the far left wants this to be a witch hunt because they've had the narrative all along that russian meddling played no part in clinton's loss and it was 100% because of her, and because of the echo chamber effect that narrative got pushed into bonkers territory by the people who parrot popular leftists twitter accounts and subreddits

5/21/2018 8:41:51 AM

UPDATED: Michael Cohen’s lawyer worked as a lobbyist for Qatar last year
The ties to Qatar keep multiplying.
https://thinkprogress.org/michael-cohen-lawyer-also-works-as-a-lobbyist-for-qatar-c62433bf6315/?utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_content=5b017f7204d301334e029a65&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter

Quote :

"Over the course of the Mueller investigation the ties between the administration and Qatar seem to have been multiplying by the day. First, it was revealed that in December 2016 shortly after Trump was elected president, former Qatari diplomat Ahmed al-Rumaihi, head of Qatar Investments, attended a meeting at Trump Tower with President Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen and Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser. During a separate encounter around the same time, Cohen reportedly solicited a $1 million payment from Qatar in exchange for access to the incoming administration — a payment Qatar reportedly refused. Then, on Friday afternoon it was revealed that while attending the Qatar-U.S. Economic Forum in Miami last month, Cohen requested a meeting with Qatar ambassador Sheikh Meshal bin Hamad Al Thani. The tete-a-tete came just days before the FBI raided Cohen’s home and office in its ongoing probe into his financial dealings. Now, a Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) filing shows that Cohen’s lawyer, Stephen Ryan, also lobbied last year for the State of Qatar and its ambassador Al Thani. Al Thani was also among the senior foreign officials who visited Trump’s transition team headquarters at Trump Tower in December 2016."

lol

maybe the president's lawyer's lawyer should get a lawyer

5/21/2018 9:39:51 AM

All the Gulf monarchies wanted to see Trump elected, and offered help to Trump Jr. to get his father elected as early as 2016 in meetings.

WhyTF do they like him? Oh wait, he is a mendacious dictator just like them.

5/21/2018 2:51:21 PM

Quote :

" ^^^^ Greenwald seems to be on the precipice of going all in on calling this all a “witch hunt” posting links for calls to end Mueller now this morning. I get it. He will make bank on going after the FBI/CIA in any situation and the market for that is high right now."

Man, your obsession with Greenwald is getting truly bizarre. Yeah, the guy who runs one of the most popular anti-corruption media outlets in the world, who is married to a political activist in a country where political activists are routinely murdered, is definitely just out for a buck right now. Are you for real?

Quote :

"the far left wants this to be a witch hunt because they've had the narrative all along that russian meddling played no part in clinton's loss and it was 100% because of her, and because of the echo chamber effect that narrative got pushed into bonkers territory by the people who parrot popular leftists twitter accounts and subreddits"

and this fuckin guy, the “radical socialist”, disassociating himself from the “far left” because he continually fails to understand the leftist critique of the Russia investigation

seriously just lol if you think anything positive will come out of this for anyone other than the rich and powerful.

[Edited on May 21, 2018 at 3:26 PM. Reason : .]

5/21/2018 3:22:13 PM

Quote :

"and this fuckin guy, the “radical socialist”, disassociating himself from the “far left” because he continually fails to understand the leftist critique of the Russia investigation"

Tbh, it would be nice to have someone explain the critique of the investigation that doesn’t use strawmen or media bias as the center argument.

Sure there are people way too overzealous and yelling treason but they are the extreme minority and should be scorned. I treat them just like I treat the idiots who think the DNC murdered Seth Rich.

I’ve yet to see a good reason why Trump and his campaign shouldn’t be investigated.

[Edited on May 21, 2018 at 4:08 PM. Reason : ]

5/21/2018 4:06:57 PM

^

5/21/2018 4:21:22 PM

That's the thing you guys always gloss over. No one is saying the investigation wasn't warranted. The issues are:

1. The overwhelming focus it has been given over everything else
2. The way it has been used to whitewash all of the other pieces of shit in Washington, including intelligence organizations/officers who have historically been defenders of the police state
3. The constant attempts to tie leftist movements to Russia/communism

Quote :

"Sure there are people way too overzealous and yelling treason but they are the extreme minority and should be scorned."

