The NYT reports.
I'm finally making a new tag for this. My longstanding tag for the Russia investigation has been "Trump troubles," and I would be having Althouse troubles if I used it on this post.
(The tag "I am making a new tag for this" is not new.)
ADDED: The last time I made a new tag and commemorated the occasion with "I am making a new tag for this" it was "Zuckerberg rhetoric." That was back in June 2017: "I only make a special 'rhetoric' tag for a person when I'm seriously following a run for President and I expect a lot of material."
The second-to-last time I used the "I am making a new tag for this" tag was for "nervous": "I've noticed what I think may be a significant trend in reporting in the Trump era: reporting it as news that somebody is — perhaps only by slanted inference — nervous." That reporting trend was detected in May 2017. But, like the Zuckerberg candidacy, it didn't take off.
Or did I just stop noticing? Unlike a Zuckerberg candidacy, it's the kind of thing you could adjust to and accept as normal.
AND: There are only 2 other uses of the "I am making a new tag for this tag": "furry" and "artisans." Maybe some day all these tags will arise in the same post. Who knows where the origins-of-Russia-investigation investigation may lead?
IN THE COMMENTS: Nobody said:
Comey publicly stated that there was no crime. Obviously he was using his position as a former prosecutor with corrupt intent to undermine this investigation and obstruct justice. He sent Martha Stewart to prison for protesting her innocence publicly, after all, so enjoy your time on the business end of the political weapon you built, Comey! Be sure not to say or do anything in response that could conceivably be interpreted as interfering in any way with the “justice” of this investigation!But don't expect a MSM report that Comey is nervous. By the way, the post where I first made the nervous tag was about Comey. The Daily Beast had reported that White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus was "nervous" about "a possible Comey memo," and I said: "Maybe Comey should be nervous...."
Remember too that it’s obstruction even if there really is no crime!
It's what you call poetic justice, and there's no obstructing that. It flows quite freely on its own.
Posts
148 comments:
Comey publicly stated that there was no crime. Obviously he was using his position as a former prosecutor with corrupt intent to undermine this investigation and obstruct justice. He sent Martha Stewart to prison for protesting her innocence publicly, after all, so enjoy your time on the business end of the political weapon you built, Comey! Be sure not to say or do anything in response that could conceivably be interpreted as interfering in any way with the “justice” of this investigation!
Remember too that it’s obstruction even if there really is no crime!
Good. Now get the Democratic candidates on the record on what they think about this, and what they think should happen if the investigation identifies improprieties on the part of Hillary's campaign and/or the Obama administration.
3 investigations about the 1 investigation.
Didn't we just hear a year of gnashing of teeth about Mueller wasting money? Now you want to waste more by throwing more good money after bad?
But is there a tag for “Althouse troubles”?
"what they think should happen if the investigation identifies improprieties on the part of Hillary's campaign and/or the Obama administration."
It's nice knowing that the next administration can spend 4 years investigating the Trump administration.
What a great precedent to set.
Why would it anger officials.
Popcorn futures up overnight.
This investigation is a good thing and Democrats and Trump opponents should welcome it. The levers of government should never be used against one's political opponents, especially not by the party in power. If that happened the responsible parties should be punished severely for their attack on our Constitution. If, on the other hand, the Russian interference investigation was conducted properly and according to the rules then we can be happy to have that proved. Just like we were happy that the Trump campaign and administration didn't collude or cooperate with the Russians to interfere in the 2016 election.
Then again, I am known to be quite naive on matters of politics.
"What a great precedent to set."
A worse precedent would be to not investigate, just because you are afraid that there might be a fire at the base of the smoke you see.
Mark @ 10:59
Only this time, Mark, real crimes have been committed. That's not a waste of money is it? You want to see justice done, don't you?
I feel like an investigation is pointless because no one will be held accountable. If they prove me wrong all the better. First lets find out who stole was it Power's credentials and illegally unmasked people.
What a great precedent to *have* set
FIFY.
The Mark Method: don't investigate when things go wrong, because that's just more things to go wrong.
Re: the Althouse furry tag
By this time next year the Democrats will attempt to pin the blame for the "Russia investigation" scandal on a fur-bearing critter, probably Wily Coyote.
Didn't we just hear a year of gnashing of teeth about Mueller wasting money?
Are you attempting to obstruct justice? Is that why you wrote that comment? Once an investigation has begun, it must chase down every conceivable lead! We learned that during the Mueller investigation into a baseless accusation by the Hillary campaign!
This is going to be a “teachable moment” for Comey and his doctrine of no limits on the power of prosecutors.
"But is there a tag for 'Althouse troubles'?"
I don't blog about my troubles, any actual personal difficulties. What a different blog this would be if I did! Sorry, but I'm protecting my privacy enough that anything that would deserve that tag would not make it to the blog.
The closest thing I have is emotional Althouse.
BTW, it was two years.
But I know, Mark, it’s only a problem when Republicans do it. I wish I had more ammo from your side to argue against it.
Trump haters should be licking their chops! The more transparancy the better! I don’t get the resistance. Won’t we all be made to look like fools when the investigation inevitably turns up the collusion that Mueller missed?
I say go after Comey’s family first. That’s the American way now!
...a move that President Trump has long called for but that could anger law enforcement officials who insist that scrutiny of the Trump campaign was lawful.
Interesting. When President Trump expressed anger over being bugged and spied upon he was derided, ridiculed, and condemned as a dangerous madman by the likes of Dah Nooyawk Toimes. Now the same people would have you believe the appointment of a United States Attorney is wrong because it might make some people angry.
"John H. Durham, the United States attorney in Connecticut, has a history of serving as a special prosecutor investigating potential wrongdoing among national security officials, including the F.B.I.’s ties to a crime boss in Boston..."
