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Sorting the Sunday Pile Week 8: Wilson, Watson emerge as faces of NFL QB future

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Seattle is not the most likely place for a shootout to break out, but the NFL has a funny way of letting outstanding football games emerge out of nowhere and we got one of the best games anyone will see in 2017 as Deshaun Watson and Russell Wilson dueled it out in a marvelous, high-octane battle that showcased the future of football.

Wilson and Watson both showcased their unique skillsets, lighting up the scoreboard while throwing for four touchdowns each, with half of said touchdowns coming in a wild fourth quarter that featured four different touchdown drives of 71 yards or longer. 

Watson now has 19 touchdown passes in his first seven games, the most in NFL history, beating Kurt Warner’s record, but it was Wilson who got the last laugh, casually marching the Seahawks 80 yards down the field in three plays before finding tight end Jimmy Graham for a wide-open touchdown that would ultimately win the game.

« It’s crazy, because at those moments, [Russell] has the most confidence you’ve ever seen him with, » Graham said of his quarterback after the game. « It’s just unbelievable his mindset, his focus at those times, how upbeat he is. You believe every time, if there’s 20 seconds left on the clock that we’re going to score, that we’re going to hit that Hail Mary. It’s just unbelievable, his actions. His demeanor in the huddle is just unbelievable. » 

It’s not hard to see what Graham is talking about — that was hardly the only big-time throw (and catch) on that drive, with Wilson picking up a massive chunk of yardage on a deep completion to Paul Richardson that showcased his mobility, pocket presence and arm.

Wilson may as well have been looking at a mirror during this game, with Watson serving as an impressive facsimile for Wilson from his rookie year. 

Folks will recall that it was Matt Flynn, not Wilson, who was set to be the starter for the Seahawks in 2012. Flynn had been signed in free agency and Wilson was just a third-round pick for Seattle. The Seahawks were hoping Flynn could put them over the top. Instead, Wilson, who just has a certain winning quality about him, stole the job before the season and never looked back.

Like Wilson, Watson wasn’t going to be the starter originally. Tom Savage was named the Texans starter for Week 1 and spent the first half getting pounded by the Jaguars before Bill O’Brien quick-hooked him for Watson. 

And like Wilson, Watson has that quality about him. Dabo Swinney described it before the draft and we just didn’t listen. With every crunch-time play and every touchdown he throws, it’s hard to imagine how anyone thought starting Savage was the right play.

Watson still had his share of rookie mistakes and eventually threw two interceptions (one to seal the game) in Richard Sherman’s direction. But it’s a testament to Watson that, with 21 seconds left and the Texans holding the ball down three points to the Seahawks in Seattle, it wasn’t out of the question for the rookie quarterback to find a way to get the Texans a look at tying up the game.

He is playing a little above his head right now, in the sense of having a lot of breaks go his way. One of his touchdown throws is going to give him 70 yards but it was DeAndre Hopkins who did most of the work. 

That was still a « WOAH » moment for Houston, a big-play score that gave the Texans the lead with less than five minutes to play. They had that game and gave their defense a shot to hold off Wilson and the Seahawks enough to steal a pretty massive upset. 

Regardless of the final score, it’s clear just how much Watson belongs. And it’s also fortuitous for both the Texans and the NFL that Watson was able to produce such a big performance, going head-to-head against Wilson for 60 fantastic minutes of football, when he did.

The Texans started the game by taking a knee in protest of owner Bob McNair’s referring to NFL players as « inmates » in a « prison » (he was worried the protesting players and the anthem issues would result in the owners losing control). The world was focusing on something other than football when this game began, and a blah performance by Houston would have led to questions about their focus, etc.

Instead, the narrative coming out of the game was laser-locked on Watson and Wilson, the two young quarterbacks who have, at every stage of their career, denied the doubters, refusing to back down from a challenge. 

We often hear people complain about the level of quarterbacking in the NFL and the concern about the future once guys like Tom Brady and Drew Brees move on. Maybe the game is in pretty good hands after all. 

As Russia case unfolds, Trump and Republicans go to battle with Clinton and Democrats

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Tensions between Republicans and Democrats over the investigation of Russian involvement in the 2016 presidential election intensified Sunday, with President Trump demanding to know why his campaign is under federal scrutiny while his former opponent Hillary Clinton is not.

The president’s latest outburst over the inquiry led by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III surfaced on Twitter as his administration braced for the possibility that the first batch of charges in the case could be publicly announced as soon as Monday. CNN reported that a federal grand jury had approved an indictment, although details of the possible charges and the name of a defendant remained unclear.

