Trump Dump: Internal Policy (Thread I)

[FireNexus]

Devin Nunes just recused himself. This may be about to get really interesting.

[The Romulan Republic]

And the dominoes keep falling. This on top of Bannon being kicked from the National Security Council is just wonderful.

I'm trying not to get my hopes up too high, but at the rate the Trump administration and its accomplices seem to be crumbling, I'm beginning to hope for an impeachment before Trump's first year is out. Would make a nice Christmas present from the Congress.

[TheFeniX]

Can you see them asking any questions of the people buying the information other than "how much are you paying ?"

Yes, actually. The blowback from inadvertently letting sensitive data into the hands of criminal elements would (and has) lead to massive lawsuits. Knowingly doing so would open them up to all kinds of lawsuits and criminal charges. Enough that even someone as big as Comcast could be forced to split or be liquidated outright, depending on the scale of the users and information involved. Unless they can show they are "Too Big to Jail/Fail."

Someone has a grudge against someone online? Well, now its that much easier to track them down, stalk and harass them. Some of the shit around "Gamergate" comes to mind.

Organized crime can get information on peoples' location, as well as possible blackmail material. They'll certainly be able to pay whatever the companies charge.

You're going a bit far out there. The more likely scenario is:

"Mr. FeniX, your Facebook profile is a pretty standard affair, but it's come to our attention device PC1 has had some keyword hits such as 'pro-choice' on certain web forums. We're a family organization here, so we can't hire you." That's just one example and a pretty simple one at that.

I can choose to (and do) keep my online and offline persona as separate as possible. There are likely still ways you could tie them (I use more than a few aliases online, even though I do nothing illegal or even shady) together. But you'd have to jump through multiple hoops and invest a considerable amount of manhours just to find out the sites I visit. This is provided I don't use a different name on every site I go to and that the information is even visible.

But if I used a username across one site not running SSL/TLS or just have one instance where "Username:FeniX" and "Usename:TotallyNotFeniX" is sent clear-text and you happen to be physically in the middle of all my communications: Boom. I've done work on networks that run iPrisms set as border firewalls. You can see everything and easily catalog the Internet usage of a single device. Even though you can't read the data of encrypted tunnels, even knowing they are there is worthwhile information to have.

The legitimate uses against the populace for their information is already sickening. You don't have to get into illicit use. Really, I'm an old hat kind of guy, the Internet only has certain uses for me. I more fear for my son the day he gets an Internet device because this will lead to a new profile system, likely without any controls, such as Credit Reporting. Except it will contain every red flag, no matter how innocuous, he ever picks up.

[Ralin]

In which case it's true but utterly irrelevant, and it actually loops back to the argument for why you'd have to be out of your mind to be a gay Republican- Or at least, a sane gay Republican would have to be deliberately doing the political equivalent of jumping on a grenade, because of an issue they care about more than they care about the well-being and even survival of themselves and millions of others like them.

But the point is, no, a Trump administration was never going to be good or even mediocre on gay rights. Any belief to the contrary was just stupidity trying to lull people into not resisting a force that would seek to destroy them.

Late response, but it's relevant in that it means a lot of bad shit can probably be derailed by making it embarrassing or frustrating enough that whoever's pushing it falls out of favor with Trump.

Like, isn't Bannon supposed to be on the outs now or getting there because Trump was displeased by how important people thought he was?

[FaxModem1]

In....lighter news, Trump has visited Mar-A-Lago for the 15th time in his administration.

The sheer expense of all of Trump's visits and his family being spread out have made the Secret Service ask for more money to protect them, about $60 million.

Washington Post

Secret Service asked for $60 million extra for Trump-era travel and protection, documents show

Secret Service members wait with a motorcade before President-elect Donald Trump disembarks his plane in Hebron, Ky., on Dec. 1, 2016. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
By Drew Harwell and Amy Brittain March 22
The U.S. Secret Service requested $60 million in additional funding for the next year, offering the most precise estimate yet of the escalating costs for travel and protection resulting from the unusually complicated lifestyle of the Trump family, according to internal agency documents reviewed by The Washington Post.

Nearly half of the additional money, $26.8 million, would pay to protect President Trump’s family and private home in New York’s Trump Tower, the documents show, while $33 million would be spent on travel costs incurred by “the president, vice president and other visiting heads of state.”

The documents, part of the Secret Service’s request for the fiscal 2018 budget, reflect the costly surprise facing Secret Service agents tasked with guarding the president’s large and far-flung family, accommodating their ambitious travel schedules and fortifying the three-floor Manhattan penthouse where first lady Melania Trump and son Barron live.

Trump has spent most of his weekends since the inauguration at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, and his sons have traveled the world to promote Trump properties with Secret Service agents in tow.

The documents reviewed by The Post did not show how the new budget requests compare with the funding needs for past presidents, and such figures are not public information. The Secret Service and Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the agency, declined to provide cost breakdowns and have said in the past that such fig­ures are confidential, citing security concerns.