Wasn't a younger Robert Mueller tied to that FBI/Boston crime boss thing (with Whitey Bulger)? Could be John H. Durham has investigated the investigator previously.
Why does Mark seek to assist in obstructing justice and continually attack the fine patriotic men and women of the DOJ/FBI AND destroy our democratic and Cinstitutional norms??
Why is Mark acting likea stooge of Putin?
Does Putin have Mark on tape or something?
I would think Mark would embrace the opportunity for Durham to "exonerate" Comey/Brennan/Clapper/Yates/Lynch/Ibama/Biden/McCabe/Strzok+Page/Baker/Ohrs/FusionGPS/Hillary/Podesta et al.
"Didn't we just hear a year of gnashing of teeth about Mueller wasting money?"
I think that was about how long it took and how much was done considering how little they were finding. Why didn't they stop and tell us there was no collusion really early on? Aside from the money, we needed that information. We were idiotically distracted — or was that the point? — about something that didn't happen. And it was expensive.
It's like complaining about how much a war is costing, which is something you tend to do when the war is also not worth fighting. In WWII, I don't think people say that cost too much money.
It's the waste of money that's objectionable.
A proper investigation into the origin of the Russia investigation could be about saving money by improving the quality of judgment into when and how to investigate. And the people who start and run investigations should be accountable and should have some pressure not to be abusive and wasteful!
This is an area that Mueller was supposed to cover. But because he understood his mission as "get Trump," he never pursued it when the Dems became implicated.
I missed the 'emotional Althouse' tag, try as I might to pop into the blog to see most items as they are current. Looks like some good reading.
We were idiotically distracted — or was that the point? — about something that didn't happen.
BINGO!!
Former FBI Director James Comey on Tuesday cited his own prosecution of Martha Stewart to stress the importance of prosecuting people for process crimes where there is no underlying crime.
Comey’s defense of the controversial prosecution came during an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour as he questioned Attorney General William Barr’s decision not to charge President Trump with obstruction of justice.
“The attorney general’s letter doesn’t make sense in light of my experience,” Comey said. “Thousands of people are prosecuted in this country every year for trying to obstruct an investigation where the underlying thing that was being investigated doesn’t end up proven.”
https://amgreatness.com/2019/04/02/comey-cites-martha-stewart-prosecution-to-argue-in-favor-of-charging-people-like-trump-with-process-crimes/
Check out this guy’s official picture. Tough and scary guy. Add that to his record and Comey should be nervous. Very nervous.
There are two “Mark”s BTW, guess which one has a hidden profile.
I am hugely skeptical that anything will come of this. My skepticism arises from decades of of observing Dems getting away with any and all crimes.
Corzine billions
Hillary travel office (Billy Dale)
Holder/Obama gun running
Lois Lerner
Wasn't a younger Robert Mueller tied to that FBI/Boston crime boss thing (with Whitey Bulger)?
Yes
Rosenstein is already publicly blasting Comey.
This is going to get really interesting now that these investigations are getting started.
Who rolls over first?
"I'm finally making a new tag for this."
May I suggest one of the following?
"Russian Hoaxers"
"Russian Truthers"
"Fake Mueller"
"Fake Comey"
"Fake Dossier"
"Fake FISA"
"Still Butthurt from 2016 Election"
"We do spy"
"Free Carter Page!"
Mark said...
When the no profile, one first name trolls show up you know you're on to something...
We were idiotically distracted — or was that the point? — about something that didn't happen.
All long, drawn out, expensive, apparently pointless activities about fictitious stuff have a point that the perpetrators would rather remain hidden. For example:
When dragon-riding blondes commit genocide it serves the appetites of cable providers who hope to sell more of their highly-profitable programming plans that include HBO.
When yet another poorly focused clip of something roiling the waters of Loch Ness surfaces, it serves to keep the dreary little burg called Drumnadrochit on the tour bus routes.
And when Bob Mueller drags his feet and spends 27,000 large of taxpayers' hard-earned it serves the Democrats' lust for legislative power.
a move that President Trump has long called for but that could anger law enforcement officials who insist that scrutiny of the Trump campaign was lawful
They'd better be very careful about how they express their anger about an investigation into what they see as their perfectly lawful behavior. For now we know (hat tip Uncle Bob, hat tip Weissmann) that if you complain about your prosecutorial colonoscopy, that's "OBSTRUCTION !"
Ann said ..."A proper investigation into the origin of the Russia investigation could be about saving money by improving the quality of judgment into when and how to investigate. And the people who start and run investigations should be accountable and should have some pressure not to be abusive and wasteful!"
By hiring Andrew Weissmann and his merry band of Democrat partisans, Mueller sure didn't try to go down that route. In fact, why does Weissmann still have a law license after all of the false prosecution activity with Enron and Arthur Andersen matters that were later reversed?
Remember the James Rosen case?
They wanted his phone call records so they just swore out a false affidavit and found a compliant FISA judge to sign off on it, under the personal supervision of the then Attorney General, Eric Holder.
And Holder confirmed this on national TV at least twice with no repercussions.
It worked so well I suspect it became SOP.
a move that President Trump has long called for but that could anger law enforcement officials who insist that scrutiny of the Trump campaign was lawful.
I think the standard reply is, if you haven't done anything wrong, you've got nothing to worry about...but I guess they know better.
It's nice knowing that the next administration can spend 4 years investigating the Trump administration.
They're used to it. They were being investigated by the Obama administration before they took office. And in an amazing feat, they've managed to get themselves investigated by Obama holdovers for two years, even during the Trump administration ! So future investigations aren't going to worry them.
I'll be sitting back munching on some fresh marmot organs and enjoying the fun
When they fabricated a premise to indict Alaskan Senator Ted Stevens, it ended up with a letter of reprimand in the file of the offending prosecutors, a letter which undoubtedly served as a letter of introduction to the moneyed circles who provide cushy jobs. But Democrats still got the Senate seat!
