Tuesday, February 26, 2019
THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION
Properly Appointed
- The DC Circuit Ruled That Robert Mueller Was “Properly Appointed”
- Mueller scores big win as court rejects challenge to his appointment
Not that this was a surprise at all, but nice to hear. It comes as part of Andrew Miller’s appeals process. He’s one of Roger Stone’s cronies, and is very well connected for a ‘housepainter’ in St. Louis. He’s racked up hundreds of thousands in legal bills fighting a subpoena to testify before Robert Mueller’s grand jury.
I assume that Miller’s next step will be to appeal this decision to the Supreme Court, but they are under no obligation to hear his case.
Cyber Defense
- U.S. Cyber Command operation disrupted Internet access of Russian troll factory on day of 2018 midterms
- Julia Davis: US operatives told the Russians that their real names were known & not to interfere in other nations’ affairs. IRA officials were so perturbed that they launched an internal investigation to root out what they thought were insiders leaking personnel info.
On the day of the midterm elections, United States Cyber Defense took the Internet Research Agency offline. We showed that we can hit them, and sent them a message.
Don’t fucking try it.
Notes
President Donald Trump’s lawyers said that special counsel Robert Mueller, who is leading the Russia investigation, has comprehensive notes taken by a former White House staffer detailing the president’s behavior.
According to a report published on Monday by The New York Times, Annie Donaldson, the chief of staff to former White House counsel Don McGahn, handed over detailed notes about the president’s conduct in the West Wing to the special counsel’s team.
The notes reportedly play a role in Mueller’s investigation into whether Trump obstructed justice by firing former FBI director James Comey or through his various attacks on the Department of Justice. The team also has information gathered from its hours of questioning Steve Bannon and Jared Kushner about the president’s actions.
The president fired Comey in May 2017, initially citing the former FBI director’s mishandling of the Justice Department’s investigation of Hillary Clinton’s private email use. At the time, Comey was leading the inquiry into whether Trump campaign members conspired with Russian government officials in 2016. His firing made Trump only the second president in history to dismiss an FBI director. In a subsequent interview with NBC, Trump said he was thinking of “this Russia thing” when he chose to fire Comey.
Trump’s attorneys told The Times that Donaldson’s notes about the president were a jewel in Mueller’s evidence that Trump may have obstructed justice.
This shouldn’t come as too big of a surprise considering that the White House Counsel’s Office work for the White House, not the individual serving as President, and withholding that information would make them an accomplice in Obstruction of Justice.
- Adam Schiff: The resurgence of authoritarianism makes clear the spread of democracy is not assured, and the fight for freedom must be carried anew by each generation. That’s why our first @HouseIntel hearing was on how we can stand with our global allies as champions of democracy.
- America Must Stand as a Bulwark Against Autocracy The House Intelligence Committee’s first hearing will focus on the rise of authoritarianism and the threat to liberal democracy around the world. theatlantic.com
- Cohen expected to tell senators about Trump Russia contacts
- Scott Stedman: This picture may become infamous in the Trump Russia story. Did Oleg Deripaska send his private plane to take Kilimnik back to Moscow after meeting Manafort to get his hands on the private polling data and pass it to Prigozhin? Meeting: Aug 2 Aug 9: Deripaska and Prigozhin:
- Scott Stedman: Prosecutors say that Maria Butina is continuing to cooperate so they want delay sentencing for another 4 weeks. I have a hard time believing that Butina has been cooperating for months only about Paul Erickson’s fraud scheme
- Manafort’s Mystery Lender Battles Mueller to Remain Shrouded
- This courthouse is the closest you can get to Mueller’s probe, one wall away from its secrets
COHEN, NEW YORK, AND THE OTHER LAWSUITS
Cohen Goes to the Hill
- Cohen expected to tell senators about Trump Russia contacts
- Cohen Is Prepared to Say Who Signed His Stormy Daniels ‘Cover-up’ Checks
- Cohen plans scathing testimony about Trump, Russia and Stormy Daniels
- Cohen to Testify That Trump Engaged in Criminal Conduct While in Office
- Cohen will present document to criminally implicate Trump
- Report: Michael Cohen plans to publicly accuse Trump of criminal conduct in office during dramatic testimony in front of Congress
- Michael Cohen expected to tell Congress that Trump broke the law while in office: NBC
- Michael Cohen Is Said to Have Plans to Go Negative on Trump During Testimony
- Michael Cohen to give Congress private Trump financial documents
- Michael Cohen’s three days of Capitol Hill testimony, explained
- Michael Cohen Plans to Call Trump a ‘Conman’ and a ‘Cheat’ in Congressional Testimony
- “Earth-Shattering”: In Testimony Against Trump, Michael Cohen Preparing to Shock Lawmakers with Disclosures
- 20 questions that Michael Cohen could answer for lawmakers when he testifies on Capitol Hill this week
- Angry White House Staffer: Cohen is poised to accuse Trump of committing crimes *while* he was in office. While Trump is “negotiating” with North Korea over nukes and two current nuclear powers are skirmishing on their respective borders. Is it too early for a drink?
