Tuesday, July 31st.

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

Paul Manafort’s Trial

• Here’s why Paul Manafort’s trial is about more than his financial dealings
• In Opening Statement, Mueller Team Paints Manafort As Acting Above The Law
• Manafort Heads To Court As First Defendant In Mueller Probe To Face Trial
• Manafort jury pulled from region that voted heavily against Trump
• Manafort Trial Gets Off to a Quick Start as Jury is Seated
• Manafort’s lawyer blames his business associates, Ukrainian oligarchs
• Paul Manafort trial: Opening statements underway
• Paul Manafort, Trump ex-campaign chief, to begin trial
• Paul Manafort’s Trial Should Be a Slam Dunk for Mueller, but One Big Thing Could Go Wrong
• The Latest: Prosecutor: Manafort considered self above law
• The Manafort trial: Live updates
• Appeals court rules Manafort must remain jailed ahead of trial
• Ex-Trump aide Manafort had more than 30 overseas accounts: U.S. prosecutor
• Trump ex-campaign chief’s trial starts

Paul Manafort’s trial began on Tuesday.  The jury was selected and seated before 2:45 PM, opening statements were made, and the first witness was called.

For the prosecution we have Uzo Asonye, (The Justice League), who spent 26 minutes telling the jury about Manafort’s crimes, his lies, and how he thought the law didn’t apply to him, that he gave false information to his bookkeeper, that he lied about how much he made, and used the money he didn’t pay in taxes to buy luxuries like a $21,000 watch and a $15,000 jacket made of ostrich.  On the defense, Thomas Zehnle said it was all Rick Gates’s fault, that Gates was the one who committed the crimes.

I’m not a lawyer, but it’s a pretty shitty defense.  Their entire playbook is trying to establish that Rick Gates was the mastermind of all of the criminality, not Paul Manafort.  They contend that the underling and junior partner, not the boss, that made the decisions on how to launder money and lie on taxes.  The moment that the prosecution shows that Manafort started an email chain, gave an order, or engaged with someone without Rick Gates’s knowledge, he’s fucked.  He’s not just fucked, he’s Manafucked.

Remember the list of witnesses from Daily Check-In 07/27/2018?  Or how about his accountants who were offered immunity from Daily Check-In 07/23/2018?  All one of those accountants has to do is say, under oath, that Manafort told them to report his income as X instead of Y, or that he didn’t have any offshore bank accounts, and it’s game over on those charges.

 

• Reporter Reviewed WH Memo That Allegedly Implicates Trump In Obstruction
• Flynn, Comey, and Mueller: What Trump Knew and When He Knew It

Previously undisclosed evidence in the possession of Special Counsel Robert Mueller—including highly confidential White House records and testimony by some of President Trump’s own top aides—provides some of the strongest evidence to date implicating the president of the United States in an obstruction of justice. Several people who have reviewed a portion of this evidence say that, based on what they know, they believe it is now all but inevitable that the special counsel will complete a confidential report presenting evidence that President Trump violated the law. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who oversees the special counsel’s work, would then decide on turning over that report to Congress for the House of Representatives to consider whether to instigate impeachment proceedings.

The central incident in the case that the president obstructed justice was provided by former FBI Director James B. Comey, who testified that Trump pressed Comey, in a private Oval Office meeting on February 14, 2017, to shut down an FBI criminal investigation of Trump’s former national security adviser, Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn. “I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go,” Comey has testified the president told him.

…

I have learned that a confidential White House memorandum, which is in the special counsel’s possession, explicitly states that when Trump pressured Comey he had just been told by two of his top aides—his then chief of staff Reince Priebus and his White House counsel Don McGahn—that Flynn was under criminal investigation. This memo, the existence of which I first disclosed in December in Foreign Policy, was, as one source described it to me, “a timeline of events [in the White House] leading up to Flynn’s resignation.” It was dated February 15, 2017, and was prepared by McGahn two days after Flynn’s forced resignation and one day after Trump’s meeting with Comey. As I reported, research for the memo was “primarily conducted by John Eisenberg, the deputy counsel to the president and legal adviser to the National Security Council,” who, in turn, was “assisted by James Burnham, another White House counsel staff member.” 

During my reporting, I was allowed to read the memo in its entirety, as well as other, underlying White House records quoted in the memo, such as notes and memos written by McGahn and other senior administration officials. My reporting for this story is also based on interviews with a dozen former and current White House officials, attorneys who have interacted with Mueller’s team of investigators, and witnesses questioned by Mueller’s investigators.

In arguing in their January 29 letter that Trump did not obstruct justice, the president’s attorneys Dowd and Sekulow quoted selectively from this same memo, relying only on a few small portions of it. They also asserted that even if Trump knew there had been an FBI investigation of Flynn, Trump believed that Flynn had been cleared. Full review of the memo flatly contradicts this story.

The memo’s own statement that Trump was indeed told that Flynn was under FBI investigation was, in turn, based in part on contemporaneous notes written by Reince Priebus after discussing the matter with the president, as well as McGahn’s recollections to his staff about what he personally had told Trump, according to other records I was able to review. Moreover, people familiar with the matter have told me that both Priebus and McGahn have confirmed in separate interviews with the special counsel that they had told Trump that Flynn was under investigation by the FBI before he met with Comey.

…

A person with first-hand knowledge told me that during interviews with the special counsel, both McGahn and Priebus confirmed that they had informed Trump during this meeting that Flynn was being investigated by the FBI. Further, according to three current and former administration officials, McGahn also relayed to President Trump that Flynn had told the FBI the same false story he’d earlier told Pence (that Flynn had never spoken to Kislyak about sanctions). Because Trump and McGahn knew of Flynn’s misstatements to the FBI, they would have understood the legal jeopardy Flynn was in: it is a felony to lie to the FBI—precisely the federal criminal charge Flynn would later plead guilty to. 

Additionally, my sources say that the special counsel also interviewed the two White House attorneys, John Eisenberg and James Burnham, who helped draft the McGahn memo, in which they, too, concluded that Trump was told that Flynn was under FBI investigation. Both men said that they questioned McGahn while researching the timeline; one of them independently recalled McGahn’s contemporaneously telling the president that Flynn had been interviewed by the FBI. (In October 2017, Burnham left the White House to go to work as senior counsel in the Justice Department’s Civil Division.)

…

Aside from McGahn, Eisenberg, and Burnham, the special counsel has interviewed five other attorneys who currently work for the White House counselor or have previously done so, according to administration records. Underscoring just how important these witnesses are, the special counsel has interviewed a total of twenty White House officials; of that number, eight have worked for the White House counsel. Two people familiar with the matter have told me that these witnesses have been asked, among other things: about the McGahn timeline; what McGahn contemporaneously told them regarding his briefings of the president; and more specifically, whether McGahn indicated to them that he had informed the president that Flynn had been interviewed by the FBI and was under federal criminal investigation.

Sources have identified for me two other White House attorneys who have been interviewed by the special counsel. One is Uttam Dhillon, who has served the Trump administration as deputy White House counsel and deputy assistant to the president (on July 2, Dhillon was named by Attorney General Jeff Sessions to be the acting administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration). Dhillon was a central participant in discussions with the president on whether to fire James Comey as FBI director—with Dhillon advising Trump not to do so. The special counsel has also interviewed Ann Donaldson, who is both the chief of staff to the White House counsel and special counsel to the president. Because so many attorneys working for the White House counsel have been witnesses in the special counsel’s investigation, and because their testimony will clearly be crucial in determining whether the president obstructed justice, Don McGahn took the extraordinary step last summer of recusing his entire staff from advising the president further about the Russia investigation.

The February 15 memo, combined with accounts given to the special counsel by Priebus and McGahn, constitutes the most compelling evidence we yet know of that Donald Trump may have obstructed justice. In an effort to persuade the American people that the president has done nothing wrong, Trump and his supporters have blamed those they identify as their political adversaries—from President Barack Obama to Jim Comey, and including entire institutions such as the FBI and CIA, and an ill-defined “Deep State.” But the most compelling evidence that the president may have obstructed justice appears to come from his own most senior and loyal aides. The greatest threat to his presidency is not from his enemies, real or perceived, but from his allies within the White House.

This is big.  More than 20 people from the White House, including 8 from the office of the White House Counsel, have interviewed with Robert Mueller’s team and were asked about when Trump was informed that Flynn was under investigation by the FBI.  If Trump knew that Flynn was under investigation at any point before asking FBI Director James Comey to end the investigation, then Trump broke the law by committing Obstruction of Justice.

SPOILER ALERT:  He knew, and he did.

The defense that Trump’s team is trying to use is that Trump didn’t know that Flynn was under investigation, and that if even if he did, who cares, he’s in charge of the DOJ, and ultimately Comey’s boss.  That first part went out the window when Preibus and McGahn told Trump about Flynn talking to the FBI right before Trump’s meeting with Comey.  That second argument isn’t so much of an argument but an acquiesce into absurdity.

20 witnesses, and almost half of them are lawyers.  That doesn’t bode well for Cheeto Mussolini.

 

• Report: Mueller referred lobbyists, including Tony Podesta, to Manhattan prosecutors
• Mueller refers foreign agent inquiries to New York prosecutors
• Ricky Davila: Lobbyist cases referred to SDNY could be FARA related

(CNN)Special counsel Robert Mueller has referred a collection of cases to New York federal prosecutors concerning whether several high-profile American lobbyists and operatives failed to register their work as foreign agents, according to people familiar with the matter.

The transfer of the inquiries marks an escalation of Mueller’s referrals to the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York in the period since he turned over a case involving President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney, Michael Cohen.

Since the spring, Mueller has referred matters to SDNY involving longtime Democratic lobbyist Tony Podesta and his work for his former firm, the Podesta Group, and former Minnesota Republican Rep. Vin Weber and his work for Mercury Public Affairs, the sources said.

…

It’s also not clear exactly why Mueller referred the matters to federal prosecutors in New York. Both Mercury and Skadden have offices in Manhattan, though Weber and Craig are based in Washington, DC, and performed the work in question while based in offices there. Podesta and his former firm are also based in Washington. SDNY, however, could claim jurisdiction for reasons such as the location of banking transactions associated with the activity under examination.

One of the things we’ll see more of going forward is Mueller outsourcing more of the “lower-level investigations” getting farmed out to other jurisdictions for investigation or criminal prosecution.  Looks like it’s time for the lobbyists to get screwed.

 

• Report: Butina Probe Predated Mueller, Grew Out Of Suspicious Money Transfers

Per McClatchy, the interest of investigators at the Treasury Department was first piqued after they received a number of Suspicious Activity Reports related to LLCs linked to the couple, including some funds transfers that “appear to have come from Russia.”

At a July 18 court hearing, both federal prosecutors and Butina’s lawyer, Robert Driscoll, suggested that there was a federal fraud investigation ongoing into Erickson in South Dakota. Both parties said Butina offered to assist in that probe.

Driscoll confirmed to McClatchy that some $20,000 passed through Bridges LLC, one of the South Dakota entities that the couple incorporated in 2016. The money consisted of four $5,000 payments that Butina received from the Outdoor Channel for consulting work on a segment about bear hunting in Russia, according to Driscoll.

Once again, SAR’s play a part in this game.

