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The Robert Mueller Investigation

Hugo Stiglitz

By Hugo Stiglitz
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Goredho
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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
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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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Hugo Stiglitz

Hugo Stiglitz 23356

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It’s hard to imagine the Mueller Report is way worse for Trump than what is in the Dossier, but it arguably is. 

Other than the alleged grand conspiracy which couldn’t be proven beyond a reasonable doubt, the Dossier never really implicated Trump himself, except on him having some tangential knowledge of crimes and conspiracies going on around him.  Some of which the Mueller report indicates he did know about. 

The Mueller Report outlines Trump himself committing multiple felonies related to obstruction of justice including pressuring officials to conspire to obstruct justice and then lie about it afterwards.  

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triplehorn

triplehorn 2664

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Posted
22 minutes ago, Hugo Stiglitz said:

It’s hard to imagine the Mueller Report is way worse for Trump than what is in the Dossier, but it arguably is. 

Other than the alleged grand conspiracy which couldn’t be proven beyond a reasonable doubt, the Dossier never really implicated Trump himself, except on him having some tangential knowledge of crimes and conspiracies going on around him.  Some of which the Mueller report indicates he did know about. 

The Mueller Report outlines Trump himself committing multiple felonies related to obstruction of justice including pressuring officials to conspire to obstruct justice and then lie about it afterwards.  

Don’t know about a ‘grand conspiracy.’  The associations between Trump/Trump campaign and various arms of the Kremlin is a mosaic of activity.  Mueller didn’t make a narrow conspiracy charge on the election attack, but delineating other Trump crimes within the mosaic still looms large, and they are potentially equally as grand.

But re the election attack, Trump aiding and abetting the RU operation runs through Roger Stone, trial pending.  That trial next Fall is a huge hot button for Donald.

While Trump should/could have been impeached long ago, there is plenty to keep this at a simmer as the House lays the foundation to run through the courts, and then push forward with impeachment at a time when Donald will most need for the public to have moved on.

What ties the Trump/Russia mosaic together is Trump’s serial obstruction.  Right now Barr’s credibility as AG and personal reputation are going up in flames.  Also right now Mueller is positioning to speak to the public through Congress about Trump obstruction in the report.  Those half dozen open and shut examples of Trump obstruction of justice will rise to the fore.  

Impeaching now with a complicit Senate to shut it down would allow time for the discourse to change.  It would also stand to embolden Trump to use pardons a little down the road.  Impeachment may or may not come, but either outcome is better than it failing and being forgotten.   Keep building.

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Mdhorn

Mdhorn 5910

Posted
Posted
6 hours ago, jimmyjazz said:

This needs to be highlighted for all the Trumpkins:  the DOJ certainly seems to believe it's possible to obstruct justice even when no crime is uncovered.  Williams Barr's DOJ.  The guy who says there can't be obstruction without a crime.

Trumpkins, any thoughts?

When did they start thinking?  They just get their info from Fox and Trump now.  You and your fancy elitist edumacation.

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Mdhorn

Mdhorn 5910

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5 hours ago, JimmyJames said:

Having a corrupt AG running interference and misrepresenting the findings of the report helped. So far the obstruction is working. So far. Trump aims to keep it that way by keeping mueller off the tv where even morons like yourself can understand. Not gonna work. He’ll testify. 

Why is trump so afraid? 

Trump would rather hear Barr interpret Mueller's report than Mueller discuss his own findings.  Gee, wonder who will do it better?   

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Zavala

Zavala 1384

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Walls closing in talk not going away!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2018/08/30/the-walls-are-closing-in-and-trumps-lawyers-know-it/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.2cc121d2325f

https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-robert-mueller-investigation-walls-closing-cpac-cnn-david-gergen-1350331

https://www-m.cnn.com/2018/12/19/opinions/walls-closing-in-on-trump-opinion-ghitis/index.html

Edited by Zavala
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David Dennison

David Dennison 18646

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Just now, Zavala said:

Walls closing in talk not going away!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2018/08/30/the-walls-are-closing-in-and-trumps-lawyers-know-it/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.2cc121d2325f

https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-robert-mueller-investigation-walls-closing-cpac-cnn-david-gergen-1350331

https://www-m.cnn.com/2018/12/19/opinions/walls-closing-in-on-trump-opinion-ghitis/index.html?r=https%3A%2F%2Fdonsurber.blogspot.com%2F2019%2F05%2Fthe-walls-are-closing-in-on-obamas-spies.html%3Fspref%3Dtw%26m%3D1

This will be going on until he's no longer president, so you might as well get used to it.

