October 24, 2017

"The Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee helped fund research that resulted in a now-famous dossier containing allegations about President Trump’s connections to Russia..."

"... and possible coordination between his campaign and the Kremlin, people familiar with the matter said. Marc E. Elias, a lawyer representing the Clinton campaign and the DNC, retained Fusion GPS, a Washington firm, to conduct the research. After that, Fusion GPS hired dossier author Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence officer with ties to the FBI and the U.S. intelligence community, according to those people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Elias and his law firm, Perkins Coie, retained the firm in April 2016 on behalf of the Clinton campaign and the DNC. Before that agreement, Fusion GPS’s research into Trump was funded by a still unknown Republican client during the GOP primary...."

The Washington Post has shocking news tonight.

ADDED: Why are the "people familiar with the matter" talking about it now? I'll just note the correlation with this story (CBS):
House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes, R-California, announced Tuesday that his committee, along with the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, would investigate a 2010 uranium deal struck with Russia amid allegations that the FBI had gathered evidence about Russian attempts to influence Hillary and Bill Clinton through donations to the Clinton Family Foundation.

"One of the things we are concerned about is whether or not there was an FBI investigation, was there a DOJ investigation and if so, why was Congress not informed of this matter," Nunes told reporters at the Capitol Tuesday. The Hill reported last week that before the Obama administration approved the deal, the FBI had evidence that Russian nuclear officials had engaged in activities like bribery and extortion in their pursuit of uranium for Russia...
And from 2 days ago "Hopes Dim for Congressional Russia Inquiries as Parties Clash" (NYT):
All three committees looking into Russian interference — one in the House, two in the Senate — have run into problems... The Senate Judiciary Committee’s inquiry has barely started, delayed in part by negotiations over the scope of the investigation. Leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee, while maintaining bipartisan comity, have sought to tamp down expectations about what they might find. Nine months into the Trump administration, any notion that Capitol Hill would provide a comprehensive, authoritative and bipartisan accounting of the extraordinary efforts of a hostile power to disrupt American democracy appears to be dwindling....

243 comments:

1 – 200 of 243   Newer›   Newest»
Ken B said...

Captain Renault shocking?

Bad Lieutenant said...

Please get Sessions a quart of blood, a fresh young boy and a carton of Luckies, this is going to take all night.

Rabel said...

I'll bring this up here:

Within minutes of the Post's article going up there were hundreds of comments and likes in the comments section saying that this was old news and that it had been previously reported. Lies. But an indicator that they knew it was coming and their trolls were prepped and ready to pounce.

MaxedOutMama said...

"She's come undone, she didn't know what she was head for ....".

Youtube soundtrack for this story:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kb9P8BLipqo

"When she found out she couldn't fly, it was too late..."

Narayanan said...

Can Sessions unrecuse now? Would that be legal innovation outside his creativity?

buwaya said...

It came out in the Post for a reason.
Probably because it was known it would be coming out very shortly anyway.
But who knows.

And yes, the pile of comments is interesting. There were already >2000 about an hour ago.

Bay Area Guy said...

It ain't shocking to me. The Dems first cause a buncha problems (surreptiously) and then run around like hysterical chickens without heads, yammering about how we need to do this, and need do that to solve the problems.

Think about it. In Watergate, you had the culprits (5 burglars in the DNC) caught the night of the crime, and indicted within a few weeks, and convicted in a few months.

Here, in Russia Hoax land, you have NO indictments. And 1 year after the election, it's unclear whether any crime was committed, let alone who did it.

Super sleuth Robert Mueller should resign, if he had any dignity left, to be replaced by Boris and Natasha.

Hari said...

Shocking to whom?

glenn said...

What Hari said.

The Bergall said...

These dopes couldn't tell disinformation if it hit them it face (or in other parts)............

Brain not working.

Michael K said...

Time for new subpoenas to Fusion execs couple with immunity..
They are small fry now.

Get the principles. The Fusion guys can go to prison for contempt if they refuse to name names.

Sessions can redeem himself.

buwaya said...

Interestingly this is not really a Clinton campaign problem.

The oppo research and dredging up of slime, fact or fiction, is fair.
The Clinton campaign did not use it in the campaign directly.
A Republican campaign paid for it to start (or is that true at all?)
But they didn't use it either, beyond someone giving it to the Clintons.
There would be some embarrassment to some Republicans maybe, but even that isn't the real problem.

The truly shameful thing here is that the previous administration picked up this piece of trash (hardly sourced through "intelligence" channels) and had the security agencies use it for partisan politics, especially in order to justify use of actual foreign intelligence assets to spy on political opponents.

Rob said...

We'll hear plenty in the hours and days to come about how this is all business as usual. Why then didn't the DNC and Clinton campaign come forward to disclose their role in the dossier? Why was the process of getting the information akin to pulling teeth?

Spiros Pappas said...

This is epic! Worse than Dan Savage and Rick Santorum. Worse than the Brooks Brothers Riot in 2000. But not as bad as Nixon sabotaging the Paris Peace Talks.

buwaya said...

"Why was the process of getting the information akin to pulling teeth?"

The other shameful performance by the "intelligence agencies".
Participating not just in a cover-up, but in a partisan political propaganda campaign.

MaxedOutMama said...

Buwaya - I think this must be an inside leak from somewhere in the Dem camp. Probably to finally get Hillary off the stage.

But I think the real issue is the involvement of the Obama admin. Claims of Russian interference that are poorly justified, if at all (and nothing more than the usual), and then the FISA involvement/unmasking, which appears to be very illegal.

A nasty spot, but we are going to have to deal with this. There are very real questions of national importance here. Is it any wonder that Americans don't trust our institutions?

Larvell said...

So Hillary conspired with Russians to influence the election?

Hari said...

Remember what they put Donald Trump Jr through for taking a meeting with a Russian lawyer promising dirt on Hillary?

Hari said...

Why shouldn't Trump fire the special prosecutor tomorrow morning?

rcocean said...

Sorry, I have trouble caring.

Congressional committees are going to "look into it" Anon sources are leaking to the Wapo. There's talk of the DoJ doing something.

Blah, blah and it never goes anywhere. Congress is always issuing subpoenas that go nowhere, writing letters to the DoJ/FBI that go unanswered, and letting any investigation grind to halt because the Democrats object.

And when they say "a Careful, through, investigation" what they really mean is "we'll do something during 5 hours a day, 100 days a year, we actually work"

Fabi said...

I can't wait to read the democrat talking points repeated by our progressives and any lifelong Republican.

rcocean said...

Its been a YEAR since Trump was elected and the Democrats started to scream "Trump-Russia" and I still have no idea WHAT SPECIFIC crime is being investigated or how Trump is guilty of ANYTHING.

What the fuck is Mueller doing? What EXACTLY is he investigating? Its been, almost 6 months.

Original Mike said...

I'm sure Inga will show up to explain it for us.

buwaya said...

"Buwaya - I think this must be an inside leak from somewhere in the Dem camp."

