In this update to the Master Trump Russia Timeline, within less than a hour of Attorney General Barr sending his letter to Congress on the results of the Mueller investigation, Trump, his attorneys and the White House immediately began lying about it saying that it totally exonerated Trump and his campaign of collusion and obstruction.
It factually does not.
First of all, it certainly did not prove that the Special Counsel investigation was a hoax.
The Special Counsel found that Russian government actors successfully hacked into computers and obtained emails from persons affiliated with the Clinton campaign and Democratic Party organizations, and publicly disseminated those materials through various intermediaries, including WikiLeaks. Based on these activities, the Special Counsel brought criminal charges against a number of Russian military officers for conspiring to hack into computers in the United States for purposes of influencing the election. But as noted above, the Special Counsel did not find that the Trump campaign, or anyone associated with it, conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in these efforts, despite multiple offers from Russian-affiliated individuals to assist the Trump campaign.
Multiple Russian individuals did assist the Trump campaign, and in nearly every instance they tried to accept that help. And on obstruction, Trump was not exonerated.
The Special Counsel therefore did not draw a conclusion – one way or the other – as to whether the examined conduct constituted obstruction. Instead, for each of the relevant actions investigated, the report sets out evidence on both sides of the question and leaves unresolved what the Special Counsel views as “difficult issues” of law and fact concerning whether the President's actions and intent could be viewed as obstruction. The Special Counsel states that “while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.”
Russian assistance came when Papadopoulos was told about the Russian having Hillary emails (technically from the DNC and John Podesta’s accounts) after he was personally tasked by Trump to reach out to the Russians and told by Sessions to “find out all that he could” about them as he tried to setup a meeting between himself and Putin.
Jeff Sessions tabled that meeting, but Paul Manafort continued to reach out with contacts to the Russians by deciding to send “Someone lower level, to not send a signal.” The plan was apparently to send Papadopoulos again, but in the meanwhile Carter Page went to Russia and met various government officials and was reportedly also told about the Hillary emails.
Neither Papadopoulos or Page reported what they were told to the FBI.
Meanwhile MIchael Cohen and Felix Sater were secretly continuing the Moscow Tower project after falsely claiming that their attempts to reach out to Dimitry Peskov hadn’t generated a response, but that was a lie. They also both worked with a member of the Ukrainian Parliament to craft a “peace deal” with Russia which would have given them complete control of Crimea and potentially ended the sanctions which were preventing the Tower project from going forward.
Don Jr. was contacted by the Agalarovs, their business partners from a previous failed Moscow Tower project and also their Miss Universe Moscow project about “dirt on Hillary” and setup a meeting with former Russian government Lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya who attempted to trade information about Bill Browder giving donations to the DNC — even though those are legal since he’s a American who was an investor in Russia — in exchange for loosening of Magnitsky Act sanctions which Jr. agreed to look at even though he didn’t think the “dirt” was worth anything. Junior also met with Alexander Torshin who was apparently the “handler” for Russian spy Marina Butina.
Manafort was trying to work out financial issues with his former benefactor Oleg Deripaska by offering him a personal briefing on the Trump campaign, and also gave internal polling information to a set of Ukrainian Oligarch all through his own Russian contact and business partner Konstantin Kilimnick who just happens to have links to the Russian Military Intelligence (GRU).
At some point after Julian Assange stated that he now had copies of the emails someone in the Trump campaign [likely Manafort via Rick Gates] reached out to Roger Stone asking if he could get more information about what Assange had. Stone in additional to sending DM messages with Guccifer 2.0 and with Wikileaks ultimately reached out to Jerome Corsi, who reached Ted Malloch who had a contact within RT, and the same day that RT interviewed Assange, Corsi reported back to him.
Unfortunately by that point Manafort had left the Trump campaign, so Stone had to go through a Breitbart editor to reach Steve Bannon who was initially uninterested, but ultimately took Stone’s email which reported that Assange was going to drop daily batches of emails related to the Clinton Foundation.
Then the day that the Hollywood Access tape was released someone leaked that information to Stone and he frantically attempted to reach Corsi in order to pass a message to Assange that he should begin releases his next set of emails that day— ultimately the first of the Podesta emails was released just 1 hour after the WaPo published the Hollywood Access video.
During the transition Kushner met with Russia banker Sergei Gorkov but not about either business or government matters. [So why were they talking again?]
Now, none of that directly involved establishing an “agreement” with members of the Russian government who were involved in the hacks and the troll farm — except potentially Stone communicating Guccifer 2.0 — so consequently there are no charges suggested by Mueller over this — but that doesn’t mean there was “No collusion.” All of this is collusion with Russians, but not the right Russians and also collusion isn’t a crime. It’s disappointing that they couldn’t make a criminal conspiracy case here beyond a reasonable doubt, but it’s not beyond ANY doubt.
Multiple Russians reached out and helped the Trump campaign — while the Trump campaign accepted that help, welcomed that help and even solicited some of that help — but there currently isn’t a law against that on the books. That’s apparently absolutely legal, it’s just wrong as hell. It probably shouldn’t be legal.
On the issue of obstruction, the decision not to charge Trump wasn’t Mueller’s — it was Rod Rosenstein and Bill Barr who made that choice.
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and I have concluded that the evidence developed during the Special Counsel's investigation is not sufficient to establish that the President committed an obstruction-of-justice offense. Our determination was made without regard to, and is not based on, the constitutional considerations that surround the indictment and criminal prosecution of a sitting president.2
In making this determination, we noted that the Special Counsel recognized that “the evidence does not establish that the President was involved in an underlying crime related to Russian election interference,” and that, while not determinative, the absence of such evidence bears upon the President's intent with respect to obstruction. Generally speaking, to obtain and sustain an obstruction conviction, the government would need to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a person, acting with corrupt intent, engaged in obstructive conduct with a sufficient nexus to a pending or contemplated proceeding.
In cataloguing the President's actions, many of which took place in public view, the report identifies no actions that, in our judgment, constitute obstructive conduct, had a nexus to a pending or contemplated proceeding, and were done with corrupt intent, each of which, under the Department's principles of federal prosecution guiding charging decisions, would need to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt to establish an obstruction-of justice offense.
There was a proceeding in place because the Russia investigation had already begun and Michael Flynn was a potential target of that investigation particularly when he decided to lie to FBI about his communications with Ambassador Kislyak. Also this determination by Barr is eerily similar to his own 19-page single spaced letter which he wrote in opposition to a obstruction charge against Trump before he was nominated to be AG.
As the Wall Street Journal first reported, Barr, whom the president has nominated to succeed Jeff Sessions as attorney general, sent the unsolicited memo—dated June 8, 2018—to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to offer his view of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into possible obstruction of justice by the president. The document elicited questions over whether Barr would need to recuse himself from overseeing the investigation as attorney general, along with outrage from congressional Democrats: both Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Mark Warner, the ranking member on the Senate intelligence committee, have demanded that Trump withdraw Barr’s nomination. Sen. Dianne Feinstein of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary described the memo as “troubling.”
But the legal quality of the memo itself is a different question. Over at Just Security, Marty Lederman has what he describes as a “first take” on Barr’s memo, which is to say a detailed critique of it on both constitutional and statutory grounds. On National Review’s website, by contrast, Andrew McCarthy declares the memo a “commendable piece of lawyering” and “exactly what we need and should want in an attorney general of the United States.”
Whatever Barr’s memo is, it is not that. Because whether one agrees with his view of the law (as does McCarthy) or recoils at it (as does Lederman), one thing attorneys general of the United States should certainly not do is make up facts. And ironically for a memo laying out the argument that Bob Mueller has made up a crime to investigate, the document is based entirely on made-up facts.
This smacks of Barr sticking his thumb on the scale of Mueller’s investigation in the 9th inning.
Former Acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal honestly doesn’t understand the argument that there was “No obstruction.”
“This is going to come down to trust. Do you trust the assessment of Attorney General William Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein?” Tur asked.
“I really wanted to trust them, but quite honestly this letter caused me much more concern, grave concerns really,” Katyal replied.
“Because remember Mueller — after two years of investigation — doesn’t draw a conclusion one way or another on obstruction of justice, saying there’s evidence on both sides. And then you have Attorney General Barr — within 48 hours of receiving this — saying ‘I conclude that the evidence isn’t there’ and in particular not evidence of Trump’s intent,” he explained.
“Now how the heck does he determine that after 48 hours — after a two-year investigation — and particularly without even trying to interview trump, if the whole question is Trump’s state of mind,” he continued.
This is an unsatisfying result because it’s not truly definitive on the conduct of the many members of the Trump campaign who all lied about their contacts with Russians, including Papadopoulos, Flynn, Michael Cohen, Alex Van der Zwaan, Rick Gates and Roger Stone. If they really didn’t believe they were doing something wrong, why did all of them lie about it?