You're describing Rachel Maddow right now, the most-watched liberal pundit in the US.

[Edited on May 21, 2018 at 4:39 PM. Reason : .]

5/21/2018 4:38:04 PM

^ just because she isn't right about everything doesn't mean she isn't right about most things.

God, this type of thinking is so annoying. Everybody has some sort of angle or bias, and AFAIK nobody is actually perfect and gets the story completely accurate 100% of the time. That doesn't mean we should all give up and stop following the news. It means we need to think much more critically.

5/21/2018 5:39:48 PM

No, but she has the most-watched liberal television show and spends the majority of time talking about the Trump investigation, rather than his disastrous policies and statements.

5/21/2018 5:55:01 PM

It's tempting to put her in the same category as Hannity or Tucker Carlson, because her own personality makes her divisive and polarizing and for 'good' television (i.e high ratings). She's a liberal lesbian on a major cable news network and she goes out of her way to be provocative. The similarities end there though, because she doesn't actually invent fake news stories; she merely reports on them with her own twist/flair. I don't watch her every night (or ANYONE, for that matter), and I take everything she says with a grain of salt. Trying to fault her for doing what she's good at is a fool's errand. If you don't like her, that's cool. Don't listen/watch. It doesn't mean what she's doing is wrong though. And LOL at trying to focus on Trump's policies. Nobody gave two shits about his policies that actually voted for him, so why focus on them now? Everyone KNOWS he's terrible at his job. What we DON'T know yet are all the details related to the investigation, which is way people are paying attention...


[Edited on May 21, 2018 at 6:08 PM. Reason : .]

5/21/2018 6:05:50 PM

The biggest story of our lifetime is apparently getting too much news coverage

5/21/2018 8:40:59 PM

Quote :

"but she has the most-watched liberal television show and spends the majority of time talking about the Trump investigation, rather than his disastrous policies and statements."

She's giving the people what they want, sounds like.

Other than a few exceptions (trade, ?), Trump's policies are basically the same old GOP bullshit. Some of the same shit GWB did, and its the similar to what a President Jeb, Rubio, or even Kasich would be doing. I've long since stopped raising an eyebrow at Trump's statements, many clearly designed to trigger reactions (instead I just upchuck a little).

The Russia investigation though? Now that's good TV. I mean, some of us are thirsty AF to see some of these rich white-collar corporate criminals go to jail, just like the rest of us do when we break the law. We all know there is a multi-tiered justice system in this country, so to watch the flop sweat pour off Don Jr or Guiliani or any of these asshats is pretty great.

I think you're right there are some "bread and circuses" elements to the way this investigation has gone down on TV/the news. At the same time its scandalous AF and a huge symptom of all the dysfunction in our democracy. Its easy to understand why it leads in the news.

5/21/2018 8:45:19 PM

Yeah I totally agree and most of the blame lies with MSNBC, not Maddow. They're a capitalist news organization and they report the news that gets them the most viewers. There was a great podcast episode on this specifically, and it talks about how even the most principled hosts get caught in a validation loop between them, the network, and the viewers.

https://medium.com/@CitationsPodcst/episode-34-what-the-hell-is-wrong-with-msnbc-5a4538f32ef

I understand why it leads the news, but it doesn't excuse pundits who are cosplaying as the #resistance. But my main point was that if you are all interested in forwarding progressive policy, you should be aware of how people are taking advantage of this to keep us in the center. And part of that is ostracizing people who have legitimate concerns.

[Edited on May 21, 2018 at 9:10 PM. Reason : .]

5/21/2018 9:08:22 PM

So is anyone going to give a real leftist critique of the investigative that isn’t media based or a straw man?

So far I’ve seen Maddow (media bias) and some vague don’t praise law enforcement agencies (straw man).

Why do I give a damn what an entertainer does on MSNBC any more than what men’s rights story Tucker Carlson is pushing on any given day? MSNBC has awful Hugh Hewitt on every day too and I treat him just like Maddow. It’s tiring to see people correlating what individual Democratic candidates are doing versus what MSNBC chooses to do for a profit.

5/22/2018 7:41:43 AM

Maddow is a harmless wonk and is nothing like the others who have been mentioned

5/22/2018 10:11:29 AM

That wasn’t my point, fwiw.

My whole problem is with this conflation of Maddow/MSNBC being some proxy for the Democratic Party when the reality on the ground and locally is simply not that. I’ve seen it a lot on some of the more prominent far left twitter followings.

It’s a TV station. As far as I can tell no politicians are live tweeting Maddow on a daily basis like the President does Hannity and F&F.

5/22/2018 10:29:40 AM

Quote :

"Maddow/MSNBC being some proxy for the Democratic Party"

I mean they are a proxy for Democrats in many ways, but more-so they are a proxy for liberals as a whole. I have noticed that Democrats themselves have dialed the rhetoric back (apart from the stupid Russian hat bullshit Clinton pulled the other day), but media hosts are going hard as ever. I don't know why you're casting it off as irrelevant. Democrats are going another direction, but your average liberal isn't watching Chuck Schumer's twitter feed. They're watching MSNBC and CNN.

Quote :

"some vague don’t praise law enforcement agencies (straw man)."

I've given you loads of examples throughout this thread, but the next day you always revert back to this weird belief that the far left are secret Trump supporters, or are obsessed with proving that Russia didn't help Hillary. Or this new one about Glenn Greenwald being the new Glenn Beck.

I honestly don't care how much energy you guys choose to expend on this. I agree that it's entertaining and I hope the end result is positive. All I'm asking is that you attempt to understand why some people have concerns and stop needlessly discrediting your allies.

5/22/2018 11:11:03 AM

good background on Broidy and Nader:

The princes, the president and the fortune seekers
https://www.apnews.com/a3521859cf8d4c199cb9a8567abd2b71

(also, ermergerd why is the news reporting on this?!)

[Edited on May 22, 2018 at 11:14 AM. Reason : i]

5/22/2018 11:14:05 AM

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2018/05/22/a-big-shoe-drops-in-the-mueller-probe-as-the-taxi-king-flips/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.cdc1fb3aa242

Quote :

"The New York Times is reporting that Michael Cohen's business partner, Evgeny Freidman (a.k.a. the Taxi King), has reached a plea deal with prosecutors and will cooperate with the government on state and local cases: A significant business partner of Michael D. Cohen, President Trump’s personal lawyer, has quietly agreed to cooperate with the government as a potential witness, a development that could be used as leverage to pressure Mr. Cohen to work with the special counsel examining Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. ... He appeared in court in Albany on Tuesday and pleaded guilty to a single count of evading only $50,000 worth of taxes; he faces five years of probation if he fulfills the terms of his agreement, the judge, Patrick Lynch of Albany County court, said during the roughly 20-minute proceeding."

5/22/2018 6:30:44 PM

Ranty is shook this morning.

5/23/2018 7:40:13 AM

Trump lawyer 'paid by Ukraine' to arrange White House talks
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44215656

Quote :

"The payment was arranged by intermediaries acting for Ukraine's leader, Petro Poroshenko, the sources said, though Cohen was not registered as a representative of Ukraine as required by US law. The meeting at the White House was last June. Shortly after the Ukrainian president returned home, his country's anti-corruption agency stopped its investigation into Trump's former campaign manager, Paul Manafort."

5/23/2018 12:36:24 PM

KUSHNER'S BACK

INVESTIGATION NOTHINGBURGER

5/23/2018 3:54:55 PM

Or hey, now that he's Mueller's bitch go ahead and give him clearances and get him back to the inner circle.
Trump wants a spy in his camp, he can have one.

5/23/2018 5:18:46 PM

Kushner has a wicked comb over

5/23/2018 7:45:40 PM

I doubt he would have gotten a clearance if he had done anything. safe to say he's clean.