• Briton ran pro-Kremlin disinformation campaign that helped Trump deny Russian links

A British IT manager and former hacker launched and ran an international disinformation campaign that has provided US President Donald Trump with fake evidence and false arguments to deny that Russia interfered to help him win the election.

The campaign is being run from the UK by 39-year-old programmer Tim Leonard, who lives in Darlington, using the false name “Adam Carter”. Starting after the 2016 presidential election, Leonard worked with a group of mainly American right-wing activists to spread claims on social media that Democratic “insiders” and non-Russian agents were responsible for hacking the Democratic Party. The hacking attacks had damaged Trump rival Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

…

A Twitter account traced to Leonard revealed his new project – a campaign claiming that the hacking was done by a Democratic Party insider – on 3 February 2017. “What if #Guccifer2 is NOT Russian … NOT even a hacker – but still had access to DCCC [democratic campaign] docs?” it said.

At 1.14am on 5 February 2017, Leonard registered the website g-2.space. He hid his involvement using nominee company Identity Protect Ltd, but was given away by internet records which showed that the site was operated from internet address 213.229.109.154, one of two UK virtual servers he ran for web design company Creative Insomnia.

His g-2.space front page went live 13 hours later, and included the hidden warning: “Contingency plans are in place in case this site or its creator are compromised.” A hidden web page comment warned: “If I die under suspicious circumstances, the primary suspects should be the Clinton cartel.”

G-2.space’s launch page listed five prominent mainstream journalists he had contacted, and who had faced demands to disclose their evidence and sources about Guccifer 2.0. All declined or ignored him.

Leonard’s website was created in and run from the UK, using servers owned by Creative Insomnia of Newport, Gwent. Leonard is listed in company records as a shareholder and director. His activity was not known of or authorised by others in the company (see below).

Leonard admits hosting g-2.space, a website which published numerous articles giving mutually contradictory and often nonsensical theories, each attempting to prove that the pretend Romanian was not a Russian disinformation invention.

Leonard also admits that he secretly built another website inside the servers he was employed to manage. His first hidden site, Defianet (d3f.uk), initially campaigned on piracy and privacy, themes familiar to programmers who had worked with him on unrelated projects and who spoke with Computer Weekly.

Defianet’s front page proclaimed “United in the shadows” when it went online in September 2014. During 2017, he transformed Defianet to make it a focus for US extremist and conspiracy “independent media” groups, many of which are notorious for spreading false news. The site also promoted WikiLeaks and Russia Today (RT), the state-owned media channel.

Leonard has created and managed a library of disinformation manuals and techniquesshared with his supporters, including “Weaponisation of social media”, “Deception techniques” and “Information warfare”. He moved the library to g-2.space after being ordered to close Defianet.

Leonard, who lives in a modest red-brick house in Darlington, is the technical director of Creative Insomnia. He admits that he built websites “making use of Creative Insomnia’s infrastructure”, including g-2.space, without the knowledge of his company, a fellow director and other workers. It was “entirely my responsibility … not a board-approved decision”, he confessed in a letter.

G-2.space claims to be written by an anonymous persona called Adam Carter. The name was copied from a character in Spooks, a BBC spy drama series broadcast from 2002 to 2011.

Don’t be surprised if we hear the name Tim Leonard show up in an indictment before the end of the year.

 

• Russian “Agent” And A GOP Operator Left A Trail Of Cash, Documents Reveal

A $45,000 payment to an undisclosed law firm. A cash withdrawal for $14,000. Almost $90,000 sent to or from a Russian bank. These and other bank transactions totaling nearly $300,000, none of which have been made public, offer the first detailed look at how an accused foreign agent and a Republican operative financed what prosecutors say was a Russian campaign to influence American politics.

Anti-fraud investigators at Wells Fargo flagged the transactions — by Paul Erickson, a conservative consultant from South Dakota, and Maria Butina, who is in jail awaiting trial on charges of secretly acting as a Russian agent — as “suspicious,” noting in some cases that they could find no “apparent economic, business, or lawful purpose” to explain them. Now counterintelligence officers say the duo’s banking activity could provide a road map of back channels to powerful American entities such as the National Rifle Association, and information about the Kremlin’s attempt to sway the 2016 US presidential election.

Cash withdrawals, most of them from Erickson’s personal and business accounts, make up $107,000 of the financial transactions now being investigated. The largest of those withdrawals — $14,000 — occurred in December 2015, when Erickson reportedly traveled to Moscow as part of an NRA delegation. The visit was sponsored by a Russian gun rights organization started by Butina, federal authorities say.

The duo also deposited about $90,000 in cash in their accounts, which has made it difficult for investigators to determine the source or purpose of the funds.

…

Among the suspicious transactions cited by the bank and federal investigators:

• About $89,000 passed between Erickson’s US accounts and one held by Butina at Russia’s Alfa Bank. In 2014, Erickson received $8,000 from Butina’s Alfa account. Between June 2016 and March 2017, Erickson sent a dozen wires to her Alfa account totaling $27,000.

• About $93,000 was sent or received during a single four-month period — from May to August 2017, after Butina had arrived in the US and was attending graduate school at American University in Washington, DC. Bank officials discovered wires, checks, transfers, and cash deposits totaling that amount, including checks made out to cash, between the duo’s accounts last year.

• In June and July 2017, Erickson wired $45,000 to an unidentified law firm in Washington on Butina’s behalf. It is not known why Butina retained an attorney at that point, and her current lawyer, Robert Driscoll, told BuzzFeed News that his firm was not the recipient of the money.

• Last summer, Erickson sent two wires for $15,000 to a California company established by the son and brother of Jack Abramoff, a disgraced former lobbyist who is Erickson’s longtime friend, political ally, and business partner. The company, Landfair Capital Consulting, was incorporated in March 2017. Abramoff’s son, Alex, a recent college graduate, is the CEO and sole director; Abramoff’s brother, Robert, is the registered agent. Because the company was newly established and based out of the home of Alex Abramoff, who does not list it on his public profiles, bank investigators flagged it as a possible shell company established to hide Jack Abramoff’s interests.

The money flows all over.  What I’m waiting for is the explanation of how a grad student managed to have hundreds of thousands of dollars to work with in the first place, and why was she spending it on lobbyists and lawyers.  I’m quite familiar with grad students, and the vast majority didn’t have  two spare nickels to rub together for warmth, let alone $14,000 to give to the NRA.

 

• Ex-exec: ‘Impossible’ Trump unaware of meeting
• Ex-FBI chief of staff: Collusion is ‘absolutely a crime’
• Former senior FBI official: Collusion is ‘absolutely a crime’
• Mueller Has Evidence Trump Obstructed Justice
• Panic on Team Trump: Is Robert Mueller closing in on criminal conspiracy charges?
• Scandalous Beyond a Reasonable Doubt

For anyone paying attention, there is more than enough evidence in plain sight of Obstruction of Justice, Witness Tampering, and every other cover-up crime on the books.

• Wikileaks refuses to publish Manafort family texts so someone else did
• A note on the Manafort texts – Emma Best

Read them at your own discretion.  These texts are from one of Manafort’s daughters, and have been in the public domain for a while, but some of the content is…unsettling.

 

RUSSIAN ATTACKS

• Wyden accuses Putin of seeking to exploit US divisions after Facebook revelations
• ‘Too easy to manipulate’: Russian disinformation finally costs Facebook and Twitter
• Facebook deletes 17 accounts, dusts off hands, beams: We’ve saved the 2018 elections
• Facebook Has Identified Ongoing Political Influence Campaign
• Facebook says it has uncovered a coordinated disinformation operation ahead of midterm elections involving false pages and profiles
• Facebook takes down suspected Russian network of pages
• Why We’re Sharing 3 Million Russian Troll Tweets
• GitHub – fivethirtyeight/russian-troll-tweets
• The Midterm Elections Are in Serious Danger of Being Hacked, Thanks to Trump
• Rep. Adam Schiff: Russians now attacking 2018 elections
• “Let me be clear. It was the Russians,” says Trump’s DHS secretary
• Homeland Security Secretary Says Putin Meddled in Trump’s Election
• What Is Election ‘Meddling’ and When Did Everyone Start Using That Term? – Lawfare

Meddling is a stupid, weak word.  Meddling is what your neighbor does to get the lady across the street to think that you’re an asshole, or what your co-worker does to spread gossip.  What the Russians did was an attack and an Act of War.

 

COHEN/STORMYGATE

• What Is Michael Cohen’s Endgame? Some Theories.
• Federal judge denies request to silence Stormy Daniels’s lawyer Michael Avenatti
• Judge denies Cohen request for gag order on Avenatti
• Michael Avenatti: Gag Order Denied
• Dropbox – LA18CV02217-SJO-MO.pdf
• Michael Avenatti: Over 100 Tapes
• Ron Perlman doesn’t like Rudy
• Judge Unseals Ex-Playboy Model’s Lawsuit Against Elliott Broidy

A lawsuit by an ex-Playboy model against former top Republican fundraiser Elliott Broidy was unsealed by a judge, revealing new details about the $1.6 million hush payment she accepted to keep quiet about their affair and the pregnancy she terminated late last year.

A California state judge on Tuesday made Shera Bechard’s complaint against Broidy and others public, though parts remain redacted. She accuses Broidy of breaching their contract by stopping installment payments on the deal after details of their affair were leaked by others.

Bechard also sued her former lawyer, Keith Davidson, who arranged for her to be paid as part of a nondisclosure agreement negotiated on Broidy’s behalf by New York attorney Michael Cohen, who at the time was President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer and fixer. Bechard claims Davidson worked against her interests by secretly coordinating with Cohen behind the scenes and crafting an agreement that was favorable to Broidy.