Probably because they were doing something wrong, and what this letter tells us is that they basically got away with it — they just didn’t get away with lying about it.
And Trump is still lying.
That’s not what the letter says, he was NOT exonerated, they simply didn’t have enough to file charges with confidence that they would win in court. That doesn’t mean they didn’t commit crimes.
However, there is still a potential indictment against Trump from SDNY as “Individual-1” in the Stormy Daniels campaign finance violations, there are still potential criminal fraud charges linked to the Trump Foundation, and the Emoluments case and other issues of fraud linked to Trump business and government practices.
This isn’t over, not hardly.
Here are the next set of daily events in the Trump Corruption Timeline.
March 21st —
March 22nd —
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A past Rosenstein letter indicates that Muellers report won’t disparage anyone who will not be charged. (Yeah, but what if someone could and should be charges but can’t be due to DOJ policy — like Trump?]
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Comey writes an op-ed that he hopes Trump isn’t impeached because of the Mueller report as it will divide the country and that the issue will be resolved at the next election.
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Federal Judge Richard Seeborg in SF will be looking at Trump’s policy of returning asylum seekers to Mexico as they go through processing.
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Fox News exec Joseph Azam has quit the company in protest of their treatment of Muslims and Race.
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Rob Porters ex-wife slams his WSJ op-ed. “Redemption is not a given.”
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Ingraham says Media Matters are “Journo-Terrorists” because they tend to publish the shit conservatives actually say, in public.
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Steve King treats Hurricane Katrina victims are “Helpless" and looking for handouts compared to Iowa flood victims.
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Lou Dobbs defends Trump’s repeated attacks on McCain. “It’s not a exhumation.” [Is that where the line is drawn, seriously?]
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The Mueller report is given to AG Bill Barr, who says in a letter to congress that he will release the principle conclusions to congress by this weekend. It’s reported that there will be “no, new criminal indictments” from Mueller. [But that doesn’t include SDNY, the DC US Attorney, the NY Attorney General or Manhattan DA] The WH has not seen the report.
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Trump says he has “no idea” about it, but he still talks shit: “I have a deputy, appoints a man to write a report on me, to make a determination on my presidency. People will not stand for it.” He accuses Dems of being “Anti-Jewish” for pulling out of the AIPAC conference, says the Islamic State has bee “100% Decimated” and nominates his campaign’s former economic advisor Stephen Moore to the Federal Reserve Board. [Which sets the Economic Communities hair on fire!]
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Pelosi and Schumer demand that Barr release the report immediately to Congress.
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WaPo reports that hate crimes have doubled in counties that have hosted Trump rallies.
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Prosecutor Robert Khuzami, who presided over the case that led to guilty pleas by Michael Cohen, after the SDNY USA Geoffrey Berman was recused from the case, will leave his post April 12 and return to his home in DC.
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Fox Reporter John Roberts says that Trump “glared at him” like never before. [Likely because Fox Business News reporter Maria Bartiromo slamed his attacks on McCain last night.]
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Brit Hume tweets this is the first time a “President picked a fight with a dead man [McCain], and lost.”
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WaPo reports that Congressional Dems will demand Trump preserve all of Mueller’s documents.
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The Homeland Inspector General says FEMA wrongly released the personal information of 2.3 Million disaster victims.
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Treasury didn’t have a heads-up on Trump reversing a set of secret North Korea sanctions.
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Nadler urges Barr to release the full Mueller report. Schumer and Pelosi say Barr should “make the full report availble” and that the WH must not interfere.
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Mitch McConnel welcomes the Barr memo since the GOP feels that Russia “poses a threat.”
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Giuliani and Sekolow say it’s up to Barr to determine the next steps. But then Giuliani again says the WH wants to see Mueller’s findings before they go public.
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Schiff says Mueller may have found conduct “compromising and damaging to Natioal Security”
March 23rd —
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Barr won’t be delivering Mueller’s report today, possibly the principle conclusions will be released Sunday. (3/24)
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Trump goes golfing with Kid Rock at Mar-a-Lago but his lawyers and chief of staff remain with him even though they usually don’t make the trip to Florida.
March 24th —
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Nadler says the WH has no executive priviledge over “wrongdoing.” and that there’s no need for Mueller to testify if the report “answers all the questios.”
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Trump — after not tweeting for 40 hours straight — says “Have a nice day.”
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Schiff says it was a “mistake” for Mueller not to interview Trump in person.
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Nunes says the Mueller report is a “partisan document, burn it up.”
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Rep. Hakeem Jeffries says that the US deserves to know if Trump is a “Russian Asset or a useful idiot.”
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Jim Jordan comes unglued and demands FBI release the names of the “cabal" of top agents out to get Trump. [Only if they release the names of “Kallstrom cabal” who were out to “Get that Bitch” Hillary Clinton, first!]
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Chris Wallace goes off on Jason Chaffetz as he tries to hoist another Mueller conspiracy theory.
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Schiff warns “pathological" Trump “Do not think you can bury this report” and refuses to rule impeachment out.
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Scott Jennings blows of any links between Trump and Russia to instead attack the Obama administrations reaction the the Russian hacks and attacks.
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Barr’s letter on Mueller’s investigation is released to Congress.
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It says the Mueller didn’t find any US person met the criminal intent beyond a resonable doucbt to have conspired or knowingly coordinated in an agreement with the Russian governments efforts to impact the 2016 election, even though there were multiple attempts by the Russians to reach out to the campaign and also that Russia had two primary efforts to that end, the troll farm and the hacking groups from which multiple Russian nationals (25) were charged. [This doesn't mean there weren’t attempts at collusion, by Papadopoulos and Mifsud, Don Jr and Veselnitskaya, Kushner and Gorkov, Manafort and Kilimnick or Roger Stone sending messages back and forth to Guccifer 2.0 and through Jerome Corsi to Wikileaks, it only means they didn't have enough evidence to convict in court.]
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Barr says evidence gathered by Mueller was not sufficent to prove “corrupt intent” for an obstruction justice conviction beyond a reasonable doubt against Trump [which is he same thing he said months ago in his long unsolicited letter on the subject], although it doesn’t prove that he committed a crime it aslo doesn’t exonerate him.
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Mueller did not draw a conclusion — one way or another — as to whether Trump’s own conduct constituted obstruction. [How could he since they didn’t interview him?] Barr and Rosenstein apparently determined that the evidence was insuffient regardless of constitutional considerations or the rules on indicting a sitting President.
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Barr promised to release as much as possible from Muellers report excluding any 6(e) grand jury information and information related to ongoing investigations from other offices.
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Shuckabee claims this is a “complete exoneration” of Trump on collusion and obstruction. [No, it’s not.]
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Dershowitz says Congress should be “sued for investigation too much.” [They actually haven’t fracking started yet.]
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Former US Attorney Renato Marricoti says that Barr’s letter is “troubling and bizarre.”
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Giuliani tells CNN that Dems should apologize for saying there was any “collusion”, and that if they don’t they can be assumed to be “biased” in any future investigations [Will GOPers like Nunes, Meadows, Gaetz, Chaffetz and Jordon apologize to Mueller and the FBI?] and that there could be no obstruction without an underlying crime. [That’s not the legal standard and there was a crime by Michael Flynn which he plead guilty to.] He says Trump is exonerated “beyond any doubt” [Although that’s not what Mueller said.]
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Nadler pledges to call Barr to testify before House Judiciary.
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Trump tweets he received “complete and total exoneration” by Mueller. [He didn’t.] Trump comes out to reporters and says there was “no collusion, no obstruction” and “no looking at the other side”, he claims it was started illegally and hopefully “somebodies going to look at the other side. This was an illegal take down that failed.”
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Schumer and Pelosi to Barr:”Your Mueller summary raises as many questions as it answers.” Nadler says the same thing.
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Senate Intel Chair calls for Bob Barr to release as much of Mueller probe as possible.
March 25th —
March 26th —
March 27th --
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Trump says that Schiff is a “Pencil Neck” and criticizes his golf skill. His cabinet is divided on push to have Obamacare repealed by the SCOTUS.
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Despites Barr’s memo about half of Americans still believe Trump colluded with Russia.
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Vanity Fair reports that Ivanka’s lawyer Abbe Lowell had modified Cohen’s statement to congress about the Moscow project by adding statements that gave the impression she was less involved than she actually was. He claimed she wasn’t involved in any meetings or the “back and forth” between Cohen and Sater on the project, however she was briefed about it at least 10 times.
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McConnel still opposes the resolution to require the release of Mueller’s report because it would be ‘politically advantageous to one side’. [I guess he doesn’t think that side is his, then.]
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Barbara Bush blamed Trump for her heart attack and said she’s “No longer a republican.”
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Schiff maintains he’s seen damning evidence and “Undoubtedly there is collusion.”
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Comey says Mueller’s decision to allow the political appointees to decide on obstruction is “really confusing.” [No Shit!]
