On page 7 of the statement of criminal information filed against Cohen, which is separate from but related to the plea agreement, Mueller mentions that Cohen tried to email Russian President Vladimir Putin’s office on Jan. 14, 2016, and again on Jan. 16, 2016. But Mueller, who personally signed the document, omitted the fact that Cohen did not have any direct points of contact at the Kremlin, and had resorted to sending the emails to a general press mailbox. Sources who have seen these additional emails point out that this omitted information undercuts the idea of a “back channel” and thus the special counsel's collusion case.
Page 2 of the same criminal information document holds additional exculpatory evidence for Trump, sources say. It quotes an August 2017 letter from Cohen to the Senate intelligence committee in which he states that Trump “was never in contact with anyone about this [Moscow Project] proposal other than me.” This section of Cohen’s written testimony, unlike other parts, is not disputed as false by Mueller, which sources say means prosecutors have tested its veracity through corroborating sources and found it to be accurate.....
Notably absent from the criminal-information document is any corroboration of the highly inflammatory, though oft-cited allegation made in the so-called Steele dossier, funded by the Clinton campaign, that Cohen visited Prague to clandestinely meet with Kremlin officials in August 2016 to arrange “deniable cash payments to hackers who had worked in Europe under Kremlin direction against the Clinton campaign.”
December 3, 2018
"For Trump, Cohen Plea Deal's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Exoneration."
Writes Paul Sperry at Real Clear Investigations.
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If someone hasn't figured out that the whole Mueller/Russian Collusion case is just booyah, I mean, what's it gonna take?
When talking to Wikileaks or having a known multi-national real estate company attempt to do business in Russia is seen as prima facie evidence of crime, the bottom of the barrel is so scraped you can see the ground underneath.
Do I think that the Trump Corporation was always on the up & up? No. But, compared to the Clinton machine, they're choir boys.
Collusion does not matter to the left. because they know it didn't happen. What ever political sin Mueller-Clinton-Hack-Press can magnify and exploit - that's all that is needed.
only a few like sperry, margot Cleveland sarah carter, lee smith seem willing to dig for the truth, like Indiana jones or lara croft
it's like the fear toxin, in batman begins,
http://thefederalist.com/2018/12/03/nevertrump-clings-to-russia-collusion-conspiracy-theory-despite-lack-of-evidence/
Rachel Maddow has a completely different take.
Trump is going down in 3...2....1.... Fat lady warming up her vocal chords.
This from her Hollywood pal. They know. They really really know. Evidence and accusations... but mostly, accusations.
Mi>Rob Reiner✔
@robreiner
The biggest scandal in US history is coming into focus. On Friday Rachel Maddow made it clear. Donald Trump conspired with the enemy. Quid: Deliver the Presidency & build Trump Tower Moscow. Quo: Lift Economic Sanctions. The fat lady is warming up her vocal chords.
Conspired with the enemy. What enemy? why RE-Set Russia.
Why does Mueller keep ignoring exonerating evidence?
"Notably absent from the criminal-information document is any corroboration of the highly inflammatory, though oft-cited allegation made in the so-called Steele dossier, funded by the Clinton campaign, that Cohen visited Prague to clandestinely meet with Kremlin officials in August 2016 to arrange “deniable cash payments to hackers who had worked in Europe under Kremlin direction against the Clinton campaign.” "
Rachel NOT interested.
The Left is silly and Mueller has done yeoman's work as the high-end gopher boy for the Left and its funders.
Bottom Line:
1. 6/16 - Wikileaks publishes DNC hacked e-mails.
2. 10/16 -Wikileaks publishes John "Password" Podesta's hacked e-mails.
Items 1 & 2 hurt Hillary's campaign, and she then unexpectedly LOST. The Left are still butt-hurt over the loss. They are blaming 1 & 2, and then blaming the Russians as the hackers, and then blaming Trump campaign figures, even tangential figures like Roger Stone and Jerome Corsi, for somehow collaborating with the Russians in executing these two hacks.
Most sane people don't give a fuck. Get over it.
it's like the Truman show, everything is fake,
yes, mueller has even gone so far to subject corsi, to the treatment ming tried to inflict on hans zarkoff,
Oh! THAT highly inflammatory oft-cited allegation.
For Trump, Cohen Plea Deal's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Exoneration.
