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Post by Old Badger on Dec 8, 2018 15:53:07 GMT -5
Trump showed up at the Army-Navy game just one day after he was accused of felonies by the Department of Justice. The man is shameless...and he's spoiled the game just by his presence.
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Post by Old Badger on Dec 8, 2018 16:14:54 GMT -5
It's not just SDNY that says Trump is a criminal. There is his former Secretary of Defense, Rex Tillerson: “So often the president would say, ‘Here’s what I want you to do, and here’s how I want you to do it.’ And I would have to say to him, ‘Mr. President, I understand what you want to do. But you can’t do it that way. It violates the law.’ ”
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Post by Old Badger on Dec 8, 2018 16:50:21 GMT -5
When it comes to yesterday's court filings, "the raging debate about the hush-money payments is something of a sideshow. Although serious, campaign finance violations often are not criminal and certainly are not the key issue here. The key is Russia, and Cohen has joined the ranks of other cooperators providing Mueller with extensive information on those issues. We now know Trump was secretly negotiating a deal with Russia worth hundreds of millions of dollars while running for president and while Russia was actively working to help him get elected. There is mounting evidence of substantial connections among Russia, the Trump campaign, and Trump’s business interests, and of a possible criminal conspiracy to conceal those connections." link
This is what's emerging from the hints in the wave of filings coming from Mueller. As Deep Throat taught us: FOLLOW THE MONEY.
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Post by Old Badger on Dec 8, 2018 18:13:36 GMT -5
At long last some Republicans are starting to worry about Trump's criminality: "A growing number of Republicans fear that a battery of new revelations in the far-reaching Russia investigation has dramatically heightened the legal and political danger to Donald Trump’s presidency — and threatens to consume the rest of the party as well. President Trump added to the tumult Saturday by announcing the abrupt exit of his chief of staff, John F. Kelly, whom he sees as lacking the political judgment and finesse to steer the White House through the treacherous months to come." link Remember the Three Generals who were going to keep Trump in check? Well, Flynn has admitted to felony charges. Now Kelly's out--after he gave numerous interviews to Mueller's team. Only Mattis is left, and he's in a position that's largely isolated from politics. So, the GOP now has to rely on Trump, and: " Trump remains headstrong in his belief that he can outsmart adversaries and weather any threats, according to advisers. In the Russia probe, he continues to roar denials, dubiously proclaiming that the latest allegations of wrongdoing by his former associates 'totally clear' him. But anxiety is spiking among Republican allies, who complain that Trump and the White House have no real plan for dealing with the Russia crisis while confronting a host of other troubles at home and abroad." If you were going to bet on which guy can outsmart the other would you pick Trump over Mueller? Yeah, the question answers itself. As for other Republicans: "For now, Republicans on Capitol Hill are still inclined to stand by Trump and give the president the benefit of the doubt. But one pro-Trump senator said privately that a breaking point would be if Mueller documents conspiracy with Russians. 'Then they’ve lost me.'” People are with you...right up until the moment they're not.
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Post by Old Badger on Dec 8, 2018 20:40:24 GMT -5
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Post by Old Badger on Dec 8, 2018 22:44:57 GMT -5
MPLS Star-Tribune nails it:
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Post by Old Badger on Dec 9, 2018 22:54:37 GMT -5
“There was no communication between the campaign and any foreign entity during the campaign.” -- Hope Hicks, November 2016
"“I have nothing to do with Russia. To the best of my knowledge, no person that I deal with does.” -- Donald Trump, February 2017
Remember those assurances that came two days after the 2016 election, and shortly after Trump took the oath of office? Did you believe them then? Do you believe them now? How about this: "The Russian ambassador. A deputy prime minister. A pop star, a weightlifter, a lawyer, a Soviet army veteran with alleged intelligence ties. Again and again and again, over the course of Donald Trump’s 18-month campaign for the presidency, Russian citizens made contact with his closest family members and friends, as well as figures on the periphery of his orbit. Some offered to help his campaign and his real estate business. Some offered dirt on his Democratic opponent. Repeatedly, Russian nationals suggested Trump should hold a peacemaking sit-down with Vladimir Putin — and offered to broker such a summit. In all, Russians interacted with at least 14 Trump associates during the campaign and presidential transition, public records and interviews show." linkAnd there were dozens of such contacts. And they "occurred against the backdrop of 'sustained efforts by the Russian government to interfere with the U.S. presidential election,' as Mueller’s prosecutors wrote in a court filing last week." In fact, virtually everyone high up in the campaign, from Ivanka and Jared to Manafort and Cohen had repeated contacts with Russian agents. At what point do Republicans finally absorb the fact that their candidate of 2016, and the sitting President of the United Stats, acted as a Russian stooge...and still may be doing so? When did conservatives accept the idea that America was for sale to foreign powers? In other words, at what point does the mounting evidence of Russian control over Trump finally free GOP office-holders, if not some of his core voters, from obeisance to this man?
