WTF Just Happened Today

Thursday, January 17, 2019

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1/ Rudy Giuliani claimed that "I never said there was no collusion" between the Trump campaign and Russia. In a remarkable interview with CNN's Chris Cuomo on Wednesday night, Giuliani argued that he had only ever said Trump himself had not colluded with Russia during the 2016 election, leaving open the possibility that campaign aides could have colluded. "There is not a single bit of evidence the president of the United States committed the only crime you can commit here, conspired with the Russians to hack the DNC." Trump has tweeted at least 13 times directly saying there was no collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government. (CNN / The Guardian / Washington Post)

2/ Hours later Giuliani backtracked his "no collusion" claim, saying he has "no knowledge of any collusion by any of the thousands of people who worked on the campaign." Giuliani's statement added: "There was no collusion by President Trump in any way, shape or form." (New York Times / Washington Post)

• A woman from Belarus claiming to have recordings that showed contacts between Trump campaign officials and Russians was detained at a Moscow airport on prostitution allegations. Anastasia Vashukevich was deported from Thailand earlier in the day after spending nine months in prison on charges of conspiracy and soliciting prostitution. (Washington Post)

3/ Trump directed Michael Cohen to hire a company to rig CNBC and Drudge Report online polls in his favor. Cohen then stiffed John Gauger, who owns RedFinch Solutions. Gauger went to Trump Tower in early 2015 to collect the $50,000 he was owed for the work, but instead Cohen apparently gave him a blue Walmart bag containing between $12,000 and $13,000 in cash and a boxing glove that Cohen said had been worn by a Brazilian mixed-martial arts fighter. Cohen disputed that he handed over a bag of cash, but confirmed that he had hired RedFinch Solutions, adding in a tweet that "what I did was at the direction of and for the sole benefit of @realDonaldTrump @POTUS." Gauger said he never received the rest of what he was owed. However, in early 2017 Cohen received a $50,000 reimbursement from Trump and his company for the RedFinch work. (Wall Street Journal / Washington Post / New York Times / NBC News)

• Cohen also hired RedFinch Solutions to promote him as a "sex symbol" on Twitter. The @womenforcohen account wa...

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