The Russian Connection 2

[GreyhoundFan]

@AmazonGrace -- Stephen Colbert had the same idea:

 

[Cartmann99]

6 hours ago, Howl said:

*Chuck Grassley was brought to our attention yesterday when he said “I think not having the estate tax recognizes the people that are investing, as opposed to those that are just spending every darn penny they have, whether it’s on booze or women or movies”, i.e., he thinks we all spend our $$$$$$$$$ on hookers and blow, instead of mortgage, child care, food, health in$urance, car payment and gas

Since he thinks most of us are irresponsible lushes, I've decided to call him Two-Buck Chuck from now on. 

[fraurosena]

6 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

"Prosecutors say longtime Manafort colleague has ‘ties’ to Russian intelligence"

  Reveal hidden contents

Federal prosecutors asserted Monday that a longtime associate of Paul Manafort, the former chairman of President Trump’s campaign, has been “assessed to have ties” to Russian intelligence — the first time the special counsel has alleged a Trump official had such contacts.

The statement came as prosecutors working for special counsel Robert S. Mueller III withdrew their support for a joint bail deal filed last week that would have released Manafort from home detention and GPS monitoring while he awaits trial on charges including money laundering and fraud.

Manafort, 68, and his longtime deputy, Rick Gates, 45, have both pleaded not guilty to charges filed Oct. 30.

In the four-page filing Monday, prosecutor Andrew Weissmann urged the judge to reject the bail deal, arguing that Manafort and a Russian colleague have been secretly ghostwriting an English-language editorial that appeared to defend Manafort’s work advising a ­Russia-friendly political party in Ukraine.

They said Manafort worked on the draft as recently as last week with “a long-time Russian colleague . . . who is currently based in Russia and assessed to have ties to a Russian intelligence service.” They indicated they would file further supporting evidence under seal.

The Russian colleague was not identified in court papers. However, Manafort has had a long-standing Russian employee named Konstantin Kilimnik who ran Manafort’s office in Kiev during the 10 years he did consulting work there.

Prosecutors said the editorial Manafort was writing violated a court order prohibiting the parties in the case from making public statements outside of court that could influence jurors.

The piece “clearly was undertaken to influence the public’s opinion of defendant Manafort,” prosecutors wrote, noting there would be no other reason for Manafort and the colleague to have it published under someone else’s name.

The allegation is the first time that prosecutors have claimed any former Trump campaign official has had contacts with a Russian tied to that country’s intelligence services.

A spokesman for Manafort declined to comment.

Kilimnik has previously denied intelligence ties, telling The Washington Post in a statement in June that he has “no relation to the Russian or any other intelligence service.”

He did not respond to an email Monday about the prosecutors’ allegation.

Kilimnik attended a Russian military foreign language university in the late 1980s that experts have said was a training ground for Russian intelligence services. He served as an officer in the Russian military for several years.

Manafort and Kilimnik were in contact during the months that Manafort ran Trump’s campaign. They met twice in person, in May 2016 and then again in August 2016, when their dinner conversation at New York’s Grand Havana Room included discussion of the presidential campaign, Kilimnik told The Post this June.

For a decade, Manafort and Kilimnik worked with then-Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who was initially considered pro-Western but eventually became allied with Russian interests.

Kilimnik also served as Manafort’s liaison to Oleg Deripaska, an aluminum magnate and ally to Russian President Vladi­mir Putin who employed Manafort as an investment consultant.

According to emails described to The Post, Manafort directed Kilimnik to offer Deripaska “private briefings” about Trump’s campaign. A Deripaska spokeswoman has said he was never offered such briefings.

Manafort has previously denied knowingly communicating with Russian intelligence during the campaign. But he told the New York Times in February, “It’s not like these people wear badges that say, ‘I’m a Russian intelligence officer.’ ”

Along with being under home detention and GPS monitoring, Manafort has pledged to pay $10 million if he fails to appear in court.

