The Russian Connection 3: Mueller is Coming

[AmazonGrace]

 

[onekidanddone]

55 minutes ago, fraurosena said:

The Repugliklans are shutting down the House Russia Probe. What a surprise! NOT.

House Intelligence Panel Wraps Up Russia Probe Interviews

 

You know I started out getting all upset when I read this, then I threw up my hands.  I never expected it to go this far in the first place. Nunez is guilty as sin, and has been sandbagging tis from the get go. This will just help Trump's WITCH HUNT narrative.  I think that is what bothers me the most. He will Tweet, squawk and strut about on how right he was all along. That is one of the things which triggers me and can cause an anxiety attack When a bully gets away with beating the crap out of you and then holds that over you.  Yes, I'm taking this personally. 

I suppose I'll have to hold on to what is going on in the Senate and with Robert (Rufus keep him and bless him) Muller.

Aw fuck who am I kidding. I can't find a silver lining right now.  I think I'll go binge watch some Parenthood on Netflix.

[GreyhoundFan]

2 hours ago, onekidanddone said:

Aw fuck who am I kidding. I can't find a silver lining right now.  I think I'll go binge watch some Parenthood on Netflix.

I've been watching a bunch of "My Three Sons" episodes I DVRed from MeTV. Nothing like a little light humor for these crazy days.

[hoipolloi]

6 hours ago, onekidanddone said:

Aw fuck who am I kidding. I can't find a silver lining right now.

I can. The Rs are terrified.

They know Mueller is moving in on tRump et al.  Then there's the news out of Qatar, along with last week's revelations about George Nader cooperating with Mueller. Last but not least, Rod Rosenstein has again come out in full support of Mueller:

Quote

 

Despite unrelenting criticism from the White House on the course of the investigation into Russia's election interference, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein Monday offered unqualified support for special counsel Robert Mueller.

"The special counsel is not an unguided missile," Rosenstein said in an exclusive interview with USA TODAY. "I don't believe there is any justification at this point for terminating the special counsel."

 

Rosenstein, remember, was confirmed by every GOP Senator after being selected by tRump for the job.

Yes, the Rs are running scared and probably figured that shutting down their "investigation" might switch up the prevailing narrative which is Mueller is coming for them. It's only a matter of time.

To repeat one of my favorite verses that someone tweeted to tRump last December:

Roses are Red

Alabama is Blue

Mueller says, Hi -

He's coming for you.

[AmazonGrace]

No collusion, there's no collusion, I repeat, there is no collusion:

 

[Howl]

10 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

I've been watching a bunch of "My Three Sons" episodes I DVRed from MeTV. Nothing like a little light humor for these crazy days.

I was thinking it was time to watch a Wes Anderson movie.  

This country really is divided into those who watch Fux News and believe it and everyone else.  Yes, there are those futher out on the ragged edge at either end of spectrum, but for the most part, you're either buying into MSM or buying into Fox.  The witch hunt narrative is part of what I call Trump's evil genius.  He uses that  and similar tropes to inoculate his followers against truth, reality and critical thinking and it works extremely well. 

 

Quote

Rod Rosentein says "The special counsel is not an unguided missile," Rosenstein said in an exclusive interview with USA TODAY. "I don't believe there is any justification at this point for terminating the special counsel."

No, Mueller is a heat seeking missile especially designed to hone in on hot air.  Boom! 

[onekidanddone]

10 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

I've been watching a bunch of "My Three Sons" episodes I DVRed from MeTV. Nothing like a little light humor for these crazy days.

I ended up with Party of Five

[AmazonGrace]

A drama in two acts:

MONDAY:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/rex-tillerson-nerve-agent-used-poison-ex-spy-clearly-came-from-russia/

Quote

 

Tillerson: Nerve agent used to poison ex-spy "clearly came from Russia"

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Monday that the nerve agent used to poison a Russian ex-spy and his daughter in the U.K. "clearly came from Russia" and said the episode "certainly will trigger a response."

"This is a really egregious act," Tillerson said Monday aboard a plane home from a trip to Africa. "It appears that it clearly came from Russia."

Earlier Monday, British Prime Minister Theresa May said it was "highly likely" that Russia was behind the attack. Sergei Skripal, the Russian who spied for Britain, and his 33-year old daughter Yulia remained in critical condition Monday.  

"Whether it came from Russia, with the Russian government's knowledge, is not known to me at this point," Tillerson said. He said it's almost "beyond comprehension" that an organized state would take the dangerous substance to another country and public place where others could get hurt.

Tillerson said he's become "extremely concerned about Russia" despite what he said was a year of trying to work with the country. "Instead what we've seen is a pivot on their part to be more aggressive," he said.

