In this week's incremental update to Trump Russia Timeline we’ve had the new arrest and indictment of Roger Stone which makes multiple allegations that Stone lied to the House Intelligence committee about having records of his interactions with Wikileaks, records of his interactions with members of the Trump campaign on the subject of Wikileaks emails, records of his interactions with persons who acted as go-betweens for him and Wikileaks, and falsely suggested that one of those intermediary people was left-wing anti-Hillary radio host Randy Credico when in reality it was right-wing Brietbart conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi,and his friend Ted Malloch who lived in London and had a connection to RT reporter Afshin Rattansi who had access to Julian Assange, then attempted to protect this false cover story which was coordinated with Corsi in a plot to obstruct justice and tamper with Credico’s testimony by inducing him to plead the 5th Amendment and refuse to testify to congress or share information with the FBI.
Stone in the few days since he provided bond has made literally dozens of wild claims and accusations, from saying that his arrest was more violent that the Bin Laden Raid to saying that the charges against are completely meritless and baseless — but none of that matters. What matters is the documentation laid out by Mueller is simply-put iron clad.
SHuckabee may say this has “nothing to do with collusion” and Trump but it has everything to do with both.
The first portion of what took place was the hack itself which was implement by both Russian Military Intelligence (GRU) and their Security Services (FSB) which are essentially a combination of their version of FBI and CIA which used to be known as Putin former employer, the KBG. GRU hackers uses the pseudonym “Guccifer 2.0” to promote the information which they steal and to throw people off from the fact that this is a Russian intelligence influence operation. The following is a timeline the various events which combines the details of Mueller’s indictment with additional media reports.
- Summer 2015 —
- Cyber hacking contractors working with the FSB (Cozy Bear) begin infiltrating and extracting copies of documents including their oppo-research on Trump and emails from the DNC servers. Their previous successful attacks include Yahoo Mail, the White House and State Dept. email systems.
- Cozy Bear also penetrates some RNC emails accounts and attack various Republicans who oppose Trump in the primaries such as Lindsey Graham.
- Dutch Intelligence services detect the Cozy Bear hack and manage to infiltrate their systems and surveillance cameras, they then document exactly who enters and exits the “hacking room” and inform the FBI.
- September 2015 —
- FBI detects the hack and begins trying to inform the DNC, but they start by going to their Helpdesk not simply calling Debbie Wasserman-Schultz. The hack continues.
- April 2016 —
After attempting to release the their own version of the emails via the Guccifer 2.0 persona and their own website platform DCLeaks, the stolen emails are eventually transferred to Julian Assange at Wikileaks who begins to openly discuss what he has in early June and release it soon after, but notably even before he has stated he has any of Hillary’s or the DNC emails or it’s even before it’s public knowledge that they've been hacked — Alexander Nix of Cambridge-Analytica is trying to reach Assange to get copies of Hillary’s deleted emails. (Which he reported gets a full month before they are released by Wikileaks!)
- June 2016 —
- June 12, 2016 —
- June 14, 2016 -—
- June 15, 2016 —
- Guccifer 2.0 releases the DNC’s opposition research file on Donald Trump — which is the first data dump from the hacks.
It's now established that there are hacked emails available from the Russians in the hands of Julian Assange, and just like Alexander Nix has attempted Roger Stones begins a plot — potentially prompted by a “Senior White House Official” — to get copies on those emails or information about what is within them. Stone reaches out to Corsi who initially refuses, but eventually Corsi reaches out to Ted Malloch and the conduit to pass information from Assange to Stone is gradually established.
- July 2016 —
- Sometime during this month Roger Stone contacted his friend Jerome Corsi from Infowars asking him to get in touch with WIkileaks and ask if they had any materials related to the election they hadn’t yet released. Corsi told him this could be subject to investigation and refused, but in fact he did make the contact with a person located in London who could reach Wikileaks. [This contact appears to be Londoner and Trump supporter Ted Malloch.] According to his indictment he also contacts “Senior Members” of Trump's campaign that Wikileaks has info damaging to Hillary.
- July 22, 2016 —
- One day after end of RNC Wikileaks reveals their first set of DNC emails.
- A senior Trump official is then directed to contact Roger Stone about what else Wikileaks might have on Hillary. [Best guess: This is RIck Gates under direction from Manafort who is Stone’s former business partner.]
- July 25, 2016 —
- Democratic Convention starts, because of the brouhaha from the Wikileaks email dump, Chairman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz resigns and Donna Brazille takes over.
- Stone contacts Corsi with an email titled “Get to Assange at Ecuadorian embassy and get pending Clinton emails, they deal with Foundation allegedly.” Corsi forwards this to his contact in London [Ted Malloch]
- July 28, 2016 —
- July 31, 2016 —
- Stone emails Corsi: “Call me Mon” and says that Corsi’s contact [Malloch] “should see Assange.”
- August 2, 2016 —
- RT goes to the Ecuadorian embassy and interviews Assange. [Later reports are that RT reporter Afshin Rattansi who has had Ted Malloch on his show five times leaks some of the interview to Malloch who then notifies Corsi.]
- Corsi who is on vacation in Europe for his 25th Anniversary responds to Stone via email: “Word is friend in embassy plans 2 more dumps. One shortly after I’m back. 2nd in Oct. Impact planned to be very damaging.… Time to let more than [Podesta] to be exposed as in bed w enemy if they are not ready to drop HRC [Hillary Rodham Clinton]. That appears to be the game hackers are now about. Would not hurt to start suggesting HRC old, memory bad, has stroke -- neither he nor she well. I expect that much of next dump focus, setting stage for Foundation debacle.” He and Stone later concoct a cover story about all this.