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Stephen Moore promises not to be a “Trump sychophant” if he gets on the Fed. [Unlike what he is right now.]
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Guiliani says his initial response to Mueller saying “Trump is not exonerated” was “What the hell?”
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CNN John Berman scortches Popadopoulos for his repeated contacts with Russians : “You didn’t notify the FBI.”
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George Conway: If the verdict was “unfit for office, Trump would be guilty.”
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Lewinsky says “If. Fucking. Only.” the Clinton’s AG Janet Reno had been allowed to get an advance copy of Starr report and write her own opinion on the case before it was released to Congress and the public.
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Sen. Collins “vehemently” disagrees with Trump allowing Obamacare to be struck down.
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Dems and GOPers blast Pompeo’s proposal to cut the diplomatic budget by 23%.
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Prosecutor David Goodhand reveals during a hearing on the foreign company subpoena that the Mueller Grand Jury is “continuing robustly.”
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Trump claims he’s made Obamacare “better” even though he’s been failing implement and advertise for it, as well as Cost Sharing Payments to help bring down premiums to the point that 2 Million have left the system.
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A FOIA request indicates that the FBI investigated Trump for grating undocumented campaign finance gift of just $250 for a renting a sprawling mansion to the campaign of former District Attorney Janine Pirro in 1997.
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Tons of Conservatives do a victory lap over the Barr memo, and start trashing Dems and the media over the fact that the Mueller probe even happened. [Even though it didn’t exonerate Trump on obstruction or collusion, they just didn’t find enough for an indictment.]
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House oversight sends request to Trump’s accountant for ten years of his financial information.
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On Hannity Trump blasts NBC for cutting the part of his Lester Holt interview where he said he expected firing Comey would cause the Russia probe to go longer. [And it did.]
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A report indicates that Whitaker quit the DOJ because of concerns about being asked about Trump asking him to “curb the Cohen investigation.”
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Papadopoulos’ wife Simona Mangiante argues that because they met each other through Prof. Mifsud people would argue that they are somehow involved in his disappearance. [Nope, not the slightest bit of paranoia and victim complex here.]
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US approves a deal to do secret Nuclear Power work with Saudi Arabia. [Which is a deal that Michael Flynn was illegally paid to help setup.]
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Fox News Legal analyst Judge Napolitano says the Meuller report is 700 pages and contains evidence of conspiracy.
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Jay Sekolow’s former spokesman Mark Carallo suggest that Trump and Hope Hicks may have lied to Mueller about the false letter saying the Don Jr. met Veselnitskaya over “adoptions.”
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Trump’s Fed pick Stephen Moore has a 5-year-old $75,000 federal tax debt
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Stacey Abrams patiently schools The View’s Meghan McCain on the truth about the Mueller investigation.
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Trump calls on Adam Schiff to resign from Congress, however he doubles down and repeats the point that there is evidence of collusion in plain sight. He also says that if Bob Barr had always been Attorney General the Mueller probe would not have happened.
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Fox and Friends pushes Trump to target John Brennan for revenge following Mueller probe, however Brennan’s criticism was based on Helsinki, not Mueller.
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Pelosi says it’s “arrogant” of Barr to expect Dems would automatically accept his version of Mueller’s report.
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Puerto Rico's Republican Governor hits back at Trump's for whining about relief funds.
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Lindsay Graham says that Barr will release the rest of the Mueller report by April’
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House Dems grills Betsy Devos over the decision cut funds to the Special Oympics.
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Jay Sekolow’s former spokeman Mark Corallo details how he argued with Hope Hicks about her generating the fake AF1 notes to help cover-up for Don Jr’s meeting with Vesenitskaya, and how he had to explain to Trump that he needed to discuss the issue with his lawyers.
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Charlottesville Murder convict James Alex Fields changes his plea to guilty.
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56 % of Americans believe that “Trump was not exonerated, but collusion could not be proven.” 43 % are completely confused and deluded. Actually, he did the collusion,; but they didn't have sufficient evidence of his being part of Russia’s election conspiracy.”
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Comey says “Trump’s comments to me sounded like obstruction of justice.”
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Nadler says that Barr won’t commit to released an unredacted version of the Mueller report to Congress.
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Pence’s COS announced Trump will announce a health care plan “This year.”
March 28th —
March 29th —
March 30th —
March 31st —
April 1st —
April 2nd —
April 3rd —
April 4th —
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Associates of members of Mueller’s team report to NYTimes and WaPo that they are upset with AG Barr’s “summary” of their report arguing that it is far more negative about Trump’s actions, particularly on obstruction, than Barr alleged. They also were upset because summaries of the reports findings were already included in the report itself, but Barr only used 100 words excerpted from two separate sentences.
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Jared Kushner is again named as one of the 25 WH Staffers who had been denied a clearance due to his extensive foreign contacts according to Whistle-blower Tracy Newbold who had been harassed by Carl Kline after she complained when the denial was overridden. Ivanka had also been denied clearance until Trump ordered it granted.
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Steve Coll, dean of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, who awarded the New York Times and the Washington Post a Pulitzer for their reporting on Trump and Russia, wrote in a New Yorker magazine essay this week that it’s wrong for Trump to claimed journalism failed because Mueller did not charge Trump with conspiring with Russians to influence the 2016 election.
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Giuliani blows off the report that Barr white-washed the Mueller report saying the claims come from “unethical leakers.”
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Fox and Fools Host Brian Kilamead previews that Trump will visit the border to view portions of wall built “under his reign”. [Although it’s not new barriers, it’s replacement fencing that was authorized years ago.]
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Newsweek reports that Gen. Robert Neller, the commandant of the Marine Corps, let internal Defense Department memos leak recently to show the damage President Donald Trump’s wall obsession is doing to military families and combat readiness, including causing languishing repairs on hurricane-damaged bases and a decline in training exercises.
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Grassley says he supports release of Mueller report.
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The Government Ethics office finally certifies Jared and Ivanka 2018 financial disclosures.
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House Judiciary will hold a hearing next Tuesday (4/9) about the rise of hate crimes and white nationalist propaganda across social media.
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FBI Director Wray says he hasn’t read the Mueller report.
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DOJ Spokesman Kerri Kupec pushes back on the NYTimes/WaPo report about Mueller team members grumbling about Barr’s skimpy summary letter saying every page of the report says it may contain “grand jury information” which would be illegal to share with the public.
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Trump tweets that the NYT/WaPo Mueller team complaints are from “Illegal sources.” [They didn't specify anything from Grand Jury testimony in detail, so no it’s not “illegal”]
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Congress passes a resolution that would end U.S. support for Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen which is on the verge a cause a famine which could kill 14 million women and children.
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Trump is reportedly considering Herman “Shucky Ducky” Cain for the Fed.
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Elizabeth Warren demands DHS Inspector General probe the WH involvement in vetting the Mar-a-Lago Guest list.
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Adam Schiff says about Barr's assessment of the Mueller report that “he didn’t come into this with clean hands.”
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Trump kicks his border closing threat one year down the road and demands that Mexico stop the flow of migrants, or else.
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Nadler tells Barr to release the internal summaries from Mueller’s report.
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Politico reports that Capital One has told Congress that they’ll need a subpoena to gain access to Trump financial records which they requested last month.
April 5th --
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Oversight Chairman Cummings (D-MD) tells the Atlantic that there are “dozens” of whistle-blowers in the Trump admin who are working with them secretly.
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Michael Cohen says he’s “Found” a hard drive with 14 Million documents that he needs time to review so he sends a letter to congress asking them to contact SDNY to push back the start of his jail time. [Yeah, that’s not likely.]
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A small Russian bank — Bank of Ivonovo — owned by former Republican U.S. congressman Charles Taylor was stripped of its license after allegedly breaking anti-money laundering rules.
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Buzzfeed reports that DHS employees have been warned by a letter not to release “nonpublic information” or else face civil and criminal penalties. [Which begs the question, how do we know this letter was sent?]
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Trump will dump the WHCD again because it’s “boring” and “negative.” [Only for you and people with no sense of humor.]
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British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt says Julian Assange is a “Free man” who can now leave the Ecuadorian embassy in London. [But he doesn’t because they're are a couple indictments waiting for him for rape and espionage.]
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IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig stated in a Forbes column in 2016 when he was tapped for the position that he didn’t think Trump should releases his tax returns, but also that by law congress could request them. He also owns a condo in a Trump branded complex in Hawaii.
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The Republican Communications strategist who has been sued by Rep. Nunes for trolling him with a parody twitter accounts says Nunes “doesn’t understand the Bill of Rights.”
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By a 2-1 vote, the D.C. U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said that judges do not have the authority to approve the release of confidential grand jury materials, outside of the five exemptions carved out in the federal law governing grand jury secrecy. Other appellate courts have previously ruled the list isn’t exclusive, but this court has jurisdiction over judges in DC and Congress. [This could prevent congress from asking a judge to release the grand jury portions of Mueller’s report.]
