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The Robert Mueller Investigation

Hugo Stiglitz

By Hugo Stiglitz
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Goredho
Goredho

Just to make sure I have the alternative facts straight...  Our government -- but I'm guessing only the deep state part of it --- is now guilty of torturing a poor, naive Russian exchange student who

Incredulity
Incredulity

liberals suddenly being terrified of Russia and manic for election integrity is just pure comedy gold.

Chooky
Chooky

I don't believe for a moment that any of this is entertaining to you.  I think it gives you a bit of anxiety knowing that your best weapon against a group who you despise is a bumbling fraud as a busi

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Tuco

Tuco 5076

Posted
Posted
So what are the odds the final report is released before vs after the new Congress folks take office?  Is there anything the GOP could do at this point to whitewash whatever negative that it contains?  Am guessing not.


There is a chance that the WH/Senate could try to classify some parts, but I think that is unlikely. That would be some contorted logic of arguing that nothing happened, but it’s a national security risk to explain it. It seems the preferred path is to try to throw as much shit as possible (Lynch, Comey subpoenas) to confuse and support a both-sides narrative.
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triplehorn

triplehorn 2664

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Goredho said:

So what are the odds the final report is released before vs after the new Congress folks take office?  Is there anything the GOP could do at this point to whitewash whatever negative that it contains?  Am guessing not.

Considering the potential for sheer GOP panic and chaos, and the need to begin some form of a stable House process , Mueller should deliver it to the House in January.  Also, get Whitaker testifying in front of HJC on Day 1 of the new Congress to make perfectly clear what's at stake for him personally if he's being steered towards corrupt acts.  Any major moves over the next 4-5 weeks carry greater risk of GOP fueled pandemonium, imo.

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triplehorn

triplehorn 2664

Posted
Posted

 

 "So many campaign workers, people inside from the beginning, ask me why they have not been called (they want to be).  There was NO Collusion & Mueller knows it!"

 

First, it's a bad sign if you're directly linked to a major investigation and you're not being called to answer questions.  Good chance it means you're a target.  However, there could also be any number of folks who are not disclosing to the WH that they interviewed with Mueller and are cooperating witnesses. 

Second, behold the irony of Trump pleading that all these campaign workers want to be interviewed to prove the nothingness of it all,  yet Trump himself has made no willing effort to personally clear his name with Mueller apart from months delay submitting incomplete written answers and ongoing refusal of an in person interview.

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Chooky

Chooky 13292

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Tuco said:

That would be some contorted logic of arguing ...

But that's the way of these people.

 

"The people in the village were real poor, so none of the children had any toys. But this one little boy had gotten an old enema bag and filled it with rocks, and he would go around and whap the other children across the face with it. Man, I think my heart almost broke. Later the boy came up and offered to give me the toy. This was too much! I reached out my hand, but then he ran away. I chased him down and took the enema bag. He cried a little, but that's the way of these people." -- Jack Handy

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Yuk

Yuk 1505

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Posted

They asked for 10 days for their response on cooperation.  Trump turned in his testimony last week.  I wonder if the two are related at all. 

For instance, they had a joint defense agreement: if Manafort and Trump were getting their stories straight, provided the same answers, then Manafort is proven to violate his cooperation agreement on one of the answers they both gave.

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triplehorn

triplehorn 2664

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Chad Fuck said:

 


Trump will pardon him.

 

Manafort admitted to multiple as yet uncharged state crimes in his Mueller plea agreement


"Special counsel Robert Mueller’s plea agreement with Paul Manafort on Friday took unusual and possibly unprecedented steps to undercut President Donald Trump’s ability to pardon his former campaign chairman." 
[...]
"Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz said he believes the main safeguard in the plea deal against a Trump pardon is the fact that Manafort admitted to many state-law crimes that he could be charged with if the federal cases are wiped out."

 

More on the Manafort plea agreement ---> his being caught red handed lying about multiple things during 'cooperation' ----> his joint defense agreement with team Manfort ----> and Trump's written answers to Mueller, submitted just before Mueller uncorked on all the lying Manafort is doing. 

Check Asha  VVVVV

 

 

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triplehorn

triplehorn 2664

Posted
Posted

Marcy Wheeler opines: 

Mueller Just Guaranteed He Can Issue a Public Report

" [...]

Now, it is true that Trump can pardon Manafort (though that probably won’t happen right away). That’s the only sane explanation for Manafort doing what he did, that he is still certain he’ll be pardoned. But many of these charges can still be charged in state court.

Just about the only explanation for Manafort’s actions are that — as I suggested — Trump was happy to have Manafort serve as a mole in Mueller’s investigation.

But Mueller’s team appears to have no doubt that Manafort was lying to them. That means they didn’t really need his testimony, at all. It also means they had no need to keep secrets — they could keep giving Manafort the impression that he was pulling a fast one over the prosecutors, all while reporting misleading information to Trump that he could use to fill out his open book test. Which increases the likelihood that Trump just submitted sworn answers to those questions full of lies.

And that “detailed sentencing submission … sett[ing] forth the nature of the defendant’s crimes and lies” that Mueller mentions in the report?

There’s your Mueller report, which will be provided in a form that Matt Whitaker won’t be able to suppress. (Reminder: Mueller included 38 pages of evidence along with Manafort’s plea agreement, which I argued showed how what Manafort and Trump did to Hillary was the same thing that Manafort had done to Yulia Tymoshenko.)"

 

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deech

deech 2251

Posted
Posted

So if I have this right, Mueller and his team fed Manafort a bunch of "this is the evidence we have on this issue" nonsense which via their Joint Defense Agreement - Manafort likely shared with Trump before he filled out his answers.  Now that his answers are turned in, Mueller has a huge additional file cabinet of evidence he didn't tell Manafort or anyone about and has just filed in federal court declaring Manafort was a gigantic liar in contradiction with his plea deal and if Trump and his team relied on Manafort's version of the truth at all they are caught in a huge perjury sandwich.

Cover-up is always worse than the crime.  

  

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Hugo Stiglitz

Hugo Stiglitz 23356

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8 hours ago, deech said:

So if I have this right, Mueller and his team fed Manafort a bunch of "this is the evidence we have on this issue" nonsense which via their Joint Defense Agreement - Manafort likely shared with Trump before he filled out his answers.  Now that his answers are turned in, Mueller has a huge additional file cabinet of evidence he didn't tell Manafort or anyone about and has just filed in federal court declaring Manafort was a gigantic liar in contradiction with his plea deal and if Trump and his team relied on Manafort's version of the truth at all they are caught in a huge perjury sandwich.

Cover-up is always worse than the crime.  

  

Mistakes were made 

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shnsajax

shnsajax 3589

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Posted
Considering his joint defense agreement with Manafort, there is a good chance he knows or has a really good idea what Mueller busted Manafort lying about. 


And it becoming public information pretty soon as well. He can’t bury it the day after Thanksgiving.


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Captainant

Captainant 27311

Posted
Posted
15 minutes ago, Biff Tannen said:

How so?

WikiLeaks has been described by Trump's own CIA director as a "hostile intelligence agency" and is known to have been a front for the Russians. Trump's own campaign chair going to the Ecuadorian embassy without being logged days before trump started talking about how Hillary's emails were gonna come out isn't the least bit damning for you? 

Especially after he's been allegedly lying to Mueller. 

I get that in a vacuum, any one of these things isn't a big deal, but the body of evidence is growing more and more difficult to ignore. Even for the willfully ignorant. 

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Francisco 2.0

Francisco 2.0 32290

Posted
Posted

Hmm.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/nov/27/manafort-held-secret-talks-with-assange-in-ecuadorian-embassy

 

Quote

Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort held secret talks with Julian Assange inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London, and visited around the time he joined Trump’s campaign, the Guardian has been told.

