The Russian Connection

[GreyhoundFan]

"After Campaign Exit, Manafort Borrowed From Businesses With Trump Ties"

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Aug. 19 was an eventful day for Paul Manafort.

That morning, he stepped down from guiding Donald J. Trump’s presidential campaign, after a brief tenure during which Mr. Trump won the Republican nomination, Democrats’ emails were hacked and the campaign’s contacts with Russia came under scrutiny. Dogged by revelations about past financial dealings in Ukraine, Mr. Manafort retreated from public view.

But behind the scenes, he was busy with other matters. Papers were recorded that same day creating a shell company controlled by Mr. Manafort that soon received $13 million in loans from two businesses with ties to Mr. Trump, including one that partners with a Ukrainian-born billionaire and another led by a Trump economic adviser. They were among $20 million in loans secured by properties belonging to Mr. Manafort and his wife.

The purpose of the loans is unstated in public records, although at least some of them appear to be part of an effort by Mr. Manafort to stave off a personal financial crisis stemming from failed investments with his son-in-law.

The transactions raise a number of questions, including whether Mr. Manafort’s decision to turn to Trump-connected lenders was related to his role in the campaign, where he had agreed to serve for free.

...

Boy, every time I read something about Manafort, he seems dirtier and dirtier.

[GreyhoundFan]

"Are there too many Russia connections to be coincidences?"

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...

No other presidential campaign of which we are aware had any association with one, let alone three, people who allegedly have ties to foreign adversary of the United States. All of these people coincidentally wound up on one campaign, for a candidate who refused to criticize Russian President Vladimir Putin and who publicly invited Russian hacking into his opponent’s email, in an election in which the Russians were trying to tip the race against Hillary Clinton? It’s possible this is mere happenstance but very, very unlikely.

Carter Page, Manafort and Flynn have every incentive in the world to cooperate now with the FBI. Investigators will want to know, among other things, how they all came to work for Trump, what Trump knew of their Russian connections, what contacts they and others might have had with Russian officials and how the Republican National Committee platform on Ukraine got changed. It’s hard to imagine a whole lot more won’t come out as cooperative witnesses add to whatever intelligence is already in the FBI’s hands.

Beyond all these threads and the potential for confirming secret collaboration between Trump’s team and the Russians, one uncomfortable truth remains: Overt, blatant and ongoing synchronization between Trump and Russian propagandists seems to have occurred throughout the general election. Ben Wittes, Jordan Brunner and Quinta Jurecic of the Lawfare blog write:

It included open encouragement of the Russians to hack Democratic targets; denial that they had done so; encouragement of Wikileaks, which was publicly known to be effectively a publishing arm of the Russian operation, in publishing the fruits of the hacks; and publicly trumpeting the contents of stolen emails. . . . After the Russian government had already been publicly associated with the hack, Trump urged it to conduct further hacking. . . .

Trump and his associates were collaborating with the operation. That they were doing so publicly and lawfully does not make their activity any less collaboration — just, perhaps, more honest and open. And it doesn’t make it less bad.

As the authors argue, we need to know if “any laws were violated and whether anyone in the Trump orbit may be compromised by Russian intelligence.” The intelligence investigation — which FBI Director James B. Comey says includes examination of potential criminal activity — goes on. However, for those who think accepting help from and working in tandem with a foreign power to undermine U.S. democracy renders the results inherently illegitimate, no smoking gun is needed. All the information necessary to determine the moral legitimacy of this president already is known. That Trump engaged so many people with Russian sympathies doesn’t mean those people were spies or engaged in illegal activity; it simply confirms he was an easy mark, someone willing to accept help from anyone, no matter how shady or tainted.

I wish this would shake out sooner, rather than, later.

[apple1]

18 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

"Are there too many Russia connections to be coincidences?"

I wish this would shake out sooner, rather than, later.

Me too - hopefully before we are in the middle of WW III.

