The Trump Investigation(s) Thread

[El Guapo]

I'm trying to understand the political play here by the GOP. Do they just assume Trump will block it? Do they think blocking the release would hurt them more than help them, particularly since the original memo was a dud?

And yes, it bothers me that I have to view with extreme suspicion anything that looks like bipartisanship.

Could be. Also, a lot of times headlines in newspapers and CNN talking coverage tends to address these kinds of things in "Republicans Say the Mueller Probe Is Tainted By Bias, Democrats Disagree" terms, which isn't bad for Trump and the GOP.

[Carpet_pissr]

My first reaction to the "Democratic memo", from a 30K foot view, was "ugh". Optics-wise, it seems childish, and maybe even diminishes the stupidity and harm (to the GOP/Trump) of the first memo.

Now let's see the House release THEIR version of the memo, and then the Senate because they didn't like the Democrat one.

[El Guapo]

My first reaction to the "Demcratic memo", from a 30K foot view, was "ugh". Optics-wise, it seems childish, and maybe even diminishes the stupidity and harm (to the GOP/Trump) of the first memo.

On the one hand, I suppose it could feed into the Trumpian narrative that the whole investigation is just partisan recriminations. On the other, it is an opportunity to get a lot of uncomfortable facts out to the public in a form that more people will pay attention to them.

[Holman]

Well, the Dem response was written before the release of the Nunes memo. The fear was that Nunes' thing would be taken not just at its slender face value but for all its intended implications, and the response was meant to prove those implications false.

Since the Nunes memo fizzled, the response might not be so necessary, but I'm still on the side of supplying facts to defeat fake news.

Plus Nunes is out there now claiming (as to Hannity) that his memo somehow shows that Clinton did the real collusion, working with Russia to frame Trump.

In a remarkable interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity, House Intelligence Chair Devin Nunes on Monday night claimed it was the Hillary Clinton campaign that had been the real Russian collaborator, and had effectively weaponized the FBI against Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential election.

“It’s what happens in banana republics. It’s scary,” said the California Republican, who claimed that the controversial memo released by the House intel panel last week on a party-line vote showed a “clear link” between the Clinton campaign and Russia.

“There's clear evidence of collusion—that the Democratic Party and the Hillary Clinton campaign colluded with the Russians,” Nunes said, using his appearance on prime time’s top-rated cable-news show to decry the supposed “crickets from the media” about the biggest political story of the past week.

Nunes repeatedly told Hannity that his memo had turned the tables on Democrats, saying “the counterintelligence investigation should have been opened up against the Hillary campaign when they got ahold of the dossier.

“I just go by the old rule: Whatever they accuse you of doing, they’re actually doing,” Nunes said.

[Isgrimnur]

“I just go by the old rule: Whatever they accuse you of doing, they’re actually doing,” Nunes said.

Oh, the irony.

Psychology Today

Gaslighters will accuse others of actions — even when there is direct evidence that they are engaging in those same behaviors. So why do gaslighters do this? They are doing pre-emptive strikes and/or are projecting.

[Paingod]

So Nunes is blowing bubbles in the pool to block anyone from noticing he farted in it?

I wish I could peer into the future and see how all of this crap shakes out. It's the worst soap opera I've ever heard of, and I'm tired of watching it. I just want to skip to the end and delete it.

[Isgrimnur]

So Nunes is blowing bubbles in the pool to block anyone from noticing he farted in it?

No, he's accusing the weird girl that has her own weird little clique that is more popular than he is of farting.

[Paingod]

I had something there, but it was getting gross. I let it go.

[Smoove_B]

And now for something completely different...

A Kickstarter project to create a Pee Tape And Robert Mueller set of prayer candles. Sort of want.

[Moliere]

The Shame of Devin Nunes

Releasing the memo is a big step, for you and for the country. You will be in the history books forever in connection with this memorandum; your grandchildren and great-grandchildren will read all about your participation in these events, and history can be a harsh and a cruel judge.

Surely, before committing yourself to such a step, you would have carefully read the underlying documents, viz. the warrant applications themselves, which constitute the evidence for the purported misbehavior. After all, you want to be as certain as you can possibly be that the information in the memo is accurate, and that you are presenting it as forcefully (and as fairly) as possible.
...
Gowdy (and the two investigators) examined the applications and then summarized their contents for Nunes and the rest of the Committee. Then, Nunes, in effect, summarized that summary in his memorandum.