 

 

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET

• Trump says collusion is not a crime as first Russia probe trial begins
• Russia may have just spread disinformation on Facebook. Where’s Trump?
• The Midterm Elections Are in Serious Danger of Being Hacked, Thanks to Trump
• Trump Attacks ‘Globalist’ Koch Brothers, Saying He Doesn’t Need Their ‘Money Or Bad Ideas’
• ‘A total joke’: Trump lashes out at Koch brothers after political network slams White House
• Trump Attacks Koch Brothers After GOP Donors Shy Away From Candidate
• Trump Keeps White Supremacist Donations To 2020 Campaign
• President Trump Is Lashing Out at the Russia Investigation. One Possible Reason? His Finances
• Donald Trump may be the worst liar in political history: And it’s getting worse

 

TRAITOR TOTS

• Treasury May Drop Sanctions on a Company Owned by One of Putin’s Allies
• Evangelicals’ embrace of Donald Trump may cost them the future
• Evangelist Jerry Falwell Jr. made a private call to Trump to urge him to get closer to Vladimir Putin
• Giuliani: ‘We’ll go to SCOTUS’ if Mueller subpoenas Trump
• Trump repeats Giuliani defense: ‘Collusion is not a crime’
• Charlottesville Hate Leader Jason Kessler Doxxes His Own Followers

 

FIGHTING BACK

• CT Town Official Protests Trump By Kneeling During Pledge Of Allegiance
• Senator Lindsey Graham tells reporters he will introduce ‘sanctions bill from hell’ against Russia | Watch News Videos Online
• The DHS is setting up a new way for companies to share info about security breaches, preparing for a cyberattack ‘hurricane’
• CNN’s Acosta: I’m worried Trump’s rhetoric toward media ‘will result in somebody getting hurt’
• James Hasson on Twitter: Flake on vacation screws the GOP

 

IMMIGRATION

• U.S. Historians Are Fighting to Stop ICE From Erasing Records of Agency’s Treatment of Immigrants
• Trump’s shutdown threat upends congressional GOP plan to fund government
• Detention centers for migrant families are like ‘summer camp,’ Trump official tells senators
• Trump administration must stop giving psychotropic drugs to migrant children without consent, judge rules
• ‘That This Even Has to Be Said Is Grotesque’: Judge Orders Trump Admin to Stop Drugging Migrant Children
• DOJ Finally Admits It Has No Data To Support Trump Lie On Foreign Terrorists
• Durbin calls on DHS Secretary Nielsen to resign over family separations
• The Trump Administration Was Warned Separation Would Be Horrific for Children, Did It Anyway
• Dem senator: Family separation is ‘official kidnapping and child abuse’

 

CHRISTIAN FASCISM

• ‘Christian Sharia’: Twitter Reviews of Trump’s Religious Liberty Task Force Are in and They Are Not Good
• Jeff Sessions’ ‘religious liberty task force’ part of a dangerous Christian nationalist campaign of discrimination
• Opinion | Jeff Sessions’ new “religious liberty task force” is a dangerous sham
• Alt Scales of Justice: Freedom of Religion applies to ALL religions, as well as NO RELIGION
• Evangelicals’ embrace of Donald Trump may cost them the future
• Evangelist Jerry Falwell Jr. made a private call to Trump to urge him to get closer to Vladimir Putin

 

COLD WAR 2.0

• Bill Browder: Estonia will proceed with a criminal investigation
• Bill Browder: Russian Journalists Killed
• In Soviet echo, Putin gives Russian army a political wing
• Iran wary of Trump offer for talks, but not ruling them out

 

#NEVERAGAIN

• Shannon Watts on Guns and Domestic Abuse
• Trump questions 3-D printable guns — which his own administration just helped make available to public
• A federal judge issued a temporary restraining order to stop release of blueprints for 3-D printed plastic guns
• Police: Man killed in home by Aurora PD Monday morning had fatally shot intruder minutes earlier

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

• Why We’re Sharing 3 Million Russian Troll Tweets
• GitHub – fivethirtyeight/russian-troll-tweets
• Hannity: I ‘kind of enjoy’ that nobody knows how much access I have to Trump
• Lou Dobbs Flips Out: ‘The Hell With Mueller! The Hell With What He Wants!’
• Trump says ‘polls are fake’ before bragging about poll showing his popularity
• ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome’ afflicts supporters more than critics of the president

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

• Trump on shutdown threat: ‘I don’t care what the political ramifications are’
• White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly to stay in job through 2020, quieting speculation that he was nearing an exit
• John Kelly intends to remain as Trump’s chief of staff through 2020 reelection bid
• Trump claims picture ID is required to buy groceries
• President Trump Said ‘You Need an ID to Buy Groceries.’ The Internet Went to Town
• Emails: Schuette asked staffers to talk ‘presidential politics’ on state time
• Bankrupt Contractor Will Get $5.5 Million For Not Printing 2020 Census Forms

 

TRADE WAR AND ECONOMY

• Farm Bureau: Farmers want trade restored instead of aid package
• Trump’s idea for a $100 billion tax cut that would give 97% of its benefit to the wealthy is legally dubious
• Republicans Look To Go All-In On Tax Cuts For The Rich
• U.S. borrowing to hit $329 billion as deficit grows
• More Americans are forced to “reside” in their vehicles
• Trump’s two-track strategy: The rich get richer and the poor get distracted

 

SCOTUS

• Should Democrats Bother Fighting Brett Kavanaugh’s Confirmation? History Suggests Yes

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

• Trump Attacks ‘Globalist’ Koch Brothers, Saying He Doesn’t Need Their ‘Money Or Bad Ideas’
• Trump Attacks Koch Brothers After GOP Donors Shy Away From Candidate
• Trump’s shutdown threat upends congressional GOP plan to fund government
• North Carolina Republicans Flip Out About Voters Knowing What They’re Voting On

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

• Government watchdog: DOE violated federal law with anti-Obamacare tweet
• Manhattan DA announces end of prosecution for marijuana possession
• Police: Man killed in home by Aurora PD Monday morning had fatally shot intruder minutes earlier
• Alaska Airlines: Gay couple accuse company of giving preferential treatment to straight couple – The Washington Post

 

ELECTION 2018

• The Midterm Elections Are in Serious Danger of Being Hacked, Thanks to Trump
• Rep. Adam Schiff: Russians now attacking 2018 elections
• Tom Steyer’s $110 million plan to redefine the Democrats
• In Trump era, Beto O’Rourke eyes an end to Republican grip on Texas
• Al Franken hasn’t ruled out another run for office
• Franken: I miss being a senator, haven’t ruled out running for office again | TheHill

 

PROGRESS IS PROGRESS

• Thanks to the Koch Brothers, We Have More Proof that Single Payer Saves Money and Cares for All of Us
• Why the GOP is so obsessed with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
• Sanders thanks Koch brothers for accidentally making argument for medicare for all
• Poll: Majority of Americans back ObamaCare, disapprove of Trump on healthcare
• Senate reauthorizes Harvey-depleted flood insurance program hours before expiration
• Congress just dodged hard decisions about flood insurance again

 

RUMOR MILL

• Zack Whittaker: DOJ Press Announcement Wednesday at 1 PM
• Spicy Mic: It’s Trial Day

 

 

That’s it for Tuesday.  Wednesday will be even crazier.  Why?  Because the Manafort trial continues, Trump knows he’s fucked worse than the little boy in Pence’s closet, and this is only going to get crazier before it gets better.

On a positive, there is a great deal of Schadenfreude to be had.  Imagine knowing that Trump is panicking on Twitter, knowing that a report was just released that at least 20 people in the White House interviewed Mueller’s team, and at least 8 of them were lawyers.  Imagine knowing that these 20 are working around him, but he doesn’t know who they are or what they said.  Imagine that for a mobster who values the loyalty others place in him above all else to not know who is getting ready to stab him in the back to save themselves.  Imagine not knowing who to trust.  Imagine thinking that his world is collapsing around him.

Then realize that he put himself in this situation by betraying his country.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Monday, July 30th.  The night before Paul Manafort’s trial begins.

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

• Activist Publishes 11,000 Private DMs Between Wikileaks and Its Supporters

“The idea was that the attitudes and behavior of WL [Wikileaks] behind closed doors is relevant, especially their coordination of PR, propaganda and troll ops through assets that are public supporters but not publicly known to take cues from WL,” Emma Best, the freedom of information activist, told Motherboard in a Twitter direct message.

The DMs concern a particular group chat between the official Wikileaks account and several supporters. In the chat—dubbed “Wikileaks +10” due to number of participants—Wikileaks would coordinate smear campaigns against the group’s rivals, including journalists, according to the DMs. The official Wikileaks account, widely believed to be controlled by Assange, also pushed antisemitic and transphobic messages, according to the messages.

Various outlets have reported on leaks from this group chat before, including The Intercept and The Daily Beast. But now anyone can scroll through the lightly redacted messages themselves. In an accompanying post, Best says the redactions were made to protect the privacy and personal information of “innocent, third parties.”

• Manafort Made More Than $60 Million in Ukraine, Mueller Says
• Paul Manafort’s time in Ukraine – Washington Post
• What does Mueller have? Manafort trial offers glimpse
• Why Mueller needs a win in the Manafort trial
• Robert Mueller Targeted Two Lobbying Firms. One Is Thriving in Trump’s D.C.
• Norm Eisen: There are no Mueller conflicts of interest. Here’s 45 pages on the subject
• The Smear Campaign Against Mueller: Debunking the Nunes Memo and the Other Attacks on the Russia Investigation – CREW
• From April: What I Learned From Briefing Robert Mueller – Lawfare
• Rudy Giuliani baffles CNN’s Alisyn Camerota by insisting Mueller must explain Trump’s tweets
• Dem lawmaker predicts Trump Jr., Kushner will be indicted by Mueller
• Trump Tirade Signals Mueller’s Hit a Nerve
• Trump lashes out at Mueller for alleged conflicts of interest
• Trump opens window into his rage with Mueller attack
• Trump decries Mueller probe as an ‘illegal Scam’
• Rudy Giuliani obliterates the goal posts on Trump-Russia collusion
• Rudy: Trump Is Innocent Because He Did Not Personally Hack Democratic Emails
• Rudy’s Big Admission? – Talking Points Memo
• No collusion! Oh, wait — maybe collusion, but collusion’s not a crime!
• Giuliani says he’s not sure collusion is a crime
• Giuliani: ‘Collusion is not a crime’
• As Giuliani Declares ‘Collusion Is Not a Crime,’ Does He Know That Conspiracy Is One?
• Keep an Eye on Rudy Giuliani’s Collusion Bait-and-Switch
• Trump repeatedly denied collusion. Now his lawyer Rudy Giuliani says: ‘Collusion is not a crime’
• Dr Dena Grayson: Rudy said there were 4 or 5 people above Manafort
• Christina Wilkie: Rudy moving the goalposts
• Twitter is funding college professors to audit its platform for toxicity – The Verge
• Warner suggests 20 ways to tackle problems posed by Google and Facebook – Axios
• The Briefing: On Russiagate, the questions that matter most

 

COHEN

• A retired federal judge has so far slapped down nearly half of Michael Cohen’s claims of attorney-client privilege
• MSNBC legal expert: Cohen flipping puts Trump ‘one witness away’ from catastrophe
• Rudy Giuliani Claims ‘Collusion Is Not a Crime,’ Brands Former Trump Lawyer Micheal Cohen a ‘Scumbag’
• Trump fmr. Lawyer on finance chief subpoena: He knows everything

 

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET

• Two theories on why Trump won’t harden our election machinery

Why is Trump so uninterested in — and Republicans so passive about — the threat to election security? We have a couple of theories.

One theory is that Trump simply hates the topic of Russian interference (so his Republican allies hate it, too). Time and again, he has sided with Putin in denying that interference occurred, only to be forced to retreat (usually via a spokesperson). Rightly or not, Trump thinks that the involvement of Russia in the 2016 election on his behalf, if widely accepted, would undercut his victory in 2016 and delegitimize his presidency. If he takes the problem seriously now, the public will be more and more convinced of Russia’s role. This is the “Trump cannot bring himself to believe” theory.

The other possibility is that Trump actively wants the help from the Kremlin. He likes the bot farms, the disinformation in social media (which he and his aides have been known to pick up and echo) and, most of all, WikiLeaks. Why would he try to shut any of that down, or expose his BFF Putin’s election interference operation? (Goodness knows what he and Putin actually discussed in Helsinki on this topic.) He might not be publicly calling for Russia to find and release Hillary Clinton’s emails, as he did the day Russian hacking of the DNC began (according to the indictment of Russian hackers in the special counsel’s investigation), but in essence, he has agreed to remain asleep at the wheel.