Sources have said Manafort went to see Assange in 2013, 2015 and in spring 2016 – during the period when he was made a key figure in Trump’s push for the White House.

It is unclear why Manafort wanted to see Assange and what was discussed. But the last meeting is likely to come under scrutiny and could interest Robert Mueller, the special prosecutor who is investigating alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

Quote

A well-placed source has told the Guardian that Manafort went to see Assange around March 2016. Months later WikiLeaks released a stash of Democratic emails stolen by Russian intelligence officers.

Manafort, 69, denies involvement in the hack and says the claim is “100% false”. His lawyers declined to answer the Guardian’s questions about the visits.

Quote

Manafort’s first visit to the embassy took place a year after Assange sought asylum inside, two sources said.

A separate internal document written by Ecuador’s Senain intelligence agency and seen by the Guardian lists “Paul Manaford [sic]” as one of several well-known guests. It also mentions “Russians”.

According to two sources, Manafort returned to the embassy in 2015. He paid another visit in spring 2016, turning up alone, around the time Trump named him as his convention manager. The visit is tentatively dated to March.

Quote

Manafort’s 2016 visit to Assange lasted about 40 minutes, one source said, adding that the American was casually dressed when he exited the embassy, wearing sandy-coloured chinos, a cardigan and a light-coloured shirt.

Visitors normally register with embassy security guards and show their passports. Sources in Ecuador, however, say Manafort was not logged.

Embassy staff were aware only later of the potential significance of Manafort’s visit and his political role with Trump, it is understood.

 

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Biff Tannen

Biff Tannen 45477

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16 minutes ago, Captainant said:

WikiLeaks has been described by Trump's own CIA director as a "hostile intelligence agency" and is known to have been a front for the Russians. Trump's own campaign chair going to the Ecuadorian embassy without being logged days before trump started talking about how Hillary's emails were gonna come out isn't the least bit damning for you? 

Especially after he's been allegedly lying to Mueller. 

I get that in a vacuum, any one of these things isn't a big deal, but the body of evidence is growing more and more difficult to ignore. Even for the willfully ignorant. 

Yes, I'm aware of all of that.  I'm not the least bit surprised by that article, hence my confusion at the "this is a bit much" comment.  That's the straw that broke the camel's back for that poster?  Not the 2+ years of completely obvious criminal behavior and cover ups by this clown show?  

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atomheartbevo

atomheartbevo 89362

Posted
Posted
5 minutes ago, Native Horn said:

Is it time to start making popcorn?  I'm hungry.

Hope you have a good metabolism or exercise regimen.  The amount of stupidity coming from the people who surround Trump is breathtaking, and when Mueller’s stuff starts being released in full, there will be a lot of popcorn consumed .  

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Red Five

Red Five 40593

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Posted
Hmm.
 
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/nov/27/manafort-held-secret-talks-with-assange-in-ecuadorian-embassy
 
Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort held secret talks with Julian Assange inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London, and visited around the time he joined Trump’s campaign, the Guardian has been told.
Sources have said Manafort went to see Assange in 2013, 2015 and in spring 2016 – during the period when he was made a key figure in Trump’s push for the White House.
It is unclear why Manafort wanted to see Assange and what was discussed. But the last meeting is likely to come under scrutiny and could interest Robert Mueller, the special prosecutor who is investigating alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
A well-placed source has told the Guardian that Manafort went to see Assange around March 2016. Months later WikiLeaks released a stash of Democratic emails stolen by Russian intelligence officers.
Manafort, 69, denies involvement in the hack and says the claim is “100% false”. His lawyers declined to answer the Guardian’s questions about the visits.
Manafort’s first visit to the embassy took place a year after Assange sought asylum inside, two sources said.
A separate internal document written by Ecuador’s Senain intelligence agency and seen by the Guardian lists “Paul Manaford [sic]” as one of several well-known guests. It also mentions “Russians”.
According to two sources, Manafort returned to the embassy in 2015. He paid another visit in spring 2016, turning up alone, around the time Trump named him as his convention manager. The visit is tentatively dated to March.
Manafort’s 2016 visit to Assange lasted about 40 minutes, one source said, adding that the American was casually dressed when he exited the embassy, wearing sandy-coloured chinos, a cardigan and a light-coloured shirt.
Visitors normally register with embassy security guards and show their passports. Sources in Ecuador, however, say Manafort was not logged.
Embassy staff were aware only later of the potential significance of Manafort’s visit and his political role with Trump, it is understood.
 

Random people.
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hayden_horn

hayden_horn 11360

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, Biff Tannen said:

Yes, I'm aware of all of that.  I'm not the least bit surprised by that article, hence my confusion at the "this is a bit much" comment.  That's the straw that broke the camel's back for that poster?  Not the 2+ years of completely obvious criminal behavior and cover ups by this clown show?  

make no mistake, @Pig Bellmont absolutely thinks that the administration is a clown show full of criminals.

i'm not sure why he thinks that article is a bit much, but he definitely isn't carrying any water for anybody.

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Kringelbert Fishtybuns

Kringelbert Fishtybuns 943

Posted
Posted (edited)
6 minutes ago, Biff Tannen said:

Yes, I'm aware of all of that.  I'm not the least bit surprised by that article, hence my confusion at the "this is a bit much" comment.  That's the straw that broke the camel's back for that poster?  Not the 2+ years of completely obvious criminal behavior and cover ups by this clown show?  

I’m not surprised either and don’t speak for anyone else, but this wasn’t some sort of hidden electronic communication/messaging.  He went in through the fucking front door.

Edited by Kringelbert Fishtybuns
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Anastasis

Anastasis 23375

Posted
Posted (edited)

Related article from earlier in the year, shares an author. The Ecuadorian logs should be able to confirm or refute Manafort's visits. The IC probably already has the logs. 

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/jun/19/angry-julian-assange-starts-fifth-year-living-in-ecuadors-london-embassy

Quote

The Ecuadorian government has carried out a multimillion-dollar surveillance operation designed to protect and support Julian Assange during his six years of political asylum in the country’s embassy in London, according to documents seen by the Guardian.

 

The surveillance operation

 

In 2012, Ecuador’s intelligence agency hired an international security company to establish the programme for a monthly cost of $55,000 (£40,000), which was paid from a “special expenses” budget.

The documents describe how the company’s secret agents slept 100 metres (330ft) away from the embassy in a modest basement flat costing £2,800 a month, in one of the most expensive parts of London.

From a control room inside the Ecuadorian embassy, the security team oversaw Assange’s contacts.

His guests went through a security check upon arrival, handing over their passports and mobile phones. The operatives recorded each guest’s passport number and nationality, as well as the purpose of their visit, building up a comprehensive log of everyone Assange met during his stay. According to the documents, the security company sent the confidential list of Assange’s visitors to Ecuador’s government.

The logs are likely to be of interest to Robert Mueller, the special counsel investigating allegations that Russia helped Donald Trump win the 2016 US presidential election. The FBI has interviewed at least one person involved in “Operation Guest ”, which later became known as “Operation Hotel”, it is understood.

Some of Assange’s “social” visits were from famous names including Pamela Anderson and Vivienne Westwood, as well as the WikiLeaks staff member Sarah Harrison .

There were also “extraordinary reports” that included daily logs of Assange’s activities within the embassy, noting his general mood.

Activities outside the embassy were also monitored and recorded. One report included photographs of anti-Assange protesters with signs that read “We want you out of our embassy”. It was even noted when a packet of sweets was thrown on to the balcony – seemingly a present for Assange.

 

p-1.jpg

 

p-2.jpg

 

sweets.jpg

 

girl.jpg

Surveillance reports included photographs of protesters, sweets thrown on to Assange's balcony and an American superfan who spent two days outside the embassy

Inside the embassy

This level of scrutiny came after the security company installed CCTV cameras in the embassy’s lobby and a conference room, and on the balcony.

