Tag: Politics

Daily Check-In 12/03/2018

Monday, December 3, 2018 and the weekend

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

Cohen’s Claims

It’s been quite a few days for Michael Cohen.  After his plea agreement on Thursday (Daily Check-In 11/29/2018) and revelations about what that meant on Friday (Daily Check-In 11/30/2018), it might seem like it’s hard to top what’s happening.  It looks like over the weekend, we’re still seeing the fallout of that bombshell.

According to these new reports, Cohen was talking to Trump’s legal team and White House staff while he was getting his story straight.  I’m not a lawyer, but admitting to working with the legal team of the person you’re lying for sounds like it might be a crime.  Like, Conspiracy to Obstruct Justice or Witness Tampering.

 

Cohen Sentencing

THREAD: What does Michael Cohen’s sentencing submission tell us about his cooperation against Trump and the potential involvement of others in his criminal conduct? (Short answer: A lot more than you might expect)

1/ Late on Friday night, Michael Cohen’s attorneys filed his sentencing submission. It is really worth a read:

2/ A sentencing memorandum is a document that defense attorneys write and submit to a court before a client is sentenced so that the judge can consider all of the facts and circumstances surrounding their client and his conduct when he is sentenced.

3/ Judges are required to consider the “history and characteristics” of the defendant as well as the “nature and circumstances” of the offense, so the types of information provided in a sentencing memorandum can be extensive.

4/ In many cases, there are disputes between the prosecutors and defense about what the defendant did, what sentencing guidelines apply to the defendant, or what the sentence should be. In the case of a cooperator like Cohen, I expect the only disagreement to be the sentence.

5/ It’s important to note that if a cooperator like Cohen made a false factual assertion about his cooperation or his criminal activity, the prosecutors would make that known to the judge. You can be confident that this document is consistent with Mueller’s knowledge.

6/ It is carefully written by an attorney who was a former high-ranking federal prosecutor in New York who knows that if he said something false or misleading, the New York federal prosecutors would make the judge aware of the falsehood and he would be very much worse off.

7/ I give you this background because there is very interesting information in this document, and part of what makes it interesting is that the info is specific and is made in the context where we can feel confident in its accuracy, even though it’s written by an advocate.

8/ The most interesting thing in the document, by far, is Cohen’s discussion of his false statements to Congress. His attorneys carefully discuss the false statements, his motivation to make the false statement, and the involvement of Trump’s staff and attorneys.

9/ Because the precision of their words is important, I’m going to type out their exact words here. They refer to Trump as “Client-1” throughout but I’ve changed that to “Trump” here for clarity:

10/ “Michael’s false statements to Congress likewise sprung regrettably from Michael’s effort, as a loyal ally and then champion of Trump, to support and advance Trump’s political messaging. At the time that he was requested to appear before . . .”

11/ “the [House and Senate Intel Committees], Michael was serving as personal attorney to the President, and followed daily the political messages that both Trump and his staff and supporters repeatedly and forcefully broadcast.”

12/ “Furthermore, in the weeks during which his then-counsel prepared his written response to the Congressional Committees, Michael remained in close and regular contact with White House based-staff and legal counsel to Trump.”

13/ That last sentence is extremely important and interesting. It is also very carefully worded. The sentence strongly implies that White House staff and Trump’s attorneys knew in advance that Cohen would lie to Congress and were involved in crafting his statements.

14/ But it does *not* come out and say that. It is important to note that Cohen’s attorney does not allege that Cohen was *directed* to lie to Congress. Yet Cohen’s lawyer has not been shy about having him say that Trump directed him to commit the campaign finance violations.

15/ If he could truthfully say that Cohen was *directed* to lie, I believe he would be obligated to do so because it would be a mitigating fact that the judge should consider. But Cohen’s attorney suggests that Cohen felt pressure to lie and that Trump’s staff and attorneys knew.

16/ Essentially what Cohen’s attorney is saying is that Cohen read Trump’s anti-Mueller messaging (discussed at length in the memorandum), knew that he was supposed to be consistent with Trump’s lies, and did so.

17/ He was also in “close and regular contact” with White House staff and Trump’s lawyers about what he would say. The implication is that they knew the testimony he was going to provide to Congress was false and let him go forward and lie, or at least didn’t correct the record.