• Donald Trump will not stop his attacks on journalists because he doesn’t believe in media freedom
• Trump calls media ‘very unpatriotic’ for reporting on government affairs
• Trump Escalates Attack Against Media After NYT Publisher Warned of Violence Against Journalists
• Trump’s next target? The endangered species that define America
• These six species are about to be sacrificed for the oil and gas industry
• Mystery as Russia LIQUIDATES almost ALL of its holdings in US Treasury securities
• Republican Lawmakers Ignore Trump’s Shutdown Threat
• Russia and the far right’s cozy affair
• Russia dumped 84% of its American debt. What that means
• Russia says it knows of U.S. military plans before they happen
• Russia Says It Will Know of U.S. Military Plans Before They Happen
• Russia Uses Interpol Red Notices Against Dissidents – The Atlantic
• Russian Hackers Targeted The Most Vulnerable Part Of U.S. Elections. Again. : NPR
• Russians Are Targeting Private Election Companies, Too — And States Aren’t Doing Much About It
• Trump is ‘obsessed’ with redoing FBI HQ and treating it like a Trump Tower project
• Juan Williams: What does Putin have on Trump?
• Sen. Shaheen says senators targeted in “widespread” hacking attempts
• How Russia Persecutes Its Dissidents Using U.S. Courts

 

TRAITOR TOTS

• Sessions announces ‘religious liberty task force’
• With “Religious Liberty Task Force,” AG Jeff Sessions Gives A License To Discriminate – Rantt
• California Republicans are cowards. Their reaction to the Trump-Putin summit proves it.
• Conservatives start suggesting that colluding with Russia isn’t so bad
• Devin Nunes Wants To Sue Twitter After Getting Busted For Tweeting Trump/Russia Propaganda – POLITICUSUSA
• White House aide shouts down CNN’s Acosta during Trump photo op
• Thousands sign petition to block Bannon from entering UK
• Dana Rohrabacher Says Anyone “In This Town” Would Meet With Russians Peddling Political Dirt
• Jim Jordan, Team Player He denies that his Ohio State colleagues knew about sexual abuse. The evidence says they did.

 

FIGHTING BACK

• ‘He doesn’t like bullies’: The story of the 37 year-old who took over the NY Times and is taking on Trump.
• Michael Avenatti wants to make Donald Trump take an IQ test
• Avenatti: Trump has ‘severely tarnished’ the office of the presidency
• Fake Russian soldiers ‘guard’ Trump’s Hollywood star
• Watergate Reporter: Trump Tower Meeting Was ‘Convened For The Purpose Of Collusion’
• Donald Trump is actually a very unpopular president
• Support for Donald Trump’s Impeachment Is Higher Than His Approval Rating, Poll Indicates
• Hiring of former Trump aide at UVa prompts 2 historians to quit

 

IMMIGRATION

• Federal judge orders Trump administration to help locate ‘missing’ migrant parents
• Amy Siskind: Too many children left separated from their parents
• ‘Crops go unharvested and animals go uncared for.’ Concerns about farmworker shortage grow
• Trump Says He’s Open to Closing Government Over Wall Money
• Trump threatens to ‘shut down’ government unless Democrats agree to fund Mexico wall
• ICE looks to Indiana for new 1,200-bed detention center

 

COLD WAR 2.0

• Mystery as Russia LIQUIDATES almost ALL of its holdings in US Treasury securities
• Bill Browder: Hearings in Estonia on Tuesday related to money laundering through Danske Bank in connection to Magnitsky case
• Bill Browder: Moldova could be instituting their own Magnitsky Act
• Will Moldovan Parliament approve the Global Magnitsky Act? | Wachdog.md
• Wife of NASA scientist jailed in Turkey ‘frustrated’ by Trump’s focus on pastor’s case
• ‘We’re both outsiders’: Trump casts himself and Italy’s populist prime minister as kindred spirits
• Four years later, new MH370 probe finds someone veered the plane off course
• On North Korea and Iran, Trump Is Deluding Himself
• U.S. spy agencies: North Korea is working on new missiles
• Britons see Brexit turning sour, half want chance to vote again – poll

 

TRADE WAR

• Tariffs will cost Caterpillar $200 million, so it’s going to raise its prices
• Coca-Cola Raises Prices On Trump’s Favorite Drink Over Tariffs
• Trump-Supporting Soybean Farmers Say They’ll Gladly Suffer ‘To The Death’ For His Trade War
• Charles Koch network to GOP: We’re happy to back pro-growth Dems
• A Major Network Of Conservative Donors Is Distancing Itself From The Republican Party
• Charles Koch warns Trump trade war could trigger recession
• Ohio farmer compares farmers under Trump to Stormy Daniels: ‘Screwed’ then paid off
• ‘This Was the Plan All Along’: With Workers’ Wages Falling, CEOs Enjoy ‘Eye-Popping’ Payouts From GOP Tax Scam
• Trump’s 8-9% prediction for US growth is just not possible, strategist says
• Trump Administration Mulls A Unilateral Tax Cut For The Wealthy

 

#NEVERAGAIN

• March For Our Lives
• Ricky Davila: 8 states suing over 3D printed guns
• Email NOW: Stop the Threat of Downloadable Guns | Everytown for Gun Safety

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

• Donald Trump will not stop his attacks on journalists because he doesn’t believe in media freedom
• Trump calls media ‘very unpatriotic’ for reporting on government affairs
• Trump Escalates Attack Against Media After NYT Publisher Warned of Violence Against Journalists
• Devin Nunes Wants To Sue Twitter After Getting Busted For Tweeting Trump/Russia Propaganda – POLITICUSUSA
• White House aide shouts down CNN’s Acosta during Trump photo op
• New York Times publisher refutes Trump’s version of their meeting
• New York Times tells Trump: Don’t call reporters enemies of the people

 

THE OTHER COHEN

• Roy Moore fails ‘pedophile detector test’ from Sacha Baron Cohen
• Sacha Baron Cohen confronts Roy Moore with ‘pedophile detecting machine’
• Sacha Baron Cohen Tries to ‘Prove’ Roy Moore Is a ‘Pedophile’ on ‘Who Is America?’

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

• 52 train wrecks John Kelly couldn’t stop — or started himself
• Spike Lee: ‘This guy in the White House has given the green light for the Klan’
• Trump Says He’s Open to Closing Government Over Wall Money
• Trump threatens to ‘shut down’ government unless Democrats agree to fund Mexico wall
• Betsy DeVos’ Message to Students: You Have the Right to Be Ripped Off
• Bob Woodward to detail ‘harrowing life’ inside Trump White House in new book | TheHill
• Trump reportedly schedules impromptu White House meetings based on that morning’s Fox & Friends
• These Emails Show Exactly How Science Was Wiped Out at the Department of the Interior
• EPA chief Andrew Wheeler’s past lobbying ties attract scrutiny

 

SCOTUS

• Kavanaugh ruled for Trump casino in 2012 unionization case
• Kavanaugh seems to shun gun registration laws, but may not oppose license training requirements
• Kavanaugh Sided With Trump Casino in 2012 to Thwart Union Drive
• What Do Young People Stand to Lose with Brett Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court? Our Lives.
• Senator Feinstein’s letter on Brett Kavanaugh
• Republicans are obstructing a fair vetting of Brett Kavanaugh
• Rand Paul backs Kavanaugh for Supreme Court
• Ginsberg says she has at least 5 more years on Supreme Court
• Ginsburg suggests she has at least five more years on the Supreme Court
• SCOTUS’ Ruth Bader Ginsburg Says She Has ‘At Least Five More Years’ On The Bench
• Wanna Beat Trump’s Supreme Court Nominee? Focus on Marijuana

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

• North Carolina Republicans Pass Yet Another Law to Throw State Supreme Court Race to a Republican
• Tax breaks for wealthy paid for with deep cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security
• A Major Network Of Conservative Donors Is Distancing Itself From The Republican Party
• Repent, Republicans, the end is nigh: But turning on Donald Trump isn’t enough
• GOP Candidate Corey Stewart’s Spokesperson Called Majority-Black Cities ‘Shitholes’

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

• Eric Garland: Show me RICO connected to Mike Pence!
• Dark-money groups that helped Greitens face FEC complaint | The Kansas City Star
• FEMA official harassed women, hired some as possible sexual partners for male employees, agency chief says
• Pace Lattin: Top FEMA aide about to get arrested
• Corporate penalties dropped as much as 94% under Trump
• Report Finds Flint Water Crisis May Have Killed 119—Nearly 10 Times Official Death Toll

 

ELECTION 2018

• GOP Seeks to Close Federal Election Agency
• Virginia Dem House candidate tweets that her GOP opponent is a ‘devotee of Bigfoot erotica’
• A Republican House candidate had to deny that he’s into Bigfoot porn
• Charles Koch network to GOP: We’re happy to back pro-growth Dems
• A Major Network Of Conservative Donors Is Distancing Itself From The Republican Party
• A Democratic Wave In The Midterms Is Looking More And More Likely
• Congressman Beto O’Rourke begins his 34-day road trip through Texas with a visit to the Borderland
• Maura Healey, Jim McGovern backing anti-Citizens United ballot question
• Michigan Democrats hope pot measure brings out youth vote
• Poll: Gov Scott Walker trailing Dem challenger by 7 points
• Voting systems in Wisconsin, a key swing state, can be hacked, security experts warn
• The fight over election security comes to the Senate floor
• G.O.P. Faces Another Midterm Threat as Trumps Plays the Shutdown Card

 

PROGRESS IS PROGRESS

• That study going around on Bernie Sanders’ Medicare for All plan comes with a big catch — the US would actually be saving money overall on healthcare
• Bernie Sanders’s $32 trillion Medicare-for-all plan is actually kind of a bargain
• Koch-backed study finds ‘Medicare for All’ would save U.S. government trillions
• Mercatus Study Finds Medicare for All Saves $300 Billion
• Conservative Think-Tanker Accidentally Argues That Single Payer Could Save Americans $2 Trillion
• Koch-Funded Hit Piece Backfires: Shows Medicare for All Would Save $300 Billion Over Ten Years While Covering Everybody
• Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Beat the Democratic Machine. Now She’s Helping Other Candidates Do the Same
• ‘Eye-popping’ payouts for CEOs follow Trump’s tax cuts
• Almost 80% of US workers live from paycheck to paycheck. Here’s why
• A New Study Found That The Oil Industry Is Leaking ~60% More Methane Than EPA Estimated
• America spends over $20bn per year on fossil fuel subsidies. Abolish them
• AP-NORC/MTV Poll: Young people looking for younger leaders
• Cynthia Nixon endorses single-payer health care in New York

 

RUMOR MILL

• Counterchekist: A lot of Obstruction of Justice in the last 48 hours
• Cancilleriaec: Assange leaving Ecuadorian Embassy soon
• krassenstein: Russians tried to hack Senator Jeanne Shaheen
• Lincoln’s Bible: 2003 FBI testimony on Semion Mogilevich
• Spicy Mic: Silence is the refuge of the wise
• Jay McKenzie: Being attacked on Medium

 

That’s it for Monday.  Tuesday, Manafort’s trial begins.  This is the first court trial from the Special Counselor’s investigation.  I look forward to reading the transcripts.

