November 30, 2018

"The problem is Mueller is straying away from his mandate to find crime and he is now looking for political sin."

"Building buildings in Moscow, using stolen material from Assange. These are not crimes. He has no authority to be a roving commissioner to find political sins. So far, I don’t see any evidence of crimes except for ones that he helped to facilitate by getting people to lie in front of his own investigators."

Said Alan Dershowitz to Sean Hannity, quoted (with video) at Mediaite.

112 comments:

rehajm said...

By now we’ve all learned what a process crime is.

Nonapod said...

Is this the final act of a desperate man? Or, do people imagine there's something more that Mueller actually has? Do most Trump haters still believe that Mueller has something real, something truly damning on Trump and he's going to shock us all with it? Do they believe that (assuming Mueller does indeed have such a surprise) it wouldn't have been leaked by now?

Tommy Duncan said...

We saw the IRS brazenly punishing conservatives. Why would the DOJ and FBI be any different?

John said...

Do they believe that (assuming Mueller does indeed have such a surprise) it wouldn't have been leaked by now?

Who wants President Pence?

stevew said...

Increasingly the regular folk among us are agreeing with Dersh's perspective.

Sebastian said...

He is not straying from his mandate.

The mandate was to protect the FBI and to delegitimate Trump.

Darkisland said...

I like the idea of Cohen being the only witness so far.

Cohen who has been convicted of perjury.

For the lawyers here: How do you handle a witness with a perjury conviction? It would seem to me that the cross examination would go something like this:

Have you ever perjured yourself?

Yes.

Have you been convicted of Perjury?

Why should the jury believe anything you say?

(Mumble, mumble)

Why should we trust you not to commit further perjury?

(Mumble, Mumble)

Since any testimony that Mr Cohen gives would be untrustworthy, I have no further questions.

John Henry

Yancey Ward said...

I think you probably saw Mueller's last real chance at Trump pass by yesterday. It was reported that one of the questions Mueller asked Trump related directly to the time line of the Moscow hotel discussions, which means that Mueller was setting another perjury trap. If you believe Giuliani's statement yesterday, and I do since I can figure out a reason to lie about it, then Trump told the same story Cohen told to Mueller in the plea deal.

Wince said...

EXCLUSIVE: FBI RAIDS HOME OF WHISTLEBLOWER ON CLINTON FOUNDATION, LAWYER SAYS
10:30 PM 11/29/2018 | INVESTIGATIVE GROUP Richard Pollock | Reporter

FBI agents raided the home of a recognized Department of Justice whistleblower who privately delivered documents pertaining to the Clinton Foundation and Uranium One to a government watchdog, according to the whistleblower’s attorney...

The Justice Department’s inspector general was informed that the documents show that federal officials failed to investigate potential criminal activity regarding former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Clinton Foundation and Rosatom, the Russian company that purchased Uranium One, a document reviewed by The Daily Caller News Foundation alleges.

The delivered documents also show that then-FBI Director Robert Mueller failed to investigate allegations of criminal misconduct pertaining to Rosatom and to other Russian government entities attached to Uranium One, the document reviewed by TheDCNF alleges. Mueller is now the special counsel investigating whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 election....

Frightened and intimidated, Cain promptly handed over the documents, Socarras told TheDCNF. Yet even after surrendering the information to the FBI, the agents continued to rummage through the home for six hours.

“After asking and getting my approval to do so, DOJ IG Michael Horowitz had a member of his staff physically take Mr. Cain’s classified document disclosure to the House and Senate Intelligence committees,” Socarras told TheDCNF.

“For the bureau to show up at Mr. Cain’s home suggesting that those same documents are stolen federal property, and then proceed to seize copies of the same documents after being told at the house door that he is a legally protected whistleblower who gave them to Congress, is an outrageous disregard of the law,” he continued.

PackerBronco said...

Mueller: Keeping America safe from the scourge of process crimes.

rcocean said...

Is this a new story or a reprint from 1 year ago?

Mueller Investigation is becoming the new Valarie Phlame Affair

A never ending tedious bore!

Just end it Trump.

rcocean said...

Mueller has got the goods on Trump - this time.

Just forget the other 100 times we said it.

This time its true. Trust us. And keep reading.

/S/ New York Times and WaPo

mccullough said...

Mueller didn’t catch the anthrax killer either. Or arrest one Wall Street banker for melting down the economy.

Guy is great at schmoozing senators but is a moron.

stevew said...

FBI and Mafia are synonymous terms.

roesch/voltaire said...

Why did so many folks feel the need to lie--that is the question. And what kind of penthouse was Putin offered, this is also a question.

Nonapod said...

The whistleblower, Dennis Nathan Cain, had turned the documents over to the Department of Justice’s inspector general and both the House and Senate Intelligence committees, according to the lawyer.

I'm glad he was smart enough to cover all bases. With the Dems about to take over congress, those documents might have mysteriously vanished otherwised.

Curious George said...

"Nonapod said...
Is this the final act of a desperate man? Or, do people imagine there's something more that Mueller actually has? Do most Trump haters still believe that Mueller has something real, something truly damning on Trump and he's going to shock us all with it? Do they believe that (assuming Mueller does indeed have such a surprise) it wouldn't have been leaked by now?"

I'd like to introduce you to our resident dullard, #IngaKnew

Seeing Red said...

Mueller’s lying. You should ask him. The dossier is full of lies.

