On December 13 2018 05:21 Plansix wrote: no, you asked me if I believed the investigation would have happened if Trump didn’t win. And then said they wouldn’t have happened.
On December 13 2018 02:39 GreenHorizons wrote: [quote] Is Flynn a "bad criminal" if he doesn't even go to prison?
He has a good lawyer and cut a plea deal, which is a good way to avoid prison. So he was smart enough to realize he was a bad criminal.
I suppose he could be a bad criminal and just that his crimes were insignificant.
Or he is more valuable as a witness to get far more impressive criminal actors.
We're pretty much down to Manafort as the only person really on the hook and granted I don't follow the nuance of this stuff very closely I don't think the two are really related?
Is there speculation as to what he would be saying about whom to the effect of what you're suggesting?
There are at least two other investigations not related to the Meuller investigation. And an unknown number of people on the Trump team. Given the level of exposure Trumps kids hav had, I bet a least Trump Jr might have some problems. And Jared may as well since he was looking for loans from foreign countries long before he started working for the government.
But we don’t know yet. A lot of it is under wraps. Flynn meet with Mueller 19 times, which is a whole lot more than is normal for a corporating witness.
If they aren't related to the Mueller investigation then it sounds like Trump's family is the opposite direction it would be going. I have mixed feelings about Trump winning and the government conspiring to finally hold his associates accountable for shit they did before that and would have been ignored if he lost.
Ok. He is helping the Meuller investigative and also helping two other unrelated investigations. He is helping all investigations. We don’t know who else will be charged with what at this time.
And the government didn’t conspire to hold him accountable after the fact. The investigation predated him winning. It just has taken the amount of time investigations take. Just like watergate.
You actually think this happens without Trump running and winning? Of course not. No one, literally no one, is surprised Trump and associates are criminals. The only reason anyone is getting held accountable (if that's what we're calling this) is they got out of pocket with the presidential run and win.
And then told me want I believed.
But the key part of the discussion is the winning. I said the investigations were ongoing before the election. I don’t know who this shifted to simply joining the campaign.
Given that Cohen just got sentenced, let's revisit some of the critical allegations in the Steele dossier:
It was one of the most incendiary allegations included in the Clinton-financed opposition research known as the Steele dossier – that Donald Trump’s fixer Michael Cohen met with “Kremlin officials” in Prague in 2016 to arrange payments to operatives hacking Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
Despite strong denials from Cohen, the claim has shadowed the president, inspiring and coloring the Russia investigation ever since. McClatchy reported in April that Special Counsel Robert Mueller had obtained evidence of the Prague trip and likely confirmed the secret meeting.
But a flurry of court filings by Mueller last week suggests that this story is false, a damaging piece of disinformation that has roiled the nation for two years.
Officials familiar with the case said the proof is in the lack of evidence in the 25 pages of court papers Mueller has filed on Cohen over the past two weeks. The alleged Prague visit is not evident in the plea agreement, the criminal information statement or the sentencing memorandum, none of which contain redactions.
In fact, language in the filings strongly indicates prosecutors have not found evidence to authenticate the Prague rumor, according to people familiar with the case, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information.
They point to the sentencing memo filed Friday, for starters. On page 5, Mueller stated that Cohen "has provided relevant and truthful information” about "his own contacts with Russian interests during the campaign” to prosecutors in their investigation of Russian election interference. Though Mueller details contacts Cohen made with various Russians, he offers no evidence he contacted Kremlin officials in Prague, as described in the dossier. The Czech city, in fact, is not cited in any of his filings, though Moscow, St. Petersburg, Davos and other cities are.
Prosecutors corroborated the information Cohen provided about his Russia contacts with evidence — including travel records — they seized from him.
In addition, Cohen pleaded guilty last month to a single count of providing false testimony to Congress related to a Moscow real estate venture – which suggests there was no reason for him to correct his September 2017 statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee claiming, “I have never in my life been to Prague or to anywhere in the Czech Republic.”
In that same sworn testimony, Cohen also categorically denied plotting with Russian officials to hack the election.
"I have never engaged with, been paid by, paid for, or conversed with any member of the Russian Federation or anyone else to hack or interfere with the election,” Cohen told the Senate. "I emphatically state that I had nothing to do with any Russian involvement in our electoral process.”
He added that he saw “not a hint of anything” that demonstrated Trump’s involvement in Russian interference in the election, either.
The Prague allegation is one of the most specific claims in the Steele dossier, a piece of opposition research compiled by former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele and paid for by the Clinton campaign. Although former FBI Director James Comey has called the dossier “salacious and unverified,” Mueller's team has relied on it as a road map in its investigation, and even traveled to London to debrief its author.
The Prague claim was cited in three unconfirmed, hearsay reports written by Steele between October and December 2016. They alleged that Cohen visited the Czech capital to clandestinely meet with "Kremlin officials” and hackers in August 2016 to arrange “deniable cash payments to hackers who had worked in Europe under Kremlin direction against the Clinton campaign.” The reports further state that “three colleagues” accompanied Cohen to Prague.
Cohen has offered his passport to show he has never traveled to Prague – nor even left the country during the time alleged.
Steele hasn't worked in Moscow since the 1990s and didn’t travel there to gather intelligence on Cohen or Trump firsthand. He relied on third-hand “friend of friend” sourcing.
The Prague rumor was sourced to an anonymous “friend" of an unnamed “Kremlin insider." If that claim of Russian origin is true, the Prague rumor stands as a highly successful piece of Russian disinformation channeled through the Clinton campaign.
The rumor has spawned more than 900 full stories on it or articles in which it was mentioned in the media since it first circulated more than two years ago, according to a search of the Nexis news database. The most sensational report was last April when a McClatchy report said Mueller had evidence that Cohen “secretly made a late-summer trip” there during the 2016 presidential campaign. “If Cohen met with Russians and hackers in Prague as described in the dossier,” the article stated, “it would provide perhaps the most compelling evidence to date that the Russians and Trump campaign aides were collaborating."
McClatchy’s story was based on two anonymous sources who do not appear to be from Mueller’s office, which tried to steer reporters off the story. After NBC and other major media could not confirm the story, one of its authors, Greg Gordon, told NBC he stood by it.
“We stand by it and, of course, we’ll find out what happens, presumably,” he said during the May interview. "If Michael Cohen ends up becoming a government witness, we might find out more.”
Gordon did not respond to questions checking whether he still stands by the story in light of Mueller's plea agreement with Cohen. His co-author, Peter Stone, could not be reached for comment.
Sources say that though Cohen may have lied about the timeline of a Moscow real estate venture, he appears to have been telling the truth about Prague.
“Cohen may be a convicted liar, but he’s not an agent of the Kremlin -- that much is now clear from the court pleadings,” said a U.S official with direct knowledge of the case.
He noted that Mueller’s failure to substantiate the Prague rumor deals a "devastating blow" to the credibility of the dossier, which was used by the FBI to justify spying on at least one Trump campaign aide. “That was pretty much the heart of the whole thing,” he said.
So let's summarize. The Steele dossier alleging Trump/Russia collusion claimed that Cohen went to Prague to collude with Russian officials. Cohen categorically denied that under oath. Mueller investigates. No charge is made that Cohen lied about the Prague trip or his other categorical denials about Russia collusion. Once again, the Steele dossier -- the document that justified the FISA warrants against Trump's people -- is proven to be false. Yet that hasn't stopped a variety of actors in government and the media from using it against Trump. Like I said, people are going to burn for this.
It was one of the most incendiary allegations included in the Clinton-financed opposition research known as the Steele dossier – that Donald Trump’s fixer Michael Cohen met with “Kremlin officials” in Prague in 2016 to arrange payments to operatives hacking Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
Despite strong denials from Cohen, the claim has shadowed the president, inspiring and coloring the Russia investigation ever since. McClatchy reported in April that Special Counsel Robert Mueller had obtained evidence of the Prague trip and likely confirmed the secret meeting.
But a flurry of court filings by Mueller last week suggests that this story is false, a damaging piece of disinformation that has roiled the nation for two years.