- PostimusMaximus: Kinda weird for Cohen to stumble across evidence unless FBI have already seen it no?
- Joe Walsh: To my former Republican Congressional colleagues: If your best defense of Donald Trump this week is that Michael Cohen is a liar, you need a better defense. I mean, who has Cohen been lying for all these years? Besides, Trump is a liar too.
- Scott Stedman: It’s interesting to see RNC members rip Michael Cohen’s credibility given that he was their finance chair way back in…. 8 months ago
- Rob Reiner: Tomorrow Michael Cohen will tell US what we already know. That The Pathological Liar is a Racist a Misogynist a Criminal & a Narcissistic Sociopath. We will also be reminded that the GOP doesn’t give a flying fuck.
Wednesday’s gonna be lit.
Congressional Witness Tampering
- Every Law Professor With a Twitter Account Says Congressman Matt Gaetz Just Committed Witness Tampering
- Ex-prosecutor: Gaetz’s tweet is witness intimidation
- Legal Experts: Rep. Matt Gaetz Appears to Have Violated the Law with Cohen Twitter Threat
- Matt Gaetz Is Proof There’s No Bottom to the Barrel
- Former Bush Ethics Chief: Matt Gaetz ‘Should Be Arrested Tonight’ For Witness Tampering
- GOP lawmaker accused of obstruction and witness intimidation after apparently threatening to publicly embarrass Michael Cohen one day before his congressional testimony
- GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz appears to threaten Michael Cohen on Twitter
- Trump Ally Rep. Matt Gaetz Insists He’s Not Threatening Michael Cohen by Suggesting His Wife Will Leave Him
- Nancy Pelosi issues stern warning after Matt Gaetz taunts Michael Cohen over ‘girlfriends’
- Alex Ward: UPDATE: Me: Any response to those who say you’re witness tampering? @mattgaetz: I’m witness testing. We still are allowed to test the veracity and character of witnesses, I think. Me: So you disagree with those who say you’re witness tampering? Gaetz: Yes.
- Ted Lieu: In Executive Time & randomly came across 18 U.S. Code § 1512(b): “Whoever knowingly uses intimidation, threatens, or corruptly persuades another person…with intent to…influence, delay, or prevent the testimony of any person in an official proceeding” commits a felony.
- A Crime A Day: Here at @CrimeADay, we don’t usually take requests, but… 18 USC §1505 makes it a federal crime to use a threatening letter or communication to influence, obstruct, or impede an inquiry or investigation being conducted by a Congressional committee.
- Joe Walsh: Hey Congressional Republicans, anybody gonna condemn what @mattgaetz did? Or are you afraid if you did, that would anger Donald Trump? And you don’t want to do that because you want to make sure you get reelected. Do what’s right or incur the wrath of Trump? Tough spot, huh?
