During the final week of 2017 there’s been yet again, a giant pile of bombshells dropped on the Trump Administration. First of course you have Trump’s own rambling, embarrassing impromptu interview with the New York Times where he proclaimed he has the power to “do what he wants with the Justice Department” — suggesting both they he has the power to force yet another re-investigation of Hillary Clinton, but also to shut down the current investigation of him by Robert Mueller. Technically he has the power to pick and choose who does and doesn’t work for him, but he doesn’t have the power to make them distort the rule of law into a Cinnamon Pretzel to serve his whims like a tin-pot Banana Republican Dictator Tyrant Asshole.
Apparently he doesn’t know that.
But the worst part of this was that he felt the obviously compulsive need to proclaim that “there’s no collusion” as many as 16 times during a 30 minute interview. That’s obviously once every 112 seconds, which means he’s really really desperate to convince himself — and anyone else — that this is the truth.
Unfortunately for him, it’s not.
There were many attempts to collude by both Trumpsters and the Russians. Starting with Don Jr. trying to get info from Wikileaks and also from Russians in exchange for modifying the Magnitsky Act sanctions before he himself manufactured a lie about that meeting claiming it was “about adoptions”, Manafort and Gates being indebted to Russians through money-laundering and trying to give them a personal briefing about the campaign, JD Gordon blocking an anti-Russian RNC plank that supported Ukraine which Manafort’s Russian friend Kilminik took credit for, Dearborn and Popadoplous trying to setup a personal meeting between Trump and Putin, Don Jr. actually meeting Dearborn’s Russian gangster contact even after Kushner turned it down. Carter Page meeting with Russians after Sessions and Manafort said Trump himself couldn’t go and someone “lower level” should do it instead, Kushner & Flynn meeting with Russians multiple times to setup a “back channel” that U.S. intel couldn’t detect, Flynn trying to build Nuclear Power Plants with Russia, being paid by a Russian Oligarch to support Turkey kidnapping and renditioning a rebel cleric for Erdogan and also suggesting to Kislyak that sanctions would be dropped. Cohen & Sater trying to build Trump Tower Moscow with Putin’s help and also get Sanctions dropped with a Ukrainian “Peace Deal”, and everyone lying about all this and not reporting it on their security forms or to the FBI, especially Popadopoulos and Flynn, let alone telling them Russia had told Popadopoulos they had “thousands of Hillary’s emails” months before anyone else — including the FBI — even knew that had happened.
And now we know that in May of 2016 Papadopoulos didn’t keep what Russian Professor Mifsud told him to himself, he also bragged about having “Dirt on Hillary Clinton” to Australia’s top diplomat to Britain, Alexander Downer, in a Kensington wine bar. The fact that Papadopoulos was willing to share this with someone who was pretty much a stranger in a bar, makes the odds of his not also telling other members of the Trump campaign practically less then nil and zero. It’s also telling that as soon as the Australians had even the slightest inkling that what they’d heard from Papadopoulos was potentially true they immediately informed U.S. Authorities — but no one from the Trump campaigned even considered doing the same thing, even after they were briefed by the FBI to do exactly that. In fact the FBI already knew that they were in contact with the Russians when they told them to report all contacts, which means they were given an “integrity test” — and failed.
Via NBC News.
In the weeks after he became the Republican nominee on July 19, 2016, Donald Trump was warned that foreign adversaries, including Russia, would probably try to spy on and infiltrate his campaign, according to multiple government officials familiar with the matter.
The warning came in the form of a high-level counterintelligence briefing by senior FBI officials, the officials said. A similar briefing was given to Hillary Clinton, they added. They said the briefings, which are commonly provided to presidential nominees, were designed to educate the candidates and their top aides about potential threats from foreign spies.
The candidates were urged to alert the FBI about any suspicious overtures to their campaigns, the officials said.
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Trump was "briefed and warned" at the session about potential espionage threats from Russia, two former law enforcement officials familiar with the sessions told NBC News. A source close to the White House said their position is that Trump was unaware of the contacts between his campaign and Russians.
However, this isn’t true. Trump was aware of contact between his campaign and the Russians because Papadopoulos had told him about them face-to-face with J.D. Gordon and Jeff Sessions sitting right there.
He also told him again during a private one-on-one meeting. Via Newsweek.
Marianna Kakaounaki, an investigative reporter for the Greek newspaper Kathimerini, said Papadopoulos told her that Trump called him personally after he was hired to the campaign in March 2016. Trump later met with Papadopoulos one-on-one, when the aide told Trump about his ongoing efforts to set up a meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, Kakaounaki said.
Around the same time, Trump told The Washington Post that Papadopoulos was an "excellent guy." The Trump administration maintains that Papadopoulos only met Trump on March 31 for a group photo shoot.