It’s at his point that Stone has the information he was looking for which related to the Clinton Foundation and John Podesta as indicated by Corsi. He also gains info about “Hillary being sick and/or old” being part of the information being dump and the arguments that will be made by the hackers — and also by RT and Sputnik News. He has the info — so now he starts bragging and advertising about it, he also starts cultivating Randy Credico as a scapegoat. Credico interview Assange during this period and attempt to pass on a question to him on behalf of Stone, but there hasn’t been any indication in the media or in the indictment that Assange ever answered the question and established a two-way link through Credico. It’s also interesting that Stone sent DM messages to both the Wikileaks and the Guccifer 2.0, but these interactions are not part of his indictment.
- August 4, 2016 —
- Roger Stone sends his former protege Sam Nunberg an email claiming “I dined with Assange Last Night” — he later claims this is a joke and produces a receipt from a plane trip to LA, not London.
- August 5, 2016 —
- Stone tweets “Hillary lies about Russian Involvement in DNC Hack- Julian Assange is a hero.”
- August 8, 2016 —
- Roger Stone confirms he is in contact with Wikileaks ”I actually have communicated with Assange. I believe the next tranche of these documents pertain to the Clinton Foundation.”
- August 19, 2016 —
- Manafort leaves the Trump campaign amidst allegations that he accepted a $12 Million under-the-table cash payment from his former Putin friendly client, ex-Ukraine President Yanakovych. Pollster Kellyanne Conway, who is a Mercer employee, takes over.
- Credico texts Stone: “I’m going to have Assange on my show next Thursday.”
- August 21, 2016 —
- August 23, 2016 —
- Credico interviews Stone: “You’ve been in touch indirectly with Assange. . . . Can you give us any kind of insight? Is there an October surprise happening?” STONE responded, “Well, first of all, I don’t want to intimate in any way that I control or have influence with Assange because I do not. . . . We have a mutual friend, somebody we both trust and therefore I am a recipient of pretty good information.” [This indicates that Credico isn’t Stone’s source on Wikileaks, it’s Corsi.]
- August 25, 2016 —
- August 25, 2016 — Assange appears on Credico's radio show for the first time, then he texts Stone again: “He didn’t say anything bad we were talking about how the Press is trying to make it look like you and he are in cahoots.”
- August 27, 2016 —
- August 27, 2016 — Randy Credico texts Roger Stone: “Julian Assange has kryptonite on Hillary”
- September 2016 —
- Roger Stone says on Boston Herald Radio that he expects, "Julian Assange and the Wikileaks people to drop a payload of new documents on a weekly basis fairly soon. And that of course will answer the question of exactly what was erased on that email server."
- Guccifer 2.0 sends Roger Stone a link to a blog post on manipulating voter turnout.
- September 4th —
- Later that day Don Jr. Tweets for the first time about Wikileaks claiming “Hillary shared thousands of emails marked ‘C’ for confidential.” [But there were only 3 marked “C” and two were by mistake.
- September 7th —
- GOP consultant Aaron Nevins sends a note to Guccifer 2.0 asking if he has anything on Florida Dems, 10 days later he gets 2.5 Gigabits of stolen DCCC data including the Democratic Party district by district get-out-the-vote plan which confirms the connection between Kremlin intel & Guccifer. Nevins writes back to Guccifer. “Holy fuck man I don’t think you realize what you gave me.” Nevins then passes this information to Roger Stone. Guccifer later sends a DM to Stone asking what he thinks of these materials, he says that it is “fairly standard stuff” — but it's really the blueprint of the Clinton campaign, the “keys to the kingdom” which be very damaging if shared with the RNC, Cambridge-Analytica or the Russian Troll Farm. [Which it might have been since they all acted in seemly lockstep coordination.]
- September 11th —
- September 14th —
- September 18th —
- Stone texts Credico: “I am e-mailing u a request to pass on to Assange” Credico responded “Ok,” and added in a later text message, “[j]ust remember do not name me as your connection to Wikileaks you had one before that you referred to.” [Corsi.] Stone later emails Credico a link to a Clinton Foundation story and asks him to ask Assange for “State or HRC emails between August 10-30, 2011.]
- September 19th —
- Stone texts Credico to “pass my message to Assange." Credico “I did.” then he emails an attorney link to Assange and blind-copies Stone.
It's at this point that Wikileaks begins to reach out directly to the Trump campaign via Don Jr on twitter. Stone is still cultivating Credico as a potential second source, but that isn't really working out. If Manafort is the one who originally reached out to Stone through Gates to put him on this path, Stone doesn't really have any friends left within the Trump campaign to share his information with until ultimately Brietbart editor Matthew Boyle contacts Stone whose been bragging about his contacts with Assange for month now and eventually acts a go-between for him with Steve Bannon. What’s interesting is that when Stone does get in contact with Bannon he tries to get him to pay of off for the information with a donation to his 501(c3) from Breitbart funder Rebeccah Mercer.
- September 20th —
- Wikileaks sends a DM to Trump Junior about the website PutinTrump.org founded by Rob Glaser — which was just mentioned by Chuck Johnson — and gives him what they think is the password and asks him to check it out — He says “Thanks” and emails Steve Bannon, Kellyanne Conway, Brad Parscale, and Kushner, telling them WikiLeaks had made contact. Kushner forwards a copy to Hope Hicks [which is the quickest way to have the information shared with Trump]
- September 30th —
- Credico texts Stone a picture of himself outside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.
- October 1st —
- Randy Credico texts Roger Stone: “big news Wednesday . . . now pretend u don’t know me… Hillary's campaign will die this week.”
- Trump starts saying the only way he could lose Pennsylvania is because of “Voter Fraud.” and mentions the information revealed by Wikileaks 164 times over the next month.
- Octobert 2nd —
- Roger Stone tweets about an impending big dump of Clinton info from Wikileaks on Tuesday, but Assange canceled and moved it to Wednesday due to “security concerns.”
