Murray Waas

vox.com

Inside the DOJ’s struggle with Trump’s demand for a “Spygate” investigation

By Murray Waas
On the afternoon of June 14, Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz released his long-anticipated and highly critical report about the conduct of former FBI Director James Comey and other high-level Justice Department and FBI officials regarding their handling of the 2016 Hillary Clinton email investigation.
But largely out of public view, the Inspector General’s Office was in the midst of a perhaps even more consequential matter. Until recently, Deputy...

Foreign Policy

Trump Ordered Bannon to Limit Testimony

Story by Murray Waas

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.

vox.com

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

Kevin Dietsch-Pool/Getty Images
By Murray Waas
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

Story by Murray Waas

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...

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.

(Additional reporting by Murray Waas)

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.

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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

The veteran investigative journalist Murray Waas reported on Thursday at Vox that several top FBI officials will be asked to testify about potential obstruction of justice by the president,: “Two senior federal law enforcement officials have told me that the new revelations illustrate why they believe the potential case against Trump is stronger than outsiders have thought,” Waas wrote.

The New York Times

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

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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 Washington Post

Murray Waas in the Washington Post (Washington D.C.)

Murray Waas reports this morning in Vox that President Trump pressed Jeff Sessions to fire those two FBI agents who had sent each other texts disparaging him.

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...