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A 3rd court rules that Trump’s Citizenship Question in the Census is Illegal.
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Trump’s personal attorney William Consovoy writes Treasury General counsel William McIntosh telling him not to comply with Rep. Neal’s request for Trump’s tax returns because it would be setting a “bad precedent and opening Pandora’s box." [This would be telling him to violate the law which requires that he fulfill the request.]
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Huffpost releases a letter by DHS Senior Policy adviser Katherine Gorka which called for pulling a $400,000 grant to anti-hate group Life After Hate, founded by former members of extremist groups intended to guide people out of the white nationalist movement, by arguing that “Anti-Fascists are “The Actual Threats” to national security. Other emails indicate that she had also pushed to cancel their grant because the founder once tweeted “Fuck you, asshole” to Trump. Gorka is also the wife of former WH Counter terrorism adviser Sebastian Gorka who thinks Democrats are trying to “take away your hamburgers” and has a habit of proudly wearing his father’s Vitezi Rend pin which was awarded to Nazi collaborators in his native Hungary. Both had previously written books on jihad and ran an anti-Islamic think tank.
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House Dems have filed a lawsuit to prevent Trump from spending more on his Border Wall than Congress authorized using his “emergency declaration” work around, since he vetoed their resolution against it.
April 6th ---
April 7th —
April 8th —
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Axios reports that after the Access Hollywood tape former Speaker Paul Ryan was ready to toss Trump under the bus. “I am not going to defend Donald Trump,”
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Politico reports that Nielsen’s sudden ouster may be part of a powerplay by Stephen Miller to install more hardliners inside DHS.
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Nadler tells Face the Nation that congress is entitled to see the full unredacted Mueller report and says they’ll go to court with a subpoena if they have to.
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Trump brands the Iranian Guard as a Terrorist Group.
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Ranking House Judiciary member Doug Collins (R-GA) urges Democrats to bring in Mueller to testify.
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Mulvaney says the GOP health care plan will be coming “fairly shortly”. [Oh, dear god, not again.]
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WH Spokes-shill Hogan Gidley lashes out at Dems for overreach “It’s disgusting. What we do is never going to be enough” [You should go ask Hillary Clinton how she felt about two years of Benghazi investigations.]
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Newly released schedules for Acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt show hundreds of deletions of previously secret meetings with his former lobbying clients.
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Motel 6 agrees to pay a $12 Million settlement for handing over personal info on 80,000 guests to ICE without a warrant.
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Daily Stormer website founder Andrew Anglin must return to the U.S. for questioning in relations to a “troll storm” attack on a Montana real estate agent and his family.
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Kirstjen Nielsen tell the press “I just want to thank [Trump] again” in a short statement after she’s fired. Her resignation letter blames Congress and the Courts for blocking Trump’s agenda. [How — by making that shit illegal?]
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Trump Fed Nominee Stephen Moore reportedly didn’t pay his child support until four cops, two realtors and a locksmith showed up at his home.
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Trump’s State Dept lists 16 people they hold responsible for Khashoggi’s murder, MbS isn’t included.
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Former Federal Processor Ellie Honig says that Barr has been “prejudiced from the start” on the Mueller investigation.
-
NBC news reports that Trump was furious that DHS Sec. Nielsen resisted restarting the family separation policy by offering asylum seekers with children a Hobson/Sofie’s choice of relinquishing their asylum rights and staying with their children in detention, or exerting their rights and having their children taken from them. NYTimes reports that he flew into a rage when he was told this plan was illegal.
-
A Secret Service agent accidentally corrupted his work computer with Malware by plugging in the flashdrive found on Chinese Mar-a-Lago infiltrator Yujing Zhang, who was also found to have signal detectors capable of finding hidden cameras in her hotel room.
-
The Office of Special Counsel — which is not connected to Mueller — is reportedly investigating the Trump administrations attempts to enter a Nuclear Power-plan deal with Saudi Arabia. [This may be the resurrection of a plan to work with sanctioned Russian contractors that had been spear-headed by Michael Flynn.]
-
Sam Patten who plead guilty to violating FARA rules as part of the Mueller investigation asks for probation from the Judge. Prosecutors call Patten a “valuable resource” on multiple ongoing criminal investigations.
-
Secret Service Chief Randolph “Tex” Alles is leaving his position, and the nomination for ICE director Ronald Vittelo has been pulled, also DHS General Counsel John Mitnick and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Francis Cissna “are expected to be gone soon” in the wake of DHS Sec. Nielsen’s being fired indicating that the WH is going in a more “tough” direction with Homeland Security.
-
Mar-a-Lago Malware girl Yujing Zhang loses her U.S. Visa.
-
Schumer wants the now ousted Secret Service Alles chief to testify on Mar-A-Lago vulnerabilities.
-
Senate Homeland Security Chairman Ron Johnson (R-WI) is going “concerned” about the leadership vacuum at DHS.
-
Court filings indicate that Meuller reviewed Comey’s notes on his meetings with Trump and that his report includes evidence of obstruction.
April 9th —
-
The Victory Lap is over as Trump continues to whine: “The Democrats will never be satisfied, no matter what they get, how much they get, or how many pages they get,”
-
Federal Judge blocks Trump’s rules requiring asylum seekers wait in Mexico for their cases to be resolved.
-
Grassley is “Very, Very Concerned” about the hatchet job going on over at DHS.
-
Homeland Security Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-MS) says that Trump is violating the “law of succession” by having the, commissioner of CBP take over for Nielsen instead of her under-secretary Claire M. Grady.
-
Nunes sues McClatchy for $150 Million claiming that communications strategist Liz Mair “conspired” with the Fresno Bee to undermine is former Chairmanship of the Intelligence committee while they were undermining the FBI over the Clinton and Russia investigations, because of story written by journalist MacKenzie Mays with the headline, “A yacht, cocaine and prostitutes: Winery partly owned by Nunes sued after fundraiser event” claiming that it was part of a coordinated social media attack on him. He then claims he “coming after all who defamed him.” [Yeah, he’s gonna wind up in deep doo doo for frivolous lawsuits.]
-
Rep. Omar tweets that Stephen Miller is a White Nationalist — so Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY) attacks her for “name calling” of Jewish people. [Yeah, but she’s pretty much right about Miller.]
-
Trump lover Candice Owens delivers an unhinged screed about Antifa during a hearing about online hate speech.
-
Attorney General Bill Barr testifies before Congress:
-
CNN analyst Evan Perez say Barr was “playing games” with Congress during his testimony.
-
Treasury Steve Mnuchin also testifies before Congress
-
The hearing on online Hate Speech which is being carried live on Youtube results in the live chat being shutdown because of White Hate and anti-Semitic comments. Louis Gohmert suggests that comments such as “anti-hate means anti-white” and “the Jews want to destroy white nations” could be false flags and some kind of “hate hoax” intended to inflate the perception of racism. [It doesn’t need any inflation.]
-
CNN Legal Analyst Jennifer Rogers says that White Nationalist Terrorism is on the rise, but that the Trump administration is ignoring it, although Federal prosecutors are not.
-
Reports indicate that White Nationalist are increasingly recruiting gamers into their ranks.
-
Former FBI Counsel James Baker told Congress last year that Rod Rosenstein had two Cabinet officials lined up to invoke the 25th Amendment on Trump. [Oh my!]
-
Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS) tries to whisper that Kris Kobach can’t be confirmed as Secretary of Homeland Security and gets caught on a hot open mic. “We can't confirm him.” Then he says “I never said that to you.” [Too late.]
-
Congress is about to ban the IRS from offering a free tax filing service, thanks to Turbo Tax.
-
Trump says “I never said I was ‘cleaning house’ at DHS” [You didn't have to, we have eyes.] Then he blames Obama for the child separation policy [He only did that when the parents had criminal records and outstanding charges], then he says only that policy keeps people from coming into America and that otherwise “it’s like going to Disneyland.”
-
Stacy Abrams also says that Stephen Miller is a “White Nationalist” who doesn't care about protecting Americans. Somehow Rep. Zeldin doesn’t talk any anti-Semitic shit to her. [Maybe it’s because she’s not Muslim?]
-
NBC reports that Stephen Miller is pushing for CBP agents — who are under Homeland Security — to do asylum credible fear interviews [even though they haven’t been trained for it] rather than USCIS [who have been trained] because “Border Protection agents will be tougher on asylum seekers and will pass fewer of them on the initial screening.”
-
Mnuchin says he’ll “obey the law, but that doens’t mean you’ll get Trumps returns.” And the IRS head won't say whether Mnuchin will make the final call on Trump’s taxes while he threatens not to return to capital hill willingly. [Get ready for the subpoena, punk!]
April 10th —
April 11th —
April 12th —
April 13th —
April 14th —
April 15th —
-
NYTimes reports that people close to Trump have told them that he brought up the proposal to send refugees to sanctuary cities as part of an effort to distract from the release of the redacted Mueller report this week, which is now scheduled for Thursday (4/18).
