Month: November 2018

Daily Check-In 11/29/2018

Thursday, November 29, 2018

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

Trump attacks Mueller probe for fourth straight morning, asks if it will ‘go on forever’

Why’s he freaking out?  Does he know something we don’t know?  Maybe he does.  Tangerine Tojo’s Twitter Tirade took place around 7AM EST.

At 9AM EST, this happened…

 

Cohen

Since entering his guilty pleas in Manhattan, Cohen has been talking with multiple agencies investigating the president, sources said. He is doing so voluntarily, without the protection of a formal cooperation agreement or the specific promise of a reduced sentence.

“His cooperation has already created the most serious federal allegations to date concerning President Trump, and more may be coming,” Coffey said.

Cohen’s interviews with Mueller’s team have also been attended in part by federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York and by lawyers from the office of the New York State Attorney General, who are investigating the Trump family’s charitable organization.

“Cohen is potentially a very significant cooperator in light of his close relationship with Trump,” McQuade said.

Holy fuck on a fuck fig newton.  Michael Cohen, former personal attorney to Donald J. Trump, former Deputy Finance Chair of the Republican National Committee, and all-around mobbed up shitstain, has flipped on his former boss.   But that’s been a long time coming.  It’s WHAT he said that’s a game changer.

Mueller charged Cohen with Lying to Congress.

First, I didn’t know that anyone other than Congress could charge someone with lying to them.  And as you’ll see later on, I’m not the only one.

Second, the lies focused on Cohen’s dealings and contacts with Russia, and covering up for Trump.

Finally, the lies were about telling Congress that Trump was not pursuing a property deal with Russia during the campaign.  Cohen told Congress that they stopped talking to Russia in January 2016, before the Iowa Caucus.  In reality, they were still negotiating with Russia until June 2016.

June 2016.  The same time they were trying to get Hilary’s emails from Russian Intel.  After Trump was the presumptive Republican nominee.

Cohen said all this, and named Trump in open court. He’s referred to as “Individual 1” in the Statement of Offense.

Oh, and we found out that Cohen has spent more than 70 hours talking to the Special Counselor’s team.  That’s almost two whole workweeks.

But wait, there’s more…

 

Deutsche Bank

At the same time that Cohen was laying out his complicity in covering up Trump’s crimes, his long time bank and money laundering front was getting raided in connection to crimes laid out in the Panama Papers.

But that’s not all…

 

Ed Burke

I’d never heard of Ed Burke before.  He doesn’t show up on this site before today, but he’s an Alderman (Councilman) and Tax Attorney in Chicago.  From the mid-2000’s until this past June, Ed was Trump’s property tax attorney.  While Cohen’s talking to the judge about lying on a real estate deal for Orange Twitler, and DB’s getting their HQ raided over money laundering charges, Trump’s former tax attorney’s office was getting a visit from the FBI.

Now, I know it’s Chicago, and Aldermen being investigated for crimes there is as common as rain in April, but the timing is a bit suspect.  It could all be a coincidence that Trump’s bank and tax attorney got their shit raided at the exact same time as his former lawyer was testifying in court that he lied to Congress about Trump’s dealings with Russia, but there’s a little too much here to be a coincidence.

What else do we have today?

 

“Snoop DAG” Rosenstein on the case

This is very interesting, and caught everyone off guard.  Whitaker is not in charge of the day to day operations of the Special Counselor’s investigation.  He was informed of their move on Cohen, but he’s not handling approving their actions.

This tells me something.  It says that he’s either not able to handle the investigation, he’s not up to speed on everything, he’s being kept out of the loop, or he’s been told in no uncertain terms that if he interferes, he’s a party to Obstruction of Justice, and will be arrested and charged accordingly.

Speaking of Obstruction…

 

Manafort

There’s a good likelihood that Mueller charges Manafort with EVEN MORE CHARGES as soon as Friday.  Dis gonna get good.

Anyone else having a bad day?

 

Stone and Corsi

A long time ago, I made a crazy prediction that someone would pull an R. Budd Dwyer, and it wouldn’t even be the craziest thing to happen that day. (Daily Check-In 03/05/2018, Indictment Eve)  At this point, Corsi’s my leading choice for a suicide via press conference.

Just when I think we’ve hit the end of the day on craziness…

 

Kompromat – Financial

Right after we get confirmation that Trump’s team was working on a hotel deal in Moscow WHILE HE WAS CAMPAIGNING FOR PRESIDENT, BuzzFeed breaks a story with some of the details.  Financing would be secured through VTB, which was forbidden from working with Americans due to sanctions over Crimea, but that would likely be worked around with help from Deutsche Bank.  The property in Moscow was some prime real estate, across from the Kremlin.  Team Trump, including Don Jr. and Ivanka, made multiple trips to close the deal over the years, and several members of the Russian Government had to sign off on the project.  To get Putin’s personal approval, Team Trump offered Putin the penthouse suite, to be valued at over $50,000,000.

$50 million dollars.  For an apartment?

This is what’s called a bribe.  And a ridiculously outrageous one to boot.  Especially while Trump’s trying to win the Presidency.

Now that I think about it, this explains so much.  The Steele Dossier was spot on with Putin having financial kompromat on Trump.  They strung him along for so long on trying to build a hotel in Russia that he did everything he could to make it happen, including running for President to remove sanctions.  When it looked like he was going to lose badly, who comes to his rescue?  The Russians.  Trump was willing and able to win at any costs, because he’s never suffered real consequences and the rules and laws never applied to him.  If he got in trouble, he’d slip his way out of it, buy his way out, or make the problem go away.  The presidency was a prize to him to help him make his goals of a global hotel empire come true.

But, he done fucked up.  Big time.

 

What’s Next?

I don’t think people appreciate yet what’s happening. If Trump was secretly working a 9-figure real estate deal with a Kremlin-connected Russian oligarch AFTER he received his August 17, 2016 classified briefing telling him Russia was attacking America—Houston, we have a problem.

