Key Trump ally Schiller denies Clinton dossier claims in House testimony

[Leroy N. Soetoro]

http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/07/politics/keith-schiller-house-russia-
investigation/index.html

Washington (CNN)Keith Schiller, one of President Donald Trump's closest
confidants and longtime associates, denied on Tuesday to congressional
Russia investigators the salacious claims about Trump's 2013 trip to
Moscow that appeared in the opposition research Russia dossier about
Trump, sources familiar with the matter told CNN.

Schiller, who quit his White House job in September, appeared for a
closed-door interview to the House intelligence committee on Tuesday. He
was by Trump's side for many years, including the trip to Moscow, but
Schiller said little to the committee about past events involving Trump,
according to the sources, telling lawmakers repeatedly that he could not
recall or was not aware a number of potential Russia connections with
Trump associates, which Democrats continually asked about.

Trump's activities while in Moscow for that event have been the subject of
rampant speculation ever since the January leak of a 35-page dossier
written by former British spy Christopher Steele. The dossier also accuses
the Trump campaign of colluding with Russia as part of its active measures
campaign to influence the election and defeat Democratic nominee Hillary
Clinton.

Several of the dossier's most salacious claims have not been independently
corroborated, and Schiller denied them on Tuesday.

The hearing with Schiller provided an opportunity for lawmakers to try to
learn more about the Trump campaign's contacts with Russians and Trump's
links to Kremlin-friendly interests in his business career.

Schiller joined the Trump administration as director of Oval Office
operations, but he left after about eight months. During the campaign, "it
mattered more to me what Keith Schiller thought of me than what the
campaign manager thought," a former top Trump campaign aide told CNN in
May.

Being so close to Trump for so long means Schiller was around for some of
the most controversial moments of Trump's political career.

Trump dispatched Schiller in May to hand-deliver a letter to the FBI
headquarters, informing then-Director James Comey of his termination.
Comey was on a work trip on the other side of the country, but CNN cameras
spotted Schiller entering and then leaving the FBI building.

Comey's firing is now a key part of Justice Department special counsel
Robert Mueller's investigation into potential obstruction of justice.
Mueller's team has recently interviewed White House witnesses who could
shed light on Comey's firing. And CNN reported last week that White House
senior adviser Jared Kushner turned over documents about the firing to
Mueller's investigators.

Trump has said that years earlier, Schiller joined him on a trip to Moscow
for the Miss Universe pageant. The significance of the event, held in
November 2013, wasn't clear at the time. But now, the contacts Trump made
as part of that deal are coming back in a big way.

That deal was struck between Trump and Aras and Emin Agalarov, the father-
and-son team of billionaires that own a major development firm in Russia.
The Miss Universe pageant was held at one of their properties in Moscow.

The dossier's broad assertion that Russia waged a campaign to interfere in
the election is now accepted as fact by the US intelligence community. CNN
also reported earlier this year that US investigators have corroborated
some aspects of the dossier, specifically that some of the communications
among foreign nationals mentioned in the memos did actually take place.

Video obtained exclusively by CNN showed Schiller, Trump and other Trump
associates sharing a dinner in June 2013 with the Agalarovs and their
associates, including British publicist Rob Goldstone, who represents Emin
Agalarov in his musical career. The day after the dinner in Las Vegas, the
Trump Organization announced it would bring Miss Universe to Moscow.

The Agalarovs stayed in touch with Trump after the 2013 event and re-
entered the picture in summer 2016. Through the publicist, Emin Agalarov
reached out to Trump's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., in order to broker a
meeting between Trump campaign officials and a Russian lawyer. The
publicist said the Russian government was eager to offer information that
would "incriminate" Clinton.

Trump Jr. took the meeting and the rest is history -- it became a major
political scandal after it was revealed this summer, nearly one year after
it took place, and amid sprawling federal investigations into the Trump
campaign's links to Russia. Trump Jr. denies colluding with the Russians
and says he didn't get anything useful from the meeting.

CORRECTION: This story has been updated to correctly identify the pageant
that Schiller and Trump traveled to Moscow for in 2013. It was the Miss
Universe pageant. It has also been updated to correct the month of the
2013 Las Vegas dinner that Trump and his associates had with the Agalarovs
and their associates.


--
Donald J. Trump, 304 electoral votes to 227, defeated compulsive liar in
denial Hillary Rodham Clinton on December 19th, 2016. The clown car
parade of the democrat party has run out of gas.

Congratulations President Trump. Thank you for ending the disaster of the
Obama presidency.

Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
The World According To Garp.

ObamaCare is a total 100% failure and no lie that can be put forth by its
supporters can dispute that.

Obama jobs, the result of ObamaCare. 12-15 working hours a week at minimum
wage, no benefits and the primary revenue stream for ObamaCare. It can't
be funded with money people don't have, yet liberals lie about how great
it is.

Obama increased total debt from $10 trillion to $20 trillion in the eight
years he was in office, and sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood queer
liberal democrat donors.