-
WSJ reports that the the Trump admin is planning to begin threatening countries such as Chad, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, and Eritrea who have citizens who tend to overstay their visas by making those visa harder to obtain or shortening their length. [Somehow I don't think those are the worse offenders since the DHS report indicates that countries with the highest overstay rates(over 1.0%) for business and vacations are Germany, Chile, Brunei, Lithuania, Greece, Hungary, Spain and Portugal, top overstays rates (over 12.0%) for air and sea visitors excluding Mexico and Canada are from Bhutan, Burking Faso, Barundi, Cabo Verde, Chad, Djibouti, Eritrea, Liberia, Soloman Islands, and South Sudan.]
-
House Dems request WH Docs related to the Sanctuary City refugee plan.
-
LA Black Church Arsonist charged with Hate Crimes. [But not domestic terrorism because that isn’t a crime, yet .]
-
Dem ready for a legal fight over Trump’s tax returns.
-
The Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris catches fire, reports are that the cause was accidental.
-
Trump tells his personal accountant firm Mazars USA to ignore subpeonas from Dems for his financial records and threatens to sue them if they comply.
-
Schiff and Nunes both seek a Counter-Intel briefing on the Mueller investigation— which shouldn’t be redacted.
-
Trump predicts Notre Dame will “Burn to the ground" but it doesn't, it mostly loses it's roof. He also says the Firemen need to “hurry up” — which I think they know already.
-
House Republicans object to Dems probing state level voting rights issues.
-
An FBI affidavit indicates the government is not certain if Assange’s hacking attempts with Manning were successful.
-
Ana Navarro slams Trump for his bigoted attacks on Rep. Omar exploiting 9/11 “For his own gain.” So does Jeffrey Toobin: “He’s always after people of color.”
-
Trump says he “doesn’t mind” if Omar gets death threats, attacking her is a “political winner.”
-
Jerome Corsi submits another bonkers court filing which accuses Roger Stone of violating the Judge’s gag order.
-
Rep. Cummings issues his subpoena to Trump’s accountant, that Trump already told him to ignore.
-
WH is preparing a 140 Page rebuttal to the Mueller report which supposedly already “exonerated” Trump.
-
MSNBC’s Frank Figliuzzi says that Barr will redact 50-70% of Mueller's report.
-
House Dems on Intelligence and oversight subpeona financial records from Deutsche Bank (whom Trump owes about $300 Million) as well as Citigroup, JPMorgan, Chase, BofA and also Mazars USA.
-
Just Security notes that Bill Barr previously misled Congress with a “summary” report about the OLC's decision making process on the arrest of Manuel Noriega in 1989 which omitted that they had determined that the arrest violated UN rules.
April 16th —
April 17th —
April 18th —
-
WaPo reports that Mueller punted on the obstruction question because of the ambiguity of Trump’s intent.
-
Pelosi and Schumer call on Mueller to testify.
-
Adam Schiff and House leadership call on Barr to cancel his “inappropriate” press conference. [and instead answer questions after the report is released.]
-
DOJ announces that Barr will address the contacts with the WH over the report and executive privilege during his press conference.
-
Happy Mueller Day from Trump: “Greatest Political Hoax of all Time.”
-
North Korea wants Pompeo out of the Nuclear Talks because he says “Nonsense.”
-
Barr begins his presser at 9:30 am. and repeats Trump's “No Collusion” line word-for-word, says that Mueller investigated 10 instances of potential obstruction but those were “understandable” because of Trump’s “frustration” over probe [Sure, try “I’m frustrated" then next time you try and stop a cop from giving you a ticket.] and says “he was told” that Mueller made it his choice to decide on obstruction. He claims the WH “fully cooperated” because they didn’t exert executive privilege — although Trump wouldn't let himself be interviewed — he doesn't answer a question from Fox News about the “genesis” of the investigation but then he suggests that there needs to be an investigation of the investigation even though there already is an inspector general probe of that. He also confirms that Trump's lawyers saw a copy of the report first. Rod Rosenstein is there standing behind Barr stonefaced, but Mueller and his deputies are not present to comment or answer questions themselves.
-
Barr gets upset and walks out of his own press conference when CBS News Paula Reid challenges his summary/letter and the redactions: “A Republican appointed judge on Tuesday said you have ‘created an environment that has caused a significant part of the American public to be concerned about these redactions,'” Reid began. “You cleared the president on obstruction. The president is fund-raising off your comments about spying, and here you have remarks that are quite generous to the president, including acknowledging his feelings and his emotions.”
-
Scarborough slams Barr as a “political hack… Sleaziest AG since John Mitchell.”
-
Jeff Toobin is not impressed and calls it ‘A political commercial for the president’.
-
Chris Wallace is taken aback by how much Barr defended Trump during the presser and says Barr was acting more as Trump’s defense lawyer than the attorney general.
-
Andrea Mitchell explodes over Barr’s ‘extraordinary and objectionable’ shilling for Trump.
-
The redacted 400 page Meuller Report is released. About 12% is actually redacted and most of that relates to other ongoing cases being handled by other offices inside DOJ.
-
The report confirms that Russia’s GRU hacked the DNC, DCCC, John Podesta and several state election systems, shared the hacked emails and documents they obtained with Wikileaks, setup a social media bots and trolls to influence U.S. voters against Clinton and toward Trump.
-
Trump had tried to echo the efforts of the Russians by asking Michael Flynn to try and get copies of Clinton’s deleted emails. He did so by reaching out to Barbara Ledeen who searched for copies on the dark web under the presumption that Clinton had been hacked just like the DNC [GRU didn't start their hacking operations until after her emails had been deleted months previously] and Robert W. Smith who hired a set of hackers to try and find them. Both came up empty although Ledeen did find some emails which turned out to be fakes.
-
Mueller did not note “collusion” [because that’s not a criminal standard.], but he did note a voluminous list of lies about Trump campaign contacts with Russians and attempts to delete and destroy communications. This appears to be a widespread attempt to hide the truth about attempts to take advantage of Russian influence, but they never fully made an agreement with the Russian government [Not for lack of trying, that is. Former campaign members like Roger Stone did make direct contact with the GRU — DCleaks & Guccifer 2.0 — and also contact with people like Jerome Corsi and Ted Malloch who were able to provide a two-way conduit with WikLeaks who had been provided hacked and stolen documents by the GRU. Much of this section related to Stone is redacted, but his indictment tells that tale.] Evidence proving the Trump campaign was an active part of Russia’s two conspiracies to hack, disseminate the data and influence the campaign was not sufficient for a conspiracy prosecution beyond a reasonable doubt.
-
Although Mueller declined to prosecute for conspiracy — he writes that the Trump campaign was "deeply co-opted” by the Russian effort and that members of the campaign repeatedly looked for aid from the Russians or were unwittingly in contact with GRU spies and assets. However “At other times, Mueller says that campaign officials knew who they were dealing with and were “receptive to the offer” of assistance.” “Although the investigation established that the Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome, and that the campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts, the investigation did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.” (pg. 13)
-
Trump told his staff that “more would be coming” after the first Wikileaks dump of emails indicating he was receiving inside information. [Most likely from Stone who was in touch with the GRU and WikiLeaks.]
-
Trump was not only aware of the Moscow Tower project until late in the campaign, he had agreed with plans to travel to Russia to finalize the deal during 2016.
-
Mueller declined to prosecute Don Jr for campaign finance violations over his meeting with Veselnitskaya because he did not feel that those involved were sufficiently familiar with campaign finance law. [Yeah, well they might have become familiar if they'd talked to a lawyer first.] Similarly he didn't bring charges of Misprison of Felony against Papadopoulos for not notifying the FBI about the “dirt on Hillary" for similar reasons.
-
Trump had freaked out and said “My presidency is over. I'm fucked” when Mueller’s appointment was announced.
-
Multiple members of the Trump campaign and administration lied about their contacts and interactions with various Russians: “The investigation established that several individuals affiliated with the Trump campaign lied to the office, and to congress, about their interactions with Russian-affiliated individuals and related matters. Those lies materially impaired the investigation of Russian election interference.” (pg. 17)’ They didn't find they were part of the same conspiracy, but they did find that the Trump campaign and the Russians had the exact same goals.
-
The report includes the beginning of Stephen Miller’s screed accusing James Comey of losing the confidence of the FBI rank and file. [This version of the letter was said to be “problematic" by McGahn, at which point Rosenstein was asked to provide a recommendation which was then used as the excuse to fire Comey.]
-
Meuller found Trump’s written answers on conspiracy “inadequate” since Trump claimed “I don't know" or “I don't remember" at least 30 times. [So much for the “greatest memory”]. He didn't pursue a subpoena for a face-to-face interview because it might not work and would take too long, and push things into the 2020 election. “We noted, among other things, that the President stated on more than 30 occasions that he does not ‘recall’ or ‘remember’ or have an ‘independent recollection’ of information called for by the questions.” (pg. 417)
-
Mueller looked at 10 instances of attempted Obstruction.
