2018

Friday, March 9th.

NUNBERG ARRIVES BEFORE GRAND JURY, QUESTIONED FOR MORE THAN 6 HOURS

Sam Nunberg testified before the Special Counselor’s Grand Jury today for more than 6 hours. Unlike Monday, he appeared sober, calm, and not the least bit insane.

The more I think about Sam, the more I think his little outbursts were an attempt to send a message. What that message is, and who the recipient was is up for debate.

6 hours. That’s a lot of questions to answer.

GEORGE NADER AND DISMISSED CHILD PORN CHARGES FROM 1985

Back in 1985, George was busted coming in to the country with “inappropriate pictures of naked boys” from one of his trips to the Middle East. His house was searched, but the search warrant’s language was too vague, and evidence acquired during the raid was disallowed in his trial.

I don’t know how this is going to play into the whole mess. Trump’s team might try to use this to attack George’s character, but if that’s the case, how does that explain a decades worth of contact?

Andrew Laufer (@lauferlaw) said to keep an eye on this, as this will come back up. He’s one of the lawyers I follow on Twitter, and was digging into the Jane Doe Lawsuit I briefly mentioned on Daily Check-In 10/16/2017. I’ll go into more details about that when that comes back around.

TRUMP INVITED PUTIN TO MISS UNIVERSE 2013 PAGEANT WITH HANDWRITTEN LETTER

Bobby Three Sticks has a letter that Trump wrote a postscript to Putin, damn near begging him to show up to the pageant.

How in the Crystal Pepsi Flavored Fuck did Robert Mueller get his hands on this letter?

This went from Trump’s team to Putin’s team. There’s a VERY short list of people who would have access to that. Figure that maybe they made a copy of the original and kept it on file somewhere, only a handful of people would know where it was and where to look. There is the possibility that they have a scanned copy, since Trump is a luddite. That’s the most likely explanation.

This letter establishes a pattern of behavior and motive to work with Putin. It was the first public overture from Trump to Putin.

One last thing I find weird about this is the postscript says that Trump looks forward to seeing the “beautiful” women. I might be reading a little too much into this (I know, I know, I’m writing a blog about conspiracy theories, but still) but I think this was Trump’s attempt not only at making sure that Putin would come, but also making sure that Trump’s desires for women would be met. Putin saw this, and decided to supply Trump with what he asked for…women. Okay, women might be a little generous since the rumors were that they were VERY young looking. The Steele Dossier mentions Trump’s use of the sex industry in St. Petersburg and Moscow, as well as several items of sexual kompromat, including the Golden Shower tape that allegedly was created after the Miss Universe Pageant.

I’m wondering if Putin took this letter, and decided to use it, and Trump, to his advantage.

TRUMP’S LAWYERS TO PROPOSE ALLOWING INTERVIEW IN EXCHANGE FOR END TO INVESTIGATION

I highly doubt that Mueller would ever accept that, but if he did, I’d laugh my ass off if he finished the interview with the words “I promised to finish the investigation phase of your client. I’m done with the investigating phase, now I begin the prosecuting phase. Mr. President, we are indicting you on the following charges….” and then Mueller unrolls an old scroll that’s 90 feet long, and a staffer is writing new charges on the last few feet while Robert’s reading it.

TRUMP MET MARIA BUTINA WEEKS AFTER STARTING CAMPAIGN, TALKED ABOUT REMOVING RUSSIAN SANCTIONS

Maria Butina is Alexander Torshin’s protege, and was at a campaign rally where she asked Trump about “damaging” U.S. sanctions on Russia. After rambling for a minute or two, he said he’d get rid of them, because he’s friends with Putin.

Here’s the YouTube clip.

TRUMP ONCE AGAIN CONTEMPLATING A ‘FULL RESET’

He’s tried to reset more times than an old Nintendo. So far he’s removed the staff, tapped on it, blew on it, and slapped it. What he should try to is hold it by his tiny little hands until it catches, then slam it down and start playing.

SCOPE OF INVESTIGATION AND CRIMINALITY GREATER THAN JUST RUSSIA

It still comes back to Russia, but let’s not forget China, Israel, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates. They’re his playmates in TreasonFest.

STORMY WATCH

From the WaPo story:

Common Cause‘s Paul Ryan (himself a former lawyer with the Campaign Legal Center) noted on Twitter that the use of Trump Organization resources likely violates 11 CFR 114.2(f). That reads, with our added emphasis:

“Corporations and labor organizations (including officers, directors or other representatives acting as agents of corporations and labor organizations) are prohibited from facilitating the making of contributions to candidates or political committees, other than to the separate segregated funds of the corporations and labor organizations. Facilitation means using corporate or labor organization resources or facilities to engage in fundraising activities in connection with any federal election …”

“The use of the Trump Organization email is evidence that Cohen’s services were, at least in part, being paid for by the Trump Organization,” Noble said in an email. “That would be an illegal corporate contribution to the campaign even if the company did not pay the $130,000.”

Michael Cohen has got to be one of the worst lawyers alive. At least, not in the respectable sense of the word. He’s like the Dollar Store version of Saul Goodman; he does the illegal shit that his clients shouldn’t do.

Also, in that ABC article, it says that Rosen is the lawyer in this case for BOTH Cohen and Trump. If Cohen acted on his own, how can the lawyer represent them both in this case? The only way this ends without hurting Trump is if Cohen gets run over, and that would be a major ethics problem for his lawyer.

FLORIDA GOVERNOR SIGNS NEW GUN LAW

This raises the age of long rifle purchases in Florida to 21, adds a 3 day waiting period, and allows for some teachers and school employees to conceal carry.

It took about 20 minutes for the NRA to file a lawsuit against this law. I haven’t read their lawsuit, but I’d put $20 down that they’re not suing to keep teachers from carrying guns.

EXCERPT FROM NEW BOOK ‘RUSSIAN ROULETTE’ SHOWS SOME OF HOW OBAMA AND STAFF REACTED

This book comes out on Tuesday. Looks like it’s getting added to the Audible queue.

ALMOST 200 BRITISH ARMED FORCES CONVERGE ON SKRIPAL’S WIFE, SON GRAVE SITES

Sergei’s son’s death is now being treated as suspicious. Possibly a homicide.

JOHN SCHINDLER WITH BACKGROUND ON SKRIPAL AND OTHER RUSSIAN ASSASSINATION ATTEMPTS IN THE WEST

This isn’t the first time that Russians have assassinated people on foreign soil, and unfortunately it won’t be the last time.

WHAT A COINKIDINK… TRUMP AND PUTIN USE SAME TALKING POINTS ABOUT RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE

Gee, could it be because Putin’s writing them for Trump?

REPUBLICANS PREPARE FOR POSSIBLE LOSS IN LAMB-SACCONE RACE

This is a beautiful thing.

PA-18 is so heavily gerrymandered to support Republican voters, the Democrats didn’t even run against Tim Murphy the last couple elections. Trump won this district by 20 points. In a normal time, this wouldn’t even be a contest.

In 2018, things are different. Not only are people sick and tired of Trump’s crap and the sniveling nature of the sycophants that call themselves the Republican Party, but the times are changing.

The fact that Conor Lamb is doing as well as he is, and that the Republicans have funneled so much money in to the district is already a moral victory for Lamb. But if he can pull off an actual win, it should be an interesting election season.

COUNTRY STARS STARTING TO SPEAK OUT AGAINST TRUMP

When Country Music is catching up, shit’s about to get real.

Country Music is a very conservative form of music, playing to a very conservative crowd. I’m not going to get into a debate about the merits of different types of country music, or different artists, or that modern country is just catching up to pop music from the 1990’s, or that Stadium Country is Mad Libs sung by men who have never worked a day in their life .

SPEED ROUND!

REDDIT STILL HOSTS AND LINKS TO RUSSIAN PROPAGANDA

REDDIT FINANCIAL TIES CONNECT COMPANY INVESTORS TO TRUMP ALLIES

JOHN ASHCROFT REGISTERS AS FOREIGN AGENT FOR QATAR

KUSHNER TIES TO MOJAVE WATER PROJECT GO THROUGH APOLLO MANAGEMENT

SENATOR WARREN GOING AFTER HIS LOAN CONNECTIONS

$139,000 FOR SOME FUCKING DOORS?!

FED CHAIR SAYS STUDENT LOAN DEBT SHOULD BE DISCHARGEABLE THROUGH BANKRUPTCY

FCC COMMISIONER BROKE LAWS BY ENDORSING TRUMP

FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO PANAMA ON WHY HE COULD NO LONGER SERVE DONALD TRUMP

5 ILLEGAL VOTERS…OUT OF 1.3 MILLION

IDAHO NOT ALLOWED TO SELL BAD HEALTH INSURANCE PLANS

PHARMA BRO GETS 7 YEARS IN PRISON FOR FRAUD

RUMOR MILL: CLAUDE GETS DDOS’ed

Claude Taylor’s Political Action Committee MadDogPac, is under attack by the NRA. They’ve been battling each other the last few days, but now someone **cough**NRA friendly hackers**cough** have DDoS’ed his website, MadDogPac.com. The store’s still up for now.

MadDogPacDDoSed

That’s it for today. It’s going to be a busy weekend for me IRL, but hopefully I’ll get a story or two done on Sunday. One thing I’ve been thinking about is filling out some of the descriptions in the Rumor Mill. Either that, or talk about Three Stooges Syndrome.

Thank you, and have a good one.

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Daily Check-In 03/08/2018

Thursday March 8th.

STORMY WATCH

Today was a busy day for news about the Stormy Daniels scandal. Here’s a few things that happened:

In any normal universe, finding out that President likely paid off a Porn Star weeks before the election with campaign funds would be the biggest scandal of the year. Now, I’m worried that this scandal could actually take the wind out of the other scandals, most importantly the breaking Seychelles story.

Well, breaking to the MSM. We’ve been on this like white on rice since at least Daily Check-In 8/18/2017.

TRUMP ACCEPTS NORTH KOREA’S INVITATION TO DISCUSS ITS NUCLEAR PROGRAM

So, the Dotard agreed to meet with Kim Jong Un of North Korea by the end of May. No POTUS has ever met with the North Korean President before, for the same reason that they don’t meet with the President of the Klingon-Albanian Cosplay and Diplomacy Society.

Doing so legitimizes them.

I’m hoping that this is Trump’s “Nixon goes to China” moment, but it’s more likely his attempt at distracting the press from, well, EVERYTHING.

Plus, this is likely a Putin Puppet meets Putin Puppet scenario. Trump is Putin’s Puppet, and we’ve seen repeatedly that North Korea gets belligerent when Trump needs a distraction. And let’s not forget that Russia supplied North Korea with missile technology over the last few years to move their nuclear program ahead by a couple decades.

MANAFORT TRIAL SET FOR JULY 10, FORCED TO WEAR SECOND GPS TRACKING BRACELET

You know you’re fucked when you have to wear TWO tracking bracelets.

Paul Manafort pleaded not guilty to bank fraud charges today in the Eastern District of Virginia (EDVA). His trial has been set for July 10th. He was remanded to home confinement, and ordered to wear a tracking bracelet.

Now, Paul’s already has a tracking bracelet from the DC District Court, but EDVA can’t use the DC ones. Something like that they’re a different system or brand, or they just don’t have access to it. So, the only solution to that is to wear ANOTHER ankle bracelet.

ERIK PRINCE TO HOST FUNDRAISER FOR ROHRABACHER

Jesus fucking Christ, Erik. The timing on this is fan-fucking-tastic.

The same week that Erik Prince’s role in trying to set up a secret communication line comes out from the Special Counselor’s office, he decides that hosting a fundraiser for his old boss (Prince interned for Rohrabacher). Problem is, his old boss is neck deep in Russian shit, too.

TRUMP SIGNS TARIFFS, FLAKE TO INTRODUCE BILL TO NULLIFY TARIFFS

Trump’s tariffs are set to start in 15 days. It’ll be rough, but I think that Flake could find enough support in both houses for a veto-proof majority.

COREY LEWANDOWSKI MEETS WITH HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE. REPUBLICANS READY TO WRAP UP INVESTIGATION, DEMOCRATS WANT MORE THAN 100 SUBPOENAS.

We’re getting to the end-game of the House Intelligence Committee’s work. Any and all pretenses of bipartisanship left about a year ago, and there has been do desire from the Republicans to do their job.

It’s almost like they’re trying to run interference for Trump, and don’t care about doing their jobs for the Republic.

STATES WITH BACKGROUND CHECKS HAVE LOWER GUN VIOLENCE, STATES WITH LOOSE GUN LAWS EXPORT CRIME

This is from the “No Shit, Sherlock” Department.

These two points help explain each other, and also answer the classic argument used by gun enthusiasts “But what about Chicago? They have gun laws and high crime.”

