Lawfare just dropped an interesting story (re: yesterday's WSJ reports about a GOP operative and Flynn)

Turtleneck wrote:I actually do agree with this Tweet

Tom Nichols‏Verified account
@RadioFreeTom
All I'm saying, as buzzkilling as it is: Be patient. Wait.

There is a lot in this story that needs to be verified...but we can still have fun.

Travis of the Cosmos wrote:

Turtleneck wrote:I actually do agree with this Tweet

Tom Nichols‏Verified account
@RadioFreeTom
All I'm saying, as buzzkilling as it is: Be patient. Wait.

There is a lot in this story that needs to be verified...but we can still have fun.

Mostly, yeah. There's no reason to play this "see there's something there!"- normal humans "no there isn't" - goose weekly debate game. There are competent individuals investigating it and they're gonna find out what happened. Not allowing drooling lunatics to destroy our health care system is way more important right now.

DWags wrote:

Turtleneck wrote:I actually do agree with this Tweet

Tom Nichols‏Verified account
@RadioFreeTom
All I'm saying, as buzzkilling as it is: Be patient. Wait.

He is right. There is a lot in this story that needs to be verified...but we can still have fun.

It's an A.D.D. Society and we need answers immediately. It's the Brady Bunch phenomenon. Problem then problem solved all within a half hour. We grew up with it and demand it now.

Russian Dirt on Clinton? ‘I Love It,’ Donald Trump Jr. Said

The June 3, 2016, email sent to Donald Trump Jr. could hardly have been more explicit: One of his father’s former Russian business partners had been contacted by a senior Russian government official and was offering to provide the Trump campaign with dirt on Hillary Clinton.

The documents “would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father,” read the email, written by a trusted intermediary, who added, “This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.”

If the future president’s elder son was surprised or disturbed by the provenance of the promised material — or the notion that it was part of an ongoing effort by the Russian government to aid his father’s campaign — he gave no indication.

He replied within minutes: “If it’s what you say I love it especially later in the summer.”

Four days later, after a flurry of emails, the intermediary wrote back, proposing a meeting in New York on Thursday with a “Russian government attorney.”

Donald Trump Jr. agreed, adding that he would likely bring along “Paul Manafort (campaign boss)” and “my brother-in-law,” Jared Kushner, now one of the president’s closest White House advisers.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/11/us/politics/trump-russia-email-clinton.html

DWags wrote:

Turtleneck wrote:Guys, your order is up.

Obama

Hilliary.

NigelUno wrote:What is Fredo's defense?

He just tried to collude with Russia...he didn't succeed?

Turtleneck wrote:Guys, your order is up.

Russian Dirt on Clinton? ‘I Love It,’ Donald Trump Jr. Said

The June 3, 2016, email sent to Donald Trump Jr. could hardly have been more explicit: One of his father’s former Russian business partners had been contacted by a senior Russian government official and was offering to provide the Trump campaign with dirt on Hillary Clinton.

The documents “would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father,” read the email, written by a trusted intermediary, who added, “This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.”

If the future president’s elder son was surprised or disturbed by the provenance of the promised material — or the notion that it was part of an ongoing effort by the Russian government to aid his father’s campaign — he gave no indication.

He replied within minutes: “If it’s what you say I love it especially later in the summer.”

Four days later, after a flurry of emails, the intermediary wrote back, proposing a meeting in New York on Thursday with a “Russian government attorney.”

Donald Trump Jr. agreed, adding that he would likely bring along “Paul Manafort (campaign boss)” and “my brother-in-law,” Jared Kushner, now one of the president’s closest White House advisers.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/11/us/politics/trump-russia-email-clinton.html

Turtleneck wrote:Look at the top of the email chain...Kushner and Manafort included...

NigelUno wrote:

Turtleneck wrote:Look at the top of the email chain...Kushner and Manafort included...

Russia-Clinton



So, it seems like Kushner and Manafort did (kinda) know what the meeting was about. I thought the spin was they didn't?

Turtleneck wrote:If you really want to fan the flames, it has been verified that Donald Trump was at Trump Tower at the time of the meeting, and that Reince Priebus also made a visit to Trump Tower that day.

But there has been nothing to suggest that either were aware of the meeting or Jr.'s contacts with the Russian lawyer.

Turtleneck wrote:
5. They are going to drop evidence that the Clinton camp did it, too?

Ukrainian efforts to sabotage Trump backfire
Kiev officials are scrambling to make amends with the president-elect after quietly working to boost Clinton.

Donald Trump wasn’t the only presidential candidate whose campaign was boosted by officials of a former Soviet bloc country.