- October 3rd —
- Wikileaks DMs Junior again “Hiya, it’d be great if you guys could comment on/push this story,” WikiLeaks suggested, attaching a quote which is questionably sourced from then-Democratic by Hillary Clinton about wanting to “just drone” WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange.
- Junior responds 90 minutes later “Already did that earlier today, It’s amazing what she can get away with.” 2 mins later he asks “What’s behind this Wednesday leak I keep reading about?” that Stone and others had mentioned.
- Stone emails a Trump campaign member: “Spoke to my friend in London last night. The payload is still coming.”
- Brietbart Editor Matthew Boyle emails Stone to ask about the upcoming Wikileaks dump, about which Assange has a press conference scheduled for Wednesday (Oct 5th). “Assange — what’s he got? Hope it’s good”. Stone replies that “It is. I’d tell Bannon but he doesn’t call me back.” Boyle forwards this to Bannon with “You should call Roger. See below. You didn’t get from me.”
- October 4, 2016 —
- Guccifer 2.0 Post documents stolen from the Clinton Foundation.
- Bannon emails back to Boyle “I've got important stuff to worry about.” And Boyle responds “Well clearly he knows what Assange has. I’d say that’s important.”
- October 5th —
- Assange does a press teleconference with reporters in Berlin and claims that he has more material that will impact the U.S. elections, but he doesn’t actually release the information like he had promised.
- Bannon emails Stone “What was that this morning???” and asks if Assange cut a deal with the Clintons. Stones responds that Assange is afraid that he’s going to be killed, but that he’ll be releasing “a load every week going forward.” Then Stone says he’s raised $140k for a “black digital campaign” through a 501(c4) and asks Bannon for contributions from Breitbart owner Rebecca Mercer essentially in exchange for insider info he’s providing on Assange.
- The Trump campaign member also emails Stone with questions about what Assange has.
- October 7th —
- The Access Hollywood Video drops with Trump bragging that he “Grabs [women] by the Pussy”.
- One hour later Wikileaks releases the first set of emails taken from John Podesta’s account. RT and Sputnik News continue to do daily reports as another set of emails is dumped for next 30 days.
- Bannon emails Stone: “Well Done.”
The Trump campaign, having been forewarned by Stone now can hit the ground running on the Hillary is “too sick” stories and also over the allegations that Hillary Clinton had accepted some kind of “bribe” to implement the sale of Uranium One to Russian company Rosatom because one of the board members at U-One had given money to the Clinton Foundation. The problem with this theory is that that board member, and others, had already left Uranium One before this deal had been brought to the table, so they would get no benefit from it. Also Jose Fernandez the State Department employee who had been part of the CIFUS panel to give a recommendation on the sale specifically said that he never received any direction from Hillary over the sale. So there’s no "there” there, but the story remains a shuffling zombie because Fernandez had worked for John Podesta at the Center for American progress and there are emails between him and Podesta in the dump where he professes that he’s “Loyal to Hillary.”
Which in right-wing speak translates into his being “corrupt.” somehow. Ultimately Trump wins the electoral college after losing the popular vote.
It’s it this point that Corsi and Stone move into cover-up mode and begin deleting emails and pressure Credico not to testify to the House or to the FBI. Corsi eventually gains an immunity deal with Mueller and admits everything.
Corsi says he received immunity for testimony that he and Stone developed a cover story to help explain Stone’s now-infamous Aug. 21, 2016, tweet that it would “soon be [the] Podesta’s time in the barrel.”
Corsi testified that he and Stone hatched a plan in which Corsi would write a memo about the Podestas to allow Stone to cite it as the basis for his tweet. The revelation, if accurate, would undercut Stone’s testimony to the House Intelligence Committee that opposition research on the Podesta brothers’ business activities was the catalyst for the tweet.
Both of them also push the “Seth Rich” conspiracy theory that the DNC hack was an inside job.
- December 20, 2016 -—
- January 13, 2017 —
- Jerome Corsi begins to delete his emails prior to October 11th, including those with Roger Stone, and what he had forward from Stone to his contact in London.
- January 31, 2017 —
- Roger Stone goes on Russia Today to push the conspiracy that murdered DNC staffer Seth Rich is the "real hacker.” This is his fifth appearance on the channel.
- May 10, 2017 —
- May 11, 2017 —
- May 22, 2017
- May 31, 2017
- July 12, 2017 —
- July 21, 2017 —
- July 30, 2017 —
- August 24, 2017 —
- September 25, 2017 —
- September 26, 2017 —
- Roger Stone who communicated with by Guccifer 2.0 and Julian Assange flatly denies any Russia collusion to House Intel in private meeting, because he’s plenty credible since also admits in his written statement that he had an ongoing online relationship with at least one suspected Russian agent sharing DMs and retweets between them. He refuses to share the ID of the journalist who was his link to Wikileaks and Assange, [although his description matches Randy Credico] he again says when he said it would be “Podesta’s time in the barrel” he was talking about financial links to Russia, but those links belong to John’s brother Tony & the Uranium deal he had nothing to do with. He claims the DNC hack was a “inside job” from an article in The Nation that even The Nation has debunked.
- November 28, 2017 —
- Roger Stone is again interviewed by House Intelligence and says that his source for his information about Wikileaks releases was Randy Credico. He doesn’t mention Jerome Corsi.
- November 30, 2017 —
- Stone asks Corsi to write publicly about Randy Credico. CORSI responds: “Are you sure you want to make something out of this now? Why not wait to see what Credico does? You may be defending yourself too much – raising new questions that will fuel new inquiries. This may be a time to say less, not more.” Stone responded by telling CORSI that the other individual “will take the 5th—but let’s hold a day.”
- Randy Credico is subpoenaed by House Intel because he appears to be Roger Stone’s secret go between with Wikileaks [which is based on what Stone had told House members.
