Andrew C. McCarthy: Trump Is “Very Likely” to Be Indicted
Andrew C. Carthy has issued a very surprising opinion: that Donald Trump is “very likely to be indicted” on a campaign finance violation:
The major takeaway from the 40-page sentencing memorandum filed by federal prosecutors Friday for Michael Cohen, President Trump’s former personal attorney, is this: The president is very likely to be indicted on a charge of violating federal campaign finance laws.
It has been obvious for some time that President Trump is the principal subject of the investigation still being conducted by the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.
Cohen earlier pleaded guilty to multiple counts of business and tax fraud, violating campaign finance law, and making false statements to Congress regarding unsuccessful efforts to build a Trump Tower in Moscow.
Yes, Cohen has stated he did the hands-on work in orchestrating hush-money payments to two women who claim to have had sexual liaisons with Trump many years ago (liaisons Trump denies).
But when Cohen pleaded guilty in August, prosecutors induced him to make an extraordinary statement in open court: the payments to the women were made “in coordination with and at the direction of” the candidate for federal office – Donald Trump.
Prosecutors would not have done this if the president was not on their radar screen.
I can’t say I agree, especially given the guidance that the Justice Department still follows on the question of indicting a sitting president:
The indictment or cnminal prosecution of a sitting President would unconstitutionally undermine the capacity of the executive branch to perform its constitutionally assigned functions.
Attachment:
In the .pdf, the DoJ circa 2000 takes another look at the DoJ’s 1973 opinion concluding that DoJ should not indict a sitting president, and agrees with it. Here is what McCarthy says about that:
Justice Department guidance holds that a sitting president may not be indicted. If prosecutors in the Southern District of New York believe they have a case against the president, must they hold off until after he is out of office?
If President Trump were to win re-election, he would not be out of office until 2024, when the five-year statute of limitations on a 2016 offense would have lapsed.
More importantly, do campaign finance violations qualify as “high crimes and misdemeanors,” which is the constitutional standard for impeachment? It is hard to imagine an infraction that the Justice Department often elects not to prosecute is sufficiently egregious to rise to that level, but the debate on this point between partisans would be intense.
Those are all questions for another day. The point for this day is that the Cohen case in New York City is not about Cohen. The president is in peril of being charged.
I don’t see how this set of questions takes guidance that no indictment should be pursued, and turns it into a “very likely” event.
If McCarthy is going to maintain this position, he needs to explain this better.
P.S. To me, one of the major takeaways of the past few days is to emphasize the national security risk that Trump’s presidency represents. Think about it: Michael Cohen and the Russian government have now confirmed that Cohen lied to Congress about the extent and duration of Cohen’s contacts with the Kremlin on behalf of the Trump Organization to pursue Trump Tower Moscow, during the Trump/Hillary general election season. What this means is that, when Cohen lied to Congress on behalf of Donald Trump, not only did Trump know Cohen had lied, but the Kremlin did as well — even as the public was kept in the dark.
This is almost the definition of a national security risk. And, together with the Russians’ knowledge of earlier public lies by Michael Flynn, it could help to explain Donald Trump’s curious, persistent, and almost pathological refusal to criticize Vladimir Putin, for anything.
P.P.S. But does any of this matter to Trump superfans? Trump is betting it doesn’t:
Almost certainly true to an extent, but what a damning paragraph. https://t.co/vhpXip6YhO pic.twitter.com/ilL8j8HnoZ
— Philip Bump (@pbump) December 9, 2018
That’s a pretty good bet, as the comments from Trump superfans in the comments below will likely demonstrate.
[Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.]
Ding.
Patterico (115b1f) — 12/9/2018 @ 1:23 pmbut of course we won’t be able to point to a single person the dirty diseased men and women of the corrupt FBI have *ever* indicted for a similar misdemeanor
happyfeet (28a91b) — 12/9/2018 @ 1:29 pmMcCarthy is out to lunch on this. OLC opinion on the subject hasn’t changed since 1973 (and updated at least a couple of times since). Earlier this year, Rosy spoke at a conference and said that the DOJ will follow OLC guidelines. Giuliani heard the same from DOJ. McCarthy’s thinking makes no sense, and it makes me wonder why he’s doing this.
Paul Montagu (8afb2a) — 12/9/2018 @ 1:56 pmI’ll believe it when I see it.
Colonel Haiku (af8791) — 12/9/2018 @ 2:03 pmthe dirty fbi has no credibility
you know why?
cause it has no integrity is why
happyfeet (28a91b) — 12/9/2018 @ 2:05 pmI don’t know if I qualify as a Trump superfan but I do have a functioning memory and the number of times the Clintons reached out to the press to arrange for a story to be killed was so high that their mode in doing so was infamous.
No investigation, no indictments.
How many times did those of us on the right complain about the press spiking major stories about President Obama during his campaigns? If only we knew that indicting for in-kind contributions was an option available for us.
No, it wasn’t.
If journalists who spike stories at the urging of a campaign are engaging in in-kind contributions, what’s going to be left of America’s media if we actually take that rule seriously? Not much, and that’s a policy problem that really shouldn’t be in the hands of prosecutors.
TMLutas (099c30) — 12/9/2018 @ 2:48 pmRegardless of his experience in the SDC of NY, his ‘opinion’ is quilled/credited as a columnist for National Review [which opposed Trump to begin with]- and credibility of that pub has been caught in the backwash of change. Our Captain is not going to get ‘indicted’ because he was paying off bimbos and Patterico’s right- Trumpeters aren’t going to care about any potential Ruskie security compromises; his performance in Helsinki settled that.
Everything depends on what Mueller delivers. The crowing will be over ‘impeachable offenses,’ but unless our Captain handed the nuke codes to Vlad on a thumb drive, a Democratic House will never actually move the articles; the politics don’t work and the Senate has his back. They’ll pepper him with outrage into the election cycle and at the worst, Congress could try a ‘censure’– which our Captain will defiantly wear as a bad-boy-badge-of-honor, parading it before the loyal troops– beating the rap. Personally, expect him to dump Pence for a more vibrant wingman. Haley; perhaps Lee-[what price SCOTUS]- which could tempt righties even more. Pick a name; and if the economy holds, he’s in for term two–unless Winfrey runs.
It’ll all be most entertaining.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 12/9/2018 @ 3:02 pmi’d take a very dim view of anyone what did censure on President Trump
happyfeet (28a91b) — 12/9/2018 @ 3:09 pmExcept that scenario has nothing, not even a little bit, to do with Trump’s situation. They are unrelated things. It’s easy to build a whatabout Clinton strawman, they’ve done about a million underhanded things. This is a thing that has nothing to do with them whatsoever.
Colonel Klink (Ret) (744849) — 12/9/2018 @ 3:34 pmSo, from Crossfire Hurricane, the disingenuous FISA submissions, etc., until today, there has really been no reason to suspect that this is nothing more than attempts by an entrenched group of power broker/bureaucrats to perform a soft coup against a person they loathe? This is the biggest load of horseschiff to be forced on the American people in a long, long time.
Colonel Haiku (af8791) — 12/9/2018 @ 3:35 pmthey’re putting the cart before the horse, again, maybe after his term ends, but that was the strategy of kamala Harris’s future aide, mr. lee, re Edwards.
narciso (d1f714) — 12/9/2018 @ 3:45 pm‘The biggest load of horseschiff to be forced on the American people in a long, long time:’
“Mexico will pay for the wall.”