I think they (Wapo) had it all since last year. Probably straight from the administration, the DOJ or perhaps the FBI.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

Inga will tell us we should be ashamed of ourselves for voting for Trump because he's 1000 times worse than Hillary. Because she says so.

Snark said...

“Within minutes of the Post's article going up there were hundreds of comments and likes in the comments section saying that this was old news and that it had been previously reported. Lies. But an indicator that they knew it was coming and their trolls were prepped and ready to pounce.“

I first heard the developments via the WaPo reporter on CNN, and “wasn’t this alleged/revealed previously?” was my very legitimate first thought. Wasn’t an attempt to minimize in my own head, but a genuine reaction. Can’t say where that came from.

robother said...

Many news organizations said the dossier had been shopped to them, but they found it literally incredible. Of course it was leaked (I recall by Gawker) during the general election campaign but was so laughably scurrilous it had no effect on voters.

Its main use, interestingly, seems to have been providing the cover for NSA, FBI, CIA et al eavesdropping on the Trump Campaign and unmasking US citizens involved for Obama White House and after the election shocker, setting Inspector Comey on the trail of Russian Collusion.

As best as I can tell, Comey and Sessions are the only living Americans to not get the joke.

Rabel said...

One thing that is surprising is that the Clinton campaign wasn't better insulated from the connection with Fusion and the Russians. Overconfidence?

clint said...

Don't forget that Christopher Steele got a bunch of the "intelligence" for that dossier from his sources in Moscow.

Hey, I think I found some Russian collusion in the campaign! What do I win?

Fabi said...

You're overselling the con, Snark. Baby steps.

Original Mike said...

"Within minutes of the Post's article going up there were hundreds of comments and likes in the comments section saying that this was old news and that it had been previously reported."

Another talking point I've seen multiple times in the last two days is that the uranium "will be staying in the US." In particular, Tucker Carslon has had democrats on to discuss this topic, and they do not fail to make this claim. Tucker has come back with the claim that the NYT is reporting that the uranium has left the country, notwithstanding that the company does not have an export license. I wish I knew the truth, but it's clear the Dems have been prepped to make the claim they're making (the guy Tucker just had on made the claim unsolicited).

pacwest said...

Rug, meet dirt. Way too much money and power at stake for any real truths to come out.

There are a lot of people that belong in jail. I predict 0 convictions other than the token Trumper.

Rabel said...

I miss the siren. This is definitely siren worthy.

Now I Know! said...

LOL Ann! Where is your Hillary Derangement Syndrome tag?

Drago said...

Snark: "Can’t say where that came from."

A burning desire to avoid coming to the only rational conclusion available.

MaxedOutMama said...

Clint - well, as I said from the beginning, Putin could not have possibly wanted Trump to be the American president.

Hillary, on the other hand - didn't they really have the goods on her? Wasn't she always vulnerable to disclosures about the uranium deal, etc?

This has been rather obvious since the end of 2015/2016.

Snark said...

Didn’t we hear in the past that it was first funded as oppo research by a Trump primary opponent, and then funded by democratic interests after he won the nomination? That’s not new I don’t think? Maybe that’s what people are thinking of?

Fabi said...

So far we have:

1) Old news
2) Hillary Derangement Syndrome

Gusty Winds said...

Is this supposed to be a surprise?

Drago said...

OM: "I wish I knew the truth..."

The uranium has left the country.

But don't worry, the dems and their lifelong republican allies aren't worried about that at all.

As long as Hillary got paid and obambi's "Justice" dept and FBI worked hard to cover it all up.

After all, if a gal can't get paid for a little pay to play for a "cool" $145 Million, then nothing is right with this world!

glenn said...

There better be the promised video.

Drago said...

What we will find out next is that the other party, the original party, that paid for the dossier will be connected to Russia.

So, yes. What we will have is direct collusion between Russians, the Clinton Campaign and the obama admin (and intelligence agencies) to directly fund a nonsensical "dossier" which formed the basis of a nonsensical FISA warrant which allowed spying on the Trump campaign and all major players for an entire year and obambi then loosened the controls on who could get the the raw data, violating the FISA regulations, and then leaked it to all their lefty MSM friends, thus reducing confidence in our elections.

And then, the whole lefty crew and their lifelong republican allies turned on a dime and accused Trump and his campaign of basically a "Pearl Harbor" event against our nation.

That is literally the situation we are staring in the face.

grackle said...

Hillary and the DNC were crooked? Who could be surprised at this bit of news except those who had willfully decided to ignore the facts known so far about Hillary and the DNC? We still have to learn who the eGOP candidate was who actually funded the original dossier:

Before that agreement, Fusion GPS’s research into Trump was funded by a still unknown Republican client during the GOP primary …

Looking back it is VERY evident that the eGOP and the Democrats have had the same goal: Bring down Trump at any cost.

This is perfectly in line with the obvious fact that there’s no real difference between the DNC, the Democrats and the establishment Republicans in immigration policy(open borders), foreign policy(appeasement, payoffs and apologies for being America) and the military(keep it weak, ineffective, irrelevant and the funding stingy).

Most of the “differences” between the Democrats and the eGOP are cosmetic and/or contrived – invented to seem different to those faithful to each side who are trying hard to find differences.

Fabi said...

There's a word for that, Drago.

Chuck said...

Fabi said...
I can't wait to read the democrat talking points repeated by our progressives and any lifelong Republican.

I'll bet that you can't find a single post from me pumping up the prospects of any Russian investigation. I have all along thought that any Russian "collusion" story had zero electoral significance.

Donald Trump won the election. Full stop. I've seen no evidence, nothing, to support any grand "collusion" scheme involving the Trump Campaign.

And I don't think you'll find any "collusion" exposees at National Review or the Weekly Standard or the Wall Street Journal. The people whom I admire and trust in political writing haven't said much of anything about the Russia investigation, and what they have said is that they are underwhelmed.

Of my Top 100 Reasons to Loathe Donald Trump, I don't think anything to do with Russia is even on the list.

Health Care is about 2.6 trillion times more important to me than "Russian collusion."


Jon Ericson said...

Whinging from the usual suspects will be fun tonight.

Gusty Winds said...

I wish Trump really did hire hookers to piss on Obama’s bed. Now he should hire them to piss on John McCain’s.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

Do Democrats really believe that their Establishment is going to survive the crumbling of the GOP Establishment? For the first time since the end of WWII the general American public is inside history. It promises to be fascinating.

grackle said...

One thing that is surprising is that the Clinton campaign wasn't better insulated from the connection with Fusion and the Russians.

They were dead certain that Hillary would win. None of this would be known if she had.

Drago said...

Chucky beginning his trek to the dems/left/LLR modified limited hangout.

Fabi said...

3) Healthcare

Otto said...

I think the NYT article was an attempt to dampen the interest in the investigations because the NYT knew what was disclosed today. Also did anyone remember Trump's 10.21 tweet"

Officials behind the now discredited "Dossier" plead the Fifth. Justice Department and/or FBI should immediately release who paid for it."

Keep those tweets coming

cubanbob said...

Its time for Trump to push for special prosecutors to look into this and the DoJ/FBI. To drain the swamp, people have got to go to jail especially the seniors ones.

tola'at sfarim said...