[RoseWilder]

The Trump-Russia investigation is picking up steam. Several huge news stories have dropped in the last 48 hours. I'm going to attempt to post about all of them before bed. 

http://www.palmerreport.com/opinion/trump-russia-investigation-is-picking-up-steam-cable-news-just-isnt-talking-about-it-this-week/2276/

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In the four days since Donald Trump began blowing things up in Syria, most (not all) of the people on cable news have ceased focusing on his Russian election collusion scandal, in favor of the new shiny object. But that doesn’t mean the Trump-Russia investigation has slowed down. In fact some key developments over the past few days have made clear that the investigation is picking up steam.

In fairness to cable news, Congress went on recess today and won’t be back in session until April 24th. That means there’s no noise coming out of the House and Senate Intelligence Committee investigations into Trump-Russia this week, and thus nothing new to bump the Syria attack from the lead. But the public hearings held by those two committees are largely a matter of show and tell. The real investigation, as it were, is the one being carried out behind the scenes by the FBI and partnering federal agencies. And it appears they’re busy at work as we speak.

Last night a Russian hacker named Pyotr Levashov (“Peter Severa”) was arrested in Spain on a U.S. warrant. The Feds haven’t yet disclosed whether he’s suspected of hacking the U.S. election, but for some reason the Kremlin is suddenly fingering him as the culprit in the election hacking (source: France24). And Levashov does have a documented history of having used fake news to rig the 2012 Russian election in Vladimir Putin’s favor (source: NY Times). So it appears the Feds are now at a point where they’re arresting people on the bottom rungs of the scandal to try to get them flip on people higher up the chain.

 

I think a previous posted posted an article about the FBI having a FISA warrant on Carter Page. Well a source revealed to MSNBC's Joy Reid that Carter Page wasn't the only Trump ally the FBI had a FISA warrant on: 

http://www.palmerreport.com/news/joy-reid-carter-page-donald-trump-fisa/2288/

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After yesterday’s revelation that the FBI had a FISA surveillance warrant on Donald Trump campaign adviser Carter Page dating back to last summer, the story continues to quickly evolve. Joy-Ann Reid, the respected MSNBC weekend host, now says she has a source that Page wasn’t the only member of Trump’s team under direct FISA surveillance.

The past twenty-four hours represent a remarkable shift in the public’s understanding of how and why the FBI had been surveilling members of the Donald Trump campaign. For months the general consensus among much of the media was that Trump advisers had merely been picked up on surveillance incidentally when they happened to speak with outside people – such as Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak – who were under FISA surveillance. But that consensus is now out the window.

The shift began last night when the Washington Post reported that the FBI had a surveillance warrant on Carter Page going back to last summer, and that it had managed to gather enough evidence to go back and get the warrant on Page renewed twice (source link). FISA warrants are difficult to obtain on U.S. citizens, and require convincing a judge that the target is essentially conspiring with a foreign government against the United States.

But now Joy Reid has tweeted “Source: Carter Page isn’t the only Trump campaign ally who was the subject of a FISA warrant. A second target was recorded also. Reid has a history of being correct about these kinds of things. So this essentially means the intel community was able to convince a judge that twodifferent members of Trump’s team were each conspiring against the U.S. So just who is the second target? It’s notable that she refers to the second person as an “ally” of Trump instead of an “adviser.”

ETA: Sorry for the super long post. I waited long enough that my posts shouldn't have merged, but they got merged anyway. 

[RoseWilder]

Intel sources are saying the first big arrests in the Trump-Russia scandal could come as early as next week. Please let this be true. 

http://www.palmerreport.com/opinion/intel-sources-first-big-arrests-in-donald-trumps-russia-scandal-could-come-next-week/2301/

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Reliable sources, who have proven themselves correct in the past, are now pointing to U.S. intel agencies working with the Attorney General of New York to begin imminently dismantling Trump’s inner circle. In fact the big major arrests may come as soon as next week.

The claim first came from @SheWhoVotes, a Twitter user who is also a Constitutional lawyer and has a solid track record. She tweeted today that she’s “Hearing from intelligence insiders that [New York State Attorney General Eric] Scheiderman is working closely with intel. They’re going to take out the entire three ring circus” (link). This was then quickly validated with the words “Fact check: true” by Louise Mensch, a former member of British Parliament who is now a political journalist, and whose inside sources have been consistently correct about the FISA warrants in the Trump-Russia investigation going back to last fall.