2/ Keep in mind Trump KNEW his deal with Rozov involved Kremlin consent because COHEN TOLD HIM SO after speaking repeatedly with Sater. So Trump was *knowingly doing business with active enemies of the US* while promising them the most historically pro-Russia foreign policy ever.

Everyone who lied to Congress woke up in a cold sweat this morning at the sudden realization that not just Congress can charge them for their crimes.  Everyone who worked with Cohen knows that the FBI has their calls, texts, and mails.  Everyone who has even the slightest connection to Trump just checked to see if they paid their legal fees this month.

But this isn’t just about financial crimes or a land deal.  Conspiring with a foreign power to attack the United States is treasonous.  That’s the center of collusion.  The President of the United States committed Treason.  And those around him conspired to do so.  And the evidence of his crimes is coming into the light for everyone to see.

 

COHEN, NEW YORK, AND THE OTHER LAWSUITS

 

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET

G20

 

Reactions

 

TRAITOR TOTS

 

FIGHTING BACK

 

RIGHT WING TERRORISM & WHITE NATIONALISM

 

KHASHOGGI & SAUDI ARABIA

At least five of the 37 Republican Senators who voted against advancing a resolution limiting the United States’ involvement in the war in Yemen have received campaign contributions from pro-Saudi lobbying groups.

Roy Blunt, John Boozman, Richard Burr, Mike Crapo and Tim Scott all received financial contributions from firms representing Saudi interests between 2016 and 2017, according to a recent investigation by the Centre for International Policy (CIP).

All five Republicans voted on Wednesday against advancing the resolution, which, if passed, would force the US to limit its support for the Saudi-UAE war in Yemen.

 

SCOTUS & COURTS

 

#METOO & WOMEN’S RIGHTS

 

IMMIGRATION

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

FIXING THE INTERNET

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

I forgot to mention this yesterday, (Daily Check-In 11/28/2018) but there was an incident at the Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony.  About halfway through, Trump gets an alert on his phone, looks at it, then grabs Melania and bolts.  I thought I saved the tweets talking about this, but they’ve disappeared into the ether.

 

TRADE WAR AND ECONOMY

 

STUDENT LOANS

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

ENVIRONMENT & SCIENCE

 

CONGRESS

 

ELECTIONS

 

IN OTHER NEWS…

 

RUMOR MILL

This takedown is WAY bigger than Trump. Hundreds – at least – in the US. Historical ramifications abroad and a alignment of power perhaps unseen since the end of WWII. Its on.

The timing of the raids in Chicago and Frankfurt together with the Cohen plea, Trump submitting false testimony last week, Manafort scheduled for sentencing as a liar … strongly indicates that SC Mueller is at the heart of a WORLD WIDE COORDINATED TAKEDOWN OF THE BAD GUYS

And we get to watch it live on twitter as he executes the greatest takedown in the history of law enforcement. Pure joy.

 

22 GOP Senate seats are up in 2020. Mueller is making it hard for Senate R’s to vote “nay” to convict Trump once the House impeaches. McConnell & Murdoch mtg likely was to plan timing of turning on Trump. Get him to resign or GOP Senate will get him out to limit 2020 massacre

It’s also possible McConnell doesn’t want to “protect” Mueller because he wants to give Trump enough rope to hang himself, making it easier for GOP Senate to vote to convict, thus limiting 2020 bloodshed (and beyond)

McConnell will publicly whip the votes to convict Trump so that Trump will resign, but the GOP Senators who need to be on the record that they would vote to oust Trump still can use it in their campaigns.

Very interesting point.  Out of the 33 or so Senators up for reelection in 2020, two thirds of them are Republicans, and at least 10 of them are up for a tough fight.  Per my old article GTKYG-Presidential Removal Processes, after an impeachment in the House, the Senate holds a trial.  The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court serves as judge, and the Senators comprise the jury.  A two-thirds vote is required to remove a person from office.  Assuming that every Democrat votes yes (bit of a stretch, but simple math), that leaves them 20 votes shy of removal.  One place to get those votes from is the GOP members up for reelection.  Anyone voting against removal will invite every attack ad possible about how they were protecting a criminal.

I think this ends with Trump’s resignation, but I would love to see the shitshow a trial brings.

I say that now, not realizing how much of a shitshow I’m asking for.

 

That’s it for Thursday.  Fuck.  Enough for today.

I’m not sure what’s coming for Friday, but if I get some time (ha ha), I’d like to clean up the site a little bit.  I’m way overdue to sort some pages.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Daily Check-In 11/28/2018

Wednesday, November 28, 2018

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

Stone & Corsi

“In an interview, Stone insisted that the topic of hacked emails was never broached in the Aug. 3 phone call—or in any other communication with Trump,” according to the Post. “It just didn’t come up,” Stone said. “I am able to say we never discussed WikiLeaks. I’m not sure what I would have said to him anyway because it’s all speculation . . . I just didn’t know if it’s true or not.” Stone’s call most certainly remains circumstantial evidence, but the circumstances seem to be closing in on Trump. The calls do not put Trump in the driver’s seat of the WikiLeaks releases by any stretch, but they certainly put him much closer to the action and potentially giving him knowledge of the looming release of more damaging emails.

For reference, here’s where that Aug. 3rd call fits into the timeline of the WikiLeaks releases.

July 22, 2016—On the eve of the Democratic National Convention, WikiLeaks begins publishing 50,000 hacked DNC emails upending the race.

July 25th—Roger Stone emailed Jerome Corsi, according to the draft of the Corsi plea deal, after getting word that another WikiLeaks email dump was in the works. Stone had received a forwarded email from Fox News reporter James Rosen stating: “Am told WikiLeaks will be doing a massive dump of HRC emails relating to the [Clinton Foundation] in September.” Stone then emailed Corsi. “Get to [Assange] [a]t Ecuadoran Embassy in London and get the pending [WikiLeaks] emails . . . they deal with the Foundation, allegedly,” he wrote.