- PostimusMaximus: Hey Matt Gaetz this isn’t Russia, so if you want to act tough and threaten people as a politician maybe try moving there. Also Daddy Trump cheated on his wives more than just about anyone. So you might want to be careful to not look like an idiot.
- Rick Wilson: Roger Stone and @mattgaetz are close. I wonder if Roger and Matt have been in touch lately? This is very much in Roger’s wheelhouse.
- Dan Rather: A Congressman’s tweet threatens a witness about to testify with the tactics of the mob… in a snapshot we see the debasement of our politics and the level of palpable fear in what soon may be revealed. It reads like a subplot of a Scorsese movie. Yet another new low.
- Emptywheel: On the bright side, if, by chance, Mueller is tying up loose ends on a big old conspiracy to obstruct justice with some doozy underlying crimes in it, Matt the Putz just signed up to the conspiracy.
Matt Gaetz is a close friend of Roger Stone. We first reported that he was the go-between for the Trump Administration and Roger Stone’s crew on Daily Check-In 12/13/2017. The fact that the Representative from Florida tried to tamper with a witness before Congress the night before their testimony, and this is out of line even for him, it leads me to think that someone instructed Matt do to this.
TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET A.K.A. INDIVIDUAL-1
North Korea Summit
- Trump arrives by plane, Kim Jong Un by train ahead of two-day nuclear summit in Hanoi
- Angry White House Staffer: Of course Lavrov is in Vietnam with Trump. “Too brazen to possibly be real” is the new, cool tradecraft.
- It’s certainly unconventional. But is it working? Trump’s North Korea strategy wins over some experts.
- McCabe: Trump said ‘I don’t care, I believe Putin’ when confronted with US intel on North Korea
TRAITOR TOTS
Whitaker
- Whitaker to return to House to clarify public testimony
- Rick Wilson: Prepare for the WH to toss Whitaker under the bus…
Wohl
- Jacob Wohl Permanently Banned by Twitter for Fake Accounts
- Twitter suspends far-right activist Jacob Wohl for creating accounts to allegedly manipulate the U.S. presidential election
- Caroline Orr: Jacob Wohl was just permanently suspended from Twitter for “multiple violations” of Twitter’s rules — specifically, creating fake accounts. This comes just hours after Wohl bragged about creating fake accounts as part of an effort to influence the 2020 election.
- John Schindler: I just left a hipster coffee shop and apparently Twitter will permanently ban you for creating fake accounts when you brag to the media about all the fake accounts you’re creating. WHO KNEW???
- Countercheckist: Jacob Wohl was victorious today. He took the #1 spot for epic self-own on Twitter. Bravo, Jacob! You’re finally a winner! Enjoy your prize.
- Tuco Ramirez: Tough competition today. In one corner, the hipster coffee shop corner, you’ve got Wohl – dumbest man in California, and weighing in in the other corner, the i tried to own the libs and they owned me corner, is DUI enthusiast, @mattgaetz. These two will be vying for #DarwinAwards
- 911corlebra777: Fake oppo. That the MAGA luminaries and Russian Intelligence Services are engaging in the same tactics against the US political system should be a wake up call to many. NSA veteran John Schindler @thespybrief has spoken much about this subject
Good fucking riddance. This kid is an idiot, but has convinced himself that he’s somehow brilliant. He tried manufacturing a sexual assault case against Robert Mueller, which was reported on Daily Check-In 10/30/2018. He’s since tried a whole bunch of ratfuckery that ranges the spectrum from “shitty but technically not legal” to “Why hasn’t he been arrested yet?” Now, it looks like he just lost his Twitter access because he’s an idiot.
Jacob went on the record in an interview bragging about how he set up a bunch of fake accounts to screw with the election. Twitter didn’t like that. Now they slapped him like the bitch he is.
Look at the bright side… when he eventually ends up in Federal prison, Roger will have someone below him in the food chain.