John said...

Yancey,

Perjury traps for an honest man? How does that work?

gg6 said...

Difficult to decide - is Mueller the veritable reincarnation of the Inquisition and Salem? Or simply the americanized Inspector Clouseau - Special Counsel Bunblefuck.

Comanche Voter said...

Here's the problem with Cohen---or with any other witness who first tells one story, then later says "No, I was lying the first time" and reverses what he said.

Okay, you know for sure that he was lying at least one time----and maybe both.

Mueller, like Sergeant Schulz, "haf vays of getting you to vhat I vant".

Openidname said...

"Darkisland said...

"Why should the jury believe anything you say?

"(Mumble, mumble)

"Why should we trust you not to commit further perjury?

"(Mumble, Mumble)"

You never ask a "why" question on cross-examination. Otherwise, the witness may actually give a good explanation.

tcrosse said...

A number of dogs aren't barking today.

Fritz said...

John said...
Yancey,

Perjury traps for an honest man? How does that work?


If you believe Corsi (debatable), Mueller took his phones, computers, and papers and then grilled him for many hours, and asked him about a 2 year old email, which Corsi didn't remember. Mueller then gave him access to his documents, and Corsi asked to revise his statement accordingly. Mueller's office agreed, but then when he wouldn't tell them that he was in contact with Assange, they charged him with perjury anyway.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2018/11/jerome_corsi_explains_the_perjury_trap_muellers_team_sprang_on_him_.html

Still think it can't happen to you.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Dave Begley said...

This is all prelude to an impeachment.

Mark my words, sometime in December Mueller will release his manifesto. Fake News goes wild. Dems take the house in January. More investigations! Then Articles of Impeachment.

Rod Rosenstein started this entire mess. What a disgrace. Hillary is the one who should be investigated and indicted. But at least indict Comey, McCabe, Ohr and Strozk for obstruction of justice by point shaving.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Hence the term "Witch hunt"

If Mueller were looking for real crimes - he'd be looking at the Clintons.

Mueller is Hillary's revenge henchman.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Mueller is working for the left and he is of the left. Non-partisan, my ass.

He must find something because the left are desperate to avenge Hilllary's loss.


A better idea would be to move on and ditch the Clintons, but the Davos machine won't let that happen.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...


Trump must fire Rosenstein.

Phil 314 said...

Blogger roesch/voltaire said...
Why did so many folks feel the need to lie--that is the question. And what kind of penthouse was Putin offered, this is also a question.

Why did Mike Vrabel elect to go for 2 instead of the kick for a tie against the Chargers? This is also a question

Why did Elton John cancel a sold-out concert for an ear infection.?

There's another question?

Bonus material:

Reasons why people lie.

Phil 314 said...

Mueller is doing what every Special Prosecutor does, find some crime, any crime.

I assume its considered bad form for a Special Prosecutor to say "Nothing to see her folks now move along?

Mike Sylwester said...

One frequent argument for not deporting illegal aliens is that doing so would discourage them from cooperating as witnesses for law-enforcement investigations.

Ordinary citizens should learn from illegal aliens this lesson -- do not cooperate as witnesses for law-enforcement investigations.

I am amazed that smart people -- e.g. Jerome Corsi, Roger Stone, George Papadopoulos -- have cooperated with the investigatory staff of Robert "The FBI Whitewasher" Mueller.

Do not cooperate. If you are compelled to answer questions, then answer every question with the answer, "I do not recall". That's what Hillary Clinton did, and she got away with it.

The FBI is the enemy of the Republican Party. Therefore, if you are a Republican, avoid and resist the FBI. Do not try to be helpful. Do not answer any of its questions. That's what illegal aliens do, and you can do the same.

Anonymous said...

"Show me the man and I’ll find you the crime"

L Beria to J Stalin

Convince me that Mueller hasn't gone beyond his "Russia illegally concluded with Trump to influence the 2016 election Brief?"

Crimso said...

"Perjury traps for an honest man? How does that work?"

You don't need a trap to catch a dishonest man lying.

Anonymous said...

@john

As background, modern jurisprudence no longer requires that the prosecutor show intent to lie; instead, they just need to show falseness. So, the way to close a perjury trap on an honest man is to just keep questioning until they mis-remember something. And, given the limits of human memory, that normally doesn't take long.

It's scandalous, but does also great things for a prosectuor's CV.

Anonymous said...

Mike Sylwester said...I am amazed that smart people -- e.g. Jerome Corsi, Roger Stone, George Papadopoulos -- have cooperated with the investigatory staff of Robert "The FBI Whitewasher" Mueller.


Never talk to the Police under any circumstances:

tim maguire said...

It's time for Mueller to wrap to up and show us what he has. I don't want him fired, I want him to finish his investigation. But I want his investigation finished.

Sigivald said...

Seen on Facebook: A photo of Mueller complaining that he can't wrap up his investigation because Trump keeps committing too many crimes and he can't keep up.

I had no response to that, since the very idea requires too much belief in demonstrably false things ("anything he's found that was criminal had anything at all to do with anything the President did") to be amenable to correction.

Anonymous said...

"Perjury traps for an honest man? How does that work?"

All the police need is a disinterested party, who mistakenly has a different opinion of events to which the defendant has made a sworn statement

Francisco D said...

And what kind of penthouse was Putin offered, this is also a question.