Also, several of Trump's kids may be about to go down in flames: 

http://www.palmerreport.com/opinion/kids-donald-trump-fbi-criminal-tape/2303/

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Former Bill Clinton White House staffer Claude Taylor, whose sources have a history of proving correct, tweeted the following today: “Just getting this. A source is telling me that two countries’ Intel agencies have handed over audio of Trump kids-criminal acts on tape”. A few hours later he expanded on it: “Confirmed; British and German Intel have handed over electronic evidence on Trump kid’s criminal wrongdoing.

I'm sure if one of Trump's kids gets arrested, he would pardon them. But I would still give up a kidney to watch them be led away in handcuffs. 

[RoseWilder]

I'm about to go to bed, so I'm going to do a quick Russian Round-up and put 3 stories in one post:

1. Rudy Giuliani is probably going down and the FBI's Russia investigation is further along than we realized: 

http://www.palmerreport.com/opinion/sources-rudy-giuliani-donald-trump-flip-fbi/2302/

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First came word from former Bill Clinton White House staffer Claude Taylor, whose inside sources have tended to prove correct. He tweeted today that “Just spoke to a New York source and Rudy Giuliani is in legal jeopardy and is desperate to make a deal but James Comey is having none of it”. Then came confirmation from Jester, an online political pundit who also has a strong track record of calling these things correctly: “Rudy ‘Cyberman’ Giuliani is apparently in a legal quagmire and is desperate to ‘make a deal’. Comey isn’t interested”. This tells us quite a bit about just how far the FBI’s case against Trump and his associates has progressed.

2. The House Russian investigation appears to actually be doing some investigating. 

http://www.palmerreport.com/politics/house-intel-member-travels-to-cyprus-to-track-down-trump-russia-money-laundering/2308/

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Democratic Congressman Mike Quigley took a secret trip to Cyprus, from which he’s just returned. Bank of Cyprus is implicated in a money laundering scandal which saw Russia funneling billions through Deutsche Bank in Germany to clients in places like New York City. Deutsche Bank has also conspicuously floated more than a billion dollars in loans and loan guarantees to Donald Trump during that same timeframe, strongly suggesting – though not yet proving – that Russia has been funneling money to Trump all along.

3. Jason Chaffetz is being blackmailed by Russia. 

http://www.palmerreport.com/politics/intel-source-fbi-discovers-kremlin-is-blackmailing-jason-chaffetz-over-donald-trump-and-russia/2305/

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For months, onlookers have wondered why House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz has done his best to protect Donald Trump from his Russian collusion scandal. Has it been merely partisan hackery, or has Chaffetz had a more specific reason? According to an intel community source, the FBI has learned that Russia has “kompromat” blackmail material on Chaffetz and has been using it to keep him in line with regard to Trump’s Russia scandal.

The intel source comes by way of political pundit Louise Mensch, whose inside sources have a history of being correct about FISA warrants and other matters. Here’s how she phrases it: “Sources say there is kompromat on Jason Chaffetzl that this is why he turned and that FBI know it”. She does not go on to reveal what that blackmail material is, but the key phrase here is that “he turned.”

Chaffetz is in a powerful position as the chair of one of the committees that should be investigating the Donald Trump campaign’s Russian collusion. But he’s managed to keep that off the table, forcing other Congressional committees to pick up the slack. Mensch is suggesting that Russia has “turned” Chaffetz to the point where it controls him, ostensibly ensuring that his committee will never investigate Trump-Russia. However, with other sources saying the FBI investigation into Trump-Russia is so far along that the first big arrests could come as soon as next week, and that Rudy Giuliani’s request for a deal has been denied because his cooperation is no longer even needed, Chaffetz doesn’t appear to be in a position to hold up the works.

I know there are people on this board who don't trust Louise Mensch, and I'm not here to change anyone's mind. But she's been right about enough things in the past, and she's been right about it months before the rest of the media, that I trust she's right about this. But YMMV. 

[GreyhoundFan]

Oh, I so hope some of the big rats get arrested soon. That will send the rest of them scurrying for cover. Maybe they'll be so busy covering their asses to keep screwing the American people.