Let’s say Gary wants to buy a gun, but has a little thing preventing him from getting one in his home state, like a felony conviction for knocking over a convenience store with a gun when he was younger. Gary also has anger issues, and once attacked someone in traffic in a road rage incident. Because of Gary’s record, he can’t buy a gun in his home state because they do background checks. He tries to buy a Glock 19, but they say “No, Nope. No fucking way.” Gary’s mad, and makes a note that he’ll shoot the prick if he ever sees him again.

So what does Gary do? His home state might have a background check, but the neighboring state doesn’t. He hops in his car, drives across state lines, gives the basic info required, buys the gun, ammo, and cleaning kit, then drives home.

A while down the road back in his home state, Gary has another road rage incident, but this time he’s armed and shoots up the car of a complete stranger because of a missing turn signal. In his rage, he kills a young mother and her child with a gun that he legally bought in another state, even though he wasn’t allowed to buy one in his home state.

DAILY CALLER HOSTS OP-ED WRITTEN BY OLEG DERIPASKA WITH PAUL MANAFORT’S HELP

Remember in Daily Check-In 12/06/2017 when Paul Manafort almost lost his bail because he was caught writing an op-ed piece with a Russian Agent?

Well, now the Daily Caller is hosting an opinion piece from Oleg Deripaska.

You know, just so we can get the Russian point of view on one of the largest conservative news sites in the world. Especially one that was founded by Tucker Carlson of Fox News. This is where I would normally link to the “About Us” page on their website, but I’d rather not link to their page. I don’t want to give them any clicks, and I’m honestly worried about what shit they might try to put in your cookies.

SKRIPAL STILL IN CRITICAL CONDITION

The graves of his wife and son have been cordoned off, possibly for exhumation.

21 people, including multiple first responders, have now become symptomatic.

There’s an above zero percent chance that someone either testified about Skripal before Congress, or someone with access to the classified intelligence gave this name to someone in the House Intel staff. That person could have given that name to Trump’s legal team, who forward that name to the Russians.

If so, those people committed espionage, and have earned the execution that the crime deserves.

RUMOR MILL: BURDEN OF PROOF

One argument I saw a couple times today on Twitter and Reddit was about the burden of proof that Robert Mueller needs to get charges through Congress and Senate for Impeachment and Removal from office.

Mueller knows how corrupt the current Republican Party Leadership is, and that he has one shot at taking down Trump through Congress. He has to make an undeniable case. A case that is so airtight, convincing, and damning, that it would be nothing less than political suicide to not vote for impeachment.

That’s one of the reasons why things are taking so long. The impeachment process is a political process. Only two Presidents have ever been impeached: Andrew Jackson and Bill Clinton. In both cases, the House voted along party lines to advance the impeachment articles to the Senate. Nixon faced two houses controlled by Democrats, but there were enough Republicans in the Senate that were going to vote to remove him from office, due to the overwhelming evidence in the case.

Now, things are different. Republicans hold both houses of Congress, and we are more partisan than ever. We’re fast approaching the end of this phase of the game, when Mueller brings charges against Trump and his coconspirators in Congress, like Devin Nunes and Matt Gaetz, for Obstruction of Justice and other easily provable crimes. If impeachment articles stall because of leadership not wanting to push them forward, expect the next series of indictments to fly, targeting the Republican Party under RICO charges, and going after the leadership directly.

At the same time, we’ll see whether or not a President can be indicted.

Although, I do have a question that I need to research. Impeachment requires a majority in the House, and removal requires 2/3rds majority. I need to find out if those numbers are based off of the total numbers, or the current membership. If a couple Senate seats are left open, are 67 still needed, or does the number drop based on the new total of seated senators? What if more than 33 senators are removed from or leave their offices at once? If there are 50 senators left, would they be able to hold a removal vote with 34 votes required, or are they stuck because they need 67 votes?

That might be my next research project.

That’s it for today.

Thank you, and have a good one.

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Daily Check-In 03/07/2018

Wednesday March 7th.

MUELLER HAS DETAILS OF SEYCHELLES BACK CHANNEL MEETING

The George Nader Tree bears more fruit. This time, it’s blowing holes through Erik Prince’s cover story about the Seychelles Meeting being a “chance encounter.”

According to reports, the Seychelles meeting took place in early January 2017, shortly before the inauguration, and was brokered by the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi. There, Erik Prince and his team (including George Nader) met with Kirill Dmitriev, a Russian banker with very close ties to Vladimir Putin, in hopes of establishing back channel communications with Russia. This was on the heels of the December 2016 meeting in Trump Tower where Jared Kushner and Mike Flynn met with Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak, where Jared proposed using the comms system in the Russian Embassy to to talk to Moscow without the United States hearing it.

The Seychelles Meeting was an attempt to establish a back channel communication system between Trump and Putin, outside of normal diplomatic channels, and outside of the ability of the U.S. Intelligence Community.

Erik Prince is owner of Academi, formerly known as Xe and before that Blackwater, a paramilitary mercenary company. He claims that he was in the Seychelles to meet with representatives of the United Arab Emirates, and just happened to bump into Kirill Dmietriev. He had a drink with him at the bar, bullshitted with him for about a half hour, and left.

Here’s a couple things that don’t pass the smell test.

Erik Prince lives in Abu Dhabi. Why does he need to fly to the Seychelles to meet with people works with and lives near?
He’s a former Navy Seal and Naval Officer. A career of military training should tell him that this was fishy.
His company works for the Crown Prince.
His company isn’t just a bunch of hired thugs, they also have Intelligence gathering operations. Hell, he even proposed using his company in place of American Intelligence.
He donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Trump Campaign.
His sister is Betsy DeVos, the wholly and completely unqualified Secretary of Education.
His family owns Spectrum Health. Yes, the same Spectrum Health from the Trump Server debacle. Voter Rolls – The Easy Target has some information on that.
If this was a random meeting in a bar between only Erik Prince and Kirill Dmietriev, why did George Nader take notes on it?

So, we have the head of a mercenary army and intelligence company/brother of a cabinet member, who’s meeting with his neighbors on a resort island, instead of down the street where they work and live, and just happens to meet a banker friend of Putin’s at a bar for a meet and greet, the same day and time he happens to be at the same bar at the same resort at the same island, and his right hand man just happens to take notes on the whole thing, even though he isn’t at the bar?

That is either a truly amazing series of coincidences, or a cover story just got blown.

This reporting kind of contradicts what Erik told the House Intelligence Committee during his testimony.

MR. SWALWELL: In 2016, which –just to summarize, your position today is that you had no official role with the campaign. Is that correct?

MR. PRINCE: That’s correct

MR. SWALWELL: No official role with the transition.

MR. PRINCE: Correct.

MR. SWALWELL: No unofficial role, in your description, with the campaign. Is that right?

MR. PRINCE: Correct.

MR. SWALWELL: And no unofficial role, as you’ve described, with the transition.

MR. PRINCE: I’m in no official capacity at all.

MR. SWALWELL: But —

MR. PRINCE: I am a citizen voter that cares about the wrong direction the country was headed in and how to change it, how to put it in what I thought was a better direction.

MR. SWALWELL: So how would you describe the role of a citizen voter who wrote policy memos for a campaign, made multiple visits to Trump Tower, made six-figure donations to the campaign, and conducted a number of meetings with the campaign’s manager?

MR. PRINCE: Someone who cares about their country.

MR. SWALWELL: Mr. Ranking Member, I’ll yield back.

By the way, lying to Congress is a felony. Even in a closed hearing. Even without swearing an oath.

TRUMP TALKED TO WITNESSES AFTER THEY SPOKE TO MUELLER

The below tweet sums up this story nicely.

Keep in mind, this is Trump asking the witnesses AFTER they testified to Mueller, not before, so it likely doesn’t meet the legal standard for Witness Tampering or Intimidating a Witness. However, Mueller is circling back to ask the witnesses what Trump said and did to them. If Trump threatened them, or tried to force them to change their stories, or intimidated them in any way, shape, or form, that’s a padddlin’.

HOPE HICKS EMAILS HACKED, CLAIM MADE TO HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE

There’s three reasons I can think of why she disclosed this to the House Committee.

One of her email accounts really was hacked.
She thinks this will work as an excuse for not producing requested correspondence.
All of the above.

Here’s the thing with email…it doesn’t really disappear. At least, not very easily.

Email can exist in multiple locations and forms. It exists on the server of the sender and the recipient. It exists on the server of any mail system it passed through. It can exist as a local copy on a phone, tablet, or computer. It exists in transmission logs that keep track of network traffic.

Hope admits she’s not tech savvy, so either she got phished, or thinks that if she says she was hacked, that can work as an excuse for all of the bad mails sent out from her account. This argument stretches credulity to the breaking point.