Putting aside the specifics of the five supposed instances of misbehavior [you can read them here]: Wouldn't you think that Rep. Nunes would want to have actually read the documents on which this assertion is (entirely) based? Just to be sure that the information was, indeed, omitted, and not buried somewhere in the mass of material? And that it was, indeed, material to the application?

That he relied on a summary of those documents prepared by a colleague and staff for this claim - given its obvious seriousness and significance for critical questions about how our government is functioning - beggars belief. How in heaven's name can Rep. Nunes can be certain - and he damned well better be certain, given the damage he is wreaking - that information was "omitted" from a series of documents without actually having read the documents?

[Holman]

https://twitter.com/Evan_McMullin/statu ... 3611028481

[Remus West]

https://twitter.com/Evan_McMullin/statu ... 3611028481

That is truly frightening.

[El Guapo]

As a side note: Christopher Wray e-mailed me this morning to let me know that they had identified a fund with $10.3M (million) in it for me, that they had managed to keep away from unscrupulous foreign governmental officials who were trying to steal it from me. What good luck! It's very important that I write back and only e-mail directly with him (and the bank holding the money) as other people may still be trying to trick me out of this money (that I didn't even know I had!).

Pretty impressive that Wray and his team managed to find time for this while also dealing with all this Russia stuff. Amazing work!

[Fitzy]

As a side note: Christopher Wray e-mailed me this morning to let me know that they had identified a fund with $10.3M (million) in it for me, that they had managed to keep away from unscrupulous foreign governmental officials who were trying to steal it from me. What good luck! It's very important that I write back and only e-mail directly with him (and the bank holding the money) as other people may still be trying to trick me out of this money (that I didn't even know I had!).

Pretty impressive that Wray and his team managed to find time for this while also dealing with all this Russia stuff. Amazing work!

Maybe it's leftover bribes from Uranium One!

Or maybe it's Trump's missing taxes!

The fund to replace Trump's hair?

[El Guapo]

My guess is that either it's my payoff for unjustly attacking the President, or it's part of my stipend for my ongoing participation in the international Jewish conspiracy. Maybe both.

[Enough]

https://twitter.com/Evan_McMullin/statu ... 3611028481

That is truly frightening.

They are conditioned to feel all investigations like this are political bs, but Obama!

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

[Fitzy]

My guess is that either it's my payoff for unjustly attacking the President, or it's part of my stipend for my ongoing participation in the international Jewish conspiracy. Maybe both.

Conspiracies pay well. I'm still waiting for my Soros checks from the protests I went to. Maybe I should shift.

[gilraen]

If Rosenstein quit, was fired, or recused himself, it would fall to No. 3 Rachel Brand.

So...yeah...about that:

No. 3 Official at the Justice Department Is Stepping Down https://t.co/3i299dzZvf

[Skinypupy]

Someone in that Twitter thread suggested that Nunes could be put into that role.

That's a rather horrifying scenario.

[Holman]

That's not good news at all. The obvious move is for Trump to put a pure lackey into that role.

[Ralph-Wiggum]

Surprising exactly no one, Trump has decided not to release the Democratic response to Nunes’s memo.

[Sepiche]

Surprising exactly no one, Trump has decided not to release the Democratic response to Nunes’s memo.

So where's the #releasethememo crowd now? My guess is: Moscow.

[Chaz]

Well, the GOP one was honest and forthright. The dem one is filthy partisan lies.

[YellowKing]

And blocks it on the grounds that "it contains classified passages." If you're going to block it, do it like a man and and say it's because you're a partisan piece of shit. God I hate that motherfucker.

[Sepiche]

And blocks it on the grounds that "it contains classified passages." If you're going to block it, do it like a man and and say it's because you're a partisan piece of shit. God I hate that motherfucker.

Not only that, they refused to let the FBI and DoJ to vette the Nunes memo before it went to the Whitehouse for release, however the Democrats, who took the usual path of letting the FBI and DoJ view the memo and redact anything they thought needed it, get shut down.

My hope is this backfires on them for this reason: When was the Nunes memo most potent? When they ginned up a controversy about releasing it, but before it was released... when we didn't know exactly what was in it and imaginations could run wild. If the Dems play their cards right this is exactly the type of drip-drip-drip scandal they can keep in the news for a while.