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Post by Old Badger on Dec 10, 2018 15:48:13 GMT -5
"Maria Butina, an accused Russian spy who nuzzled up to the National Rifle Association before the 2016 election, appears to have reached a plea deal with the Justice Department, according to a new court filing in her criminal case. Her attorneys and prosecutors filed a two-page request on Monday for a 'change of plea' hearing before a federal judge as soon as Tuesday. 'The parties have resolved this matter,' the filing in DC federal court said Monday morning. Butina's case was brought by federal prosecutors in DC and not by Robert Mueller's team in the special counsel's office." linkI wonder whether Wayne Lapierre is wondering just what she's telling DOJ prosecutors?
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Post by Old Badger on Dec 13, 2018 11:35:00 GMT -5
"The National Enquirer’s parent company acknowledged paying hush money to a woman who alleged an affair with Donald Trump to 'suppress the woman’s story' and 'prevent it from influencing the election.' The admission came as federal prosecutors announced Wednesday that they would not prosecute the company, American Media Inc. (AMI), for its role in a scheme to tilt the presidential race in favor of Trump. In the agreement, AMI said it would cooperate with prosecutors and admitted it paid $150,000 to Karen McDougal before the 2016 election to silence her allegations of an affair with Trump...According to the agreement, Pecker met with Cohen “and at least one other member of the campaign” in August 2015. “At the meeting, Pecker offered to help deal with negative stories about that presidential candidate’s relationships with women by, among other things, assisting the campaign in identifying such stories so they could be purchased and their publication avoided. . . . Pecker agreed to keep Cohen apprised of any such negative stories.” link This collusion between the Trump campaign and the Enquirer is a violation of campaign finance law. Pecker here is admitting the felony in return for non-prosecution; Cohen also admitted guilt. So that leaves one question: who is/are the "at least one other member of the campaign" involved in this law-breaking? SDNY prosecutors certainly know; we'll find out when indictments are released. But you know he/she/they are above Cohen's pay grade. The prosecutors in NY and DC now have working with them a number of sources on Trump that know his operations inside out: "The agreement suggests that Pecker, who has a long-standing relationship with Trump, is of ongoing use to prosecutors. In 1997, when Pecker was running the U.S. arm of magazine publisher Hachette Filipacchi, he launched Trump Style, which was distributed in Trump properties. Pecker rented out facilities at Mar-a-Lago for AMI board meetings, and Trump introduced Pecker at Pace University when Pecker received an honorary doctorate. Long before Trump announced his candidacy, Pecker was involved in his political ambitions. In 2011, AMI helped manage a website, www.shouldtrumprun.com, which Cohen decided to launch with several partners. “Pecker has a deep industrial knowledge of how Trump and Cohen operated,” said one former Enquirer staffer...Pecker, whose tabloid strongly supported Trump’s candidacy, has turned on the president."
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Post by Old Badger on Dec 13, 2018 12:27:44 GMT -5
"A Russian gun rights activist pleaded guilty Thursday to conspiring with a senior Russian official to infiltrate the conservative movement in the United States as an agent for the Kremlin from 2015 until her arrest in July 2017...Butina admitted to working with an American political operative and under the direction of a former Russian senator and deputy governor of Russia’s central bank to forge bonds with officials at the National Rifle Association, conservative leaders, and 2016 U.S. presidential candidates, including Donald Trump, whose rise to the Oval Office she presciently predicted to her Russian contact... "As part of her plea, Butina admitted seeking to establish and use 'unofficial lines of communication with Americans having influence over U.S. politics' for the benefit of the Russian government, through a person fitting the description of sanctioned Russian central banker Alexander Torshin, prosecutor Erik Kenerson said...Under her deal, Butina agreed to cooperate 'completely and forthrightly' with American law enforcement about 'any and all' matters deemed relevant by the U.S. government, including participating in interviews and debriefings outside the presence of her lawyers, testifying and providing sworn, written statements." linkThe Russia-NRA-Trump connection. Can't wait to find out what she's telling the DOJ.