Mar-a-Lago isn't just Trump's vacation spot; it's his second White House Play Video2:57
The Washington Post's Jenna Johnson and Aaron Blake explain why President Trump spends so much time at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, and how he uses it as a second White House. (Peter Stevenson/The Washington Post)
A person familiar with internal Secret Service budget discussions said the requests for additional funding, prepared in late February, were rejected by the Office of Management and Budget, an arm of the White House. That means the agency will probably have to divert other spending to handle the additional burden. While best known for protecting the president, Secret Service agents also investigate cyber­crimes, counterfeit-money operations, and cases­ involving missing and exploited minors.

The Secret Service declined to respond to questions after The Post provided a summary of the documents. The service referred questions to DHS, which also declined to comment. The White House referred questions to the Secret Service and the Office of Management and Budget, which did not initially respond to requests for comment. After the article was posted online Wednesday, an OMB staffer issued a statement to The Post saying that the Secret Service is continuing to refine its budgetary estimates. The staffer also said that the claim that OMB denied the $26.8 million request for Trump Tower and family expenses was “outright untrue” and that OMB “supported its funding.”

The budget requests reflect a potentially awkward contrast between Trump’s efforts to cut federal spending in many areas and the escalating costs of his travel itinerary. Trump jetted to Mar-a-Lago on Friday for his fifth post-inauguration weekend trip, one day after the White House released a federal budget proposing deep cuts to many government programs.

[He’s baaaack!’: Trump’s visits to Mar-a-Lago are stretching Palm Beach’s budget and locals’ patience]

Former agents said the requests indicate that the agency had to adapt to offer full protection for a president and first family who appear to have placed few limits on their personal travel and living arrangements.

“The Secret Service cannot dictate the lifestyle of the protectee. They have to work around it,” said Jonathan Wackrow, a 14-year Secret Service employee who is now executive director of the risk-mitigation company RANE. “I don’t think they expected him to go to Florida so often.

“This was an unanticipated reality,” he added, for which the Secret Service “had to quickly re­adjust operations.”

Banke International director Niraj Masand, far left, poses for a photo with Eric Trump, Banke International director Porush Jhunjhunwala, Donald Trump Jr. and DAMAC Properties Chairman Hussain Sajwani during festivities marking the formal opening of the Trump International Golf Club in Dubai on Feb. 18. (AP)
Some of the public funding could potentially become revenue for Trump’s private company, the Trump Organization, which owns the Trump Tower that agents must now protect. The Defense Department and Secret Service have sought to rent space in Trump Tower but have not said how much space they’re interested in, or at what cost. Neither the Secret Service nor the Trump Organization have disclosed how much public money, if any, is being spent toward Trump Tower space or other costs.


The Trump Organization did not respond to requests for comment.

The Secret Service would not provide any details on the typical budget for protecting the first family. The agency requested $734 million for its fiscal 2017 “operations and support” protection budget, which would include the ex­penses for all protected individuals and foreign heads of state, DHS budget documents show.

The $26.8 million funding request says the money is needed for “residence security operations at the president’s private residence in Trump Tower,” with roughly $12.5 million earmarked to cover “personnel related costs in New York.”

The money would also go toward protective assignments for the president’s children and grandchildren, as well as costs for “protective ad­vances and protective intelligence activi­ties.” The request also sought six additional full-time-equivalent positions for the Trump security details.

The $26.8 million budget item is marked as $0 in previous years, which former Secret Service agents said probably meant that the costs were part of a new budget category designed to encapsulate the unusual expense of protecting the first lady and the president’s youngest son because they live outside the White House.

There were also additional undisclosed costs, spent in fiscal 2017, to install “equipment and infrastructure to secure Trump Tower,” according to the request.

[Trump family’s elaborate lifestyle is a ‘logistical nightmare’ — at taxpayer expense]

W. Ralph Basham, a longtime Secret Service employee who served as director under President George W. Bush, said that the agency clearly had no “crystal ball” to predict Trump’s victory and, thus, had not accounted for the price tag of his presidency.

“The expense of taking on a family like the Trumps versus taking on a family like the Clintons,” he said. “It’s a totally different funding scenario.”

New York City boasts some of the highest real estate prices in the nation, and Basham noted that the Secret Service “does not have the liberty of going out in New Jersey” to find cheap rental space. “You have to be there,” he said, referring to Trump Tower.

Basham said it is difficult to pinpoint exact ex­penses at this stage in the budget process. But he estimated that the $26.8 million request would probably include costs for command centers, agents’ room and board, communications ex­penses and rental space.

Jeffrey Robinson, co-author of the book “Standing Next to History: An Agent’s Life Inside the Secret Service” with former Secret Service agent Joseph Petro, said the logistics of protecting Trump Tower are “a nightmare” because of its easily accessible location on Fifth Avenue.

“They have to secure Trump Tower because Melania is there,” Robinson said. “They protect the first family. They have to protect the grandchildren. This is going to be an expensive operation.”

Robinson said the budget request is not surprising, considering that the agency is mandated by Congress to protect the president. “They need the money that they need,” he said.

A separate travel-funding request seeks $33 million on top of the agency’s $74 million fiscal 2018 protection-travel budget. The document justifies the request by saying that Secret Service travel, in general, is “extremely variable, difficult to predict and difficult to plan for in advance as many protectees’ travel plans are unknown with limited time to prepare.”

The request does not specifically name Mar-a-Lago, and the travel budget changes­ year to year based on many factors. The total protective travel budget for fiscal 2015 was about $80 million. That figure climbed to $160 million in the heat of the 2016 presidential campaign, when agents were protecting multiple candidates.

But former agents said that, typically, costs go down in the first year of a new presidency.

Before taking office, Trump repeatedly criticized the cost of President Barack Obama’s travel, saying the fact that Obama’s trips were “costing taxpayers millions of dollars” was “unbelievable.” During the campaign, Trump pledged to save public money by working diligently in Washington and skipping out on expensive travel.

“There’s no time for vacation. We’re not going to be big on vacations,” Trump said at a campaign rally last year. “The White House is this incredible place. It represents so much, and you’re there for a limited period of time. If you’re at the White House and you have so much work to do, why do you fly? Why do you leave so much?”

The conservative group Judicial Watch, which closely tracked Obama’s family travel, estimated the Obamas’ vacation ex­penses totaled nearly $97 million over eight years.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer on Monday countered criticism of Trump’s frequent travel to Mar-a-Lago, saying: “The president is very clear that he works seven days a week. This is where he goes to see his family. He brings people down there. This is part of being president.”

Experts say that it is common for incoming presidential administrations to have unique logistical chal­lenges, including George W. Bush, who preferred to spend time at his remote ranch in Crawford, Tex.

Mar-a-Lago has quickly become a capital of Trump’s presidency and will play host to Chinese President Xi Jinping next month. On Friday night, the president surprised attendees when he popped into a Mar-a-Lago Club charity event to congratulate honoree Patrick Park, a Palm Beach philanthropist who has said he hopes to be named U.S. ambassador to Austria.

The Secret Service’s protection costs are a small fraction of the total public spending devoted to safe­guarding Trump properties. New York police spent roughly $24 million toward security costs at Trump Tower between the election and inauguration, according to police figures provided to The Post.

The agency is seeking federal reimbursement for the security costs. When the president is in town, New York police expect to spend about $300,000 a day safe­guarding Trump Tower. On days when only the first lady and their son are in town, police expect security costs will drop to between $127,000 and $145,000 a day. A police spokesman said the estimates could change based on officer deployments, intelligence and other factors.

At Mar-a-Lago, Palm Beach County officials say their sheriff’s office has spent more than $1.5 million toward overtime for deputies guarding the exclusive resort Trump has taken to calling “the southern White House” and “winter White House.”

County officials have proposed levying a special fee on the resort, saying they would have to otherwise raise local taxes on residents to help cover its high security costs. The Coast Guard has also paid to provide round-the-clock patrols of the resort’s two coastlines, including through the use of a gun-mounted response boat that, according to agency budget documents, costs $1,500 an hour.

The Secret Service has struggled through years of budget short­­ages and low morale. Former Secret Service agents said tightening budgets have hit agents hard and that, unlike other agencies, the Secret Service can’t travel less or staff fewer people to keep costs down because full protection for the first family is guaranteed.

“Everything will get done,” said Wackrow, the former agent who served in Obama’s protective detail. “But at what pain point does it get done?”

Carol Leonnig, Devlin Barrett, Julie Tate and Alice Crites contributed to this report.

This article has been updated.

As people have stated, we DON'T have money for education or healthcare, but we DO have money to protect the President for weekly golfing trips at his resort.

[FTeik]

So Trump does, what he already did with the companies he managed in the past - he sucks them dry as much as he can.

[Flagg]

In....lighter news, Trump has visited Mar-A-Lago for the 15th time in his administration.

The sheer expense of all of Trump's visits and his family being spread out have made the Secret Service ask for more money to protect them, about $60 million.

Washington Post

Secret Service asked for $60 million extra for Trump-era travel and protection, documents show

Secret Service members wait with a motorcade before President-elect Donald Trump disembarks his plane in Hebron, Ky., on Dec. 1, 2016. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
By Drew Harwell and Amy Brittain March 22
The U.S. Secret Service requested $60 million in additional funding for the next year, offering the most precise estimate yet of the escalating costs for travel and protection resulting from the unusually complicated lifestyle of the Trump family, according to internal agency documents reviewed by The Washington Post.

Nearly half of the additional money, $26.8 million, would pay to protect President Trump’s family and private home in New York’s Trump Tower, the documents show, while $33 million would be spent on travel costs incurred by “the president, vice president and other visiting heads of state.”

The documents, part of the Secret Service’s request for the fiscal 2018 budget, reflect the costly surprise facing Secret Service agents tasked with guarding the president’s large and far-flung family, accommodating their ambitious travel schedules and fortifying the three-floor Manhattan penthouse where first lady Melania Trump and son Barron live.

Trump has spent most of his weekends since the inauguration at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, and his sons have traveled the world to promote Trump properties with Secret Service agents in tow.

The documents reviewed by The Post did not show how the new budget requests compare with the funding needs for past presidents, and such figures are not public information. The Secret Service and Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the agency, declined to provide cost breakdowns and have said in the past that such fig­ures are confidential, citing security concerns.

