Russia Collusion Scandal (aka A Leftist fantasy)

[Jaw]

https://www.politico.com/story/2017/...e-trump-244380

Facebook, Twitter: Russian actors sought to undermine Trump after election
“During the election, they were trying to create discord between Americans, most of it directed against Clinton. After the election you saw Russian-tied groups and organizations trying to undermine President Trump’s legitimacy. Is that what you saw on Facebook?” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) asked at the hearing.

Facebook general counsel Colin Stretch told a Senate Judiciary panel that content generated by a Russian troll farm known as the Internet Research Agency after Nov. 8 centered on “fomenting discord about the validity of [Trump’s] election.” That's a change from Russia's pre-election activity, which was largely centered on trying to denigrate Hillary Clinton, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said in a January report.

Stretch and his Twitter counterpart, Sean Edgett, called that an "accurate" statement.
....
James Lewis, an international cyber policy expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the revelation about Russian anti-Trump activity on social media post-election fits with typical Kremlin information-warfare efforts.

“Their goal is to create confusion and dissent. The target is the U.S. and NATO, not any particular candidate. They just want chaos," Lewis said. "It went from being a grudge match against Clinton to what they thought was a priceless opportunity to inflict harm."

[Jaw]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/power...=.47926be61d67

Three conservative House Republicans are expected to file a resolution Friday calling on special counsel Robert S. Mueller III to recuse himself from his probe of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, accusing him of conflicts of interest.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who wrote the resolution, accuses Mueller of having a conflict of interest because he was serving as FBI chief when the Obama administration approved a deal allowing a Russian company to purchase a Canada-based mining group with uranium operations in the United States, according to a draft obtained by The Washington Post.

“Someone who was involved in a deal cannot reasonably be trusted to scrutinize that probe,” Gaetz said in an interview.

Gaetz added that he does not trust Mueller because of his “close personal relationship” with former FBI director James B. Comey. Similar complaints have been raised by other Republicans, though there is considerable dispute over whether the Comey-Mueller relationship was primarily professional.

[goldfly]

not shocking with how republicans are these days. party over country and tax cuts for the rich above everything should be their slogan

[goldfly]

The United States of America v. Paul Manafort & Rick Gates trial to begin on May 7, 2018

Mueller’s team tells a federal judge they would need 15 days in court to convict Manafort and Gates.

that can't bode well for them, lol

[57Brave]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/power...=.47926be61d67

Three conservative House Republicans are expected to file a resolution Friday calling on special counsel Robert S. Mueller III to recuse himself from his probe of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, accusing him of conflicts of interest.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who wrote the resolution, accuses Mueller of having a conflict of interest because he was serving as FBI chief when the Obama administration approved a deal allowing a Russian company to purchase a Canada-based mining group with uranium operations in the United States, according to a draft obtained by The Washington Post.

“Someone who was involved in a deal cannot reasonably be trusted to scrutinize that probe,” Gaetz said in an interview.

Gaetz added that he does not trust Mueller because of his “close personal relationship” with former FBI director James B. Comey. Similar complaints have been raised by other Republicans, though there is considerable dispute over whether the Comey-Mueller relationship was primarily professional.

[goldfly]

Carter Page just suggested to @jaketapper he has been in contact with Mueller's team. He said they've been professional and don't leak.

so..

[Hawk]

Just to be clear, have we moved on from "no collusion" and "fake news" to "American does it too" ?

No. We're still very much litigating all of that.

[Hawk]

that can't bode well for them, lol

Mueller's team told the judge that it would need 15 days to present its case (that's a long time).

[jpx7]

Mueller's team told the judge that it would need 15 days to present its case (that's a long time).

Gotta leave time for all those surprise witnesses.

[nsacpi]

Gotta leave time for all those surprise witnesses.

How long has the Menendez trial been going on? 15 days for the prosecution doesn't seen long. It will take a while explaining all the real estate deals and shell corporations and shuffling of funds from one account to another.

[Hawk]

The prosecution estimates it needs 3 weeks to present its case.

This doesn't include voir dire, defense rebuttals, assorted motions. The trial itself.

[Hawk]

It will take a while explaining all the real estate deals and shell corporations and shuffling of funds from one account to another.

Will be interesting to see what evidence actually makes it to court. Manafort's team is already filing motions (with the promise of more to come) asking the court to throw out some pieces they view as being improperly obtained.

Of course all of this is de rigeur. Most of it simple posturing and the establishing of certain battle lines.

[Hawk]

Gotta leave time for all those surprise witnesses.

Forensic accountants for days.

[nsacpi]

WASHINGTON — Carter Page, a foreign policy adviser to the Trump presidential campaign, met Russian government officials during a July 2016 trip he took to Moscow, according to testimony he gave on Thursday to the House Intelligence Committee.

Shortly after the trip, Mr. Page sent an email to at least one Trump campaign aide describing insights he had after conversations with government officials, legislators and business executives during his time in Moscow, according to one person familiar with the contents of the message. The email was read aloud during the closed-door testimony.

The new details of the trip present a different picture than the account Mr. Page has given during numerous appearances in the news media in recent months and are yet another example of a Trump adviser meeting with Russians officials during the 2016 campaign. In multiple interviews with The New York Times, he had either denied meeting with any Russian government officials during the July 2016 visit or sidestepped the question, saying he met with “mostly scholars.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/03/u...T.nav=top-news

I continue to wonder about the vehement and flat early denials of any contact with Russian officials. It would not have hurt to be honest about some of the stuff that has since come out. Either there is something bigger yet to come or someone displayed very bad judgment in deciding that the flat denial route was the way to go.

The presentation of that email to Mr. Page at the hearing must have been a moment of drama.

[57Brave]

Matthew Yglesias‏Verified account @mattyglesias 8h8 hours ago

Wilbur Ross “forgot” to mention his business ties to Vladimir Putin’s inner circle.

[Super]

why is it always the ties to russian money that trump's guys "forget" to disclose? quite the coincidence, i'm sure!

[57Brave]

To be perfectly clear this article was copy and paste from DailyKos. Because the South Korean papers or Guardian are kinda slow on their reporting or scared or something. Maybe too cumbersome ... regardless

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

There’s a law both against foreign nationals making a contribution.

A foreign national shall not, directly or indirectly, make a contribution or a donation of money or other thing of value, or expressly or impliedly promise to make a contribution or a donation, in connection with any Federal, State, or local election.

And against US nationals accepting that contribution.

No person shall knowingly solicit, accept, or receive from a foreign national any contribution or donation prohibited by paragraphs (b) through (d) of this section.

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////




Donald Trump Jr. told Russians that Trump would review the Magnitsky Act 'If we come to power'


By Mark Sumner
Monday Nov 06, 2017 · 9:22 AM EST
..




The final gaps in the conspiracy between the Russian government and the Trump campaign are being filled in, and the resulting pictures looks much as many suspected from the outset—stolen information on offer in exchange for promises of removing sanctions.

Over the weekend, Russian attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya reiterated that she came to the June 9 Trump Tower both with an offer and a price.

Veselnitskaya said she went to New York to show Trump campaign officials that major Democratic donors had evaded U.S. taxes and to lobby against the so-called Magnitsky law that punishes Russian officials for the murder of a Russian tax accountant who accused the Kremlin of corruption.

And she found that the Trump campaign was amenable to the deal.

“Looking ahead, if we come to power, we can return to this issue and think what to do about it,’’ Trump Jr. said of the 2012 law, she recalled. “I understand our side may have messed up, but it’ll take a long time to get to the bottom of it,” he added, according to her.

And that’s all there is to it: Russia offered material to help Trump in the election. In exchange the Trump campaign offered to see what they could do to help with sanctions. That’s illegal on the face of it. Then multiple members of the Trump campaign worked together in an effort to hide information about this agreement—including a direct effort from Donald Trump to obscure the nature of the meeting between Veselnitskaya and his campaign team.

Done. Game over. Conspiracy complete. Which is why Trump’s team is working hard to move the goalposts.

The Trump team has retreated from “no one on the campaign” to “the president while he was a candidate” didn’t directly meet with a Russian. Because every possible step of motive, means, and execution has been filled in.

The Trump campaign was made aware that the Russians had stolen emails from Democratic sources months before anyone else knew, via George Papadopoulos.
The Trump campaign was offered this material, and told that it was part of a Russian government plan to assist Trump, in an email exchange between Rob Goldstone and Donald Trump Jr.
The Trump campaign was given details on what Russia wanted in exchange for their stolen goods in a meeting between Trump Jr., Manafort, Kushner and representatives of the Russian government with Natalia Veselnitskaya acting as the spokesperson.
The Trump campaign agreed to Russia’s terms, and was rewarded with the release of the stolen information through Wikileaks—which Donald Trump personally used to gain advantage in the campaign.

Everything else—from the many instances of money laundering to whatever Jefferson Sessions was discussing in his multiple meetings with the Russian ambassador—is strictly for the “other charges” section of the inevitable indictments.

For those who are rushing forward to say that “collusion” is not a crime … wrong. There may be no crime named “collusion,” but accepting something of value from a foreign government in the course of a campaign is definitely a violation of US law.

There’s a law both against foreign nationals making a contribution.

A foreign national shall not, directly or indirectly, make a contribution or a donation of money or other thing of value, or expressly or impliedly promise to make a contribution or a donation, in connection with any Federal, State, or local election.

And against US nationals accepting that contribution.

No person shall knowingly solicit, accept, or receive from a foreign national any contribution or donation prohibited by paragraphs (b) through (d) of this section.

There’s a word in the last section that’s been the crux of the matter all along: knowingly. The Trump campaign clearly benefited from material that would be prohibited under the law, but the issue was whether they did so knowingly. The statement of offense against George Papadopoulos was clearly designed to help nail down the definitive evidence that the Trump campaign, no matter how many times they denied it, not only knew, but knew only days after Russians stole the information.

Veselnitskaya’s statement only puts another stake in the idea that the Trump campaign blundered into a bounty without knowing its source. And while Veselnitskaya still says the meeting “fell apart” over disinterest in the memo she brought with her about potential illegal campaign funding, that means little in the face of Trump Jr. expressing to Rob Goldstone that he would “love” to see the material Russia had to help Trump and his offer to review the Magnitsky sanctions “if we come to power.”

All of this might not have been enough to indict twenty years ago, but Republicans actually led the charge to tighten up the laws against foreign contributions after, what else, an investigation they launched into Bill Clinton.

Following the 1996 elections, the Republican Party concluded that the victorious Bill Clinton had benefited from foreign intervention in his election. Its Senate majority organized hearings, chaired by the late Senator Fred Thompson, who opened then with the declaration that high-level Chinese officials had committed substantial sums of money to influence the presidential election. The ensuing investigation, which included a parallel criminal inquiry, did not live up to Senator Thompson’s most dramatic claims, but Congress later amended the law to tighten the long- standing prohibition against foreign national spending in federal elections.

The result might not be poetic justice … but there certainly seems to be a rhyme in there

[Jaw]

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...dossier-court/

Russia dossier investigators suspect reporters were paid to spread collusion claims
The role of reporters is taking on added importance in federal court battles over the infamous Russia dossier that leveled unverified charges of collusion against the Donald Trump campaign.
In U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Fusion GPS, the dossier’s financier via the Democratic Party and the Hillary Clinton campaign money, is fighting a House committee chairman’s bid to find out if the opposition research firm paid journalists.
In U.S. District Court in Florida, a self-described dossier victim wants a judge to order the news website BuzzFeed, which published the dossier in full, to disclose who gave it to them.
The cases underscore how a Moscow-sourced memorandum created as opposition research against Donald Trump in the presidential campaign last year often dictates the debate about politics and reporters’ rights in Washington.

[57Brave]

LOLGOP‏ @LOLGOP 2m2 minutes ago

LOLGOP Retweeted USA TODAY

Reminder: A federal court considers the former campaign manager of the president of the United States a flight risk.

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Regardless what or who gets paid to write whatever, the above is what it is.

................

Funny thing, the Washington Times weren't bashful on Armstrong Williams. Guessing they have had a come to Jesus

[Jaw]

http://nationalinterest.org/feature/...ontation-23029

Are Trump and Mueller Headed for a Real Confrontation?
Special Counsel Robert Mueller has arrived at a crossroads, and must soon reveal if he is seriously exploring the Clinton-Obama side of questionable campaign activities, or apart from some possible window-dressing, is launching a partisan assault on the Trump presidency. There is room for belief in both scenarios, as along with the Manafort-Gates-Papadopoulos indictments came the resignation of Tony Podesta from the firm that was acting with the Clinton campaign in relations with the Russians. Moreover, press rumors indicate that Mueller and his staff are looking closely at that side of the complex controversy. Mueller has imposed severe restraints on Paul Manafort, former Trump campaign manager, (for three months and years after the conduct alleged in his indictment), both seizing his passport and confining him to house arrest. The next moves should indicate whether Mueller is attempting a serious and even-handed exploration of the suspect conduct of all relevant parties, or if he is just running another assassination squad against the incumbent president in the tradition of Archibald Cox and Leon Jaworski (against Richard Nixon), Lawrence Walsh (Iran Contra and Ronald Reagan), and Kenneth Starr (President Clinton).

If Mueller is shifting his focus to get to the bottom of the Clinton role on the Uranium One affair (where he as FBI director and the present deputy and acting attorney general Rod Rosenstein, as U.S. attorney in Maryland, prosecuted Russian intermediaries), he will grill his successor and protégé James Comey about the FBI’s role in assembling the spurious Steele dossier. The Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee seem to have paid for that dossier between nine and ten million dollars, ultimately to dubious Kremlin sources. If he is really pursuing his mandate to investigate all aspects of Russian connections to the 2016 U.S. election, Mueller will look into the Obama administration’s surveillance in the Trump Tower and unmasking of individuals in the Trump campaign. If all this occurs, then the administration policy of cooperating with Mueller will have been justified. If what he has in mind is just attacking a succession of parties leading toward the White House, showering down heavy charges and demanding severe bail conditions and extorting inculpatory perjury for soft sentences—the customary corrupt method of operation of U.S. prosecutors and of Mueller and Comey in particular—then the president must counterattack. (Since the Steele dossier is the core of any suspicion of the president and it has been in the hands of the FBI for a year and Comey assured Trump he was not a target and confirmed that to the Congress, the chances that Trump is guilty of anything are almost nil.)