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Post by Old Badger on Dec 22, 2018 0:12:44 GMT -5
"A majority of Americans — 58 percent —think the president has tried to impede the Russia investigation, while 4 in 10 say he has not. An overwhelming share of Democrats, 90 percent, say the president has sought to obstruct the probe, compared with 22 percent of Republicans. The survey also shows that if Mueller’s investigation finds that Trump did not personally have inappropriate contacts with the Kremlin but nonetheless tried to obstruct the FBI’s work, 51 percent of Americans think Congress should take steps to remove him from office, while 46 percent think it should not." linkThe public is catching on, despite the WH and Fox News. It's surprising that more than 1 in 5 Republicans thinks Trump has tried to obstruct justice; I'm sure that's up from earlier this year, though I haven't checked the numbers.
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Post by bigapplebucky on Jan 2, 2019 10:14:42 GMT -5
From a Heather Cox Richardson Facebook post. Copied/pasted in its entirety here for those who do not access Facebook.
Heather Cox Richardson is an American historian and Professor of History at Boston College, where she teaches courses on the American Civil War, the Reconstruction Era, the American West, and Plains Indians. She previously taught at MIT and the University of Massachusetts.
Over the holiday, someone asked me to explain what is happening with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into the Russian government's attempt to interfere in the 2016 election. Perfect timing, because I stumbled across something a few weeks ago that frames the whole investigation nicely.
In 2011, when Mueller was FBI Director, he gave a speech in New York. He explained that globalization and modern technology had changed the nature of organized crime. Rather than being regional networks with a clear structure, he said, organized crime had become international, fluid, sophisticated, and had stakes in the multi-billion dollar range. Its operators were cross-pollinating across countries, religions, and political affiliations, sharing only their greed. They did not care about ideology; they cared about money. They would do anything for a price.
These criminal enterprises, he noted, were working to corner the market on oil, gas, and precious metals. And to do so, Mueller explained, they "may infiltrate our businesses. They may provide logistical support to hostile foreign powers. They may try to manipulate those at the highest levels of government. Indeed, these so-called 'iron triangles' of organized criminals, corrupt government officials, and business leaders pose a significant national security threat."
To combat that threat, Mueller said, the FBI had shifted focus "from a law-enforcement agency to a national security service that is threat-driven and intelligence-led."
It appears that various members of the 2016 GOP campaign were part of such an iron triangle.
Donald Trump had sought Russian business since 1996, but his financial connections with Russians really took off in 2008, when wealthy Russians poured money into Trump's US properties at a time when few others were interested in working with Trump. In September 2008, Don Jr. told a reporter: "Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets.... We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia." Trump pursued the idea of a Trump Tower in Moscow, and in 2013, took the Miss Universe pageant there.
Then, in 2014, in response to Russian efforts to destabilize and absorb Ukraine, the US put sanctions on a number of Russian oligarchs close to Vladimir Putin, freezing their assets and denying them visas. (Interestingly, at the time, GOP congresspeople complained that President Obama did not hit Putin more harshly.)
Now, it appears that Russia offered to help Trump get elected in 2016 in exchange for-- among other things-- an end to sanctions. And a Russian spy, Maria Butina, has recently admitted to infiltrating the NRA, which poured more than $400 million-- an unprecedented sum-- behind GOP candidates in the 2016 election.
It is this iron triangle of business, government, and criminals that Mueller is chasing down. It is taking a huge amount of time as he and his staff look at money laundering, cyber-hacking, blackmail, and what is popularly (but not legally) known as treason. It seems to me that he is aiming not at any one person, but rather at a criminal organization that is attempting to destroy NATO and turn the world over to an international cabal of oligarchs.