-
The report supports Comey's assertion that Trump requested his “loyalty” and to “let Flynn go” and also that he instructed KT McFarland to draft a memo claiming he didn't tell Flynn to discuss sanctions with Kislyak. McFarland didn’t write the memo because she didn’t know if it would have been true.
-
Trump was angry over Sessions recusal, and reached out to the Intel agencies to try and get them dispel the notion that Russian meddling and his campaign were linked and also to talk to Comey about the investigation [Which would have been inappropriate]. They didn’t do it.
-
Trump’s “I’m fucked” reaction to the appointment of Mueller and his request to have Don McGahn have Sessions “get rid of him” are confirmed, as well as McGahn’s threat to quit in protest because he was being asked to do “crazy shit.”
-
He tried to get Sessions to state that the Mueller probe was unfair and to limit the scope of the probe. Trump asked Cory Lewandowsi to tell this to Sessions, but he just didn't bother.
-
He tried to block release of the emails related to the June 6th Veselnitskaya meeting and to limit any links between the meeting and the campaign. Hope Hicks thought Don Jr’s emails “looked real bad” so Trump told her to cover them up.
-
Trump tried to pressure McGahn into denying that he tried to get him to have Sessions fire Mueller, and that he threatened to quit over it — but McGahn refused to lie about it.
-
Trump’s attorneys notified Flynn that Trump was very fond of him and asked that he give a “heads up” of anything that could damage Trump — and also how much Trump fawned over Paul Manafort when it became obvious that he wouldn’t flip.
-
Trump's Obstruction was frequently blocked by his own staffers who simply didn't implement his requests. “The President’s efforts to influence the investigation were mostly unsuccessful, but that is largely because the persons who surrounded the President declined to carry out orders or accede to his requests.” (pg. 370)
-
Chris Christie refused to deliver a “friendly” letter from Trump to Comey after Mueller was appointed— because it would have made things awkward for Comey.
-
KT McFarland didn't draft a memo denying that Trump told Flynn to talk about sanctions - because she didn’t know it it was true or not.
-
Jeff Sessions refused Trump's requests to un-recuse himself.
-
Don McGahn was asked to call then Acting Attorney General Dana Beonte and tell him to “shorten the probe” — but Boente stated that wasn't possible and also that he would not issue a public statement that Trump “wasn't under investigation.” [Probably because that wasn’t true anymore and/or it would have required admitting that their *was* an investigation which hadn’t been announced to the public yet.] McGahn was also pushed to tell Sessions to fire Mueller, he refused and threatened to quit over it.
-
Dan Coats refused requests from Trump to publicly exonerate the Trump campaign from links to the Russia influence effort, and also requested to contact Comey about it.
-
Rod Rosenstein was asked after writing the negative recommendation on Comey to do a press conference and take sole credit for the decision to fire him. He refused.
-
Rick Dearborn received a note for Corey Lowendowski meant for Sessions to ask him to “short the Mueller probe” but he didn’t pass the message along because he wasn’t comfortable with it. [Lowendowski didn't work the for Government, so how is he giving orders to Dearborn and Sessions?]
-
Reince Preibus slow-walked a letter requesting Session’s resignation during the summer of 2017 — just a couple months into the Mueller probe — ultimately Trump forgot about it.
-
Rob Porter was asked by Trump to get in touch with Rosenstein's deputy Rachel Brand to see if she would be interested in taking over the Mueller probe [which would happen only if Rosenstein quit or was fired while Sessions was recused]. Porter didn't do it. Brand eventually quit.
-
Mueller did not “Punt" on obstruction due to “insufficient evidence”, executive powers or mitigating factors. “If we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the President clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state. Based on the facts and applicable legal standards, we are unable to reach that judgment.” (pg. 182) He specifically said that he could not move forward on obstruction because of existing DOJ rules which prohibit indicting a sitting President “The Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) has issued an opinion finding that ‘the indictment or criminal prosecution of a sitting President would impermissibly undermine the capacity of the executive branch to preform its constitutionally assigned functions’ in violation of ‘the constitutional separation of powers.’ Given the role of the Special Counsel…this office accepted OLC’s legal conclusion for the purpose of exercising prosecutorial jurisdiction.” (pg. 213) [That means Impeachment and/or Censure and also that AG Barr lied, possibly even under oath.]
-
And that the matter of Obstruction should be addressed by Congress: “The Department of Justice and the President's personal counsel have recognized that the President is subject to statutes that prohibit obstruction of justice by bribing a witness or suborning perjury because that conduct does not implicate his constitutional authority. With respect to whether the President can be found to have obstructed justice by exercising his powers under Article II of the Constitution, we concluded that Congress has authority to prohibit a President's corrupt use of his authority in order to protect the integrity of the administration of justice. (pg. 8)
-
Mueller looked into evidence regarding the Moscow “Pee Tape" but couldn't confirm it existed, although it did fit very well within FSB strategies and capabilities. KGB had previously used exactly that type of technique to discredit politicians when Putin was their director.
-
There are 14 other investigations which were referred by Meuller currently ongoing within the DOJ, all but two of which — Stone and Cohen — are currently classified.
-
The report states that Sarah Huckabee-Sanders admitted that her claim that “countless” members of the FBI rank and file were demoralized by Comey before he was fired wasn't really based on anything. She called it a “slip of the tongue.”
-
Nadler requests that Mueller testify no later than May 23rd.
-
WH tweets at Game of Thrones “GAME OVER” meme. Trump declares he’s having a “good day, no collusion, no obstruction.”
-
Barr releases another letter to Congress about the Mueller report which again claim Mueller found “no collusion” even though he wasn't looking for that, he was looking for members of Trump's campaign being involved in the Russian conspiracies, and falsely claims that Mueller didn't take the DOJ policy against indicting a President into account when he most certainly did and described exactly that in detail.
-
Giuliani declares victory and rants about “no obstruction” in a bombastic interview with Fox.
-
Kellyanne Conway calls the Mueller probe a “political proctology exam… and Trump emerged clean.” [Uh, ewwww. And also no he didn't.]
-
Nadler nails Barr for lying about Obstruction and begins to consider an Impeachment inquiry.
-
Schiff states that Congress “will need to consider” if Trump obstructed justice and that Barr may have essentially place Trump above the law.
-
Steny Hoyer states that "going forward on Impeachment is not worthwhile” after the release of the Mueller report.
-
Notes taken by Don McGahn indicate that Senate Intel Chairman Richard Burr provided a briefing on the Mueller report to the White House just days after the Gang of 8 was briefed in 2017.
-
Jake Tapper: ‘Trump should be in handcuffs right now’:
-
April Ryan lays into SHuckabee for lying — in general, and specifically about the FBI and Comey. “She needs to go.”
-
Carl Bernstein calls the Mueller report: “Ugly and Damning.”
-
Chris Cuomo on the WH happy talk about Mueller: ‘That is BS and they know it!.
-
CNN legal analyst Laura Coats slams Barr for blaming Trump’s frustration to ‘innoculate him’ against charges of obstruction.
-
Jay Sekulow generates laughter when he claims on MSNBC that ‘[Trump] doesn’t support anyone telling lies’. [Yep, that’s a knee slapper!]
-
Former Obama WH Counsel Bob Bauer writes that Guiliani’s “counter-report” could open Trump’s lawyers up to subpoena’s from Congress without attorney-client privileged.
-
Shep Smith blasts Barr’s letter :”We were deceived.”
-
The RNC makes an ‘Embarrassing and traitorous’ attempt to spin the Mueller report to blame Obama for Russian meddling.
-
Brit Hume attacks Schiff saying he’s “spouting nonsense” about Barr essentially placing Trump above the law, then Renato Marrioti tweets back that Barr grossly distorted what Mueller actually said in his report.
-
Multiple GOPers including VP Pence, Minority Leader McCarthy, and Minority Whip Steve Scalese claim the Mueller report didn't find any collusion or obstruction even though that is patently not true.
-
Trump begins to sour on the Mueller report half-way through his victory lap: “I could have fired everyone.”
-
Trump-Loving Q-Anoners are crushed because Mueller report fails to live up to their conspiracy theories.
-
Dailybeast reports that Mueller answered many questions, but not why Russia was so interested in helping Trump in the first place.
April 19th —
-
House Judiciary issues their subpoena for the full unredacted Mueller report.
-
Pelosi: “Congress will not be silent.”
-
AMI is selling the National Enquirer.
-
DOJ says that Congress Gang of 8 can view the “less" redacted version of the Meuller report next week, but the Grand Jury information will still be redacted.
-
SHuckabee tries to excuse her “slip of the tongue” [Blatant Fuckine Lie] about Comey was because she's “not a robot" like Dems. [What? Huh?]