Mar-a-Lago isn't just Trump's vacation spot; it's his second White House Play Video2:57
The Washington Post's Jenna Johnson and Aaron Blake explain why President Trump spends so much time at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, and how he uses it as a second White House. (Peter Stevenson/The Washington Post)
A person familiar with internal Secret Service budget discussions said the requests for additional funding, prepared in late February, were rejected by the Office of Management and Budget, an arm of the White House. That means the agency will probably have to divert other spending to handle the additional burden. While best known for protecting the president, Secret Service agents also investigate cyber­crimes, counterfeit-money operations, and cases­ involving missing and exploited minors.

The Secret Service declined to respond to questions after The Post provided a summary of the documents. The service referred questions to DHS, which also declined to comment. The White House referred questions to the Secret Service and the Office of Management and Budget, which did not initially respond to requests for comment. After the article was posted online Wednesday, an OMB staffer issued a statement to The Post saying that the Secret Service is continuing to refine its budgetary estimates. The staffer also said that the claim that OMB denied the $26.8 million request for Trump Tower and family expenses was “outright untrue” and that OMB “supported its funding.”

The budget requests reflect a potentially awkward contrast between Trump’s efforts to cut federal spending in many areas and the escalating costs of his travel itinerary. Trump jetted to Mar-a-Lago on Friday for his fifth post-inauguration weekend trip, one day after the White House released a federal budget proposing deep cuts to many government programs.

[He’s baaaack!’: Trump’s visits to Mar-a-Lago are stretching Palm Beach’s budget and locals’ patience]

Former agents said the requests indicate that the agency had to adapt to offer full protection for a president and first family who appear to have placed few limits on their personal travel and living arrangements.

“The Secret Service cannot dictate the lifestyle of the protectee. They have to work around it,” said Jonathan Wackrow, a 14-year Secret Service employee who is now executive director of the risk-mitigation company RANE. “I don’t think they expected him to go to Florida so often.

“This was an unanticipated reality,” he added, for which the Secret Service “had to quickly re­adjust operations.”

Banke International director Niraj Masand, far left, poses for a photo with Eric Trump, Banke International director Porush Jhunjhunwala, Donald Trump Jr. and DAMAC Properties Chairman Hussain Sajwani during festivities marking the formal opening of the Trump International Golf Club in Dubai on Feb. 18. (AP)
Some of the public funding could potentially become revenue for Trump’s private company, the Trump Organization, which owns the Trump Tower that agents must now protect. The Defense Department and Secret Service have sought to rent space in Trump Tower but have not said how much space they’re interested in, or at what cost. Neither the Secret Service nor the Trump Organization have disclosed how much public money, if any, is being spent toward Trump Tower space or other costs.


The Trump Organization did not respond to requests for comment.

The Secret Service would not provide any details on the typical budget for protecting the first family. The agency requested $734 million for its fiscal 2017 “operations and support” protection budget, which would include the ex­penses for all protected individuals and foreign heads of state, DHS budget documents show.

The $26.8 million funding request says the money is needed for “residence security operations at the president’s private residence in Trump Tower,” with roughly $12.5 million earmarked to cover “personnel related costs in New York.”

The money would also go toward protective assignments for the president’s children and grandchildren, as well as costs for “protective ad­vances and protective intelligence activi­ties.” The request also sought six additional full-time-equivalent positions for the Trump security details.

The $26.8 million budget item is marked as $0 in previous years, which former Secret Service agents said probably meant that the costs were part of a new budget category designed to encapsulate the unusual expense of protecting the first lady and the president’s youngest son because they live outside the White House.

There were also additional undisclosed costs, spent in fiscal 2017, to install “equipment and infrastructure to secure Trump Tower,” according to the request.

[Trump family’s elaborate lifestyle is a ‘logistical nightmare’ — at taxpayer expense]

W. Ralph Basham, a longtime Secret Service employee who served as director under President George W. Bush, said that the agency clearly had no “crystal ball” to predict Trump’s victory and, thus, had not accounted for the price tag of his presidency.

“The expense of taking on a family like the Trumps versus taking on a family like the Clintons,” he said. “It’s a totally different funding scenario.”

New York City boasts some of the highest real estate prices in the nation, and Basham noted that the Secret Service “does not have the liberty of going out in New Jersey” to find cheap rental space. “You have to be there,” he said, referring to Trump Tower.

Basham said it is difficult to pinpoint exact ex­penses at this stage in the budget process. But he estimated that the $26.8 million request would probably include costs for command centers, agents’ room and board, communications ex­penses and rental space.

Jeffrey Robinson, co-author of the book “Standing Next to History: An Agent’s Life Inside the Secret Service” with former Secret Service agent Joseph Petro, said the logistics of protecting Trump Tower are “a nightmare” because of its easily accessible location on Fifth Avenue.

“They have to secure Trump Tower because Melania is there,” Robinson said. “They protect the first family. They have to protect the grandchildren. This is going to be an expensive operation.”

Robinson said the budget request is not surprising, considering that the agency is mandated by Congress to protect the president. “They need the money that they need,” he said.

A separate travel-funding request seeks $33 million on top of the agency’s $74 million fiscal 2018 protection-travel budget. The document justifies the request by saying that Secret Service travel, in general, is “extremely variable, difficult to predict and difficult to plan for in advance as many protectees’ travel plans are unknown with limited time to prepare.”

The request does not specifically name Mar-a-Lago, and the travel budget changes­ year to year based on many factors. The total protective travel budget for fiscal 2015 was about $80 million. That figure climbed to $160 million in the heat of the 2016 presidential campaign, when agents were protecting multiple candidates.

But former agents said that, typically, costs go down in the first year of a new presidency.

Before taking office, Trump repeatedly criticized the cost of President Barack Obama’s travel, saying the fact that Obama’s trips were “costing taxpayers millions of dollars” was “unbelievable.” During the campaign, Trump pledged to save public money by working diligently in Washington and skipping out on expensive travel.

“There’s no time for vacation. We’re not going to be big on vacations,” Trump said at a campaign rally last year. “The White House is this incredible place. It represents so much, and you’re there for a limited period of time. If you’re at the White House and you have so much work to do, why do you fly? Why do you leave so much?”

The conservative group Judicial Watch, which closely tracked Obama’s family travel, estimated the Obamas’ vacation ex­penses totaled nearly $97 million over eight years.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer on Monday countered criticism of Trump’s frequent travel to Mar-a-Lago, saying: “The president is very clear that he works seven days a week. This is where he goes to see his family. He brings people down there. This is part of being president.”

Experts say that it is common for incoming presidential administrations to have unique logistical chal­lenges, including George W. Bush, who preferred to spend time at his remote ranch in Crawford, Tex.

Mar-a-Lago has quickly become a capital of Trump’s presidency and will play host to Chinese President Xi Jinping next month. On Friday night, the president surprised attendees when he popped into a Mar-a-Lago Club charity event to congratulate honoree Patrick Park, a Palm Beach philanthropist who has said he hopes to be named U.S. ambassador to Austria.

The Secret Service’s protection costs are a small fraction of the total public spending devoted to safe­guarding Trump properties. New York police spent roughly $24 million toward security costs at Trump Tower between the election and inauguration, according to police figures provided to The Post.

The agency is seeking federal reimbursement for the security costs. When the president is in town, New York police expect to spend about $300,000 a day safe­guarding Trump Tower. On days when only the first lady and their son are in town, police expect security costs will drop to between $127,000 and $145,000 a day. A police spokesman said the estimates could change based on officer deployments, intelligence and other factors.

At Mar-a-Lago, Palm Beach County officials say their sheriff’s office has spent more than $1.5 million toward overtime for deputies guarding the exclusive resort Trump has taken to calling “the southern White House” and “winter White House.”

County officials have proposed levying a special fee on the resort, saying they would have to otherwise raise local taxes on residents to help cover its high security costs. The Coast Guard has also paid to provide round-the-clock patrols of the resort’s two coastlines, including through the use of a gun-mounted response boat that, according to agency budget documents, costs $1,500 an hour.

The Secret Service has struggled through years of budget short­­ages and low morale. Former Secret Service agents said tightening budgets have hit agents hard and that, unlike other agencies, the Secret Service can’t travel less or staff fewer people to keep costs down because full protection for the first family is guaranteed.

“Everything will get done,” said Wackrow, the former agent who served in Obama’s protective detail. “But at what pain point does it get done?”

Carol Leonnig, Devlin Barrett, Julie Tate and Alice Crites contributed to this report.

This article has been updated.

As people have stated, we DON'T have money for education or healthcare, but we DO have money to protect the President for weekly golfing trips at his resort.

I don't understand why the executive has to pay for all non-state function food and drink (and various restroom supplies IIRC), but they are not responsible for paying for security of immediate family that refuse to live in the Whitehouse, like President Pussygrabber's cunt wife. And I don't care if anyone finds that offensive, her conduct has been pure cuntitude and she should have to pay for private security if she wants to live outside the White House or get a divorce and like so many Trumpists would say "go back where she came from."

[Ralin]

I don't understand why the executive has to pay for all non-state function food and drink (and various restroom supplies IIRC), but they are not responsible for paying for security of immediate family that refuse to live in the Whitehouse, like President Pussygrabber's cunt wife.

Because the president told them to do it.

[Civil War Man]

In other news, the FBI obtained a FISA warrant to monitor Carter Page's communications as early as July

The FBI obtained a secret court order last summer to monitor the communications of an adviser to presidential candidate Donald Trump, part of an investigation into possible links between Russia and the campaign, law enforcement and other U.S. officials said.

The FBI and the Justice Department obtained the warrant targeting Carter Page’s communications after convincing a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court judge that there was probable cause to believe Page was acting as an agent of a foreign power, in this case Russia, according to the officials.

This is the clearest evidence so far that the FBI had reason to believe during the 2016 presidential campaign that a Trump campaign adviser was in touch with Russian agents. Such contacts are now at the center of an investigation into whether the campaign coordinated with the Russian government to swing the election in Trump’s favor.

Page has not been accused of any crimes, and it is unclear whether the Justice Department might later seek charges against him or others in connection with Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential election. The counterintelligence investigation into Russian efforts to influence U.S. elections began in July, officials have said. Most such investigations don’t result in criminal charges.

The officials spoke about the court order on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss details of a counterintelligence probe.

During an interview with the Washington Post editorial page staff in March 2016, Trump identified Page, who had previously been an investment banker in Moscow, as a foreign policy adviser to his campaign. Campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks later described Page’s role as “informal.”

