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The Russian Connection 3: Mueller is Coming


Destiny

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18 hours ago, fraurosena said:

In it Scott Stedman points to a lot of Russian connections we haven't heard of before. The interconnections are astounding... 

Way back many Trump years ago, but months in regular time, someone writing on the topic of Trump and Russians noted that she'd met exactly three Russians (or people of Russian descent)  in her lifetime, and one was her washing machine repairman.  In comparison, this White House is lousy with Russian connections, Russians themselves, Russian financiers, people with direct links to Russians, dirty Russian money, Russian mobsters and oligarchs, secret meetings with Russians (halloooo, Erik Prince in the Sychelles), attempts to set up back-channel communications to Russian IN THEIR OWN EMBASSY, a meeting in Trump Tower with a Russian lawyer, Russians laundering dirty money through Trump real estate, Trump saying that he believed his #1 Russki Snuggle Buddy Bro. Putin didn't interfere with our elections, Miss Universe 2013 held in Moscow, 50,000 Russia-linked Twitter accounts tweeting during the election, Russians infiltrating FB, Russians funneling $$$$ through the NRA, did I miss anything?  Oh, and Russian kompromat being used as blackmail/leverage.  I don't think any of us want to truly realize the extent to which a foreign country has infiltrated us via social media and wrought havoc on so many levels, including our electoral process.  It's like going along living in your house thinking everything is fine and finding out that every single stud, base and top plate and all the rafters are infested with termites eating away at everything.  

And yes, Robert Mueller gives 50 Shades of Grey a whole new meaning. 

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Uhhhh.... WUT???

 

How is this even possible?

:dontgetit:

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On the bright side, his tongue does not appear to be forked.

 

Spoiler

 

The FBI was unable to preserve some text messages between two agents who have been accused of anti-Trump bias, including one who previously served on special counsel Robert MuellerRobert Swan MuellerSasse: US should applaud choice of Mueller to lead Russia probeMORE’s team, according to a letter from the bureau to lawmakers.

The FBI said it did not have a record of messages exchanged over a six-month period between Peter Strzok and Lisa Page because many of its issued mobile phones had problems related to “rollouts, provisioning, and software upgrades.” 

“The result was that data that should have been automatically collected and retained for long-term storage and retrieval was not collected,” the FBI explained in the letter.

 

Sen. Ron JohnsonRonald (Ron) Harold JohnsonGOP senators eager for Romney to join themThe House needs to help patients from being victimized by antiquated technologyComey’s original Clinton memo released, cites possible violationsMORE (R-Wis.) expressed concerns over the missing messages, according to a letter he sent to FBI Director Christopher Wray, obtained Sunday by The Hill.

Strzok, who also worked on the FBI’s investigation into Hillary ClintonHillary Diane Rodham ClintonIntel Dem decries White House 'gag order' after Bannon testimony'Total free-for-all' as Bannon clashes with Intel membersMellman: On Political Authenticity (Part 2)MORE’s use of a private email server, was removed last summer from Mueller’s probe into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia after it was discovered he had sent anti-Trump messages. 

Some Republicans seized on the news as an indication that Mueller’s probe was biased against President TrumpDonald John TrumpDems flip Wisconsin state Senate seatSessions: 'We should be like Canada' in how we take in immigrantsGOP rep: 'Sheet metal and garbage' everywhere in Haiti MORE. 

The missing messages were sent between Dec. 14, 2016, and May 17, 2017, according to Johnson’s letter. 

The Justice Department on Friday also provided Johnson with 384 pages of additional messages between Strzok and Page, according to the letter.

One exchange, disclosed in Johnson's letter, shows the two agents criticizing the timing of then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch’s announcement that she would accept the FBI’s recommendation on the Clinton email investigation.

Johnson, who chairs the Senate's Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, asks Wray to explain the scope of the missing messages, and if the FBI has searched Strzok's and Page's non-FBI phones for possible federal records.

 

This is so dumb. The messages would be missing for even if they were rabid Trump supporters so their absence is not evidence of any ideological leaning whatsoever.

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Another White House regular who has somewhat sketchy credentials talking to Mueller:

 

 

Quote

 


Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team has been talking with George Nader, a little-known Bannon associate who boasts of his well-placed connections in the Middle East, Axios has learned.

Nader has spoken with Mueller's team at least twice, according to a source briefed on the investigation. A second source briefed on the investigation confirmed that Mueller's team has brought Nader in for questioning in the past week. The Special Counsel's office declined to comment.

Nader visited the White House frequently during the early months of the Trump administration. He became friendly with former chief strategist Steve Bannon, visiting his office regularly. A source familiar with the White House meetings said Jared Kushner also met Nader. After asking around about Nader, Kushner decided not to continue meeting with him, according to the same source.

Sources said Nader represented himself as being personally close to Mohammed bin Zayed — the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces. But several sources who've observed Nader in action say he frequently name-drops, and that while he might be part of MbZ's extended entourage, it's unclear how influential he actually is.

A number of well-connected and experienced Middle East hands in Washington told me they'd never heard of Nader. I could only find a few people who have met him. Nobody was quite clear about what he does for a living.

A source who knows Nader told me he's originally Lebanese, and is now a U.S. citizen. I couldn’t reach him for comment.

 

 

.