Officials familiar with the case said the proof is in the lack of evidence in the 25 pages of court papers Mueller has filed on Cohen over the past two weeks. The alleged Prague visit is not evident in the plea agreement, the criminal information statement or the sentencing memorandum, none of which contain redactions.
In fact, language in the filings strongly indicates prosecutors have not found evidence to authenticate the Prague rumor, according to people familiar with the case, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information.
They point to the sentencing memo filed Friday, for starters. On page 5, Mueller stated that Cohen "has provided relevant and truthful information” about "his own contacts with Russian interests during the campaign” to prosecutors in their investigation of Russian election interference. Though Mueller details contacts Cohen made with various Russians, he offers no evidence he contacted Kremlin officials in Prague, as described in the dossier. The Czech city, in fact, is not cited in any of his filings, though Moscow, St. Petersburg, Davos and other cities are.
Prosecutors corroborated the information Cohen provided about his Russia contacts with evidence — including travel records — they seized from him.
In addition, Cohen pleaded guilty last month to a single count of providing false testimony to Congress related to a Moscow real estate venture – which suggests there was no reason for him to correct his September 2017 statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee claiming, “I have never in my life been to Prague or to anywhere in the Czech Republic.”
In that same sworn testimony, Cohen also categorically denied plotting with Russian officials to hack the election.
"I have never engaged with, been paid by, paid for, or conversed with any member of the Russian Federation or anyone else to hack or interfere with the election,” Cohen told the Senate. "I emphatically state that I had nothing to do with any Russian involvement in our electoral process.”
He added that he saw “not a hint of anything” that demonstrated Trump’s involvement in Russian interference in the election, either.
The Prague allegation is one of the most specific claims in the Steele dossier, a piece of opposition research compiled by former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele and paid for by the Clinton campaign. Although former FBI Director James Comey has called the dossier “salacious and unverified,” Mueller's team has relied on it as a road map in its investigation, and even traveled to London to debrief its author.
The Prague claim was cited in three unconfirmed, hearsay reports written by Steele between October and December 2016. They alleged that Cohen visited the Czech capital to clandestinely meet with "Kremlin officials” and hackers in August 2016 to arrange “deniable cash payments to hackers who had worked in Europe under Kremlin direction against the Clinton campaign.” The reports further state that “three colleagues” accompanied Cohen to Prague.
Cohen has offered his passport to show he has never traveled to Prague – nor even left the country during the time alleged.
Steele hasn't worked in Moscow since the 1990s and didn’t travel there to gather intelligence on Cohen or Trump firsthand. He relied on third-hand “friend of friend” sourcing.
The Prague rumor was sourced to an anonymous “friend" of an unnamed “Kremlin insider." If that claim of Russian origin is true, the Prague rumor stands as a highly successful piece of Russian disinformation channeled through the Clinton campaign.
The rumor has spawned more than 900 full stories on it or articles in which it was mentioned in the media since it first circulated more than two years ago, according to a search of the Nexis news database. The most sensational report was last April when a McClatchy report said Mueller had evidence that Cohen “secretly made a late-summer trip” there during the 2016 presidential campaign. “If Cohen met with Russians and hackers in Prague as described in the dossier,” the article stated, “it would provide perhaps the most compelling evidence to date that the Russians and Trump campaign aides were collaborating."
McClatchy’s story was based on two anonymous sources who do not appear to be from Mueller’s office, which tried to steer reporters off the story. After NBC and other major media could not confirm the story, one of its authors, Greg Gordon, told NBC he stood by it.
“We stand by it and, of course, we’ll find out what happens, presumably,” he said during the May interview. "If Michael Cohen ends up becoming a government witness, we might find out more.”
Gordon did not respond to questions checking whether he still stands by the story in light of Mueller's plea agreement with Cohen. His co-author, Peter Stone, could not be reached for comment.
Sources say that though Cohen may have lied about the timeline of a Moscow real estate venture, he appears to have been telling the truth about Prague.
“Cohen may be a convicted liar, but he’s not an agent of the Kremlin -- that much is now clear from the court pleadings,” said a U.S official with direct knowledge of the case.
He noted that Mueller’s failure to substantiate the Prague rumor deals a "devastating blow" to the credibility of the dossier, which was used by the FBI to justify spying on at least one Trump campaign aide. “That was pretty much the heart of the whole thing,” he said.
So let's summarize. The Steele dossier alleging Trump/Russia collusion claimed that Cohen went to Prague to collude with Russian officials. Cohen categorically denied that under oath. Mueller investigates. No charge is made that Cohen lied about the Prague trip or his other categorical denials about Russia collusion. Once again, the Steele dossier -- the document that justified the FISA warrants against Trump's people -- is proven to be false. Yet that hasn't stopped a variety of actors in government and the media from using it against Trump. Like I said, people are going to burn for this.
The same reasons Trump's cronies aren't doing any serious time will insulate all the people accountable for any misdoings you're referencing. That Guardian story on Manafort and Assange is looking to have been bullshit too best I can tell at the moment.
On December 13 2018 05:36 xDaunt wrote: Given that Cohen just got sentenced, let's revisit some of the critical allegations in the Steele dossier:
It was one of the most incendiary allegations included in the Clinton-financed opposition research known as the Steele dossier – that Donald Trump’s fixer Michael Cohen met with “Kremlin officials” in Prague in 2016 to arrange payments to operatives hacking Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
Despite strong denials from Cohen, the claim has shadowed the president, inspiring and coloring the Russia investigation ever since. McClatchy reported in April that Special Counsel Robert Mueller had obtained evidence of the Prague trip and likely confirmed the secret meeting.
But a flurry of court filings by Mueller last week suggests that this story is false, a damaging piece of disinformation that has roiled the nation for two years.
Officials familiar with the case said the proof is in the lack of evidence in the 25 pages of court papers Mueller has filed on Cohen over the past two weeks. The alleged Prague visit is not evident in the plea agreement, the criminal information statement or the sentencing memorandum, none of which contain redactions.
In fact, language in the filings strongly indicates prosecutors have not found evidence to authenticate the Prague rumor, according to people familiar with the case, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information.
They point to the sentencing memo filed Friday, for starters. On page 5, Mueller stated that Cohen "has provided relevant and truthful information” about "his own contacts with Russian interests during the campaign” to prosecutors in their investigation of Russian election interference. Though Mueller details contacts Cohen made with various Russians, he offers no evidence he contacted Kremlin officials in Prague, as described in the dossier. The Czech city, in fact, is not cited in any of his filings, though Moscow, St. Petersburg, Davos and other cities are.
Prosecutors corroborated the information Cohen provided about his Russia contacts with evidence — including travel records — they seized from him.
In addition, Cohen pleaded guilty last month to a single count of providing false testimony to Congress related to a Moscow real estate venture – which suggests there was no reason for him to correct his September 2017 statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee claiming, “I have never in my life been to Prague or to anywhere in the Czech Republic.”
In that same sworn testimony, Cohen also categorically denied plotting with Russian officials to hack the election.
"I have never engaged with, been paid by, paid for, or conversed with any member of the Russian Federation or anyone else to hack or interfere with the election,” Cohen told the Senate. "I emphatically state that I had nothing to do with any Russian involvement in our electoral process.”
He added that he saw “not a hint of anything” that demonstrated Trump’s involvement in Russian interference in the election, either.
The Prague allegation is one of the most specific claims in the Steele dossier, a piece of opposition research compiled by former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele and paid for by the Clinton campaign. Although former FBI Director James Comey has called the dossier “salacious and unverified,” Mueller's team has relied on it as a road map in its investigation, and even traveled to London to debrief its author.
The Prague claim was cited in three unconfirmed, hearsay reports written by Steele between October and December 2016. They alleged that Cohen visited the Czech capital to clandestinely meet with "Kremlin officials” and hackers in August 2016 to arrange “deniable cash payments to hackers who had worked in Europe under Kremlin direction against the Clinton campaign.” The reports further state that “three colleagues” accompanied Cohen to Prague.
Cohen has offered his passport to show he has never traveled to Prague – nor even left the country during the time alleged.
Steele hasn't worked in Moscow since the 1990s and didn’t travel there to gather intelligence on Cohen or Trump firsthand. He relied on third-hand “friend of friend” sourcing.
The Prague rumor was sourced to an anonymous “friend" of an unnamed “Kremlin insider." If that claim of Russian origin is true, the Prague rumor stands as a highly successful piece of Russian disinformation channeled through the Clinton campaign.
The rumor has spawned more than 900 full stories on it or articles in which it was mentioned in the media since it first circulated more than two years ago, according to a search of the Nexis news database. The most sensational report was last April when a McClatchy report said Mueller had evidence that Cohen “secretly made a late-summer trip” there during the 2016 presidential campaign. “If Cohen met with Russians and hackers in Prague as described in the dossier,” the article stated, “it would provide perhaps the most compelling evidence to date that the Russians and Trump campaign aides were collaborating."
McClatchy’s story was based on two anonymous sources who do not appear to be from Mueller’s office, which tried to steer reporters off the story. After NBC and other major media could not confirm the story, one of its authors, Greg Gordon, told NBC he stood by it.
“We stand by it and, of course, we’ll find out what happens, presumably,” he said during the May interview. "If Michael Cohen ends up becoming a government witness, we might find out more.”
Gordon did not respond to questions checking whether he still stands by the story in light of Mueller's plea agreement with Cohen. His co-author, Peter Stone, could not be reached for comment.
Sources say that though Cohen may have lied about the timeline of a Moscow real estate venture, he appears to have been telling the truth about Prague.
“Cohen may be a convicted liar, but he’s not an agent of the Kremlin -- that much is now clear from the court pleadings,” said a U.S official with direct knowledge of the case.
He noted that Mueller’s failure to substantiate the Prague rumor deals a "devastating blow" to the credibility of the dossier, which was used by the FBI to justify spying on at least one Trump campaign aide. “That was pretty much the heart of the whole thing,” he said.
So let's summarize. The Steele dossier alleging Trump/Russia collusion claimed that Cohen went to Prague to collude with Russian officials. Cohen categorically denied that under oath. Mueller investigates. No charge is made that Cohen lied about the Prague trip or his other categorical denials about Russia collusion. Once again, the Steele dossier -- the document that justified the FISA warrants against Trump's people -- is proven to be false. Yet that hasn't stopped a variety of actors in government and the media from using it against Trump. Like I said, people are going to burn for this.
The same reasons Trump's cronies aren't doing any serious time will insulate all the people accountable for any misdoings you're referencing. That Guardian story on Manafort and Assange is looking to have been bullshit too best I can tell at the moment.
I wouldn't be so sure about these people not getting prosecuted. It was already reported earlier in the year that a grand jury had been opened to look into McCabe. Those sealed indictments referenced earlier could include one for him and the other FBI/DOJ officials who are implicated in this mess (none of whom still work for the FBI/DOJ other than Rosenstein). Or those sealed indictments could have something to do with this:
A trove of documents on the Clinton Foundation alleging possible pay for play and tax evasion have been turned over to the FBI and IRS by several investigative whistleblowers, who will be testifying in an open hearing before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Thursday, according to the committee and lawmakers.
Roughly 6,000 documents that are expected to reveal the nearly two year investigation by the whistleblowers with a private firm called MDA Analytics LLC, which allegedly turned over the documents more than a year and half ago to the IRS, according to John Solomon, who first published the report last week in The Hill.
The whistleblowers are former federal criminal investigators, who allege that the Clinton Foundation was “engaged in illegal activities and may be liable for millions of dollars in delinquent taxes and penalties,” according to Solomon.
The Department of Justice and the FBI’s Little Rock, Ark. field office, which is believed to be investigating the foundation, have allegedly obtained the documentation from the whistleblowers as well, according to lawmakers who’ve spoken with the whistleblowers.
Clinton Foundation officials could not be immediately reached for comment.
However, a former whistleblower, who has spoke with agents from the Little Rock FBI field office last year and worked for years as an undercover informant collecting information on Russia’s nuclear energy industry for the bureau, noted his enormous frustration with the DOJ and FBI. He describes as a two-tiered justice system that failed to actively investigate the information he provided years ago on the Clinton Foundation and Russia’s dangerous meddling with the U.S. nuclear industry and energy industry during the Obama administration.
William D. Campbell’s story was first published by this reporter in 2017. He turned over more than 5,000 documents and detailed daily briefs to the bureau when he served as a confidential informant reporting on Russia’s nuclear giant Rosatom. Campbell worked as an energy consultant, gaining the trust of Russians and providing significant insight into Russia’s strategic plans to gain global dominance in the uranium industry. He reported on Russian’s intentions to build a closer relationship with Obama administration officials, to include then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, as reported. The documents he turned over to the DOJ, which were reviewed by this news site, showed Campbell had also provided highly sensitive information both related to the uranium case, as well as other intelligence matters, since 2006.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller was the director of the FBI at the time Campbell was a confidential informant and according to Campbell the information was briefed to Mueller by his FBI handlers. “(Mueller) received the documents, copies of which I still have, over a period of years and ignored a national security threat to the United States because of his political preference,” said Campbell, who said he is frustrated that the investigation into the Clinton Foundation and the other information he provided was apparently ignored years ago.
“These men were in charge of transport of nuclear materials (inside the United States) while committing criminal activity here in the United States and signing major US utility contracts,” said Campbell, referring to the information he provided the FBI on the American company Transportation Logistics International, also known as TLI, was the primary transport company for Russian enriched uranium sold to the United States.
“One tea cup of what they were transporting both domestically and abroad could close down Wall Street or Washington,” Campbell warned. “(Mueller) ignored and delayed their arrests over years while I was risking my life undercover and interacting with these (Vladimir) Putin appointees both here in the United States and overseas.”
But Rep. Mark Meadows, chairman of the Freedom Caucus and member of the committee, said this time it will be different. He noted that the investigation is apparently ongoing with the FBI and DOJ and believes the information being delivered for Thursday’s hearing to be ‘explosive’ in nature and may help connect the dots.
Meadow’s told Fox New’s Martha MaCallum Tuesday, “the American people, they want to bring some closure, not just a few sound bites, here or there, so we’re going to be having a hearing this week, not only covering over some of those 6,000 pages that you’re talking about, but hearing directly from three whistleblowers that have actually spent the majority of the last two years investigating this.”
Meadows, who’s also on President Donald Trump’s short-list to replace Chief of Staff Gen. John Kelly, noted that some “allegations (whistleblowers) make are quite explosive.”
“We just look at the contributions. Now everybody’s focused on the contributions for the Clinton Foundation and what has happened just in the last year,” he said. “But if you look at it, it had a very strong rise, the minute she was selected as secretary of state. It dipped down when she was no longer there.”
“And then rose again, when she decided to run for president. So there’s all kinds of allegations of pay-to-play and that kind of thing,” Meadows added.
We'll see what these whistleblowers have to say, but I'll be very disappointed if all of this fuss is over a few technical violations of nonprofit laws.
I'll give you credit, you've got stamina. I'd have thought by now it'd be obvious that this thing's not sinking Clinton, and it's highly likely that if she did do something wrong, it's mostly going to be technical violations. Hope springs eternal and all that, but I think it's a very slim hope.
On December 12 2018 13:49 xDaunt wrote: So does anyone else think it odd that Trump had this impromptu televised meeting with Pelosi and Schumer today where he made a point of threatening to shut down the government over wall funding (something he has toyed with previously)? It was a notably aggressive move to make at this particular point in time.
From reports he wanted it to be a photo op and tried send the cameras/press away. But Pelosi and Chuck sort of knew they were going to get ambushed(the meeting was supposed to be closed door) and talked to the press. Trump loses control of the whole thing when Pelosi calls it a Trump shut down and dares him to pass the bill out of the house. Trump got played pretty hard
Every time Trump does something stupid people say he got played hard, but I'll believe it when I see it.