Ukrainian government officials tried to help Hillary Clinton and undermine Trump by publicly questioning his fitness for office. They also disseminated documents implicating a top Trump aide in corruption and suggested they were investigating the matter, only to back away after the election. And they helped Clinton’s allies research damaging information on Trump and his advisers, a Politico investigation found.
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/ukraine-sabotage-trump-backfire-233446

WASHINGTON—U.S. intelligence agencies starting in the spring of 2015 detected conversations in which Russian government officials discussed associates of Donald Trump, several months before he declared his candidacy for president, according to current and former U.S. officials.

In some cases, the Russians in the overheard conversations talked about meetings held outside the U.S. involving Russian government officials and Trump business associates or advisers, these people said.

It isn’t clear which Trump associates or advisers the Russians were referring to, or whether they had any connection to his presidential aspirations.

The reports were gathered by intelligence agencies that routinely monitor Russian espionage against the U.S. Such efforts can include monitoring phone calls and emails as well as information from informants. The efforts weren’t aimed at Mr. Trump or his associates, these people said.

Turtleneck wrote:More from the WSJ...

Russian Officials Overheard Discussing Trump Associates Before Campaign Began:
U.S. intelligence starting in the spring of 2015 detected conversations in which Russian government officials discussed meetings with Trump associates

WASHINGTON—U.S. intelligence agencies starting in the spring of 2015 detected conversations in which Russian government officials discussed associates of Donald Trump, several months before he declared his candidacy for president, according to current and former U.S. officials.

In some cases, the Russians in the overheard conversations talked about meetings held outside the U.S. involving Russian government officials and Trump business associates or advisers, these people said.

It isn’t clear which Trump associates or advisers the Russians were referring to, or whether they had any connection to his presidential aspirations.

The reports were gathered by intelligence agencies that routinely monitor Russian espionage against the U.S. Such efforts can include monitoring phone calls and emails as well as information from informants. The efforts weren’t aimed at Mr. Trump or his associates, these people said.

https://www.wsj.com/article_email/russian-officials-overheard-discussing-trump-associates-before-campaign-began-1499890354-lMyQjAxMTI3MjE5MjExMzI0Wj/

Turtleneck wrote:More from the WSJ...

Russian Officials Overheard Discussing Trump Associates Before Campaign Began:
U.S. intelligence starting in the spring of 2015 detected conversations in which Russian government officials discussed meetings with Trump associates

WASHINGTON—U.S. intelligence agencies starting in the spring of 2015 detected conversations in which Russian government officials discussed associates of Donald Trump, several months before he declared his candidacy for president, according to current and former U.S. officials.

In some cases, the Russians in the overheard conversations talked about meetings held outside the U.S. involving Russian government officials and Trump business associates or advisers, these people said.

It isn’t clear which Trump associates or advisers the Russians were referring to, or whether they had any connection to his presidential aspirations.

The reports were gathered by intelligence agencies that routinely monitor Russian espionage against the U.S. Such efforts can include monitoring phone calls and emails as well as information from informants. The efforts weren’t aimed at Mr. Trump or his associates, these people said.

https://www.wsj.com/article_email/russian-officials-overheard-discussing-trump-associates-before-campaign-began-1499890354-lMyQjAxMTI3MjE5MjExMzI0Wj/

Turtleneck wrote:Trump starting to build the wall.

Scoop: Trump lawyers want wall between Kushner, president
https://www.axios.com/trump-lawyers-demand-wall-between-kushner-president-2458146483.html

Kushner should have his security clearance pulled, and is probably where we should focus our attention as opposed to Jr.

Asked if he knew that his son was meeting with the Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya in June last year, Trump said in a White House interview: “No, that I didn’t know until a couple of days ago when I heard about this.”

Trump Jr. eagerly agreed to meet the woman he was told was a Russian government lawyer who might have damaging information about Democratic rival Hillary Clinton as part of Moscow's official support for his father's presidential election campaign, according to emails the son released on Tuesday.

In the interview, Trump said he did not fault his son for holding the meeting. "I think many people would have held that meeting," the president said.

On Wednesday, three victims of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) cybertheft and subsequent document release by WikiLeaks filed a federal lawsuit against Donald J. Trump for President, Inc. and Roger Stone. While there are many hurdles to be cleared, this litigation could eventually become a vehicle for discovery of documents and evidence in a judicial proceeding driven by private litigants. That means that a life-tenured federal judge will make determinations based on the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and relevant substantive law without the potential political chokepoints presented by a partisan Congress and compromised Executive. The complaint in Cockrum et al. v. Trump for President & Stone can be read here.

In defiance of a court order, the Justice Department is refusing to release part of a security form dealing with Attorney General Jeff Sessions' contacts with the Russian government.

On June 12, a judge had ordered the agency to provide the information within 30 days, a deadline that passed on Wednesday.

A recently launched ethics watchdog group called American Oversight filed a Freedom of Information Act request in March for sections of the Standard Form 86 relating to Sessions' contact "with any official of the Russian government."