Trump’s smocking gun

Written By: - Date published: 9:09 am, December 14th, 2018 - 82 comments
Categories: Donald Trump, International, the praiseworthy and the pitiful, us politics, you couldn't make this shit up - Tags: ,

There has not been a Trump post for a while, basically because there is so m much happening it has been hard to keep up and distill down the essential elements.

But I get the strong impression that the walls are moving in and that the Mueller investigation must be close to dealing with the Trump family if not Trump himself.

The latest victims of Mueller’s inquiry is former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen who admitted electoral finance violations in that he used campaign money to pay off two hookers to stop them going public with news about Trump’s repeated infidelity during the 2016 electoral campaign as well as lying to Congress about Trump.  Yep that is quite a sentence.  How can god faring Republicans still support the orange one?

To show that this is a complete witch-hunt and that there is nothing at all to the story Cohen is due to start a three year jail sentence soon.  And he has been cooperating his little heart out.

Trump’s defence, that he was relying on his lawyer, will not work.  The law prefers that lawyers do not conspire with their clients to do things that clearly are as dodgy AF.  And Cohen has tapes.

Potentially the more embarrassing development is the guilty plea by Russian agent and gun nut Maria Butina to a charge of conspiring to infiltrate the NRA.  She provides the, ahem, smoking gun that Mueller has been looking for.

From the Washington Post:

A Russian gun rights activist pleaded guilty Thursday to conspiring with a senior Russian official to infiltrate the conservative movement in the United States as an agent for the Kremlin from 2015 until her arrest in July 2017.

Maria Butina, 30, became the first Russian national convicted of seeking to influence U.S. policy in the run-up and through the 2016 election as a foreign agent, agreeing to cooperate in a plea deal with U.S. investigators in exchange for less prison time.

Butina admitted to working with an American political operative and under the direction of a former Russian senator and deputy governor of Russia’s central bank to forge bonds with officials at the National Rifle Association, conservative leaders, and 2016 U.S. presidential candidates, including Donald Trump, whose rise to the Oval Office she presciently predicted to her Russian contact.

“Guilty,” Butina said with a light accent in entering her plea with U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan at a hearing Thursday morning in federal court in Washington.

As part of her plea, Butina admitted seeking to establish and use “unofficial lines of communication with Americans having influence over U.S. politics” for the benefit of the Russian government, through a person fitting the description of sanctioned Russian central banker Alexander Torshin, prosecutor Erik Kenerson said.

And the Democrats are starting to flex their muscles with Nancy Pelosi working out how to effectively subpoena Donald Trump’s tax returns.

Trump has responded in that particularly Trumpian way by creating a huge scene, this time by threatening to shut down the Government if the Democrats do not agree to fund his Mexican wall, the wall he said during the campaign the Mexicans would fund.

Although POTUS has a different take on this on twitter.

One wonders why he has to get the Democrats to agree to the spend if this was actually the case.

And his response to all of the other events is somewhat predictable.

And this video is looking less and less like satire and more and more like a news clip.

82 comments on “Trump’s smocking gun ”

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  1. JessNZ 1
    14 December 2018 at 9:45 am

    The comments on the full video on Youtube are depressing, to say the least…

  2. te reo putake 2
    14 December 2018 at 9:56 am

    Nervous times for Individual-1. There’s a good explainer in the Herald this morning from Harvard law professor Noah Feldman that suggests Trump is not just worried about the potential for impeachment during his term, but that he is already preparing a defence for criminal indictment when he is no longer President.

    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=12176743

    • tc 2.1
      14 December 2018 at 12:51 pm

      Sounds about right. Mueller has filed enough already for several charges to be laid but he’s leaving that for others.

      His teams laser focus with no leaks continues to pile up more bricks than orange45 will ever be able to shit out.

      Muellers a decorated marine with an instilled sense of serving to his full potential.

  3. Andre 3
    14 December 2018 at 10:05 am

    All along there’s been hints of Middle East stuff dribbling out, such as Flynn and nukes, Erik Prince, George Nader etc, but it never really got much prominence. Stock up on popcorn, that may change…

    https://www.thedailybeast.com/get-ready-for-muellers-phase-two-the-middle-east-connection?ref=home

  5. One Two 5
    14 December 2018 at 10:18 am

    Nothing meaningful changes, post Trump…

    • Katipo 5.1
      15 December 2018 at 6:38 am

      You unfortunately you are provably right and the bar is now so low any old status-quo numpty with half a brain would be seen as an improvement.