18/ So do Trump’s staff members and attorneys have any liability? Possibly, although it appears that they tried to be careful to mislead Congress and the public in a manner that would not create personal liability.

19/ Specifically, it sounds like they knew Cohen would lie to Congress and didn’t stop him or correct the record. But they didn’t tell him what lies to say or direct him to lie because *they didn’t have to.” Cohen read Trump’s lies and knew he was supposed to repeat them.

20/ Depending on what Trump’s staff and attorneys knew, this could very well be a conspiracy to lie to Congress, which is a crime. (A conspiracy is just an agreement to commit a crime.) But it may be extremely difficult to prove based on what Cohen’s attorney said.

21/ What it would take to prove a conspiracy of that nature is testimony from another co-conspirator (a Trump attorney or staffer) that their conversations with Cohen were a way for him to run his lies past them for approval, and they approved the lies.

22/ Emails or other documentation proving that point would also potentially prove a conspiracy along those lines. I suspect that Mueller and House Democrats will try to find out what evidence exists of knowledge, approval, or coordination of Cohen’s lies.

23/ If all that happened is that Cohen told them he would lie and they didn’t stop him, that is not a crime, which is why they may have just listened. Their silence and failure to stop him was their approval, but also makes it hard to prove they were aware of his lies.

24/ Their defense would be that Cohen testified about many matters and that they weren’t focused on these specific portions of his testimony, and/or that they didn’t even know those portions of his testimony were false at the time. Prosecutors would have to prove otherwise.

25/ That is why emails or testimony from some of them would likely be needed to support a conviction. So what does the rest of the sentencing memorandum say? Quite a bit.

26/ First, the sentencing memorandum repeats the statement Cohen made under oath that Trump directed Cohen to commit the campaign finance violations, and provides important context to help the judge understand those violations and Trump’s involvement in them.

27/ Specifically, Cohen “kept his client [Trump] contemporaneously informed and acted on his client’s instructions. This is not an excuse, and Michael accepts that he acted wrongfully …”

28/ “… Nevertheless, we respectfully request that the Court consider that as personal counsel to Trump, Michael felt obligated to assist Trump, on Trump’s instruction, to attempt to prevent Woman-1 and Woman-2 from disseminating narratives …”

29/ “… that would adversely affect the Campaign *and* cause personal embarrassment to Trump and his family.” That last line is an attempt by Cohen’s attorney to suggest that the offense is less serious than if the payments were just meant to influence the election.

30/ That is *not* a legal defense. It’s a crime nonetheless, and Cohen acknowledges that. His attorney minimizes the conduct because his job is to provide context that would reduce Cohen’s sentence. He’s doing his job.

31/ That’s also why he is pointing to the extent to which Cohen kept Trump informed of his actions at the time–more detail on that is given in the memorandum–and acted on his orders. It’s not an excuse but it helps provide context that explains why he committed the crimes.

32/ The next interesting part of his memorandum is its description of Trump’s legal and PR strategy. This is quite a statement to make on behalf of the president’s former personal lawyer:

33/ Cohen was “personally aware of Trump’s repeated disavowals of commercial and political ties between himself and Russia, as well as the strongly voiced mantra of Trump that investigations of such ties were politically motivated and without evidentiary support.”

34/ What Cohen’s lawyer carefully does not say is whether those statements are true or false. But he immediately follows that statement by focusing on the specific falsehood at issue here and noting that it was also part of Trump’s false messaging.

35/ Part of what is going on here is that Cohen’s attorney is explaining that Trump’s extreme strategy of casting the entire investigation of him as false is a mitigating circumstance the judge should consider when taking into account his own crime of lying to Congress.

36/ But the description itself is quite an acknowledgement on his part. The last part of Cohen’s sentencing memorandum that is worth discussing here is his description of his cooperation. Cohen described in detail his cooperation with Mueller and other prosecutors.

37/ Cohen said that he participated in seven separate interviews with Mueller and that he met with representatives of the New York Attorney General concerning their civil lawsuit against the Trump Foundation and provided documents to them.

38/ Cohen also said that he met with the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance and has complied with numerous requests for information from them. Also, Cohen claims that the decision to push forward without a traditional cooperation deal was his own decision.

39/ He claims he is eager not to delay his sentencing, and wants to be sentenced now before his cooperation is completed, even though he intends to cooperate further. This is a very unusual and risky strategy by Cohen. The judge can’t be sure that he will continue cooperating.

40/ Once he is sentenced, the leverage that prosecutors have over him is reduced although it still exists and he has done a good job of demonstrating to the judge that he has fully cooperated, intends to continue to cooperate, and merits a low sentence.

41/ And that brings me to the last point. After disputing how the sentencing guidelines are calculated–Cohen believes the guidelines range should be 46 to 57 months–he asks for time served. I don’t believe he will receive a sentence of time served.

42/ That said, based on my experience prosecuting and defending federal criminal tax and fraud violations, I expect Cohen to receive a sentence well below the guidelines range. He will get some prison time but it may be less than some uninformed or disingenuous observers predict.

43/ One last point before I go: I wrote this from 2 a.m. to 4:10 a.m. and it may get lost in the morning. If you read this thread and found it informative, please consider retweeting it in the morning because I’d like people to see it when they wake up tomorrow. /end

I’m curious to see how this goes.  Because of Trump’s screaming about him getting a long prison sentence, his lawyers could actually use that in their defense.

 

Stone

 

Manafort

YEAY!!!!  I’m trying not to get my hopes up too much, but it’s hard not to get a little excited about this.

 

Comey

 

Witness Tampering

THREAD: Did Trump engage in witness tampering this morning when he tweeted in praise of Roger Stone’s refusal to cooperate with prosecutors?

Renato Mariotti Retweeted Donald J. Trump

1/ This morning Trump tweeted the following in praise of Roger Stone’s refusal to cooperate with Mueller:

Donald J. TrumpVerified account @realDonaldTrump

“I will never testify against Trump.” This statement was recently made by Roger Stone, essentially stating that he will not be forced by a rogue and out of control prosecutor to make up lies and stories about “President Trump.” Nice to know that some people still have “guts!”

2/ @gtconway3d, @neal_katyal and other highly respected attorneys quickly noted that Trump’s tweet looks a lot like witness tampering. They’re right—it does. But proving beyond a reasonable doubt that it’s witness tampering is more challenging than it might seem at first glance.

3/ I’ve included the relevant jury instruction below. Mueller would need to prove, among other things, that Trump had “corrupt” intent and acted with the intent to cause Stone to withhold testimony.

4/ Trump has said and done many things over the last two years that suggest that he often acts with the intent to impede the Mueller investigation—I collected many of them in the piece I wrote in January (below).

5/ But for purposes of a stand-alone witness tampering charge, what matters is Trump’s intent when he wrote this specific tweet. Evidence of his other acts would be very relevant but not dispositive.

6/ Trump’s lawyers would argue that the purpose of his tweet was to influence the public, not Stone, and that they could have spoken to Stone’s attorney privately if Trump actually wanted to influence him.

7/ Trump says a great many things on Twitter and isn’t careful with his words, so some courts have concluded that his words can’t be taken literally or seriously. Here is a short thread discussing those cases (which of course were in a different context):

Brad HeathVerified account @bradheath

The Justice Department says in a new court filing that when it comes to FISA declassifciation, President Trump doesn’t know what he’s tweeting about.

8/ Prosecutors would likely respond that by speaking broadly to the public instead of privately to Stone, Trump was trying to influence Stone in a manner that gave him plausible deniability.

9/ They would point to Michael Cohen’s recent sentencing memorandum, in which his attorney said that Cohen lied in part due to Trump’s messaging. My thread discussing that is below:

10/ Because of the challenges of proving “corrupt” intent, and the legal challenges Trump could bring, I think the best way for a prosecutor to charge today’s tweet would be as part of a larger conspiracy to obstruct justice, instead of as a stand-alone crime.

11/ I’ve been convinced since January that Trump obstructed justice for the reasons I explained in the piece linked earlier in the thread. That larger scheme would be easier to prove than a case based on a single tweet.

12/ But since the U.S. Senate, not ordinary Americans, would be the jury it’s unclear to me how much this will matter. It’s hard for me to imagine 20 Republican Senators voting to convict Trump for obstructing justice. It’s unclear what it would take for them to convict. /end

 

 

 

NEW – More behind-the-scenes jockeying from Mueller in the mystery grand jury subpoena fight we’ve been following that’s headed for a closed-door oral argument in the US Court of Appeals DC Circuit on Dec. 14.

The hidden case is back.  (Daily Check-In 11/23/2018) 18-3071, set for oral arguments on December 14th.

There’s been some theories as to whom is on the receiving end of this case, but I’d like to throw a new name out.

Mike Pence.

If it were Trump, he probably would have tweeted about it by now, or talked about this case in an interview.  It’s possible that he’s staying quiet on this because of how important it is.  And, given how it’s being handled, this has to be a big fish.  How many other big fish are left with direct White House ties?

Fuck, why did I ask that question.  There’s Pence, Trump, Kushner, Kremlin Barbie, McGahn, Flood, the secretaries, and a bunch of other people. But the biggest fish left are Trump and Pence.  Especially in a fight against a subpoena.

Pence has been quiet since this all began.  Very quiet.  Almost too quiet.  And considering how much he’s tied into the mess with Flynn and Manafort, he should be very nervous.

I still think it’s Trump, but don’t forget about Pence.

 

COHEN, NEW YORK, AND THE OTHER LAWSUITS

Epstein

 

1MDB

 

Emoluments

 

Stormy

 

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET

G-20

 

TRUMP VS MILITARY

 

TRAITOR TOTS

 

FIGHTING BACK

 

RIGHT WING TERRORISM & WHITE NATIONALISM

 

KHASHOGGI & SAUDI ARABIA

 

IMMIGRATION

 

SCOTUS & COURTS

 

#METOO & WOMEN’S RIGHTS

 

COLD WAR 2.0

Ukraine

 

Iran

 

Israel

 

 

#NEVERAGAIN

 

FIXING THE INTERNET

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

 

 

TRADE WAR, HEALTH CARE, & ECONOMY

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

 

PRIESTS & RELIGION

 

ENVIRONMENT & SCIENCE

 

CONGRESS

 

ELECTIONS

Wisconsin

 

North Carolina

 

 

 

THINKING AHEAD

Okay. I wanna say something about this obsession with rural white America. This is gonna be a thread.

I worked in Marion and Mahaska counties in Iowa as a Field Organizer in 2016. My job was to organize rural Democrats to get out the vote. It meant speaking to a TON of rural white voters. The two counties together have a population of about 50,000, with the biggest town at 11k.

These are exactly the voters Bernie and his supporters keep saying we should reach, that we are failing without reaching them. And, they propose, consistently, that the “pain and suffering” of these rural counties is economic.

That’s the drumbeat of the Bernie movement, essentially: “It’s the economy, stupid.” We’re leaving the rural white voting population behind because we’ve been alienating them by talking about social issues all the time and not how we’re going to help them economically.

In my experience, talking and working with rural voters every. single. day from July 2016 to November 2016? They aren’t that concerned about the economy and losing their farms, at least not where federal elections are concerned.

You’d think if the problem was economic, that’d be cited as a reason for reluctance to vote for Hillary, that there would be a clearer divide. That the narrative being imposed upon rural whites by a coastal elite (Bernie) that their concern is economic would ring true.

Nope. I was told that they weren’t voting for Hillary because she’s a woman, because they don’t trust women to lead, because she leaned too far into being pro-choice, that they disagreed with Dems on social issues.

I got asked why I was in favor of killing babies and told by a rural farmer with a disabled daughter that he was worried about “them Mexicans at the border.”

No one talked about the farm bills. When the economy was brought up, it was with a favorable view to Dems, as Dems had brought wind power to the state and provided a new industry.

My mom consistent volunteers were rural lesbians and queer people. Social issues were what people wanted to talk about on the doors, not the economy. I simply didn’t see Bernie’s narrative reflected on the ground.

And I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather keep those firebrand lesbians in the party than try to sacrifice them to court the racist old white farmer who won’t vote for anyone but a white man regardless.

(sorry for the typos. I just woke up and haven’t had my coffee yet).

 

 

PROGRESS IS PROGRESS

Puff, Puff, Pass

 

Medicare for All

In my on-boarding to Congress, I get to pick my insurance plan. As a waitress, I had to pay more than TWICE what I’d pay as a member of Congress. It’s frustrating that Congressmembers would deny other people affordability that they themselves enjoy. Time for #MedicareForAll.

Also, pretty sure one Dante’s Circles of Hell includes scrolling through a mirror-hall of agonizingly similar healthcare plans like “UHG Choice Master HMO 1800” vs “RedGo Option Plus EPO 2000.” I don’t know one normal person in this country that actually enjoys open enrollment.

People don’t want overly complicated choice between pricey, low-quality plans. We want an affordable solution that covers our needs, like the rest of the modern world. Medicare for All: – Single-payer system – Covers physical, mental, & dental care – 0 due *at point of service*

 

GEORGE H.W. BUSH

Listen people the Bush family are not our friends. Don’t get so salty with critiques of a president who helped destabilize the Middle East & empower the modern GOP. They’re a garbage barge imperialist stain on this country.

The reactions to this post are the strangest thing about the Trump era IMO. Everyone forgets *how terrible* the Bush family was/are. Trump is terrible too! Both things can be true.

If you’re a person who thinks the Bush family is good or was good or is somehow exempt from historical criticism then yes you should unfollow me. Do some reading or some remembering. The world is the way it is now largely Bc of them.

Ten years ago all you haters were saying GWB was the worst president of all time, and fifteen years before that how lucky we were to be rid of the Reagan/Bush evil empire. Come back to reality plz.

Now come the hagiographies & the wishful delusions that if only we had a man who gave use Willie Horton/Clarence Thomas/Middle East destabilization/Saudi extremism & more we’d be A-Ok. It’s so disingenuous.

The only thing I’m interested in is the truth & I don’t care how uncomfortable that makes anyone. One reason we’re in this mess in the first place is bc very few people are willing to have an honest conversation.

Here’s the thing with 41…

I don’t like him.  I never really liked him, but he was the least despicable Republican President of my life.  That’s a pretty short list, but I’d put him as the least hated.  I’m not in mourning, but I didn’t celebrate his death like I did with Reagan, either.  With Ronnie, I wasn’t going to go out at all that night until I saw his death announced on the news.  Just like how he tried to kill the unions in this country, I tried to kill a dozen beers that night.  With 41, I might look back more fondly on him if his son wasn’t also President.

 

IN OTHER NEWS…

 

RUMOR MILL

“WikiLeaks walks like a hostile intelligence service and talks like a hostile intelligence service. It has encouraged its followers to find jobs at CIA in order to obtain intelligence. It directed Chelsea Manning in her theft of specific secret information …”

“And it overwhelmingly focuses on the United States, while seeking support from anti-democratic countries and organizations. It is time to call out WikiLeaks for what it really is – a non-state hostile intelligence service often abetted by state actors like Russia….”

“In January of this year, our Intelligence Community determined that Russian military intelligence—the GRU—had used WikiLeaks to release data of US victims that the GRU had obtained through cyber operations against the Democratic National Committee….”

“And the report also found that Russia’s primary propaganda outlet, RT, has actively collaborated with WikiLeaks.” — Mike Pompeo, 13 APR 2017

Translation (c/o Trump’s *OWN* D/CIA and now SECSTATE): Wikileaks = GRU. GRU is Putin’s rancid, murderous MI service. IC knows it. Mueller & OSC know it. If you collaborated with WikiLeaks in 2016 to get HRC/DRC’s stolen emails, you were working with GRU. That simple, folks.

 

That’s it for the last few days.  I’m wondering what will happen on Tuesday with Flynn’s sentencing.  I wouldn’t be surprised if it gets delayed again, but I’m optimistic that this time it will include some specifics, and that he’ll go to jail.  The only way he doesn’t go to jail is if he flipped on someone bigger than him, and there’s not many above him in the food chain.

Also, a little spoiler for Tuesday’s post, but Epstein settled out of court at the last minute.  Shit.  I was looking forward to everything this could bring.  I hope that more attention is given to this case, and that the women will finally get their say in court.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Daily Check-In 11/30/2018

Friday, November 30, 2018

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

Cohen

Sater also said that the pair stopped working on the Moscow deal as soon as the issue of Russian election hacking emerged in the news because it became clear it would become a political liability.