For many on the left, this probably reminds them of the evil Republican Bob Rumson (played by Richard Dreyfus) in "The American President". When shown a photo of president Andrew Shepard's girlfriend with a burning flag, he starts singing...
"It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas."
It is obvious that the usual suspects here and in the media have been living in a fantasy world in which Trump gets impeached and convicted for Russian Collusion. They double down on delusion as the hoax becomes more obvious. I found this to be true of many clinical patients who were paranoid about Trump.
It is actually not so much a hoax but a joint effort between Democrats and some Republicans to constrain Trump and to protect DC Insiders (aka "the Deep State").
What will happen when their effort crumbles and Trump decides to go after the Clintons and Obama's CIA, DOJ and FBI flunkies who very likely broke the law?
Also notable, Mueller did not challenge Cohen’s statement that he “ultimately determined that the proposal was not feasible and never agreed to make a trip to Russia.”
“Though Cohen may have lied to Congress about the dates,” one Hill investigator said, “it's clear from personal messages he sent in 2015 and 2016 that the Trump Organization did not have formal lines of communication set up with Putin’s office or the Kremlin during the campaign. There was no secret ‘back channel.’”
“So as far as collusion goes,” the source added, "the project is actually more exculpatory than incriminating for Trump and his campaign.”
Mueller’s office declined comment to RealClearInvestigations.
I wonder if Mueller calls RAchel?
It's beginning to look like exoneration
Everywhere you go
Take a look at CNN, filling air once again
With panelists and pundits sounding low
It's beginning to look like exoneration
Pleas in every court
But the prettiest sight to see, is the disgust that will be
On your 50-inch TV
A pair of silver handcuffs and an impeachment vote
Is the wish of Minka and Joe
Perps that will talk and will go for a walk
Is the hope of Anderson Coop
Sunny and Joy can hardly wait for Trump to be thrown out
It's beginning to look like exoneration
Everywhere you go
There's a dearth of leaks at the Times, none at WAPO as well
Even kinds that do not name the source
It's beginning to look like exoneration
Soon the wails will start
And the thing that will make them sweet, are celebrities who Tweet
What’s within their hearts
It's beginning to look like exoneration
Soon the wails will start
And the thing that will make them sweet, are celebrities who Tweet
What’s within their hearts
It's beginning to look like exoneration, exoneration, exoneration, exoneration, exoneration
For Trump and his cult-like followers, everything looks like an exoneration. If video emerged tomorrow of him meeting with Putin and promising the Baltic states in exchange for election help and a hotel in Moscow, they'd all claim that this totally vindicated him.
Trump might need more flexibility before making a deal like that.
To review...
There is still NO EVIDENCE of any collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
There is also NO EVIDENCE that anything Russia did or has been accused of doing actually affected the 2016 Presidential election.
Mike
Never, ever talk to a government investigator. And especially not without a flesh eating attorney.
yes relying on a sub maher comic is never a good strategy.
https://dailycaller.com/2018/12/03/credico-roger-stone-wikileaks/
Something else not mentioned, is that Felix Sater, the guy who initiated the whole "build a Trump Tower in Moscow" plan, was also a CIA asset with ties to the Mob... How many different connections back to the intelligence community do we need before people start realizing that this whole thing was a set-up from the start...
remember how they ultimately handled old yella
https://libertyunyielding.com/2018/12/03/mueller-now-sets-his-sights-on-ivanka-trump/
yes mifsud (mi 6, company, Italian intelligence) halper, (all except Italian, as well svr)
Greenberg (fbi asset) sater (fbi and company asset), there are probably more
what do they say about lies and truth
https://thefederalist.com/2018/12/03/8-fake-news-stories-peddled-michael-cohen-right-now/#.XAV8ON1X7ro.twitter
And Mike. At this point why not? After all you built this edifice. Now you're crying that someone is using it they way you designed it to be used.
Too late. You lost.
http://thefederalist.com/2018/12/03/nevertrump-clings-to-russia-collusion-conspiracy-theory-despite-lack-of-evidence/
Don't you people Get It? Igna was explaining it to me...
The lack of evidence is the PROOF of the collusion.
If Trump was innocent, Mueller would have been able to make an indictment LONG AGO
The ONLY WAY that nothing has been found is that IT A HUGE! CONSPIRACY!!!
Charging Manafort on two separate indictments is overkill. So is getting two separate indictments against Cohen.
Mueller is a petty guy.