  6. Wayne 6
    14 December 2018 at 10:31 am

    Trump will be able to push back on most House investigations, for instance the tax return issue.
    The Democrats have probably decided to use their next two years in the House to deal to Trump with 100 and 1 investigations. But they need to be careful. If the public think that is all they are doing, and there simply isn’t enough substance to the Trump allegations, the public might think the Dems are being self indulgent. And not focussed on doing their part of governing.
    There is after all virtually no prospect of an impeachment trial resulting in a conviction. Though the House Dems may want to put Trump through a trial as a revenge for the Clinton impeachment.
    Because so many Dem activists are agitated in the same way as Corbynistas I suspect the House Dems will be forced to use all their energy investigating Trump. But as stated above, that might backfire with swing voters (who presumably still exist).

    • Phil 6.1
      14 December 2018 at 10:40 am

      But they need to be careful. If the public think that is all they are doing, and there simply isn’t enough substance to the Trump allegations, the public might think the Dems are being self indulgent.

      The American voting public did not give a single fuck that a Republican-led House spent literally three quarters of the Obama presidency tying up Democrats in banal and pointless investigations which turned up nothing of substance against Obama appointees.

      • Andre 6.1.1
        14 December 2018 at 10:47 am

        I can’t help wondering if Comey’s statement clearing Hillary just a couple of days before the election still ended up hurting her rather than helping. By giving a last-second nudge to those thinking “I do NOT want to spend the next four years hearing about her #$%&*! emails”.

      • Wayne 6.1.2
        14 December 2018 at 10:55 am

        Fair point about whether the public care or not. But I think it all depends. The Republicans going after Clinton was not seen as going after Obama, even though it was.
        In this case the connection is direct making it possible for Trump to argue that House is not doing its job in its part of governing. The “debate” on TV between Trump, Pelosi and Schumer was the opening shot in that game.

    • Andre 6.2
      14 December 2018 at 10:43 am

      If there’s enough evidence of crimes committed that are serious enough, Democrats may decide it’s worth going ahead with impeachment even though there’s no chance of conviction in the Senate. Just to put Republican senators clearly on the record as protecting a criminal, to help try to flip their seats in 2020 and 2022.

      But yeah, it would be a high-risk tactic as evidenced by the popularity boost Clinton got from his impeachment circus. On the other hand, the endless investigations into Benghazi, smears about Uranium One, leftover Whitewater smears etc may have contributed to dragging down Hillary’s standing even though there was nothing there. And clearly in King Con’s case, there actually is a there, the question is just how much.

      • Phil 6.2.1
        14 December 2018 at 10:50 am

        put Republican senators clearly on the record as protecting a criminal, to help try to flip their seats in 2020 and 2022.

        This is how I’ve interpreted the subtle changes in messaging from Democrats in recent days. Nadler and Schiff (the Dems who will chair the House Judiciary and Intelligence committees) have been more explict than before.

        it would be a high-risk tactic as evidenced by the popularity boost Clinton got from his impeachment circus… clearly in King Con’s case, there actually is a there, the question is just how much.

        You’ve kind of answered your own question there. The Ken Starr investigation spread so far and wide that it became almost comical. Mueller, on the other hand, seems laser focused and is letting other judicial channels deal with the ‘peripheral’ matters.

        • Andre 6.2.1.1
          14 December 2018 at 10:57 am

          I’m not convinced the general public pays enough attention to the details to see that difference between Starr and Mueller, and then go on to think it’s important enough to induce a different reaction.

    • Ad 6.3
      14 December 2018 at 11:35 am

      I agree it is a risk to focus too much on Trump himself.

      But I think it is the right risk. Trump’s powerful name recognition and freshness provide him with momentum sufficient to secure the nomination, despite the drag of negative ratings among all US voters.

      The Democrats are taking far too long to recover from Hilary Clinton and have no chance of getting a candidate of comparative name power to either Clinton or Trump.

      So the best thing to do is to enable the existing President to be sufficiently toxic that a sliver of voters switch away from him and towards a less known Democratic candidate.

      There are no White Knights for the 2020 presidential election. And certainly relying on indictments occurring is an insufficient but necessary part of replacing the US president with a better one

      Removing Trump will require more political work from the Democrats than they did for Hilary Clinton. Only the democratic process will defeat the Republican cause. That’s how it rolled for Reagan to eventually revive the Republican cause after Nixon.

    • Macro 6.4
      14 December 2018 at 1:46 pm

      Yes the swing voters still exist: Here is part of the results from a CNN Poll wrt to the desire for impeachment from within the voting public:

      Opposition to impeachment
      With Democrats set to take control of the House in January, speculation abounds about whether the new majority would impeach the President. Americans break against that idea, according to the poll. Half, 50%, say they don’t feel that Trump ought to be impeached and removed from office, while 43% say he should be. Support for impeachment has dipped some since September, when 47% favored it, and is about the same as in a June poll (42% favored it then). Support for impeachment of Trump remains higher than it was for each of the last three presidents at any time it was asked.
      The shift on impeachment comes mostly from political independents. In September, they were evenly split on the question, with 48% behind impeachment and 47% opposed. Now, 36% favor impeachment and 55% are opposed.

      my bold
      https://edition.cnn.com/2018/12/13/politics/cnn-poll-congress-pelosi-impeachment/index.html

      However, being a CNN poll it of course FAKE NEWS!!!!