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8 minutes ago, AmazonGrace said:

This is so dumb. The messages would be missing for even if they were rabid Trump supporters so their absence is not evidence of any ideological leaning whatsoever.

But the optics are very, very bad.  Because Fox & Fiends (see what I did there?) and Alex Jones et al.  will spin this until they puke and it will join Hillary's 30,000 missing emails in the paranoiac's list of the dark state's greatest conspiracies. 

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The IT department or whoever is in charge of archiving messages does appear a bit sloppy if it took months to notice and correct the problem with messages getting preserved.

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2 hours ago, Howl said:

But the optics are very, very bad.  Because Fox & Fiends (see what I did there?) and Alex Jones et al.  will spin this until they puke and it will join Hillary's 30,000 missing emails in the paranoiac's list of the dark state's greatest conspiracies. 

I read those emails, or the ones that are out there and I didn't see anything that would really indication some kind of conspiracy on the part of these two. As if no one in the FBI ever expresses private views and I didn't get a strong Trump hatred, maybe just confusion as to why the investigation into him wasn't being made public. And certainly no strong love of Hillary.

Maybe I missed something. Does anyone else have something that shows where they may have been conspiring?

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They don't need anything definitive. They can take the most minor shit and blow it up to extreme prejudice before you know what happened.

Random emailer: That sunset was pretty last night!

Caligula: I don't look at sunsets. Sunsets are yugely lame.

Fox & Fiends (I love that one @Howl!): {frantically researching for any indication of Hillary's views on sunsets}. She likes the color purple. Purple is in sunsets! Random emailer must be a Hillary supporter and out to get Caligula!

It's dizzying.

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Wapo interviews the fiancee of the most famous coffee boy of the world and she's weirdly braggadocious:

George Papadopoulos is the ‘John Dean’ of the Russia investigation, his fiancee says

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/george-papadopoulos-is-the-john-dean-of-the-russia-investigation-his-fiancee-says/2018/01/22/8e47b016-ff4d-11e7-9d31-d72cf78dbeee_story.html?utm_term=.661c133ba56d

By Rosalind S. Helderman January 22 at 5:10 PM
 

Spoiler

 

He has been mocked by President Trump as a “low level volunteer” and “proven to be a liar.”

But the fiancee of George Papadopoulos, the former Trump campaign adviser who pleaded guilty in October to lying to the FBI about his Russia contacts and is cooperating with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, says he is being miscast.

“I believe history will remember him like John Dean,” said Italian-born Simona Mangiante, referring to the former White House counsel who pleaded guilty to his role in the Watergate coverup and then became a key witness against other aides to President Richard Nixon.

Dean told Nixon in 1973 that Watergate was a “cancer on the presidency,” warning him that it was an existential crisis that could imperil his term in office.

“George is very loyal. And he is on the right side of history,” added Mangiante, who got engaged to Papadopoulos in September.

[For ‘low level volunteer,’ Papadopoulos sought high profile as Trump adviser]

Mangiante said she was advised by Papadopoulos’s lawyers not to answer specific questions about his activities during the 2016 presidential campaign or what he has told the FBI.

But she indicated in an interview that she believes he ultimately will emerge as more than a bit player in the Russia probe — and that his decision to cooperate after he was arrested getting off an airplane at Dulles International Airport in July was a key turning point.

Without offering specifics, Mangiante said there is much more that has not yet been told publicly about Papadopoulos’ 10 months as an informal national security adviser to Trump and his interactions with a London-based professor who told Papadopoulos, according to court filings, that the Russians had “dirt” on Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

“There’s a lot to come,” she said. “He was the first one to break a hole on all of this.”

She said Papadopoulos was not a “coffee boy,” as he was once tagged by former Trump adviser Michael Caputo, a nickname she found especially galling. “I know what it means as a young person to do all the efforts you do to build your career and be dismissed as a coffee boy,” she said.

Despite restraints placed on her by the terms of Papadopoulos’ ongoing cooperation agreement with the special counsel, Mangiante said she has been speaking to reporters to defend his reputation and try to explain how the lives of her and the Chicago-born former energy consultant have been upended by the events of the last year.

Mangiante said she has been extensively interviewed by Mueller’s team, who asked about her own brief stint working for Joseph Mifsud, the same London professor who offered to connect the young Trump aide with the Russians.

[Trump campaign emails show aide’s repeated efforts to set up Russia meetings]

Mangiante, who was born near Naples and trained in law and international relations, said she met Mifsud while working with the European Parliament in Brussels.

Mifsud, a former Maltese government official who had an affiliation with an Italian university, was friendly with the head of the parliament’s socialist party and was often at receptions or events, she recalled. Eventually, Mifsud offered her a job at one of his London organizations.

Mangiante accepted in July 2016 but said she only worked for the group for three months, quickly concluding that it was “a facade for something else.”

She said she never heard Mifsud discuss Russians but quit when she was asked by his partner to attend a secret meeting to discuss Iraq in Tripoli. “I thought it was very suspicious,” she said.

Mangiante said she heard about Papadopoulos, who at the time was serving as a Trump adviser, during her brief time at Mifsud’s group. But she said did not meet him until the spring of 2017, after his involvement with Trump had ended. He sent her a message through LinkedIn, noting that they had both had connections to Mifsud’s group.