NERVE AGENT USED AGAINST SKRIPAL, DAUGHTER

The Russian Embassy – UK Twitter account claims that Sergei was a British spy working for MI6.

As I mentioned on Daily Check-In 03/05/2018 and on Daily Check-In 03/06/2018, Skripal worked on the Steele Dossier.

MULTIPLE WHITE HOUSE STAFFERS HAVE SECURITY CLEARANCES PULLED

This is more fallout from John Kelly’s enforcement of the new security clearance rules. In a normal White House, one or two people not being able to get a clearance would be a major scandal. Now, it’s not even the worst thing this afternoon.

KUSHNER GOING TO MEXICO

I’m wondering if he’s going to try some type of Quid Pro Quo crap that he pulled with Qatar. See Claude’s tweet below for details.

KEEBLER NAZI SUES CALIFORNIA OVER SANCTUARY CITIES

Attorney General Jeff Sessions is picking a fight with California that he will not win.

DeVOS DOES NOT MEET WITH PARKLAND STUDENTS DURING VISIT TO SCHOOL

According to multiple students from Twitter, she showed up, gave a speech about therapy dogs, didn’t mention gun reform, pet a doggie for a photo op, and left.

SPEED ROUND!

REDDIT HAS NOT HANDED OVER ANY DOCUMENTS TO INVESTIGATORS, DESPITE CLAIMS OTHERWISE

DEMOCRAT TURNOUT IN TEXAS HIGHEST IN 16 YEARS

ELAINE CHAO: TRUMP PUSHED TO KILL MAJOR NYC PROJECT

PUTIN TROLLS U.S., PRAISES TRUMP

DEMOCRATS UNVEIL $1 TRILLION INFRASTRUCTURE PLAN

OP-ED: WHAT ABOUT SOCIALISM?

RUMOR MILL: DICK PICS AND QUID PRO QUO

From Pesach:

I hate to say this, so here’s a screenshot of Pace’s Twitter timeline. I couldn’t find the original, but get ready for news about Trump Dick Pics.

The whole world is gonna get a little more nauseous.

From Claude:

Yeah, I want to say I’m surprised, but that would be a lie. This is exactly the kind of mob-like behavior I’d expect from them. Offer a protection scheme to a shop owner, break their window when they say no, offer protection again, but at a higher cost, then milk them for everything.

Except, Qatar isn’t a mom and pop shop in Queens.

That’s it for today. Well, yesterday. Wednesday was a busy day, and by the time I could get around to writing, it was already late enough to be early. Hopefully Thursday is more to my liking.

Thank you, and have a good one.

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Daily Check-In 03/06/2018

Tuesday, March 6th.

GEORGE NADER: COOPERATING WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION

Yesterday in Daily Check-In 03/05/2018, I talked about George Nader. Today, we found out a lot more. And so has Special Counselor Robert Mueller.

George Nader is an adviser to the United Arab Emirates. On top of all of his connections to the current members of the White House, George also set up the Seychelles Meeting with Erik Prince. Hell, George was there as Erik Prince, owner of his own mercenary army and suspected Chinese Intelligence asset, met with Kirill Dmitriev.

George Nader was there. He told Bobby Three Sticks all about the meeting.

George Nader is the newest cooperating witness to the Special Counselor. And he didn’t have much of a choice in the matter.

Around January 20th 2018, George Nader was on his way to Mar-A-Lago for Trump’s 1 year celebration. The one that Trump had trouble getting to because of the Government Shutdown. Well, after getting into the country, the FBI stopped him in the airport, and took his phone, put him in a tiny room, and he had a heart to heart with the FBI.

Sounds a lot like George Papadopoulos.

So, it’s time to update the list of known cooperating witnesses.

George Papadopoulos
Michael Flynn
Rick Gates
Richard Pinedo
George Nader

George Nader can deliver Erik Prince, Jared Kushner, and likely Donald Trump.

SPECIAL COUNSELOR INVESTIGATING TRUMP’S LAWYER MICHAEL COHEN

Michael Cohen is a total and complete scumbag, but he’s got big problems, all of which are deserved.

Special Counselor Robert Mueller is investigating Cohen’s connections to Ukraine, his role in trying to set up a deal for a Trump Tower in Moscow, his role as Trump’s fixer for things like paying women to keep their silence, and likely other potential crimes like receiving leaked information from the House Intel Committee.