    • Tricledrown 6.5
      14 December 2018 at 10:22 pm

      Trump will have to do deals with The Democrats to keep them at bay.
      From the greatest Deal maker. Maybe even an New Deal.

  7. Draco T Bastard 7
    14 December 2018 at 10:36 am

    But I get the strong impression that the walls are moving in

    Tweeter & the Monkey Man

    And the walls came down,
    all the way to hell
    Never saw them when they’re standing,
    never saw them when they fell

    How can god faring Republicans still support the orange one?

    They’re authoritarian followers and authoritarian followers always support their leaders no matter how evil those leaders are.

    And then we have to consider the idea that they’re ‘god faring’ only as a camouflage, a way to hide their true selves.

    • Phil 7.1
      14 December 2018 at 10:44 am

      we have to consider the idea that they’re ‘god faring’ only as a camouflage

      I don’t know if that was an innocent typo or a deliberate twist on the more common term ‘god fearing’… but it’s BEAUTIFUL.

    • mosa 7.2
      14 December 2018 at 5:50 pm

      It took Nixon a long time to fall on his sword when threatened with impeachment over water gate and it was only when the last republican support had bled dry that forced him finally to resign in August 1974.

  8. D'Esterre 8
    14 December 2018 at 10:57 am

    Trump’s “smocking” gun: what? He’s taken up needlework to embellish his weapons now?

  9. Macro 9
    14 December 2018 at 11:00 am

    The paying-off of the two women to keep them silent just after the Locker-room “pussy-grabbing” tape came to light and just days before the election is a violation of election laws and as such is an impeachable offence. Trump has lied consistently over this matter and his latest defence wrt to the payment is that it is peanuts and a civil matter – well no it is not. The maximum amount that a candidate can give to someone is in the order of $2000, and as Cohen has found out – it is much more than a civil matter in this instance – it would have been had Trump not been running for POTUS at the time. As far as Trump not being in the loop with respect to these payment – and his consistent denial that he knew nothing of the matter and relied on his lawyer… well just as always that is a load of bullshit … there is now evidence that the third person in the discussion with Cohen and Pecker was in fact Trump himself.
    https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/trump-was-room-during-hush-money-discussions-nbc-news-confirms-n947536

    Donald Trump was the third person in the room in August 2015 when his lawyer Michael Cohen and National Enquirer publisher David Pecker discussed ways Pecker could help counter negative stories about Trump’s relationships with women, NBC News has confirmed.

    As part of a nonprosecution agreement disclosed Wednesday by federal prosecutors, American Media Inc., the Enquirer’s parent company, admitted that “Pecker offered to help deal with negative stories about that presidential candidate’s relationships with women by, among other things, assisting the campaign in identifying such stories so they could be purchased and their publication avoided.”

    The “statement of admitted facts” says that AMI admitted making a $150,000 payment “in concert with the campaign,” and says that Pecker, Cohen and “at least one other member of the campaign” were in the meeting. According to a person familiar with the matter, the “other member” was Trump.

    • Macro 9.1
      14 December 2018 at 11:26 am

      Further to the misspending of campaign funds by the Trump Campaign

      Federal prosecutors in Manhattan are investigating whether President Trump’s 2017 inaugural committee misspent some of the record $107 million it raised from donations, people familiar with the matter said.

      The criminal probe by the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office, which is in its early stages, also is examining whether some of the committee’s top donors gave money in exchange for access to the incoming Trump administration, policy concessions or to influence official administration positions, some of the people said.

      https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-inauguration-spending-under-criminal-investigation-by-federal-prosecutors-11544736455
      (Paywalled)

    • Wayne 9.2
      14 December 2018 at 3:22 pm

      Hard to see that as leading to an impeachment trial. They may not even be illegal. Is it illegal to pay a mistress not to disclose an affair? Though I guess using campaign donations for the payments probably is. If it was his own money, probably not.

      An impeachment trial would have to be predicated on the basis that Trump bought the election with the confidentiality payments. Given everything that was already out about him at the time of the election, that is a stretch. But who knows what might have been the tipping point on Trump during the election. However, it would be impossible to convince enough Senators to convict on the basis of such payments. And such a trial could hugely backfire on the Democrats.

      Like shock, horror, Trump had affairs, who would have guessed?

      • McFlock 9.2.1
        14 December 2018 at 3:34 pm

        Is it illegal to pay a mistress not to disclose an affair?

        Apparently so, if the objective in making that payment is to surreptitiously affect the outcome of an election.

        • Wayne 9.2.1.1
          14 December 2018 at 4:29 pm

          I suspect tricky to prove, at least at the level of an impeachable offence.

          • Andre 9.2.1.1.1
            14 December 2018 at 4:39 pm

            An impeachable offence is anything that at least 218 House Reps and at least 67 Senators agree is an impeachable offence. To whatever standard of proof they agree on.

          • McFlock 9.2.1.1.2
            14 December 2018 at 4:40 pm

            Well, there wasn’t too much difficulty with Cohen.

            The real roadblock is that the repugs in senate would not convict him for anything, possibly down to and including child molestation in front of a hall full of witnesses. I have great difficulty imagining anything that would plausibly make McConnell flip his position on the orange one.

          • Macro 9.2.1.1.3
            14 December 2018 at 9:42 pm

            Don’t forget Wayne that the FBI have recordings of Cohen and Trump discussing this matter, they have the transfer of moneys, the setting up of a Limited Liability Company to handle the transactions and the repayments to Cohen for services rendered by Trump all documented. There are also eye witnesses of the Trump Pecker Cohen meeting and the confession by Cohen that he broke the law.

      • Macro 9.2.2
        14 December 2018 at 5:54 pm

        Is it illegal to pay a mistress not to disclose an affair? Though I guess using campaign donations for the payments probably is. If it was his own money, probably not.

        In normal circumstances it is not illegal, but these actual payments were just weeks before the 2016 Election, and were done with the explicit intention of silencing these women from speaking out. Trump had suffered a disastrous expose just days before with the release of the “locker-room” tape, where he boasted about his “pussy-grabbing”. Any further disclosure of his immoral behaviour would have not gone down well with the “religious right” who were a firm part of his voter base. These payments were never disclosed as part of the Trump Campaign as required by law, and were well in excess of any amount a candidate in the US can gift during a campaign. Trump, despite denying any knowledge of these payments, has been shown to have been an active participant in discussions and decisions made around them, and in deed, according to Cohen, directed him (his fixer) to make it happen.

      • Tricledrown 9.2.3
        14 December 2018 at 10:30 pm

        Stealing Money from charity for personal use and campaign finance, Deep connections to Mafia and Russian Mafia.
        Trumpty will fall before he builds his wall unlike Humpty.

  11. marty mars 11
    14 December 2018 at 11:46 am

    The putrid pimple is funny

    “I often stated, ‘One way or the other, Mexico is going to pay for the Wall,’” Trump wrote on Twitter. “This has never changed. Our new deal with Mexico (and Canada), the USMCA, is so much better than the old, very costly & anti-USA NAFTA deal, that just by the money we save, MEXICO IS PAYING FOR THE WALL!”

    Mexican officials have said there was no discussion in the trade-deal negotiations of mechanisms under which Mexico would pay for the wall.

    Schumer and Pelosi both ridiculed Trump for his claim.

    Link – Washington Post

  12. Gosman 12
    14 December 2018 at 12:26 pm

    Trump won’t likely be impeached on a Campaign finance technicality.

    • Ad 12.1
      14 December 2018 at 1:18 pm

      He does have two things to worry about:

      – Straight indictments from multiple Districts

      – His family and close aides going to jail

      Both would put his popularity permanently under 25%.

    • Macro 12.2
      14 December 2018 at 1:35 pm

      I don’t think he will be impeached either – not unless the Repugnant dominated Senate suddenly finds its moral compass. But the old white fogies currently with their bums on the Senate benches are really only interested in their own importance to worry about what’s good for the country.

  13. joe90 13
    14 December 2018 at 1:43 pm

    Remember all the sniffing during the debates.

    A former staffer on The Apprentice and current stand-up comic named Noel Casler claims that Donald Trump was a “speed freak” who snorted crushed-up Adderall, and also says that Trump invited teen beauty pageant contestants up to his suite.

    During a recent performance, Casler told the crowd that he worked on The Apprentice for six seasons, as well as some of Trump’s beauty pageants during the 1990s, and he made some brutal revelations:

    I worked on a bunch of those beauty pageants he had in the nineties too. That was a good idea, Miss Teen Universe? Yeah, that’s like giving Jeffrey Dahmer a cooking show. He would line up the girls on the side of the stage, and he would inspect them literally, he would stick his little freaking doll fingers in their mouth and look at their teeth. I’m not kidding, this is true, he would line them up like they were pieces of meat. He’d be like, “You, you, and you, if you want to win I’m in the penthouse suite, come and see me.” Yep. If Trump had a cooking show they’d caught the douchebag diet. McDonald’s, chocolate ice cream, and girls that look like Ivanka are all he ever eats.

    https://www.mediaite.com/donald-trump/former-apprentice-staffer-claims-trump-was-speed-freak-invited-teen-beauty-queens-to-his-suite/

  14. McFlock 14
    14 December 2018 at 3:16 pm

    God, the jingle-jangle of cuffs is a nice dream, but I don’t think it will ever happen to dolt45. I just don’t think the world works that way. Even if NYNY extradite him for state tax fraud after he’s out of office, I reckon he’ll stall the case until he dies. Although his lawyers might argue diminished capacity, so he ends up arguing he’s the most alert person ever, that might be funny.