Prosecutors had agreed to a bail deal in which Manafort would have secured his release with four properties worth $11.6 million and a prohibition on foreign travel, as well as a limitation on his travels within the United States.

On Monday, the special counsel asked U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson either to reject the deal, keeping Manafort under home confinement pending further negotiations, or impose additional restrictions, including making the $10 million forfeitable for other breaches of the terms and requiring Manafort to remain under GPS monitoring.

Okay, how freaking stupid is Manafort? Did he think he wasn't being monitored?

Maybe they weren't monitoring Manafort. (Well, ok, they probably were, but let's say they weren't, for argument's sake.) But you can bet your last dollar that the Russian 'colleague' was monitored! And if Manafort had even half a brain cell, he should have at least suspected that.

So yeah, he's incredibly freaking stupid. 

[GrumpyGran]

1 hour ago, Cartmann99 said:

Since he thinks most of us are irresponsible lushes, I've decided to call him Two-Buck Chuck from now on. 

I think I'll just stick with arrogant shit.

And Manafort, how has this guy stayed out of jail, or cement overshoes, up until now?

[GreyhoundFan]

"Robert Mueller is following the money, and that may put Trump in serious danger"

Spoiler

“Follow the money,” the source known as Deep Throat told Bob Woodward as he was reporting the Watergate scandal. Tuesday we learn that special counsel Robert S. Mueller III is following President Trump’s money. Reuters reports:

U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller has asked Deutsche Bank for data on accounts held by President Donald Trump and his family, a person close to the matter said on Tuesday…

Germany’s largest bank received a subpoena from Mueller several weeks ago to provide information on certain money and credit transactions, the person said, without giving details, adding key documents had been handed over in the meantime.

Deutsche Bank, which has loaned the Trump organization hundreds of millions of dollars for real estate ventures, said it would not comment on any of its clients.

This may turn out to be no big deal — perhaps Mueller will find that all Trump’s transactions with Deutsche Bank were aboveboard and free of any funny business, and also that nothing he discovers there will lead to evidence of any other misconduct on Trump’s part. But the fact that Mueller is looking at Deutsche Bank means his probe is reaching the very heart of Trump’s financial life.

Why is Deutsche Bank so important? After a string of bankruptcies and broken promises, pretty much every other major bank stopped lending Trump money some years ago. The one exception was Deutsche Bank, to which Trump owed $364 million as of the end of last year. By sheer coincidence, Deutsche Bank recently had to pay $670 million in fines for its role in a Russian money laundering plot (though as Bloomberg reports, the bank’s internal investigation found no link between Trump and that scheme).

At this point, we don’t know exactly what Mueller is looking for in the Deutsche Bank records. Law professor Ryan Goodman suggests that Mueller could be trying to determine if Trump’s loans from the bank were guaranteed by Russian interests, which could mean he was indebted to them in ways that could compromise him.

What we do know is that the Russia investigation has led Mueller to Trump’s personal finances, which provide a target-rich environment if you suspect financial malfeasance. Trump has a long history of shady dealings — outright scams such as Trump University, refusing to pay vendors who supplied him with goods and services, bankruptcies that allowed him to skate away from huge debts while others were left holding the bag. And he also has deep financial entanglements with alleged Russian oligarchs and mobsters.

This latest news demonstrates that Mueller is proceeding on multiple tracks, all of which could come together in the end:

• There’s the question of whether Trump or anyone else committed any financial crimes; former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort has already been indicted on that score, and there could be more to come.
• There’s the question of whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia, for which we already have ample evidence.
• There’s the question of whether obstruction of justice took place, for which evidence is growing by the day. In a recent tweet, Trump admitted that he knew then-national security adviser Michael Flynn lied to the FBI about his conversations with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak when he fired him, which means Trump knew Flynn had committed a crime when he asked then-FBI Director James B. Comey to lay off investigating Flynn. (Trump’s lawyer denies he meant the tweet this way, and Trump denies Comey’s account of their conservation).