July 27th—Two days later, at a news conference, Trump mockingly asked Russia aloud to release a cache of Clinton emails. “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing… I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press. Let’s see if that happens. That’ll be next.” That same day, Russian hackers made their first attempt to access the Clinton private server, according to the Mueller indictment of Russian intelligence officers allegedly involved in the cyberattack.

Aug. 2nd—Corsi emails Stone following up on the potential WikiLeaks email dump. “Word is friend in embassy plans 2 more dumps,” Corsi wrote, according to the draft filing. “Impact planned to be very damaging. . . . Time to let more than [Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta] to be exposed as in bed w enemy if they are not ready to drop [Clinton]. That appears to be the game hackers are now about.”

Aug. 3rd—Stone says he spoke to then-candidate Trump on the phone.

Oct. 7th—WikiLeaks begins releasing hacked emails from campaign Hillary Clinton campaign chair John Podesta.

It’s far from ironclad, conclusive evidence, but all of a sudden it just got pretty smokey in here.

Where to begin?  How about with Roger Stone lying about his contacts with Wikileaks, lying about not calling Trump the night after Corsi talked to him about meeting with Assange, lying about where he got the emails, lying about where Wikileaks got the emails, and Trump lying about all of it?

They lied.  About all of it.  Not that that’s a surprise to anyone here, but they were behind the coordination of acquiring the mails and their release, as well as trying to cover it up with a story about Seth Rich.  The same guy that Fox News was sued over. ( Daily Check-In 8/3/2017)

 

Manafort

Mueller appears to have caught Manafort and Trump conspiring—in real time

9/14 – Manafort cuts plea deal, agrees to cooperate At some point after this, Mueller discovers that Manafort’s lawyer is briefing Trump on what is being asked by Mueller

10/11 – Trump’s lawyers prepare to answer Mueller’s questions, now presumably with knowledge from Manafort’s lawyer

11/15 – Mueller asks judge to delay Manafort sentencing for 10 days, i.e. waiting until Trump delivers written answers about campaign activity, e.g. what he discussed with Manafort

11/20 – Trump submits answers to Mueller. In other words, Mueller has Trump’s version off events related to the campaign and Manafort.

11/26 – Mueller reveals Manafort has repeatedly lied throughout the process and “committed federal crimes.” That’s definitely lying to the FBI, but were the lies part of a conspiracy to obstruct justice?

Or more precisely, witness tampering

Manafort = Mob.

 

Papadopoulos

BREAKING from me/: An explosive letter has been sent to Schiff’s office claiming that Papadopoulos coordinated with Russians with Trump’s knowledge in the weeks following the election. Authorities are taking the letter “very seriously”

Here it is, folks. We had to redact portions of the letter as to not give away any details about the Papadopoulos confidant. It’s real, and federal authorities are investigating thoroughly.

 

 

I want to posit another form of setup – different motive. Let’s say this is Putin in origin. You know the Ukrainian branch of Orthodox Christian Church recently broke off from the Russian branch. You also know Russia’s chafing at the bit for open war against Ukraine.

So we have two Putin-loyal branches of the church mentioned in this letter as collabwith Papadop and the Trump plot – the Greek and the Russian. What if (just brainstormin) US or allied intel is being baited to target these churches in some way, so it can be blamed on Ukraine?

Then Russia could roll out troops under a holy war, defend the church angle.

The beauty of this is that George is in prison for two weeks, so he can’t trip over his own two feet on Twitter trying to refute this by exposing even more of his crimes.

Also, the story mentioned a very interesting tidbit about Mrs. Papadopoulos.  Turns out she worked for The Professor.  You know, the one that went missing.  She worked for Mifsud when he was talking to George, and encouraged Simona to talk to George.  Seems kind of weird that the Kremlin Agent hired an “Italian” woman to work for him in Britain, while he was courting an American working for a Presidential Candidate.

 

Let’s talk about Trump testifying that he did not know about the Trump Tower meeting. [THREAD]

Greg Olear added,

andrew kaczynskiVerified account @KFILE

NEW: Donald Trump told Robert Mueller in writing that Roger Stone did not tell him about WikiLeaks, nor was he told about the 2016 Trump Tower, according to two sources familiar with the matter. https://cnn.it/2Qo9ZRT

1/ The email about meeting with the Russians was part of a group thread that included Junior, Kushner, and Manafort. The subject of the email made the purpose of the meeting (dirt on HRC) unambiguous.

2/ The Russians sent an attorney who was a known Putin operative, an FSB translator, and a money laundering specialist to the meeting.

3/ The meeting was coordinated in part by the Agalarov family, who are tight with Trump.

4/ Reince Priebus was at Trump Tower when the meeting took place. The thinking is that he was there to make Trump not go into the room physically, although that part is just speculation.

5/ When the Russian party arrived at Trump Tower, they were greeted warmly by Ivanka Trump.

6/ The Trump Tower meeting was attended by Junior, Kushner, and Manafort—Trump’s son, son-in-law, and campaign chair—and Ivanka knew about it on the day of the meeting at the latest.

In spite of all of this, we are supposed to believe President Control Freak didn’t know? If you believe that, I have some Trump steaks to sell you. [END]

Greg Olear Retweeted Sara Danner Dukic

PS

Greg Olear added,

And not only that, the Agalarovs sent Trump a gift the day after the meeting; something they’d been doing at various “milestones” during his candidacy.

This shitshow’s gonna get a lot weirder before it’s over.

 

COHEN, NEW YORK, AND THE OTHER LAWSUITS

Epstein

I debated putting this in other sections, but ultimately settled for here because TRUMP IS INVOLVED IN FUCKING TEEN AND PRE TEEN GIRLS.  He is going to get dragged through the mud on this.  And as fucked up as the MAGA crowd is, a lot of them have daughters, or grand daughters, or nieces.  Hearing tales about how Trump took part in Jeffrey’s “Parties” might finally be the straw that broke the camel’s back.  Treason’s okay for them, stealing and lying are just “being smart”, but a grown ass man forcing himself on a young girl is beyond the pale.

