The Robert Mueller Investigation

[Longhorn_Fan68 33825]

Well, except for the part where Hillary nearly twice as much money as Teh Donald and took 3x the outside contributions and Teh Donald self-funded nearly a third of his campaign.  https://www.opensecrets.org/pres16
 
Plus, Citizens United, while bad, only trashed a campaign finance limitation that was less than 10 years old.  More than a radical change to campaign finance law, it sort of unleashed the status quo and turbocharged it.
 
I'm all for trashing Citizens United, but it had almost nothing to do with the Dotard.

They were both super shitty. Can we all just agree on that and move on? I'm about as socially liberal as they get and I think that woman is terrible. I'm not party over country. I just want sanity and a modicum of fair representation restored. Citizens United is a fucking travesty for our democracy/republic. I wish we could all agree in that.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

[Jive Turkey 12562]

I saw Jeffress at Starbucks the other day. /csb 

[TornACL 7673]

1 hour ago, bolverk said:

He, and hypocrites like him, is the reason that I began to question my Southern Baptist upbringing. That, of course, led me to question the entire message of Christ, as well as my belief in God.

I don't know about God, but the message of Christ, as told by humans now long gone, is mostly pretty cool. 

The problem is, as has been the case for centuries, pieces of shit have distorted that message to justify countless unspeakable acts. 

That's why, for me personally, I believe in being kind and compassionate to people, and fuck religion. 

[Hugo Stiglitz 23356]

The teachings of Jesus Christ is the only thing of value in Christianity in my opinion, the rest is window dressing.  If everyone lived up to his philosophy, the world would be a much better place.

 

[yaqdum 182]

23 minutes ago, WhatTheBuck said:

I'm encouraged by the fact that the percentage of Americans who consider themselves religious is on the decline. That's been a trend for a while; we still lag far behind Europe. But a lot of young people have already been indoctrinated and are trapped in their belief system.  They're metaphorically lost souls. 

I don't know if the Trump presidency will have much of an impact on the trend. We will probably not live to see the day when the religious landscape in this country is significantly different than it is right now. That's a generational process too. 

i don't think the presidency is relevant.  i think the behavior of religious people during this crisis is what may have impact going forward.  it would be hard to characterize that behavior as pro-american.  anti-american at the worst and laissez faire at the best might be the ticket there.  if these youngsters coming up maintain the nascent civic interest they seem to be showing, i have to think the worthless posture of the church here is going to cut pretty deep among the leaders of that group.  maybe.

[JimmyJames 12271]

Jesus was a good dude. Wish our current Christian leaders would actually follow his example.

But instead their unwavering support of president shitstain will hasten most of the demise of organized religion in this country. I think that’s a bad thing but they’ve made their choice. Time for everyone to join The whiskeypalian church. 

[yaqdum 182]

6 minutes ago, Hugo Stiglitz said:

The teachings of Jesus Christ is the only thing of value in Christianity in my opinion, the rest is window dressing.  If everyone lived up to his philosophy, the world would be a much better place.

 

oh,  absolutely.  i see two kinds of religion today.  one formal and the other informal and personal.  i'm really getting the impression that only one of those is really meaningful.

[RayDog 682]

11 minutes ago, yaqdum said:

oh,  absolutely.  i see two kinds of religion today.  one formal and the other informal and personal.  i'm really getting the impression that only one of those is really meaningful.

The real answer is neither.

[XYZ 2154]

14 minutes ago, RayDog said:

The real answer is neither.

Maybe to you.

[Chad Fuck 17503]

11 hours ago, yaqdum said:

oh,  absolutely.  i see two kinds of religion today.  one formal for public display, and the other informal and personal.  i'm really getting the impression that only one of those is really meaningful.

fify.

[longhorndude 146]

I saw Jeffress at Starbucks the other day. /csb 

This story would be a lot cooler if the rest of the sentence was “and I punched him in the face”

[atomheartbevo 89362]

17 minutes ago, longhorndude said:

 

This story would be a lot cooler if the rest of the sentence was “and I punched him in the face”

 

No, it would be a lot cooler if it discussed how wide his bathroom stance was. 

[yaqdum 182]

36 minutes ago, Chad Fuck said:

fify.

can't disagree with that.