-
Trump gets mad about the “Crazy Mueller Report”. [Victory Lap Now Officially Over and it barely took 24 hours.] Then he says it’s “Total Bullshit.”
-
Russian state-owned media crows over the Mueller report: ‘We will help you elect Trump once again — just like last time!’
-
The Kremlin echoes Barr and the Trump WH claiming the Mueller report is only another “told you so” moment. [Well, he echoes them as of yesterday, but that narrative is spinning.]
-
Scarborough slams Barr: “He humiliated himself" with a “Pathetic performance.”
-
Hogan Gidley on Nadler’s subpoena for the unredacted report : “We’re not going to deal with Nadler in that manner” [You're not going to get much choice and who is “we” Kemosabe, that subpoena went to the DOJ, not the WH?]
-
Phil Bump at the WaPo points out that despite Trump’s claim that Russia didn’t “change the vote" the Mueller report indicates the opposite: “It may be — and appears to be — true that Russia didn’t manipulate actual voting results,” says Bump, “but Russia’s efforts absolutely affected the vote, as they were intended to — and as Trump and his campaign hoped they would. [...] The campaign knew that WikiLeaks was releasing material damaging to Clinton, prompting Trump to praise the organization frequently that October,” they believed it would help their campaign.” And public polling at the time showed 37 percent of voters would be less likely to vote for Clinton due to WikiLeaks. [If that poll was about evenly split between likely Dems and Repubs it means that Clinton was facing a negative 18% headwind among Democrats who probably didn't vote out of loyalty to Sanders or else went for Jill Stein — and that difference is exactly how she lost 70,000 combined votes in Michigan, Pennsylvania and WIsconsin.]
-
Giuliani continues his smear campaign against Don McGahn during an interview with the WaPo arguing that if McGahn thought he was being asked to do anything illegal he wouldn’t have stayed. [Or he might threaten to quit because he was asked to do something illegal — which he did, then eventually, he did leave.]
-
Alternet points out how AG Barr four-page letter vastly distorted Mueller’s report: In his letter in March, Barr wrote that Mueller “recognized that ‘the evidence does not establish that the president was involved in an underlying crime related to Russian election interference,’ and that, while not determinative, the absence of such evidence bears upon the president’s intent with respect to obstruction.” But Mueller’s report, Savage notes, also said that “the evidence does point to a range of other possible personal motives animating the president’s conduct. These include concerns that continued investigation would call into question the legitimacy of his election and potential uncertainty about whether certain events—such as advance notice of WikiLeaks’ release of hacked information or the June 9, 2016 meeting between senior campaign officials and Russians, could be seen as criminal activity by the president, his campaign or his family.”
-
Former Federal Prosecutor Renato Mariotti says that Barr deliberately misled the American public.
-
Jim Acosta blasts SHuckabee and the WH: ‘They can’t keep gaslighting the American people’. [Yes, they can and they will until Americans refuse to take it anymore.]
-
Senator Romney states that he is “sickened” by what he’s read in the Mueller report.
-
Ohio Sen Rob Portman slams Trump’s actions as detailed in Mueller report.
-
Former GW Bush speech writer David Gershon blasts the GOP for enabling and rewarding Trump’s corruption.
-
Former GW Bush Spokeman Ari Fleischer says Trump’s Mueller tweets “make it look like he's got something to worry about.”
-
Politico reports that Trump’s 2020 campaign has dropped their ties to McGahn’s lawfirm Jones Day potentially in retaliation for his testimony to Mueller. [Could this be a violation of whistle-blower laws?]
-
Matt Geatz hires a former White House speechwriter Darren Beattie who was fired for attending white nationalist conference.
-
Noam Chomsky argues that the focus on Russia may have handed Trump a huge gift, and possibly a return to the WH in 2020.
-
TPM argues that Trump’s “No Collusion, No Obstruction” canard is completely blown up.
-
Another Florida Man is arrested for threatening to kill several Democrats including Reps. Omar and Tliab.
-
Rep. Cummings states “we may consider Impeachment very soon, but not yet.”
-
Senate Republicans don't say much of anything.
-
Elizabeth Warren calls for the start of Impeachment proceedings against Trump.
April 20th —
April 21st — Easter
April 22nd —
-
Pompeo announces that sanction waivers for counties importing Iranian Oil won't be renewed, as of May 3rd including those who are our allies. [This affects Japan, South Korea, Turkey, China and India.]
-
NYTimes reports that much of Mueller's information about the WH came from staffers notes.
-
Trump sues Rep. Cummings to halt his subpoena for Trump's financial records from his personal adviser arguing that it’s not part of a legitimate governmental function.
-
Senator Joni Ernst shrugs off Trump's list of crimes and blames them on his “brash demeanor.”
-
Herman “Shucky Ducky” Cain drops out of the nomination for the Fed.
-
CNN’s Joe Lockhart, who was Bill Clinton's WH spokesman, says the SHuckabee “only stop lying when she’s threatened with jail.”
-
House Judiciary submits a subpeona for Don McGahn to testify on Trump’s obstruction.
-
Dem Leaders discuss Impeachment on a conference wide conference call, many argue that they should continue to investigate things before jumping headlong into impeachment particularly since it’s unlikely to be successful in the Senate. Some counseled caution but others like Rep. Val Demmings (D-FL) argued “We have enough evidence [to Impeach] NOW!”
-
Pelosi issues a statement that Impeachment won't be pursed now, but investigations will.
-
Napolitano argues that Trump's lawsuit against Cumming's subpeona is “doomed.”
-
CNN hosts Town Halls with Buttigieg, Klobuchar, Warren, Sanders and Harris — where they disagree on whether Congress should start an investigation based on the Mueller report or Impeachment hearings. Warren says “There is no political inconvenience exception to the U.S. Constitution and if anyone else had done what is described in the Mueller report they would be arrested and sent to jail.” Sanders says “If we attempt to Impeach the next two years will be Mueller, Mueller, Mueller and not any talk about what's best for the American people.”
-
Sean Hannity claims Hillary Clinton is the “real threat” to America. [For what, being a Grand mother?]
-
Videos show how Republicans like Graham and McConnel were gung-ho for Impeachment over obstruction claims that even they didn't think could be prosecuted 20 years ago.
-
Trump retweets a “hit list” from Tom Fitton of Judicial Watch that promotes going after Obama, Biden, Susan Rice, the DNC, Hillary Clinton, Brennan, Clapper, Loretta Lynch, Sally Yates, Comey, McCabe, Lisa Page and Peter Strzok. [Now that shit is a “Witch Hunt.”]
April 23rd —
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Sri Lankan Defense Minister says that the Easter bombings were a retaliation for the New Zealand Mosque shootings.
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KIm and Putin plan to in a face to face summit for the first time in Vladivostok.
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Pelosi states “We can investigate without Impeachment Hearings.” But she also says “if the investigations lead us to impeachment, that's where we have to go.”
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Trump claims that NYTimes needs to get down on their knees and “beg forgiveness.” [No, you first.]
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Giuliani stuffs his 140 page Mueller counter-report into his back pocket and holds it, will deal with episodes as surfaced by media.
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Cain says he dropped out the Fed nomination because it doesn’t pay enough.
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Lindsay Graham predicts House Dems will “stampede to Impeach Trump”and twitter slams him as a “gutless sycophant” for parroting Trump’s “No Collusion, No Obstruction” propaganda.
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Internet erupts when Gingrich calls Democrats “Impeachment crazy” Yeah, “He would know!”
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WH tells witnesses to ignore Cummings subpoena in their probe of denied Security Clearances. The Committee has subpoenaed Carl Kline who allegedly granted invalid clearances and retaliated against Whistle-blower Tricia Newbold, but isn't allowing any representatives from the WH to attend with him, while WH deputy counsel Michael Purpura sent Kline’s lawyer Robert Driscoll a letter saying he couldn't attend without someone from WH Counsel Office. Catch 22.
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The Atlantic reports that J.W. Verret, a law professor who had served as part of Trump's transition team as deputy director of economic policy has stated that the Meuller report shows evidence that calls for Impeachment. “There is a point, though, at which that expectation turns from a mix of loyalty and pragmatism into something more sinister, a blind devotion that serves to enable criminal conduct.”
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Hogan Gidley claims that Trump’s 2016 “win” shows that “No One Cares" about his taxes. [That would be 63 Million “no ones” to you.]
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Jared Kushner says that he never discussed “business” with Sergei Gorkov the head of VEB Bank whom he met on recommendation of former Ambassador Kislyak during the transition period. He claims the Russians just “put up a couple facebook ads” and that the Mueller investigation was worse for the country than what Russia did. [A couple thousand facebook ads that reached 126 Million people - which is nearly as many as everyone who voted — and actually fostered actual rallies in America attended by real Americans.]
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Cummings threatens to hold Kline in contempt for failure to appear.