“I felt that he was probably lucky, having just met Trump in person and then Trump being interviewed and mentioning his name,” Kakaounaki told Politico. “That mention opened a lot of Greek doors for him, and probably in other countries too.”
After Papadopoulos made contact with Professor Mifsud, Sergey Millian who had contacts with the Kremlin’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and model Olga Vinogradova who claimed to be “Putin Niece” he specifically emailed members of the campaign about the contacts he had made.
Three days after Donald Trump named his campaign foreign policy team in March 2016, the youngest of the new advisers sent an email to seven campaign officials with the subject line: “Meeting with Russian Leadership - Including Putin.”
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The proposal sent a ripple of concern through campaign headquarters in Trump Tower. Campaign co-chairman Sam Clovis wrote that he thought NATO allies should be consulted before any plans were made. Another Trump adviser, retired Navy Rear Adm. Charles Kubic, cited legal concerns, including a possible violation of U.S. sanctions against Russia and of the Logan Act, which prohibits U.S. citizens from unauthorized negotiation with foreign governments.
But Papadopoulos, a campaign volunteer with scant foreign policy experience, persisted. Between March and September, the self-described energy consultant sent at least a half-dozen requests for Trump, as he turned from primary candidate to party nominee, or for members of his team to meet with Russian officials.
The concerns brought up by Kubic and others were well founded and show that the Trumpsters really can’t proclaim amateur ignorance when it comes to their many, many, many contacts with various Russians. They were told it was illegal by Kubic. They are told it was dangerous by the FBI.
Yet, still — they persisted.
And then they lied about it, just as Trump continues to lie by saying there was “no collusion.” At this point it doesn’t matter if anyone in the Trump campaign actually managed to succeed making a deal with the Russians it’s very clear that they attempted to do exactly that time and time again and even if they failed to make a verbal deal, an implied deal or a contract written in blood — they both ACTED LIKE THEY HAD A DEAL OF DIRT FOR HILLARY IN EXCHANGE FOR DROPPING SANCTIONS — it doesn’t matter because in trying to hide all these attempts to aid, abet, benefit from and reward political espionage, sabotage, cyber theft and fraud they succeed in conducting a criminal conspiracy of silence to cover it up.
It was specifically Trump’s lies that there “were no contacts” between his campaign and Russians that prompted Papadopoulos to lie to the FBI. He told them he lied because he didn’t want to make Trump look bad, even though he’d left an email and Facebook trail behind him that was five miles wide. There was probably a similar motivation behind Michael Flynn lying to the FBI.
And yet there is another irony that Papadopoulos admitting the truth to the Australian Diplomat appears to be exactly why the FBI began investigating the Trump campaign in the first place — not anything that was alleged by the Christopher Steele Dossier.
When hacked Democratic National Committee emails began leaking two months later, the Australians told the FBI about Papadopoulos’ claims, the Times reported, citing four current and former American and foreign officials with direct knowledge of the contact.
The revelation that a member of the Trump campaign may have had inside information about the hack was the driving factor behind the FBI’s Russia investigation — not, as Trump and his supporters have alleged, a salacious dossier compiled by a former British spy.
So the Russia investigation isn’t a “Witch Hunt.” It didn’t come from a partisan hatchet job that was paid for by the DNC and Hillary Clinton to knee-cap Trump, although if that was the goal, why exactly did no one even admit the document existed until October or that there was even an investigation until after the election was over?
If that was the plan it didn't work very well.
And now it seems that the leader of the GOP Cabal against the FBI and Mueller, Devin Nunez, seems to have been issuing subpoenas against the FBI in their Steele Dossier Snipe Hunt that weren’t approved by the House Leadership.
As The Washington Post reported Sunday, House Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-SC) said his “heart would be broken” if Nunes follows through “on reported plans to issue a corruption exposé about the FBI.”
The Post‘s Karoun Demirjian wrote that Gowdy suggested Nunes may have moved to obtain information in his apparent FBI and Justice Department probe “without the express blessing” of House Majority Leader Paul Ryan (R-WI).
The bottom line here is that this investigation is not a “hoax”, it’s not a “witch hunt”, it’s not simply a way for Democrats and the Deep State FBI to “Get Trump.” It’s an investigation into an attempt by a hostile foreign agency to subvert our democracy potentially with the support and aid of Americans.
That’s worth digging into and finding out what really happened.
Daily Update Items are as follows:
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December 22nd —
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Palestinian President Abbas says there will be no peace plan with Israeli following Trump’s decision on Jerusalem.
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House Intel schedules a meeting with Trump’s longtime personal assistant Rhona Ghraff in New York. Jeremy Bash, a former chief of staff for both the Department of Defense and the CIA, says “The big picture is that the last three weeks have been weeks of panic for the Trump team,” [Since Flynn’s guilty plea] and that the interview of Ghraff could make this even worse.