Trump issued four tweets over 24 minutes, attacking the Mueller probe as unfair and citing various Clinton controversies that he said warranted investigation.

“Instead they look at phony Trump/Russia, ‘collusion,’ which doesn’t exist,” the president said. “The Dems are using this terrible (and bad for our country) Witch Hunt for evil politics, but the R’s are now fighting back like never before. There is so much GUILT by Democrats/Clinton, and now the facts are pouring out. DO SOMETHING!”

Later in the morning, Trump added: “All of this ‘Russia’ talk right when the Republicans are making their big push for historic Tax Cuts Reform. Is this coincidental? NOT!”

On Sunday talk shows, Republicans rallied around Trump and questioned how CNN could have received information about secret grand jury proceedings.

“There are very, very strict laws on grand jury secrecy, so depending on who leaked this to CNN, that’s a criminal violation, potentially,” New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), a longtime friend of Trump’s, said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. “For us to have confidence in this process, we’ve got to make sure that the grand jury process remains confidential, remains secret, so that the special counsel can work effectively to be able to get to the bottom of all that he’s looking into.”

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) cast doubt on the objectivity of Mueller’s team, noting that the prosecutor’s staff includes “a lot of individuals, attorneys who played in politics, who’ve given money on the Democratic side.” Of the eight attorneys on the team who have been publicly identified, four made donations to Democrats, including President Barack Obama and Clinton.

“This president won the election solely on the idea that he connected with the American people. No other influence involved,” McCarthy said on Fox’s “Sunday Morning Futures.” “But the idea of what I’ve watched, of what the Democrats have been doing, it sure raises a lot of questions.”

Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), chairman of the House Oversight Committee, came to Mueller’s defense and said that he doesn’t agree with Republicans who are calling for Mueller to resign or stop his investigation.

“I would encourage my Republican friends — give the guy a chance to do his job,” Gowdy said on Fox News Sunday. “The result will be known by the facts, by what he uncovers. . . . I would say give the guy a chance to do his job.”

Democratic lawmakers mostly stayed out of the Sunday fray after a week in which Clinton’s 2016 campaign came under fresh scrutiny. The campaign funded political opposition research into Trump that helped create a highly publicized “dossier” on the Republican candidate and fueled some allegations now under scrutiny by Mueller.

The 35-page dossier is composed of 17 memos containing raw intelligence, some of it highly salacious and not independently confirmed. It relies on Kremlin-linked sources and alleges that the Russian government had been trying to support Trump’s candidacy while gathering compromising information that could be used as blackmail. The dossier was published in full by BuzzFeed in January.

It’s unclear how much the Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee paid for the opposition research by Fusion GPS, a Washington firm that conducts investigations for private clients. The Clinton campaign paid $5.6 million in legal fees to a law firm from June 2015 to December 2016, according to campaign finance records, and the DNC paid the firm $3.6 million in “legal and compliance consulting’’ since November 2015. It’s impossible to tell from the filings how much of that work was for other legal matters and how much of it related to Fusion GPS.

Trump tweeted Sunday morning that the dossier, which he called “Clinton made Fake Dossier,” could have cost as much as $12 million, although he did not explain how he reached that number.

Compiled by former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele, the dossier mirrors a separate conclusion reached by U.S. intelligence agencies that the Russian government intervened in the U.S. election in an effort to bolster Trump and harm Clinton, such as through hacking the DNC and distributing materials to WikiLeaks to publish at key moments.

Fusion GPS, which hired Steele to gather information, was first employed to investigate Trump during the Republican primaries by the Washington Free Beacon, a conservative publication that receives financial support from billionaire GOP donor Paul Singer, according to two people familiar with Singer. The Beacon said in a statement that its research ended before Fusion GPS hired Steele and that none of the research that it commissioned is included in the dossier.

In April 2016, an attorney representing Clinton’s presidential campaign and the DNC hired Fusion GPS, which then hired Steele. Brian Fallon, a former spokesman for the Clinton campaign, said he learned about Steele and the dossier after the election. People familiar with the matter told The Washington Post that the Clinton campaign and the DNC did not direct Steele’s activities.

Rep. Adam B. Schiff (Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said Sunday that “a lot” of the information in the dossier has been corroborated.

“I certainly would have liked to know who paid for it earlier, but nonetheless, that’s just one factor to be considered,” Schiff said on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday. “It doesn’t answer the ultimate question, which is: How much of the work is accurate? How much of it is true? And my colleagues don’t seem particularly interested in that question, but that is really the most important question for the American people.”