[GreyhoundFan]

The NYT did an article about Mike Conway, who is taking over the Russia investigation in place of Nunes.

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MIDLAND, Tex. — President Trump does not know Mike Conaway.

A Republican congressman from a long brush stroke of West Texas, Mr. Conaway recalled meeting with him at the White House with other House Republicans. And he has shaken hands with Mr. Trump, a “standard, 500-people-on-a-rope-line, shaken-hand kind of thing.”

“He wouldn’t know me from third base,” Mr. Conaway said.

Whether he has exchanged pleasantries with the president may not have mattered before, but it does now. Mr. Conaway is taking over the House Intelligence Committee’s investigation into Russian meddling in the presidential election. He is replacing Representative Devin Nunes, the California Republican whose suspiciously cozy relationship with Mr. Trump derailed the inquiry before he was ultimately forced to step aside.

Mr. Nunes’s missteps have thrust Mr. Conaway, a low-profile, old-guard Republican, into the spotlight as the accidental heir to a potentially explosive investigation swirling around a president from his own party. He said he would dutifully pursue an extraordinary allegation that he appears to find dubious: that Mr. Trump’s associates may have worked with Russian officials to disrupt the election.

The vow of a vigorous investigation may be reassuring to some, but in Mr. Conaway’s district, many dismiss it as an effort to disparage Mr. Trump. On top of that, Mr. Conaway has never been under the glare of national scrutiny.

“He’s been a congressman from West Texas. But he’s never been exactly in the national spotlight,” said Mark Philpy, Mr. Conaway’s longtime friend and neighbor. “West Texans tend to speak what’s on their mind, and Mike’s going to have to be careful with what he says and what he does, because he’ll be criticized at every turn.”

Mr. Conaway, 68, a former high school football star in an area where there are few stronger credentials, is more accustomed to playing the role of hero.

Raised in the remote, pockmarked oil country that also produced George W. Bush, Mr. Conaway got an early taste of fame as a member of the 1965 Odessa Permian High School football team — the school’s first to win a state championship, decades before the team inspired the book, movie and television series “Friday Night Lights.”

...

But Mr. Conaway is also known for speaking his mind, a risky quality for someone leading an investigation. An ordained Baptist deacon, he is known to conclude speeches with jarringly ominous words about regaining God’s favor for a country defiled by abortion practitioners and Hollywood filmmakers.

...

Last month, during the Intelligence Committee’s public hearing with the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, Mr. Conaway cast doubt on the intelligence community’s assessment that President Vladimir V. Putin and other Russian officials had sought not only to harm Mrs. Clinton but also to help Mr. Trump. The exchange took a perplexing detour through Texas college football.

“My wife’s Red Raiders are playing the Texas Longhorns. She really likes the Red Raiders,” Mr. Conaway said, referring to the teams at the University of Texas and Texas Tech. “I mean, the logic is that because he really didn’t like president — the candidate Clinton, that he automatically liked Trump. That assessment’s based on what?”

Now everything Mr. Conaway says about the investigation will come under far greater scrutiny. Leapfrogging from town hall to town hall across his district, Mr. Conaway appeared keen to avoid Mr. Nunes’s missteps, vowing to make as much information public as possible, but at the same time not to speak too much.

He promised a fresh start for the investigation. His primary concern is what Russia and the Trump campaign did or did not do, he said. He did not mention leaks to the news media, the fixation of his predecessor.

“Whether it helps, whether it hurts, whatever. That’s not my concern right now,” Mr. Conaway told a few dozen constituents gathered in a refurbished train depot in Brownwood, Tex. “I just want to find out what happened.”

...

I hope he actually does do his job.

[fraurosena]

If this is true, and it seems that it is, then HOLY COW, BATMAN!

Carter Page Went to Moscow With a Tape of Donald Trump Offering Treason For Hacking

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Sources with links to the intelligence community say it is believed that Carter Page went to Moscow in early July carrying with him a pre-recorded tape of Donald Trump offering to change American policy if he were to be elected, to make it more favorable to Putin. In exchange, Page was authorized directly by Trump to request the help of the Russian government in hacking the election.

On November 7th I reported that the FBI had been granted a FISA warrant to investigate the activities of two Russian banks, Alfa Bank and Silicoln Valley Bank. I also reported that an earlier attempt to obtain a FISA warrant, in June, had failed in the court because it named Donald Trump himself and three of his associates. In an exclusive at Patribotics, I reported that these named associates were Carter Page, Paul Manafort, and Boris Epshteyn.

Sources close to the intelligence community now report that this application was made because a recording exists of all three men discussing the possibility of Page taking the tape of Trump to Moscow as an earnest of good faith. There is a minor dispute over whether Trump himself is also on that tape, as well as the tape that was delivered to Moscow by Carter Page of Trump making this promise. [...]

I'm not sure what to make of Louise Mensch (she sure does like to state that she's the one that exclusively reported something - see second paragraph above-  which I find rather galling), but as @RoseWilder has said before in these threads, she has had some pretty good theories and scoops on this whole Russian connection business, which lends her statements some credibility.

[formergothardite]

I sure hope he doesn't weasel he way out of jail. Any rumors of Pence being investigated? No way his hands are clean. 

[RoseWilder]

22 minutes ago, fraurosena said:

If this is true, and it seems that it is, then HOLY COW, BATMAN!

Carter Page Went to Moscow With a Tape of Donald Trump Offering Treason For Hacking

I'm not sure what to make of Louise Mensch (she sure does like to state that she's the one that exclusively reported something - see second paragraph above-  which I find rather galling), but as @RoseWilder has said before in these threads, she has had some pretty good theories and scoops on this whole Russian connection business, which lends her statements some credibility.

I find her incredibly irritating as a human being. Along with the bragging you mentioned, she also likes to pick fights with other twitter users who are investigating Russia. She grates on my nerves a lot, but she has been right before. So I think it's quite plausible she could be right again. 

6 minutes ago, formergothardite said:

I sure hope he doesn't weasel he way out of jail. Any rumors of Pence being investigated? No way his hands are clean. 

I haven't heard anything yet about Pence being investigated, but I think once the FBI starts making a few arrests, the whole house of cards will come tumbling down and all the players in this scandal will be revealed. I have a feeling we're all going to be shocked by the depth and breadth of this scandal. 

As for your concerns about Trump avoiding jail time, I just read an article that addressed that very issue:  

http://www.palmerreport.com/politics/pardon-donald-trump-russia-new-york-state/2325/

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With the FBI having confirmed last month that it’s actively investigating the Donald Trump campaign over its alleged role in Russian election collusion, popular debate has arisen as to whether Trump might try to pardon his advisers and associates – and even himself – from any federal crimes they may have committed. But as it turns out, Trump cannot pardon anyone from any state level crimes they’ve committed. That means New York State’s ongoing investigation carries more weight than some realize.

I haven't been paying a lot of attention to New York state's investigation, but this new piece of information has made me want to read everything I can on the subject!

[Howl]

Well, if any of the above is true, this should prove to be an interesting week.  I'm in wait-and-see mode, since this doesn't seem to be covered by other news outlets.

My concern is this: Comey was behind, in front of or where-ever,  the release of fake information (more e-mails! it could be BAD!) damaging to Hilary Clinton the week before the election.  I don't trust this ass hat at all, because his act piggy backed on damage done by the release of emails by Russian hackers -- just with a different twist. 

From the U.K.'s Independent March 20, 2017 article titled FBI chief James Comey announced Clinton emails probe before election but kept Trump-Russia investigation secret

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It's not clear why the FBI chose to reveal the update on Hillary Clinton's investigation while keeping secret information that could have had a far more significant impact on Mr Tump's campaign. Both announcements were extraordinary and historic, something that Mr Comey acknowledged during the congressional hearing into Russian meddling and the potential connections between Moscow and Mr Trump's campaign.

Full text here

If anyone goes down, I'm pretty sure it will be Carter Page, who, um never, um, said anything to the Russians implying that Trump would be amenable to easing sanctions, that he could remember, because, heck, who can remember every word he ever said?  