And incompetent. Totally fucked up the anthrax investigation. Going after Manafort and Cohen and other shady characters in Trump’s orbit is easy. Bob’s Comfort Zone.
Going after Wall Street Bankers is hard. You have to work very hard and be very smart. Bob and his Lackeys aren’t. They are credentialed but lazy and not very bright.
If Trump conspired with Russia to hack the DNC, and Hillary’s Campaign, Bob would never uncover it. He uses the same stale playbook. Go after the low hanging fruit and try to flip them. And when they have nothing to flip get them to plead guilty to bullshit.
"Notably absent from the criminal-information document is any corroboration of the highly inflammatory, though oft-cited allegation made in the so-called Steele dossier, funded by the Clinton campaign, that Cohen visited Prague to clandestinely meet with Kremlin officials in August 2016 to arrange “deniable cash payments to hackers who had worked in Europe under Kremlin direction against the Clinton campaign.” "
Keep in mind that Andrew Weismann, Mueller’s lead prosecutor, was meeting with Steele, Simpson, etc starting around August, 2016, three months before the election. He appears to have been working for AAG Bruce Ohr in Organized Crime at the time (Ohr’s wife, of course, was the Fusion GPS Russian expert, who some have claimed, based on writing style (she’s the one with the PhD) wrote parts of the Steele Dossier), and these meetings appear to have been a back door to the FBI, after they had dropped dealing with Fusion and Steele directly due to lack of corroboration. Etc. Indeed, it is likely that Weismann was picked for the team, esp for this reason, long before Mueller was picked to formally lead it. The point is that Weismann knew, even back then, how flaky the Dossier was, because otherwise he wouldn’t have been working with Ohr in providing the back door to the FBI. Keep in mind that neither AAG Ohr nor Weismann should have ever been involved with this matter in the first place - they worked in Organized Crime, which is on the criminal side, while everyone else involved was in Counterintelligence, which is on the National Security side in both the DoJ and FBI.
what about the Macedonians?
Macedonian Collusion. Why limit it to Russia?
Hillary lost, in part, due to THE MACEDONIANS. Hillary said so.
And why not? Look throughout history at who has been beleaguered by THE MACEDONIANS
The bit about Cohen being in Prague was supposed to work like this:
1) GPS Fusion (allowed by the FBI) searches the NSA database and finds that Michael Cohen visited Prague.
2) GPS Fusion gives that tidbit to Christopher Steele, who puts it into his dossier, as if he got the tidbit from Russian Intelligence insiders.
3) The FBI, using the NSA database, confirms that Michael Cohen visited Prague.
4) The FBI/NSA confirmation of this tidbit in the dossier proves that Steele indeed received information from Russian Intelligence insiders.
Unfortunately for all these anti-Trump conspirators, the Michael Cohen that GPS Fusion found (allowed by the FBI) in the NSA datbase turned out to be some other Michael Cohen -- not Donald Trump's lawyer.
=====
The probability that any of this will be explained by Robert "The FBI Whitewasher" Mueller to the public is ZERO.
Mike: "If video emerged tomorrow of him meeting with Putin and promising the Baltic states in exchange for election help and a hotel in Moscow, they'd all claim that this totally vindicated him."
You should forward this mental meandering to Hillary/DNC/PerkinsCoie/FusionGPS/Brennan/Comey/McCabe/Strzok/BothOhrs/Australian and British Intelligence services and the bevy of agents obama ordered Brennan to use to plant the seeds and spy on, stasi-like, the Trump campaign and set him up to take him out.
After all, your fevered imaginary lies and conjectures are every bit as good as all of theirs.
Every bit.
Weismann got his ass handed to him on the Arthur Anderson and Merrill Lynch executive appeals.
Courts ruled that Weismann’s theory of the law is not the law. Made up crimes. Violated the penal statutes in Weismann’s mind.
As I said, Mueller and his Lackeys are incompetent jagoffs.
@Mike Sylwester -
Let me add the part that is skipped by some.
It is highly likely that the Cohan trip to Prague was a result of a FISA Title VII search of NSA, etc databases, because government databases are the only good source for that information. One if the first additions to the NSA FISA Title VII daTABASES was very likely Customs and Immigration information, since most of the 19 9/11/01 hijackers were on expired visas. You can’t do a key word search on “Michael Cohan” and find out this information using Google. Normally, you use some sort of additional information to retrieve customs information, such as passport number or SS#. Here the mistake was made to just type in “Michael Cohan”, and run from there. Government employees using these databases probably wouldn’t have made this mistake. Which argues for a contractor. And, we know that the FBI had illegally given contractors access to their FISA Title VII databases, which the contractors used heavily during the first maybe 4 months of 2016, based on a couple of FISC opinions.