DCSCA (797bc0) — 12/9/2018 @ 3:49 pmJoel B. Pollak
harkin (1161c2) — 12/9/2018 @ 3:51 pm@joelpollak
Missing in today’s news: any acknowledgement that @HillaryClinton & the @DNC broke campaign finance law by failing to report they paid Fusion GPS via an intermediary for oppo research that triggered an FBI investigation. You don’t see @RepAdamSchiff calling for their prosecution!
sometimes binary choices are like Russian roulette,
https://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2018/04/former-miami-congressman-registers-as-qatari-agent.html
thankfully I didn’t have to vote for either of them, an interesting detail, curbelo’s replacements husband works for Russian interests,
narciso (d1f714) — 12/9/2018 @ 3:53 pmallegedly from Russian interests, although that apelbaum fellow, thinks Nellie ohr, put the documents together without going to Russia, (that conclusion involved a great deal of data mining, which I showed here earlier,)
narciso (d1f714) — 12/9/2018 @ 3:56 pmBuilding a “Trump Tower” in Moscow never happened. The rabid Left and NeverTrump may ask, “but what if it had!?!?”
And if Cohen had a gang of capuchin monkeys that flew out of his ample derrière on command, he would have one helluva Las Vegas show!
Cohen doesn’t have these flying monkeys, but what if he did!?!?
Colonel Haiku (af8791) — 12/9/2018 @ 3:56 pmThat would be an awesome show, I can tell you that.
Colonel Haiku (af8791) — 12/9/2018 @ 3:58 pm“In marked contrast when it was discovered that Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign was guilty of violations involving nearly $2 million – an amount that dwarfs the $280,000 in Cohen’s case – the Obama Justice Department decided not to prosecute.”
Colonel Haiku (af8791) — 12/9/2018 @ 4:08 pmheck they would have at least two seasons on Netflix,
the third would be touch and go,
narciso (d1f714) — 12/9/2018 @ 4:09 pmI wish.
nk (dbc370) — 12/9/2018 @ 4:13 pmMueller deided to do his his gay-ass fbi slurpee-durp right in the middle of the holidays when everybody comes together around our president, President Donald Trump
and this is why he’s such a failure loser ex-marine fbi trash-biscuit
because this is a season of love and cherish and the greatest of these is LOVE (love for President Trump)
i love christmas cause there’s so many traditions you can do new ones every year
happyfeet (28a91b) — 12/9/2018 @ 4:35 pmoopers sentence problems:
*decided*
happyfeet (28a91b) — 12/9/2018 @ 4:36 pmhisI take it back, Cohen has teh monkeys and this man has seen them ! https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dta4VDTVsAE1wOr.jpg
Colonel Haiku (af8791) — 12/9/2018 @ 4:44 pmI like it’s a wonderful life, cant really stand a Christmas story.
Narciso (d1f714) — 12/9/2018 @ 4:46 pmi’ve never seen it’s a wonderful life
if there’s a christmas movie i like the most it’s metropolitan
such a happy time for america and america
happyfeet (28a91b) — 12/9/2018 @ 4:55 pmThe Christmas movie I like most I can’t remember the title it’s the one where the Vice President and a majority of the cabinet inform Congress that the President is mentally incapacitated and incapable to perform his duties and Congress holds an emergency joint session on Christmas Eve and votes by two-thirds majority to remove him and the Secret Service drags him out of the White House and takes him to a padded room at Walter Reed hospital and the whole time he’s yelling “Covfefe!”, “Covfefe!” and all the bells are ringing and all the children are singing “Na—na-na-na–na—na-na-na –na—!”.
nk (dbc370) — 12/9/2018 @ 5:08 pmUsually minor campaign finance violations are settled with fines.
Why should this be any different, except the Deep State uniparty hates Trump?
rcocean (1a839e) — 12/9/2018 @ 5:12 pmWas Bill Clinton indicted for perjury?
Was Hillary Ciinton Indicted for the email scandal?
Has Comey been indicted for leaking classified info?
Has McCabe been indicted for lying to congress?
Has Obama been indicted for campaign violations?
rcocean (1a839e) — 12/9/2018 @ 5:17 pmIt’s not even a campaign finance violation. That’s Democrat spin. There are other reasons for a married man to pay off a hooker who says he shtupped her when his young wife just had their first baby besides a desire to influence the election. But who cares? Lock him up!
nk (dbc370) — 12/9/2018 @ 5:18 pmNow, if he had his White House lawyers instruct Cohen to lie to Congress — specifically about the Moscow real estate deal, but it doesn’t really matter what, Cohen should not have lied about anything — then that is a big deal in my view. And it looks like he did.
nk (dbc370) — 12/9/2018 @ 5:22 pmNobody cares what Trump did BEFORE he became POTUS.
rcocean (1a839e) — 12/9/2018 @ 5:25 pm“Except that scenario has nothing, not even a little bit, to do with Trump’s situation. They are unrelated things. It’s easy to build a whatabout Clinton strawman, they’ve done about a million underhanded things. This is a thing that has nothing to do with them whatsoever.”
You have a short memory.
Hillary Clinton played the role of Michael Cohen, in charge of suppressing “bimbo eruptions” in 1992. I think that is entirely on point. Nobody from the media who spiked the “Monica” story for all those months ever filed an in-kind contribution form.
But sure, Clinton’s libido and the political shenanigans surrounding it have *no resemblance whatsoever* with Trump’s hush money payments.
TMLutas (099c30) — 12/9/2018 @ 5:26 pmMcCain-Feingold was enacted in 2002.
nk (dbc370) — 12/9/2018 @ 5:28 pmHey Tm what happened to that other blog. You were on?
Narciso (d1f714) — 12/9/2018 @ 5:29 pm“A leader is a person who can avert a disaster that would not have happened if he had not been in charge.”
Think about it.
nk (dbc370) — 12/9/2018 @ 5:35 pmNobody cares what Trump did BEFORE he became POTUS.
Then you should. Because what he did before being Candidate Trump was to be a patsy for the Russian mob and the Kremlin kleptocrats.
Which btw is of itself enough to justify any IC snooping on his campaign. Not merely justify, but make it necessary for any IC that was worth something.
Kishnevi (ad994a) — 12/9/2018 @ 5:48 pmActually as I recall the story, 60 minutes did the job, not that they had any ethical issues,
Narciso (d1f714) — 12/9/2018 @ 5:53 pm“To me, one of the major takeaways of the past few days is to emphasize the national security risk that Trump’s presidency represents. Think about it: Michael Cohen and the Russian government have now confirmed that Cohen lied to Congress about the extent and duration of Cohen’s contacts with the Kremlin on behalf of the Trump Organization to pursue Trump Tower Moscow”
Lying to Congress about What You Did In A Foreign Country is de rigeur among CIA and State Department flacks, wake me when 20% of the United States uranium supply follows Cohen anywhere.
“What this means is that, when Cohen lied to Congress on behalf of Donald Trump, not only did Trump know Cohen had lied, but the Kremlin did as well — even as the public was kept in the dark.”
And this means what exactly? They’re going to admit publicly that VHE HAFF ZE TAPES VHROM YOUR LAWYER ZAT STRUNG US ALONG VITH EMPTY PROMISES OF PENTHOUSES AND HIGH TOWERS, DRUMPH!
“This is almost the definition of a national security risk.”
More or less than selling 20% of the United States uranium supply? More or less worthy of FULL PROSECUTORIAL ACTION AND A CALL TO ALL PATRIOTIC BUREAUCRATS TO LEAK EVERYTHING?
“And, together with the Russians’ knowledge of earlier public lies by Michael Flynn, it could help to explain Donald Trump’s curious, persistent, and almost pathological refusal to criticize Vladimir Putin, for anything.”
All he seems to do is say nice things about him during trade and military negotiations and screw him over when he pushes back!
