RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE IN 2016 US ELECTION & SPIN-OFF INVESTIGATIONS

[Duchess]

Ty Cobb, trump's attorney is trying to distance the White House from General Flynn. He said that Flynn wasn't national security adviser for very long, and he was an “Obama administration official”.

Seriously.

[HairOfTheDog]

Ty Cobb, trump's attorney is trying to distance the White House from General Flynn. He said that Flynn wasn't national security adviser for very long, and he was an “Obama administration official”.

Seriously.

It's a very transparent and juvenile attempt at distancing. While those easily refutable revisionist-history strategies probably work with the majority of the core base/Trump-loyalists, those voters' beliefs have zero effect on the independent investigation and the facts.

We all know that Flynn was key to the campaign and a very close confidante of Candidate / President Elect / President Trump. Some of us saw that Flynn was clearly off his rocker (same as Rudy) early in the campaign and raised our eyebrows when he was appointed by Trump as National Security Advisor.

We also know that President Obama directly advised Trump against entrusting Flynn with a position. Trump did so anyway.

We also know that electoral liaison and campaign manager, Paul Manafort, wasn't some minor player in the campaign like Trump, his counsel, and the administration now claim.

Based on the published communications of energy advisor George Papadopolus (posted upthread), he doesn't appear to have been some glorified 'coffee boy', as the Trump administration tried to portray him after he plead guilty to lying to the FBI.

The truth and facts, recorded real time, are all well-documented across volumes of media sources.

[Duchess]

he doesn't appear to have been some glorified 'coffee boy', as the Trump administration tried to portray him after he was indicted and plead guilty of lying to the FBI.

Damn straight he wasn't a coffee boy. Coffee boys don't get a seat at the table and that's what he had.

I can't get over the number of people who have thrown away their reputations, their integrity. Those things are priceless.

[HairOfTheDog]

Riiiight.

You do the very same thing other trump fans do, you pull Hillary out of your ass when you don't have anything else to say.

Trump himself keeps pulling Hillary out of his ass whenever the Russia investigation comes up.

Today he told reporters he feels bad that Flynn's life is being ruined for lying to the FBI and essentially said it's not fair because Hillary Clinton lied to the FBI many times and nothing happened to her.

Obviously, Hillary Clinton has nothing to do with Mike Flynn lying to the FBI -- deflection for the base. Plus, Comey publicly fried Clinton for her idiotic private server decision, but he did not claim that she lied to the FBI.

[HairOfTheDog]

This is a gift to President Trump and something that he, the administration, his supporters, and the right-wing media will probably get a whole lot of mileage out of. Maybe rightfully so; hard to tell yet.

The right-wing media is playing it up, the left-wing media is playing it down, and the public isn't privy to the key details.

It doesn't directly relate to the Russian interference investigation, but it could be ammo used by Trump to further discredit the FBI and claim bias in its Clinton Server and Russian Interference investigations. I can hear the 'lock her up!' chants starting up again already.

So what the fuck is it?

(continued)

[HairOfTheDog]

Today it was reported by the New York Times and the Washington Post that a top level FBI counter-intelligence agent and a top level FBI lawyer exchanged texts that could be perceived as negative towards then-candidate Trump. The texts were reportedly in response to Trump's FBI bashing and threats to jail his political opponent during the campaign. The agent and the lawyer were having an affair and both worked on the Clinton server investigation.

CNN later reported that the agent was responsible for changing then FBI Director James Comey's description of Clinton's handling of classified information on a private server from 'grossly negligent' to 'extremely careless'. The former possibly having criminal implications, the latter not.

I want to see the content of those texts, but they haven't been made available and I don't know if they will be. It could be just normal frustration about their organization being bashed, without having impacted their ability to do their jobs objectively. Or, it could be that the agent wrongly minimized Clinton's server liability. We don't know.

Mueller found out about the text exchanges and removed the agent, Peter Strzok, from the Russia investigation early on. Strozk was demoted to a role in HR. The female lawyer with whom he was romantically involved, Lisa Page, left sometime earlier. None of it appears to directly relate to the charges against Manafort, Baker, Papadopoulos and Flynn in the Russian Interference probe, nor whether there was collaboration between the campaign and the Russians. But, I'm posting it here because I have no doubt it will all be conflated by many.

As the world turns............

Refs:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/02/us/po....html?_r=0
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/...story.html
http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/04/politics/p...index.html

[BigMark]

Why would their relationship be described as an affair?

[Duchess]

I'm posting it here because I have no doubt it will all be conflated by many.

Oh hell yeah. trump says that explains everything.

It's my opinion that he views everyone as being dumb and himself being the brightest of all. He projects himself onto others. He thinks because he would (or would not) do something that the same would apply to others and that's just not how the world works. His fans will believe him, the pathological liar.

[BigMark]

Pretty sure most very wealthy people feel that way, especially one born with a silver spoon.

[HairOfTheDog]

(^ copied from 'THE TRUMP PRESIDENCY' thread)

Yesterday President Trump's personal attorney John Dowd told Axios that the president can not be guilty of obstructing justice because he's the chief law enforcement in the land under the Constitution.

That's the same mindset expressed to Robert Frost by Richard Nixon shortly after his resignation in the face of being impeached.

"If the President does it, it's not illegal", Nixon said in the televised interview.

Nixon went down in good part due to evidence uncovered during the independent investigation proving that he obstructed justice in the aftermath of the Watergate break-in. His own party, the Republicans, eventually agreed that he needed to be removed from office for the good of the country.

[HairOfTheDog]

We don't have evidence that Donald Trump colluded with Russian operatives to swing the U.S. election (such collusion, while widely regarded as a betrayal to our republic/democracy, is not a crime in itself).

Whether Trump and/or his campaign staff did or didn't collude, he/they can still be charged with obstructing justice if there's evidence they engaged in a cover-up and lied to federal investigators. However, I personally doubt the Republican congress of today would be as inclined to put our country and democracy above party loyalty if it were to come down to it.

Anyway, a lot of parallels are being drawn between the Nixon road to articles of impeachment and the progress in today's Russian interference investigation. Of course, that doesn't mean the outcome will be the same or that Trump has broken any laws. But, it's interesting to look at historical precedents.

The BBC's 1994 'Watergate' documentary is the best I've seen - lots of actual news footage, interviews with key players in the Nixon administration, and factual narrative.

[Duchess]

I personally doubt the Republican congress of today would be as inclined to put our country and democracy above party loyalty if it were to come down to it.

From everything they've shown me they would not put the country before their party. They aren't patriots, not in any sense of the word.

[HairOfTheDog]

Looking forward to indictments with Jared & Don Jr.'s name on 'em!

Junior was grilled again by investigators for hours today. I don't know if he and Kushner will ultimately be indicted, but they're definitely persons of interest.

[Duchess]

Junior was grilled again by investigators for hours today. I don't know if he and Kushner will ultimately be indicted, but they're definitely persons of interest.

Rather than answering some questions that were asked, Jr. claimed attorney/client privilege.

[HairOfTheDog]

Junior was grilled again by investigators for hours today. I don't know if he and Kushner will ultimately be indicted, but they're definitely persons of interest.

Rather than answering some questions that were asked, Jr. claimed attorney/client privilege.

Yeah, I don't think that's gonna be an effective strategy to avoid answering investigators' questions about his Russia-specific campaign discussions with his dad.

Neither Trump Junior nor Trump Senior is an attorney working on the other's behalf.

Just the fact that there was reportedly an attorney present during their discussions does not amount to attorney/client privilege, as far as I know.

[Ski at 1SKY6]

Junior was grilled again by investigators for hours today. I don't know if he and Kushner will ultimately be indicted, but they're definitely persons of interest.

Rather than answering some questions that were asked, Jr. claimed attorney/client privilege.

Yeah, I don't think that's gonna be an effective strategy to avoid answering investigators' questions about his Russia-specific campaign discussions with his dad.

Neither Trump Junior nor Trump Senior is an attorney working on the other's behalf.

Just the fact that there was reportedly an attorney present during their discussions does not amount to attorney/client privilege, as far as I know.

Husband and wife are considered one under the law and if they had a discussion with their lawyer present then invoking that privilege may work. Perhaps Donald and his son have something going on we don't know about.

[Ski at 1SKY6]

The BBC's 1994 'Watergate' documentary is the best I've seen - lots of actual news footage, interviews with key players in the Nixon administration, and factual narrative.

I have watched 3 of the four hours so far. It is concise and informative. Most interesting is the play by play recorded by the actual defendants and participants. I see Liddy portrayed as a real over achiever who did the most harm from the outset. Rumor has it that early on in his career he was trying to make a name for himself. He had Zero and a host of others arrested on trumped up charges in Duchess county N.Y. in 1967 and was sued for violating their civil rights.

[ZEROSPHERES]

Ski, Let me straighten you out on this....In 1967 Tim Leary said That he would file a federal court suit against Sheriff Lawrence M. Quinlan charging conspiracy to violate civil rights. Liddy (of Watergate fame) was just the Gung-Ho Deputy Prosecutor there.

[HairOfTheDog]

I personally doubt the Republican congress of today would be as inclined to put our country and democracy above party loyalty if it were to come down to it.

From everything they've shown me they would not put the country before their party. They aren't patriots, not in any sense of the word.

Yeah, sadly, the way it's playing out makes me think you're right.

FBI agents, like all other human beings, have personal lives and opinions about politics and everything else. That doesn't mean they and we can't do our jobs objectively.

And, Mueller removed the agent who sent anti-Trump sentiments to his girlfriend from the Russia Interference investigation. Good on him.

But now FOX News, Trump, Trump's spokespeople, and even GOP congresspersons who vouched for Mueller's objectivity whole-heartedly before the Flynn plea.............are on a transparent crusade to undermine the investigation over those stupid trist texts.

It will be interesting to see what happens next. Mueller has acquired Kushner communications from the .gov server host that the Trump transition team used.

The host explicitly informs users that there is no expectation of privacy in using their domains; anyone with any experience or sense knows that and there's no doubt Mueller covered all the legal bases. He's used those communications during interviews with Trump staff, reportedly. Nothing illegal or unexpected there, to me.

BUT.............it's apparently shocking shit and grounds to investigate/fire Mueller, according to some Trump loyalists and paid propagandists.

What's funny in a kind of sad way, to me, is that many of those shocked individuals are the very same ones who backed 8 tax-payer funded investigations into the unfortunate deaths of American operatives in Benghazi in order to pin the blame on Hillary Clinton (even though such deaths occur in most any administration).

Some of them are the very same people who cheered the illegal hacking (and subsequent publication) of DNC emails during the 2016 presidential election.

One of them is the President of the United States........who stood on a platform and begged for Russia to illegally hack Clinton's server and find emails she'd previously deleted.

The depth of hypocrisy is almost unbelievable. Almost.

[Duchess]

The thing with the texts is that trump wasn't the only one they called a moron. They made unflattering comments about a few high profile people and per usual trump is trying to make it be all about himself.