The Trump Investigation(s) Thread

malchior · Post by **malchior** » Sat Oct 28, 2017 11:05 am

At least the WH isn't freaking out today.

Edit: Bonus the Federalist junk she is quoting is wrong on several verified facts. Big shock.

tgb · Post by **tgb** » Sat Oct 28, 2017 11:23 am

Zarathud wrote: Sat Oct 28, 2017 10:58 am Could we be looking at Trumpoween?

Holman · Post by **Holman** » Sat Oct 28, 2017 11:58 am

malchior wrote: Sat Oct 28, 2017 11:05 am At least the WH isn't freaking out today.

Edit: Bonus the Federalist junk she is quoting is wrong on several verified facts. Big shock.

Yeah. The surrogates have been out in full force claiming that the "real" Russia collusion is somehow HRC with Putin. There's not even a coherent narrative; it's just headlines and the implication that somehow the Steele dossier was Russia's attempt to help defeat Trump.

Fox was running headlines on it all evening while Mueller news broke everywhere else. Apparently they didn't even mention Mueller until 3 a.m.

And don't be surprised to see some Kremlin surrogate like Assange come out in the next few days with "proof" that the Russians were helping Clinton. Their goal is to destabilize our democracy, full stop.

Kraken · Post by **Kraken** » Sat Oct 28, 2017 12:16 pm

Holman wrote: Sat Oct 28, 2017 11:58 am Their goal is to destabilize our democracy, full stop.

It's working. Turns out it's remarkably easy, in fact.

Next week looks like it's going to be epic.

Max Peck · Post by **Max Peck** » Sat Oct 28, 2017 12:40 pm

Holman wrote: Sat Oct 28, 2017 9:14 am So U.S. Attorney Dana Boente resigned very suddenly last night. If I understand things, he is in line behind Sessions and
Rosenstein.

The rumors swirling around are:

1) He's leaving his post to serve as a witness. (Why would he have to quit?)

2) Since Sessions and Rosenstein are recused, Boente was ordered to fire Mueller and refused. (Would he have this authority?)

Do either of these make sense?

The second one doesn't seem likely given that Boente was removed from the line of succession back in February. The speculation I've seen is that he may have resigned because he could be a witness to obstruction of justice, given that he was acting AG in the interval between Yates and Sessions, and acting deputy AG prior to Rosenstein. My initial hunch is that if he is going to testify as a witness against the Trump administration on charges of obstruction of justice, he may have resigned because he knew that Trump was going to fire him as soon as that came out and wanted to leave on his own terms.

Or maybe he's just one more person that doesn't want to work for the current administration. Or he wants to spend more time with his family. Or any of a myriad of reasons that someone might choose to retire from a job. We'll have to wait and see if it's really anything significant.

gbasden · Post by **gbasden** » Sat Oct 28, 2017 6:31 pm

Max Peck wrote: Sat Oct 28, 2017 12:40 pm
Or maybe he's just one more person that doesn't want to work for the current administration. Or he wants to spend more time with his family. Or any of a myriad of reasons that someone might choose to retire from a job. We'll have to wait and see if it's really anything significant.

Multiple people have said that just days ago he was talking about his transition back to normal work as a US Attorney. But they are now reporting that Trump asked for his resignation.

On Wednesday, Boente was notified by the chief of staff to Attorney General Jeff Sessions that he should submit his letter of resignation, so that the political process for naming a successor could begin. The next day, he notified the 300 lawyers he oversees that he will be stepping down.

Max Peck · Post by **Max Peck** » Sat Oct 28, 2017 7:08 pm

That would do it too.

Scoop20906 · Post by **Scoop20906** » Sat Oct 28, 2017 7:50 pm

So. Maybe this was just a coincidence?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Sat Oct 28, 2017 8:13 pm

pr0ner wrote: Sat Oct 28, 2017 8:05 am
Holman wrote: Sat Oct 28, 2017 7:58 am Roger Stone was apparently in total drunk melt-down mode, attacking reporters and calling for them to be punished, which is the totally the behavior of someone confident that there's noting to this story.
I just waded into the crazy end by checking Stone's Twitter and I see he is claiming that Carl Bernstein lied about Watergate!