- December 23, 2018 —
- March 22, 2018 —
- March 30, 2018 —
- April 2, 2018 -—
- April 3, 2018 —
- April 6, 2018 —
- Roger Stone is interviewed by Anderson Cooper on CNN. He claims he did nothing wrong with his DMs to Wikileaks but never directly contacted or had dinner with Assange. Flight Boarding passes provided to the DailyCaller tend to back up the claim that he was in West Hollywood the night he emailed Sam Nunberg that he was “dining with Assange” and he only said that to get Nunberg to shutup. [It was a email message, he could have just ghosted him!] He admits to contacting Guccifer 2.0 but basically ignores that that entity has been exposed as a front from the GRU, he continues to say that Randy Credico was a “back channel” for him to Assange, he calls the DNC email hack “alleged” and claims he was poisoned by Pelonium in an effort to frame the Russians, but offers no proof. Van Jones says picking through Stone’s Lies about Lies about Lies is like digging through a pile of bird crap.
- April 7, 2018 —
- April 9, 2018 —
- Roger Stone emails Credico over his talking to Mueller: “You are a rat. A stoolie. You backstab your friends-run your mouth my lawyers are dying Rip you to shreds.” And he says he would “take that dog away from you,” Later he emails: “I am so ready. Let’s get it on. Prepare to die cock-sucker.”
- May 24, 2018 —
- WSJ reports that they obtained emails between Roger Stone and Radio host Randy Credico — who had been doing interviews with Julian Assange — which hadn’t been previously turned over to Congress. “Please ask Assange for any State or HRC e-mail from August 10 to August 30–particularly on August 20, 2011,” Credico directed Stone to the public Wikileaks website; Stone replied “Why do we assume WikiLeaks has released everything they have ???” Credico has said he was blowing Stone off, but this may mean that Stone lied to Congress.
- June 13, 2018 —
- June 18, 2018 -—
And all that brings us to now where Stone has finally been indicted. There is no question that he lied to congress multiple time because the DM, text and email trail proves that he did. There is no question that he tried improperly influence Randy Credico’s testimony because again, texts and emails prove that he did. Will he flip to protect himself and who does he have to flip on? Bannon? Manafort? He always denied talking to Trump himself about WIkileaks but they are friends and they do have frequent late-night phone calls. Would he ultimately flip on Trump if the person who was ordered to contact him wasn't Gates but was instead Don Jr. or Kushner on orders from Trump? Mueller didn't file any charges which could be consider “direct collusion” for Stone’s DM with Guccifer or with Wikileaks — at least not yet — all of that could coming as part of a larger set of conspiracy charges which could easily include Don Jr, as he was in multiple questionable online conversations with Wikileaks and Kushner, Hope Hicks and probably Trump were all aware of it. It’s hard to say what’s next, but it should be interesting.
Get your popcorn.
Here are the rest of this week’s daily events:
- January 23rd — Shutdown Day #33
- After all of Giuliani’s litany of denials that Trump Tower Moscow was only a “nothing” project,Buzzfeed releases architectural and planning documents including a signed letter from Russian developer Andrey Rozov.
- Trump ignores Pelosi’s objections to the SOTU and sends her a letter saying he’s coming to the House anyway on the 29th.
- Kellyanne Conway says “Pelosi doesn’t always have control of her temper” [Which isn’t a sexist “emotional woman” meme at all… except for totally.]
- Furloughed Government Worker swarm the Capitol to protest the shutdown.
- ADL reports that right-wingers committed every extremist murder (aka terrorist attack) in 2018.
- FBI Union head says it’s utterly disgusting that their agents have to rely on free food.
- Judge in Stormy Daniels suit against Trump shows signs he’s inclined to toss it because he says “It’s seems, you've achieved what you set out to achieve” because she’s basically free of the NDA she signed.
- SHuckabee claims they aren’t having WH Briefings because they “Don’t want to make stars out of Journos who want to be on CNN.” [Jim Acosta isn’t out to be a star, and he’s already on CNN without you.] Then she says about CovCath that she “never seen the people so happy to destroy a young man’s life.” [Nick wasn’t alone there, people were reacting to all of them.]
- Lara Trump says “Workers may feel a little pain, but the shutdown is more than any one person.”[Actually 800,000 people who are furloughed, plus another 1 Million contractors are going through more than a “little pain.”]
- CovCath lawyers vow to sue Maggie Haberman and others for libel. Nick Sandmann claims he doesn’t own anyone an apology “I was not disrespectful”[What about you pals screaming “Build that wall”, making war whoops and tomahawk chops in the air?]
- Trump has a new meme: “Build a Wall and Crime will Fall” [Which is inherently racist and also completely, totally, wrong!] And he is apparently a big fan of his Deputy Press Secretary — “Hogan [T]idley” if he could only remember his name is Gidley.
- San Diego's Republican Mayor says “We’re the safest big city in America.”
- Rep. Hakeem Jeffries explains why he calls Trump the “Grand Wizard of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.”
- Tami Lahren whines [on Fox of course] that Ocasio-Cortez “encouraged violence against me” with her Cardi B tweet. [Really people??!] Meanwhile Ocasio-Cortez and other House freshmen join the Oversight Committee which means they can investigate Trump and his admin. [Ruh Roh!]
- Cohen postpones his testimony to Congress because of “threats from Trump.” MSNBC security analyst Ken Dilanian says that this could be yet another felony of witness tampering for Trump.
- CEOs are starting to turn on Trump policies saying they hurt business investment. [This sounds like that want even bigger tax cuts now...]
- Former Clinton White House Counsel Jack Quinn: ‘Congress, if you’re listening — subpoena Rudy Giuliani’ [for witness tampering.]
- House Dems begin investigation of WH Security clearances, starting with Kushner.
- Trump tells activists on a conference call that he needs new walls because the existing barriers are ‘rusted’ and ‘disgusting’. [They’re 25 years old, and cosmetics is not going to make “crime fall.”]
