this week, according to an administration official. 

Mueller’s team already has interviewed former aides, including Trump’s first chief of staff Reince Priebus and former press secretary Sean Spicer. But the latest round of interviews appears to mark a new phase of the investigation — hauling in current administration officials for daylong depositions. 

“Nothing about recent events alters the White House’s commitment to fully cooperate with the office of the special counsel,” White House lawyer Ty Cobb, said Tuesday in an interview. 

The White House currently expects Mueller to wrap up his interviews by Thanksgiving.

Oh I am absolutely certain that Hope Hicks knows all sorts of juicy details about Donald Trump behind the scenes.

Gee, I wonder who will be indicted based on information she shares?

Lawyers for Trump aides advise them not to lie to protect their boss.

Courtesy of Politico:  

Lawyers representing Donald Trump’s current and former aides are giving their clients one simple piece of advice: Don’t lie to protect the president. 

As special counsel Robert Mueller and congressional investigators prepare to question high-ranking aides — including Hope Hicks, Reince Priebus and Sean Spicer — in the coming weeks, Trump’s long history of demanding his employees’ complete loyalty is being put to the test.

But Trump stalwarts know the president is closely following the media coverage of the Russia case — and the last thing they want is to be deemed a turncoat whose answers end up becoming further fuel for investigators. 

Several of the lawyers representing current and former aides told POLITICO they’re actively warning their clients that any bonds connecting them to Trump won’t protect them from criminal charges if federal prosecutors can nail them for perjury, making false statements or obstruction of justice. 

“What I always tell clients is you can’t protect anybody. You can only hurt yourself,” said a lawyer representing a client involved in the Russia probe. The attorney added that any overt attempts to protect Trump will raise wider suspicions of a cover-up, making matters “worse for everybody.”

At this point, considering the loyalty that Trump demands of his people, I would be willing to bet that somebody is going to get charged with perjury. I think is kind of baked into the process at this point.

They will either do it out of some sense of gratitude or loyalty, or because they actually believe that Trump will ultimately protect them.

I would suggest that neither Sean Spicer of Reince Priebus are among those in danger of facing jail time however, as I see both of them as having been around politics too long, and having been too mistreated by Trump, to sacrifice their freedom to protect him from what they likely see as his unavoidable fate.

The thing about this Mueller investigation in particular is that he is going to gather a ton of folks who have knowledge of certain events, and if a Trump loyalist's story does not match that of everybody else they are truly FUBAR'd.

I am not certain that a person like Hope Hicks completely appreciates the gravity of their situation however.

She would be my first choice as one who would go down with the ship.

Robert Muelller wants to talk to White House aides. Including the ones that Donald Trump treated like crap.

Courtesy of WaPo:

Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III has alerted the White House that his team will probably seek to interview six top current and former advisers to President Trump who were witnesses to several episodes relevant to the investigation of Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election, according to people familiar with the request. 

Mueller’s interest in the aides, including trusted adviser Hope Hicks, former press secretary Sean Spicer and former chief of staff Reince Priebus, reflects how the probe that has dogged Trump’s presidency is starting to penetrate a closer circle of aides around the president. 

Each of the six advisers was privy to important internal discussions that have drawn the interest of Mueller’s investigators, according to people familiar with the probe, including his decision in May to fire FBI Director James B. Comey. Also of interest is the White House’s initial inaction after warnings about then-national security adviser Michael Flynn’s December discussions with Russia’s ambassador to the United States. 

The advisers are also connected to internal documents that Mueller’s investigators have asked the White House to produce, according to people familiar with the special counsel’s inquiry.

My favorite thing about this is the fact that Trump TOTALLY abused and humiliated both Reince Priebus and Sean Spicer, so you have know that they want to spill their guts big time.

That Hope Hicks woman might be a tough nut to crack, but both Priebus and Spicer look like the prison bitches in those movies who sing like canaries the second the screws bring them into the warden's office.

Mueller has others on his Christmas list as well.

In addition to Priebus, Spicer and Hicks, Mueller has notified the White House he will probably seek to question White House counsel Don McGahn and one of his deputies, James Burnham. Mueller’s office has also told the White House that investigators may want to interview Josh Raffel, a White House spokesman who works closely with Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner. 

White House officials are expecting that Mueller will seek additional interviews, possibly with family members, including Kushner, who is a West Wing senior adviser, according to the people familiar with Mueller’s inquiry.

Kushner is another soft touch who will start talking the minute he learns the only food they provide during the interrogation is from a vending machine.

Once again, Donald Trump is fucked.

Donald Trump appoints longtime sycophant Hope Hicks as his new communications director.

Courtesy of CNN Politics:  

Longtime Trump loyalist Hope Hicks has been promoted to interim communications director in the White House, a reflection that as the walls continue to close in on this president he is shrinking his inner circle to only his most trusted allies. 

Hicks, who came into Trump's orbit via work she did for his daughter, Ivanka, has been with him since the first day of his presidential campaign. She, along with then-campaign-manager Corey Lewandowski and social media guru Dan Scavino -- as well as the Trump family -- have always been on the innermost branches of the Trump trust tree.

......

If anything, Hicks is even more of a Trump devotee than Scaramucci; while he would occasionally acknowledge that the president, who he routinely said he "loved," might have done something less than perfectly, Hicks is not willing to do even that. She is for Trump: First, last and always. 

That's who Trump wants around him. He wants to shoot the bull with his aides. But, at the end of the day, he wants them to say "Yes, boss, you're right." That's the way you stay in Trump's good graces. And Hicks has never been out of those good graces.

By choosing Hicks Trump is essentially declaring that he will be serving as his own communications director.

Just another mindless minion declaring that the king is resplendent in his colorful attire, while the rest of the world can plainly see his orange tinted penal area due to his obvious and disgusting nudity.

I look forward to her abject failure to corral her boss, and her ultimately dismissal for being unable to do an impossible job.