Do you wonder what Chuckie Schumer was offering and was offered when Democrat Donald Trump helped fund his initial congressional campaign?

The cost of doing business is greasing the right palms. The difference between Putin and Schumer is that Schumer is a much cheaper whore.

Lewis Wetzel said...

"Blogger roesch/voltaire said...
Why did so many folks feel the need to lie--that is the question. And what kind of penthouse was Putin offered, this is also a question."
This is a stupid line of inquiry. Why did Mueller charge people with lying instead of real crimes? Maybe because it's the lowest of low hanging fruit? Do you think Putin is bumping around Moscow with no place to stay, roesh/voltaire? Who gives a flying f*ck "what kind of penthouse was Putin offered"?

Gunner said...

The people who are stupid enough to think Muellar is going to bring down Trump are also stupid enough to think Pence will be brought down as well.

Maillard Reactionary said...

It's nice that it's gradually dawning on Dershowitz that this is exactly the witch hunt that Trump has been saying it was all along. But it's not quite true that Mueller is straying from his "mandate to find crime". That is indeed the intention of the Special Counsel law, as I understand it, but this investigation was kicked off without a specific crime to investigate. The law (again as I understand it) was never intended to enable unbounded, open-ended fishing expeditions such as this one, but to investigate specific, named crimes. This was never done. In other words, the entire investigation is built on an unlawful basis.

Not that there's anything wrong with that, of course.

Mike Sylwester said...

Since mid 2015 (fifteen), the FBI has been trying to prevent Donald Trump from becoming and serving as the US President.

In this situation, why should any Republican cooperate with this "investigation"?

hstad said...

Is it me or are the MSM increasing their "fake news" reporting volume? I didn't think it possible that the volume would increase versus that of the past. But lately, the volume of actual "fake news" which has been proven false and retracted by the MSM is accelerating? If true, this will end in one of the biggest fallouts and possible 'mea culpas' in the history of journalism. The MSM are completely out of control, meaning the executives at these media companies seem to have lost control of their brand to reporters, editors, etc. The end result are multiple going out of business scenarios. We are beginning to see the writing on the wall.

tcrosse said...

The people who are stupid enough to think Muellar is going to bring down Trump are also stupid enough to think Pence will be brought down as well.

And they're stupid enough to think that in this unlikely event, Hillary Clinton will be installed as President, thus restoring the Balance of the Universe and the Mandate of Heaven.

David Jones said...

The end of this country will be the seeds of dishonesty and self indulgence..the pursuit of truth is lost in the realm of political correctness..The only hope is a spiritual awakening in our land..

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Jim at said...

And what kind of penthouse was Putin offered, this is also a question.

Why is R/V not very bright? This is also a question.

Ajnal said...

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

The delusion is deep in here. If it's not real, why does President ConMan's story change every time more truth comes out?

Someday, some of you will realize you were conned by a traitor and feel shame. Most of you won't, but a few will.

Maybe the professor will explain to you that their lies will not be proven with their testimony, but with other evidence gathered by the greatest investigative force in the world.

BTW, Dershowitz is the traitor's attorney--of course he is going to defend him on the fake news channel.

Ignorance is Bliss said...

roesch/voltaire said...

And what kind of penthouse was Putin offered, this is also a question.

I hope it was the issue with the Pet of the Year. They always have the best spreads.

hstad said...

Jim said...."Why is R/V not very bright? This is also a question." 11/30/18, 12:35 PM

Jim, the question answers itself, R/V is not bright! He was one of those believers in the original "Russian Collusion" narrative. But his hasn't panned out, so he's on board with the next narrative "Obstruction of Justice" another B.S. pushed by the propoganda from the MSM.

If Trump gets hounded out of office - not likely - or gets impeached - even more unlikely.
What do the Democrats and their "handmaidens" the Left think will happen. Pence becomes President. Now if Trump scared the Left, Pence, a true idealogue of the conservative movement will have them sh*tting in their pants. But we went through the same B.S. with Clinton with no success from the morons on the "Right". We are now less than 2 years away from the next election. Unless something massive comes up about Trump he will serve out his first term. After that, anything can happen. In politics, 2 years is like a century. We won't know till then.

readering said...

Doesn't Alan have grandkids to bounce on his knee and take to ice cream parlors?

Kevin said...

It's a good thing that the Russia investigation is in the capable hands of Robert Mueller.


When Comey and Mueller Bungled the Anthrax Case



Quotes (but read the whole article):
Comey and Mueller badly bungled the biggest case they ever handled. They botched the investigation of the 2001 anthrax letter attacks that took five lives and infected 17 other people, shut down the U.S. Capitol and Washington’s mail system, solidified the Bush administration’s antipathy for Iraq, and eventually, when the facts finally came out, made the FBI look feckless, incompetent, and easily manipulated by outside political pressure.

The FBI ignored a 2002 tip from a scientific colleague of the actual anthrax killer, who turned out to be a Fort Detrick scientist named Bruce Edwards Ivins; the reason is that they had quickly obsessed on an innocent man named Steven Hatfill; the bureau was bullied into focusing on the government scientist by Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy (whose office, along with that of Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, was targeted by an anthrax-laced letter) and was duped into focusing on Hatfill by two sources – a conspiracy-minded college professor with a political agenda who’d never met Hatfill and by Nicholas Kristof, who put his conspiracy theories in the paper while mocking the FBI for not arresting Hatfill.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Dersh gives a pretty succinct summation of things as they stand now.