- Yet another Trump loving nutbag conspiracy theorist is caught threatening to bomb Muslim communitiesin up-state New York.
- Pelosi officially blocks Trump from using the House for the SOTU address until the Government re-opens. “We must hold the line.” Then Kevin McCarthy submits a resolution to allow the SOTU to go on as normally scheduled for the 29th. [Good luck getting votes for that to pass.]
- Trump fumbles when he finds out his SOTU is blocked from reporters and says “It’s really a shame, Democrats have become radicalized.” [Yeah, but you and the GOP did it first.] Later he rants that this is a “a great blotch” on the Nation and says Pelosi is “Afraid.” [She’s not acting afraid.] And he claims in a WH rant that Pelosi is “dominating” Schumer. [What’s he got to do with it — this is a House issue? But somehow she's both afraid and domineering and also a apparently a radicalized ISISer all at the same time?]
- MSNBC panels says Pelosi ‘holds the cards’ as bumbling Trump ‘assumes he has powers he doesn’t have’: [Yep, he does that all the time.]
- Cody Fenwick of Alternet argues that Trump’s behavior in plain sight is even worse than what Buzzfeed alleged.
- CNN’s Karen Finney points out that polls show that Trump is taking the hit for the shutdown — 71% against shutdown for the wall and 57% blame Trump with his approval dropping 8 notches to 34%— because “Pelosi is a better negotiator than he is.”
- Cohen’s friend Donny Deutsche says on Deadline: White House: “I’ll give it to you in real-time, because I had a front-row seat,” Deutsch replied. “I happened to speak to Michael after the interview. He said, ‘I’m not doing it, I’m not testifying. My wife is sitting here crying. They’re calling out my poor father-in-law, 80-something, a man who’s never done anything.’”
- Rep Jackie Speier says “This is witness tampering, we now have another article that could be included in an impeachment trial.”
- GOP Arizona lawmaker Gail Griffin wants to pay for the wall by taxing porn. [It would be more appropriate to tax drugs, sex trafficking and businesses who hire the undocumented — but then you’d have to legalize all that too.]
- Trump dances on the grave of Cohen’s testimony:“He’s always been threatened by the truth.” [More projection I see.]
- Manafort’s lawyers deliver their push back on Mueller’s claims he lied to them. They claim “Based upon the pleadings and record, Mr. Manafort does not believe the materials supplied by the OSC demonstrate any intentional falsehoods on this part” in relation to is continued contacts in 2018, while he was under indictment, with both the WH and Konstantin Kilimnick.
- Lindsay Graham — who is still auditioning for become the next AG — calls Pelosi’s blocking the SOTU “absurd, petty and shameful.”
- January 24th —
- January 25th —
- Roger Stone is indicted by Robert Mueller, hours later the FBI performs a pre-dawn raid to search Stone’s residence and arrest him in Ft. Lauderdale FL with CNN cameras in tow.
- Fox and Friends shrugs off Stone’s arrest and indictment for lying to congress about using Jerome Corsi and Ted Malloch to gain access to what information stolen by Russian spies that Wikileaks was going to release next and providing that infoto Steven Bannon in the Trump campaign so they could coordinate with the messaging by saying “Where’s the Collusion?” [Maybe their idea of collusion is Trump having multiple private secret meetings face-to-face alone with Putin then destroying the translator’s notes?]
- Both Democratic and Republican bills to reopen the government fail in the Senate with six Republicans jumping ship to join the Democrats, causing them to turn on each other.
- NBC reports that Jared Kushner’s security clearance was denied because of his frequency of his foreign contacts and travel, but that his denial and 29 others were overridden by Carl Kline head of personnel security office in 2017. This is now being investigated by House Oversight Chairman Elijah Cummings.
- Senator Chris Coons (D): “Either Trump colluded with Russians or he surrounded himself with people who did.”
- Politico reports that Cliff Simms book documents that Trump wanted to do a an anti-opiod add showing people “dying in a ditch”
- SHuckabee claims that Roger Stone’s arrest has “nothing to do with [Trump]” except that he’s one of Trump’s oldest friends and supporters and he lied to Congress about ferrying info about emails stolen by Russian hackers to his campaign and the indictment indicates that a “Senior Trump Official” directed someone on his staff to “contact Stone about Wikileaks.” [So a senior Trump official on his campaign has nothing to do with Trump?]
- Ghouliani says “Trump is safe here, Stone just made false statements” [About getting Wikileaks info for the campaign at the direction of the campaign — but the campaign has nothing to do with Trump only because it’s his campaign.]
- Stone’s lawyer complains that the “SWAT team arrest wasn’t necessary.” [Yeah, that’s exactly how they raided both Cohen and Manafort because they didn't want them to run or destroy documents- Stop Whining!]
- US Diplomats leave Venuzuela over security concerns.
- Judge schedules hearing on Manafort lying for Feb 4th.
- John Brennan says that the meddling may have come from the “very top of the Trump campaign.”[Which means Trump.]
- Pelosi response to the Stone arrest : “It’s interesting to see people he surrounds himself with.”
- FAA reports that flights are being delayed by a sharp increase in sick leave.
- Trump jumps onto a Greta Van Susteren generated conspiracy theory about why CNN cameras were there to capture Stone’s arrest assuming they were “Tipped Off” — but CNN explains that the Grand Jury usually meets on Friday, but this week they met on Thursday and one of the prosecutors left with a luggage for a trip so they had a hunch and it worked out.
- Sen. Mark Warner: “I expect that we will learn more about Mr. Stone’s campaign role, his communications regarding Wikileaks, and who else knew about Stone’s efforts,”
- Stone claims the charges against him are “bogus” and there are “no circumstances he’ll plead guilty to bogus charges” although he admits he hasn’t even read the indictment yet to know that the charges are.