[TwiceHorn 31184]

13 hours ago, Longhorn_Fan68 said:

They were both super shitty. Can we all just agree on that and move on? I'm about as socially liberal as they get and I think that woman is terrible. I'm not party over country. I just want sanity and a modicum of fair representation restored. Citizens United is a fucking travesty for our democracy/republic. I wish we could all agree in that.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk
 

Oh indeed.  We do agree.

[Hugo Stiglitz 23356]

Two senior Trump administration officials were once registered as lobbyists for an investment company controlled by a Soviet-born industrialist who made billions doing business with newly sanctioned Russian oligarchs.

 

Makan Delrahim is now the assistant attorney general for the Antitrust Division in the Department of Justice, after rising from his original appointment as deputy White House counsel and deputy assistant to the president. David Bernhardt is the No. 2 official in Trump’s Department of the Interior. 

Both men registered as lobbyists in 2011 and 2012 for Access Industries, a holding company controlled by billionaire Leonard Blavatnik, according to public filings reviewed by VICE News. And though they are far from the only D.C. lobbyists to get plum jobs in the Trump administration, the connection to Blavatnik, long in business with billionaire associates of Russian President Vladimir Putin, reveals yet another link between Russia and senior Trump officials.

Blavatnik, 60, is a naturalized dual U.S.-U.K. citizen who owns Warner Music Group. He’s also a longtime donor to both political parties. He gave at least $314,800 in the 2014 midterms, with a slim majority going to the Democratic side. But Blavatnik dramatically ramped up his donations to Republican causes prior to the 2016 U.S. election, according to a review of public filings carried out by Ruth May, a professor at the University of Dallas.

The U.K.-based billionaire and his companies gave a minimum of $5.55 million to Republican groups during the 2016 election season, according to May. “Blavatnik’s pattern of political donations changed abruptly starting in the 2015-2016 election cycle,” May told VICE News. “In prior cycles, his campaign donations totaled approximately $300,000, and they were scattered pretty evenly across 30 to 40 candidates in both parties.”

Although he didn’t donate directly to Trump’s campaign, after Trump won, Access Industries gave another $1 million to the Presidential Inaugural Committee. And according to the Wall Street Journal, Blavatnik gave $12,700 in April 2017 to a Republican National Committee fund that was used to help pay for the team of private attorneys representing Trump in the probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election. He’d given the RNC legal fund $100,000 in 2016, the Journal said.

Blavatnik built his fortune in Russia before branding himself as an American-British philanthropist. As an American owner of a U.S.-based company, Blavatnik can legally donate to U.S. political causes. Foreign contributions, however, are forbidden by law. 

Professor May, who’s been tracking Blavatnik’s political donations since last year, says the billionaire’s donations and business connections to Russia deserve more scrutiny.

“Blavatnik’s ties to members of Putin’s closest inner circle should force us to examine Russia’s ability to influence our elections and our democratic institutions, well beyond Trump and Facebook,” May said. “There are holes in our country’s firewall and they aren’t on the Internet.”

Neither Delharim nor Bernhardt, who registered to lobby for Blavatnik and Access Industries in the past, currently has a job with direct oversight of issues related to the Russian economy or the Russia probe. But Delharim might have been involved when he was in the White House counsel's office, a position he left in September for the DOJ.

 

[Hugo Stiglitz 23356]

 

 

[Pods 7522]

Trump pardoning Libby for obstruction and perjury sends a pretty clear message to the current crop of folks being questioned by Mueller and Congress. 

[Hugo Stiglitz 23356]

 

[Mojo Hand 4580]

[DixonHur 11074]

35 minutes ago, Pods said:

Trump pardoning Libby for obstruction and perjury sends a pretty clear message to the current crop of folks being questioned by Mueller and Congress. 

Especially since he specifically called out unfair treatment by the special council as the reason...he might as well have winked when he did so

[DDD Dad 14167]

Counsel

[Pods 7522]

 

 

Acosta also fucked that up. Neither one of them is joining Trump's legal team. They are conflicted already by advising Bannon, Priebus and Don McGahn. They cannot advise Trump as well, so Joe diGenova has been advising him through the TV. 

Edited April 13, 2018 by Pods

[WhatTheBuck 28700]

56 minutes ago, Pods said:

Trump pardoning Libby for obstruction and perjury sends a pretty clear message to the current crop of folks being questioned by Mueller and Congress. 