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Then he reconsidered. “I mean—it may—topics—I don’t remember—we’ll see what comes out in this FISA transcript,” he said. “I don’t recall every single word that I ever said. But I would never make any offer or intimate anything.”

Stephanopoulos, his interest piqued, returned to the original question. “But it sounds like from what you're saying it's possible that you may have discussed the easing of sanctions,” he said. Page hedged: “Something may have come up in a conversation. I have no recollection, and there's nothing specifically that I would have done that would have given people that impression.”

From Vanity Fair Hive: WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON WITH CARTER PAGE? The former Trump campaign adviser can’t stop implicating himself in interviews.

 

[RoseWilder]

1 hour ago, Howl said:

My concern is this: Comey was behind, in front of or where-ever,  the release of fake information (more e-mails! it could be BAD!) damaging to Hilary Clinton the week before the election.  I don't trust this ass hat at all, because his act piggy backed on damage done by the release of emails by Russian hackers -- just with a different twist. 

It's my understanding that Comey wasn't behind that information leaking, that the New York branch of the FBI leaked it. 

Also, there are separate rules for releasing information about a case like Clinton's and a case like Trump's (that involves money laundering, foreign espionage, and other matters of national security.) 

From everything I've read on the Russia stuff (and I'm a bit obsessed, so I've read a lot), I trust Comey with this investigation. I understand why other people are concerned. But I think he will be proven, in the end, to have been the good guy in all of this. 

[Howl]

1 hour ago, RoseWilder said:

It's my understanding that Comey wasn't behind that information leaking, that the New York branch of the FBI leaked it. 

It wasn't leaked.  Comey sent a letter to Congress 11 days before the election.  

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Instead, he [Comey] made an independent decision to go against longstanding Justice Department and FBI practice to not comment publicly about politically sensitive investigations within 60 days of an election, the official said.

Comey later explained his decision to provide Congress with the information in a letter to FBI employees.

"We don't ordinarily tell Congress about ongoing investigations, but here I feel an obligation to do so given that I testified repeatedly in recent months that our investigation was completed," Comey said. "I also think it would be misleading to the American people were we not to supplement the record."

Yes, it is my understanding there there is a rogue cell of disaffected FBI agents who are avowed Clinton haters in New York.  That doesn't change what Comey did,  when he went against long-established policy and created an adverse affect on Clinton's chances in the election.  

So, to go back to late Oct. 2016, a cache of emails was found on Anthony Wiener's computer.  As you may recall, Wiener is the estranged (or ex) husband of Hillary Clinton's aide, Huma Abedin.   Wiener's computer had been seized as part of an investigation after Wiener was discovered to have been sexting   with a 15-year-old girl.  From the New York Times: 

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In a letter to Congress, the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, said the emails had surfaced in an unrelated case, which law enforcement officials said was an F.B.I. investigation into illicit text messages from Mr. Weiner to a 15-year-old girl in North Carolina. Mr. Weiner, a former Democratic congressman from New York, is married to Huma Abedin, the top aide [to Hillary Clinton].

Mr. Comey's letter said that the F.B.I. would review the emails to determine if they improperly contained classified information, which is tightly controlled by the government. Senior law enforcement officials said that it was unclear if any of the emails were from Mrs. Clinton’s private server. And while Mr. Comey said in his letter that the emails “appear to be pertinent,” the F.B.I. had not yet examined them.

And it wasn't just Democrats who were aghast at Comey's move.  I'll root around later today to see if I can find an article about how Comey's move was amplified on social media to inflict maximum damage on the Clinton campaign. 

[fraurosena]

Apparently, Mischa Flynn is in even deeper doo-doo that we thought already.

Michael Flynn Failed to Disclose Payments From Russian Propaganda Network

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Former National Security Advisor Mike Flynn initially failed to inform federal ethics officials of payments from a state-sponsored Russian propaganda outfit, according to newly released documents.

Flynn, who left his White House post after less than a month, submitted a financial disclosure form in February that made no mention of a reported $45,000 payment from Russia Today, or RT, for a speech that Flynn gave at the network’s 10th anniversary gala.