- Trump agrees to halt the 35 day shutdown for three weeks in order to give Congress a chance to come up with financing for his border barriers. [Which is exactly what Nancy Pelosi offered 5 weeks ago and Lindsay Graham offered last week.] He gives a big Rose Garden speech to adoring applause from his own staff, then veers off script to complain about drugs, and MS-13 and “gagged women” in human trafficking and talk shit about people seeking asylum and threatens that if Congress doesn't fund more barriers he’ll shutdown government again or else he’ll declare a national emergency and commandeer $7 Billion from Texas and Puerto Rico Hurricane relief for it.
- Schumer says he hopes Trump “learned a lesson”from his failed shutdown. [I doubt it.]
- Ann Coulter and other hand right-wingers rage at Trump for caving into to Pelosi and not getting a single dollar for the wall. “Good news for George Herbert Walker Bush: As of today, he is no longer the biggest wimp ever to serve as President of the United States.”
- Senate passes 3 week funding bill to open government [which is the same bill that already passed the House.]
- Nixon foundation disavows any association with Roger Stone.
- DOJ asks SCOTUS for a rush decision on the citizenship question for the census.
- Trump signs temporary 3 week funding bill.
- January 26th —
- January 27th —
- January 28th —
- January 23rd — Shutdown Day #33
- After all of Giuliani’s litany of denials that Trump Tower Moscow was only a “nothing” project,Buzzfeed releases architectural and planning documents including a signed letter from Russian developer Andrey Rozov.
- Trump ignores Pelosi’s objections to the SOTU and sends her a letter saying he’s coming to the House anyway on the 29th.
- Kellyanne Conway says “Pelosi doesn’t always have control of her temper” [Which isn’t a sexist “emotional woman” meme at all… except for totally.]
- Furloughed Government Worker swarm the Capitol to protest the shutdown.
- ADL reports that right-wingers committed every extremist murder (aka terrorist attack) in 2018.
- FBI Union head says it’s utterly disgusting that their agents have to rely on free food.
- Judge in Stormy Daniels suit against Trump shows signs he’s inclined to toss it because he says “It’s seems, you've achieved what you set out to achieve” because she’s basically free of the NDA she signed.
- SHuckabee claims they aren’t having WH Briefings because they “Don’t want to make stars out of Journos who want to be on CNN.” [Jim Acosta isn’t out to be a star, and he’s already on CNN without you.] Then she says about CovCath that she “never seen the people so happy to destroy a young man’s life.” [Nick wasn’t alone there, people were reacting to all of them.]
- Lara Trump says “Workers may feel a little pain, but the shutdown is more than any one person.”[Actually 800,000 people who are furloughed, plus another 1 Million contractors are going through more than a “little pain.”]
- CovCath lawyers vow to sue Maggie Haberman and others for libel. Nick Sandmann claims he doesn’t own anyone an apology “I was not disrespectful”[What about you pals screaming “Build that wall”, making war whoops and tomahawk chops in the air?]
- Trump has a new meme: “Build a Wall and Crime will Fall” [Which is inherently racist and also completely, totally, wrong!] And he is apparently a big fan of his Deputy Press Secretary — “Hogan [T]idley” if he could only remember his name is Gidley.
- San Diego's Republican Mayor says “We’re the safest big city in America.”
- Rep. Hakeem Jeffries explains why he calls Trump the “Grand Wizard of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.”
- Tami Lahren whines [on Fox of course] that Ocasio-Cortez “encouraged violence against me” with her Cardi B tweet. [Really people??!] Meanwhile Ocasio-Cortez and other House freshmen join the Oversight Committee which means they can investigate Trump and his admin. [Ruh Roh!]
- Cohen postpones his testimony to Congress because of “threats from Trump.” MSNBC security analyst Ken Dilanian says that this could be yet another felony of witness tampering for Trump.
- CEOs are starting to turn on Trump policies saying they hurt business investment. [This sounds like that want even bigger tax cuts now...]
- Former Clinton White House Counsel Jack Quinn: ‘Congress, if you’re listening — subpoena Rudy Giuliani’ [for witness tampering.]
- House Dems begin investigation of WH Security clearances, starting with Kushner.
- Trump tells activists on a conference call that he needs new walls because the existing barriers are ‘rusted’ and ‘disgusting’. [They’re 25 years old, and cosmetics is not going to make “crime fall.”]
- Yet another Trump loving nutbag conspiracy theorist is caught threatening to bomb Muslim communitiesin up-state New York.
- Pelosi officially blocks Trump from using the House for the SOTU address until the Government re-opens. “We must hold the line.” Then Kevin McCarthy submits a resolution to allow the SOTU to go on as normally scheduled for the 29th. [Good luck getting votes for that to pass.]
- Trump fumbles when he finds out his SOTU is blocked from reporters and says “It’s really a shame, Democrats have become radicalized.” [Yeah, but you and the GOP did it first.] Later he rants that this is a “a great blotch” on the Nation and says Pelosi is “Afraid.” [She’s not acting afraid.] And he claims in a WH rant that Pelosi is “dominating” Schumer. [What’s he got to do with it — this is a House issue? But somehow she's both afraid and domineering and also a apparently a radicalized ISISer all at the same time?]
- MSNBC panels says Pelosi ‘holds the cards’ as bumbling Trump ‘assumes he has powers he doesn’t have’: [Yep, he does that all the time.]
- Cody Fenwick of Alternet argues that Trump’s behavior in plain sight is even worse than what Buzzfeed alleged.
- CNN’s Karen Finney points out that polls show that Trump is taking the hit for the shutdown — 71% against shutdown for the wall and 57% blame Trump with his approval dropping 8 notches to 34%— because “Pelosi is a better negotiator than he is.”