Poetic justice can be stopped by cosmic irony.
Mark's been around for a while...
But yeah, it's time to turn the tables on these guys or else they'll do it again. They've gotten away with it when they've gone after guys like Ted Stevens and Tom Daschle.
Despite concluding a crime was committed during the John Doe proceedings, WIDoJ recommends no criminal charges. Instead, the report recommends that former Government Accountability Board (GAB) lawyer Shane Falk be referred to the state judiciary’s Office of Lawyer Regulation for discipline and that contempt proceedings be initiated against John Doe special prosecutor Francis Schmitz and former GAB employees for violating court orders during the John Doe proceedings.
Moreover, the WIDoJ investigation uncovered another previously secret investigation into the personal and political activities of Republicans and conservatives at the state and federal level, evidence from which was filed away as “opposition research."
It’s not like investigating the investigators when they give all appearances of having political motivations is unprecedented.
Mark said...
3 investigations about the 1 investigation.
Didn't we just hear a year of gnashing of teeth about Mueller wasting money? Now you want to waste more by throwing more good money after bad?
1) Back atcha for Mueller's woftam. I hereby direct that my share of tax revenues be gladly directed towards ripping your side collectively a new arrshoel. An extra buck may be spent on 3am terror raids. An extra nickel if the National Enquirer may be cued to get lots of photos of uncombed hair and females in their nighties, oh and pix of any ill-gotten gains, sex toys, anything juicy or otherwise salacious.
2) President (and Candidate) Trump was obviously clean, as were his people inasmuch as the campaign, election and governance were concerned. Your gang was and is obviously guilty of everything from mopery and dopery in the subways on up to treason, yes, treason, sedition, mutiny and espionage. Plus dog-kicking and ass-pinching.
3) YOU, Mark, are a conspirator and colluder, as shown by your efforts on behalf of the conspiracy to elude justice. I note that your profile is hidden. I eagerly await the subpoena to Google to doxx you, and the regrettable error in mass media of flashing your life history out there for all to see.
4) in the words of Tom Chaney: You mean to say you don't like it? Haha. Hahaha.
Hahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!
5) oh, 4 years harassing the last President? Well, a fortiori, how about setting up 4 years of harassment on the NEXT President, as your boy did?
The fate of the Republic hinges on excising the cancer of the Obama administration, and indeed that seen in those before, but metastasized therein. Nixon didn't go to jail, so I'm willing that Obama doesn't go to jail. But only him. He may merely be ruined. Everyone else has to pay retail.
Our anger might be mitigated by some judicious suicides on the part of Team D. Think it over. (I'm not talking to you now, Mark, I'm talking to the puppetmasters.) Ideally all the conspirators would barricade themselves in some sprawling compound like the Kennedy estate, which could then accidentally be burned to the ground, and any survivors could then be treated with stem cells, but I'd settle for lots of small rooms, each with a table and one chair, the table holding a Bible (or Koran according to preference), a jug of liquor and a pack of smokes, and a heavy pistol with one bullet.
The Huber investigation is interesting in that it was authorized a long time ago but seemingly hasn't even gotten started.
It's not clear who Huber is rope-a-doping.
Let the fun begin! By, by, libtards
but that could anger law enforcement officials
Too bad. The presence of anger does not mean the absence of guilt.
but that could anger law enforcement officials
If we are going to make them play by their own rules, then anger proves guilt, look at Kavanaugh.
There’s so much at stake here, I would watch for bodies to start piling up. Unfortunate accidents, cars exploding while driving down the street, “suicides”, etc.
The die was cast in 2016.
Nichevo said:
The fate of the Republic hinges on excising the cancer of the Obama administration, and indeed that seen in those before, but metastasized therein.
So true! The Obama administration abused their power to a degree never before seen and with impunity. Time for these abuses to be made public, from the targeting of political opponents by the IRS to using the FBI to spy on and persecute political opponents. Very bad people.
Despite the enthusiasm here, these investigations are likely to be administrative inquiries that find administrative mistakes and administer administrative remedies.
Blogger Henry said...The Huber investigation is interesting in that it was authorized a long time ago but seemingly hasn't even gotten started. It's not clear who Huber is rope-a-doping.
Barr should remind Huber that he may be obstructing justice in the manner he is carrying out his assignment.
Nobody said...
There are two “Mark”s BTW, guess which one has a hidden profile.
Ahh...I was wondering. I thought maybe sometime between 5:59 and 6:34, Mark took his medication.
Durham kinda looks like Wilford Brimley.
Despite the enthusiasm here, these investigations are likely to be administrative inquiries that find administrative mistakes and administer administrative remedies
That was certainly the status quo ante Trump, but I think that that method was tried in the Scott Walker John Doe case, the Ted Stevens case, and it never led to any meaningful change. So sure, I am skeptical, but I have hope that Trump takes this stuff seriously.
"May I suggest one of the following? "Russian Hoaxers" "Russian Truthers" "Fake Mueller" "Fake Comey" "Fake Dossier" "Fake FISA" "Still Butthurt from 2016 Election" "We do spy" "Free Carter Page!""
I have Russia, the dossier, Comey, Mueller, surveillance, 2016 campaign. That's my style of tag. I do have some tags that express and opinion, but loading opinion into a tag limits its use.
I have "fake news" as a tag, but that's mainly about the other people talking about the news being fake (and often using that term), though I'll use the tag if I'm talking about the fakeness of some news.
The Mueller report reaffirmed that the F.B.I. opened its investigation based on legitimate factors, including revelations that a Trump campaign adviser, George Papadopoulos, had told a diplomat from Australia, a close American ally, that he was informed that the Russians had stolen Democratic emails.
Oh please, let us look into that “reaffirmation."
“The Huber investigation is interesting in that it was authorized a long time ago but seemingly hasn't even gotten started.