Schiff said he has not been told anything about any impending indictments in Mueller’s investigation, noting that such notification would not have been appropriate.

Trump also tweeted Sunday about Clinton’s involvement in what he called the “Uranium to Russia deal,” demanding that the matter receive greater scrutiny.

The 2010 deal approved by the Obama administration while Clinton was secretary of state allowed a Russian nuclear energy agency to acquire a controlling stake in a Canadian-based company that had mining licenses for about 20 percent of U.S. uranium extraction capacity. The company cannot export the uranium.

Earlier this month, House and Senate Republican leaders announced they would investigate the uranium deal, and the House Oversight Committee launched a probe into how the FBI investigated Clinton during the campaign. In the latter investigation, Republicans say they want to know why then-FBI Director James B. Comey publicly announced that the bureau was investigating Clinton but waited months before making a similar announcement about its inquiries into the Trump campaign.

Ed O’Keefe and Karoun Demirjian contributed to this report.

Trump team’s response to Russia news: Focus on Clinton, leaks or anything else

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Hillary Clinton is pictured. | Getty Images

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is interviewed by Mariella Frostrup (not pictured) at the Cheltenham Literature Festival on Oct. 15 in Cheltenham, England. | Matthew Horwood/Getty Images

Caught off guard by reports of criminal charges in the Russia probe, Trump advisers sought to keep up their political attacks and divert attention from allegations of Russian collusion.

The White House has been anticipating for months that special counsel Robert Mueller would eventually file criminal charges in his Russia investigation. But President Donald Trump, his lawyers and senior administration officials were all caught off guard by the news.

Two of Trump’s top lawyers were traveling out of town when the first report broke Friday night that a federal grand jury had approved the first indictment in the probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election. One of Trump’s personal attorneys, Ty Cobb, was relaxing on his deck in South Carolina, while the entire team was still working to confirm the veracity of the CNN report over the weekend.

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The lack of information, on a case that could have major ramifications for the president, left many current and former Trump advisers livid, focusing their rage on how the information leaked and on a forever target: Hillary Clinton.

“It is unusual for prosecutors to file indictments under seal and then have it leak out,” said Mark Corallo, a former spokesman for Trump’s legal team, noting that the only people in the loop would be the prosecutors and agents on Mueller’s team, the grand jurors and the judge. “This was an ill-advised leak of information,” Corallo added. “I’m disgusted by the tactics of the prosecutors to leak the information.”

That leak, he said, left the White House in an uncomfortable position. “All you can do is wait and see,” he said.

The latest news came at a point of low morale in the West Wing, where many officials see the one-year mark of the administration approaching and are starting to consider their graceful departures. The Trump administration has also struggled to deliver major legislative achievements on the president’s key priorities such as health care, which has contributed to the Republican congressional leadership’s do-or-die bind on passing tax reform legislation.

On Saturday, the president appeared to be abiding by his wait-and-see strategy on Russia. His Twitter feed remained unusually quiet for a weekend morning, and he spent the warm fall day at his Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia.

In recent days, the president has been sticking to his long-held mantra when it comes to Russia, according to associates who have spoken with him. He maintains that Mueller is on a wild goose chase if he’s trying to find any connection between the president and Russia, because there’s nothing to find.

But silence from the commander-in-chief didn’t stop some finger pointing from his closest advisers over the weekend, as people waited to see the size of the axe that might fall as early as Monday.

Some Trump allies expressed skepticism of the go-along-to-get-along legal strategy advanced by the president’s personal attorneys, Cobb and John Dowd. The two have been the main internal proponents of a strategy to cooperate with Mueller’s investigation by turning over all emails and documents requested. That they were given no head’s up about the charges on Friday “is a huge indictment of their cooperation strategy,” said one close Trump ally.

Others, however, said that charge was unfair until it was clear who the indictment applies to — and if it even applies to someone with any connection to the White House.

The president’s political adversaries, however, were not waiting to see if the person under indictment was connected to the White House before deciding the story spelled bad news for Trump.

“It obviously should be a matter of concern,” said David Axelrod, a former top adviser to President Barack Obama. “The indictment of associates of the president is never good news. Even if the charges are not directly related to the campaign or the president, this is the way prosecutors often work in unraveling larger puzzles.”