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Mdhorn

Mdhorn 5910

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, David Dennison said:

This will be going on until he's no longer president, so you might as well get used to it.

He'll continue to drive by insult his way to clearing Trump. He's driving, Chrispy's got shotgun and the rest of the clown car lunatics are wherever they fit.  Not stopping anything but whatevs.  

The new conservatism now supports an America of multiple deferments and bankruptcies.  Seems like just yesterday Commie was a bad word.   

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zork

zork 629

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Posted

hmmm:

Quote

Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s March “Report on the Investigation into Russian Interference in the 2016 Presidential Election” contains a glaring omission: Not once in the 448-page tome does Mueller mention an investigation into whether Russia interfered with the U.S. presidential election by feeding dossier author Christopher Steele misinformation.

But Mueller also did not charge Steele with lying to the FBI, or refer a criminal case against Steele to federal prosecutors, as he did when the special counsel uncovered evidence of criminal misconduct unrelated to the 2016 election. Given Mueller’s conclusion that no one connected to the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to interfere with the election, one of those two scenarios must be true—either Russia fed Steele disinformation or Steele lied to the FBI about his Russian sources.

Steele Openly Said He Got Info from Russians

 

The Steele dossier, which consisted of a series of memorandum authored by the former MI6 spy, detailed intel purportedly provided by a variety of Vladimir Putin-connected sources. For instance, Steele identified Source A as “a senior Russian Foreign Ministry figure” who “confided that the Kremlin had been feeding Trump and his team valuable intelligence on his opponents, including Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.”

Other supposed sources identified in the dossier included: Source B, identified as “a former top-level Russian intelligence officer still active inside the Kremlin”; Source C, a “Senior Russian Financial Officer”; and Source G, “a Senior Kremlin Official.” Steele also described a smattering of unlettered sources as a FSB Cyber Operative; a former Senior Intelligence Officer; a Senior Government Figure; “well-placed and established Kremlin source 1”; “well-placed and established Kremlin source 2”; a Kremlin official involved in U.S. relations; a Senior Russian leadership figure; and a Kremlin insider with direct access to leadership.

Steele first provided a summary of the Kremlin-supplied “intel” on Trump to the FBI in June or July 2016, when he met with his reputed handler, Rome-based FBI agent Mike Gaeta. In September 2016, Gaeta provided the dossier to agents working on the Russia collusion investigation at the FBI headquarters in Washington D.C.

The following month, the U.S. Department of Justice included details from the dossier in an application submitted to the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court and obtained a court order to surveil former Trump campaign advisor Carter Page. That FISA court order gave the Obama administration and career DOJ and FBI agents accessto Page’s communications with Trump campaign officials prior to Page’s departure.

...

 

https://thefederalist.com/2019/05/06/major-report-omission-shows-mueller-either-incompetent-political-hack/

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Thetexashammer

Thetexashammer 1062

Posted
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29 minutes ago, Mdhorn said:

He'll continue to drive by insult his way to clearing Trump. He's driving, Chrispy's got shotgun and the rest of the clown car lunatics are wherever they fit.  Not stopping anything but whatevs.  

The new conservatism now supports an America of multiple deferments and bankruptcies.  Seems like just yesterday Commie was a bad word.   

You sound grumpy. I think you need a Trumpy Bear to cuddle with and make you feel better.

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Anastasis

Anastasis 23390

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2 hours ago, Hugo Stiglitz said:

It’s hard to imagine the Mueller Report is way worse for Trump than what is in the Dossier, but it arguably is. 

 Other than the alleged grand conspiracy which couldn’t be proven beyond a reasonable doubt, the Dossier never really implicated Trump himself...

Jesus.  Other than than that, how was the play, Mrs. Lincoln. Since you bring up the Dossier again Hugo, let's step back a couple pages and address some of the [totallycriticallythinkingnormalbrain] takes wrt the Dossier. Let's actually take a detailed look at this.  My comments are in bold. When no comment really necessary, I just bold italicize the WaPo text. 

On 5/4/2019 at 12:18 AM, suddenly shaggy said:

Now let's look at the rest of it. This article was posted on the last page, but y'all clearly didn't read it. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/04/24/what-steele-dossier-said-vs-what-mueller-report-said/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.4d37e7a6153e

What the Steele dossier said vs. what the Mueller report said

Glenn Kessler

...

Here’s a guide to how elements of the dossier match up with the Mueller report, along with our analysis.

This analysis is shit.  It wouldn't pass peer review in any self-respecting journal. I would be embarrassed to submit this article.  

“Russian regime has been cultivating, supporting and assisting TRUMP for at least 5 years. Aim, endorsed by PUTIN, has been to encourage splits and divisions in western alliance.” 

— Steele memo 80, dated June 20, 2016

The Mueller report documents extensive Russian efforts to ensure Trump’s victory, through hacking operations and social media efforts. Mueller also details Trump’s business interests in Russia, especially pursuit of a Trump Tower project in Moscow.

Nothing in this memo details hacking or social media operations by Russia.  What this memo does discuss is "the Kremlin had been feeding Trump and his team valuable intelligence on his opponents, including clinton, for several years." It discusses a "dossier of compromising material on Clinton" comprising "bugged conversations she had on various visits to Russia and intercepted phone calls"..."and focused on things that she had said which contradicted her current position on various issues". None of these aspects are supported by Mueller's findings. Memo 80 fails on virtually every single claim in the "Detail" section when examined specifically.

When you actually reference the Dossier to contemporaneous lay press reporting, the reality is that the dossier was very good and accurate at describing information that was already in the public sphere.  It does very poorly when you assess it's ability to actually provide novel forward looking insights from Steele's extensive network of Russian resources.  As described below by the Post...

Talks on the project continued even as Trump pursued the presidency — and Trump aide Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to misleading Congress about those efforts. But a case could also be made that the memo’s political analysis about Russia’s motivations might have been made by any close reader of the newspapers. By the time this memo was written, The Washington Post had already broken the news that Russia had hacked the Democratic National Committee.

“There were other aspects to TRUMP’s engagement with the Russian authorities. One which had borne fruit for them was to exploit personal obsessions and sexual perversion in order to obtain suitable ‘kompromat’ [compromising material] on him.” 

— Memo 80

We won’t get into the details, but the most salacious material in the dossier concerned allegations that Trump cavorted with sex workers in Moscow in 2013 — and that the Russians had tape of the incident. Mueller actually addresses this allegation in an intriguing footnote that called the claim “unverified” but suggested Trump had heard Russia might have such incriminating tapes.

“Comey’s briefing [to Trump] included the Steele reporting’s unverified allegation that the Russians had compromising tapes of the President involving conduct when he was a private citizen during a 2013 trip to Moscow for the Miss Universe Pageant,” the report said. “During the 2016 presidential campaign, a similar claim may have reached candidate Trump. On October 30, 2016, [Trump attorney] Michael Cohen received a text from Russian businessman Giorgi Rtskhiladze that said, ‘Stopped flow of tapes from Russia but not sure if there’s anything else. Just so you know … .’ Rtskhiladze said ‘tapes’ referred to compromising tapes of Trump rumored to be held by persons associated with the Russian real estate conglomerate Crocus Group, which had helped host the 2013 Miss Universe Pageant in Russia. Cohen said he spoke to Trump about the issue after receiving the texts from Rtskhiladze. Rtskhiladze said he was told the tapes were fake, but he did not communicate that to Cohen.”

Are we suppose to read this as Mueller confirmed the Pee Pee Tape?  Cause I think that we should mark this an another very specific claim by Steele that Mueller finds insufficient evidence to confirm. This is garbage. 

“Russia has extensive program of state-sponsored offensive cyberoperations.” 

— Memo 86, dated July 26, 2016

This was documented in the Mueller report, but it was also well known at the time Steele wrote this memo. The methods described in this document do not match up with the methods used by the Russians to obtain DNC and Clinton campaign emails during the 2016 campaign.

OK, not sure how WaPo is scoring this one.  Given that the methods described in the Dossier do not match to the methods described in Mueller report, I think scoring it as "non-specific information in line with general knowledge of Russian operations" is a generous assessment.  

 

“Further evidence of extensive conspiracy between campaign team and Kremlin, sanctioned at highest levels and involving Russian diplomatic staff based in the US. Agreed exchange of information established in both directions.” 

— Memo 95, undated, probably July

This memo makes the strongest suggestion of coordination and collusion — a “conspiracy” — between the Russian government and the Trump campaign. The memo claims an “agreed exchange of information in both directions,” with “Trump’s team using moles within the DNC and hackers in the US.” The memo further states that Putin was “motivated by fear and hatred of Hillary Clinton.”

The Mueller investigation did not find such a level of coordination. Instead, it suggests the Trump campaign was opportunistic about apparent assistance from Russia, but Mueller could not find evidence the conspiracy outlined in the memo existed.

Let's go ahead and accept the WaPo assessment.

Instead, the report described Russian contacts that “consisted of business connections, offers of assistance to the Campaign, invitations for candidate Trump and Putin to meet in person, invitations for Campaign officials and representatives of the Russian government to meet, and policy positions seeking improved U.S.-Russian relations.”

“Although the investigation established that the Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome, and that the Campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts, the investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities,” Mueller concluded.

 

“TRUMP associate admits Kremlin behind recent appearance of DNC e-mails on WikiLeaks, as means of maintaining plausible deniability.” 

— Memo 95

This is correct. Mueller concluded that Russia distributed hacked material through WikiLeaks, as well as fictitious online personas “DCLeaks” and “Guccifer 2.0.” The report noted: “The presidential campaign of Donald J. Trump showed interest in WikiLeaks’s releases of documents and welcomed their potential to damage candidate Clinton.” Large sections of the WikiLeaks discussion are redacted in the public version of the report, citing an ongoing investigation.

Maybe we note here that memo 95 is undated. This demonstrates the lack of consistent QC in Steele's reporting and report formulation. It does come however in order after a memo dated 26 July 2015 (2016/086) and before a memo tagged 2016/94 dated 19 July 2016 which actually comes after (at least in the Buzzfeed ordering of the file). Interesting as well that the numbering in the lower right hand corner is not present with this memo, but all the other pages in the released version. This could be the result of a number of issues as the files were passed around, and the FBI indicates that there were a few different versions of the Dossier in circulation. But this is precisely the type of shit that a fucking auditor like the OIG is going to zero in on when determining credibility of the work. 

Either way, if the memo came after the 86 memo it is penned after the wikileaks release, and after public speculation (and political speculation) had already arrived at the conclusions transmitted by Steele.  Once again, the primary aspects of the Dossier that check out are post-hoc assessments in the public sphere. In almost ever case where we can test Steele's novel assessments without the potential for an external publicly available source, they fail.  

“This [coordination] was managed on the TRUMP side by the Republican candidate’s campaign manager, Paul MANAFORT, who was using foreign policy advisor, Carter PAGE, and others as intermediaries. The two sides had a mutual interest in defeating Democratic presidential candidate Hillary CLINTON, whom President PUTIN apparently both hated and feared.” 

— Memo 95

The Mueller report does not show that Manafort used Trump foreign policy aide Carter Page as an intermediary with Russia before he was ousted from the campaign in August. Manafort had his own Russia-linked connections, as documented in the report.

“On August 2, 2016, Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort met in New York City with his long-time business associate Konstantin Kilimnik, who the FBI assesses to have ties to Russian intelligence,” the report said. “Kilimnik requested the meeting to deliver in person a peace plan for Ukraine that Manafort acknowledged to the Special Counsel’s Office was a ‘backdoor’ way for Russia to control part of eastern Ukraine; both men believed the plan would require candidate Trump’s assent to succeed (were he to be elected President). They also discussed the status of the Trump Campaign and Manafort’ s strategy for winning Democratic votes in Midwestern states. Months before that meeting, Manafort had caused internal polling data to be shared with Kilimnik, and the sharing continued for some period of time after their August meeting.”

Kilimnik has denied to The Washington Post that he has any ties to Russian intelligence.

The report says that Manafort lied to prosecutors about his dealings with Kilimnik, resulting in termination of his cooperation agreement. “The Office could not reliably determine Manafort’s purpose in sharing internal polling data with Kilimnik during the campaign period,” the report said, but added: “The investigation did not establish that Manafort otherwise coordinated with the Russian government on its election-interference efforts.”

Bold italicized 

“TRUMP advisor Carter PAGE holds secret meetings in Moscow with [Rosneft president] SECHIN and senior Kremlin Internal Affairs official, DIVYEKIN. SECHIN raises issues of future bilateral US-Russia energy co-operation and associated lifting of western sanctions against Russia over Ukraine.” 

— Memo 94, dated July 19, 2016

“In terms of the substance of their discussion SECHIN’s associate said that the Rosneft President was so keen to lift personal and corporate western sanctions imposed on the company, that he offered PAGE associates the brokerage of up to a 19 percent (privatized) stake in Rosneft in return. PAGE had expressed interest and confirmed that were TRUMP elected US president, then sanctions on Russia would be lifted.” 

— Memo 134, dated Oct. 18, 2016

The Mueller report does not confirm a meeting between Page, then a low-level campaign adviser, and the president of Rosneft. But Mueller did document a meeting between Page and a lower-level Rosneft official. The meeting included discussion of a possible sale of part of Rosneft, though apparently not in the context of a reward for lifting sanctions.

“Page said that, during his time in Moscow, he met with friends and associates he knew from when he lived in Russia, including Andrey Baranov, a former Gazprom employee who had become the head of investor relations at Rosneft, a Russian energy company,” the Mueller report said. “Page stated that he and Baranov talked about ‘immaterial non-public’ information. Page believed he and Baranov discussed Rosneft president Igor Sechin, and he thought Baranov might have mentioned the possibility of a sale of a stake in Rosneft in passing.”

The report stated that Page shook hands with Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich, who made statements to Page about working together in the future. Page wrote a memo to the campaign that Dvorkovich “expressed strong support for Mr. Trump,” as did other senior members of the Putin administration. But the report added: “The Office was unable to obtain additional evidence or testimony about who Page may have met or communicated with in Moscow; thus, Page’s activities in Russia — as described in his emails with the Campaign — were not fully explained.”

Bold italicized 

“Top level Russian official confirms current closeness of Alpha Group-PUTIN relationship. Significant favors continue to be done in both directions... and [Petr] AVEN still giving informal advice to PUTIN, especially on US.” 

— Memo 112, Sept. 14, 2016

This memo gets the essence of the relationship between Putin and Russia’s largest commercial bank correct. (The Cyrillic name can be translated as Alfa or Alpha in Latin script; the bank itself prefers Alfa.)

“Aven told the Office that he is one of approximately 50 wealthy Russian businessmen who regularly meet with Putin in the Kremlin; these 50 men are often referred to as ‘oligarchs,’ ” the Mueller report said. “Aven told the Office that he met on a quarterly basis with Putin, including in the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2016, shortly after the U.S. presidential election.” The report recounts how, at Putin’s direction, Aven sought to make contacts with the Trump transition team.

Bold italicized. Way to go Steele. 

“Two knowledgeable St Petersburg sources claim Republican candidate TRUMP has paid bribes and engaged in sexual activities there but key witnesses silenced and evidence hard to obtain.” 

— Memo 113, dated Sept. 14, 2016

The Mueller report does not describe any bribes paid by Trump. There is no indication Mueller investigated this allegation.

Bold italicized.

"The Kremlin had more intelligence on CLINTON and her campaign but he did not know the details or when or if it would be released.” 

— Memo 96, dated July 30, 2016 

I don't see Memo 96 dated 30 July 2016 in the version of the dossier i have in front of me.  It's memo 97. This memo relates that "an intelligence exchange had been running between them [Trump team and Kremlin] for at least 8 years."  

Mueller of course does not confirm this.

 

Note that Memo 100, dated 5 August 2016 is skipped in the Wapo asessment. This is kind of an inside baseball reporting of Kremlin machinations and shouldn't necessarily be addressed by Mueller, so OK.

 

Note that Memo 101, dated 10 August 2016 is also skipped. "No new leaks evisaged, as too politically risky, but rather further exploitation of material (Wikileaks) material already disseminated to exacterbate divisions." Oops. 

Kremlin engaged with several high profile US players, including STEIN, PAGE, and (former DIA Director Michael Flynn), and funding their recent visit to moscow. Stein and Flynn RT anniversary was 2015. Again, Steele pushing publicly available information as intelligence insights.

 

Memo 102 not mentioned. Nothing here confirmed by Mueller. 

Memo 105 not mentioned.Includes meeting of Putin and Yanukovych in Volgograd to discuss manafort. Maybe this can be confirmed, haven't really looked into it.  Discusses Manafort's ousting, Lewandoski hated Manafort, etc. Not exactly compelling insights outside the Putin Yank meeting. 

 

“Russians do have further kompromat on CLINTON (e-mails) and considering disseminating it after Duma (legislative elections) in late September.” 

— Memo 111, dated Sept. 14, 2016

These two memos accurately reported more Russian-obtained dirt on Clinton was coming.

Now contradicting previous reporting in Memo 101, a month earlier, that "No new leaks evisaged, as too politically risky". I guess advantage Steele? This is the closest thing approaching a forward looking prediction that can be tested. Given the fuzz around all the Clinton emails, the nonspecific parenthetical is not particularly compelling, but it is about the best that you get.   

On Oct. 7, The Post disclosed the “Access Hollywood” tape in which Trump had a lewd conversation about women, in what was considered a major setback for his campaign. “Less than an hour after the video’s publication, WikiLeaks released the first set of emails stolen by the GRU [Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Army] from the account of Clinton Campaign chairman John Podesta,” the Mueller report said. Mueller noted that thousands of Podesta emails had been stolen in late March. That means the Russians had held on to the material for nearly six months.The report says that “metadata collected from the WikiLeaks site revealed that the stolen Podesta emails show a creation date of September 19, 2016,” indicating that is when it was transferred from the GRU to WikiLeaks. WikiLeaks released more than 50,000 Podesta documents in the month before the U.S. election.

 

“Kremlin insider reports TRUMP lawyer COHEN’s secret meeting/s with Kremlin officials in August 2016 was/were held in Prague.” 

— Memo 136, dated Oct. 20, 2016

The Mueller report suggests no such meeting in Prague took place, even though three of the Steele memos discuss this alleged meeting in detail.

One of the memos, dated Dec. 13, stated that Cohen was accompanied in Prague by three colleagues with an agenda of processing “deniable” cash payments to operatives, including hackers, and contingency plans to cover up the operations. Another memo, dated Oct. 19, described Cohen as a “secret liaison with Russian leadership,” a role that had supposedly grown with the departure of Manafort from the campaign.

Mueller does not indicate he investigated whether Cohen traveled to Prague; he simply dismisses the incident in Cohen’s own words as he discusses Cohen’s preparation for testimony before Congress.

”At that time [May 2017], Cohen understood Congress’s interest in him to be focused on the allegations in the Steele reporting concerning a meeting Cohen allegedly had with Russian officials in Prague during the campaign,” the report said. “Cohen had never traveled to Prague and was not concerned about those allegations, which he believed were provably false.”

The only listed source for this information is a “302,” code for an FBI summary of an interview with Cohen. He has not been consistent on whether he has ever been to Prague, telling the Wall Street Journal he had not been there since 2001, telling Mother Jones in 2016 he had been there for one afternoon 14 years earlier and reiterating on Twitter and to Congress he has never been there.

Cohen has been cooperating with the investigation after pleading guilty to criminal charges, including lying to Congress. So, facing a prison term, Cohen presumably would reveal such a meeting if it had occurred.

The Mueller report documents Trump Organization discussions about Cohen’s taking a trip to Moscow in 2016 to advance the Trump Tower Moscow project. But that trip never took place. Trump had signed a letter of intent in November 2015, as he was campaigning for the presidency.

Bold italicized. 

Overall assessment: Reject, requires major revisions. 

 

Edited by Anastasis
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HookMD

HookMD 37

Posted
Posted (edited)
1 hour ago, Zavala said:

Keep fucking that chicken, keep losing. Proud of it too. Hilarious.

1557191475649-pol.png
1557191253294-pol.jpg

 

Jesus, Somebody change that poor man's diaper.  It is loaded.

 

He reminds me of this guy...
 

 

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Junior Miller

Junior Miller 1502

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, Hugo Stiglitz said:

 

The Mueller Report outlines Trump himself committing multiple felonies related to obstruction of justice including pressuring officials to conspire to obstruct justice and then lie about it afterwards.  

The fact that politicians can skirt the law and not be charged with crimes because of their office means America is no better than China/Russia or any other oppressive government. This is truly despicable. 

 

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2019/05/06/politics/justice-department-trump-mueller-protect-democracy/index.html

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Zavala

Zavala 1384

Posted
Posted
5 hours ago, Gatorubet said:

You are a traitor.  But you have company.

 

2 hours ago, DigglerontheHoof said:

No, you don't.  You're a traitorous, cowardly cunt.

 

Call your political opposition racist and traitors. Lazy, losing Democrat strategy. That MSM programming is dogshit

Some recent headlines:

“The Electoral College is an instrument of white supremacy — and sexism,” exclaimed Slate magazine.

CNN: “Math is racist: How data is driving inequality.”

From the NBC affiliate in Oklahoma: “ ‘To be white is to be racist,’ Norman student offended by teacher’s lecture.”

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/may/3/mark-pocan-wisconsin-democrat-trump-treason-putin-/

Quote

Rep. Mark Pocan said Friday President Trump’s discussion with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the Russia investigation was comparable to “treason.”

 

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Zavala

Zavala 1384

Posted
Posted
26 minutes ago, WhatTheBuck said:

I'm pretty sure these people are racists:

GettyImages-810888668.jpg?w=480&ssl=1

https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/ideology/ku-klux-klan

Yup, those fucking idiots get all the attention - you would think they are more numerous. Even the splc, who would love to inflate the numbers, estimates 5000 to 8000 nationwide.

A bit of a longshot when you call every Trump supporter a racist KKK member. It's hilarious. 

Probably 50M die-hard Trump supporters in America. the rest of people don't care or vote blue. So 0.016% could be KKK members. 

 

Next you are gonna call all Trump supporters neo-nazis, and Trump an anti-semite.  

 

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Al Bundy's Napoleon Hand

Al Bundy's Napoleon Hand 13545

Posted
Posted
20 hours ago, 4th&Five said:
seems like a lot.

More than 370 former federal prosecutors who worked in Republican and Democratic administrations have signed on to a statement asserting special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s findings would have produced obstruction charges against President Trump — if not for the office he held.

“We emphasize that these are not matters of close professional judgment,” they added. “Of course, there are potential defenses or arguments that could be raised in response to an indictment of the nature we describe here . . . But, to look at these facts and say that a prosecutor could not probably sustain a conviction for obstruction of justice — the standard set out in Principles of Federal Prosecution — runs counter to logic and our experience.”

This is up to 500 former federal prosecutors' signatures. Seems like a lot.

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David Dennison

David Dennison 18646

Posted
Posted
8 minutes ago, Zavala said:

https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/ideology/ku-klux-klan

Yup, those fucking idiots get all the attention - you would think they are more numerous. Even the splc, who would love to inflate the numbers, estimates 5000 to 8000 nationwide.

A bit of a longshot when you call every Trump supporter a racist KKK member. It's hilarious. 

Probably 50M die-hard Trump supporters in America. the rest of people don't care or vote blue. So 0.016% could be KKK members. 

Next you are gonna call all Trump supporters neo-nazis, and Trump an anti-semite.  

 

Trump is a white supremacist, just like most of his base.

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Captainant

Captainant 27403

Posted
Posted
52 minutes ago, Zavala said:

https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/ideology/ku-klux-klan

Yup, those fucking idiots get all the attention - you would think they are more numerous. Even the splc, who would love to inflate the numbers, estimates 5000 to 8000 nationwide.

A bit of a longshot when you call every Trump supporter a racist KKK member. It's hilarious. 

Probably 50M die-hard Trump supporters in America. the rest of people don't care or vote blue. So 0.016% could be KKK members. 

 

Next you are gonna call all Trump supporters neo-nazis, and Trump an anti-semite.  

 

It's not that every trump supporter is a neo-nazi, but that every neo-nazi is a trump supporter. If you can't understand why trump failing to denounce and push away those (very fine) people could lead to an impression that he enjoys their support, and why that is a strong piece of evidence to the claim that trump is an anti-semite, then you're pretty fucking dense then bucko.

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jimmyjazz

jimmyjazz 45538

Posted
Posted (edited)
9 minutes ago, Hugo Stiglitz said:

It’s just going to be obstruction on top of obstruction from here on out.

 

How exactly does Trump instruct a private citizen to do anything?

 

EDIT:  what Judge asked

Edited by jimmyjazz
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yoladu

yoladu 4066

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3 minutes ago, Hugo Stiglitz said:

It’s just going to be obstruction on top of obstruction from here on out.

 

So what's the scoop? Why does Don McGahn have to follow these instructions? A former employee is going to put themselves in legal jeopardy for their former boss?

He is a private citizen now, Is he legally beholden to the Executive Branch? Some weird legal thing i don't know about?

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jimmyjazz

jimmyjazz 45538

Posted
Posted (edited)

An NDA wouldn't matter.  He could violate it.  Executive privilege might work as a scare tactic, but I'm pretty sure there's nothing Trump or the DOJ can do to prevent his compliance with a subpoena.  There could be civil liability involved (NDA) or maybe even criminal (contempt), but if he wants to comply, they're fucked on that one.

To further the point:  I wouldn't want to be in the position of trying to decide whether or not to comply with a congressional subpoena.  It's not clear-cut, at all.

Edited by jimmyjazz
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Captainant

Captainant 27403

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Posted
1 minute ago, Bama Chick said:

Did McGahn sign a NDA?

Or are they trying to cloak him under bullshit executive privilege?

Per the presidential records act, an NDA would likely be found to be un-enforceable in court. There's literally zero precedent or test cases for that, but I don't think he can be compelled to not speak. Especially to a constitutionally mandated, co-equal oversight body.

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Captainant

Captainant 27403

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Posted

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/fbi-chief-wray-says-spying-didn-t-occur-trump-campaign-n1002806?cid=public-rss_20190507

Quote

FBI Director Chris Wray said Tuesday that he would not describe the federal government’s surveillance, such as that conducted on President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign, as “spying,” as Attorney General William Barr has.

During a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing, Wray was asked by committee member Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., about Barr’s statement last month that “spying did occur” on the Trump campaign.

“I was very concerned by his use of the word spying, which I think is a loaded word,” Shaheen said. “When FBI agents conduct investigations against alleged mobsters, suspected terrorists, other criminals, do you believe they're engaging in spying when they're following FBI investigative policies and procedures?”

“That's not the term I would use,” Wray replied. “So I would say that's a no to that question.”

Asked if he had “any evidence that any illegal surveillance” into the Trump 2016 campaign occurred, Wray said he did not.

“I don't think I personally have any evidence of that sort,” Wray said.

...

Wray’s answers on Tuesday would appear to refute Barr’s testimony from last month, when he told Shaheen during a committee hearing that he felt “spying did occur” by the U.S. government on Trump’s 2016 campaign.

It would appear that Barr is being called out as a liar on the record and under oath. By trump's FBI director. 

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NWBuck

NWBuck 8547

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Posted

Given that he's already shared all of this information with the Special Counsel, I'm not sure that either NDA or Privilege are applicable... but I'm not a lawyer (nor did I stay in a Holiday Inn Express)

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Zavala

Zavala 1384

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Captainant said:

It's not that every trump supporter is a neo-nazi, but that every neo-nazi is a trump supporter. If you can't understand why trump failing to denounce and push away those (very fine) people could lead to an impression that he enjoys their support, and why that is a strong piece of evidence to the claim that trump is an anti-semite, then you're pretty fucking dense then bucko.

Got any proof of that claim? Trump has Jewish grandchildren..

Trump is also the most pro Israel president we have had in quite a while. He's moved the embassy, we are dishing out $38 Billion dollars over the next 10 years to them... 

2 hours ago, David Dennison said:

Trump is a white supremacist, just like most of his base.

Explain Kushner

 

lol does it ever get tiring just repeating that all of your political adversaries are white-supremicist cis-gendered racist homophobic neo-nazi blah blah blah?

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Zavala

Zavala 1384

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, seven said:

Perhaps the question to zavala is, why do white supremacists so dearly love trump? They didn't ball out for romney or McCain. What is it about trump that they identify so strongly with? 

Yeah all those white supremacists like... let me guess.. The spook Dick Spencer and... ???? 

White-supremacy.jpg

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Zavala

Zavala 1384

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Hugo Stiglitz said:

It’s just going to be obstruction on top of obstruction from here on out.

 

Is it obstruction for Democrats to attempt to bully Barr, when he is investigating them for how they started the special council failure?

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David Dennison

David Dennison 18646

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Posted
2 minutes ago, Zavala said:

Got any proof of that claim? Trump has Jewish grandchildren..

Trump is also the most pro Israel president we have had in quite a while. He's moved the embassy, we are dishing out $38 Billion dollars over the next 10 years to them... 

Explain Kushner

lol does it ever get tiring just repeating that all of your political adversaries are white-supremicist cis-gendered racist homophobic neo-nazi blah blah blah?

You mean other than: His racist actions as a landlord, his position on the Central Park Five, Mexicans are rapists, the Muslim ban, Charlottesville, his family separation policy, etc., etc.

No, he's not a racist. He's just misunderstood.

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