Never in my adult life before Trump came to power did I ever say “Gee, I look forward to reading the transcripts of a court case about money laundering.  This is how I want to spend my Tuesday night”  The things we do to protect this county.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Friday, July 27th and the weekend

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION

• Russian Hackers Appear to Shift Focus to U.S. Power Grid
• Witness list for trial of Trump’s former campaign chief released
• Mueller names 35 witnesses for first Manafort trial
• Brad Heath: Witness list for Manafort Trial
• Paul Manafort spent $18,000 on karaoke equipment for his house in the Hamptons, court documents show
• Paul Manafort’s Trial Starts Tuesday. Here Are the Charges and the Stakes.
• Spotted: Mueller and Donnie Jr. at the same airport gate
• Assange’s embassy stay in doubt after Ecuador president’s comments
• How Silicon Valley Became a Den of Spies
• Donald Trump Promised Dirt On Clinton 2 Days Before Trump Tower Meeting | HuffPost
• Fraud in Russia’s elections – Daily chart
• Official: Russian hackers targeted 2016 Montana election
• Opinion | Maria Butina is just the tip of the Russia iceberg
• Opinion | The baseless, shameful campaign to discredit Rod Rosenstein
• Opinion | The Trump-Russia investigation looks like a mob case – The Washington Post
• Press Release | Press Releases | Press | U.S. Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina
• Pence used personal email for state business — and was hacked
• House Republicans Decide Against Impeaching Rod Rosenstein in Outbreak of Suspiciously Noninsane Behavior
• “It Was Never Plausible Trump Didn’t Know”: A Complete Guide to the Collusion Question
• 19 times Trump and his allies denied he knew of the 2016 Trump Tower meeting
• Analysis | The Trump Tower meeting increasingly looks as bad for Trump as it initially seemed
• As Collusion Evidence Emerges, Obstruction Allegations Begin To Look More Damaging | Just Security
• Carl Bernstein: It Would Be ‘Very, Very Damaging’ For Trump if He Knew About Trump Tower Meeting Beforehand
• Make no mistake: The U.S. is at war with Russia
• The Trump Tower meeting increasingly looks as bad for Trump as it at first seemed
• This June 2016 Trump speech teasing dirt about the Clintons seems incredibly suspicious now – ThinkProgress
• Trump Has Changed His Mind A Lot On What He Knew About The Trump Tower Meeting
• Watergate Figure John Dean Warns Trump: ‘I Don’t Think It Is Boding Well For The President’
• What happened and when: The timeline leading up to Donald Trump Jr.’s fateful meeting

As I mentioned in Daily Check-In 07/26/2018, Trump knew and the evidence is mounting for the public to see.  Part of this is the roll-up to the meeting.

On June 7, 2016, Trump had a big press conference where he said he’d have something big to say about Hilary in a couple days.  When does Cohen say that Trump approved the meeting with the Russians?

June 7, 2016.  Shortly before his press conference, if the reports are accurate.

So, we have a meeting with Trump, Cohen, and between 3-5 other people on June 7th to approve and prepare for this meeting with Veselnitskaya and the rest of the Russian team.

Who were the people in the prep meeting?  We know that Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort, and Donnie Jr. were in the official meeting.  If, and this is a big if, if all three of them were at the June 7th meeting, leaves Cohen and one other.  Personally, I doubt that Jared was at the prep meeting, since he wasn’t mailed about it until the next day.  It’s more likely that someone at the meeting said that they should include Jared, as he’s the least of a fuckup out of all the males in the family.  That leaves two spaces open for the meeting.  My guess is that the following attended the prep meeting:

1. Donald Trump
2. Donald Trump, Jr.
3. Paul Manafort
4. Michael Cohen
5. Trump’s secretary Rhona
6. Rick Gates

Rick Gates.  As in, Cooperating Witnesses Rick Gates.  Why him?  He was Paul Manafort’s right hand man in the campaign, and was deeply involved in all of the minutia.  Paul and Rick were likely pulled into this at Trump’s behest as well.  As long as either Paul or Rick were there, Mueller has had the notes from this meeting for a long time.  With Cohen, we have two eyewitnesses to Conspiracy Against the United States, and a slew of other crimes.

 

COHEN

• Giuliani Tries to Explain Why He Flip-Flopped on Cohen: “I Didn’t Know Him Very Well”
• Giuliani: Cohen and Trump’s legal teams have severed ties
• Cohen Probe Reaches Into Trump’s Business, and the Red Line He Drew
• 3 theories on what, exactly, is Michael Cohen trying to do
• What Michael Cohen’s bombshell means
• Trump’s ex-lawyer: Giuliani hurt Trump’s case by flip-flopping on Cohen
• If Cohen is right, Trump was the 1st presidential candidate to accept offers of help from Moscow
• If Cohen Is Telling the Truth, That Ought to Be Ballgame
• If Trump Knew About the Russia Meeting, He Could Be on the Hook for Conspiracy
• Jed Shug: How Cohen could affect Trump’s case
• Micah Grimes: Rudy’s stance on Cohen has changed since May
• Rudy Giuliani called Michael Cohen an ‘honest, honorable lawyer’ in May. Now, he’s an ‘incredible liar.’
• Rudy Giuliani claims the Trump-Cohen tape was tampered with
• Rudy Giuliani: Michael Cohen Has Been Warned To Keep His Mouth Shut | HuffPost
• Rudy Giuliani: Michael Cohen Has Been Warned To Keep His Mouth Shut
• Rudy Giuliani’s Shameless Hypocrisy Is Truly Amazing to Watch
• Trump Org ‘bookkeeper’ is actually a right-hand man.

The fallout continues with Rudy committing witness tampering.

 

STORMYGATE

• Stormy Daniels’ attorney, Michael Avenatti, says 3 other women claim they were paid by AMI, Donald Trump, Michael Cohen
• Avenatti: Hush money paid before election to 3 more women who claim affairs with Trump
• Avenatti: Presidential candidates should be required to take an intelligence test
• Michael Avenatti reveals another client’s case involves Trump, AMI
• How Many Cops Will Be Fired For Setting Up Stormy Daniels? | Above the Law
• Second Playboy model alleges an affair with Trump, received payment from AMI
• Playmate Who Had Affair With Major GOP Fundraiser Has Never Met Trump, Sources Say

Three more women are coming forward, and one of them involved a pregnancy.

 

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET

• NBC Politics: Putin invites Trump to Moscow
• Trump open to visiting Putin in Moscow, still looks forward to hosting him in Washington
• Putin has invited Trump to Moscow, saying they need to talk in person
• Russia’s Putin says he invited Trump to Moscow
• GOP lawmaker: ‘Nobody’s going to be surprised’ if Trump approved Russia meeting
• Trump doubles record for longest time without science adviser
• Trump Has Repeatedly Tried to Ban or Punish Reporters Who Annoy Him
• Trump had repeatedly asked aides to ban reporters before barring CNN journalist from press event: report | TheHill
• Trump Administration Neuters Nuclear Safety Board
• Trump admin has no central strategy for election security, and no one’s in charge
• Donald Trump Clearly Doesn’t Care About Election Security
• Donald Trump Promised Dirt On Clinton 2 Days Before Trump Tower Meeting | HuffPost
• Alarm grows among Trump officials over lack of cyber defenses
• How Vladimir Putin Will Take Down Donald Trump When He’s No Longer Useful
• N.Y. Times publisher says he told Trump that attacks on media could lead to violence

 

TRAITOR TOTS

• RNC Chair complains about internet bias on Fox News after Republicans killed net neutrality
• After her party killed net neutrality, RNC Chair complains of internet bias against conservatives
• Help us identify Trump’s unknown golf partners
• Former National Enquirer Exec: ‘Trump is in bed with the publication that started fake news’
• Trump defenders downplay evidence of Russian collusion: “So what?”
• Paul Ryan is helping Trump undermine the rule of law
• GOP Reps.’ attack on Rosenstein is an attempt to undermine Mueller investigation
• Jordan: If Rosenstein doesn’t deliver, Meadows and I will force impeachment vote

 

FIGHTING BACK

• Anti-Trump White House Protests Near Two-Week Mark As Organizers Raise More Than $100K
• Anti-Trump White House protests show no signs of stopping as they near two-week mark
• Writer Greg Olear on “Dirty Rubles”: Trump is “gravest existential threat” to America in 150 years
• Pentagon Creates ‘Do Not Buy’ List of Russian, Chinese Software – Defense One
• Citing Trump, some Republican women to vote Democratic in Ohio election
• Rep. John Lewis hospitalized after falling ill on plane
• Civil rights hero Rep. John Lewis hospitalized after in-flight emergency
• Grand Junction billboard replaces ‘O’ in ‘GOP’ with hammer and sickle
• Putin wanted to interrogate me. Trump called it “an incredible offer.” Why?
• EXCLUSIVE: Black Lives Matter planning march from NYC to D.C. to create ‘wave of love’ – NY Daily News
• Prankster puts Putin’s portrait in Trump’s place in presidential gallery – NY Daily News
• After all our frustration with Trump, it’s time to make the big play
• Trump biographer David Cay Johnston reveals Trump’s been compromised by Russia for 30 years
• TV anchor: Trump smells like a Kremlin agent
• Opinion | Distinguished persons of the week: Stopping Trump’s cavalcade of corruption

 

IMMIGRATION

• Wife of a former US Marine is facing deportation to Mexico
• Judge demands independent audit of conditions at detention centers for migrant children
• Judge allows census lawsuit, citing evidence of Trump’s ‘animus toward immigrants of color’
• 711 kids in custody haven’t been reunited with their parents. What happens to them now?
• A 6-Year-Old Girl Was Sexually Abused in an Immigrant-Detention Center
• United Airlines donates flights to reunite immigrant families – San Francisco Business Times
• Federal judge says Trump administration is ‘at fault’ for losing track of deported parents 
• The Number Of Parents Who Were Deported Without Their Kids Keeps Growing
• Trump threatens to ‘shut down’ government
• Trump’s push to make city cops into stooges for ICE suffers strange, messy courtroom defeat
• Philadelphia will no longer let ICE access arrest database
• ICE Detainee Diagnosed With Schizophrenia Spent 21 Days in Solitary Confinement, Then Took His Own Life
• No, the Government Did Not Make the Deadline to Reunify Children With Their Parents
• Coffee company rejects $40K Salesforce contract, citing tech firm’s ties to Trump border policy

 

COLD WAR 2.0

• Russian Hackers Appear to Shift Focus to U.S. Power Grid
• Russians still trying to interfere in US elections every ‘way they can’: GOP senator
• Russians Unsuccessfully Tried To Hack Computers Of Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill
• Trump Ready to Bomb Iran Within One Month: Australian Govt Sources
• US airlines caved to China’s ‘Orwellian’ demands on Taiwan — but now Beijing says it’s not enough
• Sanctions on Russia’s Rusal could be lifted, Mnuchin says
• Bill Browder: Why would the U.S. lift sanctions on Rusal?
• Kyle Parker: The Capitol Hill Staffer Who’s on Putin’s List and in His Craw | National Review
• Palestinian teen protester Ahed al-Tamimi leaves Israeli prison
• Has Steve Bannon Found a New Soul Mate in BoJo?
• German defense minister: Trump has ‘no strategy’ for dealing with Putin
• France measles outbreak: babies hit hardest – VaccinesToday