“P.P.S. But does any of this matter to Trump superfans?”
Thanks for frantically constructing a going-away strawman for an argument that’s almost utterly ahistorical and inapplicable to any present or past President.
Michael Cohen was very obviously in hindsight a guy who used his proximity to power to tell wild stories and enrich himself in his foreign dealings, just like 99.99% of all qualified DC flacks. If he was running anything more serious than a shoulda/coulda/woulda/maybe Moscow Trump Tower deal, using words like TREASON and INCOMPETENCE and NATIONAL SECURITY RISK with a straight face while OPM sends our SSNs to China and Hillary sends the uranium to Russia might actually be warranted.
Nicol (412dd2) — 12/9/2018 @ 5:54 pmOf course that’s what they want you to think:
https://www.express.co.uk/news/weird/1056477/titanic-cover-up-conspiracy-documents-white-star-line-freemasons-spt
Narciso (d1f714) — 12/9/2018 @ 6:11 pmHillary paid off Lewinsky to cover up the affair? Hillary lied to Congress about Bill’s affair and paying off Lewinsky? Hillary lied to Congress about contact with Russians about Lewinsky? Those are not things that happened. You may remember the press reported about Bill’s infidelity, ad infinitum in the run-up to the election in 92, and when Lewinsky happened too.
So you think they’re related, and since the Clinton’s got away with doing the bad thing, Trump should too, because…? Pure whataboutism. OJ got away with murder, so everyone else should get away with murder too, those are just silly arguments.
Colonel Klink (Ret) (bf95c0) — 12/9/2018 @ 6:24 pmUnlike McCarthy, Goodman and Wright have smart takes on recent Cohen/Manafort events.
Paul Montagu (cbbfc4) — 12/9/2018 @ 6:26 pmIf trump wasn’t hated so much here on this site the 90% of the republican party would tell you loud and clear that they support president trump if he strikes back at the news media vermin. pardon me oh! thats right he can.
lany (a9d5fb) — 12/9/2018 @ 6:28 pmPresident Trump’s been very successful and I wish him the happiest of holidays and that the new year brings continued success!
The important thing is to keep telling the truth and doing the Lord’s work on America.
then Trump smiled at me pa rum pum pum pum
me and my drum!
happyfeet (28a91b) — 12/9/2018 @ 6:30 pmSeems to me the porn “star” payoffs are small potatoes considering what Mike Flynn might be spilling. And by the way, why is Flynn spared Trump’s ire? I dislike Trump as much as anyone, but the Stormy Daniels payoffs are not impeachable offenses. I believe there are fouler offenses — of which we shall soon be apprised — which may be impeachable. The cavalcade of lies about Russia from th Trump camp have yet to be explained.
JRH (fe281f) — 12/9/2018 @ 6:36 pm*has yet to be explained
JRH (fe281f) — 12/9/2018 @ 6:40 pm“Pure whataboutism. OJ got away with murder, so everyone else should get away with murder too, those are just silly arguments.”
Colonel Klink (Ret) (bf95c0) — 12/9/2018 @ 6:24 pm
Didn’t the OJ verdict teach us the importance of an appearance of bias in a criminal prosecution?
Munroe (1d0605) — 12/9/2018 @ 6:40 pmmeanwhile somebody shoved climate change hoax all up macron’s butt!
that’s not very christmassy the french people admonished each other
but they weren’t truly sorry at all
We take so much for granted here in America with the good leadership we get (presidential leadership)
i hate facebook so much
happyfeet (28a91b) — 12/9/2018 @ 6:45 pmHow did Macron prevail, because he used to deep state allies to go after fillon and then le pen, it wasnt because of his incredible charisma (snorfle)
Narciso (d1f714) — 12/9/2018 @ 6:52 pmNo, it illustrated that the rich have a different level of justice than the poors.
Colonel Klink (Ret) (bf95c0) — 12/9/2018 @ 6:55 pmVery few really believed oj didn’t do it, the reality is they didn’t care, the lie made for a better pretense
Narciso (d1f714) — 12/9/2018 @ 6:57 pm“Seems to me the porn “star” payoffs are small potatoes considering what Mike Flynn might be spilling.”
Mike Flynn didn’t serve long enough to have anything relevant to spill, his main function as far as the SC is concerned is to serve as a public example of how thoroughly they can screw even an innocent and honorable man (by DC standards, anyway) on procedural ‘crimes’ (which was a very common Mueller tactic, see Bulger, Whitey)
“And by the way, why is Flynn spared Trump’s ire?”
Because Trump doesn’t actually pile on when someone is very obviously being railroaded by an unjust prosecutor, and he knew at least enough about Flynn to turn him down for the VP role (after seeing his RNC speech, you could tell he wasn’t quite ready for prime time.)
Sessions throwing away his authority on a short consultation? Mockable. Cohen offering to say whatever the SC wants in exchange for leniency? Highly mockable. Getting blindsided and ‘telling everything’ like a good officer with no history of legal experience normally does? Not mockable.
“I dislike Trump as much as anyone, but the Stormy Daniels payoffs are not impeachable offenses. I believe there are fouler offenses — of which we shall soon be apprised — which may be impeachable. The cavalcade of lies* about Russia from th Trump camp have yet to be explained.”
*every single nation has a public and a private position for dealing with other nations, State, CIA, and NSA will always mislead and deflect whenever asked to betray confidences during sensitive negotiations, you only know about anything Flynn said because several ‘intelligence’ bureaucrats decided to get pissy and enforce malicious internal procedures on their incoming bosses, and now no President will ever trust the intelligence apparatus implicitly without thoroughly wiping out the staff lists of political enemies during the transition, causing much pain, confusion, weeping, and gnashing of teeth.
Nicol (d63ada) — 12/9/2018 @ 7:02 pmAnd for those of scoring at home, the number is fourteen, as in, fourteen Trump associates who had contacts with Putineers during the campaign and transition period. As a matter of perspective, the question I have is: Is there any other country that had their nationals in contact with more than fourteen Trump associates during the period in question. I doubt there is one. And this with a country that is only our 30th largest trading partner.
Paul Montagu (cbbfc4) — 12/9/2018 @ 7:05 pm“No, it illustrated that the rich have a different level of justice than the poors.”
Yes, if there was one factor that got talked about ad nauseam during the OJ trial, it was how Johnnie Cochran played the ‘rich’ card and how those ‘richers’ seem get away with murder in rich districts due to juries filled with other rich people. It’s like you were really there and totally aren’t forcing historical events into an utterly inane leftist framework that ignores the most emotionally resonant aspects of the case.
Nicol (3884dc) — 12/9/2018 @ 7:06 pm“the question I have is: Is there any other country that had their nationals in contact with more than fourteen Trump associates during the period in question.”
Someone who was interested in convincing people not on his side might actually look those numbers up.
Nicol (315bfa) — 12/9/2018 @ 7:08 pmMost were blind allies if they had real contacts you’d only need one channel it’s like cold calling keep ringing till someone picks up, Steele was that one lead, from the Clintons allegedly he knew everybody over there although he had been back in 17 years.
Narciso (d1f714) — 12/9/2018 @ 7:13 pmWhich is why he is pleading guilty to crimes committed both before and after the inauguration. You can read all of the violations and the plea deal at your convenience. His actions and admissions show he is neither innocent or honorable.
Colonel Klink (Ret) (bf95c0) — 12/9/2018 @ 7:14 pmRe #39-Titanic, that’s actually classy compared to the scut that scour the Twitter feeds of young athletes for offensive material achieving a victory or an award.
urbanleftbehind (73d7b2) — 12/9/2018 @ 7:15 pmHis crime was contacting the members of the security counsel so Obama would be kicking Israel on the way out as he did with the Iran deal earlier.
