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Former President Barack Obama and his team blamed Hillary Clinton for the Democratic Partys loss at the 2016 presidential election, regarding her campaign as soulless, according to a new book.

The Daily Mail published extracts from a new edition of Obama: The Call of History, written by Peter Baker, chief White House correspondent for The New York Times, that was first published in 2017. The new edition will be published on May 10.

"She was the one who could not translate his strong record and healthy economy into a winning message, wrote Bakerabout the Obama camps view of Clintons campaign.

"Never mind that Trump essentially ran the same playbook against Clinton that Obama did eight years earlier, portraying her as a corrupt exemplar of the status quo.

"She brought many of her troubles on herself. No one forced her to underestimate the danger in the Midwest states of Wisconsin and Michigan. No one forced her to set up a private email server that would come back to haunt her.

"No one forced her to take hundreds of thousands of dollars from Goldman Sachs and other pillars of Wall Street for speeches. No one forced her to run a scripted, soulless campaign that tested eighty-five slogans before coming up with 'Stronger Together.'

Clinton and Obama did not respond immediately to Newsweeks request for comment.

The former secretary of state lost the electoral college to Republican President Donald Trump by 304 to 227 in 2016, though she won the popular vote by nearly 3 million in an election the Russian government sought to influence through cyberwarfare.

Her campaign was dogged by an FBI investigation into her use of a private email server for official business. Shortly before Election Day, thenFBI Director James Comey announced that no criminal case would be brought against her.

But he did say she and her aides were extremely careless, as some of the tens of thousands of emails sent over the server contained classified information. Some personal emails sent before 2014 were deleted. Comey said there was no evidence of a cover-up.

Trumps campaign used the slogan lock her up at its rallies, calling for Clinton to be jailed. At the same time, Trumps campaign benefited from efforts by the Russian government to attack Clinton, including leaking emails it hacked from the DNC via WikiLeaks.

Since the election, Trump and his supporters have continued to push for investigations into Clinton, such as her conduct around the Benghazi incident in 2012, the financial dealings of her familys foundationand a reopening of the probe into her emails.

Im living rent-free inside of Donald Trumps brain, and its not a very nice place to be, I can tell you that, Clinton told MSNBCs Rachel Maddow on Wednesday, adding that calls for her to be investigated were a diversion attack from the Mueller report.

Trump committed obstruction of justice, Clinton said.Thats the real story. Thats what they dont want the American people thinking about.

From left: Former U.S. President Barack Obama and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton wave from the stage during an election campaign rally in Philadelphia on November 7, 2016. KENA BETANCUR/AFP/Getty Images

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Barack Obama Blamed Hillary's 'Soulless Campaign' for 2016 ...

Former President Obama took President Trumps win and Hillary Clintons loss in 2016 as a personal insult, according to a newly updated book.

The former president was shocked by the election results and felt the American people had turned on him, The Washington Examiner reported, citing New York Times correspondent Peter Bakers book Obama: The Call of History. It was originally published in 2017. He was also reportedly frustrated by Hillary Clintons soulless campaign after believing his legacy was in safe hands.

OBAMA APPEARS TO SWIPE AT TRUMP DURING MANDELA EVENT

Clinton apologized to Obama after the election, according to Baker, saying Im sorry for letting you down. He writes, To Obama [s]he was the one who could not translate his strong record and healthy economy into a winning message." Baker also says Obama was incredulous that voters replaced him with a buffoonish clown known for repeated bankruptcies, serial marriages and racist dog whistles.

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Obama also compared himself to Michael Corleone from The Godfather because he "almost got out" of office unscathed like a mob boss avoiding a hit job, and he said Trump was like a character right out of Huckleberry Finn who peddles in bulls--t," The Washington Examiner reported.

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Obama took Trump's win as a personal insult, book says ...

Former President Barack Obama speaks to young leaders from across Europe in a town hall event on April 06, 2019 in Berlin, Germany.(Photo: Sean Gallup, Getty Images)

WASHINGTON Former President Barack Obama warned Democrats about the dangers of rigidideologicaldogmatism, which he said can lead to a "circular firing squad" at an Obama Foundation event in Berlin on Saturday.

Obama made the comment while discussing the importance of compromise in a functioning democracy at the town hall-style forum with "emerging European leaders."

"One of the things I do worry about sometimes among progressives in the United States, maybe it's true here as well, is a certainkind of rigidity where we say, 'Ah, I'm sorry, this is how it's gonna be.' And then we start sometimes creating what's called a circular firing squad where you start shooting at your allies because one of them is straying from purity on the issues. And when that happens, typically the overall effort and movement weakens," Obama said.

The former Democratic president's warning comes as his party appears increasingly divided between left-wing politicians such as New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders who espouse democratic socialism, and more moderate Democrats advocating more incremental reforms.

Exclusive: How Nancy Pelosi is leading divided Democrats through political turmoil, Trump's administration

More: New York Democrat Max Rose derides 'socialist' Green New Deal, welcomes AOC challenge

That tension is also emerging in the race for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination where voters will weigh whether to support figures calling for sweeping progressive policies such as Medicare for All and the Green New Deal, or more establishment Democratic figures, such as Obama's former running mate Joe Biden who, if he decides to run, might have more appeal in the general election.

Who is running for president?: An interactive guide

Obama said that if they want to get things done, voters and politicians need to accept that they aren't going to get "100% of what you want because somebody else is going to have a slightly different set of interests or slightly different set of values."

"You have to recognize that the way we've structured democracy requires you to take into account people who don't agree with you," he said.

But he also warned the audience that they should also remain to true their "core principles."

"You can't set up a system in which you don't compromise on anything, but you also can't operate in a system where you compromise on everything."

Obama blamed some of the inability to find common ground on the media, which he said are geared to "inflame" and "provoke."

He said he advises his wife Michelle Obama, "Don't watch cable news shows. They're designed to get you mad. That's what their purpose is. Social media is worse. They're designed to make you click."

"You've got social media that was once considered to be the network that would provide us greater understanding, now suddenly appears to be a tool that is used to spread disinformation and hatred and suspicion," said Obama, who was one of the first politicians to effectively use social media.

"We are collectively, all of us, going to have to find ways in which we improve the conversation on the internet and in social media. It is going to be difficult to do."

More: Barack Obama traveled extensively as president, but trips with his daughters were most cherished

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The Wall Street Journals Byron Tau and Aruna Viswantha reported late Wednesday:

Former Obama White House counsel Greg Craig expects to be indicted in the coming days on charges stemming from work he performed for Ukraine in 2012, Mr. Craigs legal team said. Mr. Craig has refused to accept a plea deal, and the matter could be presented to a grand jury for indictment as soon as Thursday, people familiar with the matter say. A spokesman for the Justice Department declined to comment.

The New York Times Kenneth Vogel, in his own report on the looming likely indictment of the former senior Obama official, writes that this stemmed from Special Counsel Robert Muellers investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

While Mueller has concluded his investigation and determined that President Donald Trump and his campaign did not collude with the Russians, while also not finding sufficient evidence to charge Trump on obstruction of justice, other matters that came up in Muellers probe have been handed off to different U.S. attorneys and federal law enforcement agencies for their handling.

Vogel writes:

An Ivy League-educated lawyer who held prominent positions in the Clinton and Obama administrations, Mr. Craig would become the first person who made his name in Democratic Party politics to be charged in a case linked to the special counsels investigation.

Mr. Craig would also become the first person to be charged in a case connected to the special counsel after Mr. Mueller finished his investigation into the 2016 presidential election. In a summary of the inquiry, Attorney General William P. Barr said that the special counsels team had concludedthat there was no evidencethat President Trump or his aides conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.

Vogel adds that the case against Craig, according to his attorneys, is related to the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA)and his lawyers do not necessarily expect him to be charged with a violation of that act but something related to that.

Vogel wrote:

Rather, they [Craigs lawyers] expect him to be charged with making false statements to the Justice Department officials examining whether he was required to register under the law for work he did in 2012, while he was a partner at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. The work, on behalf of the government of Viktor F. Yanukovych, then the president of Ukraine, was linked to Paul Manafort, who at the time was a political consultant earning tens of millions of dollars for his representation of Mr. Yanukovych.

Manafort was at one time Trumps top 2016 presidential campaign adviser, and is currently serving a lengthy prison sentence on corruption convictions for actions he committed long before he worked for Trump. Muellers team found these violations, charged Manafort, and prosecuted him successfully, making him perhaps the highest profile former Trump aide to go down as part of the Special Counsels probe. The activities for which Manafort was charged and convicted had nothing to do with President Trump.

Craig, a top Democrat, served as White House counsel for nearly the full first year of Obamas presidencyfrom Jan. 20, 2009, when Obama was inaugurated, until the beginning of January 2010. He also served as a senior official in former Democrat President Bill Clintons White House and worked in high levels of Democrat politics for many years prior to and after that. Clinton had reportedly even offered him the White House counsel job back then, but he turned it down in 1996.

In a statement to the New York Times, Craigs lawyers said outright that while they expect charges to be filed against him, they also maintain his innocence.

We expect an indictment by the D.C. U.S. attorneys office at the request of the National Security Division, Craigs lawyers said, adding: Mr. Craig is not guilty of any charge and the governments stubborn insistence on prosecuting Mr. Craig is a misguided abuse of prosecutorial discretion.

Prosecutors in the U.S. Attorneys office for the Southern District of New York are also reportedly, according to recent Associated Press and other media reports, looking into another Democrat in addition to Craig on this matter that was borne out of the Mueller probe: Tony Podesta, a top Democrat lobbyist and the brother of former Obama White House chief of staff and former Hillary Clinton 2016 campaign chairman John Podesta.

Prosecutors there [in the Southern District of New York] are looking into the conduct of longtime Democratic lobbyist Tony Podesta, former Obama White House counsel Greg Craig and former Republican congressman and lobbyist Vin Weber to determine whether they violated federal law by failing to register as foreign agents with the Justice Department, the Associated Press wrote in a 2018 report.

While none has yet been charged with a crime, the news that Craigs attorneys are saying he expects to be breaks the ice on this front and could mean serious problems for the Democratsespecially the Podestas and maybe even Clinton or Obama themselvesdown the road.

Originally posted here:
Obama's WH Counsel To Be Indicted on Federal Corruption ...

WASHINGTON Lawyers for Gregory B. Craig, a White House counsel in the Obama administration, expect him to be indicted in the coming days on charges related to his work for the Russia-aligned government of Ukraine.

The case against Mr. Craig, 74, stemmed from an investigation initiated by the office of the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III.

An Ivy League-educated lawyer who held prominent positions in the Clinton and Obama administrations, Mr. Craig would become the first person who made his name in Democratic Party politics to be charged in a case linked to the special counsels investigation.

Mr. Craig would also become the first person to be charged in a case connected to the special counsel after Mr. Mueller finished his investigation into the 2016 presidential election. In a summary of the inquiry, Attorney General William P. Barr said that the special counsels team had concluded that there was no evidence that President Trump or his aides conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.

The case against Mr. Craig is related to the Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA, which the Justice Department is prioritizing in part because of scrutiny related to Mr. Muellers investigation.

The law requires Americans to disclose detailed information about lobbying and public relations work for foreign governments and politicians, and it has been the basis for charges brought against several people investigated by the special counsel.

Mr. Craigs lawyers do not necessarily expect him to be charged with violating the act.

Rather, they expect him to be charged with making false statements to the Justice Department officials examining whether he was required to register under the law for work he did in 2012, while he was a partner at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.

The work, on behalf of the government of Viktor F. Yanukovych, then the president of Ukraine, was linked to Paul Manafort, who at the time was a political consultant earning tens of millions of dollars for his representation of Mr. Yanukovych.

Mr. Manafort, who went on to become Mr. Trumps campaign chairman in 2016, was sentenced last month to seven and a half years in prison on charges brought by Mr. Muellers team related to obstruction of justice and violations of FARA, as well as banking and tax laws stemming from his work in Ukraine.

Mr. Manafort arranged for Skadden Arps to be paid more than $5.2 million in 2012 and 2013, primarily from a Ukrainian oligarch, to assist the Ukrainian Justice Ministry. Specifically, Mr. Craig and his team produced a report that Mr. Manafort intended to use to quell Western criticism of the prosecution and jailing by Mr. Yanukovychs government of one of his rivals, the former prime minister Yulia V. Tymoshenko, and to train Ukrainian prosecutors handling matters related to the case.

After the report was released, and Mr. Craig was quoted discussing it in an article in The New York Times, the Justice Department unit that oversees FARA reached out to Skadden Arps to ask why the firm and its lawyers had not registered as foreign agents for the Ukrainian government.

The department initially concluded in 2013 that Skadden Arps was obligated to register. But it reversed itself the next year after Mr. Craig made the case that the law did not apply to his work on behalf of Ukraine.

After the initial determination, Mr. Craig told the Justice Department that he and Skadden Arps did not proactively reach out to news outlets to disseminate and promote the report. Rather, he claimed he distributed the report only in response to requests from the media, according to a letter he sent to the department at the time.

Prosecutors cast doubt on Mr. Craigs claim in a settlement reached in January between the Justice Department and Skadden Arps. Under that settlement, the firm avoided prosecution in the matter in exchange for an agreement to pay $4.6 million, to retroactively register its Ukraine work under FARA, to beef up its compliance processes and to cooperate with government investigations of the work on behalf of Ukraine.

But the settlement did not exonerate Mr. Craig, and in fact it signaled that he was in prosecutors cross hairs. It quoted emails showing Mr. Craig reached out to a journalist to offer to provide the report and discuss it.

Neither Mr. Craig nor the journalist are identified by name in the settlement. The journalist, David E. Sanger of The New York Times, is an author of the article in which Mr. Craig is quoted.

Mr. Craigs lawyers have argued that he was not required to register his work under FARA because he was not doing public relations for the Ukrainian government.

In a statement on Wednesday, they said he repeatedly refused requests that he participate in Ukraines media and lobbying campaign to promote the Tymoshenko Report.

Rather, they say he spoke to The Times to correct the Ukrainian Justice Ministrys claims that the report cleared Mr. Yanukovych of accusations that he directed the prosecution of Ms. Tymoshenko for political purposes.

The report was critical of the Tymoshenko trial and caused unhappiness in the Ministry of Justice, the lawyers said in their statement.

Mr. Craigs lawyers asserted that the case against their client was flimsy, pointing out that Mr. Muellers team referred it to federal prosecutors in Manhattan last year for potential prosecution related to FARA, but that they did not bring charges. Instead, the case was moved in January to Washington.

It is being handled by the United States attorneys office in Washington, and the Justice Departments National Security Division, which enforces FARA.

Mr. Craigs lawyers said in the statement, We expect an indictment by the D.C. U.S. attorneys office at the request of the National Security Division. But they added, Mr. Craig is not guilty of any charge and the governments stubborn insistence on prosecuting Mr. Craig is a misguided abuse of prosecutorial discretion.

Mr. Craig left Skadden Arps last year as scrutiny of his work with Mr. Manafort escalated and after a former associate of the firm pleaded guilty to lying to investigators about his work on the effort.

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