Murray Waas

vox.com

Exclusive: Trump pressed Sessions to fire 2 FBI officials who sent anti-Trump text messages

Kevin Dietsch-Pool/Getty Images
President Donald Trump sharply questioned Attorney General Jeff Sessions and FBI Director Christopher Wray during a White House meeting on January 22 about why two senior FBI officials — Peter Strzok and Lisa Page — were still in their jobs despite allegations made by allies of the president that they had been disloyal to him and had unfairly targeted him and his administration, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.
The president also pressed hi...

Foreign Policy

Trump Launched Campaign to Discredit Potential FBI Witnesses

President Donald Trump pressed senior aides last June to devise and carry out a campaign to discredit senior FBI officials after learning that those specific employees were likely to be witnesses against him as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, according to two people directly familiar with the matter.In testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee on June 8, recently fired FBI Director James Comey disclosed that he spoke contemporaneously with other senior bureau offi...

Foreign Policy

Trump Ordered Bannon to Limit Testimony

President Donald Trump personally made the decision to curtail the testimony of former chief White House political strategist Steve Bannon before the House Intelligence Committee, according to two people with firsthand knowledge of the matter.
Trump acted to limit Bannon’s testimony based on legal advice provided by Uttam Dhillon, a deputy White House counsel, who concluded that the administration might have legitimate executive privilege claims to restrict testimony by Bannon and other curre...

pulitzer.lamptest.columbia.edu

Finalist Murray Waas of the Los Angeles Times

Murray Waas was named as a finalist in the category of national reporting for documenting the clandestine effort of the U.S. government to supply money and weapons to Iraq in the 1980's and up to the weeks before the Gulf War.

The New York Times

Tools of Trump’s Fixer: Payouts, Intimidation and the Tabloids

As accounts of past sexual indiscretions threatened to surface during Donald J. Trump’s presidential campaign, the job of stifling potentially damaging stories fell to his longtime lawyer and all-around fixer, Michael D. Cohen.
To protect his boss at critical junctures in his improbable political rise, the lawyer relied on intimidation tactics, hush money and the nation’s leading tabloid news business, American Media Inc., whose top executives include close Trump allies.
Mr. Cohen’s role has ...

Foreign Policy

Murray Waas Foreign Policy articles

Murray Waas has worked as an investigations editor for Vice, an investigative reporter for Reuters, and a senior correspondent for National Journal.

Follow Murray Waas:

The New Yorker

Murray Waas in the New Yorker

IN THE LOOP: BUSH'S SECRET MISSION
By Murray Waas
The New Yorker, November 2, 1992 P. 64
ANNALS OF GOVERNMENT about Iraqgate and the Iran-Contra scandal. Describes an assignment Vice-President George Bush received in 1986 from William Casey: To convey a message through intermediaries to Saddam Hussein: He was to deliver an incendiary message from Washington to Baghdad--escalate the air war and escalate the bombing deep inside Iranian terrotory. The Iranians would then beforced to come to the US for more arms and thus be in a position both to...

The Atlantic

Mueller Plunges Across Trump's Red Line - The Atlantic

Mueller Plunges Across Trump's Red Line - The Atlan...

The New York Times

At Vice, Cutting-Edge Media and Allegations of Old-School Sexual Harassment

Image
A media company built on subversion and outlandishness was unable to create “a safe and inclusive workplace” for women, two of its founders acknowledge.
Viceland, a Vice Media television channel, celebrated the start of a show at Comic Con in San Diego in July.Joe Scarnici/Getty Images for VICELAND
One woman said she was riding a Ferris wheel at Coney Island after a company event when a co-worker suddenly took her hand and put it on his crotch. Another said she felt pressured into a sex...

The Atlantic

Is the Mueller Probe Heating Up?

Special Counsel Robert Mueller remains as tight-lipped as ever, but a flurry of information about his probe into Russian interference in the election and what role the Trump campaign played has produced new developments in the last few days.
Attempting to divine the meaning of these moves remains opaque, but the scope of what the public has learned is significant. On Tuesday, The Washington Post reported that Mueller’s team is seeking to interview the president himself “in the coming weeks,” ...

The Atlantic

The Atlantic Politics & Policy Daily: Make Juries Grand Again - The ...

The Atlantic Politics & Policy Daily: Make Juries G...

Seattle Times

Tools of Trump’s loyal fixer: tough talk, hush money and the tabloids

Michael D. Cohen’s role has come under scrutiny amid recent revelations that he facilitated a payment to silence a porn star, but his aggressive behind-the-scenes efforts stretch back years, according to interviews, emails and other records.
As accounts of past sexual indiscretions threatened to surface during Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, the job of stifling potentially damaging stories fell to his longtime lawyer and all-around fixer, Michael D. Cohen.
To protect his boss at critica...

The Week

White House counsel reportedly knew about possible Flynn violations in January

Confidential documents turned over to Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team by the White House indicate that White House Counsel Don McGahn researched both the Logan Act and federal law dealing with lying to federal investigators and warned President Trump about then-National Security Adviser Michael Flynn possibly violating both, Foreign Policy reports.
FP's Murray Waas spoke with three people with knowledge of the records and was read portions of the documents, which show that McGahn conduc...