Mueller is spreading his evidence out in the court records he is filing, making it almost impossible for the president to stifle his discoveries, and he is spreading out cases amongst different agencies for similar reasons. And he is getting results. As of November, Mueller had indicted 33 people or entities, and 7 of them have pled guilty (5 were aides to Trump). There are also more than 3 dozen sealed indictments at the DC federal court, and it is likely that many, or most, or all, of them are related the Mueller investigation.
Mueller is the man who took down the Gambino crime family when no one else could make anything stick. He is thorough and he is tough. Sadly, I expect his final conclusions are going to be shocking: it seems to me that we will discover that not simply administration officials, but also a number of congresspeople and prominent business leaders are part of that iron triangle of international criminality Mueller warned about back in 2011, when the rest of us were still naive.
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Post by Old Badger on Jan 2, 2019 12:05:45 GMT -5
Thanks, BAB! That piece does an excellent job of piecing together what has been emerging in fits and starts from the Mueller team's work about the breadth and depth of the criminal enterprise behind Trump. Two noteworthy points:
"Indeed, these so-called 'iron triangles' of organized criminals, corrupt government officials, and business leaders pose a significant national security threat." The term goes back to the 1950s, when political scientists and policy analysts used it to describe the relationships among interest groups, executive branch agencies, and congressional committees which tended to develop and support policies among themselves, regardless of broader public opinion or national interests. The critique of this kind of policy-making was that it tended to be secretive, working through low-publicity changes in statutory language, regulations, and administrative actions. What's being described in this case is a hidden system that brings together organized crime and "legitimate" businesses (acting as fronts for the criminals), and governments. It long has been observed that The Trump Organization is essentially a criminal enterprise engaged in money-laundering (among other things), and that the Russian government is largely a criminal enterprise in league with former officials who became overnight billionaires by stealing the wealth of former government entities at the fall of the USSR. Trump's crime syndicate has been a part of the larger Putin Crime Family for more than a decade.
"Mueller is spreading his evidence out in the court records he is filing, making it almost impossible for the president to stifle his discoveries, and he is spreading out cases amongst different agencies for similar reasons." This is why Trump really can't get rid of the Mueller investigation, even if he fires Mueller. The former head of the FBI has completely outsmarted the guy with the self-described "big brain" because (a) he's a hell of a lot smarter, and (b) he knows how the government works. Bravo!
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Post by Old Badger on Jan 4, 2019 21:23:24 GMT -5
"A federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., working with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election has been extended, officials said, but it is not clear for how long. The grand jury, empaneled July 5, 2017, had been set to end Saturday after an 18-month term. Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell of D.C., who oversees grand jury activities, said she approved the extension. Howell declined to comment on how much longer the grand jury could sit. Under federal rules of criminal procedure, a grand jury may serve more than 18 months only if a judge finds an extension is in the public interest, and then generally for no more than six additional months." linkMueller didn't get an extension on this grand jury without planning additional indictments. And it's now clear that Trump can't close this investigation down without facing quick impeachment. *humming along with Bob Mueller*
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Post by Old Badger on Jan 8, 2019 14:57:31 GMT -5
Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, has been accused by special counsel Robert Mueller of sharing polling data on the 2016 election with a Russian man linked to Moscow’s intelligence agencies. Attorneys for Manafort inadvertently disclosed the allegation in a court filing on Tuesday. Sections of the filing were meant to be redacted, but the text underneath several blacked-out lines could be copied and viewed. The allegation relates to Manafort’s association with Konstantin Kilimnik, a Russian political consultant who worked for Manafort on campaigns in eastern Europe. Mueller, who is investigating Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, said in a court filing in March last year that the FBI assesses that Kilimnik 'has ties to a Russian intelligence service and had such ties in 2016'”. linkSo, Trump's campaign chairman (Manafort) gave private polling information to a former colleague (Kilimnik) with ties to Russian intelligence, which was using online messaging to get people to vote for Trump or at least deter them from voting for Clinton. You know how you spell all that in one word? C-O-L-L-U-S-I-O-N.