There’s been tales of his behavior for a while, and I’ve covered some of it before.  There’s the interview with a golf magazine where they board his plane waiting for Jeff (Daily Check-In 11/30/2017)

In 2000, Corcoran was a guest on Trump’s 727 that weekend, and he wasn’t the only one. The article published in Maximum Golf magazinenotes Trump had to wait at the marine terminal for now-disgraced pedophile billionaire Jeffrey Epstein and his society gal-pal Ghislaine Maxwell—who have since been accused by dozens of women of running what amounted to a “sex slave” ring. Corcoran, who didn’t know the pair at the time, remembers Trump standing in the doorway of the plane yelling to them, “You broke the cardinal rule, Jeffrey! Never be late for someone else’s plane!”

Though not mentioned in the article, Corcoran now recalls a young woman boarding with them. “I honestly couldn’t guess her age, but she was young made up to look a bit older,” he says, adding that nothing “untoward” happened during the flight.

Trump’s friendship with Epstein isn’t news. Before the mysterious financier was jailed for operating a sexual pyramid scheme where he allegedly paid minors around $200 for sexual massages that included groping and rape, Epstein was a regular at Mar-a-Lago and had, according to a sworn deposition from Epstein’s brother, ferried the future president at least once on his plane. It has never been reported that Trump returned the favor.

“I’ve known Jeff for 15 years,” Trump told New York magazinein 2002, calling Epstein a “terrific guy,” and “a lot of fun to be with.”

“It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side,” Trump said at the time.

There’s also the Jane Doe deposition. (Daily Check-In 05/24/2018)  It alleges that Epstein and Trump molested her, raped her, and threatened to kill her if she told anyone.  This lawsuit was filed a couple times in New York, but was ultimately withdrawn in November 2016 following multiple death threats.

A trial is set for December 4th.

 

 

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET

 

TRAITOR TOTS

 

FIGHTING BACK

 

RIGHT WING TERRORISM & WHITE NATIONALISM

 

KHASHOGGI & SAUDI ARABIA

 

SCOTUS & COURTS

 

#METOO & WOMEN’S RIGHTS

 

IMMIGRATION

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

FIXING THE INTERNET

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

 

TRADE WAR AND ECONOMY

 

STUDENT LOANS

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

PRIESTS & RELIGION

 

ENVIRONMENT & SCIENCE

 

CONGRESS

 

ELECTIONS

 

IN OTHER NEWS…

 

RUMOR MILL

Remember those indictments about the Ad Scam I talked about yesterday? (Daily Check-In 11/27/2018)  Those are the arrests CC’s referring to.

Speaking of yesterday, here’s the tweets that go into detail about how the Corsi document might be a forgery.  Stay frosty.

 

Organized crime. It’s the reason your paychecks don’t go as far as they once did, why incomes are unequal. It’s the reason we have an Opioid epidemic and our Legislative branch feels broken. It’s the reason executive compensation looks more like legalized embezzlement. 1/

Organized crime. The reason phony “Bolivarian” dictators in Latin America are nothing more than glorified drug Kingpins, why families flock to our Southern borders. It’s the reason why Education is broken, why public schools might use one software application over another. 2/

Organized crime. It’s the reason we have banks that are “too big to fail”, housing market crashes and IMF leadership who seem like extras in “The French Connection”. 3/

Organized crime. The reason why one film gets financed and another does not. The reason social media narratives come and go at the drop of a hat. The reason loud protest groups are able to spontaneously generate. 4/

Organized crime. The reason Native Americans are held hostage on their own reservations, why public lands are fought over, why corruption exists in the BLM and the Bureau of Indian Affairs, why the Kochs haven’t been sentenced to prison for Life. 5/

Organized crime. It touches each and every one of us, whether we know it or not. And this year, it has met its match. 6/ < END >

 

 

That’s it for Wednesday.  Things are accelerating.  I’m sure at any moment, things will slow down long enough to digest them.

NARRATOR: They didn’t slow down.

SPOILER: Michael Cohen expected to plead guilty to lying to Congress in collusion probe; gave 70 hours of testimony to special counsel: Sources

It’s not even noon, and I haven’t launched Twitter yet.  Thursday’s gonna be LIT!!!

Ok, I will never say that again.  Until the next time.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Daily Check-In 11/27/2018

Tuesday, November 27, 2018

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

A lawyer for Paul Manafort, the president’s onetime campaign chairman, repeatedly briefed President Trump’s lawyers on his client’s discussions with federal investigators after Mr. Manafort agreed to cooperate with the special counsel, according to one of Mr. Trump’s lawyers and two other people familiar with the conversations.

The arrangement was highly unusual and inflamed tensions with Mr. Mueller’s office when prosecutors discovered it after Mr. Manafort began cooperating two months ago, the people said. Some legal experts speculated that it was a bid by Mr. Manafort for a presidential pardon even as he worked with the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, in hopes of a lighter sentence.

Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort held secret talks with Julian Assange inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London, and visited around the time he joined Trump’s campaign, the Guardian has been told.

Sources have said Manafort went to see Assange in 2013, 2015 and in spring 2016 – during the period when he was made a key figure in Trump’s push for the White House.

It is unclear why Manafort would have wanted to see Assange and what was discussed. But the last apparent meeting is likely to come under scrutiny and could interest Robert Mueller, the special prosecutor who is investigating alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

A well-placed source has told the Guardian that Manafort went to see Assange around March 2016. Months later WikiLeaks released a stash of Democratic emails stolen by Russian intelligence officers.

holy hell. Paul Manafort held secret talks w/ Julian Assange in the Ecuadorian embassy in London in late March 2016. The month before (2/29/2016), he reached out to Trump via Tom Barrack to pitch himself as campaign chair. He was hired in March. Unpaid.

2/29/2016: Manafort pitches himself to Trump via Tom Barrack, writing in a memo “I really need to get to Trump.” March 2016: -Manafort meets Barrack at Montage hotel in Beverly Hills; discussed joining Trump campaign -Manafort secretly meets w/Assange -Manafort hired (3/28/2016)

Roger Stone was the one who convinced Trump to hire Paul Manafort. The idea of hiring Manafort to work unpaid? That was Roger Stone’s idea. This took place at some point in March 2016. The same month Manafort met with Julian Assange.