That last one came out today. Turns out that someone testified in a closed session for the House Intel Committee, and an unknown staffer **cough**Kash Patel, staffer to Devin Nunes**cough**, informed Cohen’s lawyer Stephen Ryan of the testimony. Stephen Ryan then approached that witnesses lawyer. Not in a friendly manner, either.

So, not only is Trump’s lawyer getting investigated, but his lawyer might need a lawyer.

The Lawyer’s Lawyer might need a Lawyer.

Welcome to Lawyerception.

GARY COHN RESIGNS FROM WHITE HOUSE

Gary Cohn was Trump’s economic advisor, who almost resigned over Trump’s reaction to Charlottesville. I talked about it when it happened in August, as well in Racism And Politics Today.

Cohn has had enough of Trump’s shit, and has hit his breaking point. He will not stand by as Trump destroys the economy.

KELLYANNE CONWAY VIOLATED HATCH ACT

The Office of Special Counsel (Not to be confused with the Special Counselor’s Office) found and ruled that Trump’s spokeswoman Kellyanne Conway violated the Hatch Act, which prohibits sitting political figures from using their office to campaign or advocate for a candidate in an election, unless specifically in a campaign setting, and at that point they are a private citizen.

The Crypt Keeper used her official position as a spokesperson for the White House and Donald Trump to explain on Fox News, from the White House lawn, why people shouldn’t vote for Doug Jones for Alabama Senate.

The OSC forwarded their findings to the White House for them to punish her, but I wouldn’t hold my breath on that. But it is more crimes for the pile.

STORMY DANIELS SUING DONALD TRUMP

Stephanie Clifford, a.k.a. Stormy Daniels, is suing Donald Trump, Michael Cohen, and the LLC Cohen created to pay her off. She is suing them to have the agreement thrown out as null and void because…

Wait for it…

Trump didn’t sign the contract.

Yes, Michael Cohen had ONE JOB. Get your client to sign the contract, pay the porn star. Yet, he managed to fuck that one up.

She also alleges that Cohen has harassed her and attempted to intimidate her into remaining silent.

From Reddit, user tlqr has a good write-up of how this could work.

Lawyer here.

This agreement is not invalid simply because Trump didn’t sign it. The terms are clear, and she was paid the money as contemplated by the agreement. The fact that Trump didn’t sign it is irrelevant because it was signed by his agent.

However, and this is the good part, all Trump needs to do to soundly beat this lawsuit is adopt the contract. If his lawyer had Trump’s authority to execute the agreement, then all Trump has to do is acknowledge and adopt the contract, and it is 100% binding.

Stormy Daniels’ lawyer knows this. But they also know that politically Trump cannot acknowledge or adopt this contract. This is win-win-win for them. Either (1) Trump refuses to adopt the contract, in which case she gets out of it and gets to sell her story to the networks, (2) Trump adopts the contract, and that in itself is a news story, or (3) she gets more money from Trump to drop the suit.

Edit: A few people are correctly pointing out that another issue for Trump is that asserting the contract was for his benefit may also have implications for an FEC violation.

That’s where we’re at now. The President of the United States can get out of a lawsuit by acknowledging a contract with a Porn Star, but doing so means he admits to his role, and that this payoff was an illegal election contribution.

REPUBLICANS LINING UP TO FIGHT PROPOSED TARIFFS TO AVOID A TRADE WAR

If there is one thing that might get the current GOP to stand up to Trump, it will be tariffs leading to a trade war. I covered exactly how bad of an idea tariffs are on Daily Check-In 03/02/2018.

McConnell and Ryan are playing the hedge game, but I wouldn’t be surprised that they actually do their fucking jobs and pass legislation to prevent this.

According to a recent study, 146,000 jobs would be lost due to steel and aluminum tariffs.

BOTH KOREAS PLANNING SUMMIT FOR APRIL

They haven’t met in over ten years, and these talks hope to lead to denuclearize the peninsula.

Hopefully, this doesn’t get fucked up.

FLYNN SELLS HOUSE TO PAY LEGAL BILLS

Mike Flynn’s selling his second house in Alexandria, VA. The house has been on the market since December 2017, listed at 845k.

I’m not used to the D.C. Metro Area pricing, but nearly a million for a 3 BR, 2.5 Bath townhouse is nuts. That’s mansion money in Pittsburgh.

Plus, if you’re gonna sell your house, clean up the closet and house before having the realtor take pics.