Page has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing in his dealings with the Trump campaign or Russia.

“This confirms all of my suspicions about unjustified, politically motivated government surveillance,” Page said in an interview Tuesday. “I have nothing to hide.” He compared surveillance of him to the eavesdropping that the FBI and Justice Department conducted against civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

The White House, FBI and Justice Department declined to comment.

FBI Director James B. Comey disclosed in public testimony to the House Intelligence Committee last month that the bureau is investigating efforts by the Russian government to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.

Comey said this includes investigating the “nature of any links between individuals associated with the Trump campaign and the Russian government and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and Russia’s efforts.”

Comey declined to comment during the hearing about any individuals, including Page, who worked in Moscow for Merrill Lynch a decade ago and who has said he invested in Russian energy giant Gazprom. In a letter to Comey in September, Page had said he had sold his Gazprom investment.

During the hearing last month, Democratic lawmakers repeatedly singled out Page’s contacts in Russia as a cause for concern.

The judges who rule on Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) requests oversee the nation’s most sensitive national security cases, and their warrants are some of the most closely guarded secrets in the world of U.S. law enforcement and intelligence gathering. Any FISA application has to be approved at the highest levels of the Justice Department and the FBI.

Applications for FISA warrants, Comey said, are often thicker than his wrists, and that thickness represents all the work Justice Department attorneys and FBI agents have to do to convince a judge that such surveillance is appropriate in an investigation.

The government’s application for the surveillance order targeting Page included a lengthy declaration that laid out investigators’ basis for believing that Page was an agent of the Russian government and knowingly engaged in clandestine intelligence activities on behalf of Moscow, officials said.

Among other things, the application cited contacts that he had with a Russian intelligence operative in New York City in 2013, officials said. Those contacts had earlier surfaced in a federal espionage case brought by the Justice Department against the intelligence operative and two other Russian agents. In addition, the application said Page had other contacts with Russian operatives that have not been publicly disclosed, officials said.

An application for electronic surveillance under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act need not show evidence of a crime. But the information obtained through the intercepts can be used to open a criminal investigation and may be used in a prosecution.

The application also showed that the FBI and the Justice Department’s national security division have been seeking since July to determine how broad a network of accomplices Russia enlisted in attempting to influence the 2016 presidential election, the officials said.

Since the 90-day warrant was first issued, it has been renewed more than once by the FISA court, the officials said.

In February, Page told “PBS NewsHour” that he was a “junior member of the [Trump] campaign’s foreign policy advisory group.”

A former Trump campaign adviser said Page submitted policy memos to the campaign and several times asked to be given a meeting with Trump, though his request was never granted. “He was one of the more active ones, in terms of being in touch,” the adviser said.

The campaign adviser said Page participated in three dinners held for the campaign’s volunteer foreign policy advisers in the spring and summer of 2016, coming from New York to Washington to meet with the group. Although Trump did not attend, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), a top Trump confidant who became his attorney general, attended one meeting of the group with Page in late summer, the campaign adviser said.

Page’s role as an adviser to the Trump campaign drew alarm last year from more-established foreign policy experts in part because of Page’s effusive praise for Russian President Vladimir Putin and his criticism of U.S. sanctions over Moscow’s military intervention in Ukraine.

In July, Page traveled to Moscow, where he delivered a speech harshly critical of the United States’ policy toward Russia.

While there, Page allegedly met with Igor Sechin, a Putin confidant and chief executive of the energy company Rosneft, according to a dossier compiled by a former British intelligence officer and cited at a congressional hearing by Rep. Adam B. Schiff (Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. Officials said some of the information in the dossier has been verified by U.S. intelligence agencies, and some of it hasn’t, while other parts are unlikely to ever be proved or disproved.

On Tuesday, Page dismissed what he called “the dodgy dossier” of false allegations.

Page has denied such a meeting occurred, saying he has never met Sechin in his life and that he wants to testify before Congress to clear his name. A spokesman for Rosneft told Politico in September that the notion that Page met with Sechin was “absurd.” Page said in September that he briefly met Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich during that trip.

Comey has declined to discuss the details of the Russia probe, but in an appearance last month, he cited the process for getting FISA warrants as proof that the government’s surveillance powers are very carefully used, with significant oversight.

“It is a pain in the neck to get permission to conduct electronic surveillance in the United States. And that’s good,’’ he told an audience at the University of Texas in Austin.

Officials have said the FBI and the Justice Department were particularly reluctant to seek FISA warrants of campaign figures during the 2016 presidential race because of concerns that agents would inadvertently eavesdrop on political talk. To obtain a FISA warrant, prosecutors must show that a significant purpose of the warrant is to obtain foreign intelligence information.

Page is the only American to have had his communications directly targeted with a FISA warrant in 2016 as part of the Russia probe, officials said.

The FBI routinely obtains FISA warrants to monitor the communications of foreign diplomats in the United States, including the Russian ambassador, Sergey Kislyak. The conversations between Kislyak and Michael Flynn, who became Trump’s first national security adviser, were recorded in December. In February, The Washington Post reported that Flynn misled Vice President-elect Mike Pence and others about his discussions with Kislyak, prompting Trump’s decision to fire him.