March 2016: Manafort/Assange meet. Also: 3/6: Papadopoulos joins campaign 3/14: Papadopoulos meets Joseph Mifsud 3/21: Trump ID’s Carter Page & Papadopoulos as foreign policy advisers 3/24: Papadopoulos sends email w/ subject line: Meeting w/ Russian Leadership — Including Putin

Caroline Orr Retweeted Caroline Orr

March 2016 (cont) 3/29: Manafort (who is broke & in debt to a bunch of oligarchs) agrees to work unpaid for the Trump campaign 3/31: Trump meets w/ his foreign policy advisers April 2016: -1st unreported contacts between Trump campaign & Russian officials

Caroline Orr added,

March 2016: Manafort/Assange meet. Also: 3/6: Papadopoulos joins campaign 3/14: Papadopoulos meets Joseph Mifsud…

April 2016 (cont): -Early April: Papadopoulos goes to Israel to discuss Russia policy -4/11: Manafort emails Konstantin Kilimnik: “How do we use to get whole? Has OVD operation seen?” (OVD = Oleg Deripaska) -Mifsud intros Papadopoulos to Ivan Timofeev (direct Russia connect.)

 

Ohhhhh@JuddLegumhas a very good brain & an excellent memory Scenario A: Manafort “flipped” to be Trump’s inside eyes & ears Scenario B: Prosecutors had Manafort on the lies they blew up the cooperation agreement Scenario C: A + B = C Scenario D: Manafort hiding something big

Judd LegumVerified account @JuddLegum

News that Manafort lied to Mueller reminds me of this story from last month. Even after the plea, Manafort stayed in touch with…

 

Also alternative scenario: Don McGahn spent 30+ hours with Mueller and @realDonaldTrump -thought- McGahn was “his Roy Cohn” since Michael Cohen flipped too Either way I’m going with A-D Specifically D: Manafort hiding something BIG, all road lead back to Trump Tower

Tertiary scenario: SCO Mueller et al knew Manafort/Trump play. Manafort engaged in witness tampering while on home confinement, he was remanded. SCO purposely fed bad info to Manafort knowing it would go to Trump Trump submits his written answers to SCO = Manafort deal gone

Meaning none of us really know. Anyone who says they have a inside source in Mueller’s team – they are totally lying to you. Mueller doesn’t leak, ever. He only speaks in legal filings. Hence we will know shortly what Manafort lied about So stay skeptical & frosty

Turns out I’m not the only one who’s thinking about the different layers a foot. 1) Flynn & Gates terminated their joint defense agreement with Trump 2) Manafort never did 3) @AshaRangappa_is WAY smarter than I am, so don’t take my word for possible scenarios, listen to her

Ok, let’s take a deep breath.  There’s a lot to unpack with Paul Manafort today.

First, remember yesterday I talked about a rumor floating around about Manafort keeping the joint defense agreement in place and used this to coordinate answers? (Daily Check-In 11/26/2018)

Yeah, that fucking happened.

I’m amazed, actually.  I’m amazed that not only did this hypothesis work out, but that at no point in this process did Manafort, Trump, or any of their lawyers say “Gee, isn’t it ironic, don’t ya think?”  Of course, this isn’t irony, but peculiarity.  At some point, none of these people stopped to ask “Why would Mueller and his team of legal eagles let us keep the defense agreement in place?  They made Rick Gates and Mike Flynn drop out.  Don’t they know that Manafort’s team will brief Trump the first chance they get?  This is either a colossal fuckup or a trap.”  If nobody stopped and said that this whole deal smelled fishy, then they might just be the most self-centered, sociopathic, narcissitic…

Now that I think about it, this makes perfect sense.  It was a well-laid trap, and probably telegraphed from a mile away because of Manafort’s insistence that he be allowed to stay part of the joint defense agreement.  Mueller and his team saw a possible opening, and gave him four things.

  1. A plea deal with enough booby traps in it to make a D&D rogue go nuts.
  2. The false sense that Paulie had outsmarted Mueller.
  3. A canary.  False information that they gave only to Manafort, so they could identify it when it comes around from someone else.
  4. Enough rope to hang himself, Trump, and everyone else involved.

I’d put $10 on Mueller using a canary here.  They briefed Manafort on a specific action they were going to take, or question they needed answered, and suddenly Trump’s team has the exact same info.  Meanwhile, what they told him was an easily provable lie, and Trump puts it down in a sworn statement.

The fucked up thing is, that might not even be the biggest Manafort story of the day.  The Guardian releases a story that Manafort met repeatedly with Julian Assange in the Ecuadorian Embassy, including once in March 2016 AFTER he offered to join the campaign.  Remember, he was brought on at Roger Stone’s insistence.  March 2016 was also after the DNC and Podesta hacks, too.  The GRU had the mails at this point, and were looking for a way to use them.  I don’t know if Assange knew that GRU had them before this meeting with Manafort or not, but he definitely knew after.  Either Manafort told Assange of their existence, or Manafort confirmed their existence with him.

Manafort was neck deep in  Wikileaks and Russia throughout the campaign, but most of it was at a distance, through intermediaries.  This puts Paul in the same room as a cutout for Russian Intelligence.  The same cutout that later passed on stolen information.

This creates a direct line between the hacked emails and Trump knowing about their existence before the June 9 meeting.

Speaking of conspiring with the Russians, here’s Roger and Jerome.  They took over the coordination of releasing the mails when it got too hot for Paul Manafort to do it himself.  That’s the problem with being the campaign chairman for the President: everyone knows your name.

Also, I don’t trust that statement of offense from Corsi.  Something feels off about this.  I don’t trust anything Corsi releases, and this just feels like a plant.  It could be an early draft that somehow made it’s way to Jay Sekulow in a brown envelope, but there’s something fishy about this.

Spicy agrees in this thread.