The people who think (realize?) Trump is a moron think he got played hard and it looked really bad for him to threaten to shut down the government like a baby over a stupid, expensive, and ineffective wall.
On the other hand, the people who are at least somewhat supportive of Trump probably saw it as him fighting hard against the evil dems to protect the country and fulfill a campaign promise.
After all that we've been through and all the shit that Trump has pulled, I'll believe that "stupid stunt #1480" made an actual difference in people's minds when I see it with my own two eyes.
My honest opinion of this stunt is that Trump was in control the entire time. He chose for it to be a public shitshow, he obviously knew what Pelosi/Shumer were gonna say. Even though I think Trump is monumentally stupid, I do believe that he has an instinctual ability to make things appear as he wants them to (at least when he's in complete control). Even little things like the fact that he was facing the cameras but Pelosi/Shumer were facing away, all that shit is the type of stuff Trump excels at. He's been living and breathing publicity stunts his entire life.
The critical mistake that Pelosi and Schumer made is that they let Trump frame the shutdown as a shutdown over border security. Stated another way, the government is going to shutdown because the Democrats don’t care about border security. The significance of this framing is eventually going to dawn on the Democrats, but make no mistake, Trump won yesterday.
In other news, people who are hardcore Trump supporters think it looks good for Trump, and people who aren't, don't.
Trump didn't win a thing until the shutdown's happened and we find out where the public opinion falls. He framed it in a way that makes you think he's awesome, but you've made it clear that there's very little he can do that you won't consider to be a positive (see: sending the army to the border to deal with a caravan of migrants and then sending them home again without actually doing anything). If the upshot of all this is that Trump does a shutdown and it undermines general public confidence in him (more than it's already undermined) that won't be a win.
If no shutdown happens then it's just words that mean nothing.
On December 13 2018 05:36 xDaunt wrote: Given that Cohen just got sentenced, let's revisit some of the critical allegations in the Steele dossier:
It was one of the most incendiary allegations included in the Clinton-financed opposition research known as the Steele dossier – that Donald Trump’s fixer Michael Cohen met with “Kremlin officials” in Prague in 2016 to arrange payments to operatives hacking Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
Despite strong denials from Cohen, the claim has shadowed the president, inspiring and coloring the Russia investigation ever since. McClatchy reported in April that Special Counsel Robert Mueller had obtained evidence of the Prague trip and likely confirmed the secret meeting.
But a flurry of court filings by Mueller last week suggests that this story is false, a damaging piece of disinformation that has roiled the nation for two years.
Officials familiar with the case said the proof is in the lack of evidence in the 25 pages of court papers Mueller has filed on Cohen over the past two weeks. The alleged Prague visit is not evident in the plea agreement, the criminal information statement or the sentencing memorandum, none of which contain redactions.
In fact, language in the filings strongly indicates prosecutors have not found evidence to authenticate the Prague rumor, according to people familiar with the case, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information.
They point to the sentencing memo filed Friday, for starters. On page 5, Mueller stated that Cohen "has provided relevant and truthful information” about "his own contacts with Russian interests during the campaign” to prosecutors in their investigation of Russian election interference. Though Mueller details contacts Cohen made with various Russians, he offers no evidence he contacted Kremlin officials in Prague, as described in the dossier. The Czech city, in fact, is not cited in any of his filings, though Moscow, St. Petersburg, Davos and other cities are.
Prosecutors corroborated the information Cohen provided about his Russia contacts with evidence — including travel records — they seized from him.
In addition, Cohen pleaded guilty last month to a single count of providing false testimony to Congress related to a Moscow real estate venture – which suggests there was no reason for him to correct his September 2017 statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee claiming, “I have never in my life been to Prague or to anywhere in the Czech Republic.”
In that same sworn testimony, Cohen also categorically denied plotting with Russian officials to hack the election.
"I have never engaged with, been paid by, paid for, or conversed with any member of the Russian Federation or anyone else to hack or interfere with the election,” Cohen told the Senate. "I emphatically state that I had nothing to do with any Russian involvement in our electoral process.”
He added that he saw “not a hint of anything” that demonstrated Trump’s involvement in Russian interference in the election, either.
The Prague allegation is one of the most specific claims in the Steele dossier, a piece of opposition research compiled by former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele and paid for by the Clinton campaign. Although former FBI Director James Comey has called the dossier “salacious and unverified,” Mueller's team has relied on it as a road map in its investigation, and even traveled to London to debrief its author.
The Prague claim was cited in three unconfirmed, hearsay reports written by Steele between October and December 2016. They alleged that Cohen visited the Czech capital to clandestinely meet with "Kremlin officials” and hackers in August 2016 to arrange “deniable cash payments to hackers who had worked in Europe under Kremlin direction against the Clinton campaign.” The reports further state that “three colleagues” accompanied Cohen to Prague.
Cohen has offered his passport to show he has never traveled to Prague – nor even left the country during the time alleged.
Steele hasn't worked in Moscow since the 1990s and didn’t travel there to gather intelligence on Cohen or Trump firsthand. He relied on third-hand “friend of friend” sourcing.
The Prague rumor was sourced to an anonymous “friend" of an unnamed “Kremlin insider." If that claim of Russian origin is true, the Prague rumor stands as a highly successful piece of Russian disinformation channeled through the Clinton campaign.
The rumor has spawned more than 900 full stories on it or articles in which it was mentioned in the media since it first circulated more than two years ago, according to a search of the Nexis news database. The most sensational report was last April when a McClatchy report said Mueller had evidence that Cohen “secretly made a late-summer trip” there during the 2016 presidential campaign. “If Cohen met with Russians and hackers in Prague as described in the dossier,” the article stated, “it would provide perhaps the most compelling evidence to date that the Russians and Trump campaign aides were collaborating."
McClatchy’s story was based on two anonymous sources who do not appear to be from Mueller’s office, which tried to steer reporters off the story. After NBC and other major media could not confirm the story, one of its authors, Greg Gordon, told NBC he stood by it.
“We stand by it and, of course, we’ll find out what happens, presumably,” he said during the May interview. "If Michael Cohen ends up becoming a government witness, we might find out more.”
Gordon did not respond to questions checking whether he still stands by the story in light of Mueller's plea agreement with Cohen. His co-author, Peter Stone, could not be reached for comment.
Sources say that though Cohen may have lied about the timeline of a Moscow real estate venture, he appears to have been telling the truth about Prague.
“Cohen may be a convicted liar, but he’s not an agent of the Kremlin -- that much is now clear from the court pleadings,” said a U.S official with direct knowledge of the case.
He noted that Mueller’s failure to substantiate the Prague rumor deals a "devastating blow" to the credibility of the dossier, which was used by the FBI to justify spying on at least one Trump campaign aide. “That was pretty much the heart of the whole thing,” he said.
So let's summarize. The Steele dossier alleging Trump/Russia collusion claimed that Cohen went to Prague to collude with Russian officials. Cohen categorically denied that under oath. Mueller investigates. No charge is made that Cohen lied about the Prague trip or his other categorical denials about Russia collusion. Once again, the Steele dossier -- the document that justified the FISA warrants against Trump's people -- is proven to be false. Yet that hasn't stopped a variety of actors in government and the media from using it against Trump. Like I said, people are going to burn for this.
The same reasons Trump's cronies aren't doing any serious time will insulate all the people accountable for any misdoings you're referencing. That Guardian story on Manafort and Assange is looking to have been bullshit too best I can tell at the moment.
I wouldn't be so sure about these people not getting prosecuted. It was already reported earlier in the year that a grand jury had been opened to look into McCabe. Those sealed indictments referenced earlier could include one for him and the other FBI/DOJ officials who are implicated in this mess (none of whom still work for the FBI/DOJ other than Rosenstein). Or those sealed indictments could have something to do with this:
A trove of documents on the Clinton Foundation alleging possible pay for play and tax evasion have been turned over to the FBI and IRS by several investigative whistleblowers, who will be testifying in an open hearing before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Thursday, according to the committee and lawmakers.