I’d almost feel sorry for him. Then I remember all of the treason, espionage, and corruption him and his son took part in. Losing a second home doesn’t even begin to make up for it.

THE EX-KREMLIN SPY APPARENTLY POISONED IN BRITAIN HAS LINKS TO THE MAN WHO WROTE THE EXPLOSIVE TRUMP-RUSSIA DOSSIER

I reported this yesterday in Daily Check-In 03/05/2018, but we have new details.

Sergei Skripal and his daughter are in critical condition after being found on a park bench.
11 first responders have also gotten sick.
Sergei’s wife and son died of mysterious circumstances in the past couple years.
Boris Johnson has said that an attack by the Russians on residents of Britain as an “act of war.”

MARYLAND SENATE PASSES BILL THAT PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES MUST RELEASE TAXES

If this trend continues, and enough states pass similar laws, that would force Trump to release his taxes before the 2020 election, or not run*

*=Some exclusions apply. The odds of Trump making it to 2020 are smaller than his hands, and decreasing everyday.

SPEED ROUND!

STATES WITH STRICTER GUN LAWS HAVE FEWER SUICIDES AND HOMICIDES

EX-OLIGARCH DESCRIBES THE RUSSIAN MAFIA STATE

A TIMELINE OF JARED KUSHNER’S ALLEGED ACTIVITIES

THE NRA FACES A NEW KIND OF OPPONENT: KIDS WHO UNDERSTAND SOCIAL MEDIA

BALTIMORE STUDENTS WALK OUT OF CLASS TO MARCH DOWNTOWN FOR GUN SAFETY

CLAUDE’S BILLBOARD GOING UP NEAR MAR-A-LAGO

SENATE LOOKING TO UNDO DODD-FRANK RULES

THREE DISTRICTS TO WATCH IN TEXAS PRIMARY ELECTION

NUNBERG’S LAWYER CLAIMED TRUMP MAY BE RUNNING ‘SECRET SHADOW OPERATION’

GET TO KNOW EMMA GONZALEZ

REDDIT ADMITS TO HOSTING RUSSIAN PROPAGANDA

RUMOR MILL: BARREL TIME FOR ROGER STONE

One of the rumors floating around from a few places like the Anon Journal is that Roger Stone is about to get arrested within the next two weeks. Stone was one of Trump’s campaign advisors, is a long time friend of Paul Manafort, Sam Nunberg’s mentor, and an originator of the Post-Nixonian School of Dirty Tricks.

Roger is an expert in Shock and Awe politics, which is why he was a natural fit for Donald Trump. Distract and Attack are two of his basic plays while on the defensive. Distract from the problem at hand, and Attack against an enemy with one’s own weakness. Blame the opponent of what you did to take away their punch when they come after you.

Roger Stone worked with Julian Assange, a known Russian Asset, during the 2016 election. He coordinated with Assange and Wikileaks the release of the DNC emails, and likely coordinated the “discovery” of Hilary Clinton’s emails on Anthony Weiner’s laptop.

Yesterday’s incident with Sam Nunberg is a play right out of Stone’s playbook; Distract and Attack. Distract from the problem, and attack the enemy. The enemy, in this case, is Trump.

“But wait, didn’t Stone work for Trump? Aren’t they friends?”

Maybe, but this is war, and Roger knows how deep the whole he’s looking at is.

Listen to what Sam said yesterday. He buried Carter Page, Trump, the family, everyone but Steve Bannon and Roger Stone. Sam said he wouldn’t testify against Roger Stone at all.

There’s a strong chance that Sam either did what Roger Stone told him to do, or asked himself “What Would Roger Do?” Looks like that answer was “Get drunk and go on national television.”

To Sam’s credit, when he sobered up this morning, his lawyer released a statement that he would cooperate with the Special Counselor’s office, then get some treatment in a rehab facility.

That’s it for today. We’ll see how things go the rest of the week. We’re getting to the 3 Stooges Syndrome phase of Trump. There are so many things flying at once that can destroy him, it almost feels like they’re cancelling each other out.

Then, I sit back and remember that there are 330 million Americans, and 7 billion humans yearning for freedom. They’re looking to us to carry the flame of freedom on to the next generation.

We will prevail, but we must do it the right way. We are a nation of laws, not of men, personality, or wealth. That means that traitors and tyrants are stopped by and through the law.

Everything must be done by the book.

Thank you, and have a good one.

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur