Spitting in America's face. Unbelievable.

[Edited on January 29, 2018 at 9:14 PM. Reason : Yep, Congress would need to actually sue the whitehouse.]

1/29/2018 9:12:27 PM

it's not clear the degree to which mccabe was forced out, but it seems there was certainly pressure for him to leave. then republicans voted to release the nunes memo but not release the democratic memo.

its very clear that republicans are going after rosenstein to remove mueller, this is party over country at it's worst

i'm certainly not surprised that they are trying this, and i certainly have little respect for republicans, but even i am surprised how willing republicans have been to support trump and how easy it has been for them to undermine the system

here is an old article that describes who would take over if rosenstein is removed:
How Trump could fire the special counsel (if he were foolish enough to try)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/06/13/how-trump-could-fire-the-special-counsel-if-he-were-foolish-enough-to-try/?utm_term=.80f8c63af5f1

Quote :

" 3. Let’s assume that we go through the normal process. As in the first diagram, the firing of Mueller falls to Rosenstein. It’s highly unlikely that Rosenstein would agree with Trump that Mueller needs to be removed, for reasons we’ll get to in a second. If he didn’t agree, he could reject Trump’s request — and risk being fired. Or he could follow the tradition established in 1973 when the attorney general and deputy attorney general resigned rather than comply with President Richard Nixon’s demand that the special investigator looking at Watergate be fired. 4. If, on the other hand, Rosenstein (or any of the other people in the chain of command that follows below) decided to comply with Trump, they would have one of two options for doing so, according to Goldsmith. Either they’d have to throw out the regulations binding the firing of Mueller (see Goldsmith’s post for a lot of detail on this) or they’d have to establish cause for firing him. If either of those things is done, Mueller is fired. But the former would be exceptional and, given the bounds of the possible causes for firing special counsel — “misconduct, dereliction of duty, incapacity, conflict of interest, or for other good cause, including violation of Departmental policies” — it’s unlikely that a viable case for firing Mueller could be made in good faith at this point. If a cause can’t be found by Rosenstein, it’s hard to see how he could continue in that position. 5. With Rosenstein and Sessions out of the picture, the decision falls to Rachel Brand, who faces the same decisions as Rosenstein. If she ends up leaving the picture, it falls to Dana Boente, acting assistant attorney general for national security. If he demurs or won’t dump the regulations/can’t find cause, we keep going. In 1973, the third person in line was the solicitor general, Robert Bork, who agreed with Nixon’s decision. It’s not clear if the acting solicitor general, Jeffrey B. Wall, would be part of this line of succession. If any other Justice officials are confirmed in the period between our writing this and Trump’s decision to fire Mueller, those officials could be slotted in here. 6. At this point, Goldsmith writes, an executive order signed by Trump in March comes into play. It outlines the order of succession in the Department of Justice, running through three U.S. attorneys as next-in-line to leadership. (The first is the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, who happens to be Dana Boente.) As acting heads of the department, they’d be faced with the same choice as Rosenstein. If each of them demurred, it’s not really clear what would happen — though it’s likely that this might prompt Trump to appeal to the option in step one, ignoring the regulations entirely. What’s outlined above is simply the process by which Mueller could legally be removed from his position. What’s not considered (beyond that aside for Sessions) are the political repercussions. While Congress has given Trump a decent amount of leeway on the Russia investigation to this point, Trump’s explicitly removing the person leading an outside inquiry would almost certainly significantly heighten the political pressure he faces. But as we’ve seen over the past two years: That doesn’t mean he won’t do it."

1/30/2018 8:35:55 AM

FWIW I think that there was a legal out to Trump not implementing the sanctions by this date. It looks pee tape bad but there is not illegality.

Also, the GOP is just savage. I’m amazed at how good they are at giving zero fucks.

1/30/2018 8:43:50 AM

well the law gives him that authority explicitly, it's not really a loophole

him doing it is still telling though

1/30/2018 8:45:29 AM

https://twitter.com/natvasilyevaap/status/958263661310763009

Wat?

1/30/2018 11:26:32 AM

I'm real close to calling this guy a traitor. Still need to wait for the investigation to complete. But jesus...

1/30/2018 11:38:59 AM

They're not even putting much effort into pretending to care about Russian interference.

[Edited on January 30, 2018 at 11:42 AM. Reason : ^ I can't possibly fathom why you would wait on calling him that]

1/30/2018 11:41:34 AM

It COULD be different then the classified list but I’m not sure this admin deserves any benefit of the doubt here. Russia was clearly shook yesterday at what they THOUGHT was coming. Or at least acted shook.

I don’t know what happened with Trump and Russia but I’m firmly in the camp something did and it’s bad enough that Trump desperately wants to kill any real oversight/investigation. I logically don’t see any other conclusion that makes sense.

1/30/2018 11:44:11 AM

Quote :

"https://twitter.com/natvasilyevaap/status/958263661310763009 Wat?"

that's silly, the list they published included the putin administration and rich russians so it's bad they used the kremlin's org chart for the list of the putin adminstration? also, it was made by the treasury and not trump.

i don't understand the implication


[Edited on January 30, 2018 at 11:49 AM. Reason : .]

1/30/2018 11:46:36 AM

^makes sense

^^^this is why i didn't jump to just calling him that, lol

[Edited on January 30, 2018 at 12:03 PM. Reason : a]

1/30/2018 12:03:18 PM

If you read section 241 of the Countering America's Adversaries through Sanctions Act, it charges the treasury dept with producing a detailed report on Putin affiliates and a ton of relevant info on those individuals.

The implication is they barely lifted a finger and just copy-pasted whatever they found after a 10 minute google search.

1/30/2018 12:06:07 PM

ah, it makes sense in that context

1/30/2018 12:17:35 PM

I think you're right that copying the names off the website isnt necessarily a bad thing, especially if the rest of the report is detailed and thorough.

But if I'm a teacher and I find a section of your book report copied almost directly from a source online, it's gonna raise my eyebrows, and I'm gonna investigate all the other sections of your report.

[Edited on January 30, 2018 at 12:25 PM. Reason : Keep in mind I always operate from the position that Trump and his buddies are guilty AF]

1/30/2018 12:25:05 PM

This is the first that I've read about Natalya Veselnitskaya attempting to recruit a top Swiss federal investigator to be a mole inside the Swiss investigation of Kremlin crimes:

http://observer.com/2018/01/sanctions-nunes-memo-reveal-donald-trump-sean-hannity-ties-to-russia/

1/30/2018 12:31:30 PM

I’m guessing that’s Schindler who wrote that given it’s Observer... I treat him the same way I do Greenwald - interesting to read but full of prejudgment and bias based on their niches.

I still try and understand the whole FBI wanted Clinton to win thing. It defies all logic we know publicly. Comey taking the extraordinary step to scold HRC in front of Congress with no illegality found, Rudy telling everyone he could shout to that his FBI guys had real dirt coming, the letter Comey sent re-opening the email case and the NYT “no clear link to Russia” garbage that hit.

I’m not even mad I’m just amazed that the right wing media apparatus is so amazingly efficient at driving narratives.

[Edited on January 30, 2018 at 12:39 PM. Reason : For someone anti-Trump they couldn’t do more to help him]

1/30/2018 12:38:40 PM

This is the article referenced in the Observer column above:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-tower-russian-lawyer-natalia-veselnitskaya-exposed-in-swiss-corruption-case

1/30/2018 12:49:41 PM

^anyone denying she is a Russian agent is full of shit. The evidence is damning.

Check this out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1073&v=fB-y6ii531c
fast forward to the 17min mark. Its Ron Paul spitting on the American Flag on Russian state TV (looking for non-dubbed version, not sure it exists)

1/30/2018 1:13:56 PM

?

also: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jan/30/trump-russia-collusion-fbi-cody-shearer-memo

[Edited on January 30, 2018 at 1:22 PM. Reason : a]

1/30/2018 1:19:19 PM

shearer is the guy who provided blumenthal with the intelligence that he kept sending to clinton in the leaked emails

the timing of this memo being made known is suspicious, republicans will use his shearer's sketchy background to undermine steele's good background.

this is related to the nunes memo, it is all coordinated to make the fisa warrant look inappropriate

[Edited on January 30, 2018 at 1:41 PM. Reason : .]

1/30/2018 1:41:22 PM

100% leaked to coordinate with the nunes memo, but I saw this as an attempt to prove that additional information was used for the fisa, not just steele's stuff, and that the other stuff corroborated steels's stuff.

that being said, the fact that steele is the one who gave this to the fbi will just turn into the gop saying steele made that too

1/30/2018 1:47:01 PM

iot's intended to make it look like steele was coordinating with the DNC, since shearer is a shady democratic insider connection

1/30/2018 2:11:10 PM

https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/2018-state-of-the-union-address/state-donald-trump-he-thinks-it-couldn-t-be-better-n842501

Quote :

"WASHINGTON — Donald Trump is telling friends and aides in private that things are going great — for him. Some reasons: He's decided that a key witness in the Russia probe, Paul Manafort, isn't going to "flip" and sell him out, friends and aides say. He believes Robert Mueller, who heads the investigation, can be crushed, if necessary, without being fired. "

Quote :

"Sources say that Trump has adopted a two-track strategy to deal with the Mueller investigation. One is an un-Trumpian passivity and trust. He keeps telling some in his circle that Mueller — any day now — will tell him he is off the hook for any charge of collusion with the Russians or obstruction of justice. But Trump — who trusts no one, or at least no one for long — has now decided that he must have an alternative strategy that does not involve having Justice Department officials fire Mueller. "I think he's been convinced that firing Mueller would not only create a firestorm, it would play right into Mueller's hands," said another friend, "because it would give Mueller the moral high ground." Instead, as is now becoming plain, the Trump strategy is to discredit the investigation and the FBI without officially removing the leadership. Trump is even talking to friends about the possibility of asking Attorney General Jeff Sessions to consider prosecuting Mueller and his team. "Here's how it would work: 'We're sorry, Mr. Mueller, you won't be able to run the federal grand jury today because he has to go testify to another federal grand jury,'" said one Trump adviser."

1/30/2018 5:11:29 PM

wow, good times coming!

:MJ popcorn gif:

1/30/2018 5:47:16 PM

https://www.thedailybeast.com/devin-nunes-wont-say-if-he-worked-with-white-house-on-anti-fbi-memo?ref=home

Quote :

"During Monday’s contentious closed-door committee meeting, Rep. Mike Quigley, a Democrat, asked Nunes point-blank if his staffers had been talking with the White House as they compiled a four-page memo alleging FBI and Justice Department abuses over surveillance of President Trump’s allies in the Russia probe. According to sources familiar with the exchange, Nunes made a few comments that didn’t answer the question before finally responding, “I’m not answering.”"

*fart noises*

1/30/2018 6:47:34 PM

^8

How much of that Russian bullshit do I have to watch before RP actually spits on the flag?

Hard to watch if I can't understand jack shit.

PS. Russians are doing their best American impressions in that thing. No wonder the base buys in.

[Edited on January 30, 2018 at 9:01 PM. Reason : ~PS]

1/30/2018 9:00:29 PM

Uh, sorry, I was using "spitting on the flag" as hyperbole. Hope you didn't waste too much time.

1/30/2018 9:10:52 PM

Only 2 minutes. No worries, amigo.

[Edited on January 30, 2018 at 10:19 PM. Reason : ~Hyperbole is not appropriate for this day and age?]

1/30/2018 10:05:40 PM

lol:
Devin Nunes Won’t Say if He Worked With White House on Anti-FBI Memo
https://www.thedailybeast.com/devin-nunes-wont-say-if-he-worked-with-white-house-on-anti-fbi-memo?ref=scroll

Quote :

"The Republican chairman of the House intelligence committee refused to answer when a colleague asked him if he had coordinated his incendiary surveillance memo with the White House, The Daily Beast has learned. During Monday’s contentious closed-door committee meeting, Rep. Mike Quigley, a Democrat, asked Nunes point-blank if his staffers had been talking with the White House as they compiled a four-page memo alleging FBI and Justice Department abuses over surveillance of President Trump’s allies in the Russia probe. According to sources familiar with the exchange, Nunes made a few comments that didn’t answer the question before finally responding, “I’m not answering.” Spokespeople for Nunes and for the White House did not immediately respond."

1/31/2018 8:52:51 AM

https://twitter.com/sahilkapur/status/958715959509995520

I suppose Wray is just another Obama/Clinton plant...

1/31/2018 10:06:34 AM

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-31/trump-says-100-percent-after-he-s-asked-to-release-gop-memo

Quote :

"FBI Director Christopher Wray told the White House he opposes release of a classified Republican memo alleging bias at the FBI and Justice Department because it contains inaccurate information and paints a false narrative, according to a person familiar with the matter."

[Edited on January 31, 2018 at 11:53 AM. Reason : a]

1/31/2018 11:53:01 AM

https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/31/politics/nunes-memo-law-enforcement/index.html

1/31/2018 1:20:13 PM

The Twitter take is that the FBI statement is a media/left concoction. Of course Nunes already responded to it with fire so I’m guessing it was a real statement.

I’m not sure what Nunes’ game here is tbh. Banking on the FBI having to use restraint and not being able to dispute because they need to protect sourced and methods?

1/31/2018 3:37:56 PM

The FBI can't respond and explain what the inaccuracies or lies are because it would require disclosure of classified information.

Nunes is also banking on the fact that the GOP memo will be released imminently and will have several days if not weeks on the television and social media circuits before the Democratic response can be released (presuming Trump doesn't object to it when it goes to him for review, which he most likely will and even this requires a vote to get it to him to begin with in a GOP majority Congress).

On top of that, they're likely banking on the fact that just like most corrected media stories never get the traction they did initially, the Democratic response will be glossed over. Not so sure about that one but it's definitely possible.

Example: Nunes' memo can claim that the FBI applied for and received a warrant by referencing the Steele Dossier.

To respond and correct this, the FBI would have to indicate what other sources it used, how they were used, how they were collected and assessed regarding veracity. This would require all kinds of procedures and hurdles to be overcome in order to let it out and it may not even be possible to do so without jeopardizing sources and methods.

Furthermore, this memo will most likely constantly state that Steele's dossier was paid for by Democratic opponents. This is so beyond misleading it's not even funny. Fusion GPS took over a GOP initiated contract to gather information on Trump, irrespective of what that information indicated. In other words, they were hired to find out everything they can about Trump, both positive and negative. They contracted out to a former British spy with Russian expertise once they hit the end of their leads and things indicated there was information in Russia. Steele never knew who was paying Fusion nor would he have cared as he's not a U.S. citizen. He simply put feelers out and said "tell me what you know about Donald Trump." The information he received back was put into his memos and given to the FBI.

For the FBI to try and publicly give credence/veracity to the memos, they'd have to give up sources and methods. So it's another aspect that they cannot correct or refute and Nunes knows this.

This situation is literally one of the most morally reprehensible things I have ever seen come out of Congress.

[Edited on January 31, 2018 at 3:50 PM. Reason : a]

1/31/2018 3:45:36 PM

it sounds like the memo is that mccabe directed agents to change 302 forms for the fisa warrant, unless hannity said that for some other reason

1/31/2018 3:53:38 PM

How on earth is right wing twitter able to mobilize so insanely fast? Every tweet from a reporter on the FBI statement is met with 100 responses calling it made up. I try not to get caught up in the whole “bots” thing but it is insane.

1/31/2018 3:55:11 PM

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_FBI_forms#FD-302

Quote :

"A FD-302 form is used by FBI agents to "report or summarize the interviews that they conduct"[3][4] and contains information from the notes taken during the interview by the non-primary[further explanation needed] agent. It consists of information taken from the subject, rather than details about the subject themselves. A forms list from an internal FBI Website lists the FD-302 as Form for Reporting Information That May Become Testimony. Criticism[edit] The use of the FD-302 has been criticized as a form of institutionalized perjury due to FBI guidelines that prohibit recordings of interviews. Prominent defense lawyers and former FBI agents have stated that they believe that the method of interviewing by the FBI is designed to expose interviewees to potential perjury or false statement criminal charges when the interviewee is deposed in a grand jury and has to contradict the official record presented by the FBI. They have also stated that perjury by FBI agents allows the FBI to use the leverage of a potential criminal charge to turn an innocent witness into an informant.[5][6][7]"

https://grandjurytarget.com/2017/05/18/what-is-an-fbi-302-the-problematic-nature-of-fbi-agents-interview-memos/

[Edited on January 31, 2018 at 3:57 PM. Reason : a]

1/31/2018 3:55:17 PM

CNN just dropped this one: https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/31/politics/donald-trump-rod-rosenstein-december-meeting/index.html

1/31/2018 4:06:20 PM

Quote :

"How on earth is right wing twitter able to mobilize so insanely fast? Every tweet from a reporter on the FBI statement is met with 100 responses calling it made up. I try not to get caught up in the whole “bots” thing but it is insane."

russian twitter bots

1/31/2018 4:17:00 PM

https://dashboard.securingdemocracy.org/

1/31/2018 4:19:06 PM

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/31/us/politics/trump-russia-hope-hicks-mueller.html

Kinda crazy the president can tell a blatant lie about his team meeting with the Russians to get illicit info on Hillary and it barely registered.

1/31/2018 10:01:04 PM

It's one of the most infuriating things regarding society. The key passage in that article is that it is illegal to lie to the FBI, it is not illegal to lie to the press. We focus more on legality in society than morality and that's why people can get away with shit like this.

1/31/2018 10:19:55 PM

https://twitter.com/jeffzeleny/status/959073398252015616

There aren’t any people out there that think Trump did nothing wrong anymore, are there? I know some people simply don’t care but we are headed to straight chaos soon.

2/1/2018 9:41:17 AM

Playing out pretty much exactly like Watergate. For now I still have faith our system will work through this and get to a truthful result. Just sucks how painful people are making it.

2/1/2018 9:43:51 AM

Lol, just remembered Trump used the excuse of being too tough on Clinton when he fired Comey before he told Lester Holt the truth.

2/1/2018 9:57:23 AM

kinda related to that- one of the guys the right is claiming to be biased against trump, Peter Strzok, who was removed from the Mueller investigation, co-wrote the draft of the letter supporting reopening the Clinton investigation that Comey ultimately sent to Congress.

So the guy that Republicans are accusing of being biased against Trump played a role in getting him elected. Oops!

lol
http://www.cnn.com/2018/01/31/politics/strzok-fbi-comey-clinton-letter/index.html

Quote :

"In an October 27, 2016, email the FBI provided to congressional investigators, Strzok informs his colleagues he and another FBI agent had drafted "the first cut" of the letter notifying Congress of the decision to reopen the Clinton email investigation. His colleagues then exchanged two additional emails referencing further comments and changes to Strzok's initial draft, which was ultimately forwarded to Comey by then-FBI chief of staff James Rybicki. One of the drafts, reviewed by CNN, was recently produced to Congress with the email chain. But it is unclear whether that draft was the initial copy written by Strzok or one incorporating others' edits. That draft states that the FBI had an "obligation to take appropriate investigative steps to review" the newly discovered emails on Weiner's laptop."

2/1/2018 10:09:44 AM

facts don't matter anymore

2/1/2018 10:54:51 AM

Quote :

" I know some people simply don’t care"

I don't care because whether or not he did anything wrong, it's meaningless unless we tie it into electoral reform. And people are much more interested in crucifying the figurehead, rather than fixing the system.

No one cares about fixing insecure ballot machines and voter registration websites. I can't help but wonder why.

2/1/2018 11:23:13 AM

Both of those are being addressed as part of Congressional recommendations for reforms post-2016 election.

And the reason those aren't as big of an issue in the press is because there is no evidence that votes were changed as a result of those security holes. What there is evidence of is POTUS attempting to cover up possible coordination with an enemy intelligence service to win.

So the priority should be on taking down the "figurehead," aka the guy who broke the laws.

http://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/361263-dems-say-congress-should-send-400m-to-states-for-election-cyber-upgrades

https://democrats-homeland.house.gov/sites/democrats.homeland.house.gov/files/documents/CTFES%20Preliminary%20Findings%20and%20Recs.pdf

http://money.cnn.com/2017/06/21/technology/voter-security-letter-sent-to-congress/index.html

I think there is another, official document, released by Congress that I'm trying to find.

[Edited on February 1, 2018 at 11:28 AM. Reason : a]

2/1/2018 11:25:25 AM

Could you link me somewhere? Definitely interested if that's true.

[Edited on February 1, 2018 at 11:32 AM. Reason : ill read those when i can]

2/1/2018 11:25:58 AM

Fo sho!

2/1/2018 11:34:58 AM