Soon, the two were communicating online and, after meeting in London, quickly fell into a romance, she said. They spent the spring and summer traveling together in Europe. Though Papadopoulos had been interviewed by the FBI in January and again in February, she said he did not seem concerned at the time about what could be coming.

Until his July arrest.

“We went from paradise to hell,” she said.

She said she was in Chicago with his family at the time and the following weeks were stressful and scary. His decision to make a deal with prosecutors and plead guilty to one felony while cooperating with the FBI, she said, was ultimately not a tough one.

 

 

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I wonder how many times Sessions told Mueller he couldn't recall: 

Jeff Sessions Is Questioned for Hours in Russia Inquiry

By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT JAN. 23, 2018

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/23/us/politics/jeff-sessions-special-counsel-russia.html

Spoiler

 

WASHINGTON — Attorney General Jeff Sessions was questioned for several hours last week by the special counsel’s office as part of the investigation into Russia’s meddling in the election and whether the president obstructed justice since taking office, according to a Justice Department spokeswoman.

The meeting marked the first time that investigators for the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, are known to have interviewed a member of Mr. Trump’s cabinet.

In response to questions from The New York Times, the spokeswoman, Sarah Isgur Flores, confirmed that the interview occurred. Mr. Sessions was accompanied by the longtime Washington lawyer Chuck Cooper to the interview.

The attorney general announced in March that he had recused himself from all matters related to the 2016 election, including the Russia inquiry. The disclosure came after it was revealed that Mr. Sessions had not told Congress that he met twice with the Russian ambassador to the United States at the time, Sergey I. Kislyak, during the campaign.

Mr. Sessions, an early supporter of Mr. Trump’s presidential run, had been among a small group of senior campaign and administration officials whom Mr. Mueller had been expected to interview.

Mr. Mueller’s interest in Mr. Sessions shows how the president’s own actions helped prompt a broader inquiry. What began as a Justice Department counterintelligence investigation into Russia’s election interference is now also an examination of whether Mr. Trump tried to obstruct the inquiry, and the nation’s top law enforcement officer is a witness in the case.

For Mr. Mueller, Mr. Sessions is a key witness to two of the major issues he is investigating: the campaign’s possible ties to the Russians and whether the president tried to obstruct the Russia investigation.

Mr. Mueller can question Mr. Sessions about his role as the head of the campaign’s foreign policy team. Mr. Sessions was involved in developing Mr. Trump’s position toward Russia and met with Russian officials, including the ambassador.

Along with Mr. Trump, Mr. Sessions led a March 2016 meeting at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, where one of the campaign’s foreign policy advisers, George Papadopoulos, pitched the idea of a personal meeting between Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin. Mr. Papadopoulos plead guilty in October to lying to federal authorities about the nature of his contacts with the Russians and agreed to cooperate with the special counsel’s office.

As attorney general, Mr. Sessions was deeply involved in the firing of the former F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, and the president has repeatedly criticized Mr. Sessions publicly and privately for recusing himself from the Russia investigation.

When Mr. Trump learned in March that Mr. Sessions was considering whether to recuse himself, the president had the White House’s top lawyer, Donald F. McGahn II, lobby Mr. Sessions to remain in charge of the Russia investigation.

Mr. Sessions instead followed the guidance of career prosecutors at the Justice Department, who advised him that he should not be involved with the investigation. When Mr. Trump was told of this, the president erupted in anger, saying he needed an attorney general to protect him.

After Mr. Mueller was appointed in May, Mr. Trump again erupted at Mr. Sessions and Mr. Sessions offered to resign. Several days later, Mr. Trump rejected Mr. Sessions’s offer.

Two weeks ago, Mr. Mueller subpoenaed Mr. Trump’s former chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon, to testify before a grand jury. Mr. Mueller is expected to forgo the grand jury appearance for now and will have his investigators interview Mr. Bannon in the coming weeks.

 

 

 

 

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53 minutes ago, AmazonGrace said:

Despite restraints placed on her by the terms of Papadopoulos’ ongoing cooperation agreement with the special counsel, Mangiante said she has been speaking to reporters to defend his reputation and try to explain how the lives of her and the Chicago-born former energy consultant have been upended by the events of the last year.

Interpretation:  High burn rate, no income, staggering legal fees, radioactive re: employment, desperately attempting to salvage the future. 

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Here's Seth Abramson's take on the Sessions interview:

 

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Of course he did... but this happened last year. They run a pretty tight ship.

Lordy I wish we'd see the tapes

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Whoo boy! ... Deer Rufus, please, please, let this happen!  :pray: 

Mueller wants to question Trump on Flynn, Comey firings: report

Quote

Special counsel Robert Mueller wants to question President Trump on his decision to fire former FBI Director James Comey and the departure of former national security adviser Michael Flynn from the White House, according to a new report.

Two people familiar with Mueller’s investigation told The Washington Post that Trump’s legal team could present conditions for Trump to interview with Mueller’s investigators as soon as next week.

Trump’s lawyers hope to have Trump answer some of Mueller’s questions in an in-person interview and some in writing, according to the Post.

The report comes after The New York Times reported Tuesday that Attorney General Jeff Sessions was interviewed last week by Mueller’s team as part of its investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

The Justice Department confirmed that Sessions was questioned for several hours by Mueller’s investigators, making him the first known Cabinet official to be interviewed by the special counsel.

Sessions recused himself from the Russia investigation in March, despite criticism from Trump. It was reported earlier this month that Trump ordered White House counsel Don McGahn to block Sessions from recusing himself, but the attorney general refused.

Mueller is also reportedly interested in Trump’s pressure on Sessions, one source told the Post. The person told the newspaper that Mueller was investigating whether Trump had established a “pattern” of behavior.

The Times also reported Tuesday that Comey was interviewed last year by Mueller’s team. The former FBI director's interview reportedly included discussion of memos he wrote about interactions with Trump. One of those memos detailed a conversation in which Comey said Trump asked him to let go of the FBI’s investigation into Flynn.

Trump ultimately fired Comey in May 2017 after Sessions recommended his dismissal over the FBI’s handling of the investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s private email server. But Trump acknowledged the Russia probe was on his mind when he fired Comey.

Flynn had been ousted from the White House in February. At the time, the White House said Trump asked Flynn to resign from his position because of “eroding trust.”

In his resignation, Flynn apologized for giving an inaccurate assessment of his conversation with then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak to Pence, then the vice president-elect.

Flynn, who pleaded guilty in December to lying to FBI agents about his contacts with Russian officials, is one of four people to be charged as part of Mueller's probe.

A spokesperson for the special counsel's office declined to comment to The Hill.

 

Here's the WaPo article mentioned above:

Mueller seeks to question Trump about Flynn and Comey departures

Quote

Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III is seeking to question President Trump in the coming weeks about his decisions to oust national security adviser Michael Flynn and FBI Director James B. Comey, according to two people familiar with his plans.

Mueller’s interest in the events that led Trump to push out Flynn and Comey indicates that his investigation is intensifying its focus on possible efforts by the president or others to obstruct or blunt the special counsel’s probe.

Trump’s attorneys have crafted some negotiating terms for the president’s interview with Mueller’s team, one that could be presented to the special counsel as soon as next week, according to the two people.

The president’s legal team hopes to provide Trump’s testimony in a hybrid form — answering some questions in a face-to-face interview and others in a written statement.

Those discussions come amid signs of stepped-up activity by the special counsel. Last week, Attorney General Jeff Sessions was interviewed for several hours by Mueller’s investigators, according to Justice Department officials.

A spokesman for the special counsel’s office, Peter Carr, declined to comment. A White House spokesman referred questions to the president’s legal team. Two attorneys for Trump, Jay Sekulow and John Dowd, declined to comment

Within the past two weeks, the special counsel’s office has indicated to the White House that the two central subjects that investigators wish to discuss with the president are the departures of Flynn and Comey and the events surrounding their firings.

Flynn resigned last February after The Washington Post reported that he misled Vice President Pence and other administration officials about his communications with the Russian ambassador to the United States.

Late last year, Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with the Russian ambassador. Trump then tweeted that “he had to fire General Flynn because he lied to the Vice President and the FBI.” Previously, the White House had cited only the false statements to Pence as a rationale for dismissing Flynn.

Trump fired Comey in May, several days after the then-FBI director told Congress he could not comment on whether there was evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Comey later testified that the president had asked him several months earlier whether he could see a way to “letting Flynn go.”

Mueller has also expressed interest in Trump’s efforts to remove Jeff Sessions as attorney general or pressure him into quitting, according to a person familiar with the probe who said the special counsel was seeking to determine whether there was a “pattern” of behavior by the president.

Earlier this month, Trump declined to say whether he would grant an interview to Mueller and his team, deflecting questions on the topic by saying there had been “no collusion” between his campaign and Russia during the 2016 presidential election.

“We’ll see what happens,” Trump said when asked directly about meeting with the special counsel.

Behind the scenes, Trump has told his team of lawyers that he is not worried about being interviewed, because he has done nothing wrong, according to people familiar with his views. His attorneys also support a sit-down, as long as there are clear parameters and topics.

However, some of Trump’s close advisers and friends fear a face-to-face interview with Mueller could put the president in legal jeopardy. A central worry, they say, is Trump’s lack of precision in his speech and his penchant for hyperbole.

People close to Trump have tried to warn him for months that Mueller is a “killer,” in the words of one associate, noting that the special counsel has shown interest in the president’s actions.

Roger Stone, a longtime informal adviser to Trump, said he should try to avoid an interview at all costs, saying agreeing to such a session would be a “suicide mission.”

“I find it to be a death wish. Why would you walk into a perjury trap?” Stone said. “The president would be very poorly advised to give Mueller an interview.”

 

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Roger Stone, a longtime informal adviser to Trump, said he should try to avoid an interview at all costs, saying agreeing to such a session would be a “suicide mission.”

“I find it to be a death wish. Why would you walk into a perjury trap?” Stone said. “The president would be very poorly advised to give Mueller an interview.”

But why is Stone so worried? Surely a perjury trap would only work if the president decided to lie, and he would never do that.

Even his allies think Trump's going to perjure himself for sure.

