The Russian Connection 2

[Audrey2]

I know we do resolution for what we want to change instead of wishes, but my 2018 wish is to see Donny, Junior, Jared, and others doing the perp walk in manacles and orange jumpsuits.

[onekidanddone]

7 hours ago, Audrey2 said:

I know we do resolution for what we want to change instead of wishes, but my 2018 wish is to see Donny, Junior, Jared, and others doing the perp walk in manacles and orange jumpsuits.

Sessions in jail with the folk who he threw in there. 

ETA: Ivanka having to was a dish, scrub a toilet and makes her own toast.  All things she hasn't done before.

Disgusting spoiler below. Really I think I went too far this time, but so be it.

Spoiler

Trump having to wipe his own ass. Because when he goes to jail he might not be sharing a cell with Pence who is often the one on call to do it.  Hope Hicks takes care of it when Pencey  is home with Mother.

 

[GrumpyGran]

8 hours ago, fraurosena said:

And I also believe he is collaborating with State AG’s,

Yes, even if he escapes from all of the federal entanglements I think at the end of the day, Mueller will uncover some shady shit that the Dump has been doing for years and continues to do. It may be that they all go down eventually on charges related to business dealings in New York and New Jersey where Dumpy and family are wildly unpopular.

[Howl]

1 hour ago, GrumpyGran said:

Yes, even if he escapes from all of the federal entanglements I think at the end of the day, Mueller will uncover some shady shit that the Dump has been doing for years and continues to do. It may be that they all go down eventually on charges related to business dealings in New York and New Jersey where Dumpy and family are wildly unpopular.

Real estate has long been the go-to to launder Russian money, comrade.  Might or might not touch Drumpf directly, but damn, somebody is going down.  New York AG Eric Schneiderman has been after Trump for a long time, and sued Trump "University" for fraud in 2014 and won.  He's in tandem with Mueller. 

From a gq interview in late November, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman on What It Takes to Keep Trump in Check:  A conversation with the man who has been a thorn in the president's side for years. Full text here.

Quote

Today, with Trump is in the Oval Office, Schneiderman is still at it—investigating aspects of the president's dealings that fall outside the purview of the much-ballyhooed Mueller probe and the various Congressional investigations of Russian election-meddling. Schneiderman is quietly examining things like the president’s personal foundation (and that of Eric Trump), as well as Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort. Just last week, he blasted the FCC, led by a Trump appointee, for failing to help investigate an apparent scheme to help erase Net Neutrality.

 

[AmazonGrace]

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/joe-hockey-discussed-downers-russia-revelations-with-fbi-20180101-h0c58c.html

 

TL; DR:

1. Australian media confirmed that Papadopoulos talked to the Australian official 2. Australians are mad that US outed their guy. 

Spoiler

 

The ambassador to the United States Joe Hockey personally steered Australia's dealings with the FBI on explosive revelations of Russian hacking during last year's presidential campaign in a sign of how politically sensitive the Australian government regarded the bombshell discovery, Fairfax Media understands.

It is also understood there is now annoyance and frustration in Canberra that the High Commissioner to Britain Alexander Downer has been outed through leaks by US officials as the source of information that played a role in sparking an FBI probe into the Trump campaign's dealings with Moscow.

 

Fairfax Media has confirmed independently that the conversation first reported by The New York Times took place. In May 2016, Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos told Mr Downer over drinks at an upscale London wine bar that the Russians had a dirt file on rival candidate Hillary Clinton in the form of hacked Democratic Party emails.

Mr Downer conveyed the conversation to Canberra via an official cable, though apparently not immediately – perhaps because he did not take the 28-year-old adviser's claims altogether seriously until the hacked emails were released by Wikileaks in late July.

 

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is planning a trip to the United States in February, Fairfax Media understands. Mr Turnbull said on Monday he was "not at all" worried that Australia's role in sparking the investigation that has become a consuming headache for Mr Trump would damage his relationship with the President. Beyond that he refused to comment.

Mr Hockey is believed to have been involved in discussions with the FBI, indicating the Australian government was keenly alive to its political sensitivity, given it raised the possibility that one side of a presidential campaign was colluding with a foreign power against the other side.

 

Former officials and experts have said Australia dealt with the fraught situation correctly and had little choice but to share information of this nature with its closest ally. Serving and former officials also said Canberra had every right to be annoyed that Mr Downer's involvement had been made public.

 

Andrew Shearer, a senior national security and foreign affairs adviser to former prime ministers John Howard and Tony Abbott, said Mr Downer and the Australian government appeared to have handled the matter "entirely appropriately".

"Given the febrile political environment in Washington DC, particularly when it comes to anything relating to Russian election interference and the [Robert] Mueller investigation, it's regrettable but not terribly surprising that details of Downer's encounter with Papadopoulos have become public," said Mr Shearer, now with the Washington-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies.

Another CSIS expert, Michael Green, who was previously a senior White House national security official under George W. Bush, said Mr Downer's dramatic appearance at the centre of the case "gives this story of Trump campaign collusion with Russia a new level of credibility that will be problematic for the White House".

"Trump has attacked sources like this in the past, and it would not be surprising if he did so this time, though I think the US-Australia alliance and intel relationship can easily weather this," he said.

Mr Trump has furiously rejected suggestions of collusion between his campaign and the Russians to undermine his opponent. Along the way, he has launched unprecedented attacks on the FBI itself, while he and his supporters have dismissed the genesis of the probe as being a dossier compiled by a British former spy paid by Mr Trump's political rivals.

The Downer story is significant because it suggests the original probe was instead sparked by a tip-off from a trusted ally.

