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this is beautiful!
i want a five points slaughterfest.
OF ING COURSE
McConnell rejects calls for special prosecutor
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/0...secutor-238206
C O V E R U P
this is beautiful!
i want a five points slaughterfest.
Firing FBI director Comey is already backfiring on Trump. It’s only going to get worse.
THE BIG IDEA: After the president fired James Comey, the cloud hanging over the White House just got bigger and darker.
-- Donald Trump has surrounded himself with sycophants and amateurs who are either unwilling or unable to tell him no. He lacks a David-Gergen-like figure who is wise to the ways of Washington and has the stature to speak up when the president says he wants to fire an FBI director who is overseeing the counterintelligence investigation into whether his associates coordinated with Moscow. Without such a person, Trump just walked headlong into a political buzz saw.
-- Senior officials at the White House were caught off guard by the intense and immediate blowback to the president’s stunning decision to fire James Comey. They reportedly expected Republicans to back him up and thought Democrats wouldn’t complain loudly because they have been critical of Comey for his handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation. Indeed, that was the dubious excuse given publicly for his ouster.
But as all three cable news channels showed live footage of Comey’s motorcade winding through Los Angeles traffic en route to the private plane that would bring him home to Washington, the West Wing shifted into damage control mode.
-- Post reporter Jenna Johnson, who was at the White House last night, filed a colorful dispatch that captures the chaotic and dysfunctional rollout: “Sean er wrapped up his brief interview with Fox Business from the White House grounds late Tuesday night and then disappeared into the shadows, huddling with his staff behind a tall hedge. To get back to his office, er would have to pass a swarm of reporters wanting to know why President Trump suddenly decided to fire the FBI director. For more than three hours, er and his staff had been scrambling to answer that question. er had wanted to drop the bombs news in an emailed statement but it was not transmitting quickly enough, so he ended up standing in the doorway of the press office around 5:40 p.m. and shouting a statement to reporters who happened to be nearby. He then vanished, with his staff locking the door leading to his office. The press staff said that er might do a briefing, then announced that he definitely wouldn't say anything more that night. But as Democrats and Republicans began to criticize and question the firing … er and two prominent spokeswomen were suddenly speed-walking up the White House drive to defend the president on CNN, Fox News and Fox Business…
“After er spent several minutes hidden in the bushes behind these sets, Janet Montesi, an executive assistant in the press office, emerged and told reporters that er would answer some questions, as long as he was not filmed doing so. er then emerged. ‘Just turn the lights off. Turn the lights off,’ he ordered. … er got his wish and was soon standing in near darkness between two tall hedges, with more than a dozen reporters closely gathered around him. For 10 minutes, he responded to a flurry of questions, vacillating between light-hearted asides and clear frustration with getting the same questions over and over again.
“As er tells it, (Deputy Attorney General Rod) Rosenstein was confirmed about two weeks ago and independently took on this issue so the president was not aware of the probe until he received a memo from Rosenstein on Tuesday, along with a letter from Attorney General Jeff Sessions recommending that Comey be fired. The president then swiftly decided to follow the recommendation, notifying the FBI via e-mail around 5 p.m. and in a letter delivered to the FBI by the president's longtime bodyguard. ‘It was all him,’ er said of Rosenstein.” (No serious person believes this.)
er then ducked a series of obvious follow-up questions: Was Sessions involved? "That's something you should ask the Department of Justice," er said. Was Rosenstein's probe part of a larger review of the FBI? "That's, again, a question that you should ask the Department of Justice," he said. Did the president discuss Rosenstein's findings with Rosenstein? "No, I don't believe, I don't know how that sequence went — I don't know," he said. What was the president's role? "Again, I have to get back to you on the tick-tock," he said. When's the last time Trump and Comey spoke? "Uh, I don't know. I don't know. There's some — I don't know. I don't know," he said. What were the three occasions on which the president says Comey assured him that he was not under investigation? "I don't — we can follow — I can try, yeah," he said.
“As er made his way toward the White House door, the swarm of reporters moved with him, shouting questions along the way,” Johnson concludes. “ er walked with his head down. … As he approached the door, aides warned reporters not to get too close.”
-- To put it mildly, the optics of firing Comey are terrible.
Trump looks like he does not actually want to get to the bottom of Russia’s interference in the U.S. election and the potential wrongdoing of his own staffers.
In one of the hastily-arranged damage-control interviews, deputy White House press secretary
Sarah Huckabee Sanders
made an especially revealing statement that underscored why so many people are worried. Asked by Tucker Carlson on Fox News how Comey’s termination will impact the Russia investigation, she replied: “I think the bigger point on that is, ‘My gosh, Tucker, when are they gonna let that go?’ It’s been going on for nearly a year. Frankly, it’s kinda getting absurd. There’s nothing there.”
“It’s time to move on,”
As Sanders pretended on Fox that the Russian probes have found nothing, CNN reported that federal prosecutors – as part of the ongoing Russia probe – have now issued grand jury subpoenas to associates of former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn. “The subpoenas represent the first sign of a significant escalation of activity in the FBI's broader investigation that began last July into possible ties between Trump campaign associates and Russia,” Evan Perez, Shimon Prokupecz and Pamela Brown reported. “The subpoenas issued in recent weeks by the US Attorney's Office in Alexandria, Virginia, were received by associates who worked with Flynn on contracts after he was forced out as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2014.”
It emerged yesterday that Senate investigators have asked the Treasury Department’s criminal investigation division for any relevant financial information related to Trump, his top officials, or his campaign aides. "We've made a request, to FinCEN in the Treasury Department, to make sure, not just for example vis-a-vis the President, but just overall our effort to try to follow the intel no matter where it leads," said Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee, per CNN.
FinCEN is the federal agency that has been investigating allegations of foreign money-laundering through purchases of U.S. real estate. "You get materials that show if there have been, what level of financial ties between, I mean some of the stuff, some of the Trump-related officials, Trump campaign-related officials and other officials and where those dollars flow -- not necessarily from Russia."
Until the Treasury Department responds with do ents, Warner said, he plans to withhold support for Trump’s nominees.
Trump has also hired a Washington law firm to send a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee denying that he has connections to Russia, er told reporters a few hours before the Comey news broke. He was responding to an announcement by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-.S.C.) that he planned to look into that issue.
-- Trump doesn’t grasp it yet, but firing Comey will only lead to more, and louder, questions about Russia, as well as what exactly Trump knew about Flynn and when he knew it. Sometimes it turns out that the simplest explanation is the correct one. Is it possible that the president kept his national security adviser in the White House for 18 days after he’d been warned by the acting attorney general that he had been “compromised” and was vulnerable to “blackmail” by Russia because he had authorized the conversations in question?
“The Comey putsch heightens the mystery at the center of the Flynn case,” David Ignatius, who first broke the news of Flynn’s conversations with the Russian ambassador, writes in a must-read column.
“Trump has been digging a hole for himself from the beginning on Russia-related issues. It’s an odd pattern of behavior. Trump may have done nothing improper involving Russia, but why does he act so defensive?
In a book called ‘Spy the Lie,’ a group of former intelligence officers explain the behavioral and linguistic cues that indicate when someone is being deceptive. Interestingly, many of these are evident in Trump’s responses to questions about Russia’s covert involvement in U.S. politics. The authors’ list of tip-offs includes ‘going into attack mode,’ ‘inappropriate questions,’ ‘inconsistent statements,’ ‘selective memory’ and the use of ‘qualifiers,’ such as ‘frankly,’ ‘honestly’ and ‘truthfully.’ The authors’ point is that people who are innocent answer questions simply and directly.”
-- Our Justice Department beat reporters relay that Comey’s removal has also sparked fears inside the FBI that the Russia investigation might be upended. Trump, after all, will get to handpick the new supervisor of a probe into possible collusion between the Kremlin and the Trump campaign. “The investigation is still in its infancy, but the probe’s sensitive subject matter has already created a political quagmire for the Justice Department,” Ellen Nakashima and Matt Zapotosky report.
“A number of current and former officials said that the FBI special agents and National Security Division attorneys who are conducting the Russia probe will continue the investigation.
The probe, though, might slow down in the short term. Comey’s successor will undeniably play a major role.
‘No big-time decisions will be made until they appoint a new FBI director,’ said one former federal prosecutor. ‘It’s just a big thing. The FBI will make a recommendation to the Justice Department as to whether or not to go forward, and you’re going to want an FBI director to make that kind of decision, I would think.’ Inside the bureau, agents said that there was shock at the news of Comey’s dismissal and hope that it would not disrupt the Russia investigation.”
Washington reacts to Comey's firing
-- A handful of important Senate REPUBLICANS who have been defending the president went public last night with concerns. Here are five examples:
Richard Burr (R-N.C.), chairman of the Intelligence Committee: “I am troubled by the timing and reasoning of Director Comey’s termination. I have found Director Comey to be a public servant of the highest order, and his dismissal further confuses an already difficult investigation by the Committee.”
Richard Burr
✔ @SenatorBurr
Dir. Comey has been more forthcoming w/ information than any FBI Director I can recall in my tenure on the congressional intel committees.
Follow
✔@SenatorBurr
His dismissal, I believe, is a loss for the Bureau and the nation.
6:53 PM - 9 May 2017
James Lankford (R-Okla.), a member of the Intelligence and Homeland Security committees: “The issues that our law enforcement, intelligence community and congressional committees deal with each day are very sensitive and have life or death implications. Director Comey has been the public face representing thousands of committed law enforcement officers and civil servants within the intelligence community. In the days ahead, the American people need clarity and deserve an explanation for his immediate firing.”
Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), chairman of the Judiciary Oversight Subcommittee: “Regardless of how you think Director Comey handled the unprecedented complexities of the 2016 election cycle, the timing of this firing is very troubling. Jim Comey is an honorable public servant, and in the midst of a crisis of public trust that goes well beyond who you voted for in the presidential election, the loss of an honorable public servant is a loss for the nation. … I have reached out to the Deputy Attorney General for clarity on his rationale for recommending this action."
Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said Comey’s firing will “raise questions”: “While the case for removal … was thorough, his removal at this particular time will raise questions. It is essential that ongoing investigations are fulsome and free of political interference until their completion, and it is imperative that President Trump nominate a well-respected and qualified individual to lead the bureau at this critical time.”
John McCain (R-Ariz), chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said he was “disappointed” in Trump’s decision and repeated his call for a special congressional committee to probe the matter.
-- Watch for Republicans who could be vulnerable in 2018 to become more inclined to distance themselves from Trump going forward.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...t-draw7&wpmm=1
Last edited by boutons_deux; 05-10-2017 at 12:08 PM.
CNN exclusive: Grand jury subpoenas issued in FBI's Russia investigationWashington (CNN) — Federal prosecutors have issued grand jury subpoenas to associates of former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn seeking business records, as part of the ongoing probe of Russian meddling in last year's election, according to people familiar with the matter. CNN learned of the subpoenas hours before President Donald Trump fired FBI director James Comey.
The subpoenas represent the first sign of a significant escalation of activity in the FBI's broader investigation begun last July into possible ties between Trump campaign associates and Russia.
The subpoenas issued in recent weeks by the US Attorney's Office in Alexandria, Virginia, were received by associates who worked with Flynn on contracts after he was forced out as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2014, according to the people familiar with the investigation.
Robert Kelner, an attorney for Flynn, declined to comment. The US Attorney's Office in Alexandria, the Justice Department and the FBI also declined to comment.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/09/politi...ry-fbi-russia/
Haven't fully read through the thread, but in case no one has pointed out the timing...
There are sealed indictments.
Olga created a thread outlining what she believes is happening with the Trump administration’s connection to the Russian mob. Each one of her tweets is linked and pasted below (keep in mind, she shortened certain words and omitted punctuation to accommodate Twitter’s 140 character limit):
Text can be seen here with original links to specific tweets.The Russians operate in a very simple way and almost always use the same methods. They offer lots of illegal money and then use blackmail
Trump has had dealings with the Russian mob for over 3 decades. Many Russians laundered money through his properties world wide
By Trump and his family cooperating with mobsters in the US and other countries the Kremlin was able Trump acquire decades of blackmail
With all the Blackmail that Russia has on Trump and his family they forced him to comply. The same way they did with Orban and others
The Russians are cruel and leave few options. In 2006 Ivanka Trump stated she had to hire bodyguards because of threats by the Russian mob
Trump because of blackmail or disdain for this country decided to comply with the Russ and over the past decade the plot went into action
The Russians infiltrated all the key agencies and compromised all the key government officials using the same methods.
They laundered money through Super Pacs and as a result were able to collect blackmail on key officials forcing them to comply with Russia
This resulted in the compromised officials being forced to collect blackmail on their peers in order to make them comply
Once Russia had the control of the officials they were able to force them to do The Kremlins bidding. Russia basically operates like the mob
Russia then attacked America usin several methods over a long period of time. They used fake media, infiltrated social media
Russia also used WikiLeaks and hacking of the machines to complete their operation. Russia studied Americans and found their weaknesses
Back to Trump! With Trump working with the Kremlin he made sure to assemble his team with Russian agents in order to pull off this plot
It is not a coincidence that revelations are coming to light of the whole Trump team either working with Russia or having past dealings
This attack was based on a combination of blackmail and at the same time the guarantee of future money and oil deals.. Rosneft
The GOP and some Dems are compromised and will do anything to disrupt and sabotage the Investigations.
It’s also import to remember that every individ who spoke or met with Russ was taped ..Either by our Intel and our Allies and Def by Russia
That is the number one method Russia employs. For ex when Sessions met and spoke with Russians it is definite that the Russ recorded him
The Russ will keep all the inappropriate meetings and financ dealings and can employ it at their choosing..Same with the GOP hacked emails
So while this seems like a complicated plot it really isn’t. It boils down to a few things.. collecting and using blackmail and money
It is essential for the American media to understand this in order to report accurately and stop dancing around what actually happened
At this moment we need to assume that the whole Trump regime starting with Trump and Pence are willing agents of the Kremlin
http://samuel-warde.com/2017/05/comp...eeing-on-msm1/
This is how it is done.
Basically Trumps conflicts of interest, and marked ability to look the other way as long as the check clears have made him into little more than a stooge.
Fake moon landings, 9-11 "Truth", flat earth, etc conspiracy theories always boil away because of the sheer complexity of the underlying assumptions needed.
This requires:
1) Trump is greedy and crooked
2) Russia has money and looks to subvert people who are greedy and crooked
lol special prosecutor. You'd need a crime first.
i'm feeling real frisky about the possibilities
the rat smell is strong
All one would need is simply lying on anything involving national security and acquiring a security clearance.
"Do you have any contacts with foreign governments".
What got Clinton wasn't the BJ. It was the coverup.
Same with Nixon.
How about lying under oath? Is that a crime?
That is why we need a special prosecutor. I think there is more than enough smoke to justify calling the fire department, to borrow another metaphor.
Putin’s Real Long Game
http://www.politico.com/magazine/sto...ng-game-214589
There are also stories of Trash dealing with, compromised by the NY mob.
I personally doubt that it is a co-incidence that so many Trump associates turn out to have Russia ties.
If the Russians really have the hooks into him as deeply as seems possible, they would be in a position to give Trump lists of people they find acceptable (who are also compromised).
Trump would only have to then act on getting the "acceptable" people into his sphere as asked. This is how the rot starts, or to borrow another metaphor, the roots creep in.
Everything in this scenario is fully consistent with someone who is compromised.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...lled_in_RussiaO'REILLY: Do you respect Putin?
TRUMP: I do respect him.
O'REILLY: Do you? Why?
TRUMP: Well, I respect a lot of people. But that doesn't mean I am going to get along with him. He's a leader of his country. I say it's better to get along with Russia than not. Will I get along with them? I have no idea.
O'REILLY: He is a killer though. Put is a killer.
TRUMP: There are a lot of killers. Do you think our country is so innocent? Do you think our country is so innocent?
O'REILLY: I don't know of any government leaders that are killers in America.
TRUMP: Take a look at what we have done too. We've made a lot of mistakes.
I guess all those journalists were "enemies of the country". Trump doesn't seem to think their deaths warrant much concern.
One thing to note... prominent Putin critic Anna Politkovskaya was murdered on October 7th. Care to guess whose birthday that is?
Does the special prosecutor statue even exist anymore? I'm pretty sure it now just becomes assistant AG, who just recommended firing Comey.
Ah if it were only that simple we'd have had a special prosecutor for your girl Hillary.
should have plenty on Clinton needing to call fire department
look, first thing i want right now is a nasty fight about a special prosecutor. real nasty where people have to go all in.
Shocker. The Deputy AG put in place to replace the last one that was fired for doing things Trump doesn't like wrote a memo about someone Trump wanted to fire outlining reasons for that.
duuuuuuuuuucks!!!!!!!!
u gotcha a little tongue twisted there.
In 13 minutes, Comey laid out an airtight legal case against Hillary Clinton. And then, inexplicably, he let her off the hook. Comey completely ignored all the laws that Hillary Clinton broke. If you or I had done anything close to what Hillary Clinton did, we would be perp walked, fingerprinted, mugshotted and put in jail.
In the end, Comey proved himself to be nothing more than a political hack. Was it because Comey thought Hillary was going to win and become the president? Did he like the power of holding the trajectory of the election in his hands? We may never know.
That didn't take long.
False equivalence. "Trump is compromised by Russian intelligence" "Hillary had an unsecure email server".
Is being sloppy with national security the same as being compromised by a hostile powers foreign intelligence service?
Sen. Paul: I lost confidence in Comey a long time ago
OMG er the no-show!!!!!
all ing week!!!!!!!!!!!
thank you god thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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