It's not clear who Huber is rope-a-doping”
One suggestion is the Clinton Foundation. There is apparently a group of people who track esp govt airplane tail numbers around the country. Apparently, supposedly, some time back, govt controlled or owned jumbo jets were loaded up late at night in Little Rock with pallets of boxes, and flown to UT. Why Utah? Because it is the center of Mormondom, and Mormons will keep quiet, esp if it is a question of them against the gentiles. Not saying that it is happening, but rather I would prefer the chances of keeping an investigation secret in UT probably over any other USA office in the country, esp if led by a Mormon USA (which the UT USA inevitably will be).
Comey’s talked a lot publicly and testified to Congress. He also leaked classified into to the press with the stated intent to get a special prosecutor appointed. I’d suggest there’s a greater than 50% chance that he’s at least fibbed about something in these complex decisions. Ask Micheal Flynn how that works out.
I’m pretty sure half the country wants Trump to yell, “Dracarys” to the entire deep state who triggers this hoax.
Comey, Brennan, Clapper,Strozk, McCabe "nervous"? No more so than a long tailed cat in a room full of rockers.
Bias - re-read Strozk's texts.
Yeah - the smarmy corrupt leftist asshole was all in for corrupt Hillary and any manufactured insurance policy damage created to upend Trump was justified in his reptilian mind.
Same with most Maddow brains. Corruption on the left is dignified and heroic.
Brennan should be swallowed whole and flushed by all of this. That man is pure evil.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky's "The Grand Inquisitor" is an individual poem within a larger novel, The Brothers Karamazov. Within the tale, Jesus Christ is walking the Earth during the Spanish Inquisition. He is arrested by the Church which is led by the Grand Inquisitor.
In the tale, the Grand Inquisitor has sided with the Devil, and states that the world no longer needs Jesus because he can better fulfill mankind's needs himself.
Remember my call for a "Trump is like Jesus" tag following Althouse's post "What part of Donald Trump reminds you of Jesus Christ"?
“Despite the enthusiasm here, these investigations are likely to be administrative inquiries that find administrative mistakes and administer administrative remedies”
That, no doubt, will be tried. I think that we have already seen this in regards to the four FISA warrants on Carter Page. The excuse is that the underlying paperwork was all in order. That will probably work with Rosenstein and a couple others. But less well, hopefully far less well, with former DD McCabe and DAG Yates, who had actual knowledge of the falsity of the warrant applications that they signed, when they signed. Plus the two of them apparently preapproved the original application, causing their subordinates, tasked with preparing the underlying paperwork, to cut corners.
The other thing though is that while lying to federal investigators is a crime when done by Republicans, or Martha Stewart, it is also a crime when done by high ranking FBI, DoJ, CIA, etc officials. We know that Comey and McCabe lied. So probably did Brennan and maybe Clapper. Crooked Hillary and her minions, plus Christopher Steele, Nelly Ohr, maybe Simpson and his wife.
Another avenue is indicting them under the Espionage Act for leaking. So far, it very much looks like Comey stole official records (his interview summaries of his talks with President Trump), then illegally leaked them, for the purpose of having his friend, Bob Mueller appointed special counsel. McCabe has also been shown to have illegally leaked material to the press. Brennan and Clapper appear. To have been big leakers. Both though, as heads of intelligence creating agencies, were essentially in charge of classification and declassification of the intelligence created within their agencies (or maybe the entirety of the civilian IC in the case of DNI Clapper).
Should be interesting.
Page and Mr. Papadopoulos after they left the campaign and for relying on Democrat-funded opposition research compiled into a dossier by Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence officer who was also an F.B.I. informant.
Investigators cited the dossier in a lengthy footnote in its application for permission to wiretap Mr. Page, alerting the court that the person who commissioned Mr. Steele’s research was “likely looking for information to discredit” the Trump campaign.
No mention that it was funded by Hillary? That seems kind of relevant.
If you read the NYT article, it reads like a long list of things to be investigated.
“Likely” should have read “certainly.” They lied to the FISA court.
This is how it plays out. US Attorney indicts Peter Strzok for obstruction of justice of the point shaving kind along with other crimes. He rats out McCabe. McCabe is indicted. He rats out Comey. Comey then rats out Lynch. Lynch goes to jail rather than rat out Barack. The woman loses! Barack skates.
As pointed out mifsud and halper, the triggers for this investigation had UK australian and Saudi contacts
Interesting sentence in AG Barr's Wikipedia article :
"Barr added that an investigation into an alleged Uranium One controversy was more warranted than looking into whether Trump conspired with Russia to influence the 2016 elections."
but that could anger law enforcement officials who insist that scrutiny of the Trump campaign was lawful.
Oh noze! We can’t have the liars get angry!
And that’s from the “paper of record.”
If it's curtains for SanctiComey, at least he's at home there.
Trump fired Comey, something Trump is allowed to do, and that triggered the bogus witch hunt.
Had Hillary fired Comey - a big phat nothing from her corrupt cohorts in the corrupt Maddow press.
Democrats have politicized and corrupted the entire federal bureaucracy so I see little chance anything comes of this. Maybe some low level stooge gets a slap on the wrist. None of the major players will be touched. MSM will play their role in acting as human shields to protect anyone associated with Obama. I hope I'm wrong but Democrats have destroyed any confidence I have in the integrity of our government.
Great post Althouse, and good comments from yourself and others. I've been waiting for this phase to begin for quite awhile now. As was well noted, there are many problems with the Mueller investigation, but the damning one is that investigation into meddling in a national election couldn't get resolved before the next election, and then when resolved concludes nothing out of the ordinary occurred. That's a boondoggle investigation, and we need to get rid of the people that think it was a good idea.