Suspended

The social network has suspended former Trump adviser Roger Stone after he hurled threats at multiple CNN personalities. When CNN reported that Robert Mueller had filed his first indictments in the Russia investigation, Stone flew off the handle... to put it mildly. In addition to throwing insults, he insisted that Don Lemon should be "confronted, humiliated, mocked and punished," while Jake Tapper should be "very severely punished." Whether or not Stone was promoting violence, it's clear Twitter didn't want to risk people using this as a pretext for violence.

Freyland · Post by **Freyland** » Sat Oct 28, 2017 8:53 pm

I wonder if Twitter would have the balls to do the same when Trump tweets fall in the same context?

Scoop20906 · Post by **Scoop20906** » Sat Oct 28, 2017 11:46 pm

Freyland wrote:I wonder if Twitter would have the balls to do the same when Trump tweets fall in the same context?

LOL. Nope

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

tjg_marantz · Post by **tjg_marantz** » Sat Oct 28, 2017 11:49 pm

It would be epic.

Freyland · Post by **Freyland** » Sun Oct 29, 2017 12:15 am

Well, they wouldn't have to worry about him tweeting out against them, because, well... duh.
And they don't have to worry about his base "boycotting" them... anyone already entrenched in Twitter isn't going to give that up easily. Heck, see Hepcat's recent posting about the importance of keeping your bathroom visits contemporary with B-rated celebrities.

pr0ner · Post by **pr0ner** » Sun Oct 29, 2017 9:30 am

Freyland wrote: Sat Oct 28, 2017 8:53 pm I wonder if Twitter would have the balls to do the same when Trump tweets fall in the same context?

I think TPTB at Twitter have already said they would not suspend or delete Trump's account.

Zaxxon · Post by **Zaxxon** » Mon Oct 30, 2017 9:06 am

As expected, it's Manafort.

Octavious · Post by **Octavious** » Mon Oct 30, 2017 9:30 am

Conspiracy against the US isn't a big crime right? It's like a 500 dollar fine and a stern talking to right?

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Mon Oct 30, 2017 9:39 am

It's fine. He can just tell them about all the shady shit that Hillary did, and they'll let him go.

Octavious · Post by **Octavious** » Mon Oct 30, 2017 9:41 am

Isgrimnur wrote: Mon Oct 30, 2017 9:39 am It's fine. He can just tell them about all the shady shit that Hillary did, and they'll let him go.

I love the comments on foxnews. Calling it a nothingburger and that it has nothing to do with Trump. And HILLARY!

Seriously if this was Obama I don't see the Democrats rallying behind him. We would go oh shit he totally f'd up. But nope... MAGA!!!

stessier · Post by **stessier** » Mon Oct 30, 2017 11:14 am

Comments I have seen are asking why the FBI didn't question Hillary under oath so they could catch her in a lie too. That is an amusing defense.

Rip · Post by **Rip** » Tue Oct 31, 2017 2:08 am

It is a nothingburger.

http://nypost.com/2017/10/30/robert-mue ... id-intern/

While the Russia-obsessed media self-combust, the biggest takeaway isn’t “Russia collusion,” but the revelation, buried in footnotes, that the FBI has had in its possession “high-level” Trump campaign e-mails since last year — and yet all investigators could get out of them is a false-statement guilty charge against a young, unpaid campaign aide.

From e-mail exchanges among “high-ranking campaign officials” examined by investigators — including Paul Manafort — there apparently has emerged no evidence of collusion or espionage by the campaign.

We can glean this from the just-unsealed indictment of George Papadopoulos, who volunteered to work on the Trump campaign’s foreign policy advisory council, which met just one time.

In the 14-page document, Robert Mueller’s prosecutors maintain that Papadopoulos, a twentysomething think-tank nerd who jumped ship from the Ben Carson campaign, met with individuals posing as Russian officials who promised dirt on Hillary Clinton.

There was nothing illegal about what Papadopoulos did. The only crime alleged in the indictment is that he lied to federal agents when they asked him about the contacts last January.

