RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE IN 2016 US ELECTION & SPIN-OFF INVESTIGATIONS

[HairOfTheDog]

Just to clarify: the Rosenbergs were Americans who spied for the Russians in the 1940s. Rod Rosenstein is in charge of the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Anyway, it seems really self-destructive to me for the Trump loyalists to keep pimping conspiracy theories about Rosenstein and the independent counsel's investigation.

The investigation was based on confirmed U.S. and international intelligence reports of Russian interference and there have been dozens of indictments and guilty pleas garnered thus far, including against Russian operatives who illegally hacked and released U.S. data to influence our elections.

The U.S. is showing the world's bad actors that we won't stand for illegal interference in our elections and will pursue those who attempt to undermine our democracy illegally, along with holding accountable compromising criminal activity by those associated with our highest elected officials.

[HairOfTheDog]

If there's no evidence that Trump and/or those in his inner circle conspired with Russian operatives to illegally influence the election or that Trump sought to obstruct justice, great.

The investigation will still have benefited the country and I suspect the pro-Trump conspiracy theorists will conveniently forget all the delegitimizing bullshit they've been spewing about the investigation for almost two years.

If instead there is sufficient evidence of collusion, conspiracy, and/or obstruction............baseless conspiracy theories and feigned victimization will be a hollow defense when the evidence is laid on the table.

[Maggot]

It was Clinton and the DNC that tried to use Russian influence to interfere with the Trump campaign by getting a dossier on him from the Russians. Un corroborated that was then used to get a FICA warrant. 

[Duchess]

  I just don't know what the fuck to say sometimes. 

[Maggot]

clinton news netwok link


The law firm for the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee has acknowledged its clients' role in paying for opposition research on Donald Trump that helped fund the now-infamous dossier of allegations about the now-President and Russia

Yeah sometimes I don't know what to say either.

[Duchess]

...but we knew that, it's old news. They bought it from a republican.

[HairOfTheDog]

Opposition research isn't illegal anyway. If it were, just about every politician in every country would be locked up.

It's illegal to hack and steal information. It's illegal to leak/distribute stolen information. It's illegal for foreign governments to defraud Americans by misrepresenting themselves in order to influence votes.

^ Those are all crimes we know Russian operatives have been charged with carrying out in regards to the 2016 U.S. presidential election, based on intelligence reports and Mueller's investigation.

Now, we're waiting to see if there's evidence that anyone in the Trump campaign solicited, encouraged or aided Russian operatives in carrying out those illegal activities. If so, that too is a crime.

[Rootilda]

...
It's illegal to leak/distribute stolen information.
...

Isn't this something Kavanaugh was guilty of AND that he lied about to congress?

[HairOfTheDog]

...
It's illegal to leak/distribute stolen information.
...

Isn't this something Kavanaugh was guilty of AND that he lied about to congress?

From what I saw of his Supreme Court confirmation hearings, Kavanaugh wasn't accused of leaking or distributing stolen information.

 He was instead accused of knowingly accepting and utilizing stolen Democratic docs provided by a GOP operative when he was working to get judges approved, and then lying about it under oath several times over the years.

During his Supreme Court confirmation hearings, Kavanaugh was pushed repeatedly by Senator Leahy to admit that he knowingly accepted the stolen docs.  He continued to deny it.

However, when some of the Kavanaugh files were finally provided to the Senate for review, the referenced docs were indeed found in Kavanaugh's files and were labeled, "not for distribution."  

So, Senator Leahy continues to assert that there's no way Kavanugh couldn't have known that he had received stolen docs.

[Rootilda]

I thought I remember seeing that he had forwarded at least one of the emails but then I could be mixing it up with Don Jr. It's hard to keep track of all the corruption.

[HairOfTheDog]

You might be right Rootilda. I didn't see all of the hearings.

From what I did see and recall, the stolen docs were forwarded to Kavanaugh via email from a Republican Senate Aide named Miranda.

Miranda has since admitted to swiping Dem docs off an unsecured server to help Republican judges get prepared for confirmation questions to be posed by Dems.

This went down when Kavanaugh was working for the W. Bush administration.

[Rootilda]

You have an amazing memory for all this.  I found the Maddow clip where she discusses this, it starts at the 4 minute mark if anyone is interested.

[HairOfTheDog]

^ That was an interesting piece. I wasn't aware that the stolen docs issue had been such a huge scandal back when it was initially discovered.

[Fry Guy]

If there's no evidence that Trump and/or those in his inner circle conspired with Russian operatives to illegally influence the election or that Trump sought to obstruct justice, great.

The investigation will still have benefited the country and I suspect the pro-Trump conspiracy theorists will conveniently forget all the delegitimizing bullshit they've been spewing about the investigation for almost two years.

If instead there is sufficient evidence of collusion, conspiracy, and/or obstruction............baseless conspiracy theories and feigned victimization will be a hollow defense when the evidence is laid on the table.

Let's be VERY clear.

When you refer to the Russia Investigation (in whichever way you happen to reference it) and Trump supporters talk about the Russian collusion hoax/witchhunt (or whichever way they happen to reference it), they and you are rarely talking the same thing and so the talking points of "Of course Russia influenced the election" and then conflate it to Conservatives and/or Trump supporters denying this is deliberately disingenuous.