That's setting aside the politics and just looking at the effort and outcome. A really fair investigation into foreign influence of an election would have detailed efforts made on both sides of the ballot. After all, the supposed crime was "Russia interfered", then detail all the ways that occurred, such as Russian agents providing information to a British spy to develop a dossier used by American agents to slander a candidate. Oh, that was part of the material supporting the investigation? Well when did this all begin actually? Before or after Russians actually interfered?
Because it was nothing of consequence, some YouTube ads some rallies for and against trump (one that Michael Moore participated in) unlike the nuclear freeze movement it was near beer.
Question for the room, something I've been wondering:
Is it possible that Obama and his administration also spied on the Romney campaign?
I don't think it was worth the candle, for them, but seeing as fusion was going after vanderslip who knows really.
Republicans keep attention on all the conspirators within the governmental investigative agencies who did their jobs but don't like Trump - and at least half of them are Democrats. That my friends, is a new standard in who can investigate who! Worse, all of the finger pointing at the finest investigators in the FBI have resulted in lots of accusations but zero trials and convictions.
Somehow we are forgetting that Trump has fired or demoted all of the players who disagreed with his racketeering and obstruction including Comey. Many Trump appointees and campaign staff have indeed been tried and convicted with several more trials in progress. One can only conclude that Bill the Walrus is taking orders from the central criminal in this entire investigation - and that should be stopped immediately.
The round and round about Carter Page and the FISA investigation approved by several judges began, as acknowledged by Kevin Nunes, with George the Greek drunkenly spilling the beans on the Russian-Trump deal - long before the Steele Dossier (never proven false btw) showed up at the FBI.
So the Trump Stall continues and the Trumpsters are happy as larks chasing chicken hawks.
As for Comey, the Republican - his prior governmental record is as clean if not cleaner than Barr and the Iran-Contra fiasco.
but that could anger law enforcement officials who insist that scrutiny of the Trump campaign was lawful
Oh, well, if they insist then there's obviously nothing to look into, right?
How transparently idiotic!
It's illegal to look into leftwing democratic corruption. Nancy and Schit say so.
Comey the Republican. *drink*
He's clean. He's clean!
Much like Mueller (and welds) earlier collaboration that Durham investigated re whitey bulger or he and fitz handling of the anthrax case.
The emails that were available to any security service because of the private server, Russian Chinese iranian.
A+ Comment that is upsetting, and so true.
>Blogger Nobody said...
>I say go after Comey’s family first. That’s the American way now
Mueller convictions through using family leverage:
Manafort - his wife
Cohen - his wife
Flynn - son
Comey the Republican. *drink*
Only a staunch Republican like Comey would donate cash to Democrats Amy Klobuchar and Jennifer Wexton!
It's funny how Democrats are always able to find some shill they can label LLR to do their dirty work. It was the same in Wisconsin with the John Doe scam.
"May I suggest one of the following?"
"It's Our Turn" , "Payback's A Bitch"
Jim Baker, former GC of the FBI under Comey, was on Anderson Cooper last night. He's a full-on Comey defender, and he and Anderson were aghast that Trump was using the word "coup." Baker says he'd never have allowed such a thing. It seems that Comey and other DOJ people are in some jeopardy over the representations made in the FISA applications. Hopefully they'll turn on Brennan, implicating him in the Halper, Mifsud and Downer machinations. After all, it was this intelligence work that created the appearance of Russian collusion and effectively forced the FBI to open an investigation. How could they not investigate with their own intelligence leadership, and allied intelligence colleagues, bringing this kind of info to their attention? That's when things will get interesting: Comey is despicable, but this whole process will be very unsatisfying unless Brennan goes down. That fucking guy is dangerous.
What color is the sky in your world Gadfly?
and... who cant wait for:
Durham.
Is.
Closing.
In.
They all got panicky after Admiral Rogers shut them out of the NSA database, and they made some very sloppy mistakes. They being both the DOJ/FBI folks and Brennan, at the least. The pace is painfully slow, but methodical investigation that actually tries to surface the truth will be very revealing.
"a move that President Trump has long called for but that could anger law enforcement officials who insist that scrutiny of the Trump campaign was lawful
Anyone who's upset at the DoJ looking into the legality of obviously corrupt DoJ actions is a corrupt monster.
So screw them. investigate, expose, and prosecute everyone involved.
Law enforcement officers who sell their credibility for political power should be crushed. Here's hoping the Trump DoJ does the right thing, and crushes every single DoJ / FBI / NSA / CIA / IRS employee who acted wrongly during the Obama Admin.
Jail them all
The round and round about Carter Page and the FISA investigation approved by several judges began, as acknowledged by Kevin Nunes, with George the Greek drunkenly spilling the beans on the Russian-Trump deal - long before the Steele Dossier (never proven false btw) showed up at the FBI.
There is a lot to unpack here
Popadopalus "spilled the beans about Russian-Trump deal" News flash! Just just in. NO EVIDENCE of Russia-Trump conspiricy. At least keep your snark fact based.
Who told Popadopolus about the beans he spilled? >$25 million spent and Mueller failed to even investigate the source of the intelligence Popadopolus supposedly shared with Downer in a bar in London Complete with the obligatory Honey Trap in place. Mueller, like the good Democrat generating opposition research, intentional avoiding learning the most important fact. WHAT IS THE ORIGIN OF THE INFORMATION USED A THE PREDICATE, to spy on the political campaign of the position party.
Mueller obstructed his own investigation into Russian interference of United States elections.
The Steele Dossier has never been corroborated in any part. (proven false is a standard used by lying oafs)
The big "But he's a republican" lie,.
Covers for all that corruption and inept bumbling and leaking every time.
Anderson Cooper and Jim Baker were pathetic last night. They were utterly flummoxed that Trump would dare use the word coup--that's the stuff of tinpot dictators, Cooper said, using an excuse like that when they take out their uncle. But they studiously avoided the actual allegation Trump is making, focusing only on his use of the word coup--that's bad for America, they both claimed. It's as though they know they can't defend the behaviors of the FBI and our intelligence community, but they can try to protect fragile Americans by policing the language we all use to discuss it. In having Baker on, someone who is deeply implicated in these shenanigans, Cooper was transparently facilitating damage control for his side. But they did a terrible job!
walter said...
