http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/10/politics/ukraine-manafort-hacked-texts/index.html

3/10/2017 10:58:22 PM

5 pages, no evidence

3/11/2017 12:37:47 AM

http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/14/politics/justice-yahoo-hack-russia/index.html

Cue the "we'll cut you a deal if you provide insight/evidence/testimony regarding the election hacks" offer.

3/15/2017 12:18:44 PM

Quote :

"Sen Whitehouse said Congress being asked to hold back on its own investigations on Trump-Russia but not told if FBI/justice is investigating"

Not sure what to make of this.

3/15/2017 3:52:21 PM

It implies there is either an investigation or very sensitive counter-intelligence going on and if congress folk start turning over rocks it could ruin either of those. Dems will leak to get headlines they want and Nunes/Burr will leak directly to Trump.

They are probably laying traps for either US citizens or Russian spies/hackers. As if the cat isn't already out of the bag - any of the guilty parties would have to be epically stupid to not be erasing their tracks and laying low at this point. Even trump isn't that stupid.

No one wants to interrupt the IC or FBI from doing its job, but it's a pretty problematic position for them to take. You can't just blow off your only oversight because ZOMG THIS IS TOO SENSITIVE!!!! Suddenly they'll start claiming everything is too sensitive, just like they've needlessly classified things in the recent past to avoid scrutiny.

3/15/2017 4:17:12 PM

http://www.cnn.com/specials/live-video-1

The ongoing hearing ATM thus far is pretty interesting.

^Further to your last paragraph, it's difficult for many people, including Congress, to trust the DOJ to not leak to Trump given that Sessions is wrapped up in this and given Comey's bullshit during the election, particularly in October. (I should say, primarily difficult for Democrats, whereas it's probably difficult for Republicans to trust the CIA).

Hell of a movie this will be some day.

Quote :

""Sen Whitehouse said Congress being asked to hold back on its own investigations on Trump-Russia but not told if FBI/justice is investigating""

Can you link a source to this?

[Edited on March 15, 2017 at 4:25 PM. Reason : a]

[Edited on March 15, 2017 at 4:25 PM. Reason : a]

3/15/2017 4:21:33 PM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8GLSkbAboA

Dr. Dre is rich.

Trump is rich.

Coincidence????

3/15/2017 11:35:42 PM

Gotta get those beats!

3/16/2017 6:45:50 AM

Dr Dre earned his fortune.

Trump inherited his.

So no...no coincidence there.

3/16/2017 7:12:03 AM

To trumps credit, he did destroy a few historic buildings in Manhattan and was good as a reality TV star.

We get the leader we deserve.

3/16/2017 7:55:39 AM

https://www.wsj.com/articles/mike-flynn-worked-for-other-russian-companies-besides-rt-documents-1489683618

Um

3/16/2017 1:09:44 PM

jesus

[Edited on March 16, 2017 at 1:24 PM. Reason : a]

3/16/2017 1:24:32 PM

3/20/2017 10:19:51 AM

If Schiff just quoted the Steele dossier like he did without first getting corroboration from somewhere that is not smart.

3/20/2017 10:27:39 AM

Yep.

And if he did get corroboration, things will get interesting.

3/20/2017 10:35:56 AM

He was laying out the circumstantial evidence which basically justifies the hearing. He repeatedly said it was circumstantial, I don't see the problem.


Comey: "we are extremely careful with ongoing investigations and those that are under investigation"

*Hillary's head explodes*

3/20/2017 10:37:11 AM

Lol, Nunes asking about literal vote changing? Has anyone, anywhere ever claimed that?

^ actually didn't he say at the time that investigation was over?

[Edited on March 20, 2017 at 10:40 AM. Reason : X]

3/20/2017 10:40:21 AM

Quote :

"He repeatedly said it was circumstantial, I don't see the problem."

Yep, although the media will dictate how that's spun, on both sides.

Nunes is a complete tool.



[Edited on March 20, 2017 at 10:42 AM. Reason : a]

3/20/2017 10:40:54 AM

I mean, I hope that they find no evidence of collusion and he runs his time down as an ineffectual president.

Because the alternative... Not good.

3/20/2017 10:51:49 AM

^Agree completely.

Which is why Nunes bothers me. The name of the investigation is Russian Active Measures. And he's just trying to be Trump's boy and direct it towards the leaking.

Open a separate investigation for that - I'm fine with that. But the purpose of THIS one is Russia's interference and possible collusion.

3/20/2017 10:53:23 AM

Gowdy going on and on about leaks, he had no problem leaking Benghazi info to the press.

3/20/2017 11:02:00 AM

https://twitter.com/chuckgrassley/status/843832297778561029

This seems aimed at undercutting Comey.

But also Comey never said he was investigating Trump himself (but rather his campaign).

3/20/2017 11:06:36 AM

^*sigh. What is wrong with these politicians? Seriously. What on earth is wrong with them?

3/20/2017 11:09:15 AM

It's pretty clear there isn't enough damning evidence (yet, at least what's available to them) to throw Trump under the bus.