Roughly 6,000 documents that are expected to reveal the nearly two year investigation by the whistleblowers with a private firm called MDA Analytics LLC, which allegedly turned over the documents more than a year and half ago to the IRS, according to John Solomon, who first published the report last week in The Hill.
The whistleblowers are former federal criminal investigators, who allege that the Clinton Foundation was “engaged in illegal activities and may be liable for millions of dollars in delinquent taxes and penalties,” according to Solomon.
The Department of Justice and the FBI’s Little Rock, Ark. field office, which is believed to be investigating the foundation, have allegedly obtained the documentation from the whistleblowers as well, according to lawmakers who’ve spoken with the whistleblowers.
Clinton Foundation officials could not be immediately reached for comment.
However, a former whistleblower, who has spoke with agents from the Little Rock FBI field office last year and worked for years as an undercover informant collecting information on Russia’s nuclear energy industry for the bureau, noted his enormous frustration with the DOJ and FBI. He describes as a two-tiered justice system that failed to actively investigate the information he provided years ago on the Clinton Foundation and Russia’s dangerous meddling with the U.S. nuclear industry and energy industry during the Obama administration.
William D. Campbell’s story was first published by this reporter in 2017. He turned over more than 5,000 documents and detailed daily briefs to the bureau when he served as a confidential informant reporting on Russia’s nuclear giant Rosatom. Campbell worked as an energy consultant, gaining the trust of Russians and providing significant insight into Russia’s strategic plans to gain global dominance in the uranium industry. He reported on Russian’s intentions to build a closer relationship with Obama administration officials, to include then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, as reported. The documents he turned over to the DOJ, which were reviewed by this news site, showed Campbell had also provided highly sensitive information both related to the uranium case, as well as other intelligence matters, since 2006.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller was the director of the FBI at the time Campbell was a confidential informant and according to Campbell the information was briefed to Mueller by his FBI handlers. “(Mueller) received the documents, copies of which I still have, over a period of years and ignored a national security threat to the United States because of his political preference,” said Campbell, who said he is frustrated that the investigation into the Clinton Foundation and the other information he provided was apparently ignored years ago.
“These men were in charge of transport of nuclear materials (inside the United States) while committing criminal activity here in the United States and signing major US utility contracts,” said Campbell, referring to the information he provided the FBI on the American company Transportation Logistics International, also known as TLI, was the primary transport company for Russian enriched uranium sold to the United States.
“One tea cup of what they were transporting both domestically and abroad could close down Wall Street or Washington,” Campbell warned. “(Mueller) ignored and delayed their arrests over years while I was risking my life undercover and interacting with these (Vladimir) Putin appointees both here in the United States and overseas.”
But Rep. Mark Meadows, chairman of the Freedom Caucus and member of the committee, said this time it will be different. He noted that the investigation is apparently ongoing with the FBI and DOJ and believes the information being delivered for Thursday’s hearing to be ‘explosive’ in nature and may help connect the dots.
Meadow’s told Fox New’s Martha MaCallum Tuesday, “the American people, they want to bring some closure, not just a few sound bites, here or there, so we’re going to be having a hearing this week, not only covering over some of those 6,000 pages that you’re talking about, but hearing directly from three whistleblowers that have actually spent the majority of the last two years investigating this.”
Meadows, who’s also on President Donald Trump’s short-list to replace Chief of Staff Gen. John Kelly, noted that some “allegations (whistleblowers) make are quite explosive.”
“We just look at the contributions. Now everybody’s focused on the contributions for the Clinton Foundation and what has happened just in the last year,” he said. “But if you look at it, it had a very strong rise, the minute she was selected as secretary of state. It dipped down when she was no longer there.”
“And then rose again, when she decided to run for president. So there’s all kinds of allegations of pay-to-play and that kind of thing,” Meadows added.
We'll see what these whistleblowers have to say, but I'll be very disappointed if all of this fuss is over a few technical violations of nonprofit laws.
Do you credit the NYT story regarding trump family tax evasion?
On December 13 2018 05:36 xDaunt wrote: Given that Cohen just got sentenced, let's revisit some of the critical allegations in the Steele dossier:
It was one of the most incendiary allegations included in the Clinton-financed opposition research known as the Steele dossier – that Donald Trump’s fixer Michael Cohen met with “Kremlin officials” in Prague in 2016 to arrange payments to operatives hacking Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
Despite strong denials from Cohen, the claim has shadowed the president, inspiring and coloring the Russia investigation ever since. McClatchy reported in April that Special Counsel Robert Mueller had obtained evidence of the Prague trip and likely confirmed the secret meeting.
But a flurry of court filings by Mueller last week suggests that this story is false, a damaging piece of disinformation that has roiled the nation for two years.
Officials familiar with the case said the proof is in the lack of evidence in the 25 pages of court papers Mueller has filed on Cohen over the past two weeks. The alleged Prague visit is not evident in the plea agreement, the criminal information statement or the sentencing memorandum, none of which contain redactions.
In fact, language in the filings strongly indicates prosecutors have not found evidence to authenticate the Prague rumor, according to people familiar with the case, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information.
They point to the sentencing memo filed Friday, for starters. On page 5, Mueller stated that Cohen "has provided relevant and truthful information” about "his own contacts with Russian interests during the campaign” to prosecutors in their investigation of Russian election interference. Though Mueller details contacts Cohen made with various Russians, he offers no evidence he contacted Kremlin officials in Prague, as described in the dossier. The Czech city, in fact, is not cited in any of his filings, though Moscow, St. Petersburg, Davos and other cities are.
Prosecutors corroborated the information Cohen provided about his Russia contacts with evidence — including travel records — they seized from him.
In addition, Cohen pleaded guilty last month to a single count of providing false testimony to Congress related to a Moscow real estate venture – which suggests there was no reason for him to correct his September 2017 statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee claiming, “I have never in my life been to Prague or to anywhere in the Czech Republic.”
In that same sworn testimony, Cohen also categorically denied plotting with Russian officials to hack the election.
"I have never engaged with, been paid by, paid for, or conversed with any member of the Russian Federation or anyone else to hack or interfere with the election,” Cohen told the Senate. "I emphatically state that I had nothing to do with any Russian involvement in our electoral process.”
He added that he saw “not a hint of anything” that demonstrated Trump’s involvement in Russian interference in the election, either.
The Prague allegation is one of the most specific claims in the Steele dossier, a piece of opposition research compiled by former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele and paid for by the Clinton campaign. Although former FBI Director James Comey has called the dossier “salacious and unverified,” Mueller's team has relied on it as a road map in its investigation, and even traveled to London to debrief its author.
The Prague claim was cited in three unconfirmed, hearsay reports written by Steele between October and December 2016. They alleged that Cohen visited the Czech capital to clandestinely meet with "Kremlin officials” and hackers in August 2016 to arrange “deniable cash payments to hackers who had worked in Europe under Kremlin direction against the Clinton campaign.” The reports further state that “three colleagues” accompanied Cohen to Prague.
Cohen has offered his passport to show he has never traveled to Prague – nor even left the country during the time alleged.
Steele hasn't worked in Moscow since the 1990s and didn’t travel there to gather intelligence on Cohen or Trump firsthand. He relied on third-hand “friend of friend” sourcing.
The Prague rumor was sourced to an anonymous “friend" of an unnamed “Kremlin insider." If that claim of Russian origin is true, the Prague rumor stands as a highly successful piece of Russian disinformation channeled through the Clinton campaign.
The rumor has spawned more than 900 full stories on it or articles in which it was mentioned in the media since it first circulated more than two years ago, according to a search of the Nexis news database. The most sensational report was last April when a McClatchy report said Mueller had evidence that Cohen “secretly made a late-summer trip” there during the 2016 presidential campaign. “If Cohen met with Russians and hackers in Prague as described in the dossier,” the article stated, “it would provide perhaps the most compelling evidence to date that the Russians and Trump campaign aides were collaborating."