Narciso (d1f714) — 12/9/2018 @ 7:20 pmHumor from mr. Nordstream down below:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/angela-merkel-migration-christian-democrats-annegret-kramp-karrenbauer-germany-a8675041.html?fbclid=IwAR1NOjUSPdO8kagHYnvB7QRMgEHoNazTdHsecmH0ZP-I7FVFZ9DQxpOL0Cc
Narciso (d1f714) — 12/9/2018 @ 7:26 pmReminder once again that Flynn and his son conspired with Turkey to rendition a political refugee for $10 million. Flynn (and especially his worthless son) have been treated more than fairly all things considered.
Davethulhu (c2a30b) — 12/9/2018 @ 7:43 pm“Which is why he is pleading guilty to crimes committed both before and after the inauguration. You can read all of the violations and the plea deal at your convenience. His actions and admissions show he is neither innocent or honorable.”
I have read them, and nothing not redacted has passed the Podesta smell test. You may now begin ranting about ‘whataboutism’ at your earliest convenience.
Nicol (1ecab9) — 12/9/2018 @ 7:44 pmIt would be in Trump’s interest to look up and disclose those numbers if there were more than fourteen Trumpalistas in contact with other foreign nationals, so his peoples’ silence is itself an answer.
Paul Montagu (cbbfc4) — 12/9/2018 @ 7:48 pmAllegedly the previous administration was entertaining cyber attacks against the Russians based on this flawed crowdstrike assessment what do you think the Russian response would have been?
Narciso (d1f714) — 12/9/2018 @ 7:51 pmNicol, your position seems to be the standard GOP position. Criticize corruption only when Democrats are involved. (And going by Long Island and North Carolina, the same goes for election fraud.)
Kishnevi (7c118c) — 12/9/2018 @ 7:52 pmYou know who are worthless scum the Clinton’s not merely his personal degeneracy but the way they screwed this country creating the sub prime crisis, Cisneros Cuomo et, the way they slashed our defenses just as al queda was rising. The consent decrees that prevented the police from doing their business.
Narciso (d1f714) — 12/9/2018 @ 7:56 pmyou have been watching to much msnbc. they play what alan deschewitz says on fox or cnn to their panel and ask them to refute what deschewitz say ;but can’t and say well mueller knows more then we do at cut to a commercial.
lany (a9d5fb) — 12/9/2018 @ 9:39 pm“Nicol, your position seems to be the standard GOP position. Criticize corruption only when Democrats are involved.”
And your position seems to be ‘ignore all criminal proportion when Democrats are involved and equivocate that paying off a mistress really is equal to selling America’s nuclear materials to the Russians to enrich yourselves through your foundation if you really think about it.’
You will get much worse than Trump with that shameless attitude.
Nicol (a07d78) — 12/9/2018 @ 10:07 pm“Reminder once again that Flynn and his son conspired with Turkey to rendition a political refugee for $10 million. Flynn (and especially his worthless son) have been treated more than fairly all things considered.”
Is that worse or better than parrotting Turkey’s lies and propaganda about Jamal Khashoggi being a US greed card holder and serving their interests against the Saudis?
No one much cared about Gulen pre-revolution, the fact that he was attempting to run his own coup via taking over the US charter school system was enough of a red flag:
http://www.unz.com/isteve/the-economics-of-gulen-cults-american/
Nicol (4f675d) — 12/9/2018 @ 10:11 pm“Is that worse or better”
It’s worse.
“he was attempting to run his own coup via taking over the US charter school system was enough of a red flag”
The word “coup” is doing some heavy lifting here.
Davethulhu (c2a30b) — 12/9/2018 @ 10:40 pm1. If a Congressman’s wife buys stuff with campaign funds, during a campaign (since Congressmen are always campaigning), it’s a campaign law violation.
2. If Trump asks his lawyer to buy silence with private funds, during a campaign, it’s a campaign law violation.
Does seem to catch them both ways.
Kevin M (6fea79) — 12/10/2018 @ 3:34 amI’m sorry, but, WHAT?? Have you forgotten who was giving Vlad a tongue bath during the eight years before Trump was elected?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=5&v=XsFR8DbSRQE
President “More flexibility after the election” ring a bell? I used to joke, but only half joking, that when Obama visited Putin he first had to put on a French maid costume and make sammiches for the old KGB assassin and the Mullahs before giving Obama rug burns. Trump on the other hand is like the hammer of Thor.
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 12/10/2018 @ 5:01 amit was Mitt “bad touch” Romney what first developed the Putin fetish
you’re SO big and scary Vlad Mitt would purr, like a woman
happyfeet (28a91b) — 12/10/2018 @ 5:30 amhttps://www.npr.org/2018/07/20/630659379/is-trump-the-toughest-ever-on-russia
I grabbed this from NPR so I can’t be accused of citing only Trump-friendly news outlets.
Why are you focused on the window dressing and not the actual substance? The NPR article descends into the same abyss, stating that Trump’s actions need to be balanced against his friendly rhetoric. Umm, no, they don’t. What he’s doing matters a lot more than whatever rhetorical lipstick he puts on the pig. I guarantee you that people like Putin, Xi, Khameini, whatevs, are not fooled one bit by the happy face he uses as a period after signing off on crippling sanctions.
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 12/10/2018 @ 5:30 amFacts don’t seem to matter Steve, prigozhins mercenaries were waxed on the plains of deir wr zour, there have been airstrikes against Russian client Syria significant sanctions against another client venezuela
Narciso (d1f714) — 12/10/2018 @ 5:36 amSame with Russian client Cuba, that Obama embraced, whereas they pulled military support from Poland and czechoslovakia.
Narciso (d1f714) — 12/10/2018 @ 5:44 amJust like the sauds didn’t think w did them any favors regardless what the mouth of the flint river thought
Narciso (d1f714) — 12/10/2018 @ 5:48 am“OJ got away with murder, so everyone else should get away with murder too, those are just silly arguments.”
1. Murder is malum in se, while campaign contributions are malum prohibitum.
2.
Bored Lawyer (8ea02a) — 12/10/2018 @ 5:50 amAnd in this case, the Obama campaign did worse and was given a pass. The notion that you can have two standards of justice
NPR was impressed by Carter’s grain embargo, I bet.
Narciso (d1f714) — 12/10/2018 @ 5:51 amThe blogging world would be a better place without the racist or racist-adjacent contributions of Sailer and Unz.
Paul Montagu (8afb2a) — 12/10/2018 @ 6:03 am“Donald Trump’s former consiglieri Michael Cohen, along with being charged with tax avoidance and improper business deals, allegedly is guilty also of trying to leverage money and attention by exaggerating his influence with candidate and later President Trump.
In other words, Cohen to spec followed the standard creepy daily fare for Washington and New York wannabe fixers. But did we need Robert Mueller’s 18 months and $40 million to uncover and redirect to federal attorneys what was largely self-evident? Could not the U.S. government long ago, without the prompt of a special counsel, have uncovered that Michael Cohen did not fully pay his taxes—in the manner of an Al Sharpton, Timothy Geithner, and Tom Daschle?
The diabolical Cohen also tried to enforce, extend, or create non-disclosure agreements (Swampese for hush money) with two women from Trump’s past. The two reappeared out of nowhere in 2016, apparently to translate their alleged Trump hookups of a few hours in years past to notoriety and additional profit in the new age of “President Trump.”