5/23/2018 10:06:11 PM

^dis is tongue in cheek, correct?


Someone tell me how this meeting with Nunes, Gowdy, Rosenstein, and John Kelly (seriously, why the hell is a whitehouse staffer there) ends. I’m definitely not getting any work done today because of this shit.

5/24/2018 9:17:33 AM

Gowdy and Rosenstein getting infested with the same alien brain worms controlling the rest of the Trump crew?

5/24/2018 12:43:46 PM

His defense lawyer was there too and Rudy Giuliani just said that they will be using the meeting as a way to inform their defense strategy. Though, as always, anything Rudy says is probably a lie.

if true, I’m sure the people outraged about the tarmac meeting will be equally as upset now

5/24/2018 2:47:33 PM

^^^

This all seems extremely improper and unethical and possibly illegal

I’m very curious to know what the legal basis is for a politician using their poltical power to give their personal lawyer access to classified information is— doesn’t seem like it should be even remotely illegal.

It’s shocking that the DOJ would even agree to this.

5/24/2018 5:19:54 PM

Seems like Twitter reporting is suggesting that Kelly and Flood showed up at the beginning, before the briefing/doc review, so they could let everyone know how committed Trump is to “transparency.”

They should have been laughed out of the room.

5/24/2018 5:38:54 PM

Quote :

"^dis is tongue in cheek, correct? "

haha not really. I have no reason to believe they gave a clearance to him for any other reason than he has done nothing wrong. A clearance can be withheld simply for doubt so my guess is he's flat out clean.

Maybe I'm wrong but I'm not going to assume the FBI is corruptly or ineptly giving him a clearance and at the same time corruptly or ineptly investigating Trump.

5/24/2018 8:05:09 PM

McConnell supports the investigation and Nunes didn't make a statement, so the briefing must have been bad for the pedes

5/25/2018 8:25:46 AM

I'm intrigued to see the next nunes attempt at fucking this up

5/25/2018 9:17:24 AM

http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/389473-giuliani-says-wh-wants-briefing-on-classified-meeting-thinks-it

5/25/2018 11:33:04 PM

Don’t have a link but the Torshin, NRA, Don Jr, RNC link with the Spanish wiretaps seems like a huge story and would explain why the likes of Nunes and Paul Ryan have seemed so averse to real oversight.

5/26/2018 9:55:33 AM

http://www.newsweek.com/trump-jr-should-be-concerned-over-putin-allys-wiretapped-calls-spanish-945753

5/26/2018 11:38:50 AM

https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/29/politics/donald-trump-robert-mueller-team-midterm-elections-tweet/index.html

5/29/2018 10:54:12 AM

lol, that briefing must have been really bad

FBI was right to deploy informant, senior GOP lawmaker says
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/05/29/gowdy-fbi-informant-spygate-trump-611600

Quote :

"A senior House Republican who was part of a highly classified Justice Department briefing last week said on Tuesday that the FBI acted properly when it deployed an informant to gather information from advisers to President Donald Trump’s campaign in 2016. Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) said last week’s briefing, convened by the Justice Department under pressure from Trump, convinced him even further that the FBI’s information-gathering steps were appropriate."

5/30/2018 10:30:55 AM

another sychelles meeting:

Jared Kushner close friend Rick Gerson now under scrutiny from Mueller
Gerson met with a UAE royal in the Seychelles around the time of a secret meeting there between Trump friend Erik Prince and Russian and Emirati officials.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/jared-kushner-close-friend-rick-gerson-now-under-scrutiny-mueller-n876361?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_ma

Quote :

"Mueller's interest in Gerson is another sign that he is examining connections between the UAE and Trump associates. Counterintelligence investigators have been scrutinizing UAE influence in the Trump campaign since before Mueller was appointed as special counsel, and the probe has continued in coordination with Mueller's team, according to two people briefed on the investigation."

6/1/2018 1:06:09 PM

Trump distancing from Manafort again this morning is pretty clear evidence he flipped or is going to. Blaming FBI for letting him hire Manafort is an interesting twist though.

6/3/2018 9:41:52 AM

https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/03/politics/rudy-giuliani-donald-trump-pardon-himself/index.html

Quote :

""Sekulow said time and time again directly into the faces of the American people on television -- Sarah Huckabee Sanders did the same thing -- and said in no uncertain terms, if you go back and look at the statements. "

Quote :

"There's no wiggle room here," Bharara said. "They said the President had nothing to do with that statement by Donald Trump Jr., and didn't draft it, didn't sign off on it and it turns out that is completely untrue.""

Quote :

"On "This Week," Giuliani said he thought Sekulow was wrong in saying that the President dictated the statement. "I don't know that Jay -- Jay would have to answer that, and I, I've talked to him about it," Giuliani said. "I think Jay was wrong, I mean, this is -- this is the reason you don't let the president testify. If, you know, every, our recollection keeps changing, or we're not even asked a question and somebody makes an assumption, in my case, I made an assumption and then I, then, then we corrected, and I got it right out as soon as, as soon as, as soon as it happened. I think that's what happened here," Giuliani said."

Quote :

"I mean, this is -- this is the reason you don't let the president testify"

What in god's name is going on with Giuliani? What the fuck kind of statement is that?

6/3/2018 2:42:52 PM

He’s senile. It would be mercy to stop him from making appearances but Trump is sociopathic enough to probably enjoy it.

It’s sort of funny to me he’s blaming Obama and FBI for not warning about Manafort considering Obama explicitly warned him about Flynn and he ignored it.

6/3/2018 6:35:50 PM

“our recollection keeps changing”

Welcome to the post truth world

6/3/2018 9:57:38 PM

https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/03/politics/rudy-giuliani-trump-shoot-comey-impeachment/index.html

Quote :

"The President's attorney said Trump would face impeachment rather than prosecution if he had shot former FBI Director James Comey in the Oval Office to end the Russia probe instead of firing him, which Trump did last May. "If he shot James Comey, he'd be impeached the next day," Giuliani said to HuffPost. "Impeach him, and then you can do whatever you want to do to him." CNN has reached out to Giuliani for comment."

6/3/2018 11:51:13 PM

we are headed straight for a constitutional crisis.

6/4/2018 9:26:48 AM

I’d argue the complete unwillingness of congressional Republicans to perform their constitutionally mandated oversight is already one.

But yeah, Ranty thinks he’s king.

[Edited on June 4, 2018 at 10:00 AM. Reason : Their]

6/4/2018 9:59:47 AM

https://www.npr.org/2018/06/02/616467319/report-in-a-letter-to-mueller-trumps-lawyers-say-he-can-t-be-compelled-to-testify

6/4/2018 10:03:17 AM

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-manafort/manafort-attempted-to-tamper-with-potential-witnesses-u-s-special-counsel-idUSKCN1J1043

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, who has been indicted by U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller, attempted to tamper with potential witnesses, Mueller said in a court filing on Monday.

The FBI has documents and statements from the two people, as well as telephone records and documents recovered through a search of Manafort’s iCloud account showing that Trump’s former campaign manager attempted communication while he was out on bail, according to Domin.

The communications were “in an effort to influence their testimony and to otherwise conceal evidence,” Domin wrote. “The investigation into this matter is ongoing.”

[Edited on June 4, 2018 at 9:15 PM. Reason : a]

6/4/2018 9:14:56 PM

Well, this would explain how Paul Manafort was caught tampering with witnesses.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/06/mueller-team-zeroes-in-on-encrypted-apps-as-witness-turn-in-phones.html

6/6/2018 3:25:58 PM

Cambridge Analytica director met WikiLeaks' Assange in 2017 'to discuss US election'
http://thehill.com/policy/technology/390973-cambridge-analytica-director-met-wikileaks-assange-in-2017-to-discuss-us

the cambridge analytica director who funneled cryptocurrency to wikileaks also met with assange

6/7/2018 10:31:25 AM