Trump campaign did not collude with the Russians and there as no firm grounds for the FISA warrants and the dossier was a salacious pile of crap compiled NOT by Republicans but by Christopher Steele at the behest of Hillary Clinton, working through the DNC and FBI And DOJ. The FISA warrants were used to wiretap an opposition candidate. It was also used to spy on Trump and his campaign. The biggest connections seems to be the infamous meeting with Donald Trump Junior and was a set up as we know the Russians there had close connections to the DNC and meet with Fusion GPS both before and after the meeting and the meeting was not about Hillary Clinton as the Russian Lawyer (who was not there representing the Kremlin) talked about adoption laws and it was shutdown.
The dossier itself was composed by a foreign intelligence agent who colluded with the Russians to make it.
You want Russia collusion?
Hillary Clinton => DNC => Fusion GPS (Glenn Simpson and Nellie Ohr) => FBI (McCabe and Stroyk) & DOJ (Bruce Ohr) => Christopher Steele => Russian Intelligence
THEY were responsible for this whole false narrative that the Trump campaign colluded and conspired and worked with Russia to help steal the election off Hillary by working with and aiding their terrific efforts to influence the democratic elections in USA in 2016.

It was always a load of shit.
OF COURSE Russia "influenced the election" but no more than it has always done and no less than other big players have done and no less than USA does elsewhere. A dozen Russian nationals on social media spending a couple of million? Considering the nearly 2 billion dollars spent by both parties this was nothing. But enough to drive hysteria.

They are not a bigger threat than they were any of year. They certain DID do the wrong thing but there is nothing connecting this behaviour with Trump and the fact that the Special Counsel was initiated to investigate the Trump campaign is partisan and ridiculous.

The indictments? What did those dozen Russian trolls have to connect them to Trump and his campaign? Nothing
What did ANY of what any of the people in Trump's campaign, charged with anything have to do with "Russian collusion"? Nothing

George Papadopolous and Carter Page are going to start hitting back and they are not wanting to put Flynn on the stand.

Every day the credibility of the decisions leading to the instigation of the Mueller investigation and the FISA warrants and such is becoming increasingly clear as to how shady they were. The whole thing is slowly falling to pieces.

If the Democrats gain control of the house they save themselves from a lot of exposure by shutting down House investigations into things that will hurt them. If they don't then things are going to get a lot better for Republicans and much worse for the DNC and Democrats and the Intelligence community.

[HairOfTheDog]

White House Lawyer & Mueller Witness Don McGahn Leaves His Post



Yesterday was McGahn's last day with the Trump Administration.

A longtime fixture in Republican legal circles, McGahn led White House efforts to slash government regulations and stack the federal courts with conservative judges. 

He shepherded the nominations of both Trump’s Supreme Court choices, Neil M. Gorsuch and McGhan's close long-time friend Brett M. Kavanaugh.

McGahn also often tried to stop the president from taking steps that McGahn viewed as legally or politically problematic in regards to the Russia interference investigation, such as firing the special counsel.

(continued)

[HairOfTheDog]

The president blamed McGahn for the deputy attorney general’s appointment of Mueller in May 2017, saying McGahn had not done enough to control the Justice Department.

McGahn has spent at least 30 hours with Mueller’s investigators providing information pertaining to how/whether President Trump tried to interfere with or quash the inquiry, including Trump's attempt to fire Mueller himself in the summer of 2017.

Trump announced that McGahn would be resigning shortly after news reports of McGahn's cooperation with the Mueller investigators were published back in August.

Refs:
https://fox61.com/2018/10/17/don-mcgahn-...urces-say/
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/17/us/po...ule=Top%20^Stories&pgtype=Homepage

[Rootilda]

Is he part of the Catholic mafia too?

[HairOfTheDog]

McGahn is Catholic, same as 6 of the 9 current Supreme Court Justices.

He was also a player in the W. Bush administration, like Kavanaugh.

He's a married father of two and the lead guitarist in a band called Scott's New Band.

When Donald Trump was a Democrat and trying to get into the casino business, McGahn's uncle Patrick was a prominent Democratic  lawyer who helped Trump manage his interests.

That's the extent of my knowledge regarding McGahn.

[HairOfTheDog]

McGahn's successor as White House counsel to Trump will be Pat Cipollone.  



Cipollone is a devout Catholic who serves on the Catholic Information Center's directorial board. 

In 2004, he co-founded National Catholic Prayer Breakfast. He's also the godfather to FOX's Laura Ingraham.

Cipollone served in the Bush Sr. administration and has been advising Trump in regards to the Russia investigation since June.

Source:  https://www.worldreligionnews.com/?p=56799

[Rootilda]

I was just reading that Kellyanne Conway, Michael Flynn, Bannon, Spicer and a few more I'm not familiar with are Catholic too. As is Paul Ryan. Evangelicals get a lot of press for being Trumpists but it looks more like this administration is crawling with Catholics.

I was raised as one. I rejected them decades ago, and I don't like seeing this much religion so heavily involved in our politics.