You know I used to think Susan McDougal railing about Starr was just being a drama queen, although I admired her commitment to take it all the way to prison. After watching the Mueller project veer off course and do the same things McDougal described, I started changing my mind about her and Whitewater and Special Counsels in general. They are wrong. The Supreme Court was wrong to force Clinton to testify in a case that predated his presidency. This current witch hunt is wrong. It is bad policy no matter ones personal politics, to saddle a President with such a burden during the few short years they have to operate. All other court actions unrelated to being President should be quarantined until the term(s) end(s).

That was what I thought until watching The Clinton Affair last week, which I recommend if you can find it repeating on A&E cable channel. This time I heard much more detail from McDougal's own lips and every word sounded exactly like what Jerome Corsi was saying yesterday on Sean Hannity's radio show: the special counsel wants them to swear that they lied (which is a lie because they told the truth) in order to drop any charges against them for lying. How Orwellian!

And it is especially disheartening because the same DOJ refused to prosecute Hillary for all the false statements she made during their investigation of her email system. Even John Brennan, who was running the CIA while it spied on Trump's campaign, admits he lied to Congress! Is he facing a felony, as Michael Cohen now is? How is any of this equal justice before the law?

Kill the special counsel law for the good the USA and all mankind!

MeatPopscicle1234 said...

I always knew that DC was corrupt, but I had no idea just how deep and systemic the rot had become. The entire government is staffed w/ Clinton loyalists who are not even attempting to hide it anymore. Our Justice system has become the left's personal Gestapo... Trump needs to declassify everything NOW! before they find some way to take him out... They will not stop, and the expiration date on his "leverage" is quickly approaching...

John Pickering said...

That's hilarious, Ann quoting Alan Dershowitz talking to Sean Hannity.

You know who's laughing his head off right now? Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who despite having committed no crimes that Ann or Alan can discern, is going to languish in prison until his corpse is taken out in a pine box and buried in potter's field. So funny, ain't it?

Other people basking in that laff riot: National Security Adviser Michael Flynn; Vice President Mike Pence; former Attorney General Jeff Sessions; and the three older Trump kids. Hey. what's wrong with offering a bribe to the hostile government that's trying to tile the election your way? Anyone would do that, right, Ann? It's so funny that people think there might be something wrong that the US president is likely the dupe, or the stooge, or the actual agent of the Russian intelligence services. Hilarious!

Jim at said...

BTW, Dershowitz is the traitor's attorney--of course he is going to defend him on the fake news channel.

It's hard to top that level of stupidity.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Perjury traps for an honest man? How does that work?

John's not the only naive waif flummoxed by this conundrum, so let me spell it out using actual people involved. Mueller seizes Jerome Corsi's computer and asks him under oath what the mail dated August 15 2016 was about, the one he sent to Roger Stone. Corsi responds by memory with the subject of an earlier email he sent to Stone in late July. The Mueller agent then indicates Corsi has "lied" because his answer does not match the email's text. Corsi says he forgot that email. The agent acuses him of lying again, because it isn't "reasonable" that he would forget an email he sent on this important subject. Then Mueller presents him with a form saying Corsi "intentionally provided false or misleading answers to the FBI." He is told to sign it or be prosecuted for same and face 15 years in jail (at 72-years-old).

That is a perjury trap and "process crime" and the ONLY thing Mueller has secured as "convictions" so far. It is very expensive to defend, costing Michael Flynn his home for two statements that the FBI agents who interviewed him did not even consider lies. Mueller deemed them lies and demanded a plea to avoid prison.

So what would YOU do under these circumstances?

Jim at said...

But Pickering is trying his best.

Bruce Hayden said...

“EXCLUSIVE: FBI RAIDS HOME OF WHISTLEBLOWER ON CLINTON FOUNDATION, LAWYER SAYS
10:30 PM 11/29/2018 | INVESTIGATIVE GROUP Richard Pollock | Reporter”

Hoping that I would see that here. UT USA Huber is scheduled to testify on either 12/4 or 5 on this matter. This appears to be the Deep State (or Clintonistas) trying to get ahead of this. The FBI had no reason for the raid. The whistleblower had already turned over the documents to the DoJ OIG, and they had delivered them to Congress. Apparently, they lied by omission to the magistrate issuing the search warrant by telling him that this former FBI contractor had documents belonging to the govt (true), but neglected to tell him that he was an officially recognized whistleblower protected by law from precisely this sort of behavior on their part. And with the warrant having been provided him, he informed them that he was a legally protected whistleblower, and then turned over the documents. The FBI rummaged through his house for another six hours - obviously on a scavenger hunt for incriminating information. To rub it in, the FBI agents, upon notice that the whistleblower was represented by counsel, contacted him again personally, instead of through said attorney, as required by law and regulation.

This level of investigatory overstepping and malfeasance is remarkably brazen. The FBI people involved just told the country that they are not bound by law or regulations. They can do precisely what they want, and no one is going to touch them. Moreover, the Clintons have proven, again, that they too are above the law. But the timing, of this illegal raid, I think, also suggests some level of desperation. Sessions knows what is in those documents, and presumably, that is part of the reason that USA Huber was brought in. This means that Whitaker and probably Wray also know. IG Horowitz knows. And members of both parties in both Houses of Congress know. But the Clintons probably didn’t, nor their people in the FBI and DoJ. And they likely wanted to get out ahead of USA Huber’s Congressional testimony next week.