McClatchy’s story was based on two anonymous sources who do not appear to be from Mueller’s office, which tried to steer reporters off the story. After NBC and other major media could not confirm the story, one of its authors, Greg Gordon, told NBC he stood by it.
“We stand by it and, of course, we’ll find out what happens, presumably,” he said during the May interview. "If Michael Cohen ends up becoming a government witness, we might find out more.”
Gordon did not respond to questions checking whether he still stands by the story in light of Mueller's plea agreement with Cohen. His co-author, Peter Stone, could not be reached for comment.
Sources say that though Cohen may have lied about the timeline of a Moscow real estate venture, he appears to have been telling the truth about Prague.
“Cohen may be a convicted liar, but he’s not an agent of the Kremlin -- that much is now clear from the court pleadings,” said a U.S official with direct knowledge of the case.
He noted that Mueller’s failure to substantiate the Prague rumor deals a "devastating blow" to the credibility of the dossier, which was used by the FBI to justify spying on at least one Trump campaign aide. “That was pretty much the heart of the whole thing,” he said.
So let's summarize. The Steele dossier alleging Trump/Russia collusion claimed that Cohen went to Prague to collude with Russian officials. Cohen categorically denied that under oath. Mueller investigates. No charge is made that Cohen lied about the Prague trip or his other categorical denials about Russia collusion. Once again, the Steele dossier -- the document that justified the FISA warrants against Trump's people -- is proven to be false. Yet that hasn't stopped a variety of actors in government and the media from using it against Trump. Like I said, people are going to burn for this.
The same reasons Trump's cronies aren't doing any serious time will insulate all the people accountable for any misdoings you're referencing. That Guardian story on Manafort and Assange is looking to have been bullshit too best I can tell at the moment.
I wouldn't be so sure about these people not getting prosecuted. It was already reported earlier in the year that a grand jury had been opened to look into McCabe. Those sealed indictments referenced earlier could include one for him and the other FBI/DOJ officials who are implicated in this mess (none of whom still work for the FBI/DOJ other than Rosenstein). Or those sealed indictments could have something to do with this:
A trove of documents on the Clinton Foundation alleging possible pay for play and tax evasion have been turned over to the FBI and IRS by several investigative whistleblowers, who will be testifying in an open hearing before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Thursday, according to the committee and lawmakers.
Roughly 6,000 documents that are expected to reveal the nearly two year investigation by the whistleblowers with a private firm called MDA Analytics LLC, which allegedly turned over the documents more than a year and half ago to the IRS, according to John Solomon, who first published the report last week in The Hill.
The whistleblowers are former federal criminal investigators, who allege that the Clinton Foundation was “engaged in illegal activities and may be liable for millions of dollars in delinquent taxes and penalties,” according to Solomon.
The Department of Justice and the FBI’s Little Rock, Ark. field office, which is believed to be investigating the foundation, have allegedly obtained the documentation from the whistleblowers as well, according to lawmakers who’ve spoken with the whistleblowers.
Clinton Foundation officials could not be immediately reached for comment.
However, a former whistleblower, who has spoke with agents from the Little Rock FBI field office last year and worked for years as an undercover informant collecting information on Russia’s nuclear energy industry for the bureau, noted his enormous frustration with the DOJ and FBI. He describes as a two-tiered justice system that failed to actively investigate the information he provided years ago on the Clinton Foundation and Russia’s dangerous meddling with the U.S. nuclear industry and energy industry during the Obama administration.
William D. Campbell’s story was first published by this reporter in 2017. He turned over more than 5,000 documents and detailed daily briefs to the bureau when he served as a confidential informant reporting on Russia’s nuclear giant Rosatom. Campbell worked as an energy consultant, gaining the trust of Russians and providing significant insight into Russia’s strategic plans to gain global dominance in the uranium industry. He reported on Russian’s intentions to build a closer relationship with Obama administration officials, to include then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, as reported. The documents he turned over to the DOJ, which were reviewed by this news site, showed Campbell had also provided highly sensitive information both related to the uranium case, as well as other intelligence matters, since 2006.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller was the director of the FBI at the time Campbell was a confidential informant and according to Campbell the information was briefed to Mueller by his FBI handlers. “(Mueller) received the documents, copies of which I still have, over a period of years and ignored a national security threat to the United States because of his political preference,” said Campbell, who said he is frustrated that the investigation into the Clinton Foundation and the other information he provided was apparently ignored years ago.
“These men were in charge of transport of nuclear materials (inside the United States) while committing criminal activity here in the United States and signing major US utility contracts,” said Campbell, referring to the information he provided the FBI on the American company Transportation Logistics International, also known as TLI, was the primary transport company for Russian enriched uranium sold to the United States.
“One tea cup of what they were transporting both domestically and abroad could close down Wall Street or Washington,” Campbell warned. “(Mueller) ignored and delayed their arrests over years while I was risking my life undercover and interacting with these (Vladimir) Putin appointees both here in the United States and overseas.”
But Rep. Mark Meadows, chairman of the Freedom Caucus and member of the committee, said this time it will be different. He noted that the investigation is apparently ongoing with the FBI and DOJ and believes the information being delivered for Thursday’s hearing to be ‘explosive’ in nature and may help connect the dots.
Meadow’s told Fox New’s Martha MaCallum Tuesday, “the American people, they want to bring some closure, not just a few sound bites, here or there, so we’re going to be having a hearing this week, not only covering over some of those 6,000 pages that you’re talking about, but hearing directly from three whistleblowers that have actually spent the majority of the last two years investigating this.”
Meadows, who’s also on President Donald Trump’s short-list to replace Chief of Staff Gen. John Kelly, noted that some “allegations (whistleblowers) make are quite explosive.”
“We just look at the contributions. Now everybody’s focused on the contributions for the Clinton Foundation and what has happened just in the last year,” he said. “But if you look at it, it had a very strong rise, the minute she was selected as secretary of state. It dipped down when she was no longer there.”
“And then rose again, when she decided to run for president. So there’s all kinds of allegations of pay-to-play and that kind of thing,” Meadows added.
We'll see what these whistleblowers have to say, but I'll be very disappointed if all of this fuss is over a few technical violations of nonprofit laws.
Do you credit the NYT story regarding trump family tax evasion?
I don't know which article that you're talking about. But I highly doubt that there's anything to it given that Trump has been audited and given that he has a legion of CPAs working under him who will have to fall on their swords before Trump is touched.
The judge in the Flynn case may be getting ready to drop the hammer on the DOJ. After Flynn submitted his sentencing memo outlining how he was set up, the judge entered a minute order directing Mueller's team to immediately produce the McCabe memo outlining the set up and the August 2017 302 of the interview with Flynn that Mueller relied upon for pressuring Flynn, as well as any other documents relating to the meeting. All of this stuff has to be submitted by tomorrow, and the sentencing will occur Tuesday.
So far I'm not impressed with this Clinton Foundation hearing. I'm not interested in hearing from Fitton. And I'm especially uninterested in hearing Fitton recite reports that have been issued by other government entities and about which we have known for a long time.
EDIT: Okay, these fool private investigators finally said something interesting. The US District Attorney out of Arkansas has opened a criminal investigation into the Clinton Foundation.
EDIT2: Nevermind, these guys walked back their testimony. They just said that they gave the materials to the US District Attorney. Nothing to see at this hearing.
On December 13 2018 05:36 xDaunt wrote: Given that Cohen just got sentenced, let's revisit some of the critical allegations in the Steele dossier:
It was one of the most incendiary allegations included in the Clinton-financed opposition research known as the Steele dossier – that Donald Trump’s fixer Michael Cohen met with “Kremlin officials” in Prague in 2016 to arrange payments to operatives hacking Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
Despite strong denials from Cohen, the claim has shadowed the president, inspiring and coloring the Russia investigation ever since. McClatchy reported in April that Special Counsel Robert Mueller had obtained evidence of the Prague trip and likely confirmed the secret meeting.
But a flurry of court filings by Mueller last week suggests that this story is false, a damaging piece of disinformation that has roiled the nation for two years.
Officials familiar with the case said the proof is in the lack of evidence in the 25 pages of court papers Mueller has filed on Cohen over the past two weeks. The alleged Prague visit is not evident in the plea agreement, the criminal information statement or the sentencing memorandum, none of which contain redactions.
In fact, language in the filings strongly indicates prosecutors have not found evidence to authenticate the Prague rumor, according to people familiar with the case, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information.
They point to the sentencing memo filed Friday, for starters. On page 5, Mueller stated that Cohen "has provided relevant and truthful information” about "his own contacts with Russian interests during the campaign” to prosecutors in their investigation of Russian election interference. Though Mueller details contacts Cohen made with various Russians, he offers no evidence he contacted Kremlin officials in Prague, as described in the dossier. The Czech city, in fact, is not cited in any of his filings, though Moscow, St. Petersburg, Davos and other cities are.
Prosecutors corroborated the information Cohen provided about his Russia contacts with evidence — including travel records — they seized from him.
In addition, Cohen pleaded guilty last month to a single count of providing false testimony to Congress related to a Moscow real estate venture – which suggests there was no reason for him to correct his September 2017 statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee claiming, “I have never in my life been to Prague or to anywhere in the Czech Republic.”
In that same sworn testimony, Cohen also categorically denied plotting with Russian officials to hack the election.
"I have never engaged with, been paid by, paid for, or conversed with any member of the Russian Federation or anyone else to hack or interfere with the election,” Cohen told the Senate. "I emphatically state that I had nothing to do with any Russian involvement in our electoral process.”
He added that he saw “not a hint of anything” that demonstrated Trump’s involvement in Russian interference in the election, either.
The Prague allegation is one of the most specific claims in the Steele dossier, a piece of opposition research compiled by former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele and paid for by the Clinton campaign. Although former FBI Director James Comey has called the dossier “salacious and unverified,” Mueller's team has relied on it as a road map in its investigation, and even traveled to London to debrief its author.
The Prague claim was cited in three unconfirmed, hearsay reports written by Steele between October and December 2016. They alleged that Cohen visited the Czech capital to clandestinely meet with "Kremlin officials” and hackers in August 2016 to arrange “deniable cash payments to hackers who had worked in Europe under Kremlin direction against the Clinton campaign.” The reports further state that “three colleagues” accompanied Cohen to Prague.
Cohen has offered his passport to show he has never traveled to Prague – nor even left the country during the time alleged.
Steele hasn't worked in Moscow since the 1990s and didn’t travel there to gather intelligence on Cohen or Trump firsthand. He relied on third-hand “friend of friend” sourcing.
The Prague rumor was sourced to an anonymous “friend" of an unnamed “Kremlin insider." If that claim of Russian origin is true, the Prague rumor stands as a highly successful piece of Russian disinformation channeled through the Clinton campaign.
The rumor has spawned more than 900 full stories on it or articles in which it was mentioned in the media since it first circulated more than two years ago, according to a search of the Nexis news database. The most sensational report was last April when a McClatchy report said Mueller had evidence that Cohen “secretly made a late-summer trip” there during the 2016 presidential campaign. “If Cohen met with Russians and hackers in Prague as described in the dossier,” the article stated, “it would provide perhaps the most compelling evidence to date that the Russians and Trump campaign aides were collaborating."
McClatchy’s story was based on two anonymous sources who do not appear to be from Mueller’s office, which tried to steer reporters off the story. After NBC and other major media could not confirm the story, one of its authors, Greg Gordon, told NBC he stood by it.
“We stand by it and, of course, we’ll find out what happens, presumably,” he said during the May interview. "If Michael Cohen ends up becoming a government witness, we might find out more.”
Gordon did not respond to questions checking whether he still stands by the story in light of Mueller's plea agreement with Cohen. His co-author, Peter Stone, could not be reached for comment.
Sources say that though Cohen may have lied about the timeline of a Moscow real estate venture, he appears to have been telling the truth about Prague.
“Cohen may be a convicted liar, but he’s not an agent of the Kremlin -- that much is now clear from the court pleadings,” said a U.S official with direct knowledge of the case.
He noted that Mueller’s failure to substantiate the Prague rumor deals a "devastating blow" to the credibility of the dossier, which was used by the FBI to justify spying on at least one Trump campaign aide. “That was pretty much the heart of the whole thing,” he said.
So let's summarize. The Steele dossier alleging Trump/Russia collusion claimed that Cohen went to Prague to collude with Russian officials. Cohen categorically denied that under oath. Mueller investigates. No charge is made that Cohen lied about the Prague trip or his other categorical denials about Russia collusion. Once again, the Steele dossier -- the document that justified the FISA warrants against Trump's people -- is proven to be false. Yet that hasn't stopped a variety of actors in government and the media from using it against Trump. Like I said, people are going to burn for this.
The same reasons Trump's cronies aren't doing any serious time will insulate all the people accountable for any misdoings you're referencing. That Guardian story on Manafort and Assange is looking to have been bullshit too best I can tell at the moment.
I wouldn't be so sure about these people not getting prosecuted. It was already reported earlier in the year that a grand jury had been opened to look into McCabe. Those sealed indictments referenced earlier could include one for him and the other FBI/DOJ officials who are implicated in this mess (none of whom still work for the FBI/DOJ other than Rosenstein). Or those sealed indictments could have something to do with this:
A trove of documents on the Clinton Foundation alleging possible pay for play and tax evasion have been turned over to the FBI and IRS by several investigative whistleblowers, who will be testifying in an open hearing before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Thursday, according to the committee and lawmakers.
Roughly 6,000 documents that are expected to reveal the nearly two year investigation by the whistleblowers with a private firm called MDA Analytics LLC, which allegedly turned over the documents more than a year and half ago to the IRS, according to John Solomon, who first published the report last week in The Hill.
The whistleblowers are former federal criminal investigators, who allege that the Clinton Foundation was “engaged in illegal activities and may be liable for millions of dollars in delinquent taxes and penalties,” according to Solomon.
The Department of Justice and the FBI’s Little Rock, Ark. field office, which is believed to be investigating the foundation, have allegedly obtained the documentation from the whistleblowers as well, according to lawmakers who’ve spoken with the whistleblowers.
Clinton Foundation officials could not be immediately reached for comment.
However, a former whistleblower, who has spoke with agents from the Little Rock FBI field office last year and worked for years as an undercover informant collecting information on Russia’s nuclear energy industry for the bureau, noted his enormous frustration with the DOJ and FBI. He describes as a two-tiered justice system that failed to actively investigate the information he provided years ago on the Clinton Foundation and Russia’s dangerous meddling with the U.S. nuclear industry and energy industry during the Obama administration.
William D. Campbell’s story was first published by this reporter in 2017. He turned over more than 5,000 documents and detailed daily briefs to the bureau when he served as a confidential informant reporting on Russia’s nuclear giant Rosatom. Campbell worked as an energy consultant, gaining the trust of Russians and providing significant insight into Russia’s strategic plans to gain global dominance in the uranium industry. He reported on Russian’s intentions to build a closer relationship with Obama administration officials, to include then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, as reported. The documents he turned over to the DOJ, which were reviewed by this news site, showed Campbell had also provided highly sensitive information both related to the uranium case, as well as other intelligence matters, since 2006.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller was the director of the FBI at the time Campbell was a confidential informant and according to Campbell the information was briefed to Mueller by his FBI handlers. “(Mueller) received the documents, copies of which I still have, over a period of years and ignored a national security threat to the United States because of his political preference,” said Campbell, who said he is frustrated that the investigation into the Clinton Foundation and the other information he provided was apparently ignored years ago.
“These men were in charge of transport of nuclear materials (inside the United States) while committing criminal activity here in the United States and signing major US utility contracts,” said Campbell, referring to the information he provided the FBI on the American company Transportation Logistics International, also known as TLI, was the primary transport company for Russian enriched uranium sold to the United States.