In fact, he said, it is not a coincidence that, according to court documents filed today, Michael Cohen canceled a planned trip to Moscow on June 14, 2016 — the same day the Post broke the story that Russians had hacked the Democratic National Committee.

“As soon as the Russian stuff broke, it was like, well, this deal is over,” Sater said.

We’re going to hear a lot more about the events Cohen was neck deep in, but I like the way this actually makes sense.  According to Felix Sater, he and Michael Cohen worked on the Trump Tower Russia project right up until they saw Peskov’s name in the Washington Post, connected to the DNC hacking.

At least, that might be how far Felix took his part in this opera.

There are two important points to keep in mind.

  1. All of this is happening because of 1 series of lies.  There are dozens of things that were lied about.
  2. Everyone that testified had the same story about those meetings.

This was an organized conspiracy to cover up what happened, and who knew about what.  It wasn’t just one person lying about an insignificant detail.  It was dozens of people telling the same story.

 

Mueller’s team is preparing the “Crimes and Lies” report.  From their description last week, they were ready to roll with this any day and had this cooking for a while.

 

COHEN, NEW YORK, AND THE OTHER LAWSUITS

“I had sexual intercourse with [Alan] Dershowitz at least six times,’’ Roberts wrote in the 2015 court affidavit. “The first time was when I was about 16, early on in my servitude to [Jeffrey] Epstein.’’

Even from jail, sex abuser manipulated the system. His victims were kept in the dark The special treatment given to Jeffrey Epstein didn’t end when the Palm Beach multimillionaire avoided hard time despite allegations that he’d se… miamiherald.com       

“Roberts says she was 16 and working as a locker room attendant at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort when she was approached by Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein’s associate, about becoming a masseuse for Epstein.” Roberts’ father worked at the resort as a maintenance man.

“Acosta… would explain that he was unduly pressured by Epstein’s heavy-hitting lawyers” [including Harvard professor Alan Dershowitz] to manipulate the criminal justice system in Epstein’s favor. Alex Acosta is now Donald Trump’s Labor secretary.

How a future Trump Cabinet member gave a serial sex abuser the deal of a lifetime Palm Beach multimillionaire Jeffrey Epstein was accused of sexually abusing dozens of underage girls. Prosecutors, including future Trump la… miamiherald.com       

NEW: According to two people close to Donald Trump, the Miami Herald investigation, published Wednesday, was “not helpful” to Acosta, who wanted to be Attorney General. He was a federal prosecutor in Florida before becoming Labor Secretary.

 

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET

G20

 

30ykny3goea11

 

TRAITOR TOTS

Elliott Broidy, a Los Angeles-based businessman who was a finance vice chairman of Mr. Trump’s 2016 campaign and inauguration committees, was paid to lobby the Trump administration to try to end an investigation related to the embezzlement of billions of dollars from a Malaysian state-owned fund, according to court filings made public on Friday.

The filings were released in connection with a guilty plea entered by George Higginbotham, a former Justice Department employee. Mr. Higginbotham admitted to conspiring to lie to banks about the source of tens of millions of dollars he funneled into the United States from the Malaysian financier Jho Low, who federal authorities say masterminded a scheme to loot the 1 Malaysia Development Berhad fund, also known as 1MDB.

Mr. Higginbotham, who left the Justice Department in August, was not involved in the department’s investigation of Mr. Low, and is cooperating with prosecutors.

 

. Your campaign gave US voter data to a guy in Russia named Yaroslav Leontenko. He wrote code directly into your official campaign app. His work also included translating that app framework text into the Russian language for use in other campaigns. Explain yourself.

Yaroslav’s sister describes him, on at least one occasion, as “from rus mafia” Explain yourself, Ted.

Ted, I have the files and data showing all of this. Several governments were given copies months ago. It is not up for debate. Tell the truth.

 

WHITAKER

 

FIGHTING BACK

 

RIGHT WING TERRORISM & WHITE NATIONALISM

 

KHASHOGGI & SAUDI ARABIA

 

#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

 

THINKING AHEAD

 

PROGRESS IS PROGRESS

 

IN OTHER NEWS…

 

RUMOR MILL

 

That’s it for Friday.  I’m not sure what or when things will break, but expect the Crimes and Lies report to be devastating for several people.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

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