'We all know I'm guilty as fuck. We're all in this together. Cover for me and I'll have your back.'

[retread 2951]

 

[Tuco 5076]

 

 

 

 

Toensing is also the attorney for Sam Clovis and for the guy involved in the uranium trucking kickback deal, which was used to attack McCabe, Mueller, and, of course, Clinton.

 

[Mojo Hand 4580]

With the news that Mueller can prove that Cohen lied about going to Prague, the odds have shot way up on proving Trump conspired with Russia.  I don't know if Trump did it, but if he did, I'm pretty sure now that it will come out.

[Hugo Stiglitz 23356]

Odds of Mueller indictments dropping over the few weeks just shot up astronmically.

Since January I speculated Mueller would sit on any indictments until he interviewed Trump or exhausted that avenue.  The Mueller interview isn’t going to happen now and I don’t expect Mueller to subpoena Trump to a grand jury just for Trump to fight in the courts for months.

It looks like this was the week designed to rattle Trump enough to get him to shit or get off the pot.

No matter what Trump did this week, the indictments will be rolling out in the near future. And by near future, I mean before June.

There are a lot of aspects of the investigation that are new to us but the FBI has been all over for a year.  

As far as Congress and impeachment, who the fuck knows. 

 

[TwiceHorn 31184]

Something not made entirely clear is that Cohen has filed a TRO against further examination of search warrant materials by the FBI/USAO.  The government's response is here.

  It makes it fairly clear that Mueller sees the Cohen investigation as outside his mandate, and possibly the subject of an ongoing investigation in the SDNY.  So, this was not solely the result of the need for a separate review by someone other than the OSC.  The OSC's involvement in the Cohen case appears to be ended.

 

The Cohen investigation may lead to dirt on Trump.  However, all objective signs indicate that it is independently criminal conduct by Cohen.

 

Edited April 14, 2018 by TwiceHorn

[Tuco 5076]

 
The Cohen investigation may lead to dirt on Trump.  However, all objective signs indicate that it is independently criminal conduct by Cohen.
 

I suggested something similar. But... it shows that Mueller is far enough up Trump’s ass that he even has evidence on illegal shit that trumps personal, and practically exclusive, lawyer is doing. Not just rumors, but enough evidence to get a search warrant.

[triplehorn 2664]

15 hours ago, TwiceHorn said:

Something not made entirely clear is that Cohen has filed a TRO against further examination of search warrant materials by the FBI/USAO.  The government's response is here.

  It makes it fairly clear that Mueller sees the Cohen investigation as outside his mandate, and possibly the subject of an ongoing investigation in the SDNY.  So, this was not solely the result of the need for a separate review by someone other than the OSC.  The OSC's involvement in the Cohen case appears to be ended.

 

Re that TRO, U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood ordered Cohen to produce a client list with evidence by Monday

 

Quote

NEW YORK — Lawyers for President Donald Trump and his longtime personal attorney Michael Cohen went to court Friday trying to stop federal prosecutors from getting at private material — but wound up with a judge ordering them to disclose Cohen’s client list in public.

U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood on Friday ordered attorneys for Cohen to hand over a list of Cohen’s law clients and proof of their relationship by 10 a.m. Monday, so she can decide whether materials seized from Cohen’s office by federal law enforcement agents last week should be protected by attorney-client privilege.

That list will be a public record, Wood said, because the identities of an attorney’s clients are not subject to attorney-client privilege unless the mere name itself would reveal the kind of advice sought or given.

Wood’s order raises the possibility of further embarrassing disclosures involving Cohen, who is already at the center of a legal dispute involving adult-film actress Stormy Daniels, who is suing the president to void a nondisclosure agreement negotiated by Cohen concerning a sexual encounter Daniels says she had with Trump in 2006.

 

popcorn gif

[TwiceHorn 31184]

I'm not sure Cohen's TRO suit is going to get anywhere, which wasn't the point of the post.  However, it appears that a central allegation by the government in support of the warrant is that Cohen has few or no clients other than Trump and Trumpco, so there is minimal privileged info in his office.  Will be interesting to see if that's true, and whether the government outkicked its coverage on any of the other allegations in support of the warrant.

 

While it's all good fun to see how Trump is gonna get got, those of us interested in privacy against government intrusion should be concerned with the Cohen warrant(s) and how this plays out.

 

Oh, and lawyers, yet another good reason to have engagement letters with your clients.

Edited April 14, 2018 by TwiceHorn

[Hugo Stiglitz 23356]

 

[David Dennison 18608]

Cohen is digging in on the Prague denial. 

[Mojo Hand 4580]

29 minutes ago, Hugo Stiglitz said:

 

But there's nothing we yet know of tying Cohen to a meeting with anyone in particular, right?   We just know Mueller can place Cohen in Prague and that Cohen is lying about that. 

[Degenerate Gardner 4081]

If Nikulin ends up tying Cohen and Kosachev and reveals collusion, how did Paul Ryan manage to get on the right side of things by helping to perfect (or at least not sabotage) Nikulin's extradition to the US?  Not long after which Ryan announced he won't seek re-election. 

[Hugo Stiglitz 23356]

34 minutes ago, Mojo Hand said:

But there's nothing we yet know of tying Cohen to a meeting with anyone in particular, right?   We just know Mueller can place Cohen in Prague and that Cohen is lying about that. 

Mueller probably knows everything.  It’s what he can prove that’s the real challenge.

[Chooky 13292]

The slightest proof of communication between Kosachev and Cohen would cause an orange skid mark.

[JimmyJames 12271]

18 minutes ago, Degenerate Gardner said:

If Nikulin ends up tying Cohen and Kosachev and reveals collusion, how did Paul Ryan manage to get on the right side of things by helping to perfect (or at least not sabotage) Nikulin's extradition to the US?  Not long after which Ryan announced he won't seek re-election. 

Maybe Ryan decided he wanted to do at least one good thing as speaker, as opposed to zero.

The Russians tried mightily to prevent Mr Nikulins extradition to America and badly wanted him extradited to Russia instead for allegedly stealing about 2k worth of stuff after they found out the Americans wanted him. 

Gee, I wonder what that means? 

Edited April 14, 2018 by JimmyJames

[SubliminalHorn 6648]

24 minutes ago, Degenerate Gardner said:

If Nikulin ends up tying Cohen and Kosachev and reveals collusion, how did Paul Ryan manage to get on the right side of things by helping to perfect (or at least not sabotage) Nikulin's extradition to the US?  Not long after which Ryan announced he won't seek re-election. 

It’s getting curiouser and curiouser

[JimmyJames 12271]

So from reading about this issue I learned that one of the sites this Nikulin dude hacked was formspring which apparently the great Anthony Weiner used to use to send lewd messages. The Weiners name on that site?

Carlos Danger. 

Classic. That will now be my alternate name on websites from this point forward. 

Edited April 14, 2018 by JimmyJames

[Hugo Stiglitz 23356]

1 hour ago, Mojo Hand said:

But there's nothing we yet know of tying Cohen to a meeting with anyone in particular, right?   We just know Mueller can place Cohen in Prague and that Cohen is lying about that. 

Here’s the pages from the Dossier involving Cohen.  There are several redactions.

 

Edited April 14, 2018 by Hugo Stiglitz

[Anastasis 23375]

I must have missed something.  When did we establish that Mueller has placed Cohen in Prague?

[Mdhorn 5908]

and Cohen is another coffee boy it seems....https://www.yahoo.com/news/white-house-spokeswoman-throws-michael-cohen-taxi-204026300.html

 

[Hugo Stiglitz 23356]

5 minutes ago, Anastasis said:

I must have missed something.  When did we establish that Mueller has placed Cohen in Prague?

Yesterday 

[Anastasis 23375]

Just now, Hugo Stiglitz said:

Yesterday 

I see it now, a McClatchy DC piece citing sources inside Mueller's team. 

[Hugo Stiglitz 23356]

 

[retread 2951]

I like her fire

[JimmyJames 12271]

Agent orange has the power to fire Rosenstein. But if has no reason to do so that’s damning of obstruction. Which should lead to impeachment. Whether or not it will is of course an open question.

[SubliminalHorn 6648]

It’s all coming to a head. I sure hope the real America makes a stand.  

[Judge Roybeanbag 11796]

This is getting good