Friday, March 16th. This has been an anxious day, waiting for something big to happen on the Mueller front, but as of 9:30PM, nothing yet. Still, there were a lot of things that happened today on the British front, Stormy’s saga, and #NeverAgain.
UPDATE 10:00 PM: In the last half hour, Andrew McCabe was fired, Cambridge Analytica was suspended by Facebook, and a 4 Star General called Trump a threat to National Security. Tonight’s post is heavy on links, and light on individual breakdowns. Instead, I’ll address the groups of stories, for the most part.
THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION
- Justice Department says it’s considering public disclosure of Carter Page surveillance order
- Senate investigators want answers from Reddit and Tumblr on Russia meddling
- Businessman (FELIX SATER) says Trump sent him to Russia to ‘look after’ his kids
- A (so far) complete timeline of the investigation into Trump and Russia
- California Bank closed Paul Manafort’s bank accounts due to suspicious activity
- Andrew McCabe Fired Two Days Before Retiring
Really? Two fucking days before he retires?
This was absolutely politically motivated, just like Jim Comey’s firing. Saying that it was in response to how he treated Hilary Clinton is a soft, pathetic attempt at finding an excuse, which will get torn to shreds the first time Trump tweets about it.
Wait, he did that a few months ago, when he threatened him with wondering if he would last the 90 days he needed to reach retirement.
So, the Keebler Nazi, who was recused on everything involving the campaign including Clinton, fired the former Deputy Director of the FBI late on a Friday night, 26 hours before retiring with a full pension, after the President made multiple threats against the DD because the DD was a witness to a myriad of crimes committed by the President?
This is witness tampering. Trump is beyond desperate. He’s vindictive and making mistakes. Costly mistakes. And because he surrounds himself with sycophants, no one is telling him that he’s making mistakes.
UPDATE 12:47 AM: Jesus Fucking Christ, you’ve got to be kidding me?!
At least with Comey’s firing, he didn’t destroy the reasoning behind the move for at least a day or two. An hour. A FUCKING HOUR!!!
Any and all pretense that this process, which usually takes several months to complete and was rushed through in a few days or weeks, just went through the window. The Attorney General, Inspector General, and FBI Office of Personnel have all been implicated as accomplices to an Obstruction of Justice charge, not to mention Abuse of Power and Witness Intimidation.
Plus, Donald Trump just picked a fight he can’t win with the Intelligence Community. If he thought he was in trouble before, everything he holds dear will come crumbling down.
UPDATE 1:17AM. Andrew McCabe’s statement.
Statement by Andrew McCabe
I have been an FBI Special Agent for over 21 years. I spent half of that time investigating Russian Organized Crime as a street agent and Supervisor in New York City. I have spent the second half of my career focusing on national security issues and protecting this country from terrorism. I served in some of the most challenging, demanding investigative and leadership roles in the FBI. And I was privileged to serve as Deputy Director during a particularly tough time.
For the last year and a half, my family and I have been the targets of an unrelenting assault on our reputation and my service to this country. Articles too numerous to count have leveled every sort of false, defamatory and degrading allegation against us. The President’s tweets have amplified and exacerbated it all. He called for my firing. He called for me to be stripped of my pension after more than 20 years of service. And all along we have said nothing, never wanting to distract from the mission of the FBI by addressing the lies told and repeated about us.
No more.
The investigation by the Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) has to be understood in the context of the attacks on my credibility. The investigation flows from my attempt to explain the FBI’s involvement and my supervision of investigations involving Hillary Clinton. I was being portrayed in the media over and over as a political partisan, accused of closing down investigations under political pressure. The FBI was portrayed as caving under that pressure, and making decisions for political rather than law enforcement purposes. Nothing was further from the truth. In fact, this entire investigation stems from my efforts, fully authorized under FBI rules, to set the record straight on behalf of the Bureau, and to make clear that we were continuing an investigation that people in DOJ opposed.
The OIG investigation has focused on information I chose to share with a reporter through my public affairs officer and a legal counselor. As Deputy Director, I was one of only a few people who had the authority to do that. It was not a secret, it took place over several days, and others, including the Director, were aware of the interaction with the reporter. It was the type of exchange with the media that the Deputy Director oversees several times per week. In fact, it was the same type of work that I continued to do under Director Wray, at his request. The investigation subsequently focused on who I talked to, when I talked to them, and so forth. During these inquiries, I answered questions truthfully and as accurately as I could amidst the chaos that surrounded me. And when I thought my answers were misunderstood, I contacted investigators to correct them.
But looking at that in isolation completely misses the big picture. The big picture is a tale of what can happen when law enforcement is politicized, public servants are attacked, and people who are supposed to cherish and protect our institutions become instruments for damaging those institutions and people.
Here is the reality: I am being singled out and treated this way because of the role I played, the actions I took, and the events I witnessed in the aftermath of the firing of James Comey. The release of this report was accelerated only after my testimony to the House Intelligence Committee revealed that I would corroborate former Director Comey’s accounts of his discussions with the President. The OIG’s focus on me and this report became a part of an unprecedented effort by the Administration, driven by the President himself, to remove me from my position, destroy my reputation, and possibly strip me of a pension that I worked 21 years to earn. The accelerated release of the report, and the punitive actions taken in response, make sense only when viewed through this lens. Thursday’s comments from the White House are just the latest example of this.
This attack on my credibility is one part of a larger effort not just to slander me personally, but to tain the FBI, law enforcement, and intelligence professionals more generally. It is part of this Administration’s ongoing war on the FBI and the efforts of the Special Counsel investigation, which continue to this day. Their persistence in this campaign only highlights the importance of the Special Counsel’s work.
I have always prided myself on serving my country with distinction and integrity, and I always encouraged those around me to do the same. Just ask them. To have my career end in this way, and to be accused of lacking candor when at worst I was distracted in the midst of chaotic events, is incredibly disappointing and unfair. But it will not erase the important work I was privileged to be a part of, the results of which will in the end be revealed for the country to see.
I have unfailing faith in the men and women of the FBI and I am confident that their efforts to seek justice will not be deterred.
STORMYWATCH, FROM THE STORM CENTER 6000 METEOROPORNOLOGICAL CENTER
- Porn Industry Beams With Pride Over Stormy Daniels Coup: ‘We’ve Never Had Anything Like This’
- Stormy Daniels’ lawyer says six other women have come forward with similar stories
- Stormy Daniels’ attorney says his client was threatened physically
- Podcast link describing Stormy Daniels’s Legal Strategy
- Stormy Daniels, crowdfunding her legal fight with Trump, raises more than $130,000
- Daniels’ lawyer says some alleged incidents took place during Trump presidency
- Trump attorney accuses Stormy Daniels of violating nondisclosure agreement 20 times, claims right to seek $20 million in damages
- Charles Harder and Ryan Stonerock representing Trump against Stormy Daniels
- Karen McDougal details her story with the New Yorker
Speaking of mistakes, Trump done fucked up big time by joining the lawsuit against Stormy Daniels.
How can President Donald Trump seek $20 million in damages against my client based on an agreement that he and Mr. Cohen claim Mr. Trump never was a party to and knew nothing about? #notwellthoughtout #sloppy #checkmate
By joining Cohen in coming after her for violating the NDA, he’s implicitly confirming the events and items covered in the NDA occurred.
But don’t worry, it gets much worse.
There are now claims of threats of physical violence against Stormy Daniels, which is not only illegal in itself, but entering into an agreement under duress would nullify that agreement. So would entering into an agreement to cover up a crime. Today I learned that adultery is still a crime in New York. So is election fraud, wiring money across state lines to conceal a crime, and money laundering.
THE BRITISH FRONT
- Britain Hints at Tougher Blow Against Russia: Stripping Tycoons’ Assets
- Russian Nikolai Glushkov’s London death now a murder inquiry
- Putin critic who warned he was on Russian hit-list was murdered, police confirm
- Freeze the assets of Putin’s allies, U.K, U.S. lawmakers say: it’s ‘the only way to change the behavior of evil regimes’
- Russia to expel British diplomats in tit-for-tat move
- Nerve Agent Likely Snuck Into Yulia’s Luggage Before Return Trip From Moscow
- Russia Says it Will Attack U.S. Military if Trump Strikes Syria Again
- How Russia spies in the UK
Another Russian critic of Putin’s was murdered in Britain. Russia is threatening everyone and everything, and the West is lining up against a glorified mafia front with an Intel service.
We are in Cold War 2.0, and I’m afraid it’s going to get hot pretty quick.
#NEVERAGAIN
- Pennsylvania school to issue more than 200 detentions over student walkouts
- Ohio Legislator Says Students Should Be Able To Bring Guns To School
- Emma Gonzales on Why Arming Teachers is Stupid
- Beleaguered Leslie Gibson abandons state House race, seeks ‘peace and quiet’
- After Daughter’s ‘Unimaginable’ Death, Parkland Family Moved To Action
- Landmark Report Concludes Abortion Is Safe
I’m hoping that at the upcoming marches, they have people there to help register to vote.
DIAPER DONNIE’S DIVORCE
- A model just revealed the scandalous secret messages Donald Trump Jr. sent her
- Vanessa Trump Hires Criminal Attorney for Divorce Proceedings
Something else I learned today is the limits of compelling testimony from a spouse in New York. Short version is that it depends on how the question is asked. Asking her “Did your husband ever talk to you about working with the Russians?” is a No Go, but “Were you aware of him talking about working with the Russians?” is Okay. There’s a specific difference, but I’m not looking that up now.
TROLLS AND TECH
- Hacker Adrian Lamo dies at 37
- How Russian trolls smeared Sen. John McCain as ‘traitor’ on social media
- Facebook Suspends SCL and Cambridge Analytica
According to Facebook, Cambridge Analytica did not completely delete user data after they were done with it, per Facebook rules. The app “ThisIsYourDigitalLife” passed user data to CA, and both entities claimed they deleted the data, but didn’t.
CA then used this data for nefarious purposes.
As far as Adrian Lamo, he was involved with the Chelsea Manning/Wikileaks job. Manning approached him online about getting classified documents to Wikileaks. He contacted a couple USIC friends of his, and that’s how we know what happened.
TRUMP ORG
- Trump Organization ‘negotiated with sanctioned Russian bank in 2016’
- Panamanian judge says Trump lawyers threatened her over hotel dispute
- Kimmel’s shopping spree at Trump’s store turns up potential violations and zero American-made goods
Lawyers threatening judges and witnesses seems to be a standard practice for Trump.
As far as Jimmy Kimmel goes, I’m glad he did this, because that means no one else has to buy that merchandise.
WHITE HOUSE CHAOS
- John Kelly: Rex Tillerson Was on the Toilet When I Told Him He’d Be Getting Fired
- James Mattis is linked to a massive corporate fraud and nobody wants to talk about it
- H.R. McMaster likely to lose job; John Kelly could resign today
- Kelly says Trump probably contributing to staff chaos stories
From the Mattis Story:
Mattis not only served on Theranos’s board during some of the years it was perpetrating the fraud, after he retired from US military service, he earlier served as a key advocate of putting the company’s technology (technology that was, to be clear, fake) to use inside the military while he was still serving as a general.
Funny how it is that this story comes out the same week that we’re having serious discussions about Article 5. A while back, I heard some rumors that when Russia goes after Mattis, they’re scared shitless because all hell was about to break loose.
THE GRAND OBSTRUCTION PARTY
- Flake: Never has a party fled beliefs as quickly as GOP under Trump
- Trump White House Worked with Newt Gingrich on Political Purge at State Department, Lawmakers Say
- Leaked email: NC GOP worried about losing control of state house after Pa. special election
- ‘We are the forgotten people’: It’s been almost six months since Hurricane Maria, and Puerto Ricans are still dying
Jeff Flake is making a case for a Presidential run in 2020. I’d say against Trump, but he’s not going to make it that long. Jeff Flake has been the voice of the old Republican Party, not the Party of Trump.
4 STAR GENERAL BARRY MCCAFFREY CALLS DONALD TRUMP A THREAT TO NATIONAL SECURITY
RUMOR MILL: ERIC GARLAND ON HOW RUSSIA IS NOT A COUNTRY
Futurist Eric Garland has a great right up about what makes a country, and why Russia doesn’t meet that definition. Russia has gone too far this time, and will lose their spot in the world community.
The New Spicy Mic Files. This one is about Manafort’s latest attempt to get the charges against him thrown out, using the same tactics that have already failed.
That’s it for today. My next article is about the Minority Status Report from the Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee. Unless, of course, something bigger happens between now and then. Which is almost a guarantee that something will happen.
Thank you, and have a good one.
“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”
– Katy Tur
None of this is Normal 
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