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@fraurosena -- I would pay money to see the taped testimony. Agent Orange thinks he's bigly smart and clever. I can imagine his lawyers standing by with a large roll of duct tape to shut his mouth when he starts rambling on to the interrogators who are way, way more on the ball than he is. I'm sure he'll keep yammering, which just pulls the noose tighter. Many moons ago, I had to be interviewed as a possible witness and my answers were as short and sweet as possible -- yes, no, I don't remember, I don't know, and I would imagine so. The interrogator was so frustrated. He kept pausing, hoping I'd fill in the blanks...NOPE. As far as written statements, we all know that Agent Orange's lawyers will write every single word.

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12 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

@fraurosena -- I would pay money to see the taped testimony. Agent Orange thinks he's bigly smart and clever. I can imagine his lawyers standing by with a large roll of duct tape to shut his mouth when he starts rambling on to the interrogators who are way, way more on the ball than he is. I'm sure he'll keep yammering, which just pulls the noose tighter. Many moons ago, I had to be interviewed as a possible witness and my answers were as short and sweet as possible -- yes, no, I don't remember, I don't know, and I would imagine so. The interrogator was so frustrated. He kept pausing, hoping I'd fill in the blanks...NOPE. As far as written statements, we all know that Agent Orange's lawyers will write every single word.

I'd gladly pay to see it too, @GreyhoundFan!

The stable genius thinks he will be able to outsmart anyone, and boy, are we glad he has such an inflated view of himself! 

I too was once, long ago, interviewed/interrogated. But I fully cooperated, as in my case, we wanted to catch a thief that had broken into my cupboard at work and stolen about 1400 euro's of staff money (I collected so-called 'coffee money', which we saved up to do fun things together). It was a long interview which took more than three hours (luckily it was deemed as 'work' time) and I was pretty tired afterwards. After three days interrogating/interviewing my colleagues, the researchers finally got the culprit to confess. A sad case really, as this person turned out to be a secret gambling addict in desperate need of money to pay off his debts before his family found out.

I agree that it's probable that the presidunce's lawyers will write up his written statements, although I wouldn't be surprised if he tried to add his own personal 'flourishes', tweet style.

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Oh my! What a big news day for the investigation this is today!

 

 

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This is related to Devin Nunes' idiotic super secret memo caper.  All House members received a copy of "The Memo," supposedly containing classified information that shows that meanies in Dept. of Justice/FBI are out to get Trumpling, leading to a groundswell of support amongst alt-right leg-humpers to #ReleaseTheMemo.  Justice itself apparently has not received a copy of the memo, because so super secret.   It's becoming obvious that an obligation to uphold the law counts as bias with these yahoos.  But moving right along to the Twitter angle.

Dems Ask FB, Twitter To Probe If Russian Bots Boosted Nunes’ Memo Hashtag 

tidbits: 

Quote

 

California Democrats Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Rep. Adam Schiff are asking Twitter and Facebook to probe whether a hashtag promoting the release of a classified memo compiled by Republicans was propagated by Russian bots.

In a letter sent to the two companies’ CEOs Tuesday, Schiff and Feinstein asked the social media giants for “urgent assistance” in “our efforts to counter Russia’s continuing efforts to manipulate public opinion.”

...Citing reports from multiple news outlets, Schiff and Feinstein said that by Friday the hashtag “was ‘the top trending hashtag among Twitter accounts believed to be operated by Kremlin-linked groups’” and was being used “‘100 times more than any other hashtag’ by accounts linked to Russian influence campaigns,” the pair said in the letter.

They asked Facebook and Twitter to determine by Jan. 26 how many Russian influence accounts were linked to social media posts calling for the release of the memo; “the frequency and volume of their postings on this topic;” and how many non-bot Twitter and Facebook users had been exposed to posts calling for the memo’s release.

 

A Talking Points Memo commenter provided  a link to this fascinating web site:  "This dashboard displays data about Russian propaganda efforts on Twitter in near-real time. Our analysts use the dashboard and other sources to discover Russian propaganda themes."  dashboard.securingdemocracy.org/  

Another commenter, an active twitter user, had this to say: "...it's really uncanny how often I notice trending topics suddenly appearing in the morning (which not coincidentally happens to be Moscow work hours), then around 8 am they're seamlessly picked up by American right-wing twitter and the theme is being pushed by Drudge, Breitbart, and Fox News. It's almost impossible not to see this pattern."

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Seth Abramson has a thread about Gates’ flipping.

 

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It's a lucky thing that the presidunce cares so much about his ratings in the press.

White House: Trump hasn't fired Mueller in part because of how the press would react

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President Donald Trump hasn't fired special counsel Robert Mueller partly because of how the press would react to the dismissal, the White House said Tuesday.

Trump and his top aides have routinely slammed the probe as nothing more than a witch hunt or a hoax, leading some to question why he hasn't fired Mueller in the first place. But the White House appears keenly aware that any attempt to get rid of Mueller could create a massive public relations headache that could envelop the administration.

"Look, we want to see this come to a complete and full conclusion," said White House press secretary Sarah Sanders. "I think we all know what everybody in this room would do if the President did that, and I don't think that is helpful to the process."

She added that Trump "wants to see this end and he wants to see them finally come to the same conclusion that I think most everyone in America has that there is nothing to this."

Sanders then turned on the media, saying that reporters have spent "the better part of a year looking, digging, obsessing over trying to find something and have yet to find anything."