- Cohen’s friend Donny Deutsche says on Deadline: White House: “I’ll give it to you in real-time, because I had a front-row seat,” Deutsch replied. “I happened to speak to Michael after the interview. He said, ‘I’m not doing it, I’m not testifying. My wife is sitting here crying. They’re calling out my poor father-in-law, 80-something, a man who’s never done anything.’”
- Rep Jackie Speier says “This is witness tampering, we now have another article that could be included in an impeachment trial.”
- GOP Arizona lawmaker Gail Griffin wants to pay for the wall by taxing porn. [It would be more appropriate to tax drugs, sex trafficking and businesses who hire the undocumented — but then you’d have to legalize all that too.]
- Trump dances on the grave of Cohen’s testimony:“He’s always been threatened by the truth.” [More projection I see.]
- Manafort’s lawyers deliver their push back on Mueller’s claims he lied to them. They claim “Based upon the pleadings and record, Mr. Manafort does not believe the materials supplied by the OSC demonstrate any intentional falsehoods on this part” in relation to is continued contacts in 2018, while he was under indictment, with both the WH and Konstantin Kilimnick.
- Lindsay Graham — who is still auditioning for become the next AG — calls Pelosi’s blocking the SOTU “absurd, petty and shameful.”
- January 24th —
- January 25th —
- Roger Stone is indicted by Robert Mueller, hours later the FBI performs a pre-dawn raid to search Stone’s residence and arrest him in Ft. Lauderdale FL with CNN cameras in tow.
- Fox and Friends shrugs off Stone’s arrest and indictment for lying to congress about using Jerome Corsi and Ted Malloch to gain access to what information stolen by Russian spies that Wikileaks was going to release next and providing that infoto Steven Bannon in the Trump campaign so they could coordinate with the messaging by saying “Where’s the Collusion?” [Maybe their idea of collusion is Trump having multiple private secret meetings face-to-face alone with Putin then destroying the translator’s notes?]
- Both Democratic and Republican bills to reopen the government fail in the Senate with six Republicans jumping ship to join the Democrats, causing them to turn on each other.
- NBC reports that Jared Kushner’s security clearance was denied because of his frequency of his foreign contacts and travel, but that his denial and 29 others were overridden by Carl Kline head of personnel security office in 2017. This is now being investigated by House Oversight Chairman Elijah Cummings.
- Senator Chris Coons (D): “Either Trump colluded with Russians or he surrounded himself with people who did.”
- Politico reports that Cliff Simms book documents that Trump wanted to do a an anti-opiod add showing people “dying in a ditch”
- SHuckabee claims that Roger Stone’s arrest has “nothing to do with [Trump]” except that he’s one of Trump’s oldest friends and supporters and he lied to Congress about ferrying info about emails stolen by Russian hackers to his campaign and the indictment indicates that a “Senior Trump Official” directed someone on his staff to “contact Stone about Wikileaks.” [So a senior Trump official on his campaign has nothing to do with Trump?]
- Ghouliani says “Trump is safe here, Stone just made false statements” [About getting Wikileaks info for the campaign at the direction of the campaign — but the campaign has nothing to do with Trump only because it’s his campaign.]
- Stone’s lawyer complains that the “SWAT team arrest wasn’t necessary.” [Yeah, that’s exactly how they raided both Cohen and Manafort because they didn't want them to run or destroy documents- Stop Whining!]
- US Diplomats leave Venuzuela over security concerns.
- Judge schedules hearing on Manafort lying for Feb 4th.
- John Brennan says that the meddling may have come from the “very top of the Trump campaign.”[Which means Trump.]
- Pelosi response to the Stone arrest : “It’s interesting to see people he surrounds himself with.”
- FAA reports that flights are being delayed by a sharp increase in sick leave.
- Trump jumps onto a Greta Van Susteren generated conspiracy theory about why CNN cameras were there to capture Stone’s arrest assuming they were “Tipped Off” — but CNN explains that the Grand Jury usually meets on Friday, but this week they met on Thursday and one of the prosecutors left with a luggage for a trip so they had a hunch and it worked out.
- Sen. Mark Warner: “I expect that we will learn more about Mr. Stone’s campaign role, his communications regarding Wikileaks, and who else knew about Stone’s efforts,”
- Stone claims the charges against him are “bogus” and there are “no circumstances he’ll plead guilty to bogus charges” although he admits he hasn’t even read the indictment yet to know that the charges are.
- Trump agrees to halt the 35 day shutdown for three weeks in order to give Congress a chance to come up with financing for his border barriers. [Which is exactly what Nancy Pelosi offered 5 weeks ago and Lindsay Graham offered last week.] He gives a big Rose Garden speech to adoring applause from his own staff, then veers off script to complain about drugs, and MS-13 and “gagged women” in human trafficking and talk shit about people seeking asylum and threatens that if Congress doesn't fund more barriers he’ll shutdown government again or else he’ll declare a national emergency and commandeer $7 Billion from Texas and Puerto Rico relief for it.
- Schumer says he hopes Trump “learned a lesson”from his failed shutdown. [I doubt it.]
- Ann Coulter and other hand right-wingers rage at Trump for caving into to Pelosi and not getting a single dollar for the wall. “Good news for George Herbert Walker Bush: As of today, he is no longer the biggest wimp ever to serve as President of the United States.”
- Senate passes 3 week funding bill to open government [which is the same bill that already passed the House.]
- Nixon foundation disavows any association with Roger Stone.
- DOJ asks SCOTUS for a rush decision on the citizenship question for the census.
- Trump signs temporary 3 week funding bill.
- January 26th —
- January 27th —
- January 28th —
- Stone’s indictment indicates that after the RNC ended and the first dump of DNC emails from Wikileaks came out, a “Senior Trump Official” requested a subordinate to contact Roger Stone to find out what he knew about Wikileaks. It was after this that Stone reached out to Jerome Corsi, who contacted Ted Malloch who apparently gained some inside info from an RT reporter who had recently interviewed Assange. Stone then shared what Corsi told him ultimately with Steve Bannon, then lied about all this to congress claiming that his sources was Randy Credico instead of Corsi.