 

#NEVERAGAIN

• Shannon Watts: “Not right for Texas” means “The @NRA told me no.”
• Five dead, including gunman, in Texas nursing home shooting: official
• Largest police group in Texas endorses Greg Abbott over former Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez | 2018 Elections | Dallas News
• Shannon Watts: George O’Neill is “person number 2” 
• Shannon Watts: The NRA-Wisconsin Connection
• Complaint alleges NRA used shell company to unlawfully coordinate with Johnson’s campaign | News | wisconsingazette.com
• Country music star Eric Church slams NRA for Las Vegas massacre
• Senators Demand Answers from Justice Dept. on Dangerous 3D Gun Settlement – Press Releases – United States Senator for California
• Analysis | Actually, guns do kill people, according to a new study

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

• Arizona town ‘heartbroken’ after Sacha Baron Cohen’s ‘Who Is America?’ brands them racist
• Senator Ted Cruz has defended Alex Jones after the conspiracy theorist’s Facebook pages were suspended
• Facebook suspends Trump-supporting conspiracy theorist Alex Jones
• Alex Jones claims Donald Trump requests and receives InfoWars transcripts
• Scaramucci: Trump’s attitude toward reporters ‘galvanizes the press’ against him
• Trump Has Repeatedly Tried to Ban or Punish Reporters Who Annoy Him
• Trump had repeatedly asked aides to ban reporters before barring CNN journalist from press event: report | TheHill
• Trump claims his polling numbers among GOP are higher than Lincoln’s
• Former National Enquirer Exec: ‘Trump is in bed with the publication that started fake news’
• N.Y. Times publisher says he told Trump that attacks on media could lead to violence

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

• White House restores missing question to Trump-Putin transcript
• White House uses foreign aid agency to give jobs to Trump loyalists
• Black man accuses Sean Spicer of calling him a ‘n*****’ when they were at school
• Steelworkers hospitalized for carbon monoxide exposure hours after Trump tours facility
• The White House just misspelled ‘United States’
• The Trump Administration’s Census Cover Up | American Civil Liberties Union

 

ECONOMY

• “You Can’t Eat GDP”: Reminder That Most Workers Are Struggling as Trump and Corporate Media Tout Economic Growth
• Donald Trump. Jr says Obama never broke 2 percent GDP growth. He did. 15 times.
• Fact checking Trump’s victory lap after the second-quarter GDP report
• Media slams GDP boom: ‘Don’t buy it,’ ‘blip,’ ‘too big’
• Economic growth accelerated sharply in 2018’s second quarter, but economists caution it could be a blip
• The Trump Administration Says Poverty Is Over. They’re Lying. | HuffPost

 

TRADE WAR

• Farm aid: Foolish tariffs beget foolish subsidies
• Koch officials: President Trump’s trade tariffs hurt Americans
• GOP frets Trump tariffs will hit midterm prospects
• ‘If We Didn’t Trade,’ Trump Argues, ‘We’d Save a Hell of a Lot of Money’
• Trump 2020 campaign denies reports it’s producing flags in China 

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

• Top Koch network official: ‘The divisiveness of this White House is causing long-term damage’
• ‘Koch brothers’ rebrand underway, still a conservative force
• GOP lawmaker’s home listed as top single-family water user in Austin last year: report | TheHill
• GOP Rep. Jason Lewis called people on government assistance ‘parasites,’ said blacks on welfare ‘plantation’
• Hunters who donate to Republicans given special permits to import lion trophies, report says
• Report Shows Trump Administration Issued Permits For Lion Trophies To Republican Donors
• Trump Just Made It Legal to Bring Back the Heads of Slaughtered Lions
• Rick Scott Is Getting a Boost From a Private Prison Company. Too Bad It Might Be Illegal.
• Decadelong Republican Gerrymanders Could Be Undone by Reckless GOP Emails
• Donald Trump Clearly Doesn’t Care About Election Security

 

ENVIRONMENT

• We’re headed for a future where only the wealthy can enjoy nature
• Hottest Four Years Ever? 2015. 2016. 2017. 2018?
• Climate change is supercharging a hot and dangerous summer – The Washington Post
• Documents: Trump golf course damaged protected sand dunes
• Trump golf resort wrecked special nature site, reports reveal

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

• EXCLUSIVE: Dana Rohrabacher Called the Cops On Woman Who Asked Tough Questions – The Daily Banter
• Cop admits framing two black men as Florida town’s false arrest scandal widens
• Bill Would Ban Sex Between Law Enforcement, Those in Custody
• ‘Verbal judo’: the police tactic that teaches cops to talk before they shoot
• Police held ‘Mission: Impossible’ actor Ving Rhames at gunpoint for entering his own home
• Officers fired, charged after allegedly beating man and calling him “fake American”
• Indiana synagogue vandalized with anti-Semitic graffiti
• Killings of black people lead to arrests less often than when victims are white
• Aussie bank links to ‘Russian mafia’
• Trump’s Views On Due Process Are Straight Out Of Slavery
• Bush Claimed Power to Override a Torture Ban. What Did Brett Kavanaugh Think About That? 

 

#METOO

• Les Moonves and CBS Face Allegations of Sexual Misconduct
• Report: Kimberly Guilfoyle Left Fox News After Misconduct Probe – The Daily Beast

The title is misleading.  Kimberly wasn’t the victim, she was a perpetrator.  One of her “hobbies” was sharing dick pics around the office and telling people who they belonged to.  Not who sent her the pics, but whose dicks they were.

 

ELECTION 2018

• Young Voter Registration Increases Nationwide and in Arizona
• Why Is the Trump Campaign Attacking Senator Kirsten Gillibrand?
• Why So Many People Are Betting on Beto O’Rourke
• Russians still trying to interfere in US elections every ‘way they can’: GOP senator
• Russians Unsuccessfully Tried To Hack Computers Of Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill
• 100 days: Dems have midterm edge, but it’s not historic
• No deal yet: Ted Cruz digs in as Beto O’Rourke pushes for 6th debate, more town halls, and not all on Friday nights when Texans are busy
• Beto O’Rourke adding campaign offices to target crucial voters in DeSoto, Fort Worth
• Role reversal: Architect of 2010 GOP House takeover in trouble – POLITICO
• CNN Key Races: Path to House majority comes into focus as a dozen races move toward Democrats
• Churches may have to pay taxes, and members of Congress may pay politically
• Donald Trump-supporting Nazis and racists are on the ballot for the 2018 US midterm elections | South China Morning Post

 

DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISM

• US TOPS LIST OF MOST DANGEROUS PLACES TO GIVE BIRTH
• Socialism is no longer a dirty word in the US – and that’s scary for some | Arwa Mahdawi
• Americans actually like ‘socialist’ policies – The Boston Globe
• Ocasio-Cortez slams military spending: We must ‘reprioritize what we want to accomplish as a nation’
• Opinion | Bernie Sanders: Bail criminalizes poverty and undermines justice
• Ripping ‘Greedy Wall Street Vulture Funds’ Profiting From Misery, Warren and Sanders Introduce Bill to Cancel Puerto Rico’s Debt
• Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: We don’t have nice things because we haven’t chosen to.
• Almost 80% of US workers live from paycheck to paycheck. Here’s why | Robert Reich
• How the Republican tax cuts are failing workers, in one chart – Vox

 

REBUILDING

• Bryce Tache: We remember, we rebuild, we ensure this never happens again
• It’s Time to Start Talking About the Post-Trump Amendments
• Carmelo Anthony says the government ‘completely turned their back’ on Puerto Rico
• New political movement seeks members from left, right and center to find solutions
• House Republicans Deeply Confused About Why Puerto Rico Might Benefit From Wind and Solar Power
• President Donald Trump blasted reporting from Puerto Rico as “fake news,” but heeding it might have saved lives during Hurricane Maria
• In a divided U.S., therapists are hearing the same name over and over: Donald Trump | CBC News

 

RUMOR MILL

• Countercheckist: A lot of tweet deletions going on
• Counterchekist: Why we keep seeing deza about hacked vote totals
• Eliot Woodrich: Glenn Greenwald is deleting about 27,000 tweets
• Eric Garland: It’s Over
• Carole Cadwalla: IPA getting involved with Brexit.
• Carole Cadwalla: LeavEU put out ad about murder right after it happened
• Caroline Orr: “There is no evidence that hackers changed votes.” thread
• Caroline Orr: Trump has tweeted about Mueller 22 times.
• Lincoln’s Bible on Maggie Haberman
• Lincoln’s Bible: A Kitchen Conversation
• Lincoln’s Bible: The words we use are important
• Lincoln’s Bible: This is not white collar crime
• Louise Mensch: There is a tape
• Louise N: Leakers
• Louise N: This didn’t age well, did it?
• Spicy Mic on Bribery
• Spicy Mic: Save the date, August 1st.
• Tea Pain: The Trump Tariffs will add $5200 to the price of an F-150
• Pace: EPA already rewriting rules Scott Pruitt put in place when he was there

 

 

That’s it for the weekend.  Things are coming along and picking up speed.  Manafort’s trial begins on Tuesday, and is expected to last 2-3 weeks. Expect a ton of rage tweeting and crazy attacks in the next couple weeks.

Meanwhile, the other threads are all weaving together like a tapestry.  I try to keep things separated for convenience sake, but the closer we get to the endgame, the more the random threads tie together.  Certain players were involved in multiple parts, like Michael Cohen.  Not only was he deeply involved in all of the dealings with women, he was also privy to the Russian meetings in June.  We can make an easy jump from one crazy part of this saga (Seychelles meeting with Erik Prince) to another random part (Maria Butina) in only a couple small steps.  It’s like a corrupt version of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.

Let’s see who the next player is, and how they can connect Mark Burnett to David Pecker in less than four moves.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur

Thursday, July 28th

 

THE RUSSIAN INVESTIGATION: COHEN SAYS THAT TRUMP KNEW ABOUT JUNE 9 2016 MEETING BEFOREHAND

• Cohen claims Trump knew in advance of 2016 Trump Tower meeting – CNNPolitics
• Michael Cohen may have evidence of the most shameful Trump rumors — and it’s a huge legal threat to his presidency
• Michael Cohen: Trump Knew about the Trump Tower Meeting And Actually Approved It
• Caroline Orr: Trump was briefed about the hacking in late summer 2016. If he lied about knowing then, that’s big time trouble

Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney, claims that then-candidate Trump knew in advance about the June 2016 meeting in Trump Tower in which Russians were expected to offer his campaign dirt on Hillary Clinton, sources with knowledge tell CNN. Cohen is willing to make that assertion to special counsel Robert Mueller, the sources said.

Cohen’s claim would contradict repeated denials by Trump, Donald Trump Jr., their lawyers and other administration officials who have said that the President knew nothing about the Trump Tower meeting until he was approached about it by The New York Times in July 2017.

Cohen alleges that he was present, along with several others, when Trump was informed of the Russians’ offer by Trump Jr. By Cohen’s account, Trump approved going ahead with the meeting with the Russians, according to sources.

Yeah, that just fucking happened.

