Mueller Investigation!

[GreyhoundFan]

I'm not a fan of Walsh, but this is so true:

 

[onekidanddone]

Just now, GreyhoundFan said:

I'm not a fan of Walsh, but this is so true:

 

Wasn't he the one who yelled "You lie" when Obama was giving the State of the Union address?

Or is this Joe Walsh the one who's live has been good to him so far??

[Howl]

Isn't this Walsh the America's Most Wanted guy?

[AmazonGrace]

 

[onekidanddone]

44 minutes ago, Howl said:

Isn't this Walsh the America's Most Wanted guy?

Random anecdote about John Walsh the America's Most Wanted guy:  Last year my husband was picking me up at the airport and as he stood in baggage claim he saw a limo driver with the name Walsh written on a card. Mr OneKid asked the driver if he was waiting for Joe Walsh the singer.  Turns out it was the crime guy John Walsh.  

 

[smittykins]

55 minutes ago, Howl said:

Isn't this Walsh the America's Most Wanted guy?

No, that's John Walsh.

[Howl]

Well, turns out I don't know who the hell this guy is.  So who the hell is he?

Everybody is focused on the Manafort sentencing memo made public on Friday, but the Flynn  sentencing memo will be made public tomorrow (Tuesday)! 

[fraurosena]

5 hours ago, Howl said:

Well, turns out I don't know who the hell this guy is.  So who the hell is he?

Everybody is focused on the Manafort sentencing memo made public on Friday, but the Flynn  sentencing memo will be made public tomorrow (Tuesday)! 

I confess I had to look up if it wasn’t Joe Walsh of Eagles fame. Thankfully not.

Flynn’s sentencing memo is something to look forward to today. Brace yourself for the inevitable tweet attacks on Mueller that will be sure to follow.

[Cartmann99]

7 hours ago, Howl said:

Well, turns out I don't know who the hell this guy is.  So who the hell is he?

Joe Walsh is that deadbeat dad guy whose ex-wife sued him for more than $100,000 in back child support. He and the ex-wife came to an agreement, but a couple of years later he was again trying to get out of paying child support because he was unemployed.

He was a also a tea party congresscritter from Illinois. Tammy Duckworth challenged him for the seat when he tried to run again, and he complained during the campaign that she talked too much about her military service and the injuries she suffered during that time. He later tried to backtrack his comments, but he ended up losing to her. He's a conservative radio host these days.

Joe Wilson was the jackass who yelled "You lie!" at President Obama.

[AmazonGrace]

 

[GreyhoundFan]

"Mueller seeks no prison time for former national security adviser Michael Flynn, citing his ‘substantial assistance’"

Spoiler

Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III on Tuesday recommended that former national security adviser Michael Flynn serve no prison time, citing his “substantial assistance” with several ongoing investigations, according to a new court filing.

Flynn was forced out of his post as national security adviser in February 2017 after the White House said he misled administration officials, including Vice President Pence, about his contacts with Sergey Kislyak, Russia’s ambassador to the United States at the time.

Since then, Flynn has been cooperating with Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 campaign, and his full account of events has been one of the best-kept secrets in Washington. He is one of five Trump aides who have pleaded guilty in the special counsel probe.

The special counsel’s new filing Tuesday is the first time prosecutors have described Flynn’s assistance since the former national security adviser’s guilty plea last year.

In it, prosecutors said Flynn has assisted with several ongoing investigations — participating in 19 interviews with federal prosecutors.

Tuesday’s filing is heavily redacted, continuing to shroud in secrecy the details of what Flynn told Mueller’s team about his interactions with Trump and other top officials.

But the document noted that Flynn has assisted the special counsel with its “investigation concerning links or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the Trump campaign.”

Flynn pleaded guilty in December 2017 to one felony count of making a false statement, despite a longer list of charges he could have faced. Prosecutors said last year they would likely seek a prison sentence between zero and six months.

The generous terms offered by the special counsel indicate that Flynn’s cooperation is viewed as highly useful to Mueller’s investigation, legal experts said.

As part of his investigation, Mueller has been working to determine whether any of Trump’s allies coordinated with Russia or sought help for his campaign. Prosecutors have sought to learn whether Trump urged Flynn’s outreach to the Russian ambassador to signal that the new White House team would go easy on the Russian government.

During the presidential transition, Flynn had several contacts with Kislyak. In early December 2016, he attended a meeting at Trump Tower in New York, during which Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner proposed to the Russian ambassador setting up a secret communications channel with the Kremlin, according to people briefed on intelligence reports.

Later in the month, Flynn spoke with Kislyak about U.S. sanctions on Russia and other topics, Flynn admitted in his plea last year. Flynn also told prosecutors that he was in touch with senior Trump transition officials before and after his communications with the ambassador.

In his plea agreement, Flynn said he contacted the Russian ambassador on Dec. 22, 2016, about the incoming administration’s opposition to a U.N. resolution condemning Israeli settlements as illegal and requested that Russia vote against or delay it. Kislyak called back a day later to say that Russia would not vote against the resolution, court records show.

In another conversation, on Dec. 29, Flynn called Kislyak to suggest the incoming president was not a fan of the sanctions imposed by the Obama administration and asked Russia not to escalate the ongoing feud, according to filings.

Russian President Vladi­mir Putin issued a statement Dec. 30 saying Russia would not retaliate against the U.S. sanctions at that time.

The following day, the ambassador called Flynn to inform him of Russia’s decision to honor Flynn’s request, according to the records.

Flynn admitted he had lied to FBI agents about his interactions with the ambassador when they interviewed him just four days after the inauguration, but also asserted that others in Trump’s transition team knew about his talks with Kislyak, according to court filings.

Flynn told prosecutors that a “very senior member of the Presidential Transition Team” had directed him to contact officials from foreign governments, including Russia, about the U.N. resolution on Israel.

That official is also not named, but people familiar with the matter have said it refers to Kushner. According to one transition team official, Trump’s son-in-law told Flynn that blocking the resolution was a top priority of the president-elect.

Flynn also admitted that before speaking with the ambassador on Dec. 29, he called a senior transition official at the Mar-a-Lago resort, where Trump was staying, “to discuss what, if anything, to communicate to the Russian ambassador about the U.S. Sanctions.” Flynn learned that transition members did not want Russia to escalate the situation, according to court papers.

The senior transition official is not identified in records, but people familiar with the matter identified the official as K.T. McFarland, a onetime Flynn deputy.

McFarland, who initially denied to FBI agents ever talking to Flynn about sanctions in the call, subsequently revised her statement and told investigators they may have discussed sanctions, The Washington Post previously reported.

[Former top White House official revises statement to special counsel about Flynn’s calls with Russian ambassador]

Two major questions were left unanswered by Flynn’s 2017 guilty plea: whether Trump instructed Flynn to call the ambassador and why Flynn lied about the contacts in the first place.

When Flynn pleaded guilty, then-White House lawyer Ty Cobb said the national security adviser’s lies had nothing to do with the president.

“Nothing about the guilty plea or the charge implicates anyone other than Mr. Flynn,” Cobb said.

Trump has repeatedly said he did not urge Flynn to call or discuss sanctions with the Russian ambassador.

“No,” he told reporters in a February 2017 news conference when asked whether he directed the call. “I didn’t.”

Trump said then that he was troubled that Flynn failed to tell Pence about his contacts with the Russian ambassador, but not by the interactions themselves.

“It certainly would have been okay with me if he did it. I would have directed him to do it if I thought he wasn’t doing it,” Trump told reporters. “I didn’t direct him, but I would have directed him because that’s his job.”

Flynn’s lie to FBI agents on Jan. 24, 2017, about his contacts with the Russian diplomat set in motion one of the biggest tumults of Trump’s presidency. It stunned senior Justice Department officials, who felt they had to warn the White House. The aftershocks still shadow Trump’s administration.

Two days later, then-acting Attorney General Sally Yates visited the White House to alert White House Counsel Donald McGahn about Flynn’s dishonesty.

McGahn immediately told Trump, who expressed surprise that the Justice Department was criticizing his choice of advisers just days after he took office.

Trump didn’t act to correct Flynn’s account or remove him until Feb. 9, when The Post revealed Flynn had talked to Kislyak about sanctions and lied about it.

Flynn resigned on Feb. 13, just 24 days in his position, the shortest tenure of a national security adviser on record.

A few days later, Trump hosted then-FBI Director James B. Comey for a dinner, where Comey said that Trump stunned him by asking him to show lenience in investigating Flynn. According to Comey’s later testimony, Trump told his FBI director that Flynn was a good man and said: “I hope you can let this go.”

Trump has said he does not recall saying that to Comey.

Trump's discussion with Comey became another subject of Mueller’s inquiry: examining whether Trump had sought to obstruct the probe of his campaign’s contacts with Russia.

Mueller will have an opportunity to lay out additional pieces of the evidence he has been gathering later this week. On Friday, prosecutors with the special counsel’s office are scheduled to file a letter to the judge who sentence Michael Cohen, the president’s former attorney. The letter will outline additional details of Cohen’s cooperation with Mueller’s office.

Also Friday, Mueller’s team will also submit a filing to a judge in Washington describing ways that Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort lied to prosecutors after pleading guilty in September and promising to cooperate. Prosecutors have said that Manafort breached his agreement by continuing to be dishonest in meetings with prosecutors.

Sentencing memo

[AmazonGrace]

Mr Lockherup gets off Scott Free?

[onekidanddone]

7 hours ago, AmazonGrace said:

Mr Lockherup gets off Scott Free?

I have to admit I'm rather disappointed by this, but I have a feeling he gave up some very powerful information.

[GreyhoundFan]

The WaPo's daily roundup is interesting: "The Daily 202: Flynn sentencing memo hints at how much Mueller knows that we still don’t"

Spoiler

THE BIG IDEA: The most striking part of Bob Mueller’s sentencing memo recommending Michael Flynn serve no prison time, because of his “substantial” assistance to “several ongoing investigations,” is how much got blacked out. It’s a reminder of how many shoes might still drop.

The special counsel revealed in a 13-page court filing late Tuesday night that President Trump’s former national security adviser has given 19 interviews to his office or other Justice Department attorneys, in addition to providing “documents and communications.”

Tantalizingly, Mueller teases that “the defendant has provided substantial assistance in a criminal investigation.” Then there are 22 fully redacted lines of text. That is in addition to the special counsel’s probe of “any links or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald J. Trump.”

Mueller has asked for several postponements in making a sentencing recommendation since Flynn pleaded guilty to a single felony count of making false statements to the FBI last December, a full year ago now. Just how much he’s gotten out of the career intelligence officer has been a closely held secret. Now we know it’s a lot, but what exactly Mueller got remains a mystery.

“While this [document] seeks to provide a comprehensive description of the benefit the government has thus far obtained from the defendant’s substantial assistance, some of that benefit may not be fully realized at this time because the investigations in which he has provided assistance are ongoing,” said Mueller.

The special counsel tells the judge that Flynn flipping when he did prompted others to cooperate and was “particularly valuable because he was one of the few people with long-term and firsthand insight regarding events and issues under investigation.”

Flynn is one of five Trump aides who have pleaded guilty as a result of the special counsel’s investigation. Mueller, who fought in Vietnam as a Marine, noted that Flynn spent 33 years in the Army, including five years of combat duty, before retiring as a three-star lieutenant general.

“The defendant’s record of military and public service distinguish him from every other person who has been charged,” the special counsel wrote. “However, senior government leaders should be held to the highest standards. The defendant’s extensive government service should have made him particularly aware of the harm caused by providing false information to the government, as well as the rules governing work performed on behalf of a foreign government.”

-- Flynn's son celebrated the news that his dad probably won't go to prison:

-- Mueller will file two more documents on Friday: He is scheduled to outline details of Michael Cohen’s cooperation in a letter to the judge overseeing the former Trump consigliere’s sentencing. He’s also due to submit a filing explaining the ways that former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort breached his plea agreement by being dishonest with prosecutors.

-- Mueller biographer Garrett Graff outlines 14 questions this morning that the special counsel knows the answers to and that we don’t: “Decoding Mueller’s 17-month investigation has been a publicly frustrating exercise, as individual puzzle pieces, like Flynn's sentencing memo, often don’t hint at the final assembled picture—nor even tell us if we’re looking at a single interlocking puzzle, in which all the pieces are related, or multiple, separate, unrelated ones,” Graff writes in a new piece for Wired magazine. “Mueller’s careful, methodical strategy often only reveals itself in hindsight, as the significance of previous steps becomes clear with subsequent ones.”

1. Is Matt Whitaker overseeing the Russia probe—and is his appointment as attorney general even legal?
2. Is Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross involved in any of this?
3. How closely related is the investigation of the 2016 election to the Trump Organization’s financial scandals?
4. How did Trump himself, and the Trump family, react to Cohen’s updates on various schemes?
5. What has Felix Sater told Mueller?
6. What has George Nader told Mueller?
7. What happens to Cozy Bear?
8. Who is the (unindicted) Atlanta traveler?
9. Why was Trump’s team so concerned about the transition documents?
10. How much more of the Steele Dossier is true?
11. Is it a coincidence that the Internet Research Agency scheduled a “Down with Hillary” rally in New York, weeks in advance, for the day after WikiLeaks dumped the DNC emails?
12. Why isn’t Mueller prosecuting Maria Butina and Elena Alekseevna Khusyaynova?
13. Why is Mueller charging Michael Cohen?
14. Was the Guardian correct in reporting that Paul Manafort met with Julian Assange?