If it's curtains for SanctiComey, at least he's at home there.
I am soooo stealing this.
did Lynch, Comey et al violate the Woods procedures?
Definitely looks like, even Kathleen kavalec saw through the most obvious errors in steeles presentation, re the consulate in Miami and surkov? As a source.
Blogger Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...
"and... who cant wait for:
Durham.
Is.
Closing.
In."
Nobody knows what Dunham knows.
Gadfly - Do name the folks in the Trump campaign who were convicted of being Russian spies,
Russian operatives, Russian Facebook liaisons, Russian colluders, Russian this or that.
picture Comey,
sleepy-eyed, wobbling out the door like a new-born giraffe,
during the no-knock 4 am raid
Mark said...
3 investigations about the 1 investigation.
Didn't we just hear a year of gnashing of teeth about Mueller wasting money? Now you want to waste more by throwing more good money after bad?
No, Mark, we're going to spend good money to achieve a good result: hunting down the criminals in the Obama Admin who abused the FISA spying process to allow the Democrats in the White house to spy on the Republican presidential campaign.
Unlike the Mueller BS, these are actual crimes, and we know they happened. Time to put people in jail for them.
gadfly has returned in order to demonstrate clearly why his own blog venture failed so miserably.
LOL
?"Wasn't a younger Robert Mueller tied to that FBI/Boston crime boss thing (with Whitey Bulger)?"
Big Mike: "Yes"
Oh its much better than that.
Guess who a couple of Hunter Bidens partners in crime were?
The nephew of Whitey Bulger AND John Kerry's son in law.
Well, what an interesting coincidence....
The Mueller report reaffirmed that the F.B.I. opened its investigation based on legitimate factors, including revelations that a Trump campaign adviser, George Papadopoulos, had told a diplomat from Australia, a close American ally, that he was informed that the Russians had stolen Democratic emails.
Because no one could figure out that Russia had stolen every single email for Hillary's illegal and insecure email server?
Pull the other one, it plays "Jingle Bells".
The State Department apparently wanted no part of any of this shitshow. That's the most encouraging fact to emerge about any of our institutions thus far.
Somehow we are forgetting that Trump has fired or demoted all of the players who disagreed with his racketeering and obstruction including Comey.
Hey, Gadfly found the constitutional crisis; the idea that the Executive can't fire members of the Executive Branch without being held for obstruction by the Legislative Branch. This is like when a Democrat DA indicted Rick Perry for lawfully using his power of veto over funding her abuse of power. Then as now, the Democrats lost the case, and the Constitution made it through the issue just fine.
when the fbi had tawil give the $10K cash (marked, even???) to PapaD,
for fara and laundering,
was that "investigating a crime" or manufacturing a crime?
Can that be legal??
No one should speak to the FBI without a) lawyering up, and b) recording the conversations.
They brought this on themselves.
I for one am looking forward to the testimony of Mueller on Capital Hill scheduled for next (?) week. I suspect that the headlines coming out of that testimony will not be (or not only be) the headlines that OMB Democrats anticipate.
“The Mueller report reaffirmed that the F.B.I. opened its investigation based on legitimate factors, including revelations that a Trump campaign adviser, George Papadopoulos, had told a diplomat from Australia, a close American ally, that he was informed that the Russians had stolen Democratic emails.”
Close, but no cigar. They weren’t the DNC emails, but rather the ones from Crooked Hillary’s illegal private email server that were illegally deleted by her people after a Congressional subpoena had been issued for them. Also you failed to mention that the meeting between Downer and Papadopoulos was a setup, that Papadopoulos was told about the Russians having the Clinton emails by Joseph Misfyp, who was an acquaintance of Downer and Stefen Halper, who appears to have been running the operation, and who (Misfyp) was not a Russian spy, as claimed by Mueller, but rather a western spy trainer, used by both the CIA and FBI to train their own people. Oh, and you forgot to mention the $10k that the FBI provided Papadopoulos for flying to Israel for them, and then were waiting to arrest him for having it when he flew back to the US (except, sensing a setup, he left the $10k back in Europe with an attorney). Nothing to see there with all the machinations. Don’t look at the man talking behind the screen.
all of the finger pointing at the finest investigators in the FBI have resulted in lots of accusations but zero trials and convictions.
Gaddie needs to learn patience, The trials will be a feature of the 2020 campaign, The convictions should be about November 1.
Molly said...
I for one am looking forward to the testimony of Mueller on Capital Hill scheduled for next (?) week. I suspect that the headlines coming out of that testimony will not be (or not only be) the headlines that OMB Democrats anticipate.
I really hope he does testify.
because the first GOPP question should be:
When did you discover that there was no collusion between Trump and the Russians?
The second question will be: Why didn't you tell that to the American people when you discovered it? Why did you drag out the case once you knew its predicate was false?
Since the answer to the first question is "some time in 2017", that's going to be a lot of fun. Almost as much fun as watching all the "Mueller was so professional" fanboi's twist in agony.
Prior to his appointment as U.S. Attorney, Mr. Durham served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in various positions in the District of Connecticut for 35 years, prosecuting complex organized crime, violent crime, public corruption and financial fraud matters.
From 2008 to 2017, Mr. Durham served as Counsel to the U.S. Attorney; from 1994 to 2008, he served as the Deputy U.S. Attorney, and served as the U.S. Attorney in an acting and interim capacity in 1997 and 1998; from 1989 to 1994, he served as Chief of the Office’s Criminal Division, and from 1982 to 1989, he served as an attorney and then supervisor in the New Haven Field Office of the Boston Strike Force in the Justice Department’s Organized Crime and Racketeering Section.