Ignorance is Bliss said...

John Pickering said...

It's so funny that people think there might be something wrong that the US president is likely the dupe, or the stooge, or the actual agent of the Russian intelligence services.

It's not funny that people think there might be something wrong that the US president is likely xyz.

It's funny that people think that the US president is likely xyz

And by funny, I mean sad.

Chuck said...

Hahahahaha!

I regret that I missed that Very Special Edition of Hannity. But I do remember that Sean Hannity was one of Michael Cohen’s 2 or 3 clients. So now, after having been the good friend and trusted advisor of both Hannity and Individual 1 for more than 12 years, we are now supposed to believe that Cohen is a scumbag.

I think they are all scumbags; the evidence will help us figure out who the lying scumbags are. And then, who the criminal scumbags are.

Mike Sylwester said...

Bruce, excellent comment (1:55 PM).

wholelottasplainin said...

Pickeing said:

Other people basking in that laff riot: National Security Adviser Michael Flynn; Vice President Mike Pence; former Attorney General Jeff Sessions; and the three older Trump kids. Hey. what's wrong with offering a bribe to the hostile government that's trying to tile (sic)the election your way? Anyone would do that, right, Ann? It's so funny that people think there might be something wrong that the US president is likely the dupe, or the stooge, or the actual agent of the Russian intelligence services. Hilarious!
**************

Obama himself said that it would be impossible for Russians to tilt a US presidential election, because (a) no one could predict where votes would be needed, especially because of the electoral College system, and (b) the numerous state and local polling places are not computer-linked and thus unhackable.

Of course, we've seen in this past election that local election officials can dick around with votes, but AFAIK none have ever been ID'ed as Russian nationals or Russian agents.

So...what's YOUR theory as to HOW Russia successfully tilted the election?

And as for bribes to a hostile government: can you explain Obama's gift of billions to the Iranians?

Browndog said...

Notice-

33 indictments, no trials. No evidence presented, no defense proffered, no finding of facts.

Mueller really wants Don Jr.

Mike Sylwester said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Mike Sylwester said...

The FBI searched the home of whistle-blower Dennis Natahn Cain on November 19.

The announcement that FBI investigator John Huber would testify to Congress was made on November 20.

The two events are closely related somehow.

John Pickering said...

Jay, thanks for asking, and for overlooking my typo, I was trying to write "trying to tilt." It wasn't that Russians came over here to vote, it was that the Russians stole emails that they doctored to put Hillary and the Dems in a bad light, and magnified that through thousands of bots on social media and the co-option of some of the credulous non-elite whites that typify Ann's readership. Those people, persuaded that Hillary is the billionaire kingpin of an international criminal organization devoted solely to her enrichment, provided the margins of Trump's victories in Ohio, Wisconsin and Michigan, allowing the Russians to claim probably the greatest counter-intelligence coup in the history of the U.S./Russia/USSR conflict: the installation of a Russian agent in the Oval Office. Trump talks to Putin all the time: do you think it matters, what they talk about?

As for Obama and the Iranians: part of the Iran nuclear deal was that the U.S. would give back the money that Iranians held in US financial institutions that was seized after the hostage crisis. It wasn't our money: it was their money. You can look that up.

YoungHegelian said...

While out driving today, I listened to Rush who was just going ballistic about this very topic. Rush's claim: Mueller's operation is essentially a taxpayer-funded opposition research firm for the Democrats.

Personally, the idea of a government prosecutor with a mission to just go out there & find a crime, any ol' crime, is an idea worthy of a Soviet show trial.

I thought the way "justice" worked is that the government charged you with some number of specified crimes & if it couldn't prove its case for those specified crimes, you were innocent.

The final nail in the coffin for me with Mueller is when one of the indicted Russian corporations decided it wanted it day in court, Muller's team went all "Wait -What?! We're not ready for a trial. We need more time". Like an indictment is something a prosecutor hands out like a dad gives his kid a Chicklet or two.

YoungHegelian said...

@JP,

it was that the Russians stole emails that they doctored to put Hillary and the Dems in a bad light

Complete & utter bullshit.

How dare you come here and insult us & post absolute nonsense like that. Give us one single fucking example of where "the Russians" doctored an email & then the DNC or the Clinton team proved that the email had been doctored by releasing the original.

Unlike you, I do this sort of IT for a living. There are things called "headers" in an email that make it very difficult to "doctor" emails to the trained eye. The affected parties never, ever claimed that & then produced proof of modification. Primarily because it never happened.

No, this is one of those "lefty facts" just like 65% of Democrats think that the Russians actually changed vote totals in 2016 that show just how completely out to lunch the "Party of Reality" really is.

Bruce Hayden said...

Next week should be fascinating. Both Huber and Comey are scheduled to testify. Comey, having second thoughts is trying to get a federal judge to tell Congress how to conduct its business, asking to testify in open session, where each committee member gets essentially five minutes per cycle through the committees, and one cycle through the joint committees is likely to run out the clock. In closed session, most members won’t show, there won’t be any grandstanding (ok, maybe from Adam Schiff), and the people selected by the Republican majorities can get into the details, which they can’t in open session.