So basically Clinton was paying a foreign power to get dirt on trump. Bec steele did go to Russia, and I doubt all that cash was for travel expenses....

theo said...

Inga,

No tag because no one is deranged about Hillary.

Except maybe you.

Henry said...

They are who we thought they were. Thank god they're gone.

Original Mike said...

"They were dead certain that Hillary would win. None of this would be known if she had."

Hillary had more than one reason for her election night bender.

Rabel said...

The Post is very sly about its sources but one sentence indicates they might have been with Fusion:

"Some of the details are included in a Tuesday letter sent by Perkins Coie to a lawyer representing Fusion GPS, telling the research firm that it was released from a ­client-confidentiality obligation."

PB said...

You have to understand. Obama was letting the Clintons accumulate massive wealth with the understanding that Hillary would return the favor for the Obamas when she was in the White House.

Drago said...

tola'at sfarim: "So basically Clinton was paying a foreign power to get dirt on trump."

Don't hold your breath waiting for any collusion complaints from certain "lifelong republican" quarters.

ga6 said...

Jeb or the Mormon Saint?? Inquiring minds want to know...

Left Bank of the Charles said...

Trump is being backed into a corner on Russia. He's getting squeezed from one direction on the issue of collusion in the election and from another direction on the uranium deal. The final collapse of ISIL will remove his best argument for making friends with Russia.

CJ said...

Hollywood as we knew it has been destroyed. Whatever it turns into will be about 1/100th as interesting and 1/1000th as culturally lpowerful.
The Russia elected-Trump meme is now so dead it has risen from the grave and begun attacking its creators.
The RNC is outraising the DNC 2-1.
Democrats are literally shouting at the sky.
RINOs are being driven from their cozy lairs.

I know that it’s not good to inflate the current moment just because it’s current, but, to me, this is an absolutely astonishing time in American Political History. I am relatively young in a political sense - 32, so Clinton and Bush and Obama are all I’ve ever really known - but this feels like a very consequential time in America. Feels like an earthquake.

Gusty Winds said...

We’re pretending the Washington Post didn’t know this all all along?

CJ said...

I mean, Pissgate and the abuse of the FISA process to be able to spy on Trump is worse than Watergate, is it not?

Conservative counterculture. 1965 flipped on its head.

“Earthquake, man. Like a double rainbow of earthquakes, man. Good vibrations.”

Sebastian said...

Piling on: "Shocking"? No. News? In the sense that it hadn't actually been reported (and prog comment to the contrary are BS). But this had to have been the play all along, so everyone knew. It's also the reason O did not challenge Russian "interference" in 2016, when it would have mattered. Then his minions pursued it to smear the incoming prez--despicable even by prog standards, using the "intelligence community" to peddle Hill/Putin oppo research as damning fact.

The collusion meme was all about deflection and damage control.

Fabi said...

@CJ -- I think your instincts are correct. I'm only making light of the situation because of its extraordinary gravity and potential fallout. I can't predict how much of this they can contain -- that WaPo ran the story is noteworthy -- but the dam is breaking, and the new developments will come at light speed.

n.n said...

So, we are in the fourth trimester. There are no babies or steps, only witches and warlocks... and a lot of abortionists waking up to a dawn.

If it was anyone other than Trump, they would have either resigned, been impeached, or aborted, and the neo-Democratic Party, and the establishment patrons, foreign and domestic, would have a progressive Piss Party on America. As it is, the Occupation has been repelled, and the Antifa are tumbled down after. There is hope for change from change and hope.

Maybe. Possibly. Probably not. Still, we live in interesting times, and there is the spectacle that is Trump denying the status quo. Good luck!

Oh, and momma, don't let your daughters, and sons, grow up to be sluts and social liberals.

Bill, Republic of Texas said...

So Hillary conspired with Russians to influence the election?

And the Ukrainians. Don't forget the DNC sent a staffer to work at the Ukraine Embassy to dig up dirt on Manafort.

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/ukraine-sabotage-trump-backfire-233446

Sebastian said...

"The collusion meme was all about deflection and damage control." And, of course, about a pretext to orchestrate swamp mobilization against Trump.

Sessions really was a fool.

Big Mike said...

@Snark. How. Stupid. Do you. Think. We. Are?

tola'at sfarim said...

My mistake. Steele didn't actually go to Russia. He just had various sources there. I'm sure they were uncompromised and provided all this info out of patriotism.to putin

gspencer said...

Justice in these matters is never served. The guilty get away time after time.

Hagar said...

When thieves fall out, the honest man comes into his own.

This is going to get real good!

n.n said...

So, Clinton was a principal in Water Closet, and Obama exploited it for partisan profit.

So, who was Deep Plunger that exposed the ObamaClint conspiracy?

And what happens to the gay abortionists who are no longer viable and sad?

MikeD said...

And, in further "Russian Collusion" news, it appears the Democrats are susceptible to the "tar baby" syndrome (http://www.americanfolklore.net/folklore/2010/07/brer_rabbit_meets_a_tar_baby.htm
See here:
http://dailycaller.com/2017/10/22/exclusive-podestas-green-company-forced-to-close-because-hillary-lost-the-election/

Rabel said...

Hillary paid her lawyer to pay Fusion to pay Steele to pay various connected Russians for information about Trump. Those Russians may have also paid other Russians.

Her amateurish failure here was that first step. The direct line of responsibility from Clinton to the Russians is undeniable. In her prime, Hillary would never have allowed that to happen. Someone else would have hired the lawyer. Reimbursement would have been taken care of through indirect means.

She's lost her fastball. Shame when that happens.

JackWayne said...

Let’s see: Fast and Furous gun running? Proof that the Obama administration was guilty, yet Republicans found nothing. Benghazi? Proof that the Obama administration was guilty, yet Republicans found nothing. Iran Nuclear Treaty? Corker provided cover for Obama’s malfeasance. Uranium One? Republicans will find nothing. If you believe there are two parties contending for power in this country, you are a sucker!

Virgil Hilts said...

It's not big news or important which is why the PC partner went out of his way to say PC had absolutely nothing to do about it. Hard to believe that an attorney from such a prestigious firm would lie about something silly like this. ^o)
http://dailycaller.com/2017/10/24/nyt-reporter-clinton-campaign-lawyer-vigorously-denied-being-behind-dossier/

Hagar said...

The uranium deal is likely to be the most important. There were so many agencies that had to be lined up for it to pass. The money would have had to be spread far and wide.

traditionalguy said...

BUT WEINSTEIN WAS MEAN TO WOMEN!

And why are they are wasting good CIA owned air time on old debunked stories? It must be Putin's orders.

Bill, Republic of Texas said...

@Virgil

From Ace of Spades showing this tweet from Haberman of the NYT:

Maggie Haberman ✔@maggieNYT
Folks involved in funding this lied about it, and with sanctimony, for a year


I'm assuming she's writing a piece right now for the front page of the NYT. Oh right they'll just say that's old news because it was covered by a tweet.

Night Owl said...

"I think they (Wapo) had it all since last year."

Trump's presidency is acting like an enema for our constipated news media. One wonders what other crap they've been holding is now going to come out.

Lewis Wetzel said...

Back in January, it took me less than five minutes of googling to identify "Fusion GPS" as a tool created by Democrats and centrist-Left Republicans to perform opposition and policy research. Any "research" it produced would have been tainted by its anti-Trump partisanship. Fusion GPS made no effort to hide its ideology.

Michael The Magnificent said...

"Surprise, surprise, surprise!" - Gomer Pyle

traditionalguy said...

The word is coming out from minions of the Bush II camp.The real problem is that Trump is not a human being. And by fighting back against the anointed Senate RINOs, Trump is is guilty of moral treason.

The Old media has now become the home of conspiracy theories.

cubanbob said...

Left Bank of the Charles said...
Trump is being backed into a corner on Russia. He's getting squeezed from one direction on the issue of collusion in the election and from another direction on the uranium deal. The final collapse of ISIL will remove his best argument for making friends with Russia."

What color is the sky on your planet?

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Actress claims former President George H.W. Bush 'sexually assaulted' her from his wheelchair and touched her from 'behind' during THIS photoshoot in front of Barbara

I blame Althouse for this.

gg6 said...

Mss From DNC: Go to DEFCON 4....
Stay calm, express disbelieve, issue vague blanket denials, binge watch Hillary rallies, Barry Inaugurals and Hollywood movies. Call Trump a Nazi racist. Tell Aldred VP Pence raped you 50 years ago when you were 15.
It will pass in a week. Send money.

Ignorance is Bliss said...

...of the extraordinary efforts of a hostile power to disrupt American democracy...

Bullshit. There is no reason to believe that the trivial amount they did was in any way out of the ordinary.

Bill, Republic of Texas said...

4. George H W Bush is a rapist.

They must be desperate.

David Baker said...

Quid pro quos, mutual recusals, I can hear them laughing in the cloakroom.

Peter Irons said...

So, whose body parts, and which parts of their bodies, are now a holster for Vladimir Putin's cock? Should we ask Stephen Colbert, or is he in hiding?

Snark said...

I turned up a Washington Times story from over a month ago that was referring to the “Democrat funded dossier” in the context of a Carter Page story. People who have the sense that this has been in the air for a while are not wrong. An explicit connection to the DNC and the campaign is new, but not the general thrust of the source of the funding.

David Begley said...

Thank god Hillary lost. She was owned by the Russians.

The spin is that the Obama Administration covered this up because it wanted the Iran deal. The Iran deal that allows Iran to get nukes.

gilbar said...

tar baby Podesta :
Dmitry Akhanov, the president and CEO of Rusnano USA Inc., a Kremlin-owned venture capital firm nicknamed “Putin’s child,” oversaw the Russian government’s investment in Joule and sat on its board along with two other Russians with ties to the Kremlin. 

Bill, Republic of Texas said...

Washington Times! Hahahaha. Yes I'm sure you and your leftist friends all read the WT.

Remember Haberman of the NYT saying the Dems have been lying about this for a year. Not only lying but sanctimoniously lying.

Fabi said...

Those randy 93 year old guys in wheel chairs are always sexually assaulting women. You have to watch them every minute, ARM!

Bay Area Guy said...

A friendly reminder - Hillary is not President.

Neutral question: are there any Conservatives, Republicans or Libertarians who were wary of Trump during the primaries, voted reluctantly for him (or against Hillary) and now wish Hillary had beaten him?

I was wary of him, voted for him anyway, and despite a few flaws, am real glad he's Prez.

JohnJMac862 said...

Just to make this clear for the slow-witted:

The Dems paid for fake oppo research which Comey and Obama used as a pretext to spy on Trump in 2016 and then launch a special counsel in 2017.

Snark said...

Yeah. Leftist participation here at Althouse definitely suggests we don’t expose ourselves to conservative sources and competing ideas. Idiot.

Howard said...

The Fusion GPS stuff is old news.

ARM Old guys do this all the time, it's automatic. In the real world, they grope their caregivers.

Howard said...

Wouldn't it be nice if Hillary got to share a jail cell with Trump. Ha ha ha. Not gonna happen, wouldn't be prudent. Another nothingburger because everyone is a sellout.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

JohnJMac862 said...
The Dems paid for fake oppo research which Comey and Obama used as a pretext to spy on Trump in 2016 and then launch a special counsel in 2017.


The special counsel was all Trump's work. Note date.

MikeR said...

"Within minutes of the Post's article going up there were hundreds of comments and likes in the comments section saying that this was old news" I'm still confused. Isn't this old news? What about this is surprising or shocking? Why should I care about the DNC doing oppo research?
Honest question - I'm just confused.

Big Mike said...

@Snark, answer my question.

Original Mike said...

I have to say, I think I've "known" for some time that this dossier was originally funded by republicans and then picked up by the democrats. I don't know where I got that idea.

Howard said...

It is old MikeR, first, the GOPe hired Fusion GPS, then Hitlary. This came out a in January. From Wiki:

Trump dossier and Christopher Steele
Main article: Donald Trump–Russia dossier

In September 2015, Fusion GPS was hired to do opposition research for Republicans who opposed Donald Trump's bid during the Republican primary campaign for the 2016 presidential election. When Trump had emerged as the probable Republican candidate by the spring of 2016, Republican donors stopped funding the investigation, and Democratic supporters of Hillary Clinton became Fusion GPS's new clients.[25] In June 2016, after the Democratic National Committee had been hacked and its emails began to be published online by Wikileaks, Fusion GPS retained Christopher Steele, a private British corporate intelligence investigator and former MI-6 agent, to research any Russian connections to Trump. Steele produced a 35-page series of memos from June to December 2016, which became the document known as the Donald Trump–Russia dossier.[25][26] The dossier commissioned by Fusion GPS "offer[s] an overarching framework for what might have happened based on individuals on the Russian side who claimed to have insight into Moscow’s goals and operational tactics," according to a former CIA officer John Sipher.[27]

Ralph L said...

They were dead certain that Hillary would win.
Then why go to so much trouble? But then Nixon's people risked the break-in when he was much farther ahead.

Original Mike said...

Nor do I think the "old news" claim diminishes the importance of it in any way. JohnJMac862 is right: "The Dems paid for fake oppo research which Comey and Obama used as a pretext to spy on Trump in 2016 and then launch a special counsel in 2017."

ARM said..."The special counsel was all Trump's work."

Yeah, right. I remember when Trump appointed him {/sarc}

Snark said...

How stupid do I think you are? Tonight, pretty stupid! I’m just trying to participate in the conversation and look at the inane and insane responses from the Althouse Hillbilly contingent. Christ. Jim Sciutto just confirmed on CNN that it has been known for some time that the research was Democrat funded after being Republican funded. If you didn’t know that, then perhaps YOU need to expand your news sources. That doesn’t minimize tonight’s developments, but it is a fact that several crackpots here are being ridiculous about.

Matt Sablan said...

Hey. So. Let's go over the Russian conspiracy revelations.

1. The Russian agent that Trump's team met with was... in actuality a Russian lawyer that the Obama administration had given permission to work in the country and had used to brief Congress on the very same issues she was allegedly supposed to meet Trump on.

2. The Dossier this is based on is factually incorrect in several instances.

3. It was originally briefed to Trump not as an example of why he had a problem, but as an example of disinformation that would be used against him.

4. Hillary Clinton paid foreign agents for this dossier.

5. Hillary Clinton's campaign, per her released/hacked emails, deliberately conspired with various news organizations to promote Trump during the primaries only to sandbag him during the general.

6. The Russian ads that ran were: A) primarily ran after the election; B) Primarily for pro-left or at least anti-Republican messages; C) and for barely any money.

7. That this all happened years after the FBI covered up years of Clinton/Obama collusion with Russia over Uranium one deals and only a year or so after the FBI had to roll up a Russian spy ring that had successfully infiltrated Hillary Clinton.

8. Per Susan Rice, someone in the Obama administration posed as her and made hundreds of unmasking requests, some of which were clearly illegal or unethical.

So... what remains of the Russian collusion story?

Francisco D said...

Chuck and ARM are deflecting as always.

Has anyone checked on Inga and Ritmo? They might be suicidal.

Matt Sablan said...

"A Republican campaign paid for it to start (or is that true at all?)"

-- We do not know, but it is highly unlikely at this point. Fusion GPS, being staffed by foreign agents and Democrat operatives would have no reason to resist Congressional investigations to protect a Republican and further the "Republican Civil War" meme.

The only reason they'd resist is if one of their clients was part of the Obama regime... or a foreign entity.

Matt Sablan said...

"The truly shameful thing here is that the previous administration picked up this piece of trash (hardly sourced through "intelligence" channels) and had the security agencies use it for partisan politics"

-- At this point, the Obama administration needs to say how they got this dossier. The timeline doesn't work for them getting it from McCain to do all their illegal unmasking requests due to the dossier. If Clinton gave it to them... that's clearly a conflict of interests, especially since she wasn't part of the administration at the time.

Matt Sablan said...

"Remember what they put Donald Trump Jr through for taking a meeting with a Russian lawyer promising dirt on Hillary?"

-- A Russian lawyer vetted by the Obama administration and used by them to communicate with Congress. You need to remember to include those facts to show how obviously phony Obama and the Democrat's objection to the Trump campaign meeting with her are.

Matt Sablan said...

"I first heard the developments via the WaPo reporter on CNN, and “wasn’t this alleged/revealed previously?” was my very legitimate first thought."

-- Conservative/Republican/Pro-Trump commentators stated they believed the Clinton campaign paid for it. They were called idiots.

Matt Sablan said...

"Hillary had more than one reason for her election night bender."

-- Election afternoon or early evening bender. They popped the champagne before the polls closed.

Bill, Republic of Texas said...

They popped the champagne before the polls closed.

That story fills me with happiness.

Fabi said...

It's been alleged that a Republican paid for the information initially. Until we get a name and that name is corroborated through sworn testimony or physical evidence then it's only speculation.

Matt Sablan said...

"Neutral question: are there any Conservatives, Republicans or Libertarians who were wary of Trump during the primaries, voted reluctantly for him (or against Hillary) and now wish Hillary had beaten him?"

-- The only reason I truly preferred Trump to Clinton, since I don't trust him on Republican/small government policy, especially not at that time, was that "Well, if he does anything grossly illegal, at least he'll have to face consequences."

I mean, I don't expect anything to happen to Clinton. She destroyed subpoenaed documents and got away with it, with the FBI deciding that she had done nothing wrong before even investigating her. There was no way we could let her become President and expect to have an actual government of laws not people.

Bob Ellison said...

For a few million bucks and a lack of any morality, a good colluder should achieve more than this. Or maybe the Russians are playing some weird mind game.

CStanley said...

A Republican campaign paid for it to start (or is that true at all?)

Mostly untrue. An unknown GOP source hired GPS during the primaries, but the Russia/Steele dossier was all done on behalf of Clinton. Even the earlier stories implied this distinction but the timeline has now been clarified.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Personally, I thought the Golden Showers story was the highlight of the last election. Whoever paid for that got their money's worth.

Matt Sablan said...

"Isn't this old news? What about this is surprising or shocking? Why should I care about the DNC doing oppo research?"

1. No. The DNC and Clinton campaign denied they had paid for this.

2. Maybe. For most people, who expect Clinton to lie, this is not shocking. For people who believed her, or at least, believed the media's reports, the fact they've been lied to for a year might be shocking.

3. The DNC didn't do "oppo research." They paid foreign intelligence agents to fabricate evidence, which included colluding with Russian intelligence agents and assets to create a dossier on Trump, and then fed it to the Obama administration, who, despite a cursory review revealing factual inconsistencies with the dossier, used it to get secret FISA/warrants on the Trump campaign, which was then strategically linked to the press.

Matt Sablan said...

"I have to say, I think I've "known" for some time that this dossier was originally funded by republicans and then picked up by the democrats. I don't know where I got that idea."

-- Pro-Trump conservatives stated it as a theory; it was widely ridiculed or ignored. This is the verification of their "conspiracy" theory.

Big Mike said...

Hey everybody! Snark believes CNN! Also, no doubt, the tooth fairy.

Do. You. Think. Anybody. Cares. Whether. It. Was. Previously. Reported? For how many seconds? Three? Four? The media thought they had buried it and could play the "its old news" game. That game's over. WE will decide whether it's old news.

CStanley said...

One disturbing theory I read tonight about Mueller is that he's the new Sandy Berger. The theory goes that the Trump/Russia investigation was cooked up for the purpose of destroying all of the evidence relating to the actual scandal involving Clinton and Obama.

Matt Sablan said...

It wasn't "reported," because as the NYT writer noted, for a year, Clinton/DNC spokespeople denied this. So, if it WAS reported, it was with the caveat that it was denied and not proven.

Now it is proven. This is new news.

Rabel said...

"Why should I care about the DNC doing oppo research?"

Because they (and Hillary) were working with agents of a hostile foreign government.

Matt Sablan said...

"Nine months into the Trump administration, any notion that Capitol Hill would provide a comprehensive, authoritative and bipartisan accounting of the extraordinary efforts of a hostile power to disrupt American democracy appears to be dwindling...."

-- We have the authoritative accounting. Hillary Clinton's campaign paid foreign agents who worked with Russian assets to feed false intelligence to American intelligence agencies to disrupt the Trump campaign.

The only problem is that Congress will never report those facts like that.

steve uhr said...

If trump wants to investigate Clinton for criminal wrongdoing, what's stopping him. He can call her crooked but won't try to prove it. Odd.

Drago said...

steve uhr: "If trump wants to investigate Clinton for criminal wrongdoing, what's stopping him."

LOL

Yeah, McCabe and Mueller and Rosenstein and all the obama holdovers will get right on that!

Matt Sablan said...

Steve Uhr: The FBI already investigated her and, before collecting the evidence or analyzing it all, passed out immunity to most of her key lieutenants and began drafting their speech for exonerating her.

