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The Center for Popular Democracy confronted Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Monday as he was walking through the airport Courtesy Center for Popular Democracy

Sens. Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul(Photo: Timothy D. Easley AP)

Kentucky's Republican Sens. Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul joined a growing group of D.C. lawmakers who have had their private information leaked to the public.

Senate Majority Leader McConnell'shome addresses in Kentucky and Washington, D.C., were added to his public Wikipedia page earlier this week, according to a report from D.C.-based newspaperRoll Call.

Meanwhile, Kelley Paul, Sen. Paul's wife, wrote in a letter published on CNN late Wednesday that "someone just posted our home address, and Rand's cell number, on the internet."

Sergio Gor, a spokesman for Paul, confirmed to the Courier Journal that the senator's information had been leaked online, a practice commonly called doxing.A spokesman for McConnell referred all comments about the doxing to the Senate sergeant at arms, the Senate's security official.

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The latest: Video: Kavanaugh protesters chase down Rand Paul at DC airport

Late Wednesday evening, police charged a man in Washington, D.C., withposting "private, identifying information (doxing) about one or more United States Senators to the internet," according to the United States Capitol Police.

Jackson A. Cosko, 27, was a Democratic congressional intern, Politico reported.Last week, the Wikipedia pages of Republican Sens. Mike Lee and Orrin Hatch, of Utah, and Lindsey Graham, of South Carolina, were changed to show their addresses, phone numbers and email address.

A U.S. Capitol Police spokesman did not return a request for comment asking if Cosko's arrest is connected to McConnell and Paul.

In her open letter to CNN, Kelley Paul said she now will "keep a loaded gun by my bed" and has sheriff's officersdoing extra patrols around their home in Bowling Green, Kentucky.

The leak of Paul's information this week is the latest threat the junior lawmaker has received.

From February: Bette Midler tweets apparent call for more harm to Rand Paul

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Last year, Paul was on the baseball field where a gunman openedfire on congressional staffers and also hit and seriously wounded Rep. Steve Scalise, a Louisiana Republican. Then in November 2017, Paul was tackled by his neighbor Rene Boucher at hishome in Bowling Green during a dispute over lawn trimmings. The attack broke several of Paul's ribs.

And in July, Paul said a man "threatened to kill me and chop up my family with an ax."

McConnell has also been harassed recently for hissupport of Supreme Court nomineeBrett Kavanaugh, who has been accused of sexual assault and misconduct.

On Monday, McConnellwas confronted by victims of sexual assault alignedwith a political group, the Center for Popular Democracy, as he walked through an airport inWashington, D.C.

McConnell was also harassed by protesters several times this summer over Trump's immigration policies and migrant families being separated at the border. In June, McConnell and his wife, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, were confronted as they left a dinner at Georgetown University.A month later while in Louisville, McConnell was confronted as he left a restaurant on Bardstown Road. He was also forced to leave an Italian restaurant in Schnitzelburg after hecklers blared Public Enemy's "Fight The Power" and yelled, "no justice no peace."

McConnell said Wednesday on the Senate floor that he and his colleagues would not be intimidated by the threats.

"There is no chance in the world that theyre going to scare us out of doing our duty," McConnell said. "I dont care how many members they chase, how many people they harass here in the halls. I want to make one thing perfectly clear: we will not be intimidated by these people."

Related: McConnell 'will not be intimidated' after protests over Kavanaugh vote

Read more: Louisville protesters call Kavanaugh unfit to be on the Supreme Court

Other news: Report: Sen. Rand Paul files amendment to remove Russia sanctions

Thomas Novelly: tnovelly@courierjournal.com, 502-582-4465. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: courier-journal.com/tomn.

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Mitch McConnell, Rand Paul doxing: private info leaked online

The wife of Republican Sen. Rand Paul penned an open letter to Democratic Sen. Cory Booker Wednesday night, calling on him to condemn violence in the wake of intimidation and threats that are being hurled at GOP families, including hers.

Kelley Paul, in an op-ed published by CNN, said her family lives in a state of fear due to an escalation of violent threats after their home address was posted online.

I now keep a loaded gun by my bed. Our security systems have had to be expanded. I have never felt this way in my life, she wrote.

Mrs. Paul said she was relieved and grateful after her husband narrowly escaped a mass-assassination attempt by a leftist gunman on the Republican congressional baseball team in 2017. She said her husband wasnt so lucky five months later when he was viciously attacked by a neighbor who left him with six broken ribs, lung damage and multiple bouts of pneumonia. Mrs. Paul slammed the liberals who made light of the attack, including Cher, Bette Midler, MSNBC commentator Kasie Hunt and Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes, who joked about it at an August event.

Mrs. Paul also called out Mr. Booker, who recently encouraged supporters to get up in the face of some congresspeople and voice their disapproval.

Earlier this week, Rand was besieged in the airport by activists getting up in his face, as you, Senator Booker, encouraged them to do a few months ago, Mrs. Paul wrote. Preventing someone from moving forward, thrusting your middle finger in their face, screaming vitriol is this the way to express concern or enact change? Or does it only incite unstable people to violence, making them feel that assaulting a person is somehow politically justifiable?

Senator Booker, Rand has worked with you to co-sponsor criminal justice reform bills. He respects you, and so do I, she continued. I would call on you to retract your statement. I would call on you to condemn violence, the leaking of elected officials personal addresses (our address was leaked from a Senate directory given only to senators), and the intimidation and threats that are being hurled at them and their families.

Jeff Giertz, a spokesman for Mr. Booker, responded to the letter by claiming the senators words has been taken out of context by right-wing news outlets.

If you listen to more than a deceptively-edited 18-second clip of the speech Ms. Paul references, Senator Bookers enduring commitment to decency is clear, Mr. Giertz told The Hill.

Senator Booker actually says to a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to ending homelessness to get up in the face of some congresspeople and tell them about common sense solutions that address this problem and I dont want to hate anybody, because I know the truth, Mr. Giertz said. To think Senator Booker is somehow urging violent confrontation with these words requires you to ignore all context.

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Rand Paul's wife calls on Cory Booker to 'condemn violence ...

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said Thursday afternoon that he believes President Trump would be justified in using lie detector tests to figure out which senior administrative official wrote the anonymous New York Times op-ed.

The Washington Examiner confirmed Paul's comments with the senator's communications director, Sergio Gor.

The Times published an anonymous op-ed Wednesday that described members of the Trump administration working "diligently" to stop the president's "worst impulses" and move against parts of his agenda. The author claimed not to be working alone and that the group is acting because they believe their primary duty is to protect the country.

[Also read: 7 points on the anonymous New York Times 'resistance' op-ed]

It isn't the first time Paul has suggested the federal government use lie detectors to figure out who leaked classified information. In March 2017, Paul said that the federal government should employ the method to ascertain who leaked the transcripts of former national security adviser Michael Flynn's conversations with the U.S. ambassador to Russia.

"It is very, very important that whoever released that go to jail, because you cannot have members of the intelligence community listening to the most private and highly classified information and then releasing that to the New York Times," Paul told ABC in 2017. "There can only be a certain handful of people who did that. I would bring them all in. They would have to take lie detector tests. And, I would say, including the political people, because some political people knew about this as well."

Trump is reportedly increasingly concerned about those around him in the White House. A number of events, like audio recordings and leaks from former White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman, have shaken the president's confidence in his personnel.

Journalist Bob Woodward is set to release a book that paints the picture of a White House in perpetual turmoil, with top aides often finding themselves at odds with the president to the point that some, such as former White House economic adviser Gary Cohn, offered their resignations. The book has only worked to reinforce the president's belief that there are leakers around him in the White House who are actively working to undermine his presidency.

During the March 2017 interview, Paul warned about a "deep state" wherein intelligence officials have "enormous power." Trump, like Paul, is concerned about the deep state.

Trump mentioned the deep state in a tweet Thursday morning, coupling it in with the "Fake News Media" and the "Left."

"The Deep State and the Left, and their vehicle, the Fake News Media, are going Crazy - & they dont know what to do. The Economy is booming like never before, Jobs are at Historic Highs, soon TWO Supreme Court Justices & maybe Declassification to find Additional Corruption. Wow," the president tweeted.

A number of senior White House officials have pushed back against rumors that it was a top administration official that wrote the op-ed.

Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo both denied on Thursday authoring the op-ed, claiming the author should be ashamed for writing it and that people should take too much credence in the words. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson all joined Pence and Pompeo in claiming they did not write the story.

See more here:
Rand Paul: Trump would be 'justified' in using 'lie-detector ...

By Melina Mara/The Washington Post/Getty Images.

The unlikely, unholy alliance between Rand Paul and Donald Trump, one a libertarian iconoclast, the other the cancerous center of the Republican party, has cemented itself in golf games and frequent phone calls. Theyll talk on the phone and Trump will go on about Bedminster and golf and whatever else is going on; and Rand will drop in his libertarian ideas, a source close to Trump recently told Axios. And Trump will laugh and say, This guys crazy . . . They wont even argue. Hell let him speak his mind. Their friendship has manifested in a number of ways, including in Pauls periodic abandonment of his principles to vote however Trump needs him to, and Trumps apparent willingness to take Pauls questionable advice. But while Trumps affinity for Paul may, on some level, have been predictableafter all, they both love to needle Mitch McConnelltheir friendship has recently veered in a less likely direction, as Paul comes to Trumps defense on all matters Russia.

On Monday, weeks after Paul made an impassioned speech on the Senate floor in support of Trumps Helsinki summitThe hatred for the president is so intense that partisans would rather risk war than give diplomacy a chancethe Kentucky senator visited Moscow on a private trip to strengthen relations between Russia and the U.S., a matter he called incredibly important, according to The Washington Post. (The U.S. Embassy in Moscow told the Post that Paul was not on an official diplomatic trip, and was traveling privately with a group.) Pauls Russian jaunt reportedly included a visit with former Russian ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak, who U.S. intelligence suggests is a spy, and whose undisclosed meetings with Jeff Sessions and Michael Flynn led indirectly to Robert Muellers probe into the Trump campaign.

At the tours conclusion, Paul released a statement saying he was pleased to announce that the contact with Russia would continue: We agreed and we invited members of the Foreign Affairs Committee of Russia to come to the U.S. to meet with us in the U.S., in Washington, he said. For their part, Russian politicians reportedly have a laundry list of topics to discuss with Paul, including nonproliferation, sanctions, and alleged Russian spy Maria Butina. According to Russian media, State Duma foreign-affairs committee head Leonid Slutsky asked Paul about Butinas early release, adding, We hope and expect that our colleagues will conduct the necessary consultations with Washington, and tomorrow we can consult about a road map and the plan of actions [on Butinas case].

In theory, Pauls newfound zeal for improved U.S.-Russia relations fits with his libertarian ideals of limited government, stoked by his apparent distrust of the intelligence agencies urging Trump to retaliate against the Kremlin. Weve allowed too much power to gravitate to these . . . agencies, he said last month during a speech at Turning Point USAs high-school conference. But in practice, Paul, who has called the Helsinki summit the sort of thing we should be doing, is perhaps equally inspired by the presidents example, telling The New York Times that his trip would be following up from the meeting that he had with Putin. Our goals are not necessarily, you know, finding world peace in one trip to Russia, he added, but our goals are to try to find some things that we could advance on.

Perhaps better than anyone else in Congress, Pauls unusual position on the political spectrum reflects the growing convergence between the far left and the far right, which have found common ground in isolationism, distrust of authorities, and an affinity for Russiahis father Ron, a libertarian icon in his own right, has followed suit, frequently appearing as a guest on RT, a Russian state TV network adopted by both the extreme left and the extreme right as an alternative news source. (The day of Trumps conference in Helsinki, Ron Paul told RT that the presidents friendly attitude toward Vladimir Putin was great, adding, [the] best step ever would be getting rid of the sanctions on Russia.) Into this emerging paradigm comes Paul, who finally seems to have found a home for his otherwise heterodox views. Whereas Russia is one of the few areas where the vast majority of the G.O.P. breaks with Trump, condemning his slavish devotion to Putin, Paul isfor oncetruly aligned with the president, occupying the space where the screwball right and the White House converge: in Moscow.

Read more from the original source:
Rand Paul Is Trumps Perfect Russia Stooge | Vanity Fair

Sen. Rand Paul visited Moscow, Russia on Monday and invited Russian lawmakers to visit the US capital. Pavel Golovkin/AP

Republican Sen. Rand Paul was once one of President Donald Trump's staunchest critics, particularly during the 2016 presidential election. But in recent months he's become one of his biggest allies on issues relating to what has been a constant thorn in the president's side: Russia.

In the latest example, during a trip to Moscow on Monday, Paul invited Russian lawmakers to visit Washington, DC, expanding on Trump's efforts to improve US-Russia relations.

"I am pleased to announce that we will be continuing this contact," the Kentucky Republican said in Moscow. "We agreed and we invited members of the Foreign Affairs Committee of Russia to come to the US to meet with us in the US, in Washington."

Over the past several weeks, Paul has transitioned from someone who once said a "speck of dirt" would be more qualified to be president than Trump, to backing him on one of the most touchy subjects in politics today.

Paul's invitation and visit to the Russian capital came several weeks after Trump's summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Finland, during which Trump appeared to side with the Russian leader over the US intelligence community on the Kremlin's interference in the 2016 election.

Trump faced sharp criticism from politicians on both sides of the aisle for his remarks in Helsinki. But Paul, who during the 2016 campaign characterized Trump as a "delusional narcissist and an orange-faced windbag," was one of the only figures in Washington who defended the president.

"I think engagement with our adversaries, conversations with our adversaries, is a good idea," Paul said during an interview with CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer in mid-July.

"Even in the height of the Cold War, I think it was a good thing that" President John F. Kennedy "had a direct line to" Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, Paul said.

Paul has also been highly critical of the special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian election interference and whether anyone in the Trump campaign colluded with Russian officials.

The Kentucky senator has taken up Trump's favorite line of argument on the Mueller probe, describing it as a "witch hunt" against the president during a CNN interview that occurred less than 48 hours after Mueller announced indictments again 12 Russian intelligence officers as part of the investigation.

Meanwhile, Trump has thanked Paul via Twitter for his criticism of the Mueller investigation in recent weeks.

"We had general discussions about a lot of issues and basically we've decided that right now we will try to do is establish a dialogue and solve issues," Paul told CNN on Monday of his conversations with Russian lawmakers.

Paul added: "Your biggest issue right now there is no dialogue, issues that we can't even have discussion about because we have no dialogue."

While in Moscow on Monday, Paul reportedly told Russian lawmakers that the president's "hands are tied behind his back" when it comes to US-Russia relations, adding, "[Trump] can't advocate for greater cooperation between our countries. Because all this will look like: 'Oh, you love Russia!'"

Paul also seems to have delivered a message from Trump to Putin.

On Wednesday, the senator tweeted, "I was honored to deliver a letter from President Trump to President Vladimir Putin's administration. The letter emphasized the importance of further engagement in various areas including countering terrorism, enhancing legislative dialogue and resuming cultural exchanges."

In many ways, Paul's unorthodox stance on Russia falls in line with his long history of contrarian behavior in Washington.

When it comes to foreign policy, for example, Paul has often been decidedly more isolationist than his GOP counterparts, which has led him to align with Trump on some issues relating to his "America First" policies while rejecting the more neoconservative wing of the party.

During the Obama administration, for instance, he attained national prominence when he filibustered the nomination of John Brennan to run the CIA. Paul, who has continued to be critical of US intelligence agencies, recently suggested that former intelligence officials be stripped of their security clearance, including Brennan. Just hours later, the White House announced Trump was looking into doing that.

After meeting with Russian lawmakers on Monday, Paul said Russia shouldn't necessarily be considered a "friend" to the US, but emphasized the country's "shared interests" on issues such as "Syria, terrorism, and energy."

In the wake of Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014, Paul called for the US to isolate Russia if it continued to act like a "rogue nation."

"It is important that Russia become economically isolated until all its forces are removed from Crimea and Putin pledges to act in accordance with the international standards of behavior that respect the rights of free people everywhere," Paul wrote in March 2014.

Yet he also urged that the US stay out of the conflict militarily, saying it was not time for "politicians who have never seen war talking tough for the sake of their political careers."

Paul has more recently downplayed Russian election interference and has defied much of the party line on measures to hold the country accountable.

Paul, for example, was one of only two senators to vote against imposing new sanctions against Russia in June 2017. Moreover, as he visited Moscow this week, Paul told Russian lawmakers he'd vote against new sanctions against Russia proposed by his colleagues in the Senate.

Last March, Republican Sen. John McCain accused Paul of "working for Vladimir Putin" after Paul objected to a resolution regarding Montenegro's ascension to NATO.

"The senator from Kentucky is now working for Vladimir Putin," McCain said at the time.

More:
Rand Paul emerges as one of Trump's biggest Russia allies ...