The videos are part of an ongoing effort to recruit and train thousands of future conservative appointees. Despite Donald Trump’s efforts to
Andy Kroll and Nick Surgey at ProPublica:
ProPublica and Documented obtained more than 14 hours of never-before-published videos from Project 2025’s Presidential Administration Academy, which are intended to train the next conservative administration’s political appointees “to be ready on day one.”
Project 2025, the controversial playbook and policy agenda created by the Heritage Foundation and its allies for a future conservative presidential administration, has lost its director. In recent weeks, it faced scathing criticism from both Democratic groups and former President Donald Trump, whose campaign has tried to distance itself from the effort.
But Project 2025’s plan to train an army of political appointees who could battle against the so-called deep state government bureaucracy remains on track. Video trainings like these are one of the “four pillars” of that plan, says Spencer Chretien, the associate director of Project 2025, in “Political Appointees & The Federal Workforce.”
For transparency, we are publishing the videos as we obtained them.
The Heritage Foundation and most of the people who appear in the videos cited in this story did not respond to ProPublica’s repeated requests for comment. Karoline Leavitt, a spokesperson for the Trump campaign, said, “As our campaign leadership and President Trump have repeatedly stated, Agenda 47 is the only official policy agenda from our campaign.”
ProPublica and Documented partner up to reveal 14+ hours’ worth of never-before-published videos from The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 Presidential Administration Academy.
The federal indictment in South Dakota alleges that he ran a criminal scheme from 1996 to 2018 using a chain of assisted-living homes.
The most important things to remember about Paul Erickson: #TrumpCampaign #RickDearborn #JeffSessions #RussiaGate #PutinBackChannel #NRA #MariaButina #AlexanderTorshin #Putin
“Putin is deadly serious about building a good relationship with Mr. Trump. He wants to extend an invitation to Mr. Trump to visit him in the Kremlin before the election. Let’s talk through what has transpired and Senator Sessions’s advice on how to proceed.”
“The Kremlin believes that the only possibility of a true reset in this relationship would be with a new Republican White House,”
“Ever since Hillary compared Putin to Hitler, all senior Russian leaders consider her beyond redemption.”
— Paul Erickson, email to Trump Campaign Adviser Rick Dearborn in May 2016 BEFORE the Trump Tower Russia Meeting in June 2016
Erickson tried to set up a meeting between Melania Trump and Maria Butina’s handler Alexander Torshin
via NYTimes: Operative Offered Trump Campaign ‘Kremlin Connection’ Using N.R.A. Ties
Back to the indictments
Paul Erickson, the American political operative and boyfriend of admitted Russian agent Maria Butina, has been indicted by a federal grand jury in South Dakota on charges of wire fraud and money laundering.
The indictment alleges that Erickson ran a criminal scheme from 1996 to 2018 using a chain of assisted living homes called Compass Care. Erickson also allegedly defrauded investors through a company called Investing with Dignity that claimed to be “in the business of developing a wheelchair that allowed people to go to the bathroom without being lifted out of the wheelchair.” The indictment says he also ran a fraudulent scheme that claimed to be building homes in the Bakken oil fields of North Dakota.
From ABC News
If convicted, Erickson faces up to 20 years in federal prison for each count.
Jeff Sessions & Rick Dearborn #MuellerIsComingForYou
“I know nothing about Project 2025” + 69% of listed authors worked in 45’s administration = WHAT GASLIGHTING LOOKS LIKE
Andra Watkins at How Project 2025 Will Ruin YOUR Life:
Here’s a list of every listed Project 2025 author who worked in 45’s administration. 26 of 36 total authors. (72%)
Jonathan Berry - US Department of Justice
Adam Candeub - Assistant Secretary of Commerce and Deputy Associate Attorney General
Brendan Carr - Senior Republican on the Federal Communications Commission
Benjamin S. Carson, Sr., MD - Secretary of the US Department of Housing and Urban Development
Ken Cuccinelli - Acting Director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services; Acting Deputy Secretary for the US Department of Homeland Security
Rick Dearborn - Deputy Chief of Staff
Diana Furchtgott-Roth - Deputy Assistant Secretary at the US Department of Transportation
Thomas F. Gilman - Assistant Secretary of Commerce and Chief Financial Officer at the US Department of Commerce
Mandy M. Gunasekara - Chief of Staff at the Environmental Protection Agency
Gene Hamilton - Counselor to the Attorney General at the US Department of Justice
Jennifer Hazelton - senior strategic consultant for the Department of Defense
Dennis Dean Kirk - senior positions at the Office of Personnel Management
Christopher Miller - several positions during the 45 administration in areas of defense
Mora Namdar - Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs
Peter Navarro - Director of 45’s Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy; also went to jail
William Perry Pendley - led the Bureau of Land Management for 45**
Max Primorac - acting Chief Operating Officer and Assistant to the Administrator, Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance, US Agency for International Development
Roger Severino - Director of Civil Rights at the US Department of Health and Human Services
Kiron K. Skinner - Director of Policy Planning and Senior Advisor at the US Department of State
Brooks D Tucker - Assistant Secretary for Congressional and Legislative Affairs and Acting Chief of Staff
Hans A von Spakovsky - former member of 45’s Advisory Committee on Election Integrity
Russ Vought - Director of the Office of Management and Budget
William L. Walton - member of 45’s transition team
Paul Winfree - member of 45’s transition team
Paul Dans - Chief of Staff at the US Office of Personnel Management and senior advisor at the US Department of Housing and Urban Development
Steven Groves - Assistant Special Counsel, the Mueller investigation
If 25 of the 36 listed authors of Project 2025 worked in my former administration, there’s NO WAY I wouldn’t know about it.
Andra Watkins has a list of the Project 2025 authors who worked for Donald Trump.
A conservative operative told a campaign aide he could arrange a back-channel meeting between Donald J. Trump and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia through his pro-gun connections.
So much collusion #NRA #TrumpPutin #2016Election
“Russia is quietly but actively seeking a dialogue with the U.S. that isn’t forthcoming under the current administration” #MagnitskyAct #RussiaSanctions
“Putin is deadly serious about building a good relationship with Mr. Trump. He wants to extend an invitation to Mr. Trump to visit him in the Kremlin before the election. Let’s talk through what has transpired and Senator Sessions’s advice on how to proceed.”
— Paul Erickson, N.R.A. member and conservative activist
A conservative operative trumpeting his close ties to the National Rifle Association and Russia told a Trump campaign adviser last year that he could arrange a back-channel meeting between Donald J. Trump and Vladimir V. Putin, the Russian president, according to an email sent to the Trump campaign.
A May 2016 email to the campaign adviser, Rick Dearborn, bore the subject line “Kremlin Connection.” In it, the N.R.A. member said he wanted the advice of Mr. Dearborn and Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, then a foreign policy adviser to Mr. Trump and Mr. Dearborn’s longtime boss, about how to proceed in connecting the two leaders.
Russia, he wrote, was “quietly but actively seeking a dialogue with the U.S.” and would attempt to use the N.R.A.’s annual convention in Louisville, Ky., to make “ ‘first contact.’ ” The email, which was among a trove of campaign-related documents turned over to investigators on Capitol Hill, was described in detail to The New York Times.
Jeff “I Don’t Recall” Sessions is neck deep in it
Mr. Sessions told investigators from the House Intelligence Committee that he did not recall the outreach, according to three people with knowledge of the exchange.
Alexander Torshin is called “godfather” or“boss” by the leader of the Taganskaya mafia in Moscow.
Alexander Torshin, a deputy governor of the Russian central bank and key figure in Mr. Putin’s United Russia party, was instructed to make contact with the Trump campaign.
Mr. Torshin, he wrote, was planning to attend a reception being planned by Mr. Clay honoring wounded veterans that he expected Mr. Trump would also attend. Mr. Torshin expected to use the reception to “make ‘first contact’ ” with the candidate and present Mr. Trump’s wife, Melania, with a gift from the Russian Orthodox Church.
Spanish investigators say that while he was in Parliament, Mr. Torshin laundered money for the Russian mafia through Spanish banks and properties. Mr. Torshin has denied those accusations.
Did Rick Dearborn notify Jeff Sessions, or anyone else in the Trump campaign? If so, WHO?
Why didn’t Dearborn or the Trump Campaign notify the FBI?
Rick Dearborn, left, a Trump campaign adviser, received an email asking for advice on how to arrange a meeting between Mr. Trump and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia
More names for the Mueller Justice League
Paul Erickson
Rick Dearborn
David Keene
David A. Clarke
Rick Clay
Russians
Alexander Torshin
Maria Butina
Read “From Russia with Love for the NRA“ by Ladd Everitt for a complete timeline.
All of this ties back to K.T. McFarland’s email, Russia 'has just thrown the U.S.A election to him [Trump] ', NYTimes
New Post has been published on https://www.stl.news/trump-white-house-setting-turnover-records-bracing/62275/
Trump White House setting turnover records, bracing for more
WASHINGTON/January 05, 2018(AP)(STL.News)— Already setting turnover records, President Donald Trump‘s White House is bracing for even more staff departures and an increasing struggle to fill vacancies, shadowed by the unrelenting Russia probe, political squabbling and Trump’s own low poll numbers.
Entering a grueling year that is sure to bring fresh challenges at home and abroad, Trump faces a brain drain across a wide swath of government functions, threatening to hamstring efforts to enact legislation or conduct even basic operations. Some departures are expected to come from senior ranks — the staff churn that makes headlines — but more are likely among the lesser-known officials who help to keep the White House and Cabinet agencies running.
In Trump’s first year, his administration’s upper-level officials have had a turnover rate of 34 percent, much higher than any other in the past 40 years, according to an analysis by Kathryn Dunn-Tenpas, a non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. The study found that 22 of the 64 senior officials she tracked have resigned, been fired or reassigned.
Anecdotal evidence among more junior officials — the White House wouldn’t release data — suggests similar departure rates, and White House aides acknowledge difficulty filling roles in the administration.
The presidency with the next-highest first-year turnover rate was Ronald Reagan’s, with 17 percent of senior aides leaving in 1981. And Trump’s first-year rate is three times Bill Clinton’s 11 percent and Barack Obama’s 9 percent.
“This is very unusual. It’s significant because the prior administration that had the greatest turnover was Reagan and Trump doubled it,” said Dunn-Tenpas, who will update her preliminary data on the anniversary of Trump’s inauguration. “Moreover, there are more senior-level departures, including the chief of staff, the press secretary and the national security adviser.”
Those were Reince Priebus, Sean Spicer and Michael Flynn, all long gone.
New power players in the West Wing may not yet be household names, but they will likely help shape the fortunes of Trump’s 2018. Johnny DeStefano, a White House aide and Beltway insider who once worked for former House Speaker John Boehner, has now taken on oversight of the White House political operation in addition to his other duties, according to an administration official not authorized to speak publicly about personnel matters.
DeStefano gained Trump’s trust in weekly meetings discussing hiring across the administration, an official said, and is expected to take on a broader role in guiding political affairs in the midterm election year.
DeStefano is working alongside political director Bill Stepien, who came under fire after a series of White House missteps in the recent Alabama Senate race, which gave the Democrats their first Senate seat there in a generation.
In a heated White House meeting last month, some Trump allies — including former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski — argued that the political shop was failing the president, according to two people with knowledge of the meeting but not authorized to discuss it publicly. The allies warned that if the Democrats were to seize control of the House this November, they could begin impeachment proceedings that would imperil Trump’s presidency.
“Donald Trump is all about results, and if he thinks things are going positive and well, I think that redounds to the team,” said Trump friend Chris Ruddy, head of the conservative news site NewsMax, who spent time with the president in Florida over the holidays. “But if the approval numbers don’t improve, I think he’ll make changes to improve things. That’s his way.”
Much of the staff turnover in recent months was driven by John Kelly, who began his tenure as chief of staff by cracking down on internal rivalries and dismissing attention-seeking aides like Omarosa Manigault-Newman. Kelly has already quietly tapped Jim Carroll as deputy chief of staff, replacing Kirstjen Nielsen, the new Homeland Security secretary. Marc Short, head of legislative affairs, has also expanded his portfolio. Deputy Chief of Staff Rick Dearborn is expected to leave the West Wing in coming months.
Other aides who are leaving — including deputy national security adviser Dina Powell — have not been forced out, but rather are departing around the one-year mark, a relatively common practice in other White Houses. Powell is to be replaced by Nadia Schadlow, a confidante of National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster who oversaw the president’s first National Security Strategy document.
But more high-profile changes may be on the horizon.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, whose relationship with Trump has proved fraught, has long been rumored to be on the way out, with CIA Director Mike Pompeo discussed as a likely replacement. Both Trump and Tillerson have publicly denied he is leaving.
Gary Cohn, the director of the National Economic Council, may depart after helping steer the tax bill to victory
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders plays down talk of turnovers.
“I have no reason to know of any personnel change whatsoever,” Sanders said Thursday. “And we’re moving full force ahead into 2018 to make sure we get a lot accomplished.”
From the start, the administration struggled to find highly qualified candidates across the administration, largely owing to the president’s unpopularity with the Washington political class. A spate of nominees for sub-Cabinet jobs and judicial appointments have been forced to back out over ethics concerns or because they were so unqualified even Republican lawmakers objected to their appointments. Others have been spooked by the ongoing Russia investigation, or widely documented stories of internal strife and dysfunction, while a number of qualified candidates have been ruled out because they opposed Trump during the 2016 campaign.
Still, Ari Fleischer, George W. Bush’s former press secretary, praised Kelly for creating a more cohesive team and said that hiring sluggishness was to be expected.
“President Trump has earned the right as an outsider to create an outsider White House,” said Fleischer. “I don’t begrudge him turning his back on the Washington establishments. It’s time for new people.”
By Associated Press, published on STL.NEWS by St. Louis Media, LLC (US)
A conservative operative told a campaign aide he could arrange a back-channel meeting between Donald J. Trump and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia through his pro-gun connections.
Nicholas Fandos at NYT:
WASHINGTON — A conservative operative trumpeting his close ties to the National Rifle Association and Russia told a Trump campaign adviser last year that he could arrange a back-channel meeting between Donald J. Trump and Vladimir V. Putin, the Russian president, according to an email sent to the Trump campaign.
A May 2016 email to the campaign adviser, Rick Dearborn, bore the subject line “Kremlin Connection.” In it, the N.R.A. member said he wanted the advice of Mr. Dearborn and Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, then a foreign policy adviser to Mr. Trump and Mr. Dearborn’s longtime boss, about how to proceed in connecting the two leaders.
Russia, he wrote, was “quietly but actively seeking a dialogue with the U.S.” and would attempt to use the N.R.A.’s annual convention in Louisville, Ky., to make “‘first contact.’” The email, which was among a trove of campaign-related documents turned over to investigators on Capitol Hill, was described in detail to The New York Times.
Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel investigating Russian interference in the election and possible collusion with the Trump campaign, secured a guilty plea on Friday from President Trump’s first national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, for lying to the F.B.I. about contacts with Moscow’s former ambassador to the United States. But those contacts came after Mr. Trump’s improbable election victory.
The emailed outreach from the conservative operative to Mr. Dearborn came far earlier, around the same time that Russians were trying to make other connections to the Trump campaign. Another contact came through an American advocate for Christian and veterans causes, and together, the outreach shows how, as Mr. Trump closed in on the nomination, Russians were using three foundational pillars of the Republican Party — guns, veterans and Christian conservatives — to try to make contact with his unorthodox campaign.
Both efforts, made within days of each other, centered on the N.R.A.’s annual meeting and appear to involve Alexander Torshin, a deputy governor of the Russian central bank and key figure in Mr. Putin’s United Russia party, who was instructed to make contact with the campaign.
“Putin is deadly serious about building a good relationship with Mr. Trump,” the N.R.A. member and conservative activist, Paul Erickson, wrote. “He wants to extend an invitation to Mr. Trump to visit him in the Kremlin before the election. Let’s talk through what has transpired and Senator Sessions’s advice on how to proceed.”
It is not clear how Mr. Dearborn handled the outreach. He forwarded a similar proposal, made through Rick Clay, an advocate for conservative Christian causes, to Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and a top campaign aide. Mr. Kushner rebuffed the proposal at the time, according to two people who have seen Mr. Kushner’s email.
Mr. Sessions told investigators from the House Intelligence Committee that he did not recall the outreach, according to three people with knowledge of the exchange. Mr. Dearborn did not return requests for comment, and Ty Cobb, the White House lawyer dealing with matters related to the investigations, declined to comment. Repeated attempts to reach Mr. Erickson were not successful.
Intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia, on orders from the highest levels of its government, undertook a sophisticated campaign to hack Democratic computers, spread propaganda and undermine the candidacy of Hillary Clinton. The repeated outreach around the N.R.A. convention, where Mr. Trump accepted the group’s endorsement, came just weeks after a self-described intermediary for the Russian government told George Papadopoulos, a campaign aide, that the Russians had “dirt” on Mrs. Clinton. And just weeks later, the president’s eldest son arranged a meeting at Trump Tower with a Russian lawyer who promised damaging information about the would-be Democratic nominee.
“The Kremlin believes that the only possibility of a true reset in this relationship would be with a new Republican White House,” Mr. Erickson wrote to Mr. Dearborn, adding, “Ever since Hillary compared Putin to Hitler, all senior Russian leaders consider her beyond redemption.”
Congressional investigators obtained the email as part of their inquiry into Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election and whether Mr. Trump’s campaign aided the efforts. It appears to have caught the attention of senators as well. Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, penned letters to several Trump campaign foreign policy advisers last week asking for all documents related to the N.R.A., Mr. Erickson, Mr. Torshin, Mr. Clay, Mr. Dearborn and others.
Mr. Erickson, a longtime conservative operative who has been involved in several presidential campaigns, presented himself in the email as a well-connected intermediary to the upper reaches of the Russian government. By “happenstance” and the reach of the N.R.A., Mr. Erickson wrote, he had been put in position to “slowly begin cultivating a back-channel to President Putin’s Kremlin” in recent years.
“Russia is quietly but actively seeking a dialogue with the U.S. that isn’t forthcoming under the current administration,” he wrote.
Indeed, evidence does appear to show deep ties between Mr. Erickson, the N.R.A. and the Russian gun rights community that were formed in the years when many American conservatives, put off by the Obama administration’s policies, were increasingly looking to Mr. Putin as an example of a strong leader opposing immigration, terrorism and gay rights.
The N.R.A. was one of Mr. Trump’s biggest backers during the campaign, spending tens of millions of dollars to help elect him.
Mr. Erickson has known Maria Butina, a former assistant to Mr. Torshin and the founder of the Right to Bear Arms, a Russian gun-rights group, for several years. Ms. Butina, who helped Mr. Torshin make the request through Mr. Clay, hosted Mr. Erickson at a September 2014 meeting of the group at its Moscow office. And in February 2016, the two incorporated a company, Bridges LLC, together in South Dakota. What the company does is unclear.
In December 2015, Mr. Erickson returned to Russia as part of an N.R.A. delegation that included David Keene, the group’s onetime president, top donors and David A. Clarke Jr., the former sheriff of Milwaukee County who became a popular Trump campaign surrogate. At one stop, the group met with Dmitry Rogozin, the deputy prime minister in charge of defense. A photograph from the meeting shows Mr. Torshin was also present.
In the United States, the hospitality was returned. Mr. Torshin and Ms. Butina attended the N.R.A.’s annual convention in 2014 and 2015. Ms. Butina told the conservative news site Townhall that she attended the N.R.A. Women’s Leadership Luncheon as a guest of Sandra S. Froman, a former president of the group. And in 2015, she was given a tour of the N.R.A.’s Virginia headquarters.
Attempts to contact Ms. Butina were unsuccessful.
Mr. Erickson does not explicitly name Mr. Torshin in the email to Mr. Dearborn, but the message appears to refer to him, the people familiar with the communication said. Instead, he describes “President Putin’s emissary on this front,” whose plans match those of Mr. Torshin.
Mr. Torshin, he wrote, was planning to attend a reception being planned by Mr. Clay honoring wounded veterans that he expected Mr. Trump would also attend. Mr. Torshin expected to use the reception to “make ‘first contact’” with the candidate and present Mr. Trump’s wife, Melania, with a gift from the Russian Orthodox Church.
According to Mr. Clay, neither Mr. Trump nor his campaign officials attended the veterans’ dinner. The president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., and Mr. Torshin did attend a separate N.R.A. dinner that night.
Mr. Torshin served in the upper house of the Russian Parliament and was a member of the country’s National Anti-Terrorism Committee, a government body that includes the ministers of defense, interior and foreign affairs and the director of the Federal Security Service, known as F.S.B., the K.G.B.’s successor. He has been a leading advocate of gun rights in Russia and of more closely linking the government and the Russian Orthodox Church.
Spanish investigators say that while he was in Parliament, Mr. Torshin laundered money for the Russian mafia through Spanish banks and properties. Mr. Torshin has denied those accusations.