    The meeting with Pelosi and Schumer was deliberately sabotaged by Schumer, I think. He knew the buttons to push, and Pelosi had almost gotten dolt45 well behaved when Schumer opened his trap about shutting the government down.

  15. Macro 15
    14 December 2018 at 5:20 pm

    Talking of smocking guns and the NRA, backdoors, and Russians etc:
    Just new:

    Spanish police have turned over to the FBI wiretaps of conversations involving Alexander Torshin, a prominent Russian banker suspected of money laundering who met with President Donald Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., during the 2016 US presidential election.
    Torshin is closely associated with the National Rifle Association, and he and his longtime assistant attempted to use the organisation’s annual convention in 2016 to set up a backdoor meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
    Neither Trump nor his campaign associates attended the convention, but Torshin and Trump Jr. did attend a separate NRA dinner that same night.
    When José Grinda, a Spanish prosecutor who spearheads investigations into organised crime, was asked if he was concerned about Torshin’s interactions with Trump Jr. or other American political figures, Grinda replied: “Mr. Trump’s son should be concerned”

    https://www.businessinsider.com.au/fbi-obtains-alexander-torshin-wiretaps-from-spanish-police-2018-5?r=US&IR=T
    btw – Don Jr testified to Congress on this matter so if his testimony is different to what the FBI now understand to be the truth of the matter….
    Lying to Congress is not a good thing.

    • joe90 15.1
      14 December 2018 at 5:45 pm

      Treason in the air.

      THREAD: What can we learn from the cooperation deal with Russian spy Maria Butina? (Answer: A lot.)— Renato Mariotti (@renato_mariotti) December 13, 2018

      https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1073264798828281857.html

      • joe90 15.1.1
        14 December 2018 at 5:49 pm

        Dude knows a thing or two.

        As the denials pile up after the Butina plea deal, remember that there are no political freelancers in Putin's Russia. No one can risk it. They aren't all reporting directly, but they serve one master in the end.— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) December 13, 2018

        This is also true of the many Russian oligarchs whose fortunes and comfy lives in the West could disappear with one Putin finger snap, like Thanos. They may not serve every hour of every day, but they serve.

        Their partners & contacts abroad may claim innocence or ignorance of being caught up in a Kremlin web, but this is inexcusable stupidity at best and criminality or treason at worst. They are Putin’s creatures.

        https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1073326306001993728.html?

        • Macro 15.1.1.1
          14 December 2018 at 5:59 pm

          Yep! The US is going crazy over this latest revelation!
          WTF is like wtfwtfwtfwtf! 🙂

          • Andre 15.1.1.1.1
            14 December 2018 at 6:07 pm

            Wonder if the 2nd Amendment nutters will ever realise Pootee’s been playing them like a fiddle, and how they’ll take it if they do.

            • Gabby 15.1.1.1.1.1
              14 December 2018 at 6:20 pm

              They don’t care because they get to live in hope of shooting someone, and that’s all they want.

            • Macro 15.1.1.1.1.2
              14 December 2018 at 6:24 pm

              Will they even realise!
              I guess a few might have enuf brain cells, but for many he’s still their boy.
              Can’t have those Dems telling them they can’t have their toys!

      • joe90 15.1.2
        14 December 2018 at 9:36 pm

        Republican/NRA note worthies photographed with Butina.

        https://twitter.com/shannonrwatts/status/1018989033534382086

    • NZJester 15.2
      14 December 2018 at 8:50 pm

      The thing about the NRA is their current NRA President has admitted under oath to treason and supplying arms to terrorists. His conviction for those crimes was overturned however as the evidenced used against him in court had to be thrown out because of the fact he gave the testimony under oath to a grand jury after they agreed to give him immunity for his testimony against others involved.

      • Macro 15.2.1
        14 December 2018 at 10:01 pm

        Perjury Chart: Trump Associates’ Lies, False, or Misleading Statements on Russia to Federal Authorities

        It is a federal offense to intentionally make false statements to Congress, the FBI, and other federal authorities. It is also a crime to encourage others to do so (that is, in technical terms, to “suborn perjury”). It is also a crime to engage in a conspiracy to lie to federal authorities. A conspiracy can involve a tacit or explicit agreement to commit the criminal activity.