- Federal Workers return to work although they could still be held hostage again in 3 weeks.
- Trump tells the WSJ that the chance that Congress will craft a deal he could accept as less than 50-50. He also lashes out at his right-wing pro wall critics like Ann Coulter: “I hear she’s become very hostile,” he said. “Maybe I didn’t return her phone call or something.”
- Senate fails the reach cloture on the bill to keep sanctions on Deripaska’s companies — so Treasury drops them.
- Shuckabee says Trump doesn’t “want” another shut down, but he won’t take it off the table. She also — as usual — claims the arrest of Roger Stone has “nothing to do with [Trump]” which makes James Clapper laugh out loud. And she slams Ann Coulter’s criticism of Trump’s cave on the shutdown by saying “Conservatives who have influence, support [Trump].”
- CNN’s Jim Acosta wonders if Shuckabee will “Come back to the real world.” [Nope, she’s never even had a brief visit.]
- April Ryan reports that just before his arrest Roger Stone was in a meeting with various “prominent Republicans.”
- AG nominee William Barr issues written answer to the Senate saying that he’s never discussed the Mueller probe with Trump.
- NBC National Security Analyst John Helleman says Jared Kushner and Donald Trump, Jr. in ‘grave peril’ after being caught in their lies.
- Michael Cohen changes his legal team, but continues to cooperate. He is now scheduled to testify to House Intel next week.
- WaPo reports that Trump is leaning toward a emergency declaration for his wall funding if Congress doesn't meet his demands.
- Lindsay Graham says that Trump “likes the idea of using military force in Venezuela.” [To do what exactly?]
- Pelosi says Trump will give his SOTU on Feb 5th.
- DOJ Indicts Chinese tech giant Huawie just before trade talks resume.
- Trump bashes Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz potential run as an independent in 2020, even though it would probably split Democrats and help him.
- Chris Christie writes in his new book that Trump thought tossing out Flynn would end the Russia investigation, because Jared said so. [This suggests that Flynn was more central to the Russia effort than we’ve seen so far.]
- WaPo asks the border patrol for any evidence of Trump’s “gagged women" being brought across the border, but they got nothing.
- Kamala Harris appears at an Iowa Town Hall hosted by Jake Tapper.
- Jerome Corsi tells Jake Tapper he’ll be “happy to testify against Roger Stone.” [I don't think anyone is asking since they already have the paper-trail of emails, but thanks anyway.]
- Three right-wing terrorist militia members who had planned a terrorist attack on Somali Muslims in Kansas are sentenced to 25 years.
- Acting AG Matt Whitaker says the Mueller's probe is “close to being completed” which is strange since they just issued new indictments for Roger Stone and they still have the issue of Manafort to resolve.
- Rachel Maddow reports that Trump’s obsession with women with their mouths covered in duck tape as their stuffed in the trucks over “really really amazing Mexican cars” that the border patrol can't catch, and that “prayer rugs are being left in the desert” didn't come from CBP, it comes from the Josh Brolin, Benecio Del Toro sequel film Sicario: Day of the Soldado. [Next we can expect him to develop foreign policy based on outtakes from Fast and Furious, led by Secretary of State Thanos — fingers already in pre-snap-ocalypse position?]
- Maxine Waters demands Cohen closed-door hearing be held open to the public.
- January 29th —
- Lawyers say Trump has been jailing migrant kids in unlicensed facilities.
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Mika asks Team of Vipers author Cliff Simms if anyone told Trump his “bleeding from the face” tweet was dumb? [He indicates “yes” in a rambling answer, but not that it seems to matter much.] Later he laughs in real time on-air at CNN as they read a mean tweet from Trump about him.
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The White Nationalist Proud Boys are now offering protection online and off to Roger Stone.
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Lavrov says that US Sanctions on Venuezela’s oil company are illegal.
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Roger Stone is arraigned and pleads “Not Guilty.” Then he goes out and rants the CNN is part of a conspiracy to have him arrested and that Robert Mueller covered up 9/11. [Yes, he did.]
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During a press conference about the turmoil in Venezuela John Bolton, literally, sends a message while holding a note pad that says “5000 Troops to Columbia" under his arm as he talks.
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Trump campaign prepares to file NDA lawsuit against former staffer Cliff Simms for his book Team of Vipers. [One wonders why they haven’t sued Chris Christie too?]
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William Barr’s confirmation vote is delayed.
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Christie “Doesn’t Feel like” Mueller is done with Roger Stone. [Nope, just getting started.]
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Buzzfeed reports that Trump Winery, run by Eric Trump, has asked the Labor Dept to allow them to hire another 23 Temporary Foreign Workers just as Mar-A-Lago has done. All told Trump properties have hired an additional 600 H2B foreign employees in the last 2 years, while they also been caught hiring undocumented workers at the Bedminster and other Golf Courses.
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House Dems are beginning to chaffe already against Mueller investigative priorities.
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“Empire” star Jusse Smolette is brutally attacked in Chicago by two anti-gay Trump supporters wearing masks who ran into him at a Subway sandwich shop and screamed ‘Aren't you that faggot nigger from Empire?” They fractured a rib, poured bleach on him and put noose around his neck. “This is MAGA Country.”
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Kamala Harris blasts DNI Dan Coats for talking down to her about Russian disinformation attacks when he tries to dance around the fat they have no “formal written strategy” on how to combat the attack via social media.
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FBI Director Wray says Russia’s attempts to “weaponize” social media are still going on, and other countries are learning from them.
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Trump’s tariffs completely wiped out all of Harley-Davidson’s profits last quarter.
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