In an amended disclosure statement filed with the White House counsel’s office on Friday, Flynn disclosed receiving more than $5,000 (the threshold for reporting) from RT.[...]

RT is a key component of Russia’s foreign propaganda apparatus. It advances the Kremlin position on international affairs through affiliate broadcasters in the United States and Europe.

In addition to RT, Flynn’s amended disclosure statement reveals payments for speeches to two additional Russian companies, cybersecurity firm Kaspersky and Volga Dnepr Airlines. Neither of those payments was disclosed in Flynn’s initial ethics filing.

The White House reported receiving the amended filing on Friday, the same day that it publicly released disclosure statements for more than a hundred executive branch officials in a large evening document dump.

Thought they could hide this among an info dump. Yeah, nice try, but no.

[sawasdee]

2 hours ago, Howl said:

 

My concern is this: Comey was behind, in front of or where-ever,  the release of fake information (more e-mails! it could be BAD!) damaging to Hilary Clinton the week before the election.  I don't trust this ass hat at all, because his act piggy backed on damage done by the release of emails by Russian hackers -- just with a different twist. 

 

 

I truly believe he may have been forced into this, by the NY FBI office threatening to leak it if he didn't go public - which would have been even more damaging. I think he was furious at having his arm twisted, and that is why the investigation was so swift.

Whatever happens with everything else, the NY FBI office needs to be investigated for interfering in politics - well outside its brief - and its ongoing connections with Giuliani, who certainly had advance knowledge of the Weiner emails.

[Howl]

19 minutes ago, sawasdee said:

I truly believe he may have been forced into this, by the NY FBI office threatening to leak it if he didn't go public - which would have been even more damaging. I think he was furious at having his arm twisted, and that is why the investigation was so swift.

Whatever happens with everything else, the NY FBI office needs to be investigated for interfering in politics - well outside its brief - and its ongoing connections with Giuliani, who certainly had advance knowledge of the Weiner emails.

OK, I'm working my google fu and I see where you're coming from.  Would it all unravel if someone started tugging hard on the Giuliani thread?  

Here's a snip of a NYT article on Giuliani from early Nov. 2016 that bolsters your point:  As Trump Ally, Rudy Giuliani Boasts of Ties to F.B.I.

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His [Giuliani's] most remarkable claim is that he has a pipeline into the Federal Bureau of Investigation and that agents tell him they are “outraged” that they have not been able to bring Mrs. Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, to justice.

Some much shit has rolled into the sewer plant that is the Trump presidency, November seems like decades ago. 

But still, if Comey was manipulated/blackmailed into releasing the letter to Congress, he doesn't have control over his agency......which makes him vulnerable to manipulation and he may not have the power to have a clean investigation into the NY FBI office..... 

[sawasdee]

@HowlI am absolutely gobsmacked by the report that the NY office is'outraged' that they haven't been able to bring either of the Clintons to 'justice'. So eleventy Congress investigations - which found nothing - aren't enough? What more do they want?

And meanwhile the Orange Toddler who claimed monies he wasn't entitled to after 9/11, had a fraudulent charity, employed models on tourist not work visas (whom he often didn't pay), and only stayed in business after multiple bankruptcies by being bailed out by overseas banks - whose influence on him we still don't know - is not worth investigating? I'd have thought that one was a slam dunk!

[Cartmann99]

16 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

The NYT did an article about Mike Conway, who is taking over the Russia investigation in place of Nunes.

I hope he actually does do his job.

 I would dearly love to have Conaway value finding out the truth above all else in this investigation. If he does that, I will give him credit for doing the right thing.

I still reserve the right to give him hell about his other positions that I disagree with.

[Howl]

23 minutes ago, Cartmann99 said:

 I would dearly love to have Conaway value finding out the truth above all else in this investigation. If he does that, I will give him credit for doing the right thing.

I still reserve the right to give him hell about his other positions that I disagree with.

Is he your rep or are you true West Texas?  I always think of West Texas as south of I 10, and all of Big Bend to El Paso and maybe Langtry, but that's just me. 

Conaway's 11th Congressional district is weird (to me); it goes from west of Lampasas, picks up San Angelo and Midland/Odessa to the NM border. 

