Ex-FBI Director Mueller appointed DOJ Special Counsel

[Ironduke]

Except that's not how it played it out. The DOJ and FBI sat on the Russia investigation until the election was already over, with the dossier only becoming public knowledge two months after it was already held when it was leaked to Buzzfeed. The FISA warrant on Page was issued after he left the Trump campaign. The FBI didn't publicly confirm that there even was a Russia investigation until March 20, 2017, when Comey was called to testify before the HPSCI.

I don't know if you've noticed, but that's five months after the election took place. Nobody attempted to use the Russia investigation to fix the election. We would have heard about it in October if it were the case. Instead, we heard about something else in October.

I'll quote Trey Gowdy:

MARGARET BRENNAN: The memo has no impact on the Russia probe?

REP. GOWDY: No-- not to me, it doesn't -- and I was pretty integrally involved in the drafting of it. There is a Russia investigation without a dossier. So to the extent the memo deals with the dossier and the FISA process, the dossier has nothing to do with the meeting at Trump Tower. The dossier has nothing to do with an email sent by Cambridge Analytica. The dossier really has nothing to do with George Papadopoulos' meeting in Great Britain. It also doesn't have anything to do with obstruction of justice. So there's going to be a Russia probe, even without a dossier.

[tbm3fan]

The memo clearly lays out the why.

You are talking about the How to read Memos for Dummies are you not? Gotta look up their version on weaponization. Hopefully it is only a couple of pages. Attention span and all that...

[zraver]

Except that's not how it played it out. The DOJ and FBI sat on the Russia investigation until the election was already over, with the dossier only becoming public knowledge two months after it was already held when it was leaked to Buzzfeed. The FISA warrant on Page was issued after he left the Trump campaign. The FBI didn't publicly confirm that there even was a Russia investigation until March 20, 2017, when Comey was called to testify before the HPSCI.

I don't know if you've noticed, but that's five months after the election took place. Nobody attempted to use the Russia investigation to fix the election. We would have heard about it in October if it were the case. Instead, we heard about something else in October.

I'll quote Trey Gowdy:

I've already pointed out the leaks and accusations started before the election. Regardless, the FBI investigations of Trump and Clinton wre co-occurring. In one we see the FBI lying to the court to get warrants and leaking to the media like crazy. In the other the very same agents are handing out immunties and doing all talks off the record and even writing exoneration before the principals are interviewed. The number of people involved in both who have been fired or demoted should shock you too your core if you have any sense of civic duty. They tried to pick the winner.

[TopHatter]

Trump's lawyers want him to refuse Mueller interview request

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Several of U.S. President Donald Trump's lawyers have advised him not to sit down for an interview with a special counsel investigating possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign to influence the 2016 presidential election, the New York Times reported on Monday.

Citing four people briefed on the matter, the newspaper said the lawyers were concerned that given Trump's penchant for making false statements and contradicting himself, he could be charged with lying to investigators. [Huh, I wonder why they're concerned about that]

Trump has said he would be willing to be interviewed under oath by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. "I'm looking forward to it, actually," Trump told reporters last month.

A person familiar with the matter told Reuters that no decision had yet been made on whether Trump would agree to an interview.

Trump denies collusion between his campaign and Moscow, and has dismissed the Russia probes as a witch hunt,

If the president refuses to sit for an interview, Mueller could subpoena the president to testify before a grand jury. A subpoena could trigger a court fight that might ultimately be decided by the Supreme Court.

John Dowd and Jay Sekulow, who lead a team of lawyers advising Trump, want the president to refuse an interview request, the Times said.

The lawyers and some Trump aides believe Mueller might be unwilling to subpoena the president and set off a showdown with the White House that the special counsel could lose in court, the Times reported.

Trump's longtime personal attorney Marc Kasowitz has also cautioned against a free-wheeling interview with Mueller, according to the Times.

Ty Cobb, a lawyer who was hired in July to handle the White House's response to the Russia probe, has argued for cooperating with Mueller, the newspaper reported.

In response to requests for comment from Reuters, Dowd and Cobb sent a statement that said the discussions between the president's personal lawyers and the special counsel's office "regarding how and under what terms information will be exchanged are understandably private." Link
____________

Trump's lawyers, unlike their toddler client, can clearly see no-shit danger signs flashing here.

C'mon Donnie, sit down and talk to Uncle Bob. You're smarter than him, you're savvier than him. You're better than him. He's just a government hack and you're a brilliant billionaire businessman who always wins. He also said you have small hands. Are you gonna let that slide?