The Russia probe is now being conducted by special counsel Robert Mueller, a widely admired former FBI director. It is regarded as very unlikely the leak to The New York Times came from Mr Mueller or anyone connected to him.

It remains uncertain precisely the degree to which Australia's reporting of the Downer-Papadopoulos conversation sparked the original investigation, given US authorities were getting information also from other friendly governments and from within the US.

Mr Papadopoulos has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI and is now co-operating as a witness.

Some Trump advisers and Republicans have dismissed him as an insignificant player in the campaign, though there are numerous reported instances of his having played a significant role.

The New York Times reported there was no evidence that he told anyone else in the Trump campaign about the Russian hacking.

 

 

[GrumpyGran]

1 hour ago, AmazonGrace said:

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/joe-hockey-discussed-downers-russia-revelations-with-fbi-20180101-h0c58c.html

 

TL; DR:

1. Australian media confirmed that Papadopoulos talked to the Australian official 2. Australians are mad that US outed their guy. 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

The ambassador to the United States Joe Hockey personally steered Australia's dealings with the FBI on explosive revelations of Russian hacking during last year's presidential campaign in a sign of how politically sensitive the Australian government regarded the bombshell discovery, Fairfax Media understands.

It is also understood there is now annoyance and frustration in Canberra that the High Commissioner to Britain Alexander Downer has been outed through leaks by US officials as the source of information that played a role in sparking an FBI probe into the Trump campaign's dealings with Moscow.

 

Fairfax Media has confirmed independently that the conversation first reported by The New York Times took place. In May 2016, Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos told Mr Downer over drinks at an upscale London wine bar that the Russians had a dirt file on rival candidate Hillary Clinton in the form of hacked Democratic Party emails.

Mr Downer conveyed the conversation to Canberra via an official cable, though apparently not immediately – perhaps because he did not take the 28-year-old adviser's claims altogether seriously until the hacked emails were released by Wikileaks in late July.

 

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is planning a trip to the United States in February, Fairfax Media understands. Mr Turnbull said on Monday he was "not at all" worried that Australia's role in sparking the investigation that has become a consuming headache for Mr Trump would damage his relationship with the President. Beyond that he refused to comment.

Mr Hockey is believed to have been involved in discussions with the FBI, indicating the Australian government was keenly alive to its political sensitivity, given it raised the possibility that one side of a presidential campaign was colluding with a foreign power against the other side.

 

Former officials and experts have said Australia dealt with the fraught situation correctly and had little choice but to share information of this nature with its closest ally. Serving and former officials also said Canberra had every right to be annoyed that Mr Downer's involvement had been made public.

 

Andrew Shearer, a senior national security and foreign affairs adviser to former prime ministers John Howard and Tony Abbott, said Mr Downer and the Australian government appeared to have handled the matter "entirely appropriately".

"Given the febrile political environment in Washington DC, particularly when it comes to anything relating to Russian election interference and the [Robert] Mueller investigation, it's regrettable but not terribly surprising that details of Downer's encounter with Papadopoulos have become public," said Mr Shearer, now with the Washington-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies.

Another CSIS expert, Michael Green, who was previously a senior White House national security official under George W. Bush, said Mr Downer's dramatic appearance at the centre of the case "gives this story of Trump campaign collusion with Russia a new level of credibility that will be problematic for the White House".

"Trump has attacked sources like this in the past, and it would not be surprising if he did so this time, though I think the US-Australia alliance and intel relationship can easily weather this," he said.

Mr Trump has furiously rejected suggestions of collusion between his campaign and the Russians to undermine his opponent. Along the way, he has launched unprecedented attacks on the FBI itself, while he and his supporters have dismissed the genesis of the probe as being a dossier compiled by a British former spy paid by Mr Trump's political rivals.

The Downer story is significant because it suggests the original probe was instead sparked by a tip-off from a trusted ally.

The Russia probe is now being conducted by special counsel Robert Mueller, a widely admired former FBI director. It is regarded as very unlikely the leak to The New York Times came from Mr Mueller or anyone connected to him.

It remains uncertain precisely the degree to which Australia's reporting of the Downer-Papadopoulos conversation sparked the original investigation, given US authorities were getting information also from other friendly governments and from within the US.

Mr Papadopoulos has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI and is now co-operating as a witness.

Some Trump advisers and Republicans have dismissed him as an insignificant player in the campaign, though there are numerous reported instances of his having played a significant role.

The New York Times reported there was no evidence that he told anyone else in the Trump campaign about the Russian hacking.

 

 

I agree the Australian government handled this exactly as they should have and it does give a strong legitimacy to the investigation. As for the hope that it would remain secret, Andrew Shearer is right, that's unlikely anymore.

The right are screaming that every little detail should be thrown out into the light immediately, of course so they have the chance to discredit it before this becomes an avalanche that buries them. It's necessary to make sure that any half-way ethical Repub not get swept up in the constant denial and then aid in an attempt to stop the investigation so information is going to get out.

[fraurosena]

1 hour ago, GrumpyGran said:

e right are screaming that every little detail should be thrown out into the light immediately, of course so they have the chance to discredit it before this becomes an avalanche that buries them. It's necessary to make sure that any half-way ethical Repub not get swept up in the constant denial and then aid in an attempt to stop the investigation so information is going to get out.

Funny thing is, what is known by the investigation, is far, far more than the general public knows. It's also far, far more than those Repugliklans know. What is generally known, is but a fraction of the information the investigation has gathered. Denial is futile. The truth will out, sooner or later. 

[Howl]

Mueller's de facto "psy ops" is running a very tight ship with very little, if any, leaking.  This drives everyone crazy because they don't know what he knows, and if he's uncovered their particular secret meeting/phone call/text/financial arrangement. 

[Destiny]

Continued here: