The Russian connection

Raw Story -  The mysterious “midnight run” by Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) on the White House grounds last week was ploy to keep former acting attorney general Sally Yates from testifying about the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia, according to a former top official with the CIA and the Department of Defense.

The House panel was scheduled to hear from Yates on Tuesday, as well as former President Barack Obama’s former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and former CIA Director John Brennan.

Jeremy Bash, the former chief of staff at Defense Department and CIA under Obama, said Nunes concocted the stunt to shut down the testimony of Yates — who Trump fired for refusing to enforce his travel ban, and after she expressed concern about former national security adviser Michael Flynn’s communications with the Russian ambassador.

“The real story, the real issue here, is not so much about the midnight run by the chairman onto the White House grounds, it’s really that they wanted to cancel the hearing this week,” Bash told MSNBC’s Brian Williams.

Raw Story - Flight logs show that President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, traveled to Aspen, Colorado on the same day as a Russian oligarch with strong ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

As the president’s push for health care reform went down in flames last week, Kushner and his family were reportedly skiing in Aspen. Trump was said to be unhappy about the timing of the vacation.

Photojournalist Eric Rosenwald examined flight logs from airports in the area and found that Kushner arrived in Aspen on Saturday, March 18 — the same day as Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, who has been described as “one of Putin’s closest confidants.” Abramovich is known to own a home in Aspen.

According to Politico’s Jake Sherman, Abramovich’s wife, Dasha Zhukova, attended President Trump’s inauguration as a guest of Ivanka Trump.

Rosenwald goes on to point out that two days later Abramovich’s plane flew to the Caribbean just as two planes linked to Michael Cohen, special counsel to the president, arrived at nearby airports. MORE