That last one was just one piece of a broad campaign Trump undertook to hinder the Russia investigation in general and the investigation of Flynn in particular, which reportedly included asking top officials in the intelligence community to pressure the FBI to shut it down and pressing Republican senators to end their own investigation. And that’s not to mention the fact that Trump said on national television that he fired Comey to shut down the investigation, and told the same thing to the Russian ambassador and foreign minister.

In that tweet about Flynn, Trump closes by saying, “There was nothing to hide!” That has indeed been a consistent line from Trump himself, the White House and the president’s defenders: nobody did anything wrong, all the contacts with Russians were just routine, and there’s nothing to hide.

But if that’s the case, why do so many Trump associates keep getting caught lying about Russia?

• Flynn lied to the FBI about the substance of his conversations with Kislyak.
• Jeff Sessions repeatedly told Congress that neither he nor anyone else on the Trump campaign had any contact with Russians, which we now know was false; not only did Sessions have multiple contacts with Kislyak, he was aware of contacts George Papadopoulos had with Russians.
• Tuesday the New York Times reported that while national security aide K.T. McFarland told Congress she was unaware of the nature of Flynn’s dealings with Kislyak, newly released emails show she had detailed knowledge of those dealings, which strongly suggests she lied to Congress.
• Donald Trump Jr., in a statement personally dictated by President Trump, lied to the public about that notorious meeting with a group of Russians offering dirt on Hillary Clinton.

That’s a whole lot of people around Trump who are acting like they have something to hide. And nobody has more to hide than the president himself; he didn’t withhold his tax returns because he’s so modest about how wealthy he is. If Mueller is getting deep into Trump’s finances, we may well find out just what he’s been working so hard to keep the public from finding out.

I bet there are orange beads of sweat running down Agent Orange's face and back at the thought of Mueller's team doing a forensic analysis of his financial holdings.

[GrumpyGran]

6 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

"Robert Mueller is following the money, and that may put Trump in serious danger"

  Reveal hidden contents

“Follow the money,” the source known as Deep Throat told Bob Woodward as he was reporting the Watergate scandal. Tuesday we learn that special counsel Robert S. Mueller III is following President Trump’s money. Reuters reports:

U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller has asked Deutsche Bank for data on accounts held by President Donald Trump and his family, a person close to the matter said on Tuesday…

Germany’s largest bank received a subpoena from Mueller several weeks ago to provide information on certain money and credit transactions, the person said, without giving details, adding key documents had been handed over in the meantime.

Deutsche Bank, which has loaned the Trump organization hundreds of millions of dollars for real estate ventures, said it would not comment on any of its clients.

This may turn out to be no big deal — perhaps Mueller will find that all Trump’s transactions with Deutsche Bank were aboveboard and free of any funny business, and also that nothing he discovers there will lead to evidence of any other misconduct on Trump’s part. But the fact that Mueller is looking at Deutsche Bank means his probe is reaching the very heart of Trump’s financial life.

Why is Deutsche Bank so important? After a string of bankruptcies and broken promises, pretty much every other major bank stopped lending Trump money some years ago. The one exception was Deutsche Bank, to which Trump owed $364 million as of the end of last year. By sheer coincidence, Deutsche Bank recently had to pay $670 million in fines for its role in a Russian money laundering plot (though as Bloomberg reports, the bank’s internal investigation found no link between Trump and that scheme).

At this point, we don’t know exactly what Mueller is looking for in the Deutsche Bank records. Law professor Ryan Goodman suggests that Mueller could be trying to determine if Trump’s loans from the bank were guaranteed by Russian interests, which could mean he was indebted to them in ways that could compromise him.

What we do know is that the Russia investigation has led Mueller to Trump’s personal finances, which provide a target-rich environment if you suspect financial malfeasance. Trump has a long history of shady dealings — outright scams such as Trump University, refusing to pay vendors who supplied him with goods and services, bankruptcies that allowed him to skate away from huge debts while others were left holding the bag. And he also has deep financial entanglements with alleged Russian oligarchs and mobsters.

This latest news demonstrates that Mueller is proceeding on multiple tracks, all of which could come together in the end:

• There’s the question of whether Trump or anyone else committed any financial crimes; former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort has already been indicted on that score, and there could be more to come.
• There’s the question of whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia, for which we already have ample evidence.
• There’s the question of whether obstruction of justice took place, for which evidence is growing by the day. In a recent tweet, Trump admitted that he knew then-national security adviser Michael Flynn lied to the FBI about his conversations with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak when he fired him, which means Trump knew Flynn had committed a crime when he asked then-FBI Director James B. Comey to lay off investigating Flynn. (Trump’s lawyer denies he meant the tweet this way, and Trump denies Comey’s account of their conservation).

That last one was just one piece of a broad campaign Trump undertook to hinder the Russia investigation in general and the investigation of Flynn in particular, which reportedly included asking top officials in the intelligence community to pressure the FBI to shut it down and pressing Republican senators to end their own investigation. And that’s not to mention the fact that Trump said on national television that he fired Comey to shut down the investigation, and told the same thing to the Russian ambassador and foreign minister.

In that tweet about Flynn, Trump closes by saying, “There was nothing to hide!” That has indeed been a consistent line from Trump himself, the White House and the president’s defenders: nobody did anything wrong, all the contacts with Russians were just routine, and there’s nothing to hide.

But if that’s the case, why do so many Trump associates keep getting caught lying about Russia?

• Flynn lied to the FBI about the substance of his conversations with Kislyak.
• Jeff Sessions repeatedly told Congress that neither he nor anyone else on the Trump campaign had any contact with Russians, which we now know was false; not only did Sessions have multiple contacts with Kislyak, he was aware of contacts George Papadopoulos had with Russians.
• Tuesday the New York Times reported that while national security aide K.T. McFarland told Congress she was unaware of the nature of Flynn’s dealings with Kislyak, newly released emails show she had detailed knowledge of those dealings, which strongly suggests she lied to Congress.
• Donald Trump Jr., in a statement personally dictated by President Trump, lied to the public about that notorious meeting with a group of Russians offering dirt on Hillary Clinton.

That’s a whole lot of people around Trump who are acting like they have something to hide. And nobody has more to hide than the president himself; he didn’t withhold his tax returns because he’s so modest about how wealthy he is. If Mueller is getting deep into Trump’s finances, we may well find out just what he’s been working so hard to keep the public from finding out.

I bet there are orange beads of sweat running down Agent Orange's face and back at the thought of Mueller's team doing a forensic analysis of his financial holdings.

Yeah, if we know anything we know he hates that. I wonder if they've had to resort to locking him in a closet without his phone. He's probably screamed at Sessions ten times today.

[Cartmann99]

Speaking of Sessions...

For those who don't own a copy: 

 

[AmazonGrace]

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/donald-trump-jr-asked-russian-lawyer-info-clinton-foundation-n826711

DEC 5 2017, 5:04 PM ET

Donald Trump Jr. asked Russian lawyer for info on Clinton Foundation

Donald Trump Jr. asked a Russian lawyer at the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting whether she had evidence of illegal donations to the Clinton Foundation, the lawyer told the Senate Judiciary Committee in answers to written questions obtained exclusively by NBC News.

The lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, told the committee that she didn't have any such evidence, and that she believes Trump misunderstood the nature of the meeting after receiving emails from a music promoter promising incriminating information on Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump's Democratic opponent.

Spoiler

 

Once it became apparent that she did not have meaningful information about Clinton, Trump seemed to lose interest, Veselnitskaya said, and the meeting petered out.

"Today, I understand why it took place to begin with and why it ended so quickly with a feeling of mutual disappointment and time wasted," Veselnitskaya wrote. "The answer lies in the roguish letters of Mr. Goldstone."

Related: Veselnitskaya says she didn't give Donald Trump Jr. info on Hillary Clinton

She was referring to Rob Goldstone, a music promoter who worked for the Agalarov family. They are Russian oligarchs with Kremlin connections who had business and social ties to the Trump family. Goldstone's emails to Trump Jr. arranging the meeting on behalf of the Agalarovs called Veselnitskaya a "Russian government lawyer" who had dirt on Clinton as part of a Russian government effort to help Trump. Goldstone has since said he exaggerated.

In her 51-page statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Veselnitskaya said she did not work for the Russian government and was not carrying any messages from government officials. She said her motive was to get the Trump team to examine what she argues is a fraud that led the U.S. to impose sanctions on Russia known as the Magnitsky Act.

Click here to read Veselnitskaya's statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee

Her ultimate goal was a congressional investigation into that matter, she said. She has long argued that U.S.-born hedge fund investor Bill Browder lied about the circumstances of the death of his accountant, Sergei Magnitsky, who died in a Russian jail, and that the U.S. government imposed Magnitsky Act sanctions on Russia, which are named after the accountant, based on a fraud. Browder and American officials dismiss that allegation, calling it part of a Russian disinformation campaign.

Veselnitskaya said there was no discussion at the Trump Tower meeting of hacked or leaked emails, social media campaigns or any of the other main aspects of Russian interference in the U.S. election. Previously, she told NBC News she had raised the issue of potential questionable contributions to Clinton's campaign by Americans accused in Russia of tax evasion.

Related: Russian lawyer in Trump Tower meeting says Mueller hasn't called

Though some may see her answers as self-serving, Veselnitskaya's written answers reinforced what has long been understood about the Trump Tower meeting: that Donald Trump Jr. accepted it on the promise of incriminating information about Clinton that he had been told was coming from the Russian government. And he asked Veselnitskaya directly whether she had it, according to her written answers. Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort were also in attendance, as were a Russian lobbyist, a Russian businessman and a translator.

Special counsel Robert Mueller and the House and Senate investigating committees continue to look into the Trump Tower meeting, according to multiple officials familiar with the probes.

Veselnitskaya insists they will find nothing that isn't already known. She says she wishes the meeting had never happened.

 

 Russian lawyer at center of Trump Tower meeting says Mueller hasn't reached out2:36

"Now that I know the kind of apocalyptic Hollywood scenario that a private conversation between a lawyer and a businessman can be turned into, I very much regret that the desire to bring the truth to the [Congress] has thrown the U.S. president's family, as well as Mrs. Clinton, into the whirlwind of mutual political accusations and fueled the fire of the morbid, completely groundless hatred for Russia," Veselnitskaya wrote.

In another noteworthy aspect of her answers, Veselnitskaya acknowledged that she worked with Glenn Simpson, a former Wall Street Journal reporter, in an investigation of Browder, whose campaign led Congress to pass the Magnitsky Act.

At the time he was working on that case, Simpson and his firm, Fusion GPS, were also working with former British intelligence operative Christopher Steele on the infamous Trump dossier.

But Veselnitskaya says she had no idea about that, confirming testimony Simpson has provided to House and Senate investigators.

Some Republicans have suggested that Simpson's work on behalf of a Russian client investigating the premise of the Magnitsky Act means the dossier could be tainted by Russian disinformation, but no evidence has surfaced to buttress that allegation.

Veselnitskaya called those allegations "unsubstantiated and outrageous insinuations."

A lawyer for Trump Jr. declined to comment, but referred NBC News to the statement his client released in September, which said Trump Jr. wanted to "hear (the Russians) out" if they had information concerning Clinton's "fitness, character or qualifications."

 

 

[onekidanddone]

1 hour ago, GrumpyGran said:

Yeah, if we know anything we know he hates that. I wonder if they've had to resort to locking him in a closet without his phone. He's probably screamed at Sessions ten times today.

As long as it is not about North Korea, let him tweet away. Dig that hole deeper.

Sounds wonderful, but it is too soon.  We don't need double jeopardy 

 

[Howl]

@GreyhoundFan posted a link to "Robert Mueller is following the money, and that may put Trump in serious danger"

I think the person in serious dangers is Mueller.  Remember that Trump can fire Mueller, at will.  People may tell Trump not to do it, but HE CAN DO IT.  It's apparent to me that over the last few months, Trump has found his stride at the WH, is more comfortable and is obviously feeling more powerful invincible and is up to his old Machiavellian tricks.  He's careful to renew his narcissistic supplies by going to rallies, so. much. winning. cheating at golf, jerking around people he doesn't like and it's looking like he'll have tax deform by Christmas, which will deliver some nicely wrapped presents to him and his family and his bidness in the form of massive tax cuts and is also something he can brag about.  Around 60% of Republicans are fine with him as their candidate in 2020. 

[GreyhoundFan]

6 minutes ago, Howl said:

Trump has found his stride at the WH, is more comfortable and is obviously feeling more powerful invincible and is up to his old Machiavellian tricks.  He's careful to renew his narcissistic supplies by going to rallies, so. much. winning. cheating at golf, jerking around people he doesn't like and it's looking like he'll have tax deform by Christmas, which will deliver some nicely wrapped presents to him and his family and his bidness in the form of massive tax cuts and is also something he can brag about.  Around 60% of Republicans are fine with him as their candidate in 2020

I think he probably alternates between feelings of invincibility, especially when his sycophants and BTs stroke his massive ego, and panic. Of course, that's assuming he's capable of feeling.

[Howl]

What does BT stand for?

[fraurosena]

27 minutes ago, Howl said:

What does BT stand for?

Branch Trumpvidians

[AmazonGrace]

 

 

[Howl]

1 hour ago, fraurosena said:

Branch Trumpvidians

Aha!  That hasn't found its way onto Urban Dictionary yet and I was stumped!  Thank ye. 

Also, wheeler dealer Misha Flynn, WTAF?  

[onekidanddone]

56 minutes ago, AmazonGrace said:

 

 

Fourth story: Collusion is a crime, but not when Trump does it.

Fifth story: But her e-mails.

Sixth story: OBAMA!

[GreyhoundFan]

50 minutes ago, onekidanddone said:

Fourth story: Collusion is a crime, but not when Trump does it.

Fifth story: But her e-mails.

Sixth story: OBAMA!

Seventh story: Obstructionist Democrats

Eighth story: #Fake News

[GreyhoundFan]

"Republicans hammer Mueller, FBI as Russia investigation intensifies"

Spoiler

Republican activists and lawmakers are engaged in a multi-front attack on special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s probe of possible connections between associates of President Trump and Russian agents, trying to stop or curtail the investigation as it moves further into President Trump’s inner circle.

For months, the president and his allies have been seizing on any whiff of possible impropriety by Mueller’s team or the FBI to argue that the Russia probe is stacked against Trump — potentially building the political support needed to dismiss the special counsel.

Several law enforcement officials said they are concerned that the constant drumbeat of conservative criticism seems designed to erode Mueller’s credibility, making it more politically palatable to remove, restrict or simply ignore his recommendations as his investigation progresses.

Fox News Channel personality Sean Hannity, one of the president’s informal advisers as well as one of his most vociferous defenders, on Tuesday night called Mueller “a disgrace to the American justice system’’ and said his team is “corrupt, abusively biased and political.’’

Several conservative lawmakers held a news conference Wednesday demanding more details of how the FBI proceeded last year in its probes of Hillary Clinton’s use of personal email and Russian election interference. Earlier this week, the conservative group Judicial Watch released an internal Justice Department email that, the group said, showed political bias against Trump by one of Mueller’s senior prosecutors.

Fresh ammunition came this weekend, when it was revealed that Peter Strzok, the top FBI agent on Mueller’s team, had been removed over politically charged texts he’d exchanged with another former member of the Mueller team, senior FBI lawyer Lisa Page. The texts appeared to favor Clinton and disparage Trump, according to people familiar with the matter.

“The question really is, if Mueller was doing such a great job on investigating the Russian collusion, why could he have not found the conflict of interest within their own agency?’’ Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) asked at the news conference. Meadows, leader of the Freedom Caucus, cited a litany of other issues that he said show bias on the part of the FBI and Mueller, including past political donations by lawyers on Mueller’s team.

An FBI spokesman declined to comment.

Accusations of bias against Mueller from conservatives have become commonplace in the public debate about the president and the Russia probe, and Republicans are expected to grill FBI Director Christopher A. Wray about those matters when he testifies Thursday before the House Judiciary Committee.

The chairman of that committee has been pressing the Justice Department to appoint a second special counsel — one to probe Clinton, as well as the FBI’s handling of past Clinton-related probes. Law enforcement officials also expect Wray will be pressed on that issue again Thursday in the wake of the Strzok-Page revelations, which are being investigated by the Justice Department’s inspector general.

Mueller did get a public vote of confidence Wednesday from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, the senior Justice Department official overseeing the Russia probe — though Rosenstein did not address the Strzok inquiry. In an interview with NBC, Rosenstein was asked if he was satisfied with what he had seen so far from the special counsel’s office, and he said yes, and noted that some public charges had been filed. “We’re not in a position to talk about anything else that may be going on,’’ he said.

Mueller first became aware in late July of text messages exchanged between Page and Strzok, who had been engaged in an affair, according to people familiar with the matter, who, like others, spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

Strzok was removed from the job immediately and transferred to the FBI’s human resources division, which was widely understood by his colleagues to be a demotion. Officials have said Page left the Mueller team two weeks earlier for unrelated reasons.

Trump tweeted this weekend that the FBI’s reputation was “in Tatters.’’

Strzok was a major player in both the Clinton and Russia probes, taking part in key interviews, including those of Hillary Clinton and Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who pleaded guilty last week to lying to the FBI duringthat January questioning.

On Wednesday, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) signed letters to the Justice Department and FBI demanding more information about Strzok’s communications.

“Strzok’s behavior and involvement in these two politically-sensitive cases raises new concerns of inappropriate political influence in the work of the FBI,’’ Grassley wrote in one of the letters.

Matthew Miller, a Democrat and former Justice Department spokesman, said Grassley is part of a Republican effort to undermine Mueller’s credibility over the long run.

“First, they want to kick up dust about Hillary Clinton so the conservative press has something to talk about that isn’t Trump’s misdeeds,’’ Miller said. “The eventual goal, though, is to delegitimize Mueller in such a way that he can either be fired or can be ignored if he concludes the president broke the law.’’

A Grassley spokesman called Miller’s comment “a baseless charge from a Democratic operative’’ and said the senator has a “three-decade record of government oversight across administrations.’’

Grassley also called Mueller an “honorable person” whose investigation should be allowed to “play out.”

Tom Fitton, the president of Judicial Watch, has called for the Mueller probe to be shut down, saying his prosecutors are simply too biased against the president to conduct a credible investigation.

Fitton said the Justice Department and FBI “covered up’’ the Strzok issue for months. “That’s a scandal,” he said. “Rosenstein needs to explain what he was doing, what he knew and when, and Mueller needs to explain himself as well. I think Mueller has fewer and fewer supporters in the Republican establishment, because of what he allowed to happen.’’

The email released by Judicial Watch this week was sent by Andrew Weissmann, now on the Mueller team, back in January, when he was a senior Justice Department official in the criminal division. After then-acting attorney general Sally Yates was fired for instructing department employees not to defend Trump’s first travel ban in court, Weissmann sent her a note saying he was “so proud and in awe’’ of her. Judicial Watch said the email shows Weissmann is biased against the president.

In Congress, an effort by a Republican lawmaker to ensure Mueller could not be abruptly fired has lost steam.

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who in August unveiled legislation to prevent Trump from firing Mueller without cause, said Wednesday that he felt no urgency for the Senate to take it up.

“Based on what’s occurred with Flynn and some of the reports over the past week, I’m not overly concerned that we have to move quickly,” Tillis said. He called his bill a “good governance” measure that lawmakers will continue to discuss.

Tillis offered a mixed review of the Mueller probe.

“Some of the questions raised about some of the people in the FBI and their behavior and possible biases make you want to go back and look at the role that they played and whether or not there was any bias that was woven into any results or observations they made,” Tillis said. “But on the whole, I’m satisfied with the way it’s progressing.”

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), one of his party’s most outspoken Trump critics, said he couldn’t envision the president firing Mueller.

“I can’t imagine him being terminated,” Corker said. “To me, that would be a step too far.”

As for the way the Mueller investigation is proceeding, Corker declined to opine. “I have almost no knowledge as to how it’s proceeding,” he said.

But her emails... 

[AmazonGrace]

 

Because all the campaigns need a Vkontakte account so they can more readily collude with Russian beauties who work for Putin. 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[Cartmann99]

44 minutes ago, AmazonGrace said:

 

It's great to see Representative Castro getting air time, but will the information really be that shocking to people like us who have been following things quite closely? I already think Trump and his pals are capable of the sort of things that happen in nightmares, so I'm doubtful I'll faint or anything when the big reveal happens. 

* scatters some throw pillows on the floor just to be on the safe side*

[Howl]

48 minutes ago, Cartmann99 said:

so I'm doubtful I'll faint or anything when the big reveal happens. 

* scatters some throw pillows on the floor just to be on the safe side*

Are you going to do an "out cold" fainter or into a more of a slow-mo type faint?  And more importantly, did it snow out in West Texas?  It's snowing here in Austin with a bit of accumulation.  There were about 10 "it's snowing!" posts on my facebook around 5:30 pm, when a few flakes drifted down, because hey! we're Texans. It's a novelty.  

[Cartmann99]

1 hour ago, Howl said:

Are you going to do an "out cold" fainter or into a more of a slow-mo type faint?  And more importantly, did it snow out in West Texas?  It's snowing here in Austin with a bit of accumulation.  There were about 10 "it's snowing!" posts on my facebook around 5:30 pm, when a few flakes drifted down, because hey! we're Texans. It's a novelty.  

If I faint, it will probably end up looking like something you'd see on a comedy sketch show. I'm not the most graceful gal. 

The forecast earlier was predicting snow, but we ended up just getting wet. Hell, I remember those days of listening to the weather forecast when I was a kid, and hoping with all of my might that I'd wake up to an inch of snow. As you well know, when your average yearly snowfall is in the single digits, a inch of snow on the ground is like waking up in a damn blizzard! 

It's going to get down in the twenties tonight, so the cops will be busy with all of the lunkheads who think driving a large vehicle means that they don't have to worry about black ice. 

 

[formergothardite]

10 hours ago, Howl said:

There were about 10 "it's snowing!" posts on my facebook around 5:30 pm, when a few flakes drifted down, because hey! we're Texans. It's a novelty.  

According to the news the snow from Texas is heading our way in NC. We might get a flake or two but everyone is super excited. 

11 hours ago, Cartmann99 said:

I already think Trump and his pals are capable of the sort of things that happen in nightmares, so I'm doubtful I'll faint or anything when the big reveal happens. 

The only way I'll be shocked if it comes out that Trump is a really nice human. Anything else and I will be all "Yep, I expected that."

[AmazonGrace]

At this point the only way to shock me is if some DREADFUL THING comes out about Trump et al, and it makes any difference to the Republicans. There are so many DREADFUL THINGS that already came out and GOP is just, nothing matters lol.

The chances are it will turn out that Trump is essentially a Russian mobster and some people will be "concerned" for two days until the "well, ACTUALLY,  Russian mobsters aren't bad" takes surface.