In a separate statement, the State Department said, "Russia continues to be an irresponsible force of instability in the world, acting with open disregard for the sovereignty of other states and the life of their citizens." It added that those who committed the crime "must face appropriately serious consequences."

Earlier Monday, White House press secretary called the attack "reckless, indiscriminate and irresponsible," but stopped short of agreeing with May that Russia was likely behind the poisoning.

 

 

TUESDAY:

 

 

 

[Howl]

25 minutes ago, AmazonGrace said:

A drama in two acts

It just gets more and more blatant, doesn't it?  I'm glad it happened so we can finally use the term "Rexit". 

Am I crazy in thinking that there IS a secret backchannel communication with Russia that  has been open since Trump was elected in November 2016?  It could be some type of encrypted communication, coming and going in diplomatic pouches, or just emailing between Trump and Putin associates, who then chat with Trump and Putin on the phone.  

[fraurosena]

So true.

 

[fraurosena]

Adam Schiff Vows Republicans Will Pay For Ending Russia Investigation

Quote

The ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) vowed that Republicans will be held accountable for their actions in ending the Russia investigation.

Schiff said in a statement provided to PoliticusUSA:

Some will say that we should leave the investigation to Special Counsel Mueller anyway, since he has the resources and independence to do the job. But this fundamentally misapprehends the mission of the Special Counsel, which is to determine whether U.S. laws were broken and who should be prosecuted. It is not Mueller’s job to tell the American people what happened, that is our job, and the Majority has walked away from it. Others may be tempted to say a pox on both houses, and suggest that in a dispute between the parties, both must be equally culpable. But after months of urging the Majority to do a credible investigation, the Minority was put in the position of going along with a fundamentally unserious investigative process, or pointing out what should be done, what must be done, to learn the truth. We chose the latter course.

On a fundamental aspect of our investigation — substantiating the conclusions of the Intelligence Community’s assessment that the Russians interfered in our democracy to advance the Trump campaign, hurt Clinton and sow discord — we should have been able to issue a common report. On those issues, the evidence is clear and overwhelming that the Intelligence Community Assessment was correct. On a whole host of investigative threads, our work is fundamentally incomplete, some issues partially investigated, others, like that involving credible allegations of Russian money laundering, remain barely touched. If the Russians do have leverage over the President of the United States, the Majority has simply decided it would rather not know. On the final aspect of our work — setting out the prescriptions for protecting the country going forward — we will endeavor to continue our work, with or without the active participation of the Majority.

In the coming weeks and months, new information will continue to be exposed through enterprising journalism, indictments by the Special Counsel, or continued investigative work by Committee Democrats and our counterparts in the Senate. And each time this new information becomes public, Republicans will be held accountable for abandoning a critical investigation of such vital national importance.

House Republicans are going to pay for releasing an absurd report that will declare that Putin didn’t help Trump win the election. The payment is going to come due in November when voters head to the polls, and Republicans are going to look like puppets of Putin as Robert Mueller will like have more members of the Trump administration and cabinet indicted.

No one should be surprised if those who rushed to proclaim Trump’s innocence don’t soon find themselves also under investigation.

It would not surprise me in the slightest if these Repugs were among those indicted by Mueller. At the very least, I'm quite convinced Nunes will be shown to be part of the collusion, but others on that committee are also in on it, even if it's 'merely' after the fact.

[AmazonGrace]

Follow the dead Russians: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/mar/13/russian-exile-nikolai-glushkov-found-dead-at-his-london-home

[LeftCoastLurker]

I sure hope Mueller has got some hecka good security! As the noose tightens and more dead bodies show up, I'm just getting some real bad vibes here.

[GreyhoundFan]

From Jennifer Rubin: "It’s official: The House Intelligence Committee is a joke"

Spoiler

Without interviewing key witnesses, looking at all relevant documents or awaiting special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s findings, the Republican majority on the House Intelligence Committee — lacking the knowledge or consent of committee Democrats — proclaimed that there is no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. In addition to an utter lack of initiative, Republicans were disinclined to recall events that have already been made public and that show a peculiar degree of interaction between members of the Trump campaign and Russians (e.g., then-candidate Donald Trump’s invitation for Russia to hack Hillary Clinton’s emails, the June 2016 meeting between campaign officials and a Kremlin-connected lawyer at Trump Tower). Republicans went so far as to deny Russia had intervened in the 2016 election on President Trump’s behalf.

The Post reports:

House Intelligence Committee Republicans completed the draft report without any input from Democrats, who will be able to see and weigh in on the document starting Tuesday, Conaway said. In a statement Monday night, the panel’s top Democrat, Rep. Adam B. Schiff (Calif.), said the sight-unseen report was a “tragic milestone” and a “capitulation to the executive branch.” …

On Monday, Schiff excoriated House Republicans for ending the panel’s probe before Mueller’s team or the other congressional panels looking at Russian interference have finished their work. Schiff predicted that “Republicans will be held accountable for abandoning a critical investigation of such vital national importance” if new information arises from future indictments and other reports.

The Post’s report also noted: “Conclusions reached by the Republicans in their draft report represent a break with the U.S. intelligence community, which determined in January 2017 that part of the Kremlin’s strategy was to help Trump’s chances of winning.”

Former acting CIA director John McLaughlin blasted Republicans. “As a subject or observer of Cong[ressional] oversight of intell[igence] for 40 years, I’ve never seen a party drive a stake [through] the process as House [Republicans] just did,” he tweeted. “It depends on a bi-partisan approach that at least gives the minority a voice. Take that away and the thing dies. It just did.”

This is just the last, and we suppose final, act of a charade orchestrated by Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), the committee chairman who has tried to smear former President Barack Obama and the intelligence community in an effort to protect Trump.

The grossly irresponsible conduct of House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) in allowing Nunes to run amok should be kept in mind in November when voters decide whether the GOP should keep the majority. In a mealy-mouthed statement, Ryan’s spokeswoman AshLee Strong said: “After more than a year investigating Russia’s actions in the 2016 election, we are well into the primary season for the 2018 elections and experts are warning that we need to safe guard against further interference. That’s what this next phase is about and we hope Democrats will join us in seeing this through.” Perhaps the speaker should take that up with Trump, who refuses to initiate any organized effort to prevent Russian interference. (It is worth noting that the draft report came on the same day the White House declined to hold Russia to account in a nerve-agent attack on former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter on British soil.)

Rep. Eric Swalwell (Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the CIA subcommittee of the House Intelligence Committee, issued a statement decrying the GOP’s partisanship, which read in part:

“The Republicans’ decision to shut down the House Intelligence Committee’s Russia investigation sends a bright green light to Russia to continue its interference at America’s ballot boxes. Our duty to every American is to protect the right of free and fair elections. A complete investigation would tell the country how we were so vulnerable and who was responsible, gauge the adequacy of the government response, and recommend reforms to prevent a hostile takeover of our elections from happening again. That’s what American leaders have always done, collaboratively as Republicans and Democrats, after every major attack upon our nation.”

Even one of the Republican committee members expressed his disgust. “We’re just basically a political forum for people to leak information to drive the day’s news … we’ve lost all credibility, and we’re probably going to issue probably two different reports, unfortunately,” said Rep. Thomas J. Rooney (R-Fla.). He confessed that the committee had gone “off the rails.”

On the positive side, Nunes, who effectively has been running the investigation despite a technical “recusal,” has closed up shop. His shenanigans while heading the ludicrously unserious probe, we presume, will now end. After his infamous trip to the White House to concoct a phony unmasking scandal and his cherry-picked memo landed with a thud, he apparently ran out of material. At least he will not be in a position to interfere with real investigative efforts underway in the Senate and by the special counsel.

This shabby performance by House Republicans stands in marked contrast to the efforts of the Senate Intelligence Committee, which are proceeding in a bipartisan fashion. When Mueller finishes his investigation, House Republicans’ dereliction in their constitutional oversight obligations will become evident, we suspect. By then, one can only hope that Republicans will have paid a price for putting sycophancy to Trump above their country — namely, the loss of all their chairmanships after a drubbing in the midterms.

Every time I see Nunes' pasty face, I have to stop myself from punching my computer screen.

[GreyhoundFan]

I like Ana Navarro's response:

[Howl]

Nunes: NO COLLUSION! 

 

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Wow: "Gowdy breaks from GOP committee, says Russia worked to undermine Clinton"

Spoiler

A top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee distanced himself from one of the panel's most explosive findings in its Russia investigation — that the FBI, CIA and NSA overplayed their hand when they declared Russia preferred a Donald Trump victory in the 2016 election.

Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) said Tuesday that the evidence gathered by the committee clearly showed Russia's disdain for Trump's rival, Hillary Clinton and was "motivated in whole or in part by a desire to harm her candidacy or undermine her Presidency had she prevailed."

A source familiar with Gowdy's thinking said the congressman believes there's no difference between opposing Clinton and backing Trump in what had become, effectively, a two-person race. The source added that Gowdy "disagrees with the conclusion" that the intelligence agencies got it wrong.

"He believes the debate over whether desiring a negative outcome for Clinton necessarily meant Russia had a preference for candidate Trump is a distinction that doesn't make a difference," the source said.