White House officials tried to downplay the significance of the upcoming indictments, distancing themselves from likely targets such as former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

“This was a tremendously successful week,” counselor Kellyanne Conway said in a text message Saturday, slapping away any sense of dread building in the West Wing. “Budget passed, which is a critical step toward tax cuts; GDP again at 3%; ‘Russia collusion’ boomeranged toward the Democrats; the President and the First Lady delivered a major policy speech and nationwide call to action on opioids and drug demand; POTUS is preparing for his first trip as President to Asia.”

The rest of the administration’s media strategy on Saturday consisted of a scramble to shift any conversation about Russian collusion over to Hillary Clinton’s failed campaign — a difficult sell when it was former Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta whose personal email account was hacked by the Russians last year. “The evidence Clinton campaign, DNC Russia colluded to influence the election is indisputable,” press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders tweeted Saturday morning, with a link to an article from The Federalist website detailing how Democrats paid for the Steele dossier on Russia.

Outside surrogates pushed the same line. “The speculation is so insane right now,” former Trump adviser Corey Lewandowski told Fox News on Saturday. “What we should be focusing on are the continued lies of the Clinton administration.” It was not clear what “Clinton administration” he was referring to.

Sebastian Gorka, a former White House official who now runs a pro-Trump super PAC, said in an interview: “It’s very peculiar that just as we’re finding out about Hillary’s responsibility with the dodgy dossier, now’s the time that we can expect some action out of the special prosecutor’s office. It’s far too suspicious.”

Citizen Obama, welcome to jury duty

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Former president Barack Obama speaks at a rally in support of Phil Murphy, the Democratic candidate for governor of New Jersey in Newark on Oct. 19. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Since leaving the White House in January, former president Barack Obama has turned heads, images of him slipping into a Broadway play with his elder daughter, Malia, and kitesurfing with billionaire Richard Branson in the British Virgin Islands were shared on social media sites.

His next stop: jury duty in Cook County, Ill.

Obama, a constitutional scholar who frequently invokes messages of civic engagement, plans to serve next month, the county’s chief judge told the Chicago Tribune on Friday. Obama owns homes in Washington, D.C., as well as Chicago. He’ll follow in the footsteps of presidential predecessors George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, both of whom appeared for jury selection after leaving the White House.

[Sharks, squalls and a Navy rescue: How two American women survived months on a broken boat in the Pacific]

 Cook County Chief Judge Timothy Evans first shared the news with county commissioners during a budget hearing. He later told the Tribune that necessary precautions would be taken to accommodate security and scheduling needs. He did not specify the date or courthouse location Obama will report to in November.

“He made it crystal-clear to me through his representative that he would carry out his public duty as a citizen and resident of this community,” Evans told the Tribune.

A spokesman declined to comment on the former president’s private schedule.

The Tribune reported that other high-profile figures, like Oprah Winfrey, have also reported for jury duty in Cook County. Jurors can be summoned for civil or criminal pools and can be called to any of the county’s courthouses.

“Although it’s not a place where the public can earn a lot of money, it is highly appreciated,” Evans told the Tribune of Obama’s choice to serve. “It’s crucial that our society get the benefit of that kind of commitment.”

[A shocking overdose photo exposed her addiction — and may have saved her life]

Obama skipped jury duty at least once before when in 2010 he was pre-booked with the State of the Union. According to CBS News, the summons were sent to Obama’s former home on the South Side of Chicago, but the president told the county court that he wouldn’t be able to make it.

Obama would not be the first former president to report for jury duty after leaving the Oval Office.

In August 2015, more than six years after the end of his presidency, George W. Bush received his jury duty summon and reported to the George Allen Dallas County Civil Court building. Bush sat through the jury selection panel and, though not picked to serve as a juror, spent about three hours at the court and posed for photos with his fellow jury candidates.

“If the former President can show up for jury duty what excuse do you have? #civicduty” tweeted a spectator.

In March 2003, Bill Clinton became Prospective Juror No. 142 in federal court in Manhattan. The New York Times reported that Clinton, whose name was avoided in the court hearing, was eventually dismissed in the jury selection in a case involving a gang shooting in the Bronx.

While serving as vice president, Joe Biden was called for jury duty in Delaware in January 2011. He too was not chosen as a juror.

Even members of the judicial branch don’t always make the cut.

In April 2015, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. reported for jury duty in Montgomery County, Md., and was being considered for a civil trial in a case involving a car crash. The Washington Post reported that Roberts answered questions about relatives — that his sister was a nurse and his brother-in-law was with Indiana State Police — but said nothing about his day job, which would be listed on a form.

“Roberts was not selected, and left court without comment,” The Post reported.

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Catalonia’s Ousted Leader Calls for Peaceful Defiance

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Spain’s deputy prime minister, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, will take over the Catalan administration from Madrid.

Catalonia’s ousted leader, Carles Puigdemont, called on Saturday for Catalans to unite in peaceful “democratic opposition” after the Spanish central government formally took control of the region.


Jordi Bedmar/Generalitat of Catalonia, via European Pressphoto Agency

Dozens of other Catalan officials were expected to be fired, but Enric Millo, the current representative of the central government in Catalonia, told Catalunya Radio on Saturday that he expected Madrid to make “the minimum possible” staff changes.

Mr. Puigdemont, speaking from the Catalan capital, Barcelona, insisted that Mr. Rajoy was removing a democratically elected government.

“These are decisions contrary to the will expressed by the citizens of our country at the ballot boxes,” he said. He added that the central government in Madrid “knows perfectly well that, in a democratic society, it is the Parliaments that choose or remove presidents.”

Madrid also took control of the regional police force and fired the regional police chief, Maj. Josep Lluís Trapero.

So far, there is no indication that Catalan officials will resist their removal. Pere Soler, the ousted director general of the Catalan police force, sent a letter to his officers, expressing regret over his removal and thanking them for their work.

Major Trapero — who is facing possible sedition charges after he was accused of failing to stop protesters last month from encircling national police officers — also wrote to his colleagues. He reminded them that their task was to “guarantee the safety of everybody” in the coming days, should the political crisis spur more unrest.

Spain’s deputy prime minister, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, will take over the Catalan administration from Madrid.


Susana Vera/Reuters

As Mr. Puigdemont spoke on Saturday, throngs of Spaniards gathered in central Madrid — many of them waving flags, some wrapped in them — to protest Catalonia’s unilateral declaration of independence.

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“We are resisting xenophobia,” one man said into a microphone, before shouting: “Long live Catalonia, long live the king, long live Spain.”

The crowd chanted: “Don’t fool us, Catalonia. You are part of Spain.”

Many protesters said that the Madrid government had to enforce its decision to trigger Article 155. Some said that, if necessary, the army should be sent in, though most said it would not come to that.

“They need to apply the law,” said Chema Martinez, 22, who described himself as a patriot and devout Catholic and wore a Spanish flag with the Sacred Heart of Jesus stamped on its center.

“The army is there to defend Spain,” he said. “They should send in the army to Catalonia; that’s what needs to be done.”

At one point, the Spanish national anthem began to play, and many who had been quietly listening as they sat on the curb silently stood up.

Agueda Rivera, 77, tears streaming down her face, said, “I’m crying. I’m crying for my Spain.”

On Friday, Mr. Rajoy announced that new Catalan elections would be held on Dec. 21, the earliest possible date, in an apparent bid to show frustrated Catalans that Madrid wanted to avoid prolonging a constitutional crisis.

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By limiting Madrid’s control over Catalonia to 55 days, analysts said, Mr. Rajoy and his allies were hoping to quickly turn the tables on the separatists, who staged an independence referendum on Oct. 1 that had been declared illegal by Spain’s government and courts.

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“It’s Rajoy’s attempt to regain the democratic initiative, but also a surprisingly risky bet that he can really beat the independence movement,” said Josep Ramoneda, a political columnist and philosopher.

“Whether it works will depend on the level of resistance to Madrid in the coming weeks, which perhaps won’t be that high given that people are exhausted and need a break.”

Albert Rivera, the national leader of Ciudadanos, the party that has been Mr. Rajoy’s main ally in fighting secessionism, told a party conference on Saturday morning, “We will now come out to beat them, but by voting.”

Opponents and supporters of Catalan independence outside regional government offices in Barcelona on Saturday.


Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

The December elections, he said, were an opportunity for “all the Catalans who have been silenced by nationalism,” after opponents of independence mostly boycotted the Oct. 1 referendum.

“We will now claim the right to vote in freedom,” Mr. Rivera added, “to show the world that this is a free and democratic country.”

Vicent Sanchis, the general manager of the Catalan public television station, TV3, said that it remained to be seen how much practical control Mr. Rajoy could exert over Catalan institutions.

“We live in an uncertain moment,” Mr. Sanchis said in his office. “We now have two parallel legitimacies and we still don’t know which one controls the Catalan institutions.”

“The key thing now is to discover what pressure the Madrid government will now exert,” he added. “In the coming days, we’ll find out.”

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Jordi Borda, the deputy director of Catalunya Radio, said a crucial test would come on Monday.

“If the Catalan ministers go to work on Monday and manage to work normally, it will be a strong step towards consolidating what the Catalan parliament voted on yesterday,” Mr. Borda said.

“If Monday is a normal day,” he said, “it will be a victory for the independence movement.”

Spain’s attorney general is expected to take legal action against Mr. Puigdemont and other leading separatists on Monday, possibly on grounds of rebellion, which carries a prison sentence of as long as 30 years.

Joan Queralt, a professor of criminal law at the University of Barcelona, said he expected the attorney general to act forcefully.

“One thing is what the law says and another is how far the government can act,” Professor Queralt said. “I’ve got the feeling that the attorney general will do whatever he wants, just as happens when governments deal with terrorists.”

Raphael Minder and Patrick Kingsley reported from Barcelona, Spain, and Kimiko de Freytas-Tamura from Madrid. David Meseguer contributed reporting from Barcelona.


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First Charges Filed in US Special Counsel’s Russia Investigation: Report

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(WASHINGTON, Oct 27) – A federal grand jury on Friday approved the first charges in the investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, a source briefed on the matter told Reuters.

The indictment was sealed under orders from a federal judge so it was not clear what the charges were or who the target was, the source said, adding that it could be unsealed as early as Monday.

The filing of charges by the grand jury in Washington was first reported on Friday by CNN, which said the target could be taken into custody as soon as Monday.

U.S. intelligence agencies concluded in January that Russia interfered in the election to try to help President Donald Trump defeat Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton through a campaign of hacking and releasing embarrassing emails, and disseminating propaganda via social media to discredit her campaign.

Special counsel Robert Mueller, a former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, is investigating whether Trump campaign officials colluded with those Russian efforts.

“If the Special Counsel finds it necessary and appropriate, the Special Counsel is authorized to prosecute federal crimes arising from the investigation of these matters,” Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said in a May 17 letter appointing Mueller.

Sources familiar with Mueller’s investigation said he has used that broad authority to investigate links between Trump aides and foreign governments as well as possible money laundering, tax evasion and other financial crimes.

Peter Carr, a spokesman for Mueller, declined to comment on Friday.

Trump, a Republican who was elected president last November, has denied allegations that his campaign colluded with Russians and condemned investigations into the matter as “a witch hunt”.

The Kremlin has denied the allegations.

Mueller‘s investigation also includes an effort to determine whether Trump or any of his aides tried to obstruct justice.

The special counsel’s team has conducted interviews with former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus, former spokesman Sean Spicer and other current and former White House officials.

In July, FBI agents raided the home in Virginia of Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, whose financial and real estate dealings and prior work for a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine are being investigated by Mueller‘s team.

Mueller was appointed to lead the investigation a week after Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, who was heading a federal probe into possible collusion with Russia.

Trump initially said he fired Comey because his leadership of the FBI was inadequate and hurt morale, but in a later interview with NBC he cited “this Russia thing” as his reason.

SHADOW

The Russia investigation has cast a shadow over Trump’s nine-month-old presidency and widened the partisan rift between Republicans and Democrats.

Republican lawmakers earlier this week launched investigations to examine several of Trump’s longstanding political grievances, including the FBI probe of Hillary Clinton’s emails and her alleged role in a sale of U.S. uranium to a Russian firm.

Mueller‘s team has also investigated Michael Flynn, who was an adviser to Trump’s campaign and later briefly served as his national security adviser.

Flynn was fired from that post in February after misleading Vice President Mike Pence about the extent of his conversations with Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak last year.

While he was on Trump’s campaign team, Flynn also had a $600,000 contract from a Turkish businessman to help discredit U.S.-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, accused by Turkey’s government of instigating a failed coup in July 2016.

Former CIA director James Woolsey, who was also an adviser to the Trump campaign, has alleged that Flynn discussed with the businessman and two Turkish government ministers the idea of covertly spiriting Gulen out of the United States to face charges in Turkey.

Jonathan Franks, a spokesman for Woolsey, said on Friday that Woolsey and his wife have been in communication with the FBI and Mueller‘s team about the claim.

Woolsey and his wife, Nancye Miller, “have responded to every request, whether from the FBI, or, more recently, the Office of the Special Counsel,” Franks said in a statement.

Flynn has previously denied through a spokesperson that such a plan was ever discussed.

Reuters reported on Thursday that Woolsey and his wife last year pitched a $10 million project to the same Turkish businessman who had agreed a smaller contract with Flynn. They did not win a contract.