“One tea cup of what they were transporting both domestically and abroad could close down Wall Street or Washington,” Campbell warned. “(Mueller) ignored and delayed their arrests over years while I was risking my life undercover and interacting with these (Vladimir) Putin appointees both here in the United States and overseas.”
But Rep. Mark Meadows, chairman of the Freedom Caucus and member of the committee, said this time it will be different. He noted that the investigation is apparently ongoing with the FBI and DOJ and believes the information being delivered for Thursday’s hearing to be ‘explosive’ in nature and may help connect the dots.
Meadow’s told Fox New’s Martha MaCallum Tuesday, “the American people, they want to bring some closure, not just a few sound bites, here or there, so we’re going to be having a hearing this week, not only covering over some of those 6,000 pages that you’re talking about, but hearing directly from three whistleblowers that have actually spent the majority of the last two years investigating this.”
Meadows, who’s also on President Donald Trump’s short-list to replace Chief of Staff Gen. John Kelly, noted that some “allegations (whistleblowers) make are quite explosive.”
“We just look at the contributions. Now everybody’s focused on the contributions for the Clinton Foundation and what has happened just in the last year,” he said. “But if you look at it, it had a very strong rise, the minute she was selected as secretary of state. It dipped down when she was no longer there.”
“And then rose again, when she decided to run for president. So there’s all kinds of allegations of pay-to-play and that kind of thing,” Meadows added.
We'll see what these whistleblowers have to say, but I'll be very disappointed if all of this fuss is over a few technical violations of nonprofit laws.
Do you credit the NYT story regarding trump family tax evasion?
I don't know which article that you're talking about. But I highly doubt that there's anything to it given that Trump has been audited and given that he has a legion of CPAs working under him who will have to fall on their swords before Trump is touched.
On December 14 2018 04:47 xDaunt wrote: So far I'm not impressed with this Clinton Foundation hearing. I'm not interested in hearing from Fitton. And I'm especially uninterested in hearing Fitton recite reports that have been issued by other government entities and about which we have known for a long time.
EDIT: Okay, these fool private investigators finally said something interesting. The US District Attorney out of Arkansas has opened a criminal investigation into the Clinton Foundation.
EDIT2: Nevermind, these guys walked back their testimony. They just said that they gave the materials to the US District Attorney. Nothing to see at this hearing.
This is going to keep happening so long as you let them gas you up with that stuff.
I've mentioned several times now that Bernie is to my right but this is a step in the right direction and politically pretty positive for a potential 2020 campaign.
While not much on it's own (still have to get the house on board, including Democrats), it's the biggest foreign policy win any candidate would be taking into 2020.
On December 14 2018 00:43 xDaunt wrote: The judge in the Flynn case may be getting ready to drop the hammer on the DOJ. After Flynn submitted his sentencing memo outlining how he was set up, the judge entered a minute order directing Mueller's team to immediately produce the McCabe memo outlining the set up and the August 2017 302 of the interview with Flynn that Mueller relied upon for pressuring Flynn, as well as any other documents relating to the meeting. All of this stuff has to be submitted by tomorrow, and the sentencing will occur Tuesday.
I hope so. This kind of thing has to stop. Our DoJ makes the criminals they prosecute look like romper room nobodies.
So The Center for American Progress is the premier "progressive" think tank in DC and was one of Hillary's primary mouthpieces on MSNBC through Neera Tanden (who is frequently still a guest).
Turns out they are helping to sponsor AEI which is home to notorious racist Charles Murray. This helps explain a bit about why Obama was so terrible regarding the financial crisis and Hillary would have been a horrible president as well.
The Center for American Progress is one of the largest and most important think tanks in Washington, certainly the preeminent “progressive” think tank. It describes its agenda as promoting “bold, progressive ideas” and releases a number of extremely useful reports and fact sheets. In 2008, TIME branded it “Obama’s idea factory.” CAP has strong ties with both Obama and the Clintons—it was founded by close Clinton confidante John Podesta and its president, Neera Tanden, previously worked for both Bill and Hillary Clinton. The New Republic has described it as “stuffed to the gills with staffers who have either worked in previous Democratic administrations or will go on to work in future ones.”
The phrase “progressive” is often associated with the left wing of the Democratic Party, by contrast with its “moderate” wing, and progressives are typically skeptical of corporate influence in politics. The Center for American Progress, however, is cozy with some of America’s largest and most controversial companies. Though it is quick to emphasize that corporate donations constitute only a small part of its funding, in 2013 alone CAP received support from Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, Coca-Cola, Citigroup, the American Beverage Association, Comcast, BlueCross BlueShield, weapons manufacturer Northrop Grumman, and Walmart. The government of the United Arab Emirates (which regularly carries out forced disappearances and torture) has given over $500,000. Investigative journalist Ken Silverstein, in an important 2013 investigation of CAP’s funding, was told by multiple former staffers that when CAP was seeking support from Saudis it muted its criticism of the Saudi kingdom. (CAP continues to conceal the identities of many of its largest donors.)
The Center for American Progress does not just accept shady donations. It also gives them. Journalist Andrew Perez reported that according to financial disclosure forms, CAP donated $200,000 last year to the American Enterprise Institute. The AEI is a right-wing free-market think tank perhaps best known as the longtime home of racist social scientist Charles Murray.
What is clear is that the CAP feels closer to Charles Murray than to Bernie Sanders, which reaffirms an important lesson that every leftist should be aware of: Many centrists, even supposedly “liberal” or “progressive” ones, would prefer neoconservative governments to leftist ones. Barack Obama felt closer to Theresa May than Corbyn’s Labour (Obama’s 2012 campaign manager Jim Messina even actively worked to help Tory David Cameron beat the Labour Party in 2015). The Clintons and Obamas seem to have warmer feelings about George W. Bush than Bernie Sanders.
So when she and others go on MSNBC pushing the Kamala, Beto, Booker etc... remember they are doing it for their corporate owners, not the people they are demanding vote for them.
With all these French riots and UK Brexit Deal-No-Deal, I just don't think the American drama can keep up. Mueller better bring the bombshells, or we might have to kick American political exceptionalism out the window!
In May of 2017 there was a document identified to a small number of people in the United States government. It’s in the possession of the Defense Intelligence Agency. For eighteen months there’s been an effort to resist declassifying that document; I know that that document contains extraordinary exculpatory information about General Flynn. I don’t believe the president has ever been told about the existence of this document. One lawmaker discovered it, but was thwarted by the Defense Intelligence Agency in his efforts to disclose it. I think we should all ask for that declassification; get that out; it may enlighten the judge; it will certainly enlighten the American public.
I think it's pretty obvious that the lawmaker who discovered it was Nunez, which is why he had that weird press conference at the White House last year.
The document in question could be a lot of different things. But if the DIA is interfering in the document's release, that suggests to me that the Swamp is worried about having to give up its electronic surveillance toys.
Looking forward to these House subpoenas coming in January. This is a non-exclusive list of entities currently under investigation for possible crimes:
Trump campaign Trump inauguration Trump organization Trump foundation Trump himself (obstruction)
List of individuals who have plead guilty or been convicted of crimes:
Trump's campaign manager Trump's National Security Advisor Trump's longtime personal lawyer Trump's campaign aide and inauguration manager Another campaign aide
On December 14 2018 00:43 xDaunt wrote: The judge in the Flynn case may be getting ready to drop the hammer on the DOJ. After Flynn submitted his sentencing memo outlining how he was set up, the judge entered a minute order directing Mueller's team to immediately produce the McCabe memo outlining the set up and the August 2017 302 of the interview with Flynn that Mueller relied upon for pressuring Flynn, as well as any other documents relating to the meeting. All of this stuff has to be submitted by tomorrow, and the sentencing will occur Tuesday.
I hope so. This kind of thing has to stop. Our DoJ makes the criminals they prosecute look like romper room nobodies.
Well, Mueller probably just pissed off the judge. He only filed the McCabe memo and the Strzok 302 from August 2017. What’s missing are the notes of the agent who interviewed Flynn with Strzok (it’s probable that Mueller or the FBI destroyed these). It will be interesting to see what happens.