But a lot of people believe that a lot more is going to happen next week. The Q posts seem to be accelerating, counting down the days until 12/5. Someone noticed that the gap in days between posts was decreasing monotomicly (6, 5, 4...) Is Trump going to pull the pin, and force the declassifications of those FISA warrants? OIG has copies of unredacted warrants, as well as unredacted versions of a lot of other incriminating information (e.g. the entirety of the Strzok/Page text messages - reading them, you can see that there was a lot of malfeasance going on at the top of the FBI, just not precisely who was doing what. Also, those text messages, fully unredacted, will likely give away precisely how Mueller was appointed, and how his investigation was staffed, including how both Strzok and Weismann Were included). Also of interest to the public would be fully unredacted FISC opinions concerning the Title VII abuse discovered by NSA Dir Adm Rogers. Was Fusion GPS one of the contractors allowed by the FBI to search the NSA FISA databases? Who were the other contractors? All redacted so far. And maybe we can see who authorized the unmasking of those illegal queries? Appears to have been someone in the Obama WH. Maybe.

On the flip side, Trump seems to have said a couple days ago that he is happy with the leverage he now has over the Dems and the Deep State through his ability to force declassification of all those documents that would be so embarrassing to them, and hinted that he might keep that in reserve to use against the Dems, when they take over all thouse House committees in January. Should be interesting.

rcocean said...

Halderman got caught in a perjury trap this way.

He met with Nixon on Watergate and wrote up notes of the meeting. Deliberate fake notes or just sloppiness?

The Prosecutes asked him about it, he knew they had the notes, so his story matched the notes. It had to.

Then they got the tapes. And the Tapes were different.

So he was convicted of lying.

Darkisland said...

Another John asks who wants President Pence?

I would remind everyone here, especially Inga and Squeamish that impeachment is nothing. Clinton was impeached and served out his term.

President Pence only comes about it they can get 66 Senators to vote to convict.

Anyone think that is possible? Even if President Trump were to go out and shoot someone on 5th Avenue?

Sorry, Squeamish. Too bad, Inga.

John Henry

Bruce Hayden said...

“Unlike you, I do this sort of IT for a living. There are things called "headers" in an email that make it very difficult to "doctor" emails to the trained eye. The affected parties never, ever claimed that & then produced proof of modification. Primarily because it never happened.”

Interestingly though, the FBI didn’t have most of the headers from the email that Crooked Hillary turned over to them in paper form, until many of them were discovered on the Weiner/Abedelin laptop in late August. What was humorous then was Peter Strzok telling his bosses that it should be easy to deduplicate the Weiner emails against the original trove from Clinton, then backing away after “technical problems” were discovered - the technical problem being that the he had accepted the original emails in printed form from Clinton, and so couldn’t use the headers to rapidly deduplicate the emails. They apparently pulled a couple of pizza fueled all nighters, and only managed to review a small fraction of the Weiner trove of Clinton emails (but let his boss, Comey, testify that they had fully reviewed the new trove of emails). It should also be remembered that the reason that they ran out of time to do it was that he admitted that prioritized the Trump/Russia investigation over the Clinton email pseudo investigation, and didn’t have the staffing to do both (FBI has roughly 35k employees).

Darkisland said...

Blogger Openidname said...

You never ask a "why" question on cross-examination. Otherwise, the witness may actually give a good explanation.

I'll do pretty much anything for money as long as it is not too illegal or, if it is, I don't think I'll get caught.

But I won't do lawyering. There are some things even I won't do.

This is one reason why.

John Henry

Mike Sylwester said...

John Pickering at 2:26 PM
the credulous non-elite whites that typify Ann's readership

John, how do you yourself fit into those categories?

Darkisland said...

Blogger Jim at said...

But Pickering is trying his best.

You forgot to add "Bless his heart.

He does deserve a participation prize for trying. Everybody gets a prize regardless of performance.

John Henry

Original Mike said...

Blogger Bruce Hayden said..."But the Clintons probably didn’t [know what was in the documents],nor their people in the FBI and DoJ. And they likely wanted to get out ahead of USA Huber’s Congressional testimony next week."

Thanks, Bruce. For the life of me, I couldn't see a reason for this raid.

Nonapod said...

it was that the Russians stole emails that they doctored to put Hillary and the Dems in a bad light

First I've heard that any of the released Podesta emails were "doctored". Unless I missed something, I don't recall even Podesta himslef claiming they were doctored.

Original Mike said...

"How dare you come here and insult us & post absolute nonsense like that. Give us one single fucking example of where "the Russians" doctored an email & then the DNC or the Clinton team proved that the email had been doctored by releasing the original."

Even lefties don't claim this, do they? I think Pickering is responsible for this steaming pile.

John Pickering said...

Mike, I'm an elite white, privileged through my background and education to fully participate in the operation of the levers of power and wealth that my cohort has controlled in this country ever since my mother's Bradford ancestors arrived on the Mayflower. I read Ann's blog for laughs, mainly regarding the feelings of anomie and loss that afflict so many of her readers, who don't think they have it so good anymore and like nothing better than a self-pity party. How about you?

Mike Sylwester said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
YoungHegelian said...

Mike, I'm an elite white, privileged through my background and education to fully participate in the operation of the levers of power and wealth that my cohort has controlled in this country ever since my mother's Bradford ancestors arrived on the Mayflower.

Well, JP, you're not exactly what I'd call a "credit to your race".

Mike Sylwester said...

John, thanks for your response (3:23 PM) to my personal question.