The other thing is that the FBI and DoJ couldn’t go to the FISC to get the Title I warrants approved for Carter Page, because the Court would likely have asked WTF? Esp after NSA Dir Adm Rogers had told them that something hinky was going on. So, I think that it is likely that the Cohan trip to Prague was laundered by Fision and Steele to make it appear to be coming from the Russians, and not the Title VII databases that they have oversight over.
Here's a twist:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/russias-latin-american-offensive-1543786397
Corker enabling a Russian info op
I think Mark Steyn wrote a humorous piece during GW's tenure when the same deep state was turning on the Iraq war and running as fast as they could from the fact they said it was a slam dunk that Iraq had mountains of WMD. Basically summed up it was lucky the CIA was too incompetent to actually assassinate Bush, as they would have sent killers to G.S. Bush in Pennsylvania. It doesn't surprise me for a moment they plucked the wrong Michael Cohen from the State dept. data files that sounds like the sort of slipshod intelligence crew we have "protecting" us.
Well the oil for palaces program was certainly not going to food priorities.
We know the fellow who convened the meeting that valerie plane crashed after the yellowcake dossier was presented, was the second highest us official in Niger in 1999,
The German couldn't admit their lead source rafi alwan was a longstanding asset, who had no ties to Chalabi, the French had one asset tied to naji sabri who assured us Iraq had deepsixed their nuclear program
Mike Sylwester and Bruce Hayden-
That's really interesting speculation, considering Brennan's company got caught looking at the State Department Passport database records for McCain, Clinton, and Obama during the 2008 election. And how he was punished....by being selected by Obama to run the whole shebang.
This is all so stupid. There are many things Trump can be legitimately criticized for, and the media are focused on this nonsense. Trump is really lucky to have the useless Mueller on his tail. A better prosecutor would have folded this tent last year, and people would be talking about Trump's trade follies.
I am as yet an agnostic on Mr. Mueller. It is true that he has found people to prosecute, for process crimes and crimes unrelated to his initial charge, as special counsels are wont to do. But I wouldn't complain that he hasn't found any evidence of criminal conspiracy between Trump and Russia. If he hasn't found evidence of any such criminal conspiracy, the likeliest explanation is that there is no such conspiracy. So he prosecutes whatever crimes he stumbles upon which is, again, what he was hired to do. If his "final report" concludes that he found no evidence of such a criminal conspiracy, we'll thank him for doing his job, not condemn him for not finding evidence. If his final report is written as the charging document for impeachment, listing lots of politically charged items but no criminal acts by the president, then we can start complaining.
"then we can start complaining".
Can I complain that no one investigated Hillary's collusion with Russia re: Uranium One despite whistleblowers and tons of evidence already in the public sphere?
Cause I really think that's worth complaining about.
Qwinn-You can, and you should direct your complaints to President Trump since DOJ answers to him. There's no conflict of interest that would require the appointment of a special counsel to investigate Hillary. DOJ is perfectly capable of doing that. The president is certainly allowed to ask his AG to consider such an investigation and to report back to the president on his conclusions. For some reason, Trump hasn't done that.
Douglas at 11:28 PM
So he prosecutes whatever crimes he stumbles upon which is, again, what he was hired to do
I'm surprised that Robert "The FBI Whitewasher" Mueller has not stumbled onto any crimes involving the FBI or Hillary Clinton.
What bothers me about the Mueller probe is how long and, I assume expensive, it has been. At what point did they come across evidence that convinced them to keep going? Is this a group of self-important people who have convinced themselves that their mission is so important that there can be no limits on it?
With the prospect of a probe-happy House next year, I have an idea. Many people, including myself, think it's important for banks to have "skin in the game" when they make decisions. How about everyone on a Congressional committee who votes for an investigation bearing some financial responsibility for the cost? The first billing may come out of their office budget, but once a limit is reached additional billing comes from their salary. That might focus the mind.
More here:
It's time to investigate Mueller.
He's as corrupt at the Clinton Foundation
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