Take everything coming from Corsi/Rudy/Roger with a salt lick.  We need more than a grain for this shitstorm.

 

COHEN, NEW YORK, AND THE OTHER LAWSUITS

 

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET

 

TRAITOR TOTS

 

FIGHTING BACK

 

RIGHT WING TERRORISM & WHITE NATIONALISM

 

KHASHOGGI & SAUDI ARABIA

 

SCOTUS & COURTS

 

#METOO & WOMEN’S RIGHTS

 

IMMIGRATION

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

FIXING THE INTERNET

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

 

TRADE WAR AND ECONOMY

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

LOOK AT THEIR NAMES. LOOK AT WHERE THEY WERE ARRESTED. 2 International Cybercriminal Rings Dismantled & 8 Defendants Indicted for Causing Tens of Millions of Dollars in Losses in Digital Advertising Fraud Global Botnets Shut Down Following Arrests 1/

Aleksandr Zhukov, Boris Timokhin, Mikhail Andreev, Denis Avdeev, Dmitry Novikov, Sergey Ovsyannikov, Aleksandr Isaev and Yevgeniy Timchenko “Ovsyannikov was arrested last month in Malaysia; Zhukov was arrested earlier this month in Bulgaria; and Timchenko was arrested… 2/

… earlier this month in Estonia, all pursuant to provisional arrest warrants issued at the request of the United States. They await extradition. The remaining defendants are at large.” 3/

WE HAVE LOTS OF FRIENDS WHO HELPED US WITH THIS CASE. 4/

5/ Here’s the indictment, my lovelies:

Shall we read it together? Let’s! ruh roy they used computers in Texas. that’s bad. cuz..even if none of the humans doing the criming are in the US, their crimes now ARE.

They hacked other people’s computers to use them, and some of those computers were in EDNY. That was dumb. because now they are being indicted by EDNY Now look at where they all lived/are from: Russian Federation, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Bulgaria. Oooh a corporate entity in Scotland

DoJ literally have the instructions the bosses gave to the employees to make the bots more “humanlike” to fool the computers into thinking the traffic was real. .

Lol DoJ has everything on these idiots. . .

Note how the criminals responded to the publication of the paper: they tried to delete evidence of their crimes. ?

We now turn to look at the other scheme: thought they could get away with attacking >1M US computers? nice try, eejits.

. “it’s safe in the cloud” okay, sure Jan.

Read paragraph 41(a). yikes. be glad you’re not that idiot.

The sheer number of victims in this case is astounding. you should seriously read the whole indictment, but I particularly love Count Eight, because of the “Overt Acts” description 🙂

Now we get to see some of the domains they were using 😊 kiss kiss, silly criminals. 😘 you’re toast. 😛

Not certain this is them but… A Mikhail Andreev follows a Boris Timokkin on GitHub. You’re welcome.

🤷‍♀️

wrote about adw0rd and methbot in December 2016

Why include this?  It’s important to not lose faith in the justice system.  Also, bots generating false webtraffic to generate revenue is just one of the tools used by the bad guys in this drama.  They generated millions in fake revenue by having their bots go to their pages and click on their advertisements.  Each time they got a click, the ad company would pay them.

This is one of the big problems with the internet.  An ad based system for revenue can be gamed, and those clicks are also used by companies to sell themselves on how much traffic they get and how popular they are.  The more traffic, the more advertisers will pay for space.

I’m reminded of a story from late 2016 and early 2017, about how Breitbart was one of the 10 most visited sites on the web.  Including porn.  That didn’t make sense to me in the slightest.  How was a relatively obscure news site, barely known by most people, generating so much traffic?  Sure, they had a bunch of clickbait stories, but there’s no logical reason why an Alt-Right news site should get more traffic than PornHub.  A few months later, BB’s traffic dropped like rock.  They went from from a Top 10 site to somewhere in the mid 50’s.  Today, they’re not in the top 68.

Why? Bots.  They allegedly performed fraud by having bots click on stories and generated ad revenue.  This increased traffic which increased revenue which fed into itself.  When they no longer had a need for the increased traffic after the election, the bots stopped.

 

PRIESTS & RELIGION

 

ENVIRONMENT & SCIENCE

 

CONGRESS

 

ELECTIONS

 

THINKING AHEAD

 

IN OTHER NEWS…

 

RUMOR MILL

1/ What did we learn today? We learned that mueller has evidence that Stone, who was communicating with Trump, asked Corsi to ask WikiLeaks what they had. We also know Corsi sent Malloch (@peterjukes and I were just talking about him) to find out what Wiki fotnfrom GRU.

2/ Then we learned that a week later, Corsi told Stone Wiki had dirt on HRC that they were releasing in October 2016. So we have a direct link between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin, and Mueller has proof. (He wouldn’t ask without it)

3/ Then we learned Manafort’s plea agreement blew up because he was feeding intel from the Mueller investigation to Trump. We were wondering why Manafort didn’t signal his plea agreement by ending his Joint Defense Agreement. This is why. Seems like obstruction.

4/ Now we wonder why Stone or Corsi haven’t been indicted. Is Whitaker blocking, or was Mueller delaying the Manafort sentencing filing to wait for Trump’s answers to come in to see if they match? I think both. And if we Stone indictments get blocked,

5/ We could get a full explanation in the Manafort sentencing document likely coming in December. Whitaker can’t block that. And we would eventually learn Whitaker blocked it. More obstruction…

6/ And finally, don’t forget! Was Manafort promised a pardon in exchange for the intel swap? It’s only Tuesday, folks. If you’re not listening, it’s a good time to start! #beans

 

That’s it for Tuesday.  Damn.   This was a bit busy.  I’m sure Wednesday will be a quiet day, right?

Oh, what’s that?  Trump was rage tweeting memes at 2AM about jailing all of his enemies, and a major report came out about how the current Labor Secretary Alex Acosta gave Trump’s pedophile buddy Jeffrey Epstein a sweet deal and screwed over dozens of his victims?  Don’t worry, I’m sure by 5PM we’ll get something even more outrageous.