From 2008 to 2012, Mr. Durham also served as the Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia for the purpose of investigating matters relating to the destruction of certain videotapes by the CIA and the treatment of detainees by the CIA. From 1998 to 2008, Mr. Durham served as a Special Attorney for the District of Massachusetts and Head of the Justice Task Force, where he reviewed alleged criminal conduct by FBI personnel and other law enforcement corruption in Boston, led the prosecution of a former FBI Supervisory Special Agent and a former Massachusetts State Police Lieutenant, and handled direct appeals and related proceedings following convictions after trial.
That resume should be keeping the Obama Administration political appointees and the Deep State bureaucrats involved up at night, and defecating in inappropriate places. Which says, to me, that it was a good choice.
I don't believe Mueller ever testifies. Too dangerous for the democrats. Plus, it allows the democrats to scream "Coverup".
Go to a bookstore.
Open Comey's autobiography to any page.
Read it.
Try to convince yourself he isn't insane.
“The attorney general’s letter doesn’t make sense in light of my experience,” Comey said. “Thousands of people are prosecuted in this country every year for trying to obstruct an investigation where the underlying thing that was being investigated doesn’t end up proven.”
So thousands.... *thousands* of people every year who are not guilty of crimes are sent to jail for some other reason? I know that they got Al Capone on tax evasion, but that was a crime in and of itself, it wasn’t manufactured in some kind of entrapment scheme by prosecutors.
Basically, if none of these investigations have grand juries impaneled, then it will be a coverup.
"Basically, if none of these investigations have grand juries impaneled, then it will be a coverup."
This is why I don't believe the Huber story. How do you hide witnesses and targets traipsing off to Utah?
I thought William shatner, in his denny crane persona, was the appropriate narration, I scan to see what he omitted, as with McCabe, his renfield, the events in Barcelona, are mentioned in passing as if shutting down stellar wind, in the middle of the night were not related, that event in atocha station, was critical to the prosecution of the Iraq campaign, the hsbc settlement and his part of the watchers for their money laundering skim, in a similar way to Mueller's honoraria from banamex,
"Is it possible that Obama and his administration also spied on the Romney campaign?"
It is very possible. I have long thought that the other leading Republican candidates in the 2016 nominating season were also spied on and/or were being lured/entangled by people analogous to Mifsud, Downer, and Halper. I think a grand jury with subpoena power would eventually uncover those embryonic investigations into Rubio, Cruz, and others. I would personally ask, if I could, the people working for those other campaigns whether or not any of them had meetings with strangers who offered very odd sounding information or deals, and who those strangers were?
You want to know what the most damning detail in the Mueller Report is? It is the fact that Mueller made literally zero attempts to establish who Joseph Mifsud is- literally zero investigative effort. The only plausible explanation for why he didn't investigate this angle is that he already knew that Mifsud wasn't a Russian agent at all, but was either a British, Italian, and/or CIA associate.
Read the sections dealing with Mifsud- Mueller is extremely careful in the wording about Mifsud's connections- he never explicitly states that Mifsud is a Russian agent, he only characterizes him as someone that Papadopoulos had reason to think had Russian connections. This is an important point- if Mueller knows that Papadopoulos' belief was, in fact, wrong, then the entire predicate for Crossfire Hurricane is false, too. This is why Mifsud was never investigated by Mueller- it undermines the very beginning of the investigation.
Here is an item that Barr can add to his investigation of the investigators and their friends:
Emails obtained by CREW [Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington] show that a close friend of President Donald Trump had access to high-level officials in Trump’s Commerce Department and used this access to share materials that were part of a plan to share nuclear technology with Saudi Arabia. Some of those advocating for this plan stood to make money from it. The correspondence shows Paul Manafort’s partner Rick Gates was enlisted to help arrange a personal meeting with Secretary Wilbur Ross shortly after these materials were shared, and the meeting was a priority for Ross.
Related communications with the National Security Council on these issues resulted in whistleblower complaints, but these communications with Commerce haven’t been reported.
Who knew that Trump was selling the bomb to MBS?
The State Department apparently wanted no part of any of this shitshow. That's the most encouraging fact to emerge about any of our institutions thus far.
I disagree. Period
I see the State Depts of at least 4 governments playing the role of laundering communications. We know US, Britian, Australia, Israel, and maybe others were involved. Downer being the highest profile. It was the State Depts,(they provide cover for the spies). They office out of embassies and consulates. Those, on the ground spies, communicated their actions back and forth using diplomatic cables. Untraceable. We know in the US the State Dept was back and forth with DoJ and FBI. Why was Steele communicating with our State Dept, concerning the Steele Dossier? He was already working for the FBI, why did he expose himself to the State Dept?.
I think the State Dept did what they do best. Encrypted communications that are untouchable by investigators.
You are really good at connecting dots to draw a picture you already have in your mind, gaffy. Have you ever watched A Beautiful Mind?
I would have thought that gaffy would be jumping for joy that there is going to be more digging into the Russia thing, since Comey pulled a Hamilton Berger, but it seems like the people who tell him what to think are nervous.
Sorry, Hamilton Burger
Burger is one of literature's least successful district attorneys, and critics have suggested that he must have been the most incompetent lawyer in history, although his record against defense attorneys other than Mason is unknown. Burger's cases inevitably involved prosecuting the wrong person, who was defended by Mason, who in the end, revealed the true criminal through a series of tactics that Burger characterized as courtroom tricks. Burger's bag of tricks was comparatively empty, chiefly comprising indignant exclamations of, "Incompetent, irrelevant, and immaterial!" Once Mason had exposed the true perpetrator, Burger often joined in Mason's motion to the judge to dismiss the charges against Mason's client so that Burger could then charge the actual wrongdoer. A scene from the television series in which Mason consoles Burger after such a dismissal effort was claimed by Sonia Sotomayor to have inspired her to become a prosecutor.[4]
Which of those e-mails, gadfly, show illegal activity? I mean, getting a meeting with Ross isn't illegal, it doesn't sound like any action has actually taken place to implement the "plan", whatever that plan actually is. And it isn't illegal to use personal connections to set up meetings with people either.