I am a non-elite White skeptic.

I suppose that, even though you yourself are White, you communicate the Colored People's opinions to us non-elite Whites who comprise Althouse's readership.

If so, thanks for performing that service!

Mike Sylwester said...

Correction to my comment at 3:34 PM

I inadvertently used the expression Colored People.

I meant to write People of Color.

Please make the mental correction.

YoungHegelian said...

@Bruce H,

Interestingly though, the FBI didn’t have most of the headers from the email that Crooked Hillary turned over to them in paper form,

That the headers don't survive the transition to paper is no doubt one of the major reasons that HRC's legal team turned over the email in paper form. The headers would have no doubt shown that her team was routing classified info through multiple unsecured nodes.

Bruce Hayden said...

“That the headers don't survive the transition to paper is no doubt one of the major reasons that HRC's legal team turned over the email in paper form. The headers would have no doubt shown that her team was routing classified info through multiple unsecured nodes.”

In other words, you are suggesting feature, not bug.

Anonymous said...

mike,

next time

just do a complete copy

delete first email

paste material into the new form , edit POC and submit :)

tim in vermont said...


Blogger John Pickering said...
Jay, thanks for asking, and for overlooking my typo, I was trying to write "trying to tilt." It wasn't that Russians came over here to vote, it was that the Russians stole emails that they doctored to put Hillary and the Dems in a bad light,


It’s not often that I am embarrassed for a troll like Pickering, but that’s some serious delusion right there. Nobody outside of the looney left fever swamps believe that the emails were doctored.

tcrosse said...

Fictional character "John Pickering" fancies himself as Eustace Tilley, come here to squint at butterflies through his monocle.

tim in vermont said...

Some partisan and unscrupulous website convinces drooling morons like Pickering that some things that are plainly false and others that are based solely on unfounded speculation are true, and it’s everybody else's problem? Whatever.

tim in vermont said...

Jim said...."Why is R/V not very bright? This is also a question." 11/30/18, 12:35 PM

Didn’t you know that he reads philosophy with super intelligent people in his book club of extraordinary gentlemen, but when he comes here, for some reason he forgets it all and reverts to mouthing talking points that he can’t defend and rejecting arguments that he seems unable to understand. I guess that’s how the great philosophers all did it.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

The e-mails were doctored?

That is full on delusion.

Is that like when Carlos Danger insisted he was hacked?

Bruce Hayden said...

Pickering, and maybe the other left wing NPCs, seem to be forgetting that we have three different email troves that we are talking about. I cannot determine though if individuals really don’t understand this, or are trying to muddy the water by trying to play shell games. So, here is a reminder:

- Crooked Hillary had roughly 60k emails on her insecure illegal private email server from the time that she was Sec of State, from 2009 through 2013. In 2016, under court order, she turned over roughly half of them (30k) to the DoJ/FBI in paper format, presumably so that no one could see the full email headers. There were a number of classified, highly classified, and even some code word level documents in the 30k emails she turned over. Her people eventually deleted everything, including the missing 30k emails, despite them being under subpoena at the time. They made sure that the emails couldn’t be recovered by using Bleach Bit. She claimed that the missing emails were personal, only involving her daughter’s wedding and yoga lessons. Many believe though that the reason that she used a private server, and deleted everything on her server, was that she was selling American foreign policy to the highest bidder, from her offices at Foggy Bottom. Much of that money ended up in the Clinton Foundation, including $145 million from the Russians for 1/5 of our uranium. This latter was the dirt that the Trump campaign was interested in. The FBI didn’t have deleted the email, and neither probably did she. But her email had been stored on an unsecure private server for at least those four years, and very likely had been hacked from early on by esp bation state actors like Russia and China. So Trump asked the Russians for their copy, and Jr and Kushner had a meeting in Trump tower with a Russian atty, when they were dangled in front of them by, very likely, Fusion GPS, the FBI, or CIA. And these were the emails that Strzok pretended to deduplicate with the Weiner/Abedelin cache right before the election.

- the DNC email server was hacked in late spring, and the emails very quickly found their way onto WikiLeaks. Except that it was almost assuredly an inside job, probably by a dissatisfied Bernie Bro, and not done by the Russians. The metadata appears to foreclose that, with file transfer times only really plausible to a flash drive located near the server. These were embarrassing to the DNC because they showed that they had cheated to give Clinton the nomination, over Bernie Sanders, and presumably made it less likely that his supporters would vote for her. Also, the emails gave away that they were involved in rampant campaign finance violations, where donated chunks of money well over tgeclegal limits were split up into legal chunks, sent to almost 40 state parties, then immediately returned to the DNC and/or Clinton campaign, often the same day, in the identical amounts sent them.

- Ponetta, Clinton’s campaign chair, was stupid enough to fall for a fairly unsophisticated phishing attack, giving up his email user Id and password. Mostly the emails that were hacked showed that he and his brother might have been involved in a ring that had, maybe, sex with children.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Everyone knows it's illegal to paint Hillary in a bad light. She does it on her own with her corrupt behavior - but NO one is allowed to look into it or call her on it.

Besides, anything negative about poor Hillary was all doctored.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Pickering - is it a lie that Hillary Set up and use a Private Server?

If so - did the Russians hire her IT guy, Bryan Pagliano? yeah - that must be it.

He plead the 5th over and over and over and over and over.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Ponetta, Clinton’s campaign chair, was stupid enough to fall for a fairly unsophisticated phishing attack,...