        1. Jeff Sessions
        (1) probably lied to Congress about his communications with Russian government officials and (2) possibly lied to Congress about his knowledge of other campaign members’ contacts with Russian government officials (starting Jan. 2017)
        2. Jared Kushner (part 1)
        made material omissions on his security clearance forms (January-June 2017)
        3. Michael Flynn
        lied to the FBI about communications with the Russian ambassador (Jan. 24, 2017)
        4. George Papadopoulos
        lied to the FBI about his Russian contacts (Jan. 27, 2017)
        5. K.T. McFarland
        probably lied to Congress about knowledge of Flynn’s phone calls with the Russian ambassador (July 2017)
        6. Michael Caputo
        probably lied to Congress about his contacts with Russians (July 13, 2017)
        7. Jared Kushner (part 2)
        (1) probably lied to Congress about his knowledge of the reason for the June 9 Russia meeting in Trump Tower and (2) possibly made false statements about proposing a backchannel to Russia (July 24, 2017)
        8. Michael Cohen
        lied to Congress about the Moscow Trump Tower Project (Aug. 28, 2017)
        9. Donald Trump Jr.
        (1) probably lied to Congress about receiving offers of assistance from other foreign governments; (2) probably lied about candidate Trump’s advance knowledge of the June 9 Trump Tower meeting; (3) made a false statement about whether any of the Russian members of the June 9 meeting requested a follow-up; (4) possibly made false statements about the Trump Tower in Moscow deal (Sept. 7, 2017)
        10. Roger Stone
        (1) probably lied to Congress about how and when he learned of Wikileaks’ possession of Podesta’s emails; (2) probably lied in denying advanced knowledge of any content of Wikileaks’ documents on Hillary Clinton (3) probably lied about his communications with Wikileaks; (4) probably lied about his contacts with Russians; and (5) made false and misleading statements about his communications and relationship to the campaign (Sept. 26, 2017)
        11. Carter Page
        probably lied to Congress about his contacts with Russian officials (Nov. 2, 2017)
        12. Alex van der Zwaan
        lied to the FBI about his contacts with Rick Gates and a Ukrainian national with active ties to Russian intelligence (Nov. 3, 2017)
        13. Natalia Veselnitskaya
        (1) probably lied to Congress about her connections to Russia’s Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika and (2) probably lied about attempted follow-up to the Trump Tower meeting (Nov. 20, 2017)
        14. Paul Manafort
        lied to federal authorities about his ties to Kremlin-link Ukrainian political parties (starting Nov. 23, 2016, later dates include Feb. 10, 2017)
        15. Rick Gates
        lied to federal authorities about his ties to Kremlin-link Ukrainian political parties (starting Nov. 23, 2016, later dates include Feb. 10, 2017)
        16. Erik Prince
        (1) probably lied to Congress about his secret Seychelles meeting with a Russian and (2) probably lied about his relationship to the Trump campaign (Nov. 30, 2017)
        17. Robert Goldstone
        probably lied to Congress about his email to Donald Trump Jr. (Dec. 15, 2017)
        18. Samuel Patten
        gave false and misleading testimony related to (1) working, in partnership with a Russian national, as an agent of a Kremlin-linked Ukrainian political party and (2) funneling, in partnership with a Russian national, money of a Ukrainian oligarch to the Presidential Inauguration Committee (Jan. 2018)
        19. Jerome Corsi
        probably lied to the FBI about his efforts with Roger Stone to communicate with Wikileaks/Assange (Sept. 6, 2018)

        https://www.justsecurity.org/61682/perjury-chart-trump-associates-lies-false-statements-russia-federal-authorities/

        • NZJester 15.2.1.1
          15 December 2018 at 12:14 am

          In my post, I was referring to the fact that the current NRA President is Oliver North who was named as the association’s president earlier this year.
          Oliver North was convicted in the Iran–Contra affair of the late 1980s, but his convictions were vacated and reversed, and all charges against him dismissed in 1991.
          That is the kind of man the NRA sees as fit to lead them. A man how has admitted to treason and supplying arms to terrorists.

        • NZJester 15.2.1.2
          15 December 2018 at 4:57 pm

          It now sounds like Donald’s favorite Ivanka might be in trouble for funneling money from the campaign to the Trump organization.
          Emails warning her that it does not look good that she is overcharging well above market rates her father’s campaign to use Trump owned facilities have emerged.

  16. Macro 16
    14 December 2018 at 6:40 pm

    Just what your child needs for Christmas!
    Huckabee in a Tree!

  17. joe90 17
    14 December 2018 at 7:17 pm

    I was ho hum when I read Abraham’s Grand Bargain thread…nek minnit..