-- Rudy Giuliani said he’s not concerned that Flynn has given Mueller anything that would implicate Trump: “If he had information to share with Mueller that hurt the president, you would know it by now,” the president’s attorney told NBC. “There's a Yiddish word that fits. They don't have bupkis.”

-- New Yorker writer Jeff Toobin thinks Trump ought to be nervous about Mueller’s assertion that “senior government leaders should be held to the highest standards.” “I would be a little nervous if I were the people involved in the obstruction of justice investigation, starting, of course, with the president of the United States,” he said  on CNN.

...

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[fraurosena]

New filing in Cohen's case. Before you get all excited, it's from Cohen's lawyers, not Mueller. We'll have to wait till Friday for that one.

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[GreyhoundFan]

 

[fraurosena]

Looks like we'll have Mueller's Cohen sentencing memo no later than 5.00 pm on Friday.

 

[fraurosena]

If this is true... 

FBI Expert Suggests Michael Flynn May Have Worn a Wire in Conversations With Trump

Quote

Last night, the Mueller investigation chugged along as the FBI released Michael Flynn’s sentencing memo. The report, however, was heavily redacted, leading many to speculate about the contents inside.

MSNBC’s Morning Joe called on Frank Figluzzi to come in and help explain the memo. Figluzzi was formerly an Assistant Director for Counterintelligence at the FBI and is familiar with Robert Mueller’s methods.

He began the segment by explaining that the extensive redactions meant that the info inside was sensitive. After stating that redactions are out of character for Mueller, Figluzzi said, “We saw lots of redaction. You do that in the FBI either when you have classified information or you are at such a sensitivity level that you cannot expose it.”

Figluzzi also felt the light sentence and amount of redactions meant the investigation was aiming for convictions at the highest levels. He continued, “I think, in fact, that underneath these redactions, if we were to lift these black magic marker points out, we would see people with the last name Trump or Kushner.”

Finally, Figluzzi ended the segment with a bombshell suggestion; Flynn may have worn a wire. He told the panel, “We see reference here to quick cooperation by Flynn. What does that mean? Did it happen in what we call the golden hour, where you could even wire somebody up and have him share communications in real time?”

Regardless of whether Flynn was wired or not, the report is troubling for Trump and people in is orbit. Flynn participated in over 19 interviews. This could mean problems for members of Trump’s family, Jared Kushner and VP Mike Pence.

 

[AmazonGrace]

I wonder what the Flynn-is-a-misunderstood-patriot squad on Twitter would say if it turned out he was wired.

[fraurosena]

Not directly Mueller's investigation, but close enough. This explains why McCabe had to go. And it also makes the case for obstruction of justice by Jeff Sessions.

 

[fraurosena]

Well, now we know why it's rumored (again) that Kelly will be ousted soon.

Mueller investigators questioned John Kelly in obstruction probe

Quote

White House chief of staff John Kelly was interviewed by special counsel Robert Mueller's team in recent months, three people with knowledge of the matter told CNN.

Kelly responded to a narrow set of questions from special counsel investigators after White House lawyers initially objected to Mueller's request to do the interview earlier this summer, the sources said. Kelly is widely expected to leave his position in the coming days and is no longer on speaking terms with President Donald Trump, CNN reported earlier Friday.

Kelly is the latest high-ranking White House official known to provide information for Mueller's investigation, though his interview marks a departure of sorts since Kelly didn't join the White House until July 2017. Most of the dozens of other interviews have been with people who were associated with the Trump campaign, were part of the transition or served in the early part of the administration.

The Mueller questions to Kelly centered on a narrow set of issues in the investigation of potential obstruction of justice, chiefly Kelly's recollection of an episode that took place after new reporting emerged about how the President had tried to fire Mueller. The President was angry at then-White House counsel Don McGahn about what had been reported by The New York Times. McGahn had refused to publicly deny the reporting. The special counsel wanted to try to corroborate McGahn's version of events.

The White House counsel's office had initially fought the Mueller request. One source familiar with the matter said that Emmett Flood wanted to make sure "ground rules" were negotiated.

"In order to question a government official about things that happened during the course of government business, you've got to show that it's highly important and you can't get it anywhere else," the source said.

The source noted that the Kelly request came at a sensitive time, following raids of the home and office of Michael Cohen, the President's now-former lawyer.

The resistance to Kelly doing an interview represented a key turn by the President and his attorneys who had previously allowed the special counsel to interview current and former White House staff and handed over hundreds of thousands of documents.