Unfortunately, any investigation into Clinton is permanently compromised -- not just because she destroyed evidence illegally, but because a formal investigation was shoddily done. Any new investigations into Clinton will require, first, for the people who helped hide her Uranium One dealings to be fired. Unfortunately, that won't happen until they finish investigating the Russian connections, which also, conveniently, will compromise any chance of finding Clintonian wrong doing on that end too.

Drago said...

ARM: "Whoever paid for that got their money's worth."

The collusion buddies paid for that: FBI, Clinton campaign and the Russians.

Peas in a pod!

Matt Sablan said...

Frankly, while I would have liked Clinton to face consequences for her blatant disregard for the law, I think the only punishment that can be meted out to her is to deny her the presidency. She simply has too much influence and has corrupted too many of our institutions to ever be held to account.

Matt Sablan said...

Remember. Comey looked at emails with secret information sent from Clinton to her daughter (who was using a pseudonym so she couldn't be immediately identified) -- her daughter who does not have a clearance -- and decided that Clinton had never accidentally or deliberately allowed classified information to reach someone without a clearance. That's the level of corruption you're dealing with with Clinton; she's invulnerable.

Drago said...

It will be interesting to see how quickly the dems/lefties/Lifelong republicans embrace Hillary running again in 2020 after the dems "hack" their own primary to make sure she wins.

Bob Ellison said...

Matthew Sablan, your posts here ring true, and your rep bolsters them.

Bay Area Guy said...

I hope Hillary runs again in 2020. It'd be fun to mock and defeat her a third time.

Matt Sablan said...

Ouch. That's a big mistake on my part.

YoungHegelian said...

Has there ever been a human being in recorded history luckier in his enemies than Donald Trump?

pacwest said...

"One disturbing theory I read tonight about Mueller is that he's the new Sandy Berger. The theory goes that the Trump/Russia investigation was cooked up for the purpose of destroying all of the evidence relating to the actual scandal involving Clinton and Obama."

Edging towards conspiracy theory, but it would explain a few things. Mueller seemed to fall out of the blue right into the lead investigator role, and now it looks like his hands are dirty too. Berger got put in jail for how long? (rhetorical). I wouldn't be at all suprised if some more dead bodies started showing up.

Didn't Trump say something about our intelligence agencies early on? Who gave him that info?

StephenFearby said...

The only logical reason for the WaPo article to appear now is the assessment by the Democrats that the House Intelligence Committee's subpoena for Fusion's bank records will prevail:

"...Some of the details are included in a Tuesday letter sent by Perkins Coie to a lawyer representing Fusion GPS, telling the research firm that it was released from a ­client-confidentiality obligation. The letter was prompted by a legal fight over a subpoena for Fusion GPS’s bank records."

This thwarts this damming information being released by the House Intelligence Committee. Instead, it gets released in a WaPo article with futile CYA like:

'...A DNC spokeswoman said “[Chairman] Tom Perez and the new leadership of the DNC were not involved in any decision-making regarding Fusion GPS, nor were they aware that Perkins Coie was working with the organization. But let’s be clear, there is a serious federal investigation into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia, and the American public deserves to know what happened.”'

Spin that won't tamp down the firestorm that surely will follow.

walter said...

Blogger AReasonableMan said...
Personally, I thought the Golden Showers story was the highlight of the last election
--
Far more screen-worthy than a fat dude ejaculating into a potted plant.

readering said...

Have we ever learned which Republican primary candidate originally funded the Fusion investigation?

AllenS said...

readering, I'm guessing Jeb Bush, backed up by daddy Bush and the boy George.

Fabi said...

"Have we ever learned which Republican primary candidate originally funded the Fusion investigation?"

First we have to learn if it was a Republican primary candidate.

Michael K said...

"Personally, I thought the Golden Showers story was the highlight of the last election"

I'm sure they thought it would appeal to lefties like you. Assassination porn.
--

walter said...

You mean "Jeb!".
Not so coincidentally referred to as "Low energy".

Michael K said...

Didn't Trump say something about our intelligence agencies early on? Who gave him that info?

Nunez. That's why they have been frantically trying to discredit him. Pencil neck Schiff, especially.

I'll bet the Awan scandal is involved somehow.

Night Owl said...

"One disturbing theory I read tonight about Mueller is that he's the new Sandy Berger. The theory goes that the Trump/Russia investigation was cooked up for the purpose of destroying all of the evidence relating to the actual scandal involving Clinton and Obama "

This could well be another "crazy conspiracy theory" that, in time, is proven to be true. But since we're talking about now, by the time the Wapo or the NYT catch up and print the story, it will be dismissed by the left as "old news"; just like they are doing with this current story.

They can play that game but it doesn't fool people. It only leads to more Trumps.

Michael K said...

what's stopping him. He can call her crooked but won't try to prove it. Odd.



Eight months of furious disinformation and you think it's "odd."

Lefties have such little imagination.

Night Owl said...

Correction to above: "But since we're talking about IT now..."

Fabi said...

Harvey Weinstein is probably celebrating this news cycle reset with a really cute Ficus.

grackle said...

Then why go to so much trouble?

“So much trouble” to do what? Stonewall, lie and divert in order to cover up their nefarious activities? Which they’ve done since election night? With the collusion of the MSM? I’m truly not understanding the point.

Has anyone checked on Inga and Ritmo? They might be suicidal.

What’s going to be fun is to watch Morning Whore tomorrow to get Joe and Mika’s reaction.

The media thought they had buried it and could play the "its old news" game. That game's over. WE will decide whether it's old news.

I think a cascade effect may be underway. It all started back in March when House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Devin Nunes visited the Whitehouse:

… Nunes, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, made the explosive allegation that he had viewed dozens of intelligence reports obtained through government eavesdropping that inappropriately included details about the Trump transition team.

grackle said...

Harvey Weinstein is probably celebrating this news cycle reset with a really cute Ficus.

So funny!

Michael K said...

Nunes is the hero in the story. Sessions is a weasel who bailed out early leaving Hillary fans in charge;

McCabe, Rosenstein, Yates and the NeverTrumpers in State blocking all appointments by sitting on resumes.

Jon Ericson said...

Or making an omelette with some Calphalon rehab cookware.

M Jordan said...

Hillary Clinton is a festering carbuncle on the anus of the body politic. Even cucks and shills know this factoid to be 100% true.

Lance that carbuncle, I say and say again, lance it!

Somebody had to say it and I just did.

M Jordan said...

Hi, I’m Lance. Duty calls.

David Begley said...

In funding the Steele dossier, Hillary didn’t commit a crime. The email server and her handling of classified materials is, however, another matter.

Drago said...

David Begley: "In funding the Steele dossier, Hillary didn’t commit a crime."

Nonsense.

Per the "new" lefty/lifelong republican "rules", funding a shady organization to survey shady russians in order to gather make-believe dirt on a political opponent and then having that make-believe dirt be used for the basis of a FISA warrant which enabled the corrupto-crats to turn the US intelligence agencies into an arm of the DNC by spying on the republican nominee is nothing less, NOTHING LESS, than TREASON!

Again, per the dem rules which, once again, as always and ever will be, were never intended to be used in an even-handed way against dems.

Ever.

Drago said...

Telling that Inga has abandoned the field of rhetorical battle this evening.

Telling.

wwww said...


She'll never be president now.

Original Mike said...

"Telling that Inga has abandoned the field of rhetorical battle this evening."

Inga has a long history of ignoring posts that aren't friendly to the narrative. You can be sure she's lurking, however.

pacwest said...

As far as I can tell, the collective left is peeing in their pants on this one. When Nunes brought in the Fusion guys to get names and amounts Shiff said he thought it was a travesty to waste the time of decent American citizens by making them come in to plead the 5th. You can't make this shit up.


Drip, drip, drip. That is how the news cycle is done correctly. The MSM is doing their best to disract (not sure myself what the Donald is thinking sometimes), but the plot thickens. We have elected the highest rated reality TV star as the President of the United States. He has spent his career in the spotlight. And very successfully, albeit controversially.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

Shocking? That's a good one.
The Fusion people refusing to testify while lots of the Trump people have been seemingly eager to get on the record shouis tell you just about all you need to know to make some educated guesses.

Gahrie said...

She'll never be president now.

I won't feel safe until they shoot her with a silver bullet, put a stake through her heart and burn the body.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

National Review has had plenty to say about Russian collusion.
Goldberg played it real clever--”sure does seem to be a lot of smoke; I'm just asking questions here" and shut like that. McCarthy has had lots to say about the certain legal troubles Trump campaign people face for their obvious Russian activities.
Do we really need to pretend Bill Kristol’s Weekly Standard has been silent on the Russian innuendo front? That's laughable.

The central problem of this whole topic is that it's obvious elements of what can be called the Deep State worked (and is w working) against a duly-elected President. They worked with the usual suspects (operatives, Media types, foreign interests). People like Kristol have admitted they side with the Deep State in this fight, and it becomes every day more difficult to deny that government officials abused their positions and state power to oppose Trump.
That's the kind of thing that must be intolerable by everyone no matter what temporary benefit it may give to one side--otherwise we cant have a country anymore.

it is disappointing to see so many LifeLongRepublicans look the other way. Instructive, but disappointing.

Yancey Ward said...

If you believe the tweets from a couple of the NYTimes "journalists", this has been known to some in the press for quite some time. Haberman and someone else whose name is escaping me at the moment claim that the Clinton Campaign pushed back against this, and this why it wasn't reported much earlier. It is difficult to tell who is telling the truth here- just because you can't get a target to admit guilt doesn't mean you don't eventually publish the story. The editors at the NYTimes have some explaining to do, I think, but they won't.

Yancey Ward said...

I think you will eventually find out that the Republican donor who initially funded some of this will be linked to a campaign that imploded very early in the primaries. Take a guess which one I think it is.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

It's not "old news" because the Media sources the nice centrist people trust have not covered this angle until now.
To those of us who follow politics and read beyond the NYTimes, WashPo, and network nightly news this is neither news not shocking.
To lots of "normal" Americans this may be their first exposure to this plainly-obvious truth as an actual Media-approved "fact."

Yancey Ward said...

Is it old news or new news? Let me give you an analogy that fits this story:

A French mathematician in the 1840s used orbital mechanics to predict the existence of the planet Neptune. When it was physically observed a few weeks later using the results of the calulations, was that old news or new news?

This funding story is of that kind. It has long been suspected that the dossier was funded by Democrats, but people at the DNC and the Clinton Campaign have always denied this- see Maggie Haberman's tweet last night. The WaPo story finally provides the actual observations that prove where the funding came from to the extent a newspaper article could do so.

Yancey Ward said...

And Stephen Fearby above is probably right- the bank records of FusionGPS have been subpoenaed and it is likely that they and their lawyers realize they are not going to be able to ignore it either, so they went to a friendly media organization to try to get out in front of the story. However, this probably going to backfire because it gives the intelligence committee new targets. Also, FusionGPS probably has already had its records subpoenaed by today's DoJ- Trump's tweet was probably the thing that forced their hand here.

Etienne said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Bruce Hayden said...

Going a bit conspiracy theory right now, but too much is happening too quickly right now for it to all be coincidence. We have in a matter of days:
- Mueller announcing that he is going after the Podesta Group, run by Tony Podesta, brother of Croooked Hillary's campaign chair. Both Podestas bros have deep ties to the Eastern Europe, includes big Russia.
- Two House committees announced that they were opening up an investigation of the Obama/Holder DoJ and esp its handling of the Uraniu One sale to the Russians. Coincidentally, special prosecutor Mueller was FBI Director Mueller at the time, and along with AG Holder failed to notify Congress, as they were legally required to do, about the Intel they had on Russian govt involvement in the sale. The sale of the uranium to the Russians was cleared unanimously by a committee on which Holder sat, and Crooked Hillary chaired (after her husband got a $500k speaking gig, and about the time their personal foundation/slush fund got > $100 million fro the Russians). Whistleblower is apparently prepared to talk before Congress, whose subpoenas can override the DoJ/FBI NDA he signed.
- Last week Fusion GPS people took 5th before Congress about funding of Trump Dossier. Yesterday, it was confirmed that the funding was from the Clinton campaign and the DNC. Part of this confirmation was after their confidentiality was waived by Clinton attys.
- Tonight, it appears that the FBI (under Lynch/Comey) offered to pay for the dossier.
- There is evidence that the FBI knew from the start the lack of providence for much of the dossier, and knew that much of it came from the Russian govt.
- FBI Diector Comey had included the dossier in Obama's PDB,
- The open question being whether the Trump Dossier was the foundation for the FISA warrants by the FBI for Trump people.
- Former UN Ambassador Powers told Congress last week that most of the (>160?) FISA unmaskings attributed to her weren't hers, but were by someone using her security credentials. Which probably means that the unmaskings were being done by someone not authorized to do them, and likely not authorized to see the results.
- FISA reauthorization is now on shaky ground, with a bipartisan group in Congress this week declaring their opposition. Part of the Republic can opposition can be attributed to its abuse by the Obama/Lynch DoJ and Comey FBI.

Bruce Hayden said...

My working theory right now is that there are really two scandals. The big one is the Uranium One sale to the Russians. We are talking a sale of a strategic resource to a geopolitical opponent, to the one country that is as good as we are at making nuclear weapons with the stuff. It verges on treason. Not the sort of treason that Trump is repeatedly accused of, gut real treason, as defined by the Constitution. And a number of the top Obama Administration people were involved in it up to their eyeballs, notably here SoS Clinton, AG Holder, and FBI Director (now Special Prosecutor) Mueller. It doesn't help matters that the Secretary of State, and her husband, we're taking large bribes at the time from the Russians. If both Clinton and Holder end up being discredited, or even prosecuted, here, the Obama Administration will likely take over from the famously corrupt Administeations of the 2nd half of the 19th century for corruption. Some legacy.