It is fairly plain from the indictment that the young campaign volunteer was trying to impress higher-ups in the campaign, perhaps with a White House assignment in mind, but was played for a sucker by con artists who approached him masquerading as Russian honchos tied to Vladimir Putin. (The contact portrayed as “Putin’s niece,” for example, turned out to be nothing of the kind.)

The initial Russia offer by Papadopoulos went nowhere, as other members of the foreign policy team rejected the suggestion, according to a Washington Post story published in August (yes, this is old news, new media huffing-and-puffing notwithstanding). But Papadopoulos persisted, e-mailing then-campaign manager Lewandowski in April 2016 that “Putin wants to host the Trump team when the time is right.”

The Washington Post further reported that Papadopoulos also forwarded campaign officials an e-mail from a senior official in the Russian International Affairs Council about coordinating a Trump visit to Moscow. But once again, senior campaign officials rejected the suggestion. Proposed trips to Moscow “did not take place,” the indictment confirms.

The media elite are nonetheless trying to make “Russian collusion” hay over the Papadopoulos guilty plea, because they got bupkis on that front from the Manafort indictment. That 31-page document, also just unsealed, focuses entirely on the former Trump campaign chairman’s business activities, not campaign activities or events.

To be sure, any illicit activities found in the process of looking for the fabled “Russia collusion” — including tax fraud, money laundering and perjury — are crimes worth prosecuting. And the president has even intimated his desire for such scrutiny in private conversations with the FBI leadership.

As former FBI Director James Comey testified, citing his contemporaneous notes taken from a March 30 phone call with Trump, the president encouraged him that, “if there were some ‘satellite’ associates of his who did something wrong, it would be good to find that out, but that he hadn’t done anything wrong.”

And that’s where we still stand.

Just dead-ends that do nothing to put Trump in jeopardy.

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Tue Oct 31, 2017 6:43 am

How do they maintain structural integrity while spinning so much?

malchior · Post by **malchior** » Tue Oct 31, 2017 7:25 am

All I know is that anyone reads that and believes it is...not too bright. It requires a massive lack of intellect and/or complete cognitive dissonance.

Holman · Post by **Holman** » Tue Oct 31, 2017 7:35 am

Rip wrote: Tue Oct 31, 2017 2:08 am Just dead-ends that do nothing to put Trump in jeopardy.

You could get a jump on things and go straight to "Trump is Russia's real victim!"

You know it's coming.

Zarathud · Post by **Zarathud** » Tue Oct 31, 2017 7:41 am

Trump elevated these people beyond their competence. Then changed his behavior to follow their advice.

Judgment matters. The buck stops with the President -- especially after he promised the "best" people.

Still not winning.

Carpet_pissr · Post by **Carpet_pissr** » Tue Oct 31, 2017 9:03 am

Blackhawk wrote:How do they maintain structural integrity while spinning so much?

The stickiest mass of self righteous indignation that you can imagine.

Carpet_pissr · Post by **Carpet_pissr** » Tue Oct 31, 2017 9:07 am

Zarathud wrote: Judgment matters. The buck stops with the President

WRONG. According to an interview with a higher level Trump surrogate yesterday, when asked that specific question, he stammered and spluttered that the buck stops with the person in the campaign who made poor decisions.

In bizarro Trump world, the buck only stops at the top when good things happen.

Rip · Post by **Rip** » Tue Oct 31, 2017 9:09 am

No the bucks stop at Trump. It is the other shit that stops somewhere else.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Tue Oct 31, 2017 9:13 am

Trump is actually on Twitter this morning, referencing Manafort and Papadopoulos. Absolutely amazing.

Carpet_pissr · Post by **Carpet_pissr** » Tue Oct 31, 2017 9:17 am

He found his 3rd back up phone above the kitchen cabinet. Meanie handlers too dumb to look there! Who’s the smart one, now?! That’s right, Trump is!

pr0ner · Post by **pr0ner** » Tue Oct 31, 2017 9:17 am

Smoove_B wrote: Tue Oct 31, 2017 9:13 am Trump is actually on Twitter this morning, referencing Manafort and Papadopoulos. Absolutely amazing.

He's trying to blame the Democrats again, too!

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Tue Oct 31, 2017 9:30 am

I think at some point I'd like to read that Mueller used statements made on Twitter as part of his investigation.

Octavious · Post by **Octavious** » Tue Oct 31, 2017 9:38 am

The man with 12 indictments lawyer said there's no collusion! CASE CLOSED! Go home people! I'd say I'm shocked he would be dumb enough to use that argument, but well wow..

What a transparent piece of crap he is. I kind of hope he does something dumb like try to shutdown the investigation.

pr0ner · Post by **pr0ner** » Tue Oct 31, 2017 9:38 am

Smoove_B wrote: Tue Oct 31, 2017 9:30 am I think at some point I'd like to read that Mueller used statements made on Twitter as part of his investigation.

Judges have in knocking down his travel ban and other shenanigans, so I can't see why Mueller wouldn't do the same.

tgb · Post by **tgb** » Tue Oct 31, 2017 9:47 am

I think Popadopoulis will be the key to bringing the Trump Crime Syndicate down. Now there's talk that the FBI had him wearing a wire. He may very well be remembered as this administration's John Dean.

Also if lying to the FBI is a convictable offense, isn't that enough to start impeachment hearings? I assume everyone in the WH has lied to them one time or another.

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Tue Oct 31, 2017 9:59 am

tgb wrote: Tue Oct 31, 2017 9:47 am I think Popadopoulis will be the key to bringing the Trump Crime Syndicate down. Now there's talk that the FBI had him wearing a wire. He may very well be remembered as this administration's John Dean.

Is that confirmed anywhere? I would assume that they would have tried that at least, and what they could've gotten on that could easily be super damning.

LawBeefaroni · Post by **LawBeefaroni** » Tue Oct 31, 2017 9:59 am

Rip wrote: Tue Oct 31, 2017 2:08 am It is a nothingburger.

http://nypost.com/2017/10/30/robert-mue ... id-intern/

NY Post Op-Ed piece from devoted Trump apologist.
Just dead-ends that do nothing to put Trump in jeopardy.

Think I'll just wait and see rather than following this guy's line.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Tue Oct 31, 2017 10:02 am

tgb wrote: Tue Oct 31, 2017 9:47 amI think Popadopoulis will be the key to bringing the Trump Crime Syndicate down. Now there's talk that the FBI had him wearing a wire.

Now you know why members of the GOP were fleeing the press yesterday. I mean, look how uncomfortable Senator Grassley is in this video as he literally escapes behind the row of flags as the press conference takes a turn.

Holman · Post by **Holman** » Tue Oct 31, 2017 10:03 am

Smoove_B wrote: Tue Oct 31, 2017 9:13 am Trump is actually on Twitter this morning, referencing Manafort and Papadopoulos. Absolutely amazing.

Twitter's character limit is all that stands between us and Trump's attempts to spell "Papadopoulos."

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Tue Oct 31, 2017 10:04 am

LawBeefaroni wrote: Tue Oct 31, 2017 9:59 am
Rip wrote: Tue Oct 31, 2017 2:08 am It is a nothingburger.

http://nypost.com/2017/10/30/robert-mue ... id-intern/

NY Post Op-Ed piece from devoted Trump apologist.
Just dead-ends that do nothing to put Trump in jeopardy.
Think I'll just wait and see rather than following this guy's line.

I dunno, I heard from a Trump insider that Trump relied on Papadopolous (and Carter Page) as a top foreign policy adviser during the campaign.

Pyperkub · Post by **Pyperkub** » Tue Oct 31, 2017 10:10 am

tgb wrote:I think Popadopoulis will be the key to bringing the Trump Crime Syndicate down. Now there's talk that the FBI had him wearing a wire. He may very well be remembered as this administration's John Dean.

Also if lying to the FBI is a convictable offense, isn't that enough to start impeachment hearings? I assume everyone in the WH has lied to them one time or another.

I think Mueller really wants Manafort to flip as it sounds like he had to file now due to statute of limitations restrictions on some of the charges and he wanted as much leverage as possible on him. If that's the case, it may be that he thinks he needs him to corroborate Papadopoulos's testimony.