You mean Podesta.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Pickering is a solid Clinton corruption excuser.

exhelodrvr1 said...

"the credulous non-elite whites that typify Ann's readership"

Actually, we're very elite. Just not elitist. I know, that's too nuanced for you.

Bruce Hayden said...

Let me add to my previous post. Originally, the WikiLeaks dump of the DNC email server was sold to the American public as having been done by the Russian hackers in Eastern Europe. As noted, that is highly unlikely given the transfer speeds shown by the downloads in the metadata. Part of the story came from Guccifer 2.0 who claimed credit for it. And indeed, some of the metadata appeared early on to have come from the Russians. However, later analysis points a finger at someone in VP Biden’s office. Moreover, this all was flatly denied by Julian Assange, who runs WikiLeaks, and who effectively remains a political prisoner, even to this day, in, I believe, the Ecuadorean Embassy in London. Where apparently Jerome Corsi, I believe, was supposed to have met him, according to the Mueller team, despite no actual evidence whatsoever supporting their assertion. And his denial of that asserion is part of why Mueller’s team this week was threatening to prosecute him for lying to them. Threatening to prosecute him for saying he didn’t do something that all extrinsic evidence shows he didn’t do.

Bruce Hayden said...

“You mean Podesta.”

Can’t keep the crooks straight.

Crimso said...

"The FBI ignored a 2002 tip from a scientific colleague of the actual anthrax killer, who turned out to be a Fort Detrick scientist named Bruce Edwards Ivins"

Not to stray from the topic, but I can't let this pass. The publicly available information on the "case" against Bruce Ivins is laughable, considering that the FBI considers the case closed after declaring Ivins did it. Ivins, of course, couldn't defend himself, having committed suicide. Most of the accounts I have read that give the "facts" the FBI based their conclusions on cite the technical details as the compelling evidence. I'm a biochemist, so I know those technical reasons are bullshit. I used to wonder why the FBI was so determined to pin this, first on Hatfill (and boy did they go balls-to-wall to get him), then on Ivins. I foolishly thought the FBI had integrity and should be trusted. I know better now. And what names show up in this whole mess of a case? Comey and Mueller.

FullMoon said...

@John Pickering

Not bad, credit where credit is due.

Matt Sablan said...

I'd have no problem if Mueller had ran in the democrats and FBI agents we found committed crimes during his investigation. The fact they go free while we dug for a year plus on Manafort while FBI agents who got bribed by journalists felt no pain makes this pointless.

Drago said...

TIV: "It’s not often that I am embarrassed for a troll like Pickering, but that’s some serious delusion right there. Nobody outside of the looney left fever swamps believe that the emails were doctored."

The claim by the hack lefties and their "LLR Chuck"-like allies that the emails were doctored was one of the very first lefty/LLR deflection tactics.

It lasted about 57 seconds before it was blown out of the water so its fascinating that Pickering is attempting to resurrect it.

Very similar to Field Marshall Freders easily disproved lies about the Bundy case and pretty much every single lefty meme that LLR Chuck mindlessly parrots.

Green said...

Mueller is an illegitimately appointed prosecutor acting as a research arm for a major political party. He has no specific crime he is going after, which is what is required for his appointment. “Bad things we don’t like involving Russia” does not qualify as a specific crime.

tim in vermont said...

Friday on MSNBC’s “Deadline,” network political analyst John Heilemann declared President Donald Trump and his family were a “low-level, low-rent, cheesy crime family.”

I think they have the Trumps confused with the Clintons.

tim in vermont said...

Maybe that explains it, maybe this is giving them to opportunity to vent everything they always wanted to say about the Clintons, but couldn’t because, well the Clintons had ways of making you pay for disloyalty. Never be the first to stop clapping!

gadfly said...

So the relationship between Alan Dershowitz, Jeffrey Epstein, Donald Trump and teenage whores will be on display in court next Tuesday. Next perhaps, we will likely find out what illegal services Michael Cohen provided to Sean Hannity and a neat bow can be tied around this whole conspiracy.

Attorney Alan Dershowitz’s name appears 19 times in an investigative report on the ways billionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein manipulated the legal system to torment his accusers and escape serious punishment.

Two of the victims are suing the federal government to overturn Epstein’s unusual and controversial plea agreement, and an unrelated state court case scheduled to stand trial Tuesday, could expose more of the well-connected billionaire’s crimes, reported the Miami Herald.

Former prosecutor Alexander Acosta — now President Donald Trump’s labor secretary — offered a plea agreement to Epstein that allowed him to serve just 13 months in county jail and hide most of his crimes.

The Herald examined that agreement, which was made without telling Epstein’s dozens of victims — who want the plea deal overturned as a violation of the federal Crime Victims’ Rights Act.

One of those victims has claimed she had sex with Dershowitz — a professor emeritus at Harvard Law School and frequent Trump defender on television — at least six times, at the direction of Epstein and his socialite friend Ghislaine Maxwell.

Hey Skipper said...

[John Pickering:] As for Obama and the Iranians: part of the Iran nuclear deal was that the U.S. would give back the money that Iranians held in US financial institutions that was seized after the hostage crisis. It wasn't our money: it was their money. You can look that up.

What else I can look up is that there are damage judgments (here and here) against Iran.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

gadfly - you conveniently left out Bill Clinton.