Like Greg Olear said, this why we don’t get enough sleep and drink too much.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Daily Check-In 11/26/2018

Monday, November 26, 2018

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

Manafort Lied

Oh ho ho ho ho. This is a mini-bench-trial of the collusion facts. If the court grants it, we will see the whole show, right here, and IIRC under the clear-and-convincing standard (for violating plea) rather than reasonable doubt.

This kind of tactic only comes from Mueller’s level and caliber. I’ll leave it to the real-named ones to explain why this is so incisive.

Well, no. I won’t. Mueller has proposed a way to put Donald Trump, and the facts about Donald Trump, on trial without the slightest chance of executive privilege being asserted, successfully or unsuccessfully.

And Manafort, thug that he is, fumbled and crimed himself right into this trap. OMFG I’m glad Bobby Three Sticks is on our side.

See, here’s the genius part. In order to decide that Manafort lied, the judge will have to make “findings of fact.” These are binding against anyone who’s in privity with Manafort. As manager of Trump’s campaign, Trump and Manafort are contractually in privity.

The judge, not a jury, will make these findings. So they will be spelled out on the open public record, not hidden in the jury’s black box where they can’t be used. And you can be sure Mueller wouldn’t ask for such a hearing unless he had rock-solid evidence on each Manafort lie.

“But,” you cry. “Can’t Trump just deny everything? He lies all the time!” Ha. Ah ha ha. Oh ho ho hee hee. Sure, but that would WAIVE EXECUTIVE PRIVILEGE. Damn, I love ninja lawyers.

Executive privilege can only be used as a shield, not a sword. You can’t poke your head out from behind the privilege, deny that a bunch of stuff happened, then pop back behind it when subpoenaed for all the testimony and evidence and cross-examination that proves you wrong.

So basically, if the judge grants this sentencing hearing under the parameters requested, Trump has little choice but to sit on his hands while the whole case against him is tried in his absence. If he speaks up, he loses any defense to broad document and testimony subpoenas.

How do I know it’s the whole case against Trump that Manafort lied about? Well. WTF else would he lie about?

Well, I can’t say I expected THAT development.  I thought he might try to pull some shit, but I didn’t expect Paul Manafort to come out of the gate on his plea deal lying like a cheap rug.  Then again, he’s a sociopathic asshat, so should I be surprised?

Here’s the quick timeline on Paul Manafort since he was arrested:

  • Paulie gets arrested, pleads not guilty to everything.
  • His co-conspirator Rick Gates is offered a deal, and takes it.
  • Paul tries to ghostwrite an op-ed supporting himself.
  • Paulie gets smacked in court with his Word doc and the edit tracking.
  • While out on bail, Paulie and Kostya get caught tampering with witnesses.
  • Paulie loses his bail and is sent to prison.
  • Paul gets convicted on 8 out of 18 charges in EDVA, with one lone juror being the only reason it wasn’t a clean sweep.
  • Paul pleads guilty to a couple charges in DC as part of a cooperation plea deal with Mueller.
  • Violating this deal will bring the Hammer of Justice down upon him.
  • Paulie proceeds to lie, repeatedly.
  • Mueller rescinds the deal.  Hammer of Justice incoming.

I don’t think there was ever going to be leniency for Paul Manafort, but whatever chance he had at it he pissed away in early 2018 by not taking the deal offered to Gates.  Rick Gates will look at a reduced sentence in Club Fed, if he even serves any time.  Depending on how much he helps the Special Counselor, he might not serve any time.  Instead, Paul fought the first set of tax fraud charges and lost, and he’s looking at a solid ten years behind bars.  Then, he pleads guilty to avoid a FARA trial, but screws that up, too.  Now, he’s looking at… a long fucking time in Maximum Security Prison.  Probably the rest of his life.

And, if he’s banking on a pardon, he’s up shit creek on that, too.  Most of the crimes he was found guilty of have a state equivalent, or a similar charge at the state level in multiple states.  If he’s pardoned by lunch, he’ll be arrested by Virginia by dinner.

There’s still quite a bit we don’t know surrounding the specifics about what he lied about, but there are two prevailing theories.

First, he lied about meetings with Trump, or things he discussed directly with Trump.

Second, he lied to protect the Russian Mob and their assets.

The answer to that question is simple.  Who’s he more loyal to?  Personally, I think he was lying to protect the mob, but given what we know about him, he’d lie about the weather just because he could, so both are likely.

I would like to bring attention to the Emptywheel story and the Shockratees threads, as they bring up an interesting point.  Mueller has to prove that Manafort lied.  He has to prove what he lied about, and how they caught him.  He can prove it in the sentencing document that he submits to the court, and in the evidence he presents to the judge.  Since this is a sentencing hearing and not an actual trial, this finding of facts will be more like a bench trial than a jury trial.  A bench trial is one in which the judge weighs the evidence.  Think of traffic court versus a normal jury trial.  In traffic court, the judge listens to both sides, weighs the evidence, and makes a ruling.  The whole process takes a few minutes, and I walk out several hundred dollars poorer.  What they point out is that Mueller can list ANYTHING HE WANTS TO, UP TO EVERYTHING in that sentencing report, and it will be entered into the court for the judge to rule on its veracity.

Another hypothesis floating around is that Mueller used Manafort to trap him, knowing that he’d pull some shit, and let him think that he was some James Bond super villain.

Now, there’ s some rumors about how he was caught slipping answers to Trump, but I’ll address that in the Rumor Mill.

 

Corsi’s Full of Shit

THREAD: What should we make of Jerome Corsi’s statements rejecting a plea deal he claims he was offered by Mueller?

1/ This morning Corsi, an associate of Roger Stone, claimed that he has rejected a plea deal offered by Mueller’s team, in which he was asked to plead guilty to one count of perjury. Corsi claims that any false statements were due to a faulty memory.

2/ That is a standard defense raised when someone is charged with perjury or making a false statement. Typically when this is is charged, prosecutors have evidence that proves the defendant remembered the truth or that would make it implausible that the defendant forgot.

