i would say ruddo is at least 3rd grade but i guess you are entitled to your opinion, though i think you are being a meaniehead for calling him out like that

The State Department shuttered an office that oversees sanctions policy, even as the Donald Trump administration faces criticism from lawmakers over its handling of new economic penalties against Russia.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson eliminated the Coordinator for Sanctions Policy office, which had been led by a veteran ambassador-rank diplomat with at least five staff, as part of an overhaul of the department, former diplomats and congressional sources told Foreign Policy.

Instead, the role of coordinating U.S. sanctions across the State Department and other government agencies now falls to just one mid-level official — David Tessler, the deputy director of the Policy Planning Office. The Policy Planning Office, which previously operated as a small team providing strategic advice to the secretary but did not manage programs or initiatives, has grown in power under Tillerson’s “redesign” of the department.

(CNN) A federal grand jury in Washington, DC, on Friday approved the first charges in the investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller, according to sources briefed on the matter.

The charges are still sealed under orders from a federal judge. Plans were prepared Friday for anyone charged to be taken into custody as soon as Monday, the sources said. It is unclear what the charges are.

A spokesman for the special counsel's office declined to comment.

Hilary's going down.

can they charge manafort and then make an immunity deal with him

It's me.

In what will probably be remembered as a footnote in the Congressional inquiries into the credibility of the infamous "Trump dossier", the mysterious Republican anti-Trump group that retained opposition research firm Fusion GPS during the Republican primary has finally been revealed.

And surprisingly, it wasn't John McCain, the RNC or the Cruz campaign. It was...the Washington Free Beacon? The conservative website reportedly told a Congressional panel that it paid Fusion GPS to conduct opposition research on Trump during the primary, but asked it to stop in May 2016 when it became apparent that Trump would be the nominee. The DNC and Clinton campaigns, through lawyer Marc Elias, contracted Fusion to dig into Trump's background in April 2016, which is when the real work that led to the dossier's creation began.

The Free Beacon famously is funded in large part by New York hedge fund billionaire Paul Singer of Elliott Management Corp. Singer strongly opposed Trump during the primary. The conservative-leaning news website confirmed its relationship with Fusion in a post published Friday night. In the post, the Free Beacon explained that it had withdrawn its financial support before former British spy Christopher Steele was brought on to begin the research that led to the dossier. The Free Beacon also paid to fund opposition research into other candidates besides Trump.

President Donald Trump’s White House and personal lawyers scrambled Saturday to learn where the knife might fall in the investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller, triggering a guessing game among aides after days of trying to turn attention away from allegations of collusion with Russia during the election.

Attorneys involved in the case said their cellphones have been ringing nonstop as they connected with each other, and with reporters, trying to gather more concrete details after a CNN report Friday night that a federal grand jury had approved the first charges in the Russia investigation.