Free Republic

Special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation is over, but the aftereffects of the Trump-Russia affair live on. One such aftereffect is the reluctance of some important figures in the 2016 campaign to speak out, for fear of continued legal entanglements. Take J.D. Gordon, who served as the Trump campaign's director of national security. Never accused of any wrongdoing, he played a central role in one of the most controversial and least understood episodes of the Trump-Russia matter: the approval of the 2016 GOP platform at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. On July 18, 2016, the Washington Post published a story...

The Russian woman who was indicted on charges of acting as an unregistered agent of Moscow reportedly socialized with an associate of then-candidate Donald Trump's during the final months of the 2016 presidential campaign. Citing documents and testimony that was provided to the Senate Intelligence Committee and later described to the newspaper, The Washington Post reported Friday that Maria Butina had many interactions with former Trump campaign aide, J.D. Gordon, over email. Gordon served as the Trump campaign's director of national security for six months until departing in August 2016 for a role on Trump's transition team. The Post reported...

In August, consultant and former Navy officer J.D. Gordon was ready to launch a new foreign policy and national security think tank called the Center for Security and Diplomacy...and then he got a call from Herman Cain. "We were a few days away from making CSD's website public. Now most of the think thank is being absorbed by the Cain campaign," Gordon told The Cable in an interview. Now, about two months into his time with Cain, Gordon is leading the expansion of the campaign's national security infrastructure, drawing heavily from the think tank he had been developing before Cain...

Almost every day, Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain is handed a one-page briefing from his chief foreign policy adviser on news from around the world. It’s one of several things his campaign says the former Godfather’s Pizza CEO, who has never held elective office before, is now doing to bone up on foreign policy — especially as he faces a big test in November at a GOP debate on national security issues. “He’s really getting up to speed a lot more so than people give him credit for,” J.D. Gordon, Cain’s foreign policy and national security adviser who prepares the...

Des Moines, Iowa (CNN) — The communications director for Herman Cain’s presidential campaign has resigned, CNN has learned. Ellen Carmichael told CNN on Saturday her decision is firm but not yet finalized. “I have resigned but the paperwork’s not final,” Carmichael said. Carmichael explained her decision is a personal one and that she’s pursuing other professional opportunities. She also said that her assistant, Francis Boustany, is also leaving out of allegiance to Carmichael. [....] “It’s a very amicable departure,” Carmichael said. “He wished me the best of luck. And I will forever be fond of him and appreciative of this...

Herman Cain will add a heavyweight to his campaign staff on Monday. Taking over as campaign spokesman will be J.D. Gordon, who served as a Pentagon spokesman from 2005-2009 under Donald Rumsfeld and Robert Gates. Gordon is a retired Navy commander. He succeeds Ellen Carmichael, a 2009 graduate of Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College. So how did CNN report this story? From CNN: “Herman Cain communications director resigns.” No mention was made of J.D. Gordon, at all. Reporter Shannon Travis made it sound as if Team Cain was on the rocks: “It’s a very amicable departure,” Carmichael...