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Trump bans WH staffers from attending the WH Correspondents Dinner.
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Shep Smith unloads on Kushner for downplaying Russian election interference.
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Islamic Group — but not ISIS — claims credit for the Sri Lanka bombings.
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AG Barr gets a waiver to oversee an investigation into the foreign firm laundering money into the Trump inaugural
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Jennifer Rubin states in the WaPo opinion column that Don McGahn can do the most to puncture Trump’s “Web of Lies.” [Which is exactly why Kellyanne and Giuliani are trying to knee-cap him first.]
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Both Conservative and Liberal NYTimes columnist gang up on Trump calling for his ouster.
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Crazed Trump supporter Dave Daubenmire stands in front of Hillary Clinton’s house demanding her arrest.
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Mormon Utah women's group slams Senator Mike Lee for tolerating Trump’s “utter disregard for the law.”
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Gov. Larry Hogan reams the RNC for demanding “ultimate 100% loyalty to dear leader Trump.”
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Former State Dept. Officials say that Trump’s foreign policy will wreck international relations for years to come after his administration is over.
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Michael Cohen responds to Trump’s criticism and attacks his credibility within a suit against Chairman Cummings for the Oversight Commitees subpoena of Mazar’s groups financial documents related to TrumpCo by saying it’s clear “he has something to hide.”
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Dana Milbank in the WaPo : Trump ‘talks like Stalin but governs like Homer Simpson’:
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Betsy Devos didn't respond well to a report that the DOE has been scammed for hundreds of $Millions by fraudulent and mismanaged charter schools.
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Reporters argue that the Steele Dossier included “exaggerated tales” which may have been part of Russian “disinformation” [Yes, several things were not confirmed — like the “pee tape” and Michael Cohen visiting Prague — but that doesn’t mean none of them happened and quite of few items in the dossier were confirmed and did happen like Carter Page talking to high ranking officials from Rosneft and the Russian government while in Moscow.]
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Ways and Means Chairman Neal considers issuing a subpoena to the IRS as he deadline passes on his request for Trump tax returns.
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Trump meets with the twitter CEO Jack Dorsey just hours after going on an anti-twitter tirade claiming that they “censor” Conservatives, then he spends the meeting whining about his follower count. [Which is funny since they're mostly bots and fake accounts anyway.]
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Pelosi admits that the House may have “no choice, but to Impeach.” Financial Services Chair Maxine Waters says Pelosi and Hoyer will come around on Impeachment “We’ll have to do it.” George Conway says the founding fathers would have Impeached Trump. [But would they have removed him too?]
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Paul Krugman tells Anderson Cooper about the Mueller Report: ‘If you’re not terrified — you’re not paying attention’:
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Elijah Cummings says Trump is “trampling on the Constitution — no doubt about it.”
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Chris Cuomo grills former Bush AG Mike Mukasey on Bill Barr's distortions of the Mueller report ‘You’re skipping the point’.
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Former Trump transition member J.W. Verret says that is “No other choice" than to remove Trump from office.
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Mnuchin blows off the request for Trump’s tax returns until May 6th.
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Interior Dept. Inspector General opens inquiries on a half dozen Trump appointees who were former lawyers and lobbyist who had held meetings with their former employers and clients.
April 24th —
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Kim arrives in Vladivostok for summit with Putin.
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Trump denies any of his staffers from testifying before Congress arguing that they already testified before Mueller [But Congress isn't just looking at the same issues.] Later he tells reporters “We’re denying all the subpoenas.” [Yeah, you don't really get to do that.]
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Trump finally selects a nominee to replace former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, but his selection of current Ambassador to Canada Kelly Knight Craft faces an uphill battle to confirmation.
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NYTimes reports that before she was fired Mick Mulvaney warned former DHS Sec. Neilsen not to bring up the issue of efforts to prevent Russia election meddling in 2020 during meetings with Trump because he didn't want to hear about it.
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The House asks a Federal Judge to block Trump's use of DOD funds for his border wall.
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#MAGABomber Cesar Seyoc blames steroid use for his attempts to kill Dems and members of the media.
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Kellyanne Conway claims that Dems post-Mueller inquiries are “a little gratuitous.”
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Salon argues that Russia attacks on Hillary and the DNC delivered Trump the WH by helping to sway Bernie Sanders and Jill Stein voters away from her: “Trump won the entire trifecta by less than one percent of the popular vote — a 10,000-vote margin in Michigan, 22,000 votes in Wisconsin and about 44,000 in Pennsylvania. Around 51,000 previous Bernie Sanders supporters voted for Trump in Wisconsin, around 47,000 Sanders voters went for Trump in Michigan, and a whopping 116,000 more in Pennsylvania. In every case, we’re talking about election-altering margins, especially when we add the tens of thousands of votes for Green Party nominee Jill Stein in those states. “
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GOP Strategist Cheri Jacobus tells the DailyBeast: Mueller exposed ‘high crimes and misdemeanors’ — and Americans need to see that on TV
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Marina Butina's lawyers and the DOJ get into a fight over her sentencing — which is scheduled for Friday (tomorrow) — based on whether she was acting as a “spotter” for Russian spies to help select potential targets.
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Indicted Coast Guard Officer and White Nationalist Christopher Hassan reportedly targeted prominent Democrats, Journalists and two members of the Supreme Court and wanted to start a "race war" with his “best nigger-killing gun.”
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Tom Arnold provided the WSJ with a recording of a phone conversation he had with Michael Cohen where he denied the tax charges against him were valid, even though he had plead guilty to them, but he admits to the campaign finance violations which were tied to Trump's hush money payoffs to his mistresses.
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Cummings blasts DOJ staffer John Gore for blowing off his subpoena over the Census citizenship inquiry. [The Capital Jail is going to be full of Trump staffers serving for contempt soon.]
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Deutsche Bank is beginning to comply with House subpoena’s for Trump's financials.
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Kim prepares to meet Putin.'
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WH rejects House Oversight Dems request for Stephen Miller to testify over border security decisions.
April 25th —
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Joe Biden enters the 2020 race with a video blasting Trump for his “fine people on both sides" comment about Charlottesville.
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Jeff Sessions praises Mueller: “Probe was carried forth vigorously and with integrity.”
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Stephen Moore says he still want the Fed gig, but will reconsider if he becomes a “liability.”
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DOD inspector General clears Acting SecDef Shanahan on Boeing related matters.
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Don Jr. writes an op-ed in Brietbart that claims the Mueller probe was an “attempted coup” by Dems. [Actually, that hasn't even started yet and Mueller is still a Republican.]
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Trump admin proposes pulling protections for Trans patients claiming “Religious Freedom.”
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George Conway on Hillary: “If she's with the Constitution, I’m with her.” [Oh, Lordy that has got to sting.]
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Trump claim he didn't need McGahn to fire Mueller, “I could have done it myself.” [Yeah, and that would have been another nail in the obstruction coffin that's waiting for you.]
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Lara Trump claims that Merkel admitting refugees is “One of the worse things in German History.” [Yeah, um, they signed and ratified the UN Resolution on Refugees just like the US did 50 years ago — they kinda had too.]
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Napolitano says Trump’s obstruction was “criminal and immoral.”
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SHuckabee has her first press conference in over a month, with kids.
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FL House votes to put huge fees on ex-felons before they can regain their voting rights. [Did someone say “Poll Tax?”]
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Marina Butina loses attempt to block prosecutors from including claims in her sentencing docs from an ex-FBI agent that her actions were part of a “spot and access” intelligence operation for Russia.
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Trump's 2020 Campaign Chief Brad Pascale ridiculously claims “there was no help from the Russians.”
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The lawyer for Yevgeny Prigozhin, Concord Management and the Troll Farm claims that Mueller should be held in criminal contempt because of how they are described in his redacted report in violation of a gag order.
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Judiciary Chairman Nader, Oversight Chairman Cummings and Homeland Chairman Bennie Thomas are demanding documents on the recent firing of officials at DHS
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WaPo reports that Trump authorized paying North Korea $2 Million for Otto Warmbier medical care (ransom) — but it's not clear if they actually pay the money. Shuckabee refuses to talk about “ “hostage negotiations, which is why they have been so successful during this administration.”
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Magistrate Judge Charles Day approves the release for White Supremacist Coast Guard Officer Chris Hassan despite prosecutor objections that he’s a danger to the community, because they haven’t filed any terrorism-related charges against him (And that's partly because there are no law against domestic terrorism, you'd have to have tried to build a WMD or aided foreign terrorism).
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A three-judge federal panel strikes down Michigan's GOP drawn redistricting map as an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander.
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Trump campaigns blasts out an Official “Obama Russia Accountability Survey" which is really a push poll intended to smear the Obama administration and gather voters contact information.
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Tennessee GOP passes a bill to make mistakes by voter registration drives a felony.
April 26th —
April 27th —
April 28th —
April 29th —