The second scandal is the one involving the Trump Dossier. Not a lot really illegal, except for the FISA angle. But stinks pretty bad. Which is why I think that the news that it was funded by the Crooked Hillary campaign and the DNC was pushed up by their attorney releasing confidentiality, thus allowing the connection to be confirmed. It was going to come out anyway, since Congressional subpoenas override NDAs. So, why not use that news offensively to push the Uranium Obe scandal off the front page?

The thing that really ties the two together are the DoJ/FBI players, notably former FBI Director, and current special prosecutor, Mueller, and DoJ officials Rosenstein and McCade. (And, of course, Crooked Hillary) All involved up to their eyeballs in both. Which may mean that the Dems, and in particular the Obama loyalists, are willing to sacrifice the Russia investigation of Trump in order to take the pressure off them in the Uranium One deal.

It should be interesting.

David Begley said...

Bruce Hayden above is correct.

If Hillary would have won, POTUS would have been subject to blackmail by Russia. We would have had a Russian agent as President. And what similar deals with other foreign countries? Think about that.

Jess said...

Until by witness, or evidence, any of the Clintons are proved to have direct involvement, it's just another one of those "coincidences" that surround a family of political opportunists.

Tommy Duncan said...


Blogger Yancey Ward said...

I think you will eventually find out that the Republican donor who initially funded some of this will be linked to a campaign that imploded very early in the primaries. Take a guess which one I think it is.


Is this why his brother recently attacked Trump?

David Begley said...

Some talk that the Obama Administration went along with the Uranium One deal because they needed help on the Iran deal. Doubly bad.

brylun said...

Someone ought to ask Jeb Bush if he knew who the Republicans were who initially funded the dossier. After all, didn't he spend $120 million? What other Republican had the resources?

grackle said...

Mueller announcing that he is going after the Podesta Group …

I wouldn’t put too much faith in Mueller. Announcements are only announcements. It’s also a good way to find out how much dirt the other side has on Podesta – or how much legal danger Mueller himself might be in.

I suffered through two segments of Morning Joe and have it on in the background as I write this. No mention yet of Uranium One or the dossier funding. Instead we get this:

Flake and Corker are portrayed as heroic victims of Trump, “the goons at FoxNews,” and “cowards” in the GOP caucus.

My take: Flake and Corker are living examples of Emerson’s historical dictum: When you strike at a king, you must kill him.

Inane comment by Kasie Hunt: The President is really taking over the party!

Yes, Kasie, he is. Presidents usually lead their parties. If they are strong leaders they even take over their parties in the sense that they exert a major influence on their parties.

Accidentally the Morning Whores occasionally utter a truth: They[GOP cowards in Congress] are afraid of his tweets. You bet they are …

In passing they mention Bannon. Steve Bannon is the new Dick Cheney, the satanic figure behind the throne.

Finally, in the fourth segment, the dossier is mentioned. The narration is that the dossier was started by the RNC and “ … some of the claims in the dossier have actually been proven …” What a bunch of whores they are!

Anybody tune into CNN?

Readers, the GOP hasn’t had a leader all throughout the Obama era. McCain, Ryan, McConnell, Romney – none of these have been real leaders. Now they have a leader, a true alpha. The betas will fall in line.

Kyzer SoSay said...

Goddamn this is getting better by the day. Really hoping Clinton or her cronies end up behind bars for this, or at least are forced out of public life ala Harvey Dubs.

David Begley said...

Morning Joe was talking baseball. Great pitchers. Joe looked like he was crying after listening to Flake’s speech. Visibly removed his eyeglasses and wiped his eyes. Sick.

Matt Sablan said...

Will there be any surprise search warrants? Compare this to Manafort. Unlike then, discrete illegal activities are known it alleged. The people to be searched are known to be uncooperative and liable to destroy evidence.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Former President George H.W. Bush APOLOGIZES after actress claimed he 'sexually assaulted' her from his wheelchair during this photoshoot - and insists his 'attempt at humor' was misinterpreted

Well , here's another fine mess Althouse has gotten us into.

grackle said...

… it is disappointing to see so many LifeLongRepublicans look the other way. Instructive, but disappointing.

Yes. I think it was Laura Ingraham that said it best: Trump is flushing them out. Goldberg and Kristol are pathetic. They staked out a position against Trump early on and now they are now trapped in it. Doubling down is all they have left.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

n the dead of night, Republicans vote to give lawsuit immunity to banks

Draining that swamp


Thank goodness the bankers are safe.

Matt Sablan said...

You're in the wrong thread ARM.

Jaq said...

any notion that Capitol Hill would provide a comprehensive, authoritative and bipartisan accounting of the extraordinary efforts of a hostile power to disrupt American democracy

Wow, it's almost as if the writer has completely pre-judged the outcome of the investigation, and is now disappointed with where it led... Naah!


ARM comes along in a negative story about Clinton, and you can be sure that there will be a squirrel sighting! She has these things she calls "cafes" where you can talk about anything you want!

Jaq said...

ARM would get his own blog, but he knows nobody would read it.

Matt Sablan said...

I have multiple threads open at times. It happens. Usually I delete the post and put it in an appropriate thread.

Jaq said...

The Clinton campaign did not use it in the campaign directly. - buwaya

That's not how these things work. Wikileaks shows that the press works hand in glove with the Democrat Party, and we knew all about the contents of the famous "dossier" without HRC having to get her hands dirty directly.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

From the Washington Times article:

Fusion GPS’s work researching Trump began during the Republican presidential primaries, when the GOP donor paid for the firm to investigate the real estate magnate’s background.

Fusion GPS did not start off looking at Trump’s Russia ties but quickly realized that those relationships were extensive, according to the people familiar with the matter.

Lloyd W. Robertson said...

Byron York, Washington Examiner:
When the Post story broke Tuesday night, some journalists noted that Democrats involved in the story had been lying about their role. "When I tried to report this story, Clinton campaign lawyer Marc Elias pushed back vigorously, saying 'You (or your sources) are wrong,'" tweeted the New York Times' Ken Vogel. "Folks involved in funding this lied about it, and with sanctimony, for a year," added the Times' Maggie Haberman.

Yes, they did. But the importance of the Democrats' involvement in the dossier is that it could be one step on the road to a bigger story. What did the FBI do with the dossier material? Did judges make surveillance decisions in the Trump-Russia investigation based in whole or in part on the dossier? To what degree is the "salacious and unverified" dossier the source of what we think we know about allegations of collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign?

Jaq said...

I think the Democrats need Hillary gone, we Republicans like having her to kick around. When is her "Checkers" speech coming?

But seriously, what Trump has made clear is how deep the corruption goes, in both parties. That's why they hate him so.

Matt Sablan said...

Yeah. That's what is alleged. Until yesterday, it was alleged Clinton and the DNC didn't pay for any of it.

Jaq said...

Fusion GPS did not start off looking at Trump’s Russia ties but quickly realized that those relationships were extensive, according to the people familiar with the matter.

Yes, and ARM is perfectly willing to take Fusion GPS's word on the nature of those relationships, even after all of this, they are using the material.

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