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Post by Old Badger on Jan 9, 2019 11:43:29 GMT -5
While Trump was fumbling his big moment to act like a real president: "The more consequential story coming out of Tuesday was the result of a flub by Paul Manafort’s defense team. It accidentally revealed, because of botched redactions, that the former Trump campaign chairman allegedly shared 2016 presidential campaign polling data with Konstantin Kilimnik, an associate the FBI has said has ties to Russian intelligence...The filing indicates “a pathway by which the Russians could have had access to Trump campaign data,” Rachel Weiner, Spencer Hsu and Rosalind Helderman report. 'The Russian citizen, who began working for Manafort’s consulting firm starting in 2005, has been charged with helping his former boss to obstruct Mueller’s investigation of Russian interference into the 2016 election.'... “'A person knowledgeable about the situation' tells the Times that both Manafort and Rick Gates, the deputy campaign manager, transferred the data to Kilimnik in the spring of 2016 as Trump clinched the Republican nomination: 'Most of the data was public, but some of it was developed by a private polling firm working for the campaign, according to the person. Mr. Manafort asked Mr. Gates to tell Mr. Kilimnik to pass the data to Oleg V. Deripaska, a Russian oligarch who is close to the Kremlin and who has claimed that Mr. Manafort owed him money from a failed business venture, the person said.'... "Several experts said the Deripaska connection makes this news a huge deal: 'Remember, the polling info Manafort passed to Kilimnik was headed to Deripaska, who is close to Putin,' said Steven Hall, the former chief of Russia operations at the CIA. 'The margins the Russians needed to change in key states during the 2016 elections [were] pretty small. Now we know how they were able to be so precise: Paul Manafort was providing polling data to Russia.'” linkIf you think this was leaked by Manafort's lawyers accidentally, I have stock in a bridge to sell you. These guys have been blocked from meeting with Trump's lawyers, so this likely is their way of signaling to the WH legal team what it is that Mueller already knows about their collusion with the Russian spies. Duh! Not that some Republicans even care about selling out the country: "On Wednesday morning on CNN, Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) defended Manafort’s meeting with the Russian spy by arguing that Manafort, who had worked on behalf of a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine, had known the spy for many years and that there was nothing odd about a presidential campaign sharing confidential campaign polling data with a foreign adversary...'This is an ongoing relationship that Paul Manafort had with Ukraine—he was a representative of Ukraine, worked for the Ukrainian government, and was trying to work for a peace proposal—which, by the way, I didn’t support what he was doing and don’t support what he was doing as appropriate...'We need to get the whole story on it because it makes it seem like it was some secret backchannel communication,' he said of the secret backchannel communication between the Trump campaign and a charged Russian spy which Manafort lied to investigators about." linkSee, it was OK for Manafort to pass along campaign data to a Ukrainian cut-out and direct it to a Russian intelligence operation designed to affect the election of an American President because (a) Manafort knew the guy, (b) it wasn't a secret because with just about a year and a half of investigation a crack team of lawyers and FBI agents found out about it, and (c) it's perfectly normal. Can you imagine Lankford arguing a criminal case on behalf of a bank robber? "Your honor, my client didn't do anything really wrong because (a) he knew the bank manager, (b) he was not successful in hiding his participation in the robbery, except for the first 18 months or so, and (c) banks get robbed all the time. I demand a directed verdict of Not Guilty!"
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Post by Old Badger on Jan 9, 2019 21:18:38 GMT -5
"A beefed-up White House legal team is gearing up to prevent President Trump’s confidential discussions with top advisers from being disclosed to House Democratic investigators and revealed in the special counsel’s long-awaited report, setting the stage for a potential clash between the branches of government. The strategy to strongly assert the president’s executive privilege on both fronts is being developed under newly arrived White House Counsel Pat Cipollone, who has hired 17 lawyers in recent weeks to help in the effort." linkThey've hired 17 lawyers? To argue executive privilege? Just how much trouble do they think the Mueller report's going be? OK, lots! And they're doing this just as the federal court system is about to run out of money because the Judicial Branch appropriation bill has not been passed, and the money is likely to run out by Jan. 18. After that: "In response to requests by the Department of Justice, some federal courts have issued orders suspending, postponing, or holding in abeyance civil cases in which the government is a party." link In other words, pending cases will be delayed, which will create a backlog for months if not years.
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Post by Old Badger on Jan 10, 2019 11:51:08 GMT -5
On Wednesday, Fox News host Shep Smith and judicial analyst Andrew Napolitano agreed that Trump’s campaign appears to have colluded with Russia...'This shows that Bob Mueller can demonstrate to a court without the testimony of Paul Manafort that the campaign had a connection to Russian intelligence and the connection involved information going from the campaign to the Russians,' Napolitano said. 'The question is, was this in return for a promise of something from the Russians, and did the candidate, now the president, know about it?”' 'Collusion isn’t a crime, but this would be considered collusion?' Smith asked. 'The crime is the conspiracy, the agreement. Collusion is a nonlegal term,' Napolitano said. 'I know, but if there’s collusion, giving stuff to the Russians about polling data [would count],' Smith said. 'Yeah, that would probably fit into the category,' Napolitano responded." link
I'm sure Fox viewers were a bit surprised to hear that even The Trump Network is reporting that there was "collusion" (i.e., a conspiracy) between the Trump campaign and Russian intelligence. The clock is ticking on Trump, which is why he's created this fake border crisis. But clocks wind down inexorably; you can stall for only so long before they run out. Trump's may not make it until January 20, 2021.
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Post by Old Badger on Jan 11, 2019 20:48:02 GMT -5
"In the days after President Trump fired James B. Comey as F.B.I. director, law enforcement officials became so concerned by the president’s behavior that they began investigating whether he had been working on behalf of Russia against American interests, according to former law enforcement officials and others familiar with the investigation. The inquiry carried explosive implications. Counterintelligence investigators had to consider whether the president’s own actions constituted a possible threat to national security. Agents also sought to determine whether Mr. Trump was knowingly working for Russia or had unwittingly fallen under Moscow’s influence... "The criminal and counterintelligence elements were coupled together into one investigation, former law enforcement officials said in interviews in recent weeks, because if Mr. Trump had ousted the head of the F.B.I. to impede or even end the Russia investigation, that was both a possible crime and a national security concern...James A. Baker, who served as F.B.I. general counsel until late 2017...privately testified in October before House investigators who were examining the F.B.I.’s handling of the full Russia inquiry [that] “Not only would it be an issue of obstructing an investigation, but the obstruction itself would hurt our ability to figure out what the Russians had done, and that is what would be the threat to national security.” linkNow we know why Trump has been attacking the FBI. They were running a counter-intelligence investigation on the President of the United States, like they did on, say, Aldrich Ames or Robert Hanssen. In other words, he was being treated as a Russian spy or at least a "useful idiot" for the Russians. This must be what all those ex-spies have been hinting at for the past two years when they've said that when the full story came out the public would see just out bad it was. Just wow.
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Post by Old Badger on Jan 12, 2019 16:47:00 GMT -5
She told us:
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Post by Old Badger on Jan 12, 2019 17:32:53 GMT -5
NYT, October 31, 2016: Investigating Donald Trump, F.B.I. Sees No Clear Link to RussiaNYT, January 12, 2019: Will the NYT ever explain how they got this story so wrong when it counted? To date it's all *crickets*.
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Post by Old Badger on Jan 12, 2019 20:14:33 GMT -5
"President Trump has gone to extraordinary lengths to conceal details of his conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, including on at least one occasion taking possession of the notes of his own interpreter and instructing the linguist not to discuss what had transpired with other administration officials, current and former U.S. officials said. Trump did so after a meeting with Putin in 2017 in Hamburg that was also attended by then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. U.S. officials learned of Trump’s actions when a White House adviser and a senior State Department official sought information from the interpreter beyond a readout shared by Tillerson. "The constraints that Trump imposed are part of a broader pattern by the president of shielding his communications with Putin from public scrutiny and preventing even high-ranking officials in his own administration from fully knowing what he has told one of the United States’ main adversaries. As a result, U.S. officials said there is no detailed record, even in classified files, of Trump’s face-to-face interactions with the Russian leader at five locations over the past two years. Such a gap would be unusual in any presidency, let alone one that Russia sought to install through what U.S. intelligence agencies have described as an unprecedented campaign of election interference." linkWhy is the President of the United States hiding from US military, diplomatic, and national security officials the content of his discussions with the President of Russia? What's he got to hide? Inquiring minds...
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Post by Old Badger on Jan 14, 2019 19:20:32 GMT -5
November 1973:
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Post by Old Badger on Jan 15, 2019 18:05:20 GMT -5
January 2019:
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Post by Old Badger on Jan 15, 2019 18:18:54 GMT -5
"The Special Counsel’s Office and federal prosecutors in Manhattan are scrutinizing a meeting involving former House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, one-time National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, and dozens of foreign officials, according to three sources familiar with the investigations...Country officials invited to the breakfast included Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Israel, Lithuania, Estonia, Denmark, Japan, Angola and others. Former Kazakh Ambassador Kairat Umarov attended the breakfast, as did two senior Qatari officials." linkSounds innocuous, so, just why is it under investigation? Former federal prosecutor Paul Pelletier explains: “If you’re a prosecutor, all of the right players are there. In a lot of ways breakfasts like this are totally normal. It happens all the time in Washington. So, they wouldn’t be investigating it if they weren’t following the money. The big question would be who is paying for it? It’s got to be part of the broader scheme of who is trying to use money to influence the White House.” Among those not responding to requests for comment: Pluvious Group, which organized the event, Nunes's office, Flynn's lawyers, and DOJ's Southern District of New York, and the Special Counsel’s Office. Nothing confirms a story quite like the refusal to go on record saying it's wrong. It's a way of life in Washington.
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Post by Old Badger on Jan 15, 2019 23:11:12 GMT -5
Prediction: Aside from Stone, I would expect sealed indictments of Donny Jr, Eric, Ivanka, Jared, and Individual #1, DOJ policy be damned.
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Post by Old Badger on Jan 16, 2019 23:00:26 GMT -5
Tonight Rudy Giuliani told Chris Cuomo: “I never said there was no collusion between the campaign or between people in the campaign. I have not. I said the president of the United States.” linkLet that sink in. After all these months of slowly moving the goal posts back, back, back, he's now moved almost into his own end zone. His last line of defense is that there was collusion, but it didn't involve Trump personally. First, that's ludicrous; if the campaign was conspiring (the correct legal term) with the Russkies, it is almost impossible that Trump didn't know. Second, even if he didn't know, this still makes Trump a Russian asset sitting in the White House. In either case he needs to resign. Period. Thanks for finally making that clear, Rudy.
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Post by Old Badger on Jan 17, 2019 10:04:57 GMT -5
Aaron Blake provides a chronology of Team Trump's retreat on collusion; note how far we've come from November of 2016 until yesterday: 1. November 2016: No communications, period - Hope Hicks: “It never happened. There was no communication between the campaign and any foreign entity during the campaign.”2. February 2017: There were no communications, “to the best of our knowledge” - Sarah Sanders: “This is a non-story because, to the best of our knowledge, no contacts took place.” 3. March 2017: There were communications, but no planned meetings with Russians - Donald Trump Jr.: “Did I meet with people that were Russian? I’m sure, I’m sure I did. . . . But none that were set up. None that I can think of at the moment. And certainly none that I was representing the campaign in any way, shape or form.” 4. July 8, 2017: There was a planned meeting at Trump Tower, but it was “primarily” about adoption and not the campaign - Trump Jr.: “We primarily discussed a program about the adoption of Russian children that was active and popular with American families years ago and was since ended by the Russian government, but it was not a campaign issue at that time and there was no follow-up.” 5. July 9, 2017: The meeting was planned to discuss the campaign, but the information exchanged wasn't “meaningful” - Trump Jr.: “No details or supporting information was provided or even offered. It quickly became clear that she had no meaningful information.” 6. December 2017: Collusion isn't even a crime - President Trump: “There is no collusion, and even if there was, it’s not a crime.” Jay Sekulow: “For something to be a crime, there has to be a statute that you claim is being violated. There is not a statute that refers to criminal collusion. There is no crime of collusion.” (Technically speaking, the criminal code doesn't use the word “collusion,” but it's generally understood as a broad term that could encompass more specific, codified crimes. And even special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's team has used it in court filings.)
7. May 16, 2018: Even if meaningful information were obtained, it wasn't used - Giuliani: “And even if it comes from a Russian, or a German, or an American, it doesn’t matter. And they never used it, is the main thing. They never used it. They rejected it. If there was collusion with the Russians, they would have used it.” [One thing, Rudy Giuliani: The Trump campaign *did* use it.] 8. May 19, 2018: There was a *second* planned meeting about foreign help in the election, but nothing came of it either - The New York Times reported Sunday on yet another meeting about getting foreign help with the 2016 election. This one came three months before the election and featured Donald Trump Jr. and an emissary, George Nader, who said the princes who lead Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates wanted to assist Trump. Alan Futerfas, Trump Jr.'s attorney: "They pitched Mr. Trump Jr. on a social media platform or marketing strategy. He was not interested, and that was the end of it.” 9. July 16, 2018: Trump couldn't collude, because Trump didn't even know Putin - Trump: "There was no collusion. I didn't know the president. There was nobody to collude with." 10. July 30, 2018: Collusion isn't a crime, and Trump wasn't physically at the Trump Tower meeting - With Michael Cohen alleging that Trump knew about the Trump Tower meeting in real time — despite many previous denials — Giuliani told both CNN and Fox News that Trump wasn't physically at the meeting. "I’m happy to tell Mueller that Trump wasn’t at the Trump Tower meeting,” Giuliani told CNN, adding that "Don Jr. says he wasn’t there.” He added on Fox: “He did not participate in any meeting about the Russia transaction. . . . And the other people at the meeting that he claims he had without the president about it say he was never there.” Giuliani also argued that collusion isn't even a crime. “I don’t even know if that’s a crime — colluding with Russians,” Giuliani said on CNN. “Hacking is the crime. The president didn’t hack. He didn’t pay for the hacking.” And on Fox: “I have been sitting here looking in the federal code trying to find collusion as a crime. Collusion is not a crime.” 11. January 16, 2019: Trump didn’t collude, but no guarantees on others in the campaign - Giuliani: "I never said there was no collusion between the campaign or between people in the campaign."
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Post by Old Badger on Jan 17, 2019 17:28:11 GMT -5
I see Rudy may have some 'splainin' of his own to do: "Giuliani told Mother Jones that Pavel Fuks, an oil and real estate magnate, hired his security firm, Giuliani Security & Safety, in 2017 to advise Kharkiv, a city of 1.4 million in Ukraine...The New York Times reported last week that Fuks is among a dozen Ukrainian businessmen and political officials who attended Trump’s inauguration. During their time in Washington, DC, some of the Ukrainians arranged meetings with Republicans and Trump allies to promote peace plans regarding the Russia-Ukraine conflict that were aligned with the Kremlin’s interests. The presence of the Ukrainians, including Fuks, at exclusive inaugural confabs has drawn Mueller’s interest. Tickets to many of these events required donations of tens of thousands of dollars to the inaugural committee, which could not legally accept foreign money. Mueller is reportedly investigating whether Americans helped Ukrainians and other foreign nationals funnel donations to the inaugural committee and to a political action committee run by Trump allies." linkWhat the hell were all these American political operatives doing in Ukraine and Russia during the Putin years? It's more than just slightly creepy. I hope Rudy's got his own lawyer--and that lawyer is better than he is.
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Post by Old Badger on Jan 22, 2019 17:52:01 GMT -5
"Special counsel Robert Mueller's office is reportedly probing the Trump campaign's relationship with the National Rifle Association (NRA) in the run-up to the 2016 election. Former Trump campaign aide Sam Nunberg told CNN on Tuesday that Mueller's team of investigators was looking into the circumstances that led to Donald Trump speaking at the group's annual convention in 2015 prior to announcing his bid for the presidency...CNN reported Tuesday that Mueller's team was probing the organization as early as February 2018, when Nunberg sat for an interview with the special counsel's office...The NRA has come under scrutiny for its connections to Russian nationals." linkThe clear implication here is that they're looking into the possibility that the NRA was laundering Russian contributions to the Trump campaign (and other Republicans) in violation of federal law. I hope this is substantiated: two birds with one shot would be karma.
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