
US prosecutors charge Russian-American political pundit of violating sanctions
CNN
The Justice Department unsealed criminal charges against Russian-American political pundit Dimitri Simes on Thursday, alleging he was paid more than $1 million from a Russian news outlet in violation of US sanctions.
The Justice Department unsealed criminal charges against Russian-American political pundit Dimitri Simes on Thursday, alleging he was paid more than $1 million from a Russian news outlet in violation of US sanctions. According to the indictment, Simes coordinated and communicated with the Russian government, including President Vladimir Putin, while hosting a show for RT, the Russian state media network. Simes would work with the Russian government over what the show would cover and how, the indictment says, highlighting coverage over the war with Ukraine that was favorable to Russia. Simes was a prominent part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into election interference in the 2016 presidential election. Mueller’s team found that Simes had contacts with several members of Trump’s campaign, including Jared Kushner, over the campaign’s positions on Russia. The special counsel did not uncover any evidence that Simes passed any information from Russia to the Trump campaign and, when Simes brought up Russian contacts to Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law told him it would be “bad optics for the Campaign to develop hidden Russian contacts,” according to the report.

The aircraft used in the US military’s first strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean, a strike which has drawn intense scrutiny and resulted in numerous Congressional briefings, was painted as a civilian aircraft and was part of a closely guarded classified program, sources familiar with the program told CNN. Its use “immediately drew scrutiny and real concerns” from lawmakers, one of the sources familiar said, and legislators began asking questions about the aircraft during briefings in September.

DOJ pleads with lawyers to get through ‘grind’ of Epstein files as criticism of redactions continues
“It is a grind,” the head of the Justice Department’s criminal division said in an email. “While we certainly encourage aggressive overachievers, we need reviewers to hit the 1,000-page mark each day.”

A new classified legal opinion produced by the Justice Department argues that President Donald Trump was not limited by domestic law when approving the US operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro because of his constitutional authority as commander-in-chief and that he is not constrained by international law when it comes to carrying out law enforcement operations overseas, according to sources who have read the memo.

Former Navy sailor sentenced to 16 years for selling information about ships to Chinese intelligence
A former US Navy sailor convicted of selling technical and operating manuals for ships and operating systems to an intelligence officer working for China was sentenced Monday to more than 16 years in prison, prosecutors said.

The Defense Department has spent more than a year testing a device purchased in an undercover operation that some investigators think could be the cause of a series of mysterious ailments impacting spies, diplomats and troops that are colloquially known as Havana Syndrome, according to four sources briefed on the matter.