Michael Cohen, the former fixer and attorney for President Donald Trump, alleges that not only did Trump know about the June 9th meeting, but that Trump approved the meeting, and that Cohen has witnesses to back it up.

To be honest, I’m a little surprised at this.

Not that Trump knew, he’s a micromanaging prick and a domineering, abusive parent who crushed his children into starving for his attention.  Donnie Jr. doesn’t take a shit in Trump Tower without Daddy saying it’s okay.

Nor am I surprised that Cohen is looking to make a deal and is willing to work with Mueller.  Michael Cohen was loyal, but not 30 years in prison loyal.  Cohen would die penniless in prison with all of the crimes he’s committed, and he’s been fishing for either a deal or a pardon for months.

What I am surprised about is just how fucking petty Donald Trump is in all of this.  If he were any more petty, “Running Down A Dream” would start playing in the background.  As soon as the Special Master gave Trump and Cohen a list of protected items, Trump’s team leaked the existence of tapes containing the two of them talking about paying off Karen McDougal. (Daily Check-In 07/20/2018)  Trump loses his mind because how dare someone record a conversation of him, even though he’s admitted to doing the same thing himself.  That started a tit-for-tat between them were they upped the ante each day.  Trump tells Maggie about the existence of these tapes.  Cohen says there are more tapes.  Trump attacks Cohen and calls him a liar.  Cohen releases the McDougal tape. (Daily Check-In 07/25/2018)  Then Trump’s team leaks to the press that Cohen is going to testify that Trump knew about the June 9 meeting.

You read that last part right.  Trump’s team said that Trump’s lawyer wants to tell the Special Counselor that Trump knew of and approved the June 9th meeting with the Russians.

Why in the Crystal Pepsi Flavored Fuck would anyone do that to themselves?  Think about this for a second and try to put yourself in their shoes.  Your long time partner in crime is under investigation for some serious crimes, but everything they got points to some of your smaller crimes.  You’re worried about what they’ll say to the cops.  You decide to protect yourself, so you do that by…incriminating yourself in even worse shit?  Just to fuck the other guy over? That’s like admitting to the cops that your buddy watched you shoot a guy and said nothing about it at the time.  HELLO!  What was the first part of that sentence?

The only two things I can think of are that this is either misdirection or completely out of spite.  This is either to distract from something truly horrible happening, like the news that he paid women to have abortions or more indictments are on the way, or he’s so mad that he doesn’t care how much this hurts him, as long as it hurts  the other guy.

 

• Here’s A Complete List Of The Trump Tweets Mueller Is Likely Reviewing In Obstruction Probe – Rantt
• Mueller Examining Trump’s Tweets in Wide-Ranging Obstruction Inquiry

WASHINGTON — For years, President Trump has used Twitter as his go-to public relations weapon, mounting a barrage of attacks on celebrities and then political rivals even after advisers warned he could be creating legal problems for himself.

Those concerns now turn out to be well founded. The special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, is scrutinizing tweets and negative statements from the president about Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the former F.B.I. director James B. Comey, according to three people briefed on the matter.

Several of the remarks came as Mr. Trump was also privately pressuring the men — both key witnesses in the inquiry — about the investigation, and Mr. Mueller is examining whether the actions add up to attempts to obstruct the investigation by both intimidating witnesses and pressuring senior law enforcement officials to tamp down the inquiry.

Mr. Mueller wants to question the president about the tweets. His interest in them is the latest addition to a range of presidential actions he is investigating as a possible obstruction case: private interactions with Mr. Comey, Mr. Sessions and other senior administration officials about the Russia inquiry; misleading White House statements; public attacks; and possible pardon offers to potential witnesses.

We’ve been on this for a while, but it’s nice to get confirmation from the White House about it.

Pro Tip: Maggie Haberman is an access journalist and Trump’s frenemy.  He calls her when he wants to bitch about something, or get a story out.  This is often to deflect from a worse story.  It is news, but more like a No-Shit-Sherlock kind of news.  But it might as well be confirmation from the White House.

Like I said, we’ve been on this for a while.  Trump’s tweets are evidence of Obstruction of Justice and Witness Tampering. Not to mention a few other crimes like Conspiracy Against the United States, Espionage, and Treason.

I wonder what they were covering up?

Watchdog: Mysterious Donor May Have Illegally Laundered Trump Super PAC Cash

A mysterious company that donated $325,000 to a leading Trump super PAC this year may be illegally hiding the sources of money it used to support GOP political efforts, according to a legal complaint set to be filed today.

The Campaign Legal Center alleges in a complaint with the Federal Election Commission that Global Energy Producers LLC, the company behind that sizable contribution in May to America First Action, has all the hallmarks of a financial “conduit” set up to funnel money into political contests in ways that mask the real sources of the funds.

The Daily Beast revealed two of the individuals behind the group, Igor Fruman and Lev Parnas, in a story Wednesday. Fruman told the Russian-language news website ForumDaily that he attended a March donor retreat at Mar-a-Lago. He was pictured there with President Donald Trump amid meetings about the president’s and his party’s political efforts in the midterms and the 2020 general election.

That may not have been the last time Fruman met with Trump. CLC’s complaint cites an interview that Fruman gave to the New York-based outlet Jewish World. Fruman said he and Parnas were among nine attendees at a private meeting with Trump in early May in Washington. They discussed the midterm election and efforts to retain Republican majorities in Congress.

The White House did not respond to attempts to confirm the meeting and Fruman’s account of it.

Fruman recalled the meeting taking place in the first few days of May. About two weeks later, Global Energy Producers made its sizable contribution to America First Action. Over the following month, Fruman and Parnas donated $111,000 to Protect the House, a joint fundraising committee supporting the National Republican Congressional Committee and a host of GOP House campaigns. They also gave to the re-election campaigns of Republican Reps. Pete Sessions (Texas) and Joe Wilson (SC), and to the Senate campaign of Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R).

Nothing like laundering foreign money into the campaigns of the entire Republican Party to set them up as co-conspirators in a RICO case.

 

• Congressman dined with alleged Russian agent

$20 says it’s Dana Rohrabacher.

When FBI counterintelligence agents plowed through the emails of alleged Russian agent Maria Butina’s networking around Washington, they discovered her plan to arrange “friendship and dialogue dinners” with influential Americans.

At one dinner, ABC News has learned, in February 2017 at the tony French eaterie, Bistro Bis, one guest who dined with the then-28 year old Russian was a California Republican congressman on the House Foreign Relations committee, Dana Rohrabacher. Rohrabacher’s office confirmed he attended.

It wasn’t their first meeting.

Two years earlier, Butina had helped arrange a meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia that included Rohrabacher and her mentor, Kremlin-connected banker Alexander Torshin, federal officials have confirmed.

To Rohrabacher’s critics, these repeated interactions with a woman now jailed on suspicion of mounting an influence campaign at the behest of the Russian government, have added more fuel to longstanding questions about his Kremlin connections. This past weekend, anti-Putin crusader and businessman Bill Browder told a room of national security experts gathered in Aspen that he believes Rohrabacher is “on the payroll of Russia.”

“I believe he is under some type of influence by the Russian government,” Browder said.

Nailed it.

 

• Maria Butina: ties emerge between NRA, alleged spy and Russian billionaire
• Senior NRA figures met with wife of billionaire tied to alleged Russian agent: report

Senior National Rifle Association (NRA) figures in 2015 reportedly met with the wife of the billionaire who allegedly funded Marina Butina, the Russian woman who was indicted last week for allegedly conspiring to work for the Russian government by infiltrating organizations that have influence in U.S. politics, including the NRA.

The NRA officials met with Svetlana Nikolaeva, the wife of Konstantin Nikolaev, on a trip to Russia in 2015, according to The Guardian.

Svetlana owns a gun company that supplies rifles to the Russian military and intelligence services, according to The Guardian.

Konstantin Nikolaev, a Russian billionaire with ties to U.S. industries, financially supported Butina’s gun rights group, according to The Washington Post. Court filings from last week also suggest Butina sent messages about her “funder,” a Russian man who prosecutors said is worth $1.2 billion and often travels to the U.S.

Nikolaev was listed by Forbes this year as having a net worth of $1.2 billion. He has investments in energy and technology companies in the U.S.

The report that his wife met with NRA officials in 2015 adds to a growing controversy over ties between the NRA and Russian officials.

Butina and her alleged co-conspirator, high-level Russian government official Alexander Torshin, were reportedly “life members” of the NRA, met with top NRA officials and attended the gun lobbying group’s conventions.

First Alexander Torshin, now Nikolaev.  That’s at least two Russian Oligarchs that we know that were in league with senior members of the NRA, in just the last couple days.  That doesn’t include others like Deripaska, or lawyers like Veselnitskaya, or Intelligence members like Kilimnik.

War and Peace didn’t have this many Russians in it.  I think I have to make a section in the Cast of Characters just to keep track of the Russians involved.

 

• We have the first documented case of Russian hacking in the 2018 election
• Russian Hackers’ New Target: a Vulnerable Democratic Senator
• Caroline Orr: Why the Russians tried to hack Sen. McCaskill

Speaking of Russians, we now have the first confirmed attack by them on the 2018 election.  They tried the same old tricks on Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri.  She’s a Democrat in a state that went for Trump in 2016, and an outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin.

 

• Here’s The Evidence Paul Manafort Doesn’t Want A Jury To See About His Work In Ukraine
• Emails: Lawyer who met Trump Jr. tied to Russian officials

Yep, it’s Natalia.  We confirmed this back on Daily Check-In 04/27/2018, but it’s nice to get some more evidence and watch others come to the party.

 

COHEN: TRUMP CFO SUBPOENAED

• Trump Org. CFO called to grand jury to testify: WSJ

A federal grand jury investigating President Donald Trump‘s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen for possible crimes has subpoenaed the chief financial officer of Trump’s company, Allen Weisselberg, to testify, a new report said Thursday.

The Wall Street Journal, citing sources familiar with the case, said that Weisselberg, who is an executive of the Trump Organization, is considered a witness in the ongoing probe of Trump’s ex-attorney Michael Cohen.

The newspaper said it is not clear if Weisselberg has already testified to the grand jury, which is meeting in New York City.

Weisselberg, 70, was mentioned by Cohen in a conversation that Cohen secretly recorded with Trump in September 2016 that discussed buying the rights to the story of Playboy model Karen McDougal, who claims she had an affair with the president. The recording of that conversation was aired earlier this week by CNN.

I mentioned Allan Weisselberg on Daily Check-In 07/25/2018 a little in relation to the McDougal Tape.  He’s mentioned by name as being the guy Cohen sought out for help in paying off the women and setting up Essential Consultants, LLC.  I was wondering why his name wasn’t making waves.

Those waves came in pretty quick yesterday.  Looks like Allan, the Chief Financial Officer of Trump Organization, as well as the accountant going back to the Fred Trump days, was subpoenaed to testify before the Grand Jury in SDNY about the Michael Cohen case.

• Investigators have 100 Michael Cohen tapes: WaPo

The government has seized more than 100 recordings that Cohen made of his conversations with people discussing matters that could relate to Trump and his businesses and with Trump himself talking, according to two people familiar with the recordings. Cohen appeared to make some recordings with an iPhone — without telling anyone he was taping them.