    *THE GRAND BARGAIN*This (below) is what the entire Trump-Russia investigation is now about. Please share this image widely, as it will be *the* crucial information in the months ahead, now that Prince and Nader's cover is wholly blown. More on all of this in PROOF OF COLLUSION. pic.twitter.com/3HtqXOvoL9— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) September 26, 2018

    https://twitter.com/SethAbramson/status/1044986880310300673

    continued

    https://twitter.com/SethAbramson/status/1045017034910814213

    Over the past year, the indictments, convictions, and guilty pleas have largely been connected, in one way or another, to Russia. But now, special counsel Robert Mueller’s office is preparing to reveal to the public a different side of his investigation. In court filings that are set to drop in early 2019, prosecutors will begin to unveil Middle Eastern countries’ attempts to influence American politics, three sources familiar with this side of the probe told The Daily Beast.

    In other words, the “Russia investigation” is set to go global.

    While one part of the Mueller team has indicted Russian spies and troll-masters, another cadre has been spending its time focusing on how Middle Eastern countries pushed cash to Washington politicos in an attempt to sway policy under President Trump’s administration. Various witnesses affiliated with the Trump campaign have been questioned about their conversations with deeply connected individuals from the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Israel, according to people familiar with the probe. Topics in those meetings ranged from the use of social-media manipulation to help install Trump in the White House to the overthrow of the regime in Iran.

    https://www.thedailybeast.com/get-ready-for-muellers-phase-two-the-middle-east-connection?

    • Macro 17.1
      14 December 2018 at 8:40 pm

      Yep! and again – Jared and Don Jnr have their grubby little pinkies in the pie.
      Talk about a den of thieves! Over the whole Trump administration there is hardly a single one who is not under investigation, been indicted, or left under a cloud.

      • Andre 17.1.1
        14 December 2018 at 8:55 pm

        The women seem to have kept themselves clear enough of the illegal stuff. Hope Hicks left on her own terms and doesn’t get mentioned in relation to legal risk. Ditto Nikki Haley. Huckabooboo and Kellyanne have done sterling work setting themselves up for future employment where happily telling the most outrageous lies straight to reporters’ faces is valued (and generally that’s a highly remunerated skill) while not attracting attention from authorities willing and able to do anything about being lied to. No doubt Betsy’s up to dodgy shit, but it’s likely such penny-ante stuff and so clumsy it’s not likely to do real harm, since there’s so many dumpster fires going on that nobody’s bothering with her.

    • DJ Ward 17.2
      14 December 2018 at 8:45 pm

      I wonder where this ends.
      After all I’m sure some pro Clinton posts were placed here. National even gave her money, not anywhere as much as the Russians but still.
      All you Clinton, foreign social media co conspirators, naughty.
      Your on Mueller’s list. You’ll be called for a interview any century now. Once he has finished with the other 100 million, election manipulators.

      • Tricledrown 17.2.1
        14 December 2018 at 10:35 pm

        DJ Ward The Clinton fake news was deliberately pushed by Bannon / Kucshner as part of pizza Gate through Facebook.

        • DJ Ward 17.2.1.1
          15 December 2018 at 12:00 pm

          Clinton getting the questions for the debate had nothing to do with Trump.
          Clinton getting a Russian kickback for Uranuim had nothing to do with Trump.
          Clinton asking for a wall, sorry barrier, had nothing to do with Trump.
          Clinton smashing her emails had nothing to do with Trump.
          There’s a Trend.

          This stuffs like children throwing pebbles at each other. Once in a while one throw causes a bit of a sting. It can also be obscenely sycophantic and narsarsistic from both sides.

          I recently got given a long roll of soft paper with a persons image, or bust, on it as a gift. There’s a good bit of philosophy. The shit sticks but it’s so easy to wash away.

  18. Rae 18
    14 December 2018 at 8:38 pm

    Smocking gun? Isn’t that a sewing machine? Gee, I hope it’s not a loaded sewing machine.

  19. NZJester 19
    14 December 2018 at 8:42 pm

    TYT are saying that it looks like Trump has his way out of trouble all planned out for him by some smarter people. They think if he lasts to the end of his elected time in office he will resign from that office a short time before he officially loses it making Mike Pence the President for a short time, long enough for Pence to issue Trump a pardon.
    If he is impeached he might jump sooner making Pence the President and get pardoned then.
    Either way, it looks like he will see no consequences for his illegal actions.

  21. joe90 21
    14 December 2018 at 9:21 pm

    Of course the crime family Trump is up to it’s neck in Azerbaijan.

    LONDON, Dec 12 (Reuters) – British investigators have frozen a bank account linked to a multi-billion dollar Azerbaijani money-laundering scheme that a network of investigative reporters has alleged rinsed dirty money mainly through four, UK-registered shell companies.

    The National Crime Agency (NCA) said on Wednesday that the Account Freezing Order (AFO), part of a new toolbox to allow investigators to freeze suspected proceeds of crime quickly, was the first “in relation to the Azerbaijani Laundromat”.

    The NCA declined to give further details or divulge whether the frozen account was also linked to Danske Bank, the Copenhagen-based lender at the centre of a 200-billion-euro ($227 billion) money laundering scandal.

    https://www.reuters.com/article/britain-moneylaundering-azerbaijan-idUSL8N1YH5E5

    edit: all sorts in the replies

    https://twitter.com/DirkSchwenk/status/1073251976962588672

    https://twitter.com/DirkSchwenk

  22. joe90 22
    15 December 2018 at 8:46 am

    Got to be someone way up the food chain?

    The secrecy and consequently frantic speculation surrounding special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation led to a dramatic scene Friday when reporters descended on the federal courthouse for a case that no one was even sure involved Mueller at all.

    The US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit heard arguments in the morning in a sealed grand jury matter. Grand jury cases are almost always kept secret while they’re pending, and the publicly available dockets related to the case argued Friday have been accordingly sparse — no descriptions of the subject, no public access to documents, and no references to lawyers or parties involved.

    https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetillman/robert-mueller-sealed-grand-jury-court-drama

    https://twitter.com/ZoeTillman

  23. Adrian Thornton 23
    15 December 2018 at 8:47 am

    How much did Russia invest is it’s online campaign to STEAL the US elections…

    “According to Pichai (Google CEO), in the lead-up to the 2016 elections two main Russian-linked accounts advertised on Google for $4,700.”

    How about attacking Trump and his administration on their awful policies rather than being the DNC’s useful idiots and banging on about this pointless shit.

    There is one reason and one reason only that Trump is where he is today..Neo Liberalism doesn’t work for 90% of the population in the long run, whether that be Liberalism as conducted by The Republicans, The Democrats, National or our very own pragmatic Labour version.

    • Andre 23.1
      15 December 2018 at 9:09 am

      Go on, write a guest post covering the topics you think should be covered and aren’t. Step into that gap you’ve just identified.

    • Siobhan 23.2
      15 December 2018 at 9:58 am

      I’m thinking Hilary should reach out to whatever brilliant minds are behind the Russian campaign…thats a mighty fine result for $4,700. At the very least her super PAC should demand a refund from their guys.

      Even poor old Teresa May must be seething, she’s blown £96,684 (US 121701.57) in past week alone on Facebook ads backing her Brexit deal.

      “The pro-Clinton super PAC Priorities USA Action spent $132 million, more than any other outside group in any race in 2016.
      That’s triple the $43.5 million combined spending of the two largest pro-Trump super PACs, Great America PAC and Rebuilding America Now. ”

      “Liberal and conservative groups spent almost $248 million attacking him (Trump) in the primaries and the general election.
      Hillary Clinton was the target of less than half that much negative spending.”

      But i guess the the whole impeachment thing would be problematic for the Democrats if it revolved around sexual impropriety..at least Stormy Daniels was of the legal age.
      https://www.politico.com/story/2017/05/04/jeffrey-epstein-trump-lawsuit-sex-trafficking-237983

      of course only one paragraph about Clinton..ha!

  24. Macro 24
    16 December 2018 at 6:04 pm

    Interesting..
    We were not supposed to see this:
    From the Wa Po.

    U.S. prosecutors on Friday asked a federal judge for permission to move Maria Butina to and from jail for ongoing interviews, including potentially to testify before a grand jury, in a filing intended to be sealed that appeared on the public docket for her case.

    Butina, 30, pleaded guilty Thursday to conspiring to act as an unregistered agent of the Russian government to infiltrate the National Rifle Association and the wider conservative movement to set up back-channel communications with leading Republicans around the time of the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

    As part of her plea deal, she agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.

    In a seven-page document filed Friday afternoon to a judge, prosecutors said they were making their travel request under seal because disclosing Butina’s movements from Alexandria City Jail, where she has been held since July, “may jeopardize defendant’s safety and may jeopardize the ongoing investigation.”

    “The proposed order references defendant Butina’s possible transportation to a grand jury,” which is a confidential proceeding under federal criminal rules, they added.

    The request asks to cover movements through Jan. 17…

    Although the request stated it was being filed under seal, and included a proposed order allowing it to be filed under seal, it was posted shortly before 5 p.m. on the court’s public docket. It remained viewable only briefly, before the online link to the filing was disabled.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/in-filing-intended-to-be-under-seal-us-prosecutors-ask-to-transport-maria-butina-possibly-to-testify-at-grand-jury/2018/12/14/6c3d22e2-ffe9-11e8-ad40-cdfd0e0dd65a_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.2f2f83293dbe

    MY bold

    Who’s Grand Jury? Could that be Mueller’s Grand Jury? Things are hotting up!

  25. Siobhan 25
    18 December 2018 at 3:39 pm

    so very late to comment.. but i was reminded of your “the walls are moving in” just last night when I watched this…yeah, its Jimmy Dore, but hes playing a clip that is very on point