Mueller's investigation into possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign during the 2016 election has hung over the White House ever since Mueller was named in May. The Washington Post reported Tuesday that Mueller is looking to interview Trump about his dismissals of former FBI Director James Comey and his former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

"Frankly, this administration, we have said it time and time before, there was no collusion," Sanders said. "There is nothing to it. We are ready to move on. Clearly the American people are. And my guess (is) some of you are tired of talking about it as well and hopefully we will get to that point soon and we can do that."

Sanders would not say whether Trump would submit to an interview with Mueller but pledged to "be fully cooperative with the special counsel."

It is unclear whether Trump has the authority to directly fire Mueller. Because Attorney General Jeff Sessions has recused himself from all matters related to the 2016 campaign, the power to fire Mueller falls to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

But Rosenstein has said that he has seen no "good cause to fire Mueller," so in order to fire the special counsel he would likely have to fire a series of Justice Department officials until he found someone willing to get rid of Mueller.

 

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A good roundup: "The Daily 202: Public opinion is protecting Mueller’s investigation — for now"

Spoiler

THE BIG IDEA: The people Robert Mueller’s team is talking to, and the questions they’re asking, suggest that the special counsel is keenly interested in whether President Trump sought to obstruct justice. Consider these six stories that broke in the past 24 hours:

1. Mueller is seeking to question Trump in the coming weeks about his decisions to oust national security adviser Michael Flynn and FBI Director James Comey. “Within the past two weeks, the special counsel’s office has indicated to the White House that the central subjects investigators wish to discuss with the president are the departures of Flynn and Comey and the events surrounding their firings,” Carol D. Leonnig, Sari Horwitz and Josh Dawsey report. “Mueller has also expressed interest in Trump’s efforts to remove [Jeff] Sessions as attorney general or pressure him into quitting, according to a person familiar with the probe. The person said the special counsel was seeking to determine whether there was a ‘pattern’ of behavior by the president.” 

2. Trump asked the acting director of the FBI how he voted. Ellen Nakashima, Josh and Devlin Barrett scoop that, shortly after firing Comey last May, the president summoned the bureau’s acting director to the Oval Office: “The two men exchanged pleasantries, but before long, Trump, according to several current and former U.S. officials, asked Andrew McCabe a pointed question: Whom did he vote for in the 2016 election? McCabe said he didn’t vote … [Trump] also vented his anger at McCabe over the several hundred thousand dollars in donations that his wife, a Democrat, received for her failed 2015 Virginia state Senate bid from a political action committee controlled by a close friend of Hillary Clinton...

“McCabe, who has spent more than two decades at the bureau, found the conversation with Trump ‘disturbing,’ said one former U.S. official. Inside the FBI, officials familiar with the exchange expressed frustration that a civil servant — even a very senior agent in the No. 2 position — would be asked how he voted and criticized for his wife’s political leanings by the president. One person said the Trump-McCabe conversation is of interest to [Mueller].” 

3. Sessions was interviewed for several hours by special counsel investigators last week. The attorney general, who has recused himself from the Russia investigation, could be a key witness. He met with the Russian ambassador at least twice in 2016 and was also involved in discussions with the president that led to the firing of Comey — when Comey was overseeing the Russia investigation. “Sessions’s lawyer, Chuck Cooper, who was with him during the interview, declined to comment,” per Ellen, Devlin and Sari.

4. The special counsel’s office briefly interviewed Comey months ago, and he vouched for the contents of the memos he wrote about private conversations he had with the president. (This was first reported by the New York Times.) 

5. NBC reports this morning that Mueller’s team has also spoken with Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers and CIA Director Mike Pompeo. “One person familiar with the matter described Pompeo, Coats and Rogers as ‘peripheral witnesses’ to the Comey firing,” Carol Lee reports, adding that Pompeo “was allegedly asked by Trump to lean on Comey to drop his investigation.” 

6. Former Trump adviser Rick Gates, who was indicted the same day as Paul Manafort, quietly added prominent white-collar attorney Tom Green to his defense team, a sign that he could be negotiating with Mueller’s team. “Green … was seen at [Mueller's] office twice last week,” CNN’s Katelyn Polantz reports. “At this stage, with Gates' charges filed and bail set, talks could concern the charges and Gates' plea. The defense and prosecution are currently working together on discovery of evidence. … For months, court-watchers — including Gates' own attorneys — have anticipated additional charges against the defendants. Superseding indictments, which would add or replace charges against both Gates and Manafort, have been prepared, according to a source close to the investigation. No additional charges have been filed so far. When there is a delay in filing charges after they've been prepared, it can indicate that negotiations of some nature are ongoing.” 

-- White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was noncommittal when asked yesterday whether Trump will submit to an interview, even as she reiterated that “we’re going to be fully cooperative” and insisted the president has done nothing wrong.

Then she made a perhaps unintentionally revealing comment. Pressed during the afternoon briefing on why Trump doesn’t fire Mueller if he still believes his investigation is a “witch hunt,” she replied: “I think we all know what everybody in this room would do if the president did that, and I don't think that's helpful to the process.”

That answer was a rare nod to the degree to which public opinion and the fear of political blowback protects Mueller from being fired, more than, say, respect for the rule of law.