[astralis]

hmmm....

[Albany Rifles]

hmmm....

[ATTACH]45328[/ATTACH]

Ah...Herblock. Being a teenager living in DC during Watergate was a fascinating daily civics lesson. I so looked forward to the Washington Post and once Dad was done with the front page I always turned to see what Herblock had to say.

Also looked forward to the daily dose of Doonesbury.

[snapper]

I've already pointed out the leaks and accusations started before the election. Regardless, the FBI investigations of Trump and Clinton wre co-occurring. In one we see the FBI lying to the court to get warrants and leaking to the media like crazy. In the other the very same agents are handing out immunties and doing all talks off the record and even writing exoneration before the principals are interviewed. The number of people involved in both who have been fired or demoted should shock you too your core if you have any sense of civic duty. They tried to pick the winner.

This is patently incorrect. First time it was publicly known that the FBI had been investigating Muscovite election interference and contacts with the Trump campaign was when Comey gave testimony in 2017. Yet Comey went public about re-opening the Clinton email inquiry just before the election - on the back of what he must have known was Muscovite hacked information in the public sphere - yet failed to mention there was also concurrent Moscow - Trump investigation.

[Ironduke]

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/...97403?lo=ap_e1

Judge holds hearing on Gates' lawyers request to exit case

The judge assigned to the criminal case against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his ex-deputy Rick Gates held a closed-door hearing Wednesday on a request by three of Gates' attorneys to quit the case.

Gates and his three defense attorneys — Shanlon Wu, Walter Mack and AnneMarie McAvoy — arrived just before 10:30 a.m. in the courtroom of U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson.

Two prosecutors from special counsel Robert Mueller's office also appeared to be on hand for the session, but the public, reporters and clerks for other judges were barred from the courtroom with shutters placed over the windows in the courtroom doors.

The comings and goings shed little public light on the dispute, but Jackson unsealed a court filing Wednesday in which the defense attorneys said they were at odds with Gates.

"Undersigned counsel wish to inform the Court that irreconcilable differences have developed with the client which make our effective representation of the client impossible," Wu, Mack and McAvoy wrote. The pleading provided no further details, citing a need to maintain attorney-client confidences.

The lawyers' motion to seal that filing said its disclosure "would potentially be prejudicial to the Defendant as well as embarrassing."

Jackson appears to have disagreed, since she ordered those papers released. However, she is maintaining another filing under seal that may include a more detailed explanation.

There was no sign at Wednesday's hearing of a lawyer Gates reportedly added to his team in recent weeks, Thomas Green, a high-powered D.C. defense attorneys known for negotiating plea bargain deals with prosecutors. He has not filed a formal appearance in the case, which is the typical procedure when changing counsel.

[snapper]

Didn't know where to post this in all honesty but since it partly bears on your elections and I think you guys need to know your enemy much better than you do (or think you do) I will post it here. Feel free to move it if you think irrelevant to US affairs.

English subtitles on the cc button.

[Ironduke]

Interesting stuff in that video.

How has he survived so long? Is he just too high profile, that they won't assassinate him?

[zraver]

So Adam Schiff and Senators Warner and Burr were attempting to work with Russians to bring down Trump....

[snapper]

Yea they were so chummy with Moscow - as was Clinton after that uranium business right? - that Moscow ended up backing Trump who they actually thought would increase sanctions - luckily for them though Trump has done nothing but bend over for them and hosted them, refusing to implement the new sanctions law. Let me know when you run out of tin foil.

[astralis]

http://thehill.com/homenews/administ...dossier-author

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who also sits on the Intelligence Committee, dismissed the report in a tweet Thursday, noting that Warner “fully disclosed” the contacts to the committee and saying they had “zero impact” on the committee’s investigation.

[Ironduke]

Didn't know where to post this in all honesty but since it partly bears on your elections and I think you guys need to know your enemy much better than you do (or think you do) I will post it here. Feel free to move it if you think irrelevant to US affairs.

English subtitles on the cc button.

Looks like it made it into the WaPo.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...a-billionaire/

[snapper]

How has he survived so long? Is he just too high profile, that they won't assassinate him?

He is actually being charged (again) for assaulting a Police Officer when they last arrested him. Some speculate that he has a high level 'krysha'/'roof' within the kleptocracy and certainly some of the information he gets must come from Government sources but maybe they didn't expect such a hoo ha for shooting Nemtsov and don't want to try a repeat.