A significant portion of the recordings is Cohen surreptitiously recording reporters who met with or questioned Cohen about Trump during the campaign and after Trump’s election, the people said.

Trump’s voice is on several of the recordings, but only in snippets — typically when he is returning a call from Cohen or asking Cohen on a voice-mail message to call him back, the people said. The only recording in which Trump and Cohen have a substantive conversation is the one that Davis released Tuesday, according to these people.

• Michael Cohen’s secret Trump tape brings Allen Weisselberg into saga – Business Insider
• The key detail everyone missed on the Trump-Cohen tape – Palmer Report

 

STORMYGATE

• Stormy Daniels ‘No Touch’ Arrest in Ohio Was Planned, Whistleblower Claims
• Leaked E-Mails Suggest Stormy Daniels’s Strip-Club Arrest Was, Indeed, a Setup
• Michael Avenatti Claims Trump And Cohen Were ‘Concerned About a Pregnancy,’ Paid Off Multiple Other Women
• Michael Avenatti obtains evidence about Donald Trump, a mistress, and a pregnancy scare – Palmer Report
• Michael Avenatti: There’s a pregnancy involved

Hey, look at the timing.  I should have more details tomorrow, but it looks like Michael Avenatti has at least three more women that attest to being paid off by Cohen and Trump to keep an affair quiet, and at least one of them involved a pregnancy.

I’m waiting for the “Christians” to give Trump the “benefit of the doubt” for him paying for abortions.  Notice the plural tense.

 

EMOLUMENTS

• 7 DC Residents Challenge Trump International’s Liquor License Based on Requirement That It Be Held by Someone With ‘Good Moral Character’

Thursday’s the day that keeps on giving.

 

TRUMP THE RUSSIAN ASSET

• White House corrects official transcript to show Putin saying he wanted Trump to win
• Yes, Russian Election Sabotage Helped Trump Win
• Trump Makes Clear Roe Vs. Wade is on the Chopping Block
• Trump once demanded Edward Snowden’s execution for giving ‘serious information’ to Russia
• Foreign Affairs chair says Trump is ignoring sanctions on Russia for former spy poisoning
• American Racists Look for Allies in Russia

 

TRAITOR TOTS

• Nunes used to care about Valley. Now he’s a D.C. fat cat living large on donors’ dime
• Ryan opposes Rosenstein impeachment try, dooming it for now
• Ryan says he opposes conservatives’ effort to impeach Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein
• Rep. Swalwell with a burn on Mark Meadows
• Kaz Weida: The full list of the 11 Rosenstien Impeachment sponsors
• Mark Meadows and Jim Jordan Should Be Laughed Out of the House for This
• Meadows backs off impeaching Rosenstein after leadership talks | TheHill

11.  Out of 230 Republicans, they could only get 11 to get on board with the impeachment.  The people involved with this decision should be shamed into the corner of the room and told to stand there until retirement.

• Jim Jordan Is Running For House Speaker In Spite Of Allegations He Ignored Sexual Abuse – Rantt
• Jim Jordan, under cloud of sex abuse scandal, announces bid for House Speaker
• Riotwomennn: Deep thread on Jim Jordan, how he’s a “perfect fit” to fill Hastert’s shoes
• FreedomWorks pledges to spend half a million dollars to elect Jordan as Speaker | TheHill

What the fuck did I just say?  GET IN THE CORNER JIM, AND DON’T COME OUT UNTIL YOU APOLOGIZE TO THE STUDENT ATHLETES LEFT IN YOUR CARE THAT YOU PUT IN HARM’S WAY!!!

Jim Jordan for Speaker of the House.  Then again, Dennis Hastert was a registered sex offender and couldn’t be left around children.  His ignorance of sexual depravity will fit in just fine.

 

FIGHTING BACK

• Bipartisan bill would prevent Trump from exiting NATO without Senate consent
• Conservative magazine calls out Trump for ‘CNN Derangement Syndrome’
• A.G. Underwood – Leading Coalition Of 12 AGs – Files Suit To Block Trump Administration’s Attempt To Undermine Affordable Care Act
• Protester interrupts Sean Spicer book signing: ‘It’s a garbage book and you’re a garbage human’
• Sean Spicer gets heckled at NYC book signing — ‘You lied as press secretary, now you’re lying in your book’
• Right-wing talk show host Joe Walsh tells Salon: Donald Trump “betrayed his country”
• Harrods big spender fights to keep mansion – BBC News
• Bill Browder: Russians charged him and 10 Americans for the “criminal act” of creating the Magnitsky Act
• McCain & Cardin Introduce Bill to add Sergei Magnitsy Law to Russia Sanctions Legislation.

This last part is what we need.  We need to apply the Magnitsky Law to each and every man, woman, and child that took part in the attack on the United States.  Freeze their passports, their visas, their bank accounts, their assets, all of it.  And not just the participants, but their families and associates, too.

You know how to get regime change in Russia?  Freeze the assets of every Oligarch, Mafioso, their friends, their families, and everyone who’s ever talked to them or looked at them until they put Putin’s head on top of St. Basil’s Cathedral.  Fuck with their money, that’ll get their attention.

 

IMMIGRATION

• Hundreds of migrant children remain in custody at court deadline
• Migrants describe frigid, hungry days in “ice boxes” and “dog pounds” – CBS News
• Emma Platoff: Stats on the children
• Separated Parents Were “Totally Unaware” They Had Waived Their Right To Be Reunified With Their Children
• Multi-State Lawsuit Against Census Citizenship Question To Move Ahead : NPR
• A Single Trump Appointee Was Responsible For Keeping Hundreds Of Kids Locked Up Longer

About 700 children still haven’t been reunited with their parents.  Know what that’s called? Kidnapping.

Here’s an idea.  Give the government a new deadline, like maybe a week.  If any kids still aren’t reunited by the end of the week, then the judge should hold the senior officials of the DHS and HHS in contempt of court.  Up to and most certainly including Secretary Nielsen.

 

COLD WAR 2.0

• The Secret Players Behind Macedonia’s Fake News Sites – OCCRP
• Why Is Trump Trying to Start a War He Cannot Win? – Observer
• North Korea expected to hand over U.S. remains Friday, South Korean media reports
• Trump says U.S. will impose ‘large sanctions’ on Turkey for detaining American pastor for nearly two years
• Iranian Quds Force leader Soleimani steps out of the shadows to threaten Donald Trump
• Hundreds Have Been Killed In Nicaragua Protests As President Ortega Refuses To Step Down – Rantt
• Harrods big spender fights to keep mansion – BBC News
• Bill Browder: Russians charged him and 10 Americans for the “criminal act” of creating the Magnitsky Act
• Estonia Spy Chief: Network of Operatives Pushing Russian Agenda in West
• Carole Cadwalla: Ads used by LeavEU, most of them illegally

 

#NEVERAGAIN

• Senior NRA figures met with wife of billionaire tied to alleged Russian agent: report
• Make an AR-15 at home: 3D printed ‘downloadable guns’ available Aug. 1
• Sarah Chadwickk: Confronting Rep. Clemons, he ran away through the back door
• Rep Swalwell: No Guns for Abusers

3D printing guns.  Providing people that shouldn’t be able to buy guns with the plans and technology to build their own.  What could possibly go wrong?

Fuck this.  If I can’t 3D print my own furniture without running afoul of legal restrictions, then guns are way out of the question.

 

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

• Trump promotes Jeanine Pirro’s new book in Oval Office | TheHill
• Trump ducks media, cites bad weather despite clear skies as he leaves for Iowa | TheHill
• ‘Who Is America?’ town accuses Sacha Baron Cohen of ‘baiting’ local residents into making racist comments
• Once again, ‘fake news’ decried by Trump turns out to be true
• CNN trolls Trump: “Thanks for watching,” Melania!

 

SAVING THE INTERNET

• Trump accuses Twitter of ‘illegal’ bias against Republicans in search results
• Twitter: Setting the record straight on shadow banning
• YouTube removes ‘hate speech’ videos from InfoWars
• How years of privacy controversies finally caught up with Facebook
• Facebook’s growth went into reverse for the first time, and the worst is yet to come

 

WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

• Trump’s border wall may soon be dead. It’s another sign of his weakness.
• Destroying North America’s Natural Wonders to Own the Libs

 

TRADE WAR

• Trump’s “Keep America Great” re-election banners are made in China and were mass produced to avoid trade war tariffs
• Wall Street Journal: EU official used colorful, simplified cue cards in trade meeting with Trump | TheHill
• Europeans are skeptical of trade truce with Trump
• Trump Tries to Offset Damage From Tariffs With Welfare for White People
• This Country Could Pass Saudi Arabia to Become the World’s Largest Oil Producer in 2018

 

GOP: THE PARTY OF LINCOLN IS DEAD

• The GOP isn’t fit to govern
• Trump uses taxpayer-funded trip to campaign for GOP candidates
• ‘I cannot condone the misogyny, the racism’: Oregon Republican becomes Democrat citing, Trump

 

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

• Operation Ghost Stories: Inside the Russian Spy Case — FBI
• A Kushner Ally Was Up for a Federal Post. Then the F.B.I. Began Digging.
• Political Insider: Betsy DeVos yacht untied, set adrift in Ohio
• Amazon’s facial recognition matched 28 members of Congress to criminal mugshots
• Sessions: ‘Perhaps’ I Shouldn’t Have Repeated ‘Lock Her Up’ Chant
• Outgoing Alabama State Rep. Randy Davis (R-Daphne) federally indicted in bribery conspiracy.

 

ELECTION 2018

• We have the first documented case of Russian hacking in the 2018 election
• Russian Hackers’ New Target: a Vulnerable Democratic Senator
• Caroline Orr: Why the Russians tried to hack Sen. McCaskill
• Poll: Scott Walker Trailing Dem Challenger by 13 Points
• Beto O’Rourke’s first Senate ad is upbeat and only online
• Federal judge strikes down Florida law banning early voting on college campuses
• Democrats Propose Making It Illegal To Spread False Election Information
• House Intel chair calls for ban on electronic voting systems

 

RUMOR MILL

• 911corlebra777: The allies have this
• Counterchekist: 4 main categories for the federal death penalty: Murder, Large amounts of drug trafficking, Espionage, and Sedition/Treason
• Dr Dena Grayson: Thread on Michael Cohen
• Elizabeth McLaughlin: Does this release meant to cover up something far worse for Trump, like Jr.’s indictment?
• Eric Garland: You mean the Macedonia that’s joining NATO is helping Mueller’s team?
• Evidence Shows Hackers Changed Votes in the 2016 Election But No One Will Admit It
• Postimus Maximus: Don’t believe the hype around the hacked votes article

I’ve talked about this before in Voter Rolls – The Easy Target.

• Pace: Waiting for the “Christians” to defend Trump’s abortions
• Spicy Mic on the White House editing the video
• Why Is Trump Trying to Start a War He Cannot Win? – Observer
• Tea Pain: 82 meetings with Russians?
• Lincoln’s Bible: Their lies will be replayed for a century

 

That’s it for Thursday.  It was one hell of a busy day.  Friday’s so far starting off weird.  One of Avenatti’s new clients involved a pregnancy, and there was a weird run-in at the airport.

 

Thank you, and have a good one.

 

“Without Journalists, it’s just propaganda.”

– Katy Tur