[Max Peck]

And blocks it on the grounds that "it contains classified passages." If you're going to block it, do it like a man and and say it's because you're a partisan piece of shit. God I hate that motherfucker.

The proper thing would be to redact the classified passages and release the resulting unclassified version.

What's the over-under on how many days until someone just leaks the memo (redacted or in full)?

[Chaz]

Let's not forget that as much as Trump keeps saying "the Dems want to release their memo," it was both Republicans and Democrats on the committee that voted to release it.

[YellowKing]

Not to mention that they released the Republican memo DESPITE the intelligence community saying it contained classified information. And they did it anyway.

[Combustible Lemur]

Not to mention that they released the Republican memo DESPITE the intelligence community saying it contained classified information. And they did it anyway.

And the dems already cleared their memo with FBI and DOJ before going to white house so the reasoning is false on its face.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

[tjg_marantz]

You're all adorable.

It's all I can muster, you're all fucked.

[Carpet_pissr]

We know. That’s why we’re so grumpy these days.

[Isgrimnur]

Politico

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, a relentless critic of the media, has found a way around the often unflattering coverage of his role in the Trump-Russia investigation — by operating his own partisan news outlet.

Resembling a local, conservative news site, “The California Republican” is classified on Facebook as a “media/news company” and claims to deliver “the best of US, California, and Central Valley news, sports, and analysis.”

But the website is paid for by Nunes’ campaign committee, according to small print at the bottom of the site. Leading the home page this week: A photograph of Nunes over the headline: “Understanding the process behind #ReleaseTheMemo.”

[Sepiche]

Politico

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, a relentless critic of the media, has found a way around the often unflattering coverage of his role in the Trump-Russia investigation — by operating his own partisan news outlet.

Resembling a local, conservative news site, “The California Republican” is classified on Facebook as a “media/news company” and claims to deliver “the best of US, California, and Central Valley news, sports, and analysis.”

But the website is paid for by Nunes’ campaign committee, according to small print at the bottom of the site. Leading the home page this week: A photograph of Nunes over the headline: “Understanding the process behind #ReleaseTheMemo.”

Just to make things even shadier... apparently it shut down shortly after the media picked up on it.

[LawBeefaroni]

Politico

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, a relentless critic of the media, has found a way around the often unflattering coverage of his role in the Trump-Russia investigation — by operating his own partisan news outlet.

Resembling a local, conservative news site, “The California Republican” is classified on Facebook as a “media/news company” and claims to deliver “the best of US, California, and Central Valley news, sports, and analysis.”

But the website is paid for by Nunes’ campaign committee, according to small print at the bottom of the site. Leading the home page this week: A photograph of Nunes over the headline: “Understanding the process behind #ReleaseTheMemo.”

Just to make things even shadier... apparently it shut down shortly after the media picked up on it.

They claimed a DDOS, but it may have just increased traffic from the news about he site. Like a whole 10 concurrent visitors or something.

[Isgrimnur]

Slate

[Daehawk]

Are there no laws against shit like that? He seems to be a real shitheaded moron. Should be some law against stupid people doing stupid things in a Gov job. Course then we'd have no gov at all.

[LawBeefaroni]

Slate

9 retweets, 14 likes. I mean they couldn't even get all his staff to dutifully fake-up it.

Now it totally looks like it was just added traffic that crashed their inadequate server.

[Isgrimnur]

It's a crappy tweet. It contains no links to their website at all. Also note that the FB page states Unofficial while taking a dig at Politico.

[Holman]

Are there no laws against shit like that? He seems to be a real shitheaded moron. Should be some law against stupid people doing stupid things in a Gov job. Course then we'd have no gov at all.

I think you should rethink that attitude. "EVERYONE in government is stupid!" isn't true, and it stokes the kind of reaction that gives us Trump.

[Holman]

Intelligence chiefs testified today in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee about national threats.

1) FBI Director Chris Wray clarified a timeline on the Rob Porter allegations that suggests the WH has known about them for eleven months. (Sarah Sanders tried pushing the line that the administration heard about the allegations the same day we did.)

2) DNI Coats says they fully expect Russians to attempt interference in this year's elections.

3) A senator got Wray and other Intel chiefs to say that Trump has never once asked them to focus on or disrupt Russian election meddling.