So, break it down for us- I read the links, and those are my observations above. You tell me- what is the criminal activity that is alleged here?
Speaking of CREW, gadfly:
“These documents suggest the Obama White House knew about the Clinton email lies being told to the public at least as early as December 2012,”
“Read the sections dealing with Mifsud- Mueller is extremely careful in the wording about Mifsud's connections- he never explicitly states that Mifsud is a Russian agent, he only characterizes him as someone that Papadopoulos had reason to think had Russian connections. This is an important point- if Mueller knows that Papadopoulos' belief was, in fact, wrong, then the entire predicate for Crossfire Hurricane is false, too. This is why Mifsud was never investigated by Mueller- it undermines the very beginning of the investigation”
Mueller very likely knew, or should have known. Mifsud apparently trained western spies, including those from the CIA and FBI - very likely while Mueller was FBI Director.
This is an area that Mueller was supposed to cover. But because he understood his mission as "get Trump," he never pursued it when the Dems became implicated.
The fact that the Hillary campaign's involvement in the Trump witch hunt wasn't investigated or even mentioned by Meuller tells you everything. It was all political, it was illegal, and it was wrong on an epic level. Possibly the most egregious abuse of power in American history.
I am sorry to say Gadfly, our Poor Man's LLR Chuck, has shown absolutely zero growth in ability over these last few years and appears permanently mired in the Inga Posting Performance Zone.
This condition is clearly rhetorically terminal.
Allow me to be the first to offer condolences to gadflys family. They must be suffering from nearly overwhelming embarrassment at this point.
Thoughts and prayers to them.
what is the criminal activity that is alleged here?
Trump, we hates him! He took our precious.
Is it possible that Obama and his administration also spied on the Romney campaign?
Yes, I suspect that this is how they were able to prep Candy Crowley before that debate. If it happened, it probably would have been through a series of cutouts so as to not implicate Obama himself. Similar to how Hillary paid for the Steele dossier.
This post has slipped out of the current days roster of posts. Maybe our hostess will move it up.
Bob Boyd said...
Durham kinda looks like Wilford Brimley.
********
Yeah, after he lost all that weight to curb his sugar die-beeties.
There are a lot of good questions here for Republicans to ask Mueller, should he testify before Congress. Can he decline to testify under the Trump claim of executive privilege (or whatever the appropriate term is)? Isn't it true that House Democrats have called him to testify? And even if the House Democrats reverse course, hasn't Lindsay Graham made an open invitation to Mueller to testify in the Senate to correct anything Barr has said or submitted in the public record? And mightn't the Republicans in the Senate ultimately opt to call Mueller anyway, just to ask some of the questions here?
No matter what happens, let's not forget the Feingold admonition: Democrats will investigate until they get the answer they want.
which is proper, if one remembers his part in absence of malice, where he played a deputy atty general, who was investigating a leak from the Rosenstein like bob balaban, a slithy tove of a bureaucrat who had sought to incriminate paul newman, in the disappearance of a labor leader,
Some suffered the consequences
http://truthinjustice.org/rico3.htm
Others got off Scot free
Blogger Molly said...
“There are a lot of good questions here for Republicans to ask Mueller, should he testify before Congress. Can he decline to testify under the Trump claim of executive privilege (or whatever the appropriate term is)? Isn't it true that House Democrats have called him to testify? And even if the House Democrats reverse course, hasn't Lindsay Graham made an open invitation to Mueller to testify in the Senate to correct anything Barr has said or submitted in the public record? And mightn't the Republicans in the Senate ultimately opt to call Mueller anyway, just to ask some of the questions here?”
I think that Trump probably could prevent Mueller fro testifying through invocation of Executive Privilege. But don’t expect him to.
Why did Mueller not testify this week for the House? He was scheduled. The media has ignored his absence. The Media black out tells me that the House is starting to understand that there are huge holes in Muellers investigation. Lots of assumptions are used as starting points. Assumptions that are not holding up to inspection.
Mueller won't testify (IMO). Neither he nor the democrats want him to.
Hat Tip to Insty
Durham has been on the job since early October. This is the transcript of Bakers Testimony from Oct 3rd.
When the microphones were back on, Levin declared he would “not let [Baker] answer these questions right now. You may or may not know, he’s been the subject of a leak investigation which is still – a criminal leak investigation that’s still active at the Justice Department.” And so Levin concluded, “I’m sorry. I’m cutting off any discussion about conversations with reporters.”
North Carolina Rep. Mark Meadows wanted to make clear what Baker’s lawyer was claiming: “You’re saying he’s under criminal investigation? That’s why you’re not letting him answer?”
“Yes.”
Levin and the lawmakers sparred a bit over whether Baker was invoking his Fifth Amendment rights, and the congressmen finally got around to asking who was leading this criminal probe:
“There is an ongoing investigation by whom?” Jordan said.
“The Justice Department,” Levin responded.
“I mean, is the inspector general looking at this or is this—”
“No,” said Levin, “it’s Mr. John Durham, a prosecutor.”
Alright slow learning Althousians, I have had enough!!!!
When Trump was taunting House Democratics to call Mueller you had all the evidence you needed about this whole line of questioning. Trump is not difficult to read. He says words that are easy to understand. And he never misses an opportunity to get an opponent to make a stupid move.
Trump was challenging Schiff for Brains, Nadler, and the rest for a REASON! Catch up!
Now Trump owns the issue and the rhetoric.
The master class is closed to new enrollees.
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