FIGHTING BACK
CONGRESS
- Adam Schiff: The resurgence of authoritarianism makes clear the spread of democracy is not assured, and the fight for freedom must be carried anew by each generation. That’s why our first @HouseIntel hearing was on how we can stand with our global allies as champions of democracy.
- America Must Stand as a Bulwark Against Autocracy The House Intelligence Committee’s first hearing will focus on the rise of authoritarianism and the threat to liberal democracy around the world. theatlantic.com
- Senate blocks bill on medical care for children born alive after attempted abortion
EMERGENCIES, SHUTDOWN & IMMIGRATION
Emergency Declaration
- 26 Ex-GOP Lawmakers Urge Republicans To ‘Honor Your Oath’ Over Donald Trump Wall Emergency
- House passes resolution to nullify Trump’s national emergency declaration
- House sponsor of resolution to nix emergency declaration acknowledges ‘uphill battle’ on overriding expected Trump veto
- House to vote to overturn Trump’s emergency declaration on border wall
- Sen. Thom Tillis becomes 2nd GOP Senator to oppose Trump’s emergency declaration
- Senate Republicans will commit institutional treason if they support Trump’s ’emergency’
- The House just voted to terminate Trump’s national emergency declaration
Immigration
- Thousands of migrant children reported they were sexually assaulted in U.S. custody
- US general says no military threat on southern border
- Ocasio-Cortez Wants Hearing on Banks Funding Immigrant Prisons
- A 24-year-old Honduran woman’s pregnancy ended in a stillbirth at an ICE detention center
RIGHT WING TERRORISM & WHITE NATIONALISM
- Right-Wing Extremism Linked to Every 2018 Extremist Murder in the U.S., ADL Finds
- A Houston socialite berated a mixed-race couple celebrating their baby’s birthday. Then the video got out.
- What Trump’s attack on Spike Lee can teach us about racial attitudes — in 3 charts
- How Trump’s Twitter pushback essentially confirmed Spike Lee’s speech
- AOC slams GOP senator for quoting “Hitler ally Benito Mussolini like it’s a Hallmark card”
SCOTUS & COURTS
- In Bladensburg Peace Cross case, Supreme Court’s Elena Kagan could have pivotal role
- The military’s male-only draft registration requirement is unconstitutional, a judge ruled. What comes next is unknown.
- Americans held in Iran waited decades for relief. Now they face a new challenge.
#METOO & WOMEN’S RIGHTS
- Kamala Harris supports decriminalizing sex work
- Motherhood was once a campaign liability. The 2020 female candidates are making it an asset
- Kaz Weida: Dear men, Please stop killing us. At school. At our workplaces. At the gym. In our own homes. We have a right to live.
- Ashley Blackstone: **BREAKING: Police say a man shot a woman outside Citadel Mall. Officers say she tried to drive away but wrecked and died. Officers say they were fighting prior to the deadly shooting. It happened around 5:30 p.m. @CharlestonPD on scene. #chsnews
- Calls grow for Acosta to resign as victims demand justice: Palm Beach multimillionaire Jeffrey Epstein is a free man, despite sexually abusing dozens of underage girls according to police and prosecutors. His victims have never had a voice, until now.
- Avenatti: New Tape Shows R. Kelly Urinating on 14-Year-Old Girl’s Face
- Michael Avenatti: Upon being released from jail on bond, R Kelly promptly went to the same McDonalds that he preyed on underage girls at for years and proceeded to meet and take pictures with underage girls in violation of his bail conditions…
COLD WAR 2.0
- Euro MP rejects criticism after hiring Putin aide’s daughter
- Bill Browder: The Russian plot thickens in the European Parliament. Aymeric Chauprade, the far right MEP who hired Putin’s press secretary’s daughter has launched an initiative to keep Sergei Magnitsky’s name off the EU Magnitsky Act
- John Schindler: 3 fundamental realities of any major war between India & Pakistan: 1. If it goes big, India wins. 2. Pakistan only has the logistics for a real war for a week or so. 3. Within days, Islamabad will have to choose between defeat & nuclear release (which also = regime collapse).
- DUTCH CUSTOMS INTERCEPT 90,000 BOTTLES OF VODKA DESTINED FOR KIM JONG-UN: REPORT
#NEVERAGAIN
- Dearborn man gets probation for unlicensed daycare shooting that injured 2 children
- Shannon Watts: A Michigan man who left a loaded gun unsecured in his unlicensed daycare only received probation after two children were shot. The judge said she didn’t want to send him to prison, but is requiring him to … uh … teach gun safety. #mileg
- Shannon Watts: A background check requirement for unlicensed sales could have saved a woman who was shot and killed in January 2018 in Appleton, Wisconsin, by her husband, who was able to purchase the firearm from a seller he met online, despite his prohibiting felony conviction. THREAD
- Anti-Matt Gaetz campaign raises $40K to ‘make Matt pay’ for clash with Parkland dads
THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE
- Sarah Huckabee Sanders says it’s “pathetic” that Michael Cohen is getting the chance to “spread his lies”
- Russian Disinformation Campaign Reportedly Targets 2020 Dems
TRADE WAR, HEALTH CARE, AND ECONOMY
Kremlin Barbie on Living Paycheck to Paycheck
- Ivanka Trump, who receives millions for existing, says Americans don’t want guaranteed living wage. “I don’t think most Americans, in their heart, want to be given something.”
- Ivanka Trump: People Don’t Want to Be Handed Jobs—they Want to Pull Themselves Up by Their Bootstraps Like Me
- Americans Prefer Economic Insecurity Over Fair Minimum Wage, Says Heiress Ivanka Trump
- Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Hits Back At Ivanka Trump: ‘A Living Wage Isn’t A Gift, It’s A Right’
- ‘As a person who actually worked’: AOC fires back at Ivanka after Green New Deal criticism
- Ocasio-Cortez Responds To Ivanka Trump: ‘I Actually Worked For Tips And Hourly Wages’
Funny how it is that someone who has never worked a hard day in their life knows what it’s like living paycheck to paycheck. Socialism for the rich, Extreme Capitalism for the poor.
- Trump’s budget chief just wrote a stunningly disingenuous call for Congress to cut spending
- How a payday lending industry insider tilted academic research in its favor
- The CBO’s shifting view on the impact of the Obamacare individual mandate
- The Nation’s Former Top Banker Thinks Donald Trump Doesn’t Understand Basic Economics
- MSW Podcast: How can Trump say America will never be a socialist country while simultaneously handing $7.7B in assistance to farmers he screwed with tariffs, or while he hands BILLIONS over to corporations in tax breaks? I guess it’s not socialism if it helps the rich?
STUDENT ISSUES
GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD
- Rick Wilson: Y’all failed the test.
- Republicans can’t claim to be the party of national security
- Lindsey Graham explains his pro-Trump conversion — and it’s not because he thinks Trump is great
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT
PRIESTS & RELIGION
- United Methodist Church votes to maintain its opposition to same-sex marriage, gay clergy
- Iowa diocese identifies 28 priests accused of abusing minors
ENVIRONMENT, MEDICAL, & SCIENCE
- The data is in. Frogs don’t boil. But we might.
- ‘This is hell, and it’s getting worse’: How Amtrak passengers spent 37 hours stuck in the snow
- John Kasich to fellow GOPers: Stop denying climate change
- The strongest February typhoon on record packs 180 mph gusts, sideswiping Guam
- An iceberg twice the size of New York City is about to break off of Antarctica
- Anti-vaxxers face backlash as measles cases surge
- Yashar Ali: 1. I want to talk about ADHD. I was diagnosed with ADD when I was 13-years-old. To say it’s misunderstood (both by people who have ADHD and people who don’t have it) is an understatement. What people need to understand about those of us who have ADHD is we are not homogeneous
- Thread by @yashar: “1. I want to talk about ADHD. I was diagnosed with ADD when I was 13-years-old. To say it’s misunderstood (both by people who have ADHD and […]”
- Leukemia Cares UK: Morning! In response to some of the tweets we’re seeing online about @WWE and @WWERomanReigns we wanted to have a little chat about leukaemia/leukemia, relapse and perceptions of cancer. #WWE @davemeltzerWON (link: http://THIS.IS) THIS.IS.A.THREAD!
- A smoker wrote his own obituary to stop others: ‘Quit — now — your life depends on it’
- After taking a painful tumble, this doctor and runner is learning the best way to fall
- FDA takes fresh look at whether opioids are effective for chronic pain
ELECTIONS
- North Carolina Republican in congressional race tainted by ballot fraud says he will not run in new election
- Mark Harris announces he will not run in NC District 9 special election
- Mitch McConnell Says Democrats Are To Blame For Election Fraud That Benefited GOP. They Aren’t.
THINKING AHEAD
- Countercheckist: Me on Bernie: “This is the candidate who, at a crucial moment in our history, worked to split the party that could’ve stopped tRUmp, and did so with Paul Manafort’s business partner. His outrage over tRUmp should be directed towards himself, and the Kremlin.”
- Democrats had historic gains in Texas in 2018. They’re setting their sights on even more in 2020.
- Trump ally launches effort to blunt Md. governor’s potential 2020 challenge
- Kamala Harris supports decriminalizing sex work
- Motherhood was once a campaign liability. The 2020 female candidates are making it an asset
- Sen. Elizabeth Warren announces an end to high-dollar fundraisers for her presidential campaign
- Russian Disinformation Campaign Reportedly Targets 2020 Dems
PROGRESS IS PROGRESS
IN OTHER NEWS…
RUMOR MILL
- FEBRUARY 26, 2019 WTF SPICYFILES
- MANAFORT’S SENTENCING MEMO, THE SALTIEST OF TEARS
- Reddit: Mueller Investigation has created an underworld of investigators
- Vice Video featuring Adrienne Cobb
- Chris Vickery: Just noticed this- The Wikipedia page for Chris Wilson, which has existed and been updated for 12 years, disappeared this past December. I archived the surviving deletion log page here: http://archive.is/WdfJK I have, for a while, predicted that Wilson would be Cruz’s “fall guy”. Chris Wilson is the head of Wilson Perkins Allen (aka “WPAintel”). His firm ran Ted Cruz’s 2016 presidential campaign as well as Cruz’s run in the 2018 midterms. Wilson knows things.
- Thread by @DirkSchwenk: “Today’s @20committee article restarted an important discussion – WHY DIDN’T FBI/DOJ/COMEY WARN US and the related WHAT’S TAKING SC MUELLER s […]”
- Dirk Schwenk: Today’s @20committee article restarted an important discussion – WHY DIDN’T FBI/DOJ/COMEY WARN US and the related WHAT’S TAKING SC MUELLER so long if he knows everything? Perhaps other real experts will take a swing @john_sipher @Delavegalaw @LouiseMensch @lauferlaw, THREAD
- Tea Pain: Christians preach about repentance and forgiveness as the heart of their faith. Good luck findin’ an Evangelical Christian willin’ to extend that grace to Michael Cohen tomorrow.
- Ming: Gaetz incessant yapping tell Ming he now he going to prison already.
That’s it for Tuesday. Cohen’s testimony will be the big story of Wednesday. At least it should. This timeline is so fucked, I wouldn’t be surprised if we get something even crazier as a distraction.
One little spoiler, and it answers a question that I’ve had for a while. Why did it take so long for Michael Cohen to pay off Stormy Daniels? They knew about her claims early on, but didn’t pay her until a few days before the the election. What took so long? Turns out that they were trying to figure out how to pay her off. They didn’t have the money lying around. They had to scavenge it up. Doesn’t sound like an organization worth billions.
Thank you, and have a good one.
“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”
– Katy Tur
None of this is Normal 
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