Bidding for a lobbying or consulting contract with a foreign company or government is not illegal but Flynn came under scrutiny because he waited until March to retroactively register with the Justice Department as a foreign agent for the work he did on the Gulen project.

Video Marketing A Strategy, Not A Tactic

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According to a blog from Jeff Gadway, Director of Product Marketing at Vidyard, more than 72% of B2B buyers are watching videos to help them make their buying decisions,
with more than half watching at least 30 minutes of content before they buy, according to Google Research. And, 90% of a customer’s decision to purchase is made before they come into
contact with the sales team, says the report.

Businesses are reacting by using video in their content marketing strategies to build relationships with online audiences. A
2014 report by Demand Metric found that 50% of marketers are producing more than 10 videos per year, and 1 in 3 large companies produce more than 100 videos per year.

Your
team probably tracks things like page views, ebook and whitepaper downloads, and form submissions to qualify and score leads, says the report, but video viewing can be tracked down to the
second. A viewer who watches a video 100% of the way through, or re-watches certain sections is likely more interested than a viewer that only consumed the first few seconds.

A video marketing platform is a complete solution for the entire video content lifecycle, says the report, with everything a video marketing platform can do:

1 Improved hosting, management and distribution

2 Driving engagement, conversation and optimization

3 Measuring results

4 Generating leads and enabling sales

5 Insights

Hosting, Management And Distribution

While YouTube is the second largest search engine on the web, it began as a hosting site for user-generated
video content. Managing a business’ large video catalogue on YouTube can become cumbersome to manage and scale. Plus, there are key B2B markets where YouTube content can be blocked. A video
marketing platform can help with many of these challenges, from ensuring global playback of assets across screens (desktop and mobile), to proving better tools for managing videos across multiple
teams and users.

Driving Engagement, Conversation And Optimization

A video marketing platform can help optimize video content with tools like
A/B testing splash screens for engagement, pushing viewers through the funnel with calls-to-action and email gates, as well as other interactive elements pre-, during, and post-roll.

Measuring Results

According to the report, one of the questions asked of marketers is “Do you get paid on video views or on the revenue
generated by marketing?” The majority of people talked to say, views don’t mean much, but some marketers don’t know any other way. A video marketing platform can help better
understand engagement by identifying how long viewers are watching, and whether they are converting to leads.

Generating Leads And Enabling Sales

In addition to simply tracking video engagement behavior, a video marketing platform can also integrate with other marketing and sales technologies like marketing automation
platforms (MAP) or customer relationship management (CRM) software. By connecting a video marketing platform to your MAP, lead-scoring models can be enhanced by using video engagement data in
campaigns to segment customers based on videos watched.

Summarizing, Gadway says “A video marketing platform provides marketers with valuable insights like who is
watching and which viewers are converting to leads, helping them make better decisions and show ROI. It will also unlock new insights into which content is more effective at engaging and converting
audiences. And lastly, a video marketing platform will show which video assets are generating the most leads, contributing to the most pipeline and closing the most deals.”

To view the complete blog, please visit here.

 

 

Here’s What’s In That $300 Million Whitefish Contract

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Whitefish Energy workers restore damaged lines in Barceloneta, Puerto Rico, on Oct. 15. A $300 million contract between the tiny company and Puerto Rico’s electric authority has come under intense scrutiny.

Ramon Espinosa/AP


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Ramon Espinosa/AP

Whitefish Energy workers restore damaged lines in Barceloneta, Puerto Rico, on Oct. 15. A $300 million contract between the tiny company and Puerto Rico’s electric authority has come under intense scrutiny.

Ramon Espinosa/AP

Last week, a tiny company in Montana called Whitefish Energy Holdings announced that it had been given a $300 million contract with Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority to help restore electricity on the island, which was severely damaged last month by Hurricane Maria. As we reported, that deal was met with surprise and suspicion from many: The project is enormous, and Whitefish is a two-year-old firm that until recently had just two full-time employees.

The full text of the Whitefish contract is now publicly available, so all of its terms can finally be assessed. Reporter Yanira Hernández Cabiya at Caribbean Business obtained the contract and published it online.

Tiny Montana Firm Gets $300 Million Contract To Help Restore Power In Puerto Rico

Much of the controversy that has surrounded the contract has focused on the high rates Whitefish is charging for labor. The contract shows those labor rates are pricey indeed: $240 an hour for a general foreman and $227 for a lineman. The per diems are also expensive: almost $80 a day for meals, and $332 a day for lodging. Employee flights are billed at $1,000 each way.

For subcontractors, the bulk of Whitefish’s workforce, the prices go even higher. A general foreman costs $336 an hour and a lineman, $319.

Usually after huge power outages, electric companies arrange mutual aid agreements with utilities elsewhere to bring in workers to help restore power. But that would most likely have required assurances of payment, and PREPA has been bankrupt since July. So PREPA CEO Ricardo Ramos made a deal with Whitefish, which asked for no such guarantee.

Whitefish then subcontracted with utilities including Jacksonville Electric Authority and Kissimmee Utility Authority to help it with transmission system restoration — the same thing a mutual aid agreement might have arranged at a lower cost. It’s unusual for electrical utilities to work under a contractor.

Puerto Rican Gov. Ricardo Rosselló has ordered an audit of the contract. And yesterday, the chairmen of the House Committee on Natural Resources and its Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations instructed Ramos to retain all records related to the Whitefish deal and provide them to Congress.

The contract permits audits, except regarding « the cost and profit elements » of its labor rates — likely a core interest of any auditor.

While PREPA probably has no recourse to demand lower labor rates, the contract states that the power authority can terminate the contract at any time, « for any or no reason, when in PREPA’s judgment such action responds to its best interest. »

If PREPA were to terminate the contract, Whitefish would be compensated for « actual, reasonable, and necessary expenses, including reasonable demobilization costs. » PREPA would retain all documents, data, surveys, maps and property prepared by Whitefish.

Ex-Air Force Officer To Oversee Puerto Rico's Power Restoration

But one mystery deepens upon reading the contract: Did FEMA sign off on this?

The contract says that the agency did: « By executing this contract, PREPA hereby represents and warrants that FEMA has reviewed and approved of this Contract, and confirmed that this Contract is in an acceptable form to qualify for funding from FEMA or other U.S. Governmental agencies. »

But on Friday morning, FEMA disputed that. « Any language in any contract between PREPA and Whitefish that states FEMA approved that contract is inaccurate, » the agency said in a statement.

On Monday, FEMA announced it would give $215 million to PREPA for power restoration, as part of more than $500 million in disaster assistance for the island. But FEMA says it has not paid any reimbursement for the Whitefish contract.

« Based on initial review and information from PREPA, FEMA has significant concerns with how PREPA procured this contract and has not confirmed whether the contract prices are reasonable, » the agency said, adding that applicants for FEMA Public Assistance (such as Puerto Rico) that don’t follow its procurement guidelines risk not being reimbursed for their disaster costs.

On that note, one provision of the contract could be costly for PREPA.

Article 29 of the contract states: « Any failure to secure approvals or funding from FEMA or some other source (except due to the Contractor’s sole fault) shall not relieve PREPA from its obligations for payment under this Contract. »

Whitefish defended its work and says it now has 325 workers on the ground in the commonwealth.

« The contract was done in good faith with PREPA, » Whitefish spokesman Ken Luce told MSNBC, The Associated Press reports. « There’s nothing there. »

Ramos, the head of PREPA, told The Washington Post that he was « very comfortable with any investigation » by Congress and that he was happy with Whitefish’s work so far.

Rosselló has said he expected to release the initial findings of his office’s audit on Friday.

« If there is no wrongdoing, if it has been done correctly, then we will push forward, » Rosselló said at a newss conference Thursday, according to NBC News. « If there is wrongdoing, in this process or in any process, there will be hell to pay. »

Other highlights from the Whitefish contract:

  • PREPA has already paid $3.7 million to Whitefish to mobilize personnel and equipment.
  • The maximum amount to be paid under the contract is $300 million. The contract is for 12 months, with the option for PREPA to add more years.
  • PREPA may suspend part or all of the work with five days’ notice, though Whitefish can’t be denied the costs and expenses of a suspension.
  • PREPA can change the services or work to be done within the general scope of the contract, « provided, however, that no changes shall be made … that would render the costs incurred … unallowable or not allowable » by FEMA or any other federal agency.
  • PREPA may terminate the contract after giving Whitefish 30 days’ notice « for any or no reason, when in PREPA’s judgment such action responds to its best interest. » If PREPA does terminate the contract, Whitefish will be compensated for « actual, reasonable, and necessary expenses, including reasonable demobilization costs. »
  • If the contract is terminated, Whitefish and PREPA would agree on the amount to be paid. « The amount may include a reasonable allowance for profit on work done. »
  • PREPA may award other contracts for additional work, and Whitefish must cooperate with the other contractors.