Swamp Crimes
In other words, Michael Cohen was a sort of rough-hewn version of former Bill Clinton crony Vernon Jordan. The latter, remember, was the erstwhile Clinton fixer who in 1998 had sought to keep the still unknown Clinton paramour Monica Lewinsky quiet—and to whisk her away from the Washington media, by arranging for Monica a quid pro quo $40,000 a year job with Revlon in New York, via Clinton friend and Revlon CEO Ron Perelman—all with impunity.
Cohen certainly lacked the tact and savvy of another Clinton clean-up specialist, Betsey Wright, who in 1992 coined the term “bimbo eruptions” for her efforts to track down and neutralize any sudden public confessionals from the legions of past Clinton hookups.
Who knows, had we a Robert Mueller in 1933 he might have been able to charge General Douglas MacArthur and his alleged bag man, aide Major Dwight Eisenhower, with at least something for secretly delivering a bribe of $15,000 to MacArthur’s then 19-year old mistress, Isabel Rosario Cooper (who allegedly had been the general’s mistress since she was 16). The plan was to get her out of the United States and away from the reporting of sleazy muckraker Drew Pearson, who was eager to break the story.
Cohen’s efforts to pay off the Trump gals were understandably rebranded by federal attorneys into the acquitted John Edwards-style “campaign finance violations.” And who knows, now Cohen may well have to pay far more than the existing record federal elections commission fine of $375,000 involving 1,300 undisclosed contributions levied on the 2008 Barack Obama campaign—an event generally ignored by the media given the extenuating hurrahs of 2009.
Mueller and the New York federal attorneys were rightly upset that Cohen allegedly lied and admitted that he lied under oath. By all means, let us jail Cohen for subverting the entire foundation of our legal system that must rely on honest testimonies in all government inquiries.
And in that same spirit, let the Department of Justice also charge former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper for lying under oath when he deliberately misled congress about NSA surveillance (and admitted to lying), and John Brennan as well, who as CIA director lied on two occasions about drone collateral damage and CIA surveillance of Senate staff computers (and admitted to such), and has serially misrepresented his efforts with then-Senator Harry Reid to seed the Steele dossier.
And let us indict either the former director James Comey or the deputy director Andrew McCabe of the FBI—or both—for making false statements to federal investigators and Congress, given their respective testimonies under oath about leaking to the press and the role of the Steele dossier in FISA warrants cannot be reconciled.
With all due respect to Michael Cohen, what is currently destroying the concept of the American system of jurisprudence are not the self-serving lies of such a minor shady operator, but rather the deliberate and more artful prevarication under oath of the nation’s top intelligence and law enforcement officers.”
https://amgreatness.com/2018/12/09/defeat-and-the-dossier-explain-everything/
Colonel Haiku (af8791) — 12/10/2018 @ 6:18 amScratch a NeverTrumper and you’ll usually find a boring, tedious scold underneath.
Colonel Haiku (af8791) — 12/10/2018 @ 6:33 amI’m still upset that the IRS went after Al Capone and never audited John Dillinger.
nk (dbc370) — 12/10/2018 @ 6:36 amA system that sends Trump to jail for paying off the mistress (which, if he had just written the check directly, probably would have worked), isn’t a fair system, because that system steadfastly refused to send Hillary Clinton to jail for a scheme to avoid the application of FOIA to her e-mails. The crime is the lengths people will go to to avoid scrutiny of their actions.
It’s going to be “collusion” or nothing. And I have stopped believing there is going to be a “Get Out of Trump Free” Card from Mueller. So we must just have to fight this one out on the basis of competency and ideas.
Appalled (d07ae6) — 12/10/2018 @ 6:49 amYes I think you’ve got it, except there is no proof of the act in question:
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/dec/9/donald-trump-besieged-presidential-harassment/?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=socialnetwork
Narciso (efbd0b) — 12/10/2018 @ 6:56 amYes, boring scolds go home! If they’ll “let you do anything,” you really have no choice but to grab ’em by the p***y. TRUMP knows this.
JRH (fe281f) — 12/10/2018 @ 8:48 amAsk Les moonves and don Hewitt, lauer and lack.
narciso (d1f714) — 12/10/2018 @ 8:50 amHey this can’t go wrong:
narciso (d1f714) — 12/10/2018 @ 8:54 amhttps://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1056640/World-WAR-3-Russia-Sea-of-Azov-blockage-Vladimir-Putin-Ukraine
An added benefit of the Mueller investigation is that it provides an excuse for Comey and FBI weasels to avoid answering pointed questions before a House committee.
Munroe (c2d58b) — 12/10/2018 @ 9:02 amRemember when Israel pulled out of Gaza and Lebanon:
https://thehill.com/opinion/international/420375-whats-at-stake-in-yemen-affects-us-all
narciso (d1f714) — 12/10/2018 @ 9:04 amSerious question:
ColoComment (943515) — 12/10/2018 @ 9:06 amIn the event that an impeachment proposal were raised in the House, would all of the Mueller investigation documents, reports, testimony, etc., be required to be made public & debated in public? Without redaction (other than as might be claimed to be related to national security issues, which assertions one would hope would be considered by an “impartial” third party as to their basis.) What about other info, such as any of the DOJ IG’s investigative results that might be deemed material and relevant? What sources of information can a defense in an impeachment situation use in its case?
If not, what about when “tried” in the Senate?
In the event, were information to remain hidden, how would this reflect justice (presuming that the objective) being seen to be done? Would that not deepen political hostilities?
And, if so in either situation, is this a worm can that the Democrats would really want to crank open? We saw in the Kavanaugh hearings that airing dirty laundry (especially when alleging unverified accusations) tends to spread the stink around to everyone in proximity.
Thanks in advance to anyone who may choose to chime in with his/her thoughts.
85… interesting that nearly all of the perps of #metoo incidents/behavior are dyed-in-the-wool liberals.
Colonel Haiku (af8791) — 12/10/2018 @ 9:10 amNot nice, personally insulting the host of this website like that.
Paul Montagu (cbbfc4) — 12/10/2018 @ 9:12 amWTF are you talking about? Our host is no NeverTrumper.
Colonel Haiku (af8791) — 12/10/2018 @ 9:19 amThis is why they hide behind classification pfotocols.
Narciso (efbd0b) — 12/10/2018 @ 9:20 amMake that sixteen Trump associates, not fourteen.
Paul Montagu (b215b2) — 12/10/2018 @ 9:22 amHow many people in Congress, in the business community and in the media were in contact with the Russkies during this period?
Colonel Haiku (af8791) — 12/10/2018 @ 9:24 amMeanwhile Cavanaugh disappoints, bending the arc or something
Narciso (efbd0b) — 12/10/2018 @ 9:31 amWhat difference does it make:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2018/12/10/brexit-latest-news-vote-theresa-mays-deal-air-rivals-eye-leadership/
Narciso (efbd0b) — 12/10/2018 @ 9:37 amWhen I read about this, I wondered how could this happen? It’s either a case of having it in for the POTUS, or of gross incompetence by these corksoakers:
“The United States took the utterly unprecedented step of arranging the arrest of a prominent Chinese national in another country, namely Canada, over sanctions violations, which until now have been addressed with economic penalties, and attempting to extradite the Chinese national to face criminal charges in the United States. And the person in question is the daughter of the founder of Huawei, one of China’s most prominent business leaders. Nobody told the president as he sat down to negotiate with Xi Jinping? That doesn’t wash.”
https://pjmedia.com/spengler/did-the-deep-state-sandbag-president-trump-with-the-huawei-arrest/
Colonel Haiku (af8791) — 12/10/2018 @ 9:52 amI think that my question is the better one to ask and have an answer to.
Paul Montagu (cbbfc4) — 12/10/2018 @ 10:01 amYes, but you would.
