The Trump Investigation(s) Thread

[Holman]

What is taking so long with the Inspector General’s Report on Crooked Hillary and Slippery James Comey. Numerous delays. Hope Report is not being changed and made weaker! There are so many horrible things to tell, the public has the right to know. Transparency!

Everything he says now is about undermining the rule of law.

[malchior]

Transparency! (if it "helps me" only)

[Chaz]

Oh, it gets better:

The Russian Witch Hunt Hoax continues, all because Jeff Sessions didn’t tell me he was going to recuse himself...I would have quickly picked someone else. So much time and money wasted, so many lives ruined...and Sessions knew better than most that there was No Collusion!

So I'm reading this as "the only reason the investigation hasn't been killed yet is because Sessions tricked me into appointing him, and if I'd known, I would've appointed someone else who would've shut the investigation down immediately." Which is a weird contrast with the new narrative of "the President can shut down any investigation at any time, for any reason."

[Skinypupy]

"It wasn't meeeeeeeeee!"

Such strong leadership.

[Unagi]

I mean, he had to have written that post last night and waited to send it, right?

Who wakes up at 5:00 am and composes that as the starting thought of the day. (rhetorical)


And of course, the statement itself is dysfunctional.
He implies that the IG's report started off full of strong evidence against CH and SJC, but given enough time the IG will change that Strong Report and make it weaker, all in an attempt to hide the truth from us and protect CH and SJC.
i.e. The IG is only to be trusted if this report comes out and looks really bad for CH and SJC - if it doesn't, it's because they are in on it all and are part of the Deep State, clearly.

Incidentally, has Comey always had the Slippery title? I seem to recall Lyin'.

[hepcat]

His need to sow dissent for the sole sake of vanity is tearing this country apart. I mean, it was divided before (hence idiots voting him into office), but now it's just a shit show of willful ignorance, blatant hypocrisy and routine lies. I hate to say this, but the best thing for this country right now is for the end result of the Mangerine's diet to catch up to him.

[pr0ner]

Trump is blaming the Democrats for families getting separated at the border now, too.



Also, unintentional irony in the course of two tweets:

[Archinerd]

I'll give him credit, he really is becoming a master at doublespeak.

[hepcat]

What he doesn't seem to understand is that we've already caught our witch. We just need to figure out whether to drown it or burn it.

[Unagi]

The Russian Witch Hunt Hoax continues, all because Jeff Sessions didn’t tell me he was going to recuse himself...I would have quickly picked someone else. So much time and money wasted, so many lives ruined...and Sessions knew better than most that there was No Collusion!

That Tweet / Statement totally ignores the time-line.


Jan 10, 2017: Session's Confermation Hearing, where Sessions says, under oath, that he has not had any contact with Russian officials during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Jan 20, 2017: Trump's inauguration

Late Jan, 2017: Flynn lies to FBI

Jan 27, 2017: Trump tell Comey "I need loyalty, I expect loyalty"

Feb 13, 2017: Flynn resigns

Feb 14, 2017: Trump asks Comey to drop it and let Flynn go.

March 1, 2017: The Washington Post reports that Sessions met with Kislyak twice over the previous year, meetings he failed to report.

March 2, 2017: Sessions recuses himself from any "existing or future investigations" related to the 2016 presidential election.


Looks to me like the Washington Post is the only reason that he recused himself. Or as Trump statement would have us think - Sessions was sitting on the knowledge that he'd be recusing himself back in January and could have just told Trump that then... You know, I bet you that Sessions told Trump he had his complete loyalty at one point and only when he was caught in the spotlight did Sessions feel the need to release himself from the level of loyalty Trump was going to be demanding of him.

[Paingod]

Everything he does ignores reality. Tweets and otherwise.

Timelines and evidence just make us feel better about noticing it and wishing someone would stop him.

[LordMortis]

Looks to me like the Washington Post is the only reason that he recused himself.

Doesn't matter. I don't like Sessions but he's held fast for protecting the rule of law while the rule of law still means something when all of his allies are cowards or willingly complicit. The book isn't closed on him and I'm so very thankful.

[Remus West]

Looks to me like the Washington Post is the only reason that he recused himself.

Doesn't matter. I don't like Sessions but he's held fast for protecting the rule of law while the rule of law still means something when all of his allies are cowards or willingly complicit. The book isn't closed on him and I'm so very thankful.

His recusal and standing by it may be the only decent thing he has ever done but I'm with LM on being very thankful for it.

[Paingod]

We should all be glad that one of the horse's handlers is standing in front of the door to the children's cancer ward.

[El Guapo]

Mueller managed to crack the devilish code of Manafort and friends.

[LawBeefaroni]

Please tell me that "Telegram" is an app name and not a real telegram. Wait, don't.

[Isgrimnur]

Please tell me that "Telegram" is an app name and not a real telegram. Wait, don't.

[Unagi]

I don't like Sessions but he's held fast for protecting the rule of law while the rule of law still means something when all of his allies are cowards or willingly complicit.

Agreed. Rosenstein too.

apparently.

[Smoove_B]

Donald Trump is geting away with the biggest scandal in American history via the communists at Mother Jones:

Along with his shouts of “witch hunt,” Trump also incessantly declares, “No collusion.” This simplistic piece of shorthand aims at a straw man. Trump seems to be setting a bar that favors him: Unless evidence emerges that he personally met with Russian hackers, told them which Democratic Party emails to steal, and then provided guidance on how to release the material, then nothing wrong occurred.

...

With his “no collusion” chant, Trump is like an embezzler who yells, “There was no murder”—and asserts that is the only relevant benchmark. Think of what Trump did during the campaign in this fashion: A fellow is standing on a sidewalk in front of a bank. He is told the bank is being robbed. He can see armed men wearing masks in the bank. Yet when people pass by and ask what is happening in the bank, he says, “There is no robbery. Nothing to see. Move along.” Even if this person did not collude with the robbers, he is helping the gang perpetrate a crime. And in Trump’s case, the criminal act was committed for his gain.

In summary:

In 2016, Vladimir Putin’s regime mounted information warfare against the United States, in part to help Trump become president. While this attack was underway, the Trump crew tried to collude covertly with Moscow, sought to set up a secret communications channel with Putin’s office, and repeatedly denied in public that this assault was happening, providing cover to the Russian operation. Trump and his lieutenants aligned themselves with and assisted a foreign adversary, as it was attacking the United States. The evidence is rock-solid: They committed a profound act of betrayal. That is the scandal.

[Holman]

Rare evening tweetstorm asserts that the "they" [Obama/Clinton/Comey Deep State] were working to undermine Trump's campaign and elect Clinton. In essence, the people now investigating Trump are the real criminals.

Chris Farrell, Judicial Watch. “They were running an operation to undermine a candidate for President of the U.S. These are all violations of law. This is intelligence tradecraft to steer an election. There’s nothing more grave when it comes to abuse of our intelligence system...

...This is a level of criminality beyond the pale. This is such a grave abuse of power and authority, it’s like nothing else we’ve seen in our history. This makes the Nixon Watergate burglary look like keystone cop stuff

....The greatest Witch Hunt in political history!

(A little hard to know where the quotation ends as of this posting.)

[Ralph-Wiggum]

Uh - are we sure this Chris Farrell guy wasn’t talking about the Trump Campaign?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Isgrimnur]

Don't let the name Judicial Watch fool you.

Judicial Watch (JW) is an American conservative activist group and self-styled watchdog group that files Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuits to investigate alleged misconduct by government officials.

Founded in 1994, JW has primarily targeted Democrats, in particular the Clinton administration, the Obama administration, and Hillary Clinton, although it has sued Republicans as well including the administration of George W. Bush. It has also filed lawsuits against government climate scientists; Judicial Watch has described climate science as "fraud science". The group has made numerous false and unsubstantiated claims, which have been picked up by right-wing news outlets. Most of its lawsuits have been dismissed.

[Isgrimnur]

QZ

Special counsel Robert Mueller has accused Donald Trump’s former campaign chief Paul Manafort of witness tampering. Manafort allegedly tried to hide his communications with potential witnesses using the encrypted messaging apps WhatsApp and Telegram, but prosecutors appear to have accessed the messages via his iCloud account.
...
WhatsApp has a setting that automatically backs up messages to iCloud. If enabled, this would render the app’s famous end-to-end encryption useless in terms of hiding from law enforcement equipped with a search warrant. The US government routinely requests information from internet companies through warrants and subpoenas.

[Rip]

Please tell me that "Telegram" is an app name and not a real telegram. Wait, don't.

[Ralph-Wiggum]

Don't let the name Judicial Watch fool you.

Judicial Watch (JW) is an American conservative activist group and self-styled watchdog group that files Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuits to investigate alleged misconduct by government officials.

Founded in 1994, JW has primarily targeted Democrats, in particular the Clinton administration, the Obama administration, and Hillary Clinton, although it has sued Republicans as well including the administration of George W. Bush. It has also filed lawsuits against government climate scientists; Judicial Watch has described climate science as "fraud science". The group has made numerous false and unsubstantiated claims, which have been picked up by right-wing news outlets. Most of its lawsuits have been dismissed.

Oh, I know. Just that what he stated almost exactly applies to the Trump Campaign.

[Captain Caveman]

Yeah, that kind of projection is a deliberate tactic used by Trump and his ilk to muddy the waters, make the truth harder for the casually-informed to decipher, and allow partisans to take sides.

[Ralph-Wiggum]

QZ

Special counsel Robert Mueller has accused Donald Trump’s former campaign chief Paul Manafort of witness tampering. Manafort allegedly tried to hide his communications with potential witnesses using the encrypted messaging apps WhatsApp and Telegram, but prosecutors appear to have accessed the messages via his iCloud account.
...
WhatsApp has a setting that automatically backs up messages to iCloud. If enabled, this would render the app’s famous end-to-end encryption useless in terms of hiding from law enforcement equipped with a search warrant. The US government routinely requests information from internet companies through warrants and subpoenas.

[Carpet_pissr]

Yeah, that kind of projection is a deliberate tactic used by Trump and his ilk to muddy the waters, make the truth harder for the casually-informed to decipher, and allow partisans to take sides.

So now we’re back to Evil Genius? I thought we had firmly settled on Bloviating Idiot!

[Holman]

Yeah, that kind of projection is a deliberate tactic used by Trump and his ilk to muddy the waters, make the truth harder for the casually-informed to decipher, and allow partisans to take sides.

So now we’re back to Evil Genius? I thought we had firmly settled on Bloviating Idiot!

More like Evil Third Grader. "I KNOW YOU ARE BUT WHAT AM I??"

[El Guapo]

Yeah, that kind of projection is a deliberate tactic used by Trump and his ilk to muddy the waters, make the truth harder for the casually-informed to decipher, and allow partisans to take sides.

So now we’re back to Evil Genius? I thought we had firmly settled on Bloviating Idiot!

More like Evil Third Grader. "I KNOW YOU ARE BUT WHAT AM I??"

It's always a mix of some type. And at the end of the day, if there's one thing Trump understands, it's branding and the power of repeated labels.

[GreenGoo]

Just like Pavlov's dogs, Drumpf knows if he behaves a certain way, he gets the compliments/support/nice things said about him he craves.

[Unagi]

Just like Pavlov's dogs, Drumpf knows if he behaves a certain way, he gets the compliments/support/nice things said about him he craves.

I've also heard that Pavolv's dogs would shamelessly go for everyone's crotches.

[Isgrimnur]

WaPo

House Speaker Paul D. Ryan has joined those disputing President Trump’s assertion that federal law enforcement planted a spy inside his campaign, telling reporters Wednesday that he has seen “no evidence” to support such claims.
...
“I think Chairman Gowdy’s initial assessment is accurate,” Ryan said, adding that “we have some more digging to do. We’re waiting for some more document requests. . . . We still have some unanswered questions.

“But I have seen no evidence to the contrary of the initial assessment that Chairman Gowdy has made,” Ryan continued. “But I want to make sure that we run every lead down and make sure we get final answers to these questions. I’ll leave it at that.”
...
Following Ryan’s comments Wednesday, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) told CNN that he also endorses Gowdy’s take on the evidence.
...
Ryan also shot a careful retort at Trump’s assertion this week that, as president, he is entitled to pardon himself should Mueller’s probe unearth evidence of crimes. At the same time, Trump said that he had done nothing wrong.

“I don’t know the technical answer to that question,” said Ryan, who is not a lawyer. “But I think obviously the answer is, he shouldn’t and no one is above the law.”

[Carpet_pissr]

Just STFU Paul Ryan and go away already. You've done enough damage and it's too late to try and show people you might actually have a spine.

[LordMortis]

Just STFU Paul Ryan and go away already. You've done enough damage and it's too late to try and show people you might actually have a spine.

I am reserving judgement at this time. I can't live my life letting the GOP suck the energy out of me. There is a point where you let everyone back to the table. If there's not, then we got problems much bigger than I want to believe possible. I don't know where the point is. If you don't allow even the worst of the GOP a chance to change then where are we? The first question to me is how much had Ryan and profited and fed the beast before coming here? And the second is, is he sincere in his belief that no one is above the law?

[El Guapo]

Just STFU Paul Ryan and go away already. You've done enough damage and it's too late to try and show people you might actually have a spine.

I mean, I agree, but it's still helpful that he said this. It's too late for him to make up for the damage he's done, but I'll take what I can get from him.

Note that it's entirely different whether Ryan would actually do anything in the event of an undeniable constitutional crisis, but anything he says that contravenes Trump's line has to raise the risk to Trump of doing anything dramatic (like firing Mueller / Rosenstein), so is helpful.

[Smoove_B]

First, F Paul Ryan.

Second, Time magazine has detailed the 191 arguments Trump has made against the Mueller investigation. Pretty amazing detail work.

To arrive at that number, TIME combed over statements from the Trump campaign, transition team and administration and key figures such as Donald Trump Jr. and Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani to isolate the major arguments. (We did not include Trump allies in Congress or the media.)

[YellowKing]

That's a lot of arguments against a witch hunt with nothing to see.

[Paingod]

As much as I hate to say it, Trump harping about it and incessantly being enraged by it isn't a sign of sure guilt for him. If he's not involved, then he's simply outraged that he's not getting the fully loyalty package he expects and it's conflicting with his personal view of reality, plain and simple. That alone is enough to keep him foaming at the mouth about it every time he sees it on Fox.

[GreenGoo]

No, you're mistaken Paingod.

His inability to focus on anything else for any amount of time before returning to this topic again and again, not to mention his constant negativity about Sessions recusing himself instead of putting a stop to the investigation before it could get started is absolutely indicative of drumpf being guilty.

But unlike him, I respect the rule of law, so I wait somewhat impatiently for justice to arrive. Or a bus. Or stroke. You know, I'm not picky.