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Dr. Jill Stein is interviewed on CNN and throws cold water on the Russia Hacked the DNC story complaining that the FBI never directly examined the DNC servers and that independent security company that did, Crowdstike, has a “weak reputation” [which is a lie], she also says her dinner in Moscow with Putin during the RT anniversary was merely coincidental and she didn’t speak to anyone at the table except a German rep who was seated to her right.
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Joy Ann Reid discussed with Authoritarian Regime expert Sarah Kendzior if the hack of Lindsey Graham emails have been used to blackmail him into blind fawning support of Trump.
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WaPo reports that Breitar editor-in-chief Max Barlow attacked Roy Moore’s accusers even though he personally believed one of them.
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Newsweek Reports that Trump has saved more than $100 Million on his Golf Course Resorts such as Mar-A-Lago using special tax easements, and that after passage of his Tax Scam bill he could personally save another $600 Million over the next decade.
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Nikki Haley disinvites the ambassador of every country that voted against him on Jerusalem to the State Dept Christmas party.
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Former CIA Director John Brennen returns to twitter to call Trump a ‘narcissistic, vengeful autocrat’. [Yep, pretty much.]
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State tells refugee organizations such as UNHRC to downsize their US operations [Because I guess were no longer in the business of saving people from starvation and destitution due to despots since we’ve got one of our own right here.]
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Trump signs the Tax Scam bill and doesn’t invite any of the Republicans who wrote and passed it. [Ohh, burn...]
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Sen. Mark Warner states that he’s seen damning evidence against Trump — but Mueller has much worse.
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Federal Prosecutors issue subpoenas for banks records related to Jared Kushner’s business ties to Deutsche Bank.
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Professor who failed Carter Page twice describes his memorably awful Phd thesis.
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December 23rd —
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Deputy FBI Director McCabe announces that he’ll retire in 2018.
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Joan Walsh is hired by CNN after her firing by MSNBC.
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Federal Judge James Robert rules that the Trump administration could conduct additional security checks, but it could not block entry by refugees from 11 largely Muslim countries including Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Mali, North Korea, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.
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Trump tweet rants: Clinton emails, Leaky Comey, McCabe retirement, blah blah blah.. then he goes golfing again for the 109th day this year at an estimated cost to taxpayers of $42 Million.
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NYTimes reports that when going over immigration issues including deciding to revoke protected status for 58,000 Haitians who had fled the 2010 Earthquake Trump ranted that “Haitians have aids” and “Nigerians will never go back to their huts” after seeing America.
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Roger Stone claims he has information that members of Trump’s cabinet are plotting to remove him using the 25th Amendment.
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December 24th —
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December 25th —
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December 26th —
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Rep Francis Rooney (R-FL) calls for the FBI and DOJ to be “purged” even though Strzok and Page were already removed, Comey was fired and McCabe is retiring. So he’s planning to “purge” exactly who now? Particularly since Mueller, Wray, Rosenstein and his assistant Rachel Brand are all Republicans, and both Wray and Brand have donated campaign funds to the GOP.
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CNN’s Allyson Camerota shoots own Trumpster Michael Caputo’s wacky theories about Mueller and the FBI: “Listen, Michael, It’s just absurd on its face to think that the FBI is a den of lefty liberals. It just doesn’t hold water.”
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Trump rant/tweets again: WOW, @foxandfrlends “Dossier is bogus. Clinton Campaign, DNC funded Dossier. FBI CANNOT (after all of this time) VERIFY CLAIMS IN DOSSIER OF RUSSIA/TRUMP COLLUSION. FBI TAINTED — even though most of the Steele Dossier, particularly covert contacts between Trump Campaign associates and Russians have been confirmed and two people have been convicted for lying to the FBI about it.
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Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) Ranking member on Judiciary, says he will not pursue Impeachment unless there are both Democrats and Republicans on board with it. [Which means it won’t happen, yet.]
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AP reports that Trump’s relationship with Sessions continued to sour after Manafort’s house was raided by the FBI and even moreso when Roy Moore lost his bid for Session’s Senate seat to Democrat Doug Jones.
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Ex-CIA Chief Michael Morell and Former FBI agent and House Intel Chairman Mike Rogers pen an op-ed that states Russian social media trolls have been pushing an effort to discredit Mueller’s investigation. [What? no kidding.]
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Michael Flynn’s brother Joseph tweets — and then deletes — a plea to Trump to pardon his brother.
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USA Today editorial board attacks Trump’s ‘odious campaign to tarnish Mueller and his investigators’.
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Wapo editorial warns of ‘extraordinary collateral damage’ from Trump’s FBI attacks’.
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The Daily Beast reports that Mueller is expected to issue a second “superseding” indictment against Manafort with all the original charges as well as several more.
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Ari Melber and his panel for The Beat point out how the Trump administration is a criminal enterprise operating out of the White House.
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Trump agrees to provide anti-tank missiles to Ukraine which angers Russia.
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December 27th —
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Louie Gohmert claims Mueller wants Trump’s scalp. [If he gets it, he’ll have earned it.]
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Former FBI Agent Clint Watts warns that Russia has not stopped it’s cyber attacks against the U.S.
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Yahoo News reports that Mueller is now asking questions about the RNC Voter Data Operation, particularly what information was shared with the Trump Campaign and managed by Jared Kushner, Alexander Nix’s Cambridge-Analytica and Brad Pascale.
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Supposedly recused House Intel Chairmen Devin Nunes subpoenas former State Dept Official David Kramer who was the courier who brought a copy of the Steele Dossier from the British Ambassador to Russia from England to John McCain, who then hand delivered it to James Comey — who actually already had a copy. Allegedly Kramer knows the identities of Steele’s sources, but hasn’t been willing to divulge that information to Congresss, however Steele has already told Mueller all about this.
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Sean Hannity tweets that he will expose CNN and NBC in one week. Happy New Year.
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After dropping their support for an Anti-semite who opposes Paul Ryan for his seat, Breitbart attacks Jake Tapper for saying he was “Brietbart’s Favorite”— which he was.
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Newsweek reports about the Mikhailov Group who’ve been held in Russia on charges of Treason for over a year. They question whether Kozlovsky’s Facebook post pointing the finger for the DNC hack toward Dokuchaev was submitted 9 months after his arrest, and prisoners don’t usually have access to the internet.
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WaPo reports that 964 people were killed by police during 2017, however their numbers were consistently lower that the data from The Guardian from 2015-16 of about 1,100 per year, and far lower than the latest estimates provided by the BJS, which was 1,900.
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Newsweek reports that Kushner is a really scummy slumlord since one of his properties is apparently infested with Black Mold and he hasn’t done anything about it for 4 years.
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Vice News reports that in order to bring a 13,000 employee FoxConn plant to Wisconsin that state will have to pony up about $4.5 Billion in infrastructure improvements and tax breaks.
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December 28th —
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While in the lounge of one of his Golf Courses Trump gives the NYTimes a rambling bonkers interview.
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He claims he has the right to “do as he pleases with the DOJ” — which he doesn’t when it comes to cases involving himself or his administration and campaign. He says this in response to a question about re-opening the Clinton email investigation and suggests he won't do that — unless he has to.
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He claims that he think Mueller will treat him fairly and says that “There was no collusion” 16 times in less than 30 minutes. [This following his “I can do what I want” with the DOJ sounds pretty much like a direct threat — “get me off the hook, or else” and clearly ignores Don Jr. trying to get info from Wikileaks and also Russians in exchange for modifying the Magnitsky Act sanctions before he himself manufactured a lie about that meeting claiming it was “about adoptions”, Manafort being indebted to Russians through money-laundering and trying to give them information about the campaign, JD Gordon blocking an anti-Russian RNC plank that supported Ukraine which Manafort’s Russian friend Kilminik took credit for, Dearborn and Popadoplous trying to setup of a personal meeting between Trump and Putin, Don Jr. actually meeting Dearborn’s Russian contact even after Kushner turned it down. Carter Page meeting with Russians after Sessions and Manafort said Trump himself couldn’t go, Kushner & Flynn meeting with Russians multiple times to setup a “back channel” that U.S. intel couldn’t detect, Flynn trying to build Nuclear Power Plants with Russia, being paid by a Russian Oligarch to support Turkey kidnapping and renditioning a rebel cleric for Erdogan and also promising Kislyak that sanctions would be dropped. Cohen & Sater trying to build Trump Tower Moscow with Putin’s help and also get Sanctions dropped with a Ukrainian “Peace Deal”, and everyone lying about all this and not reporting it on their security forms or to the FBI, especially Popadopoulos and Flynn, let alone telling them Russia told Popadopoulos they had “thousands of Hillary’s emails” before anyone else even knew that had happened.]
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He claims he knows more about Health Care and Taxes than just about anybody.
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He says he’s been easy on China even though they’ve stolen $300 Billion from us in intellectual property [but they haven’t] because he takes War with North Korea more seriously than Trade.
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He says “The news media has to keep me president because the entire media system would fall apart without me.”
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Alabama AG certifies Doug Jones win for Senator over Roy Moore. Moore still refuses to concede and instead sues claiming “Voter Fraud” only to have his silly bigoted suit thrown out by a judge.
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December 29th —
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December 30th —
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December 31st —