In March, Trump made unsubstantiated claims about U.S. surveillance of Trump Tower in New York. Later that month, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and a Trump transition official, charged that details about people “associated with the incoming administration, details with little apparent foreign intelligence value” were “widely disseminated” in intelligence community reporting. He said none of the surveillance was related to Russia. The FISA order on Page is unrelated to either charge.

Last month, the former director of national intelligence, James R. Clapper Jr., told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that U.S. law enforcement agencies did not have any FISA orders to monitor the communications of Trump, either as a candidate or as a president-elect, or his campaign. But Clapper did not address whether there were any FISA warrants targeting Trump associates.

Three years before Page became an adviser to the Trump campaign, he came to the attention of FBI counterintelligence agents, who learned that Russian spy suspects had sought to use Page as a source for information.

In that case, one of the Russian suspects, Victor Podobnyy — who was posing as a diplomat and was later charged by federal prosecutors with acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government — was captured on tape in 2013 discussing an effort to get information and documents from Page. That discussion was detailed in a federal complaint filed against Podobnyy and two others. The court documents in that spy case only identify Page as “Male 1.’’ Officials familiar with the case said that “Male 1’’ is Page.

In one secretly recorded conversation, detailed in the complaint, Podobnyy said Page “wrote that he is sorry, he went to Moscow and forgot to check his inbox, but he wants to meet when he gets back. I think he is an idiot and forgot who I am. Plus he writes to me in Russian [to] practice the language. He flies to Moscow more often than I do. He got hooked on Gazprom thinking that if they have a project, he could rise up. Maybe he can. I don’t know, but it’s obvious that he wants to earn lots of money.’’

The same court document says that in June 2013, Page told FBI agents that he met Podobnyy at an energy symposium in New York, where they exchanged contact information. In subsequent meetings, Page shared with the Russian his outlook on the state of the energy industry, as well as documents about the energy business, according to the court papers.

In the secret tape, Podobnyy said he liked the man’s “enthusiasm” but planned to use him to get information and give him little in return. “You promise a favor for a favor. You get the documents from him and tell him to go f--- himself,’’ Podobnyy said on the tape, according to court papers.

Page has said the information he provided to the Russians in 2013 was innocuous, describing it as “basic immaterial information and publicly available research documents.” He said he had assisted the prosecutors in their case against Evgeny Buryakov, who pleaded guilty to conspiring to act in the United States as an unregistered agent of Russian intelligence.

Rosalind S. Helderman contributed to this report.

Apparently some of Trump's people are already trying to put distance between him and Page, claiming that they never met and Page had a very limited role in the campaign, even though Trump himself named Page as one of his primary foreign policy advisors.

[The Romulan Republic]

At this rate, I'm waiting for when Donald starts trying to distance himself from Ivanka.

[Flagg]

I don't understand why the executive has to pay for all non-state function food and drink (and various restroom supplies IIRC), but they are not responsible for paying for security of immediate family that refuse to live in the Whitehouse, like President Pussygrabber's cunt wife.

Because the president told them to do it.

Yes, you cracked the code, congratufuckinglations!

I'm talking about statutorily (not involving the word "rape" for once with Donnie Douchebag). If they have to pay for Jello Puddang pops, they should have to pay for whore with ring #3 (or is it 4?) to have Secret Service Agents guarding her Manhattan fuckpalace.

[Ralin]

I'm talking about statutorily (not involving the word "rape" for once with Donnie Douchebag). If they have to pay for Jello Puddang pops, they should have to pay for whore with ring #3 (or is it 4?) to have Secret Service Agents guarding her Manhattan fuckpalace.

I'm not completely sure what you're referencing, but I figure it's mostly because the SS is not known for their catering skills.

I could be wrong about that. Maybe they're great at it and handled the cooking at all of Bush's barbecues. But your comparison seems a little random.

[Flagg]

I'm talking about statutorily (not involving the word "rape" for once with Donnie Douchebag). If they have to pay for Jello Puddang pops, they should have to pay for whore with ring #3 (or is it 4?) to have Secret Service Agents guarding her Manhattan fuckpalace.

I'm not completely sure what you're referencing, but I figure it's mostly because the SS is not known for their catering skills.

I could be wrong about that. Maybe they're great at it and handled the cooking at all of Bush's barbecues. But your comparison seems a little random.

I don't think it is, here's the post you quoted along with your response:

I don't understand why the executive has to pay for all non-state function food and drink (and various restroom supplies IIRC), but they are not responsible for paying for security of immediate family that refuse to live in the Whitehouse, like President Pussygrabber's cunt wife.

Because the president told them to do it.

By law the President's Household goods like groceries and (IIRC) various restroom supplies and sundries. Of course there's "a guy" (paid for by the taxpayers) who shops for them and then they are given the bill and pay for it.

The only exceptions are for state functions like dinners, the POTUS' personal chef who cooks for the first family, and shit like that.

So my question is, why should the Secret Service be forced, at an apparently pretty big cost, to guard a first "lady" who refuses to reside in the White House and would rather just stay in the NY suite she lived in with Donnie Douchebag? It's rhetorical.

[FaxModem1]

[MKSheppard]

Of course there's "a guy" (paid for by the taxpayers) who shops for them and then they are given the bill and pay for it.

IIRC, procedure was for a random USSS agent or somewhat to go around to a different grocery store every once in a while and shop anonymously in the Washington DC area for WH groceries; rather than relying on a specific, easily infiltrated sole-source supplier for general white house groceries.

IOW, go to the local Shoppers Food Warehouse and buy a 100 cans of coke there, instead of the White House sending a bill to the regional Coke bottler for a pallet of the stuff.

[Flagg]

Of course there's "a guy" (paid for by the taxpayers) who shops for them and then they are given the bill and pay for it.

IIRC, procedure was for a random USSS agent or somewhat to go around to a different grocery store every once in a while and shop anonymously in the Washington DC area for WH groceries; rather than relying on a specific, easily infiltrated sole-source supplier for general white house groceries.

IOW, go to the local Shoppers Food Warehouse and buy a 100 cans of coke there, instead of the White House sending a bill to the regional Coke bottler for a pallet of the stuff.

Fine, there's "guys" that go around, oh lord of pedantry. It doesn't change the fact that the Secret Service is wasting money guarding Lady Pussygrabber at her fuckpalace in NY because she refuses to reside in the WH.

Frankly if the headline was "Michelle Obama refuses to live in WH" words like "uppity" would be uttered.

[MKSheppard]

Fine, there's "guys" that go around, oh lord of pedantry.

That specific procedure (government agents shopping anonymously in DC area supermarkets) has been on the books for a very, very long time. I recall reading about it in the Clinton years.

[MKSheppard]

It doesn't change the fact that the Secret Service is wasting money guarding Lady Pussygrabber at her fuckpalace in NY because she refuses to reside in the WH.

Secret Service generally wants total utter control of everything. I wonder how many heart attacks they've had since Lady Pussygrabber decided to stay at her fuckpalace?

[Ralin]

I'd bet money they'd feel a whole lot sadder about her dying than Trump.

[Flagg]

It doesn't change the fact that the Secret Service is wasting money guarding Lady Pussygrabber at her fuckpalace in NY because she refuses to reside in the WH.

Secret Service generally wants total utter control of everything. I wonder how many heart attacks they've had since Lady Pussygrabber decided to stay at her fuckpalace?

Well I imagine it's the bookkeeping guys having the heart attacks.

[Flagg]

Fine, there's "guys" that go around, oh lord of pedantry.

That specific procedure (government agents shopping anonymously in DC area supermarkets) has been on the books for a very, very long time. I recall reading about it in the Clinton years.

Super.

[Flagg]

I'd bet money they'd feel a whole lot sadder about her dying than Trump.

[Horrible Obi-Wan Impression]She's more machine silicone than woman now.[/Horrible Obi-Wan Impression]

[Alyrium Denryle]

Fine, there's "guys" that go around, oh lord of pedantry.

That specific procedure (government agents shopping anonymously in DC area supermarkets) has been on the books for a very, very long time. I recall reading about it in the Clinton years.

Super.

Honestly, it makes sense. It makes poisoning the president by sneaking polonium (or whatever) into the cheese a lot more difficult, because no one knows where he is going to get his cheese. Purchase orders leave patterns and paper trails that can be exploited by some pretty basic HUMINT. This method of using the secret service (who you are paying anyway) does not such thing.

[Flagg]

That specific procedure (government agents shopping anonymously in DC area supermarkets) has been on the books for a very, very long time. I recall reading about it in the Clinton years.

Super.

Honestly, it makes sense. It makes poisoning the president by sneaking polonium (or whatever) into the cheese a lot more difficult, because no one knows where he is going to get his cheese. Purchase orders leave patterns and paper trails that can be exploited by some pretty basic HUMINT. This method of using the secret service (who you are paying anyway) does not such thing.

Yeah, I just don't care or feel like it really, you know, matters in this conversation because the point is that the POTUS has to pay for the food, not that they randomly send "guys" instead of "a guy".

[FaxModem1]

The Hill

Secret Service has spent $35,000 on golf cart rentals since inauguration: report
BY BROOKE SEIPEL - 04/14/17 08:06 PM EDT 659
55,514
55.5K

Secret Service has spent $35,000 on golf cart rentals since inauguration: report
© Getty Images
The Secret Service has spent more than $35,000 on golf cart rentals at President Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort since his inauguration, CBS News reported Friday, as Trump begins another weekend in Florida.

CBS News reported that it had reviewed purchase orders showing $35,185 in costs for renting golf carts during Trump's frequent visits to Palm Beach, Fla.

The president has played several rounds of golf at Trump-branded clubs, including in Florida and Virginia.


Trump has come under fire for his frequent trips, which current estimates show have cost more than $20 million — nearly the amount President Obama spent on travel in his first two years combined. Obama spent approximately $97 million on travel, averaging $12.12 million per year in office.
CBS' new report comes as Trump spends the full three-day Easter weekend at Mar-a-Lago. No senior staff took the Air Force One flight to Florida, according to a report.

Because hey, as long as Trump is spending millions of taxpayer money to go to his hotel, he might as well make some relative pocket change for the Secret Service to do their jobs.