A CNN-SSRS poll published yesterday showed that 78 percent of Americans think Trump ought to testify under oath if asked to by Mueller. That includes a 59 percent majority of Republicans, and 75 percent of independents.

A Washington Post-ABC News poll conducted last week found that 50 percent of Americans think members of Trump’s campaign team colluded with Russia to try to influence the 2016 election. An almost identical 49 percent believe “Trump himself tried to interfere with the Russia investigation in a way that amounts to obstruction of justice.” Slightly more than half of that cohort thinks “there’s been solid evidence of that,” while the rest say it’s only their suspicion.

-- In this context, the escalating efforts by Trump’s allies on Capitol Hill to undermine the Mueller investigation and impugn the integrity of career law enforcement professionals should be viewed, at least in part, as a partisan plot to move the needle of public opinion, especially on the right, with the goal of giving air cover for Trump to potentially stop cooperating with the special counsel — or perhaps take even more drastic steps.

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) released more text messages yesterday that were exchanged between FBI employees Peter Strzok and Lisa Page. In them, Strzok notes his suspicion that Mueller’s probe would not lead to major revelations. He was later removed from Mueller’s team when texts reflecting anti-Trump bias were discovered. “He considered never joining the probe at all, because of a ‘gut sense and concern there’s no there [there],’” Karoun Demirjian reports. “In one message, Strzok appears to wonder whether the Trump probe could be an ‘investigation leading to impeachment’ before guessing that ‘the odds are nothing’ truly bombastic will result from the case. He also texted Page that he feels ‘a sense of unfinished business’ over having ‘unleashed’ the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails. ‘Now I need to fix it and finish it,’ he added.”

Trump allies are even now seeking to discredit the infamous “Steele dossier” by falsely linking it to John Kerry’s State Department, Josh Rogin reports.

-- There are some signs that this multi-front campaign, being amplified on conservative cable news and websites, is paying dividends. The Post-ABC poll found that 50 percent approve of the way Mueller is handling the investigation, down from 58 percent in November.

The CNN poll found that 3 in 4 Republicans now believe that the investigation is mainly an effort to discredit the Trump presidency. The overall percentage of Americans who believe that Russian efforts to interfere in the election are a serious matter that should be fully investigated has slipped from 64 percent in November to 58 percent now. That’s driven by a decline among Republicans from 28 percent to 21 percent and among independents from 63 percent to 54 percent.

-- Top Democrats want Facebook and Twitter to investigate what they say are Russian efforts to publicize a controversial memo written by staffers of Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) that alleges FISA abuses by the intelligence community. Karoun, Josh and Craig Timberg report: “Hashtags such as ‘#ReleaseTheMemo’ have been trending on Twitter in recent days, and accounts affiliated with Russian influence efforts have been supporting this campaign, according to the Alliance for Securing Democracy, a U.S.-based group that examines efforts by Russia and other nations to interfere in democratic institutions.”

-- Senate GOP leaders have also put the kibosh on bipartisan legislation that would protect Mueller, apparently fearful of incurring Trump’s wrath and thus undermining their agenda. In personal conversations, the president has reportedly prodded Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and other senior members like Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) to end congressional investigations into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election as swiftly as possible.

 -- FBI officials fear the criticism from the right could make it more difficult to do their jobs, which they consider to be apolitical. NPR’s Ryan Lucas reports: “Anecdotally, at least, former agents say they've had to answer family, friends and even strangers who have one question: what is going on with the FBI? … [One former senior official] worries that the political allegations could hamstring field agents working cases that have nothing to do with politics or Washington, everything from bank robberies and terrorism to white-collar crime or kidnappings.”

...

 

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More news on the Flynn front:

 

Flynn kept FBI interview concealed from White House, Trump

For those of you who don't want to read the article, these are the highlights:

  1. A scheduler planned the interview with Flynn after McCabe had called him and asked for one, without asking what the interview was about (Thank Rufus for clueless schedulers!)
  2. Flynn did not have a lawyer present during the interview. (Either hubris or stupidity)
  3. Mueller (unsurprisingly) has interviewed a fully cooperative Sally Yates last year
  4. Bannon's interview is planned for January 31
  5. It was a full two days after Flynn's interview last January, that WH counsel McGahn heard of it. When Sally Yates went to the WH to warn them about Flynn, McGahn asked her how the interview went. She answered she couldn't possibly comment.
  6. One of the two FBI agents to interview Flynn was Peter Strzok... (Raging Rufus! No wonder the repugs are doing everything in their power to discredit him)
Quote

A year ago today, Donald Trump’s newly sworn–in national security adviser, Michael Flynn, met privately in his West Wing office with FBI investigators interested in his communications with Russia's ambassador, without a lawyer or the knowledge of the president and other top White House officials, according to people familiar with the matter.

Flynn's FBI interview on Jan. 24, 2017, set in motion an extraordinary sequence of events unparalleled for the first year of a U.S. presidency. A national security adviser was fired after 24 days on the job, an acting attorney general was fired ten days after the president took office, an FBI director was allegedly pressured by the president to let go an investigation into the ousted national security adviser, and then eventually fired.

An attorney general recused himself from a federal investigation into Russia's meddling in a U.S. election and possible collusion with the sitting president's campaign, and a special counsel was appointed.

The developments ensnared the president in an obstruction of justice inquiry, which resulted in his top intelligence and law enforcement chiefs cooperating in some form with that probe.

By the end of 2017, special counsel Robert Mueller’s team had spoken with Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, Mike Rogers, the director of the National Security Agency, former FBI Director James Comey, and numerous members of Trump’s campaign and White House inner circle. Flynn pleaded guilty last month to lying to the FBI during his January 24 interview and is cooperating with the Russia investigation.

NBC News also has learned that former acting attorney general Sally Yates, who informed the White House about Flynn’s interview two days after it took place, has cooperated with the special counsel. CIA Director Mike Pompeo, who was allegedly asked by Trump to lean on Comey to drop his investigation, has also been interviewed, according to people familiar with the inquiry.

One person familiar with the matter described Pompeo, Coats and Rogers as "peripheral witnesses" to the Comey firing. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who played a key role in Comey's departure and was a top adviser on the Trump campaign, was interviewed by Mueller last week as the investigation inches closer to Mueller's team possibly questioning the president himself.

Trump's former chief strategist Steve Bannon is expected to meet with Mueller’s team by January 31, according to a person familiar with the discussions.

Unresolved is whether Trump will voluntarily agree to be interviewed by Mueller. So far, according to two people familiar with the discussions, Trump’s team has not reached an agreement with the special counsel for their client to meet with him.

Flynn's tenure in the White House and his firing by Trump are among the topics Mueller’s team has been asking witnesses to discuss, and they are likely to be part of any questioning of the president. Separately, Mueller is expected to want to ask Trump about his firing of Comey. The president told NBC News last year that his decision was connected to Comey’s dogged pursuit of potential ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. Trump has repeatedly called the investigation a "hoax" and a "witch-hunt."

Two people familiar with the matter said Trump was unaware that Flynn had spoken with the FBI until two days after the interview took place. An attorney for Flynn did not respond to a request for comment on this story.

A brief phone call from the office of Andrew McCabe, the deputy FBI director, to a scheduler for Flynn on January 24 set the interview in motion, according to people familiar with the matter. The scheduler was told the FBI wanted to speak with Flynn later that day, these people said, and the meeting was placed on Flynn’s schedule. The scheduler didn't ask the reason for the meeting, and the FBI didn't volunteer it, one person familiar with the matter said.

Later that day, two FBI agents arrived at the White House to speak with Flynn. A lawyer for the National Security Council typically would be informed of such a meeting and be present for it, one person familiar with the procedures said. But that didn't happen in this instance, and Flynn didn't include his own personal lawyer, two people said. He met with the two federal agents alone, according to these people.

"No one knew that any of this was happening," said another senior White House official who was there at the time.

"Apparently it was not clear to Flynn that this was about his personal conduct," another White House official said. "So he didn't think of bringing his own lawyer."

White House counsel Don McGahn was the first senior official to learn of Flynn's interview during a meeting on January 26 with Yates in which she warned him that Flynn had lied to Vice President Mike Pence and other top Trump officials about his conversation with the Russian ambassador, Sergey Kislyak, and could be vulnerable to blackmail by the Russian government.

McGahn has sat for two days of interviews with Mueller's team, according to a person familiar with the matter, including one interview that was rescheduled after Flynn’s plea deal was announced the day it was supposed to take place. Yates spoke extensively with Mueller’s team last year, according to people familiar with the matter.

McGahn briefed Trump, Bannon and White House chief of staff Reince Priebus, who left the White House last summer and also has spoken with Mueller's team, on his meeting with Yates that same day including the news of Flynn's FBI interview, people familiar with the matter said. Yates has testified before Congress that McGahn asked her how Flynn did in his FBI interview, to which she said she replied that she could not comment on it.

McGahn did not later ask Flynn if he lied to the FBI, one person familiar with the matter said. This person said it was unclear if Flynn intended to lie and that McGahn did not conclude that Flynn had lied to the FBI until after he had been fired. It was at that time in late winter or early spring that the White House received a request from the FBI for phone records and other documents related to Flynn that McGahn and other top officials concluded he had lied in his interview and was otherwise under investigation, this person said.

The year since Flynn's FBI interview has seen only escalated tensions between Trump and his Justice Department.

In recent weeks Trump has taken aim at McCabe, whose office first arranged Flynn’s FBI interview.

This week, White House spokesman Raj Shah fanned reports of pressure from the White House to fire McCabe by saying in a statement that Trump "believes politically-motivated senior leaders" of the FBI "have tainted the agency's reputation for unbiased pursuit of justice" and that the new director he "appointed" will "clean up the misconduct at the highest levels of the FBI."

And one of the two FBI agents who interviewed Flynn was Peter Strzok, whom Mueller removed from the Russia investigation last summer after the Justice Department’s inspector general's office found he'd written text messages to a colleague criticizing Trump, according to people familiar with the matter.

For Trump opponents, his war with the FBI is an effort to undermine the Russia investigation. For Trump and his allies, he’s battling a conspiracy within the top ranks of the Justice Department to undermine his presidency.

Flynn was fired as Trump’s national security adviser on February 13, after it became public that he had lied to Pence about his conversation with Kislyak.

The next day Trump asked Comey to drop the investigation into Flynn, according to Comey’s testimony before Congress. Trump has denied asking Comey to let the Flynn investigation go. 

 

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