Russia Collusion Scandal (aka A Leftist fantasy)

[nsacpi]

"such a nothing"

https://www.vox.com/2018/2/26/169643...mueller-russia

[thethe]

[nsacpi]

Since the newspaper of record is covering Nastya Rybka, I feel duty bound to share the following link.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/02/w...ump-putin.html

[Runnin]

New revelations seem to support one of the Dossier's key claims:

Meanwhile, on Dec. 9, 2016, a month after the election, Russia made a deal with Qatar to sell 19.5 percent of Rosneft. Reuters reported at the time:

The privatization deal, which Rosneft Chief Executive Igor Sechin called the largest in Russia’s history, was announced by Rosneft in a meeting with President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday. Its success suggests the lure of taking a share in one of the world’s biggest oil companies outweighs the risks associated with Western sanctions imposed on Russia over the conflict in Ukraine. Rosneft had been under pressure to secure a sale of the 19.5 percent stake to help replenish state coffers, hit by an economic slowdown driven by weak oil prices and exacerbated by sanctions.

The deal falls squarely in the middle of a time when Kushner, Michael Flynn, and Page were communicating with Russians in ways that would later prove very embarrassing and potentially suspicious. Here is that timeline, which I initially compiled for my blog in June:

Dec. 1: Just eight days before this oil megadeal, Flynn and Kushner met Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak at Trump Tower, and Kushner proposed a secret communication link with the Kremlin through the Russian embassy. After it was revealed in the press and he was interrogated by congressional investigators, Kushner acknowledged that he was seeking to offer the Russians a “secure line” to the transition team. Congressional investigators would later be curious as to whether or not this back channel might have been intended for the purposes of finding someone to help bail out his family’s real estate company.

Dec. 8: Carter Page—as he later confirmed in his own congressional testimony—meets with Rosneft executives, and then flies to London to discuss new business opportunities in Kazakhstan with Gazprom officials.

Dec. 9: The “largest oil deal in Russia’s history” is announced.

Dec. 13: Kushner meets Sergey Gorkov, who chairs Russia’s government-owned VE Bank (VEB) and is Putin’s close confidant. Analysts have described VEB as Putin’s “private slush fund,” a source of money independent from official Russia budgeting. VEB is under strict U.S. sanctions.

Dec. 14: Gorkov reportedly immediately flies to Japan to meet with Putin.

Dec. 29: Obama orders new Russian sanctions for election hacking and interference. On the same day: Flynn calls Kislyak five times about Russian sanctions. Trump tweets about Putin the next day, calling him “very smart” for not responding to Obama’s sanctions before Trump has had a chance to transition into office.

The Rosneft sale was right after Trump’s victory but before the inauguration. It was also right after Kushner’s push for a secret communications link to the Kremlin through the Russia embassy that U.S. intelligence couldn’t access, and right before Kushner’s meeting with Putin’s banker and confidant Gorkov.

Again, while Page has denied meeting with Rosneft boss Sechin, who is strictly limited by U.S. sanctions, he acknowledged he “had a brief lunch with Andrey Baranov.”

“Mr. Sechin is under sanctions, is he not?” Schiff asked Page during congressional questioning. “And as someone working on investor relations for a CEO who is under sanctions, would it be advantageous for that head of investor relations [Baranov] to see those sanctions go away?”

[57Brave]

Dossier just wont go away.
Will it ?

I am old enough to remember when a memo was going to debunk the validity of the Dossier initiated by (R) picked up by (D) than released for publication by a (R) Senator
Good times.
To this point, the dossier has been shown wrong once !! That on a meeting attended by the much in the news (bagman) Michael Cohen


Paraphrasing David Corn
Today would be a good day for Trump to release his tax returns

[nsacpi]

Dossier just wont go away.
Will it ?

I am old enough to remember when a memo was going to debunk the validity of the Dossier initiated by (R) picked up by (D) than released for publication by a (R) Senator
Good times.
To this point, the dossier has been shown wrong once !! That on a meeting attended by the much in the news (bagman) Michael Cohen


Paraphrasing David Corn
Today would be a good day for Trump to release his tax returns

Steele has a 19% number on the Rosneft stake to be sold...off by .5%....tsk tsk...dodgy dossier

[thethe]

Oh man...more things that will never tie to collusion. Just bring up as much as possible to middle the waters so the American people don't realize the initial claim was a farse

[57Brave]

Bear in mind, Mueller's mandate is/was not to prove collusion.
It was to investigate Russian involvement into the 2016 election cycle.

[thethe]

Bear in mind, Mueller's mandate is/was not to prove collusion.
It was to investigate Russian involvement into the 2016 election cycle.

And yet the dnc hack has never been a focus

[nsacpi]

Bear in mind, Mueller's mandate is/was not to prove collusion.
It was to investigate Russian involvement into the 2016 election cycle.

yes...but as part of that investigation it looks increasingly like he will find crimes committed by various members of the campaign and administration, in addition to the guilty pleas already copped

as for collaboration with the Russians we have:

1) Papadopoulos receiving the information about the Clinton campaign emails from Professor Mifsud. I'm sure we'll find out in due course how far up the chain of command that information was shared. We also have the trips abroad that Papadopolous took on behalf of the campaign. Details of that will also be released to the public in due course.

2) The Trump Tower meeting. Which apparently was not really about adoption, contrary to the story concocted by Trump himself.

3) The change to the GOP platform on Ukraine, which Kilimnik was invited to come observe first hand and Manafort's offer of "briefings."

4) The attempt to set up a secret back channel with the Russians.

5) Page's meetings in Moscow, which included discussion of the 19% stake in Rosneft that was put up for sale.

As I have said before, quid pro quo is not quite proven in the "court of law" sense. But from where I sit it looks to have happened in some form.

[nsacpi]

And yet the dnc hack has never been a focus

well this is a target rich environment and there is more than one focal point to Mueller's investigations, which appear to be mushrooming by the day

[thethe]

well this is a target rich environment and there is more than one focal point to Mueller's investigations, which appear to be mushrooming by the day

The dnc hack isn't the biggest piece of supposed Russian interference?

[57Brave]

And yet the dnc hack has never been a focus

we don't know that.
Mueller has been good at holding his cards close.

He may exonerate the rest of the Trump Family -- we don't know.

As nsacpi pointed out -- from what we do know, it isn't looking good

[thethe]

we don't know that.
Mueller has been good at holding his cards close.

He may exonerate the rest of the Trump Family -- we don't know.

As nsacpi pointed out -- from what we do know, it isn't looking good

We hear status on everything and not one word on the dnc hack. There is a reason for that.

How can we even discuss Russian interference if that isn't proven? Oh I forgot...a few fb trolls changed the election.

[nsacpi]

The dnc hack isn't the biggest piece of supposed Russian interference?

i don't know about biggest...but one of the biggest...btw the WSJ (using U.S. intelligence sources) has identified the Russians as the hackers...way back in November 2016...but I suppose we are already waiting for the cherry on top which would be a set of indictments from Mueller similar to the ones against the botfarm operation

i think Mueller has the information to indict the Russians...i would speculate that he is moving more slowly on this particular part because it might involve "witting" American collaborators...undoubtedly he wants to be very sure that he has his ducks lined up for that particular detail

[thethe]

i don't know about biggest...but one of the biggest...btw the WSJ (using U.S. intelligence sources) has identified the Russians as the hackers...way back in November 2016...but I suppose we are already waiting for the cherry on top which would be a set of indictments from Mueller similar to the ones against the botfarm

Ahh yes...indictments of people we will never see. That settles it.

How about some hard evidence that Russians perpetrated that hack? Why has this basic fact pattern taken so lon to investigate/prove.

Without that there was essentially zero Russian influence. Don't give me fb bots. That's peanuts and you know it.

[nsacpi]

Ahh yes...indictments of people we will never see. That settles it.

How about some hard evidence that Russians perpetrated that hack? Why has this basic fact pattern taken so lon to investigate/prove.

Without that there was essentially zero Russian influence. Don't give me fb bots. That's peanuts and you know it.

as i said likely it will include indictments against American collaborators...i don't blame him for being very thorough with regard to that aspect of his investigation

[nsacpi]

We assess with high confidence that the GRU
relayed material it acquired from the DNC and
senior Democratic officials to WikiLeaks.

The above sentence can be found on p 3 of the DNI's assessment of Russian interference in the elections.

https://www.dni.gov/files/documents/ICA_2017_01.pdf

[Oklahomahawk]

I realize that he's a "big un" but really? 360lbs?

[Julio3000]

I realize that he's a "big un" but really? 360lbs?

400-lb guy sitting on his bed confirmed. Trump vindicated.