Initially, Assange slept in a narrow room next to the balcony, but he later came to take up more than one-third of the embassy’s ground-floor space and sleep in a larger back room.

Assange’s realm was home to WikiLeaks and its computers, and not covered by CCTV. It was off limits to diplomats, with access controlled by door codes.

This surveillance did not come cheap

According to documents seen by the Guardian, the Ecuadorian intelligence agency spent at least $5m on the surveillance operation.

The agency’s expense reports alarmed the Ecuadorian financial controller, who asked how more than $400,000 could have been spent in the first five months of the operation without a single receipt.

In March, the intelligence agency was shut down by Ecuador’s president, Lenín Moreno, who described Assange’s continuing presence as an “inherited problem”.

That same month, embassy staff cut off his internet access.

Ecuadorian government sources say Quito is considering a plan for where Assange might go next, making his future more uncertain than ever.

Edited by Anastasis
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Anastasis

Anastasis 23375

Posted
Posted
6 minutes ago, Kringelbert Fishtybuns said:

I’m not surprised either and don’t speak for anyone else, but this wasn’t some sort of hidden electronic communication/messaging.  He went in through the fucking front door.

UK has people monitoring the embassy. If Manafort walked through the door, they know it. And the US IC therefore knows it. 

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Captainant

Captainant 27311

Posted
Posted

I am eager to see what the sentencing process kicks up. If manafort violated his plea deal this is an interesting opportunity to introduce new facts into the case as hard facts that trump cannot argue - IE - correspondence with the trump admin, new lies about his time with the trump campaign, etc. No idea what is coming out but it's gonna fundamentally shake up our understanding of what's going on

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kevwun

kevwun 15595

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Posted (edited)

Mueller let Manafort believe he was pulling a fast one while he fed incorrect information about the investigation to Trump.  Then Donald's lawyers lied on the questionnaire because they had faulty info about what Mueller actually knew.

Edited by kevwun
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Pig Bellmont

Pig Bellmont 8679

Posted
Posted
36 minutes ago, hayden_horn said:

make no mistake, @Pig Bellmont absolutely thinks that the administration is a clown show full of criminals.

i'm not sure why he thinks that article is a bit much, but he definitely isn't carrying any water for anybody.

Exactly. How much more obvious can you get than the President’s campaign manager meeting in person with the Russian military’s propaganda representative? This isn’t DMs between Roger Stone but face to face coordination. I mean they all might as well have been wearing “I’m actively supporting and participating in a hostile foreign nation’s disinformation campaign” t shirts. 

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BrickHorn

BrickHorn 18176

Posted
Posted (edited)
4 minutes ago, Pig Bellmont said:

I mean they all might as well have been wearing “I’m actively supporting and participating in a hostile foreign nation’s disinformation campaign” t shirts. 

“I’m with Putin ———>”

Edited by BrickHorn
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Kringelbert Fishtybuns

Kringelbert Fishtybuns 943

Posted
Posted
13 minutes ago, Anastasis said:

UK has people monitoring the embassy. If Manafort walked through the door, they know it. And the US IC therefore knows it. 

I get it.  I have been keeping up with things to some extent.  But sometimes when you slow down and think about it again, the weight of the asininity sink in.  I was just trying to say that if the dude while on the staff of a presidential candidate strolled into a foreign embassy in a foriegn country to meet an enemy of the state in broad daylight through the front door wearing chinos.....well that is a bit much - right?

Manafort wouldn’t be caught dead in chinos.

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jimmyjazz

jimmyjazz 45513

Posted
Posted

I haven't pieced the timeline together yet -- wasn't Manafort only Trump's campaign manager from June to August 2016?  Does any of this cross into that timeframe?

Not that it absolves anybody but it would be spun as less important.  It does appear that he "joined" the campaign in March 2016, whatever that means.

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