I'm not sure if Conaway has been hiding his light under a bushel for all these years, or if he's just been hiding under it.  He's got to be in tight with Oil & Gas if he's representing Midland/Odessa, and ranching for the rest of it. 

[RoseWilder]

3 hours ago, Howl said:

It wasn't leaked.  Comey sent a letter to Congress 11 days before the election.  

To clarify, when I said "it leaked" I meant that the NY branch of the FBI leaked the information to Giuliani ahead of time. Then Giuliani went on FoxNews and bragged that something huge was about to come out about Clinton. This was all swirling, and leaking out and I believe Comey sent the letter to make it clear he wasn't being partisan. I think he was trying to get ahead of the leak. And then the letter was leaked to the media by someone in Congress (I forget which asshole it was who did that.) 

[fraurosena]

Another thread in this intricate Russian tapestry.

White House pulled out of meet and greet with ‘conservatives’ favorite Russian’ over suspected mob ties

Quote

The White House abruptly canceled a scheduled meeting in February between President Trump and a high-level Russian central banker after a national security aide discovered the official had been named by Spanish police as a suspected “godfather” of an organized crime and money-laundering ring, according to an administration official and four other sources familiar with the event.

The event had been planned as a meet and greet with President Trump and Alexander Torshin, the deputy governor of the Bank of Russia and a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, in a waiting room at the Washington Hilton before the National Prayer Breakfast on Feb. 2. Torshin, a top official in his country’s central bank, headed a Russian delegation to the annual event and was among a small number of guests who had been invited by Prayer Breakfast leaders to meet with Trump before it began.

The sources were unable to say who inside the White House canceled the scheduled meeting, or precisely when the decision was made. The administration official who spoke to Yahoo News said that White House officials were already planning to scrap the meeting when the National Security Council staffer raised concerns about it. But it was not until the night before the Prayer Breakfast that Torshin was informed, without explanation, that his meeting with the president had been scrapped.

“Late the night before, we were told that all meet and greets were off,” said Maria Butina, a special assistant to Torshin, in an email to Yahoo News, confirming that Torshin had expected to meet Trump at the event. “There were no specific questions or statements that Mr. Torshin had in mind during what we assumed to be a five-second handshake. We all hope for better relations between our two countries. I’m sure there will be other opportunities to express this hope.”

The article goes on to relay exactly who Alexander Torshin is. Apparently, he's been on the radar of Spanish intelligence agencies for quite some time now. At some point, they even attempted to arrest him, but were foiled because somebody informed Torshin just in time for him to evade arrest.

Torshin also has very tight ties to the NRA, who as we all know, contributed heavily to the Toddler's campaign.

[sawasdee]

The true horror of all of this, is that both the House and the Senate are putting partisan politics above country. They are pussyfooting about a true investigation until they get the legislation they want passed.

As far as I am concerned this is unethical, immoral and maybe downright treasonous.

They should all be voted out, and investigated up the wazoo.

[fraurosena]

1 hour ago, sawasdee said:

The true horror of all of this, is that both the House and the Senate are putting partisan politics above country. They are pussyfooting about a true investigation until they get the legislation they want passed.

As far as I am concerned this is unethical, immoral and maybe downright treasonous.

They should all be voted out, and investigated up the wazoo.

Yes. But by who? Everybody's partisan. 

[candygirl200413]

Read this last night

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/richard-dearlove-mi6-trump-russia-money-2008-financial-crisis-us-election-a7684341.html

Quote

The former head of MI6 has said Donald Trump borrowed money from Russia for his business during the 2008 financial crisis.

Richard Dearlove told Prospect Magazine that “what lingers for Trump may be what deals – on what terms – he did after the financial crisis of 2008 to borrow Russian money” when other banks and lenders would not risk the money, given Mr Trump’s history of bankruptcy. 

Mr Dearlove alleged the money was used by Mr Trump to prop up his real estate empire, which was hit hard by the financial crisis. It is not illegal to borrow money from Russian entities but Mr Dearlove, who left government in 2004, did not provide any evidence to support his claim in the interview. 

Plus with the information you all have posted as of recent I just really feel so close!!