Colonel Haiku (af8791) — 12/10/2018 @ 10:02 amThe rule is that where Trump is concerned there are no rules. Only power.
If the rumor mill about Huber is correct, we’re about to have a circle jerk where everyone takes everyone off to jail all together.
Like that party trick where everyone stands in a circle and sits on everyone’s lap.
Ingot9455 (985c4f) — 12/10/2018 @ 10:03 amNobody told the president as he sat down to negotiate with Xi Jinping?
Ha, ha, ha, ha! Tell Trump? What difference would it have made?
nk (dbc370) — 12/10/2018 @ 10:04 amInto the 80s, there were Soviet miles or fellow travellers or mere sympslike John Kerry joe Biden john Podesta tom Harkin, up and coming company man John brennan, of course then you have institute for policy studies
Narciso (efbd0b) — 12/10/2018 @ 10:06 amYou do know that extradition requests are made by (and to) the Secretary of State, right? Mike Pompeo is Deep State?
nk (dbc370) — 12/10/2018 @ 10:07 amthis is FANTASTIC news and we owe a lot of credit for this to the good policies (Trump policies)
happyfeet (28a91b) — 12/10/2018 @ 10:07 amThat’s when it (redacted) matters when they aired the day after to force the nuclear freeze when Carl Sagan fell for nuclear winter
Narciso (efbd0b) — 12/10/2018 @ 10:07 amThat’s leaving all the Hollywood people who concurred with the Soviets on el Salvador or south Africa. Rob reiner was too busy to care in that period.
Narciso (efbd0b) — 12/10/2018 @ 10:09 amCWR: Campaigning While Republican
Kevin M (6fea79) — 12/10/2018 @ 10:11 amAnd Comey is going around begging the leftists to unite and take down Trump. He doesn’t care which leftist replaces Trump. Sounds like a true patriot, right?
NJRob (4d595c) — 12/10/2018 @ 10:13 am105… my understanding is that we have an International Assistance Group (a specialized branch within the DOJ) that handles extradition.
Colonel Haiku (af8791) — 12/10/2018 @ 10:14 amRegardless, it is an example of idiocy.
Colonel Haiku (af8791) — 12/10/2018 @ 10:15 amThe only thing missing, Rob, is that insufferable, sanctimonious mook standing and gazing up at the Statue of Liberty.
Colonel Haiku (af8791) — 12/10/2018 @ 10:25 amNixon was not indicted the day after he left office, although before he had been named an indicted co-sonspirator. A person can be not indicted for a variety of reasons. In 1973-74 it rwally wasn’t established Department of Justice policy not to indict asitting president, so they may have wanted to shave other reasons.
Sammy Finkelman (102c75) — 12/10/2018 @ 10:26 amHappy, I wonder if the good news of your post #106 above isn’t somewhat related to a lot of forced evictions planned in South Africa.
urbanleftbehind (be670e) — 12/10/2018 @ 10:28 am“In 1973-74 it rwally wasn’t established Department of Justice policy not to indict asitting president, so they may have wanted to shave other reasons.”
It’s too hairy to even reminisce about.
Colonel Haiku (af8791) — 12/10/2018 @ 10:29 amwhat’s going on in south africa is pretty disgusting I hope President Trump helps make it easy for south africans who want to move here cause number one it’s getting to be a very dangerous country
i know it’s hard to leave the land where you grew up and lived your whole life but it’s better than having all your stuff stolen and then getting raped and killed and murdered
happyfeet (28a91b) — 12/10/2018 @ 10:39 amSince this topic is tangentially related to PutinLand, the Kremlin is amassing troops in the Crimean region of Ukraine, and the Ukrainians have to take this threat seriously. Putin also worked a deal with Payaso Maduro and is dispatching nuclear-bomb capable Blackjack bombers to the Venezuelan socialist wasteland. The two strongmen also inked oil and gold deals, presumably to allow the Venezuelan “leader” to make debt payments. Maduro is also trying to get literally tons of gold out of the Bank of England in London and returned to Venezuela, presumably to make debt payments but it could also be a big swindle by the folks ruling the country. Maduro’s inflation problem would be solved in months if they just tied their currency to the American dollar, but that won’t happen, IMO.
Paul Montagu (cbbfc4) — 12/10/2018 @ 10:46 am, https://tratransbilo.bandcamp.com/album/ona-trazi-njega-leskovac Ona trazi njega leskovac, https://www.twitch.tv/events/-CaJo9w0TUyKa4hB0_qwuA One punch man anime mangafox, https://www.twitch.tv/events/fcuG261sS_K5PabXAhx3Rg Capricorn men,
Xcuhhngz (b21bd9) — 12/10/2018 @ 10:48 amThat’s not how any of this works as pointed out his finance minister is under sanction,
Narciso (efbd0b) — 12/10/2018 @ 10:51 am90. ColoComment (943515) — 12/10/2018 @ 9:06 am
Not in and of themselves, but if they were subpoeaned. In fact,m actually they could really be sunpoenade3d now. Congress doesn’t have to honor the request taht the investigation be allowed to proceed in secrecy.
Anything they can get. Now the House Judiciary Committee may, or may not, allow the president to present a defense.
Hillary Rodham tried to argue in 1974 that Nixon shouldn’t have counsel and to that end, took ciustody of the record of the impeachment inquiry into Supreme Court Justice William O Douglas when he had been permitted counsel. (it didn’t conceal the precedent, and Nixon did get counsel, not that the counsel did him much good)
Jerry Zeifman, the majority counsel of the House Judiciary Committee refused to give Hillary Rodham a recommendation or retain her on his staff when the uinquiry suddenly ended with Nixon’s resignation. He wrongly thought that Hillary Clinton had done that on her own when she was acting at the direction of John Doar, who was in charge of the impeachment inquiry. Zeifman had been cut out and bypassed for all of that.
You know, I think Hillary Rodham, who was not officially supposed to transcribe any Nixon tapes, really did so, when she was called back to Washington from Arkansas where she was visiting Bill Clinton. I think there was an opportunity then for her to fill in because theer was almost nobody there. Just speculation. And I think she invented the phrase “I want you all to stonewall it.” The House Judidiary Coimmittee tarnscriopts ahd all kinds of errors designed to make Nixon look bad. Unlike the ones released by the white House, the conversations didn’t scan. They had been made by playing the tapes contininously and taking notes – never stopping the tape. While the ones the white house did were create3d by playing the tapes and stopping. One of the machines they used was broken, or maybe tampered with, and resulted in part of one conversation being overwritten. This was not a normal erasure. That was a really partisan inquiry. By the end, people weren’t thinking any more. Nxcon had really taken part in coverup efforts only two times, both futilely. The first time was to hide the connection to the Committee to Re-Elect the President, although that was really already known, and the CIA declined to say that an operation in Mexico could be compromised and that was the end of that which is why we never knew about it till July 1974. And the second time was to agree to pay money to E Howard Hunt – not to coverup anything connection with Watergate but to hide, for a while, the break-in into Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist’s office, which Nixon believed to be within the scope of apresident’s power, although politically damaging.
Keeping secret the break-in into Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist’s office was the reason John Dean gave to Nixon for paying Hunt. He knew Nixon had no interest in hiding anything about the Watergate break-in. John Dean had already given the money to Hunt when he asked Nixon to approve that but didn’t tell Nixon he had.
Whatever the Senate allows. In the Clinton impeachment what they did was essentialy limit each side to closing arguments, during the course of which they could quote, or play back, testimony. All members of the Senate had access to all the evidence which they could review on their own time. Some did.
It would be interpreted differently by people inclined to different political parties.
Yes.