Gowdy's conclusion is at odds with an overview of the findings of the House's Russia investigation released Monday by the probe's top Republican, Rep. Mike Conaway (R-Texas). Among the findings: Although the committee agrees Russia interfered in the election, the intelligence community failed to adequately back up its claim "with respect to Putin's supposed preference for candidate Trump."

"The conclusion that Putin was trying to help Trump, we don't think that's supported by the underlying data," Conaway said in a phone interview, when asked to elaborate on the committee's finding.

He said Republicans on the committee agreed with "98 percent" of the intelligence agencies' findings, but broke on that central issue. Conaway described a laborious effort to confirm the intelligence community's findings, enshrined in its January 2017 assessment that declared with "high confidence" that "Russian President Vladimir Putin and his government "developed a clear preference for President-elect Trump."

In the end, Conaway said, the committee found that the agencies didn't meet the burden to prove that assessment.

GOP lawmakers and aides told POLITICO that the committee report isn't a wholesale refutation of the intelligence committee's findings. Rather, it's a judgment that the evidence simply fell short of proving the Russian government's preference for Trump, even though the evidence indicates animus toward Clinton.

Rep. Tom Rooney emphasized that point on CNN Monday night, suggesting that the evidence of Russia's disdain for Clinton was evident, but not necessarily to support a conclusion that they backed Trump's candidacy. Conaway, too, argues that the discrepancy is an issue of the "analytic tradecraft" that the intelligence agencies used to reach their conclusion.

Other Republicans on the panel agreed that the evidence failed to support the intel agencies' conclusions.

“It is my belief that Russia’s intent was to influence our elections by having the American people distrust the institutions that serve them," said Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) in a statement, when asked whether she supported the report's conclusions. "However, I do not believe this interference swayed the electorate to vote for one candidate or another. "

Rep. Chris Stewart put it even more bluntly.

"The CIA just got it wrong," Stewart said on CNN Monday night, contending that he viewed the raw intelligence the agencies used to their determination. "The CIA just got it wrong, just like they did by the way in the Gulf War when they said there were weapons of mass destruction."

The committee's finding tracks with an exchange that Conaway had publicly with former FBI director James Comey in a March 2017 hearing at the outset of the House's Russia probe. Using a football analogy, Conaway challenged Comey on the FBI's determination that Russia wanted to help Trump.

"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?" Conaway wondered.

Comey replied, "Well, it's based on more than that. But part of it is and we're not getting into the details of it here, but part of it is the logic. Whoever the Red Raiders are playing, you want the Red Raiders to win, by definition, you want their opponent to lose."

"I know, but this says that ... you wanted her to lose and wanted him to win. Is that what you were saying?" Conaway responded.

"Right. They're inseparable," Comey said.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said Tuesday that Democrats had hoped to at least find agreement with Republicans on the fundamentals of Russia's scheme to interfere in the 2016 election. But that hope evaporated, he said, with the GOP's decision to break from the intelligence community.

"It had been our hope for some time that even if there were areas of disagreement with the majority, that we could at least come together on a report that validated the findings of the intelligence community," he told reporters at the Capitol. "If this is where the GOP is coming from, it represents to me the completeness of their capitulation to the White House, and that leaves very little common ground."

Democrats issued a 22-page report charging that Republicans abdicated their responsibility to conduct a thorough Russia probe, instead cutting off avenues of investigation and refusing to call dozens of potential witnesses.

"The decision to shut down the investigation before key witnesses could be interviewed and vital documentary evidence obtained will prevent us from fully discharging our duty to the House and to the American people," the Democrats said in their report, which identifies 30 witnesses Democrats wanted to call.

I'm surprised that Gowdy would buck the Repug party line.

[AmazonGrace]

 

[AmazonGrace]

Because of course they did: 

 

[Howl]

Maddow Blog: Among the new claims in the new Democratic report: Trump's private business was negotiating a deal in Moscow with a sanctioned Russian bank during the election period.

A part of me is starting to think that Trump's affinity for Russia is strictly business related, with an eye toward future profits for himself or his kids, or he is desperately in debt to an oligarch and is just trying to stay alive....or something, but anyway, money.

And while the Nunes report claims yada yada, what about those sanctions, Devin, hmmmmm?  You know, the ones all of you voted for and Donald has ignored for over a year?  Was that part of the deal with Hair Furor all along?  That the GOP would vote for them with the understanding that nothing would happen and they would never be implemented?

[fraurosena]

Lawfareblog has posted the complete document:

Document: House Intelligence Committee Minority Russia Investigation Status Report

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[fraurosena]

I wonder if his previous lawyer got fired, or if he quit.

 

[Howl]

Speaking of Russia,   Nikki Haley gave a speech to the UN in solidarity with Britain, warning us all sternly that if action isn't taken, it could happen right here in America.  She neglected to mention anything about the sanctions against Russia already waiting in the wings......