3/20/2017 11:14:53 AM

Wow, the trump/Russia investigation began in July.

That is a bombshell and makes all the more unbelievable the Weiner stuff was publicly brought up. WTF??

3/20/2017 11:18:27 AM

^^I'm not convinced it'll ever touch Trump legally. But I do think a lot of his friends will go down.

3/20/2017 11:19:20 AM

I was wrong. Certainly seems this is pretty big..

3/20/2017 1:04:32 PM

Roger Stones admissions on being in touch with hackers isn't trivial. That could unravel the entire campaign.

3/20/2017 1:14:49 PM

someone tell wenstrup that conclusion and collusion are not the same word

3/20/2017 1:32:50 PM

Yea, Wenstrup was frustrating me. I actually appreciated some of his questions, though.

3/20/2017 2:03:28 PM

Quote :

"^^I'm not convinced it'll ever touch Trump legally. But I do think a lot of his friends will go down."

I don't know I doubt any of them will be loyal to Trump, charges start flying and tunes change real fast.

If the FBI finds enough to recommend prosecution or Congress impeaches before hand it'll be interesting to see if whoever ends up next in the succession after the dust settles grants a pardon or amnesty.

3/21/2017 1:28:17 AM

If it turns out a Trump advisor and Trump's campaign manager were working directly with Russia, even if they never find usable evidence Trump knew about this, would congress continue to work with Trump?

Seems like they would almost have to act to force Trump to step down at that point (and impeachment doesn't even force this).

3/21/2017 1:36:45 AM

If it meant him signing their bills then yes. Why even bother asking that question?

Trump's supporters wouldn't believe it. There is basically no downside to any GOP congressman in a Trump district.

3/21/2017 8:03:36 AM

^there was an article the other day (i'll try and find it) that spoke about how Trump's supporters have a religious-type faith in him.

so yea, the Russia stuff may not even be enough to shake that from them, especially if he can convince them that it was all planted by the "deep state," whatever the fuck that means.

And I think that's why you have Paul Ryan and the rest falling in line with him. They all detest him. But he can sign their bills into law which is why you're getting all this misdirection from Republicans with respect to "find the leaker" as opposed to "find out if our fucking president committed treason."

[Edited on March 21, 2017 at 9:55 AM. Reason : a]

3/21/2017 9:54:32 AM

the deep state thing is so dumb, if the deep state actually had power they wouldn't have let trump win the nomination

3/21/2017 9:56:16 AM

^

3/21/2017 10:06:46 AM

^^^ it's bizarre and honestly a little cult-like. It has to be desperation and about having no where else to turn so I try and feel some empathy but it's beyond crazy to think THIS GUY (v) has the little mans best interests in mind.



[Edited on March 21, 2017 at 10:07 AM. Reason : X]

3/21/2017 10:07:22 AM

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-tillerson-idUSKBN16S04I?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=New%20Campaign&utm_term=%2AMorning%20Brief

Gee, that sends a good message.

Quote :

"Why not? Just hours after the hearing, Reuters reported that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is planning to skip a key NATO summit in Brussels next month in order to stay at Trump’s for-profit Mar-a-Lago report in Florida for two days of meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Just after that meeting, Tillerson will head to Moscow. More: “A former U.S. official and a former NATO diplomat, both speaking on condition of anonymity, said the alliance offered to change the meeting dates so Tillerson could attend it and the Xi Jinping talks but the State Department had rebuffed the idea.” Perhaps, as Tillerson recently said about refusing the take the press along on overseas trips, “I personally don’t need it.”"

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/who-to-trust-when-it-comes-to-health-care-reform-trump-supporters-put-their-faith-in-him/2017/03/16/1c702d58-0a64-11e7-93dc-00f9bdd74ed1_story.html?utm_term=.d4a28f45e4dd

I think that's the "faith" article.

[Edited on March 21, 2017 at 10:29 AM. Reason : a]

3/21/2017 10:27:29 AM

One of my recent posts was about the hacked text messages that allegedly were an attempt to blackmail manafort over evidence they had that they planed to turn over to authorities

Reporting now claim that Manafort was laundering money for the Pro-Putin Viktor Yanukovych in Ukraine:

Quote :

"Serhiy Leshchenko, a lawmaker and journalist, released a copy of an invoice on letterhead from Manafort’s Alexandria, Va.-based consulting company from Oct. 14, 2009, to a Belize-based company for $750,000 for the sale of 501 computers. On the same day, Manafort’s name is listed next to a $750,000 entry in the ‘black ledger,’ which was viewed as a party slush fund."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/new-documents-say-trump-aide-hid-payments-from-pro-moscow-ukraine-party/2017/03/21/92ec85f2-0e11-11e7-9d5a-a83e627dc120_story.html?utm_term=.e26e66a31c36

The administration is now trying to distance themselves from Manafort, Spicer told reporters that he was just a gun brought on for a little while and not involved in the general election.

Paul Manafort was Trump's campaign manager from May to August 19

3/21/2017 12:13:49 PM

Here is a timeline compilation from a random blogger of Trump's involvement in Russia from 1987 to today

Timeline starts on Page 4
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0By1TN7FzSbdQVWl5emlCVkh1Mms/view


I don't know anything about the author, but there is no analysis or conjecture just a listing of items from news sources that are linked. The summaries seem good from the ones i checked.

[Edited on March 21, 2017 at 12:22 PM. Reason : .]

3/21/2017 12:20:50 PM

Trump-Russia Ties
James Comey: "There is an investigation. I can't comment on evidence"
Republicans: The FBI's investigation hasn't found anything...so it must be false.
Democrats: The FBI has an investigation...so it must be true.

Hillary-Unauthorized Email Server with Highly Classified Government Information On It, with Evidence of Deleting Subpoenaed Evidence
James Comey: "There are multiple investigations. There is evidence."
Republicans Democrats: The FBI's investigation hasn't found anything worth indicting her over...so it must be false.
Democrats Republicans: The FBI has evidence...so it must be true.

3/21/2017 5:07:20 PM

more evidence of your weird obsession with hilary

3/21/2017 5:11:07 PM

Quote :

"Republicans Democrats Comey: The FBI's investigation hasn't found anything worth indicting her over...so it must be false."

FIFY

3/21/2017 5:15:26 PM

This issue is way more serious than Clinton's emails, which I also posted a lot about.

3/22/2017 6:21:26 AM

I fidn it almost unfathomable that an armed services member actually supports Trump. Don't they understand how utterly catastrophic him making a serious decision could be?

3/22/2017 7:21:16 AM

Manafort, who has lived in Trump Tower since 2006, has been actively pushing Russian interests and was paid a $10 Million annual contract by a Russian Oligarch with close ties to Putin right around the time he moved in to Trump Tower.

3/22/2017 8:20:42 AM

I've generally been a bit skeptical about any Trump people and Russia ties. It's obvious Putin wanted to actively delegitimize Clinton and that has been confirmed over and over (despite the far left maintaining it isn't true somehow) but the first time I ever thought, hmmmmm, was when Spicer so quickly dismissed (or lied about) Manafort and Flynn as being minor players in the Trump world.

3/22/2017 8:28:49 AM

It is exceedingly clear that Trump's campaign and cabinet were assembled to further Russian interests

Trump ex-aide Paul Manafort 'offered to help Putin'
US President Donald Trump's one-time campaign chairman secretly worked for a Russian billionaire to assist President Vladimir Putin, the Associated Press (AP) news agency reports.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-39350007

Quote :

"In a confidential strategy plan in 2005, AP reports, Mr Manafort proposed to influence politics, business dealings and news coverage in the US, Europe and the ex-Soviet republics to advance the interests of the Putin government. At this time, US-Russia relations were deteriorating. "We are now of the belief that this model can greatly benefit the Putin government if employed at the correct levels with the appropriate commitment to success,'' Mr Manafort is said to have written, adding that it would be offering "a great service that can refocus, both internally and externally, the policies of the Putin government". Mr Manafort signed a $10m-a-year contract beginning in 2006, AP reports. How much work he did under this contract was unclear. Mr Manafort and Mr Deripaska reportedly maintained a business relationship until at least 2009."

3/22/2017 9:12:46 AM

Yea, Manafort's pretty much done. They better put him in protective custody before Russia sends someone with some polonium-210.

Quote :

" “President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, secretly worked for a Russian billionaire to advance the interests of Russian President Vladimir Putin” a decade ago, the AP's Jeff Horowitz and Chad Day report. Manafort pitched a plan to the Kremlin around 2005 “that he would influence politics, business dealings and news coverage inside the United States, Europe and the former Soviet republics to benefit the Putin government,” the story states, quoting a Manafort memo directly: “we are now of the belief that this model can greatly benefit the Putin Government if employed at the correct levels with the appropriate commitment to success.” Manafort managed Trump’s presidential campaign from June to August last year, but was on the Trump team for months before that."

https://www.apnews.com/122ae0b5848345faa88108a03de40c5a/Manafort's-plan-to-'greatly-benefit-the-Putin-Government?utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=AP_Politics&utm_term=%2ASituation%20Report

Makes those text exchanges even scarier.
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/02/manaforts-ukrainian-blood-money-caused-qualms-hack-suggests-235473

[Edited on March 22, 2017 at 10:22 AM. Reason : a]

3/22/2017 10:19:47 AM

In August, two days after President-to-be Trump received his first classified security briefing, he accepted Manafort's resignation.

That would seem to contradict the statement that the Trump campaign was out to forward the interests of Putin. Had that been so, one would expect Trump to not accept Manafort's resignation.

Contrarily, one can look at the deal then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made to authorize the sale of uranium mining rights in the US to a Russian-owned business while those involved in that deal gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to Secretary Clinton's husband as--if not an administration--a deeply-connected political family forwarding the interests of Putin.

But that's just me.

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/04/24/us/cash-flowed-to-clinton-foundation-as-russians-pressed-for-control-of-uranium-company.html?_r=0&referer=https://duckduckgo.com/

3/22/2017 10:25:31 AM