My Congressman, Jerry Nadler, doesn’t want to proceed with any impeachment inquiry that will not get some Rep[ublican votes on his committee.
Looking more into that is adanger to Dems.
Sammy Finkelman (102c75) — 12/10/2018 @ 10:51 amYou know, they may be scared by the very sight of you, hf.
urbanleftbehind (be670e) — 12/10/2018 @ 10:53 amThe rest of the story:
https://babalublog.com/2018/12/10/brazils-bolsonaro-calls-for-nations-to-unite-in-fight-against-cuban-castro-communism-in-latin-america/
Narciso (efbd0b) — 12/10/2018 @ 10:57 amHe means, echoing Adam Schiff, that they’re holding it in abeyance until Trump leaves office.
But Trump’s lawyers would have a good chance of getting the indictment dismissed.
Sammy Finkelman (102c75) — 12/10/2018 @ 11:11 amThe legal theory under which Trump could be indicted for campaign finance law violations is ridiculous. This has all been possible to say because nobody – not Cohen and not the prosecutirs is arguing the contrary.
By this standard, Linda McMahon was guilty of a felony in her second run for the United States Senate in 2012 when she paid debts that had been discharged in bankruptcy to her creditors.
http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-xpm-2012-09-20-hc-mcmahon-loan-repay-0923-20120920-story.html
Clearly the election was a motive – in fact maybe the only motive.
She undoubtedly used personal funds.
By the standard of the prosecutors in the SDNY this was illegal.
Not only would she have been allowed to use campaign funds for thsi purpose, she would have been obligated to do so. (although she would have had the option of reimbursiing her campaign)
Sammy Finkelman (102c75) — 12/10/2018 @ 11:12 amharkin (1161c2) — 12/9/2018 @ 3:51 pm
Maybe they did and maybe they didn’t, but they probably didn’t violate campaign finance laws.
The money was funneled through the campaign and the Denmocratic National Committee. It was reported as legal fees, but attorney client privilege may allow that as long as they als did some legal work.
Even some people critical of the Clintons have unfortunately bought the lie that Christiopher steele was first hired on behalf of the Washington Free Beacon. This was not acontonuation. It was a separate investigation. The Washington Free hired Fusion GPS to do apublic records search – no spies and no private detectives. Hiring Steele was entirely a Democratic Party idea.
Sammy Finkelman (102c75) — 12/10/2018 @ 11:52 am83. Appalled (d07ae6) — 12/10/2018 @ 6:49 am.
That would have been a problem too, for Trump, if not for Cohen, according to the legal theory taht that was a campaign expense. The only legal way to do it, according to the prosecutors at the Southern District of New York, would be to use campaign funds.
Which would have left Trump open to the possibility of being accused of using campaign finds for personal purposes.
Catch-22! At lesast in thsi case for something not really moral.
That was one purpose, but probably not the main one.(the main one was probably to avoid leaving anything incriminating in the possession of the government)
There is a post at legal Insurrection about this. A federal judge lambested the Obama era State and Justice Department for the way they handled a FOIA request
https://legalinsurrection.com/2018/12/federal-judge-hillarys-private-email-server-one-of-the-gravest-modern-offenses-to-transparency/
I feel that she wanted to avoid anyone discovering anything in the nature of a quid pro quo. If she used state.gov, she might leave or get soemthing incriminating by mistake.
Sammy Finkelman (102c75) — 12/10/2018 @ 12:05 pmJudge LAmberth on State Department handling of Clinton emails:
https://www.judicialwatch.org/document-archive/jw-v-state-dept-14-1242-lamberth-ruling/
Sammy Finkelman (102c75) — 12/10/2018 @ 12:25 pmBuried in a story:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/07/nyregion/frank-gilliam-mayor-atlantic-city.html
The main interest, though, seems to be in other allegations.
Sammy Finkelman (102c75) — 12/10/2018 @ 12:54 pm“Mueller has already weaponized politics, making a crime out of the tawdry business of opposition research — but only sort of, since his interests in doing so are highly selective. And so his chief legacy will have little to do with whatever he finds on Donald Trump. He has already established the precedent that there is now no real equality under the law, at least as Americans once understood fair play and blind justice.
Once Mueller deviated from his prime directive of determining whether Donald Trump colluded — sought help from the Russian to win the 2016 election in exchange for the promise of later benefits — and turned to indicting political operatives for supposedly giving false testimonies about political shenanigans and engaging in illegal business practices, lobbying, and tax avoidance, he either knowingly or unknowingly established a precedent that the serial misdeeds of 2016 would be treated unequally under the law.
Yet Christopher Steele, a British subject and de facto unregistered foreign agent, is eminently indictable and extraditable. He was paid through two firewalls (Fusion GPS and Perkins Coie) by Hillary Clinton to tap Russian sources to compile a smear dossier on her opponent, with the intent of warping the U.S. election — a classic example of foreign-agent interference in an American campaign. If we were to take away that one purchased document, then the FISA court warrants, the informants, and all the CIA, FBI, and DOJ machinations would likely have disappeared or never arisen.
Obama-administration officials Bruce Ohr (whose wife worked on the dossier) at Justice, James Comey at the FBI, and John Brennan at the CIA all in some manner colluded with Steele, either directly or indirectly, to monitor the Trump campaign and then to seed the dossier among government agencies and courts, both to ensure its leakage and to brand it with a stamp of official seriousness, warranting investigations and media sensationalism.
….
Bruce Ohr filed a false federal disclosure affidavit, in that he did not reveal, as required, that his wife was employed by Fusion GPS to work on the Steele dossier. Nor did he disclose that after the election he had been in contact with Steele, offering his help in the effort to find proof of collusion.
James Comey, along with Andrew McCabe, Rod Rosenstein, and Sally Yates, at various times submitted requests to a FISA court that deliberately never disclosed that their chief evidence for such surveillance was 1) paid for by Hillary Clinton (instead, the applications claimed vaguely that it was a product of generic opposition research, likely and by design confusing its Republican-primary origins with its maturity under Clinton auspices), 2) used as a circular source for news accounts produced in turn to establish its fides, 3) unsubstantiated and either not fact-checked or found to be impossible to verify, 4) compiled by an author already dismissed by the FBI as a unreliable asset.
Either Andrew McCabe or James Comey has likely perjured himself; or both may have. Their conflicting testimonies about leaking information to the media, and the relative importance of the Steele dossier for FISA court warrants, cannot be reconciled.”
https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/12/mueller-probe-fisa-warrants-fbi-informants/
Colonel Haiku (af8791) — 12/10/2018 @ 1:05 pmyes they could trade him for that Russian police officer, chevdov, who has been in prison for four years, reputedly for spying,
narciso (d1f714) — 12/10/2018 @ 1:55 pmColonel Haiku @130 @1:05 pm quoting https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/12/mueller-probe-fisa-warrants-fbi-informants
Is this correct?
The Clintons know all the grey areas and loopholes. Fusion GPS was paid by Perkins Coie which was paid by the Clinton campaignn and the DNC (because it was possiblke to give larger contributions to the DNC than to the Hillary Clinton campaign for president)
Now wait a second. He was hired to find out the real reason Putin was supporting Donald Trump. He did not get told the truth. Fusion GPS may have realized it was not the truth – the alllegations were all over the place for one thing, and may have attempted to use it anyway.
steele wasnb’t a foreign agent – he was aDemocraticParty agent, and almost certainly hid that from his Russian informants.
But te people who started it know that does not cancel the investigation.
They didn’t monitor the Trump campaign for any useful political information.
Some people were seeding that stuff.
It had none. That is a LIE told later by Fusion GPS when they tried to hide, and then confuse the issue of who paid for it.
Trump’s now almost saying it’s been determined by Mueller to be false (because he did not repeat any of these allegations in court documents. the dossier days Cohen cisited Prague to discuss hacking – no such thing is in court filings. The dossier says Russia helped the Trump organziation – no such thing.)
.
Sammy Finkelman (102c75) — 12/10/2018 @ 2:36 pmas a guest of the Iranian controlled Syrian government,
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/robert-fisk-jamal-khashoggi-trump-gina-haspel-cia-recordings-muslims-torture-yemen-a8670246.html
narciso (d1f714) — 12/10/2018 @ 3:18 pm“steele wasnb’t a foreign agent – he was a DemocraticParty agent, and almost certainly hid that from his Russian informants.”
Sammy… Steele is a former British intelligence agent and he is a British citizen.
Colonel Haiku (af8791) — 12/10/2018 @ 3:59 pm““Comey confirmed that controversial FBI lovers Peter Strzok and Lisa Page served both on the team investigating Hillary Clinton’s email practices and the team investigating Trump-Russia connections (p. 18)… Comey says he would not have allowed Strzok and Page to serve on the Hillary email investigation if he had known about their private communications (p. 18).
Analysis: This appears to be an acknowledgment that the FBI investigation was tainted, or has the appearance of being tainted, by bias.
… Comey said he doesn’t remember if the FBI asked State Department employee Bryan Pagliano who instructed him to set up Clinton’s unusual private server. Comey says he doesn’t remember who Paul Combetta is (pp. 199-201).
Note: Combetta was involved in maintaining at least one of Clinton’s private servers. He destroyed subpoenaed email evidence, then is said to have lied to the FBI about doing so.
Context: The FBI granted Pagliano, Combetta and other Clinton associates immunity from prosecution. Typically, immunity is granted in return for information to prosecute others, but no such information was obtained from the immunized officials in the Clinton email probe.
Comey says he doesn’t remember why the FBI granted Pagliano immunity (pp. 199-201).
Comey says he doesn’t know if the FBI interviewed State Department official Patrick Kennedy (p. 204).
Comey acknowledged that FBI general counsel James Baker originally believed it was appropriate to charge Hillary Clinton with violating various laws regarding the mishandling of classified information (p. 230).
Note: Baker later changed his mind.
“Comey confirmed that controversial FBI lovers Peter Strzok and Lisa Page served both on the team investigating Hillary Clinton’s email practices and the team investigating Trump-Russia connections (p. 18)… Comey says he would not have allowed Strzok and Page to serve on the Hillary email investigation if he had known about their private communications (p. 18).
Analysis: This appears to be an acknowledgment that the FBI investigation was tainted, or has the appearance of being tainted, by bias.
… Comey said he doesn’t remember if the FBI asked State Department employee Bryan Pagliano who instructed him to set up Clinton’s unusual private server. Comey says he doesn’t remember who Paul Combetta is (pp. 199-201).
Note: Combetta was involved in maintaining at least one of Clinton’s private servers. He destroyed subpoenaed email evidence, then is said to have lied to the FBI about doing so.
Context: The FBI granted Pagliano, Combetta and other Clinton associates immunity from prosecution. Typically, immunity is granted in return for information to prosecute others, but no such information was obtained from the immunized officials in the Clinton email probe.
Comey says he doesn’t remember why the FBI granted Pagliano immunity (pp. 199-201).
Comey says he doesn’t know if the FBI interviewed State Department official Patrick Kennedy (p. 204).
Comey acknowledged that FBI general counsel James Baker originally believed it was appropriate to charge Hillary Clinton with violating various laws regarding the mishandling of classified information (p. 230).
Note: Baker later changed his mind.
Comey says he sees no further reason to investigate Hillary Clinton’s handling of classified email and claims “There’s no serious person who thinks there’s a prosecutable case there”(p. 84).
https://www.theepochtimes.com/key-takeaways-from-james-comeys-testimony-before-congress_2734427.html
Colonel Haiku (af8791) — 12/10/2018 @ 4:09 pmWhoops
Colonel Haiku (af8791) — 12/10/2018 @ 4:11 pmthe amateurish and cowardly men and women of the corrupt comey fbi don’t even have the sense to be embarrassed
it’s just an unbelievably trash enterprise
happyfeet (28a91b) — 12/10/2018 @ 4:29 pmoops unbelievably *trashy* enterprise i mean
happyfeet (28a91b) — 12/10/2018 @ 4:30 pmActually the rank and file aren’t pikachu:
https://thehill.com/opinion/criminal-justice/420523-cohens-pleas-concocted-by-prosecutors-to-snare-trump
Narciso (d8447d) — 12/10/2018 @ 4:40 pmOh you say you didn’t know?
https://dailycaller.com/2018/12/10/michael-bloomberg-fraud-new-york/?fbclid=IwAR3dwK26M1IRSkza290iT9KV4U1A2PyzmPS61OTzOo6s41uayTh28H0lvKA
Narciso (d8447d) — 12/10/2018 @ 5:30 pmthe dirty rank and file of the fbi know they’re supporting a trashy corrupt enterprise and guess what they don’t care cause they’re sick people, sick and weak, these trashy men and women of the sordid sleazy fbi
they bring shame to their families
even now, at christmastime
happyfeet (28a91b) — 12/10/2018 @ 5:45 pmIndicted for a “Campaign Finance Violation” ?
LOL. Wipes tears from eyes.
Keeps on laughing.
rcocean (1a839e) — 12/10/2018 @ 7:51 pmComey, Ohr, Clinton, Steele, Ted Kennedy, Obama, etc.
Commit crimes and its “nothing to see here folks, move along”
Then with Trump – hey there MUST Be a crime here, somewhere. maybe if we look for 2 years we’ll find something.
rcocean (1a839e) — 12/10/2018 @ 7:53 pmHaiku,
Ms. Atkinson is a treasure and seems to be the last real journalist
NJRob (fa8906) — 12/10/2018 @ 8:30 pmRob, it’s like a mountain of evidence of wrongdoing by these bureaucrats on one side and against process crimes that normally would be punished by fines, if even that.
And where’s muh Russian Collusion?
Colonel Haiku (af8791) — 12/10/2018 @ 8:42 pmCarter herridge Atkinson among others
Narciso (d8447d) — 12/10/2018 @ 8:45 pmOh yeah Mollie Hemingway, is another.
Narciso (d8447d) — 12/10/2018 @ 8:56 pmThis raises some interesting questions… https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DuGpX4EW0AAyX8V?format=jpg&name=900×900
Colonel Haiku (af8791) — 12/10/2018 @ 10:31 pmOT but noteworthy, if only for some perspective…
Your tax dollars at work: Voyager 2 -the little spacecraft that could- still can.
Launched in August, 1977, it was the one of the pair of spacecraft which swept past Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus– finally departing our solar system after encountering Neptune in 1989, completing the ‘Grand Tour’ and beaming close-up photos and data of the outer planets home through the 1980’s.
Today, in late 2018, the spacecraft is currently just over 11 billion miles away– and the instruments still switched on aboard it remain operational; information radioed at the speed of light taking 16.5 hours to reach Earth. NASA/JPL announced today those instruments confirm Voyager 2, 41 years after it was launched from Cape Canaveral, left the heliosphere of our sun in November and is now literally travelling through interstellar space. It is the second man made object to accomplish this, after Voyager 1 reached that realm a few years ago.
Just amazing stuff… the specifics can be read on the NASA website.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 12/10/2018 @ 11:29 pmThey don’t make them like that anymore, DCSCA.
nk (9651fb) — 12/11/2018 @ 5:01 am