3/ That’s because they must prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Corsi “knowingly and willfully” made a false statement. Corsi claims *that* is what he is unwilling to admit. The requirement that prosecutors prove a defendant knowingly lied is why perjury can be hard to prove.

4/ If Corsi is telling the truth that he was told he will be charged and that he was offered a plea deal, we can expect Mueller to indict him soon. In this context, Mueller wouldn’t tell Corsi he would be charged if that was not imminent.

5/ Contrary to Corsi’s claims, however, none of this is unusual. Federal prosecutors often pressure potential witnesses to plead guilty if they believe they can prove that the witness committed a crime. Mueller likely believes that Corsi could be a valuable witness against Stone.

6/ If Corsi believes he is not guilty, he shouldn’t plead guilty. But Mueller’s team has either already told Corsi’s attorney the evidence they believe proves his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, or would likely do so if asked. He is taking a big risk by daring Mueller to charge.

7/ No matter what, Corsi has made a major error by discussing all of this publicly. His words can be used against him by Mueller. Corsi should stay silent and let his lawyer negotiate with Mueller’s team privately. None of this helps him legally, but I guess it sells books. /end

I think MSW’s right on the Corsi front.  We haven’t heard shit from anyone but him about this deal he “turned down.”  Corsi has no credibility whatsoever, so anything he says that doesn’t come with “multiple sources” carries as much weight as Stephen Hawking.  And he’s dead.

If this is true, Corsi screwed himself hard.  Then again, I’m skeptical about anything that comes from the mouth of the creator of the Birther movement.

 

COHEN, NEW YORK, AND THE OTHER LAWSUITS

 

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET

 

TRAITOR TOTS

 

WHITAKER

 

FIGHTING BACK

 

RIGHT WING TERRORISM & WHITE NATIONALISM

 

KHASHOGGI & SAUDI ARABIA

 

IMMIGRATION

 

SCOTUS 

 

#METOO & WOMEN’S RIGHTS

 

COLD WAR 2.0

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

FIXING THE INTERNET

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

TRADE WAR, HEALTH CARE, & ECONOMY

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

PRIESTS & RELIGION

No, it’s not for child rape this time.  He’s being removed for making roofies…again.

 

ENVIRONMENT & SCIENCE

 

CONGRESS

 

ELECTIONS

 

THINKING AHEAD

 

RUMOR MILL

 

Mark my words: Trump witness-tampered with Manafort directly/indirectly. Manafort had nothing to lose by cooperating with Mueller—only gain—and Mueller was asking him about Trump, and Manafort lied. So he was expecting a pardon. Which means somebody let him think it could happen.

2/ When all you have to do is *tell the truth*, and if you don’t it could give you *many more years in prison*—to the point of making your sentence a *life sentence*—what would it take to get you to lie? There aren’t many possibilities beyond the promise of a presidential pardon.

3/ And let’s be clear (and I say this from experience): Manafort’s lawyers would’ve *explicitly and repeatedly* told him *not to lie* to Mueller. So Manafort had to be getting entreaties from *other sources* besides his lawyers to make him agree to lie to Mueller about collusion.

This one goes a little deep into the woods, but it’s also one of the rumors picking up steam in the last few hours.  Here’s my Not-A-Lawyer breakdown.

The hypothesis goes that that Mueller knew Manafort was a lying shit from the onset, and that as soon as Manafort signed on to cooperate, something was fishy. Like wharf at high tide fishy.

Ten days ago, Mueller asked for an extension before submitting a report on what Manafort’s done.  At the time, it was assumed that this was because he had some really good shit he was handing over.  In those ten days, Trump’s legal team submitted their answers to their Russian Collusion Take Home Test.  Mueller didn’t want to release his report until after he received the answers from Trump, because he caught Manafort lying, and likely worked with Trump to get their answers to line up.  Trump did this likely as part of a quid pro quo for a pardon.  Manafort helps Trump answer the questions on Russian Collusion, and Trump pardons Manafort.

Meanwhile, Mueller catches them both red handed.

Before I started writing this paragraph, one question vexed me.  How could Manafort and Trump communicate without the whole world knowing about it?  Manafort’s in prison, and all of his phone calls and communication are recorded.  Trump is the President.  If he called from an official line, that would leak in seconds.  If he called from his cell phone, that would leak in minutes.

So how in the fuck did Manafort communicate with Trump?  The Joint Defense Program.  Or Pact.  Or whatever the fuck it’s called.

Supposedly, Manafort never pulled out of the Joint Defense Program that those wrapped up in the Russian Investigation are using.  That’s weird, because Flynn and Gates both pulled out prior to their cooperation agreements.  The Joint Defense Program is like a supercharged Attorney-Client privilege.  However, just like ACP, the JDP has some limits, like it can’t be used to commit crimes.  If Manafort is testifying against Trump or anyone else in this agreement, they would hear about it, and then set up a defense using that information.  Like if someone was preparing for an interview or was providing written answers for the Special Counselor.

Ok, that’s an interesting hypothesis, but how would Mueller’s team know?  They have a mole.  Someone on Trump’s circle knew about Manafort talking with Trump and them sharing answers, and they coordinated this with Mueller.  Mueller then let Manafort build his own trap and snare an Orange Weasel.

 

That’s it for Monday.  Things are crazy, and there’s not enough day to go into detail about everything.  GM’s closing 5 plants because of the tariffs on Chinese Steel, a major border crossing was closed, and Ukraine was attacked by Russia, all while Paulie Walnuts looks at spending the rest of his life in the slammer.

I’m going to update Cooperating Witnesses shortly with Paulie’s info, as well as George going to prison.  He’s sentenced to two weeks, but I won’t be surprised if he gets out a couple days early.

Tuesday’s looking to be interesting.  Guess who visited Stiky Rapey in the Ecuadorian Embassy?  Find out tomorrow.  Here’s a hint.  I talked about this lying mobbed-up shit-faced shitgobbler a lot today.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur