We all know it’s too much to ask, but don’t you think we’d all breathe a lot easier if President Trump would only check the facts before he makes a wild assertion? Except he never has and never will. There are by now a long string of outrageous claims he’s made that have no basis in reality. Former President Obama tapped his phones at Trump Tower? He didn’t. Five million people voted illegally for Hillary Clinton? They didn’t. The crowd at his inaugural was the largest ever? It wasn’t. He won more electoral votes (304) than any president since Ronald Reagan? No, he didn’t. Obama won 365 in 2008 and 332 in 2012. To that list we can now add one of his biggest and most unsubstantiated whoppers of all. Trump tweeted early in the morning of May 18: “Reports are there was indeed at least one FBI representative implanted, for political purposes, into my campaign for president.” And lest there be any doubt what he meant by “representative,” he followed up with: “Apparently the [Department of Justice] put a Spy in the Trump Campaign.”
So what we are to make of this? Absolutely nothing. It’s simply not true, just the latest twist in repeated efforts by the Trump White House to undermine the credibility of special counsel Robert Mueller in anticipation of a damning final report. Their working premise is that if they call it a “witch hunt” often enough, people will start to believe it. As both The New York Times and The Washington Post both quickly reported, the FBI did not plant any “spy” inside the Trump campaign. The FBI did, however, send an FBI informant to talk to campaign aides George Papadopoulos, Carter Page and Sam Clovis about their contacts with Russian officials. Which gets us to the heart of the matter, which most of the media have simply ignored. All the speculation about a secret FBI “spy” hidden inside the Trump campaign is a waste of time. Here’s what’s really important. Not whether the Justice Department employed a spy, agent or informant, and who it was. But the fact that, as far back as Aug. 16, the FBI was investigating the Trump campaign for possible collusion.
Yes, we now know that during the general election of 2016, at the same time the FBI was investigating the Clinton campaign for possible criminal activity relating to her use of a private email server, the FBI was also investigating the Trump campaign for possible illegal activity relating to improper connections with Russian operatives to influence the outcome of the election. But here’s the big difference, and it could have made all the difference in the world: James Comey chose to tell the world the FBI was investigating Hillary Clinton. But he chose to keep it a big secret that, at the very same time, the FBI was also investigating Donald Trump. Why? Because, Comey says in his book, he didn’t want it to look like the FBI was trying to influence the outcome of the election. Yet, surely, by keeping the Trump investigation secret, the FBI did influence the outcome of the election. Had Americans known that Donald Trump, like Hillary Clinton, was the subject of a criminal investigation, the election might have turned out differently. So, instead of attacking the FBI, Donald Trump should be thanking them. The FBI helped Donald Trump become president.
So Rosenstein was again put in a difficult situation, seeking to protect the independent nature of the DOJ, while still trying to appease Trump so he doesn’t get fired, which would spark a full-throttle constitutional crisis. So he partly played along with Trump’s abuse of power ploy, just looking to string things along & give Mueller more space & time: doj-agrees-to-probe-tactics-
Donald Trump Jr. met with an Israeli social media expert who pitched a multimillion dollar campaign to help his father win the 2016 presidential election just months before the vote, The New York Times reports. Blackwater founder Erik Prince reportedly arranged the August 2016 meeting, which was also attended by George Nader, an adviser to the United Arab Emirates who is cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller’s team in the Russia probe. Nader is said to have informed Trump Jr. that the crown princes in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates wanted to offer as much support as they could to help the older Trump win. The social media expert, Joel Zamel, reportedly attended the meeting at Trump Tower on behalf of a company that specializes in online manipulation and had already drawn up a massive campaign to elect Trump that involved using thousands of fake social media accounts. The company, Psy-Group, whose motto is “Shape Reality,” reportedly went so far as to consult an American law firm about the legality of its proposal. The meeting has come under scrutiny by special counsel Robert Mueller’s team, with investigators now trying to determine whether these offers were connected to Russia in any way.
Donald Trump Jr. held a meeting at Trump Tower in August 2016 with an emissary for two wealthy Arab princes, who offered to help his father win the US presidential election, The New York Times reported on Saturday. The newspaper wrote that the two crown princes were from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Playing a role in setting up the encounter was businessman George Nader, who The Times said acted as an “emissary” between the parties. Nader, a Lebanese American is said to have close ties to the Emirates. Another meeting participant, Joel Zamel, a social media specialist, drew up a “multi-million dollar proposal for a social media manipulation effort to help elect Mr. Trump,” The Times reported. The meeting reportedly was arranged by Erik Prince, the former head of the Blackwater security company and brother to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. Prince, a well-heeled Republican donor, also attended the meeting. When the idea of the gathering was floated, Donald Trump, Jr. eagerly agreed, according to The Times, which said ties between the participants continued “past the election and well into President Trump’s first year in office.” The Times wrote: “After Mr. Trump was elected, Mr. Nader paid Mr. Zamel a large sum of money, described by one associate as up to $2 million. There are conflicting accounts of the reason for the payment, but among other things, a company linked to Mr. Zamel provided Mr. Nader with an elaborate presentation about the significance of social media campaigning to Mr. Trump’s victory.” As the newspaper described it, revelations about the meeting “are the first indication that countries other than Russia may have offered assistance to the Trump campaign in the months before the presidential election.” The Trump Tower meeting is apparently on the radar of special counsel Robert Mueller, , the former FBI director tasked with investigating Russia’s efforts to affect the outcome of the 2016 vote, according to The Times. Nader, according to news reports, has agreed to cooperate with the Mueller probe in exchange for immunity from prosecution and already has been interviewed by prosecutors in the Russia probe.
The Trump team’s strategy on the special counsel’s Russia investigation is to foment chaos, throw things at the wall, and worry about the facts later — or not at all. The New York Times’s Maggie Haberman on Friday crystallized this in a CNN interview. “The through line is: They don’t care,” she said. “They’re not looking to be seen as making this credible argument. They are just looking to get a win.” Exactly. Regardless of whether Trump or his aides did anything wrong with regards to Robert S. Mueller III’s Russia investigation, it’s notable just how often they have cast aside logic and reality in defending themselves. Plenty have surmised that this is because the truth is so damning; the alternative is that they just aren’t very good at this and/or “don’t care.” But it’s worth emphasizing just how seldom their arguments have been made in good faith or with any real logical backbone. The White House has gone further than even most politicians generally go in stretching the bounds of legitimate discourse — including more than once this week. The most recent example of this strategy is the supposed FBI informant within the Trump campaign. After Trump tweeted about the possibility that the FBI had “implanted” someone in his campaign “for political purposes” — apparently based on pure speculation — the New York Times and The Washington Post both reported Friday night that it was actually an American academic who met with multiple members of the Trump campaign, not a “spy.” Below is a recap of five of the most tortured arguments put forward to undermine the Russia investigation.
1. Mueller’s probe is bogus because there’s no proof of collusion yet
2. The FBI was spying on the Trump campaign
3. Obama wiretapped Trump Tower
4. Russia didn’t affect the election results
5. The unverified Steele dossier formed the basis of the Russia probe
Deadline Set?
Unless it’s just another Rudy lie, I suspect it’s a good thing the September 1st timeline for wrapping up the obstruction part of the case can get the public anticipating the report, which could help tap down the Trump/echo bloviating outrageous attacks & conspiracies against the investigation for the purpose of pressuring them to wrap it up: mueller-plans-to-wrap-up-
Trump’s Favorite Dictator Buddy
In reading these excerpts from senate-democrats-call-for-mult
Three top senators on Friday requested rare multi-agency inspector-general investigations into the Trump administration’s failure to fully implementcongressionally mandated sanctions against Russia. In a letter addressed to the inspectors general of the State Department, Treasury Department and Intelligence Community, the Democratic lawmakers said the administration has not complied with the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), which was passed overwhelmingly and signed into law last year in part to punish Russia for its election-meddling and its incursions into eastern Europe. “Several mandatory provisions of the law have not been implemented by the administration, despite strong evidence that actions taken by or on behalf of the Russian government are in violation of the CAATSA sanctions law and applicable executive orders codified by CAATSA,” wrote Sens. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), Mark Warner (D-VA), and Sherrod Brown (D-OH). The letter, which was obtained by The Daily Beast in advance of its delivery to the inspectors general, underscores the intensifying campaign that Democratsand some Republicans are undertaking to push back against the Trump administration’s policies toward Moscow and, in turn, urge the White House to be more aggressive. It also marks the latest of many claims from lawmakers that the Trump administration isn’t fully implementing the sanctions regime—and, in some cases, was keeping Congress in the dark as it missed critical deadlines mandated under the legislation. The House passed CAATSA last summer 419 to 3, and the Senate approved it by a margin of 98 to 2. President Donald Trump signed it into law despite his strong objections to provisions which he argued handicapped his authority. The Daily Beast first revealed the administration’s efforts to weaken the legislation as it was being written, so as to allow for less congressional oversight. But lawmakers on both sides of the aisle were successful in pushing back against an administration that they feared would be too deferential toward Russia.
Qatar & European Allies
Here are reports on an apparent pay-to-play offer given to Qatar trump-lawyer-michael-coh
Since Jan. 20, 2017, European leaders have managed U.S. relations with one eye on the clock, anxiously counting down the hours until President Trump’s term is up and hoping the core of the Western alliance isn’t too badly damaged in the meantime. But as Trump’s aggressive rhetoric toward America’s closest allies has evolved into hostile action this spring, a new fear has swept European capitals. Trump may not be an aberration that can be waited out, with his successor likely to push reset after four or eight years of fraught ties. Instead, the blend of unilateralism, nationalism and protectionism Trump embodies may be the new American normal. “It is dawning on a number of European players that Trump may not be an outlier,” said Josef Janning, head of the Berlin office of the European Council on Foreign Relations. “More and more people are seeing it as a larger change in the United States.”
In Germany, a country that rebuilt itself after World War II in America’s image and with American money, polls show that Trump is seen as a bigger threat than Russian President Vladimir Putin. More than two-thirds of Germans describe their country as moving away from the United States, and an equal number describe the relationship as “tense,” according to a survey released this past week by the Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper. “The mood in the country is that we can’t let the U.S. run the world, especially if it’s run by someone like Trump,” said François Heisbourg, a former French presidential adviser on national security and defense. “When an ally treats its allies like enemies, you have a problem.”
Please Read & Pass Along
Think I’ve been tough on Trump? I’m not in the same league as this long-time journalistic writer. Let me suggest to you (& even plead with you) to not just read these excerpts (or even click on what-more-do-you-need-to-kn
I’ve been “covering” the Trump story for over a year now, and I’m sick and tired of stacking up the details of his treachery day after day, week after week. What more do you need to know? He’s a lying, thieving, incompetent, ignorant traitor who conspired with the Russian government to steal the election of 2016 and illegally defeat a candidate who won the popular vote by nearly 3 million ballots. His presidency is illegitimate, and his occupation of the White House is a stain on our nation’s honor and a threat to our democracy. History will cast him into the same sewer in which float the putrid remains of Benedict Arnold, Jefferson Davis and Richard Nixon. Impeachment would be too kind an end for him. He belongs behind bars, broken, bankrupt and disgraced.
Every day the front pages of the newspapers and the headlines of the cable news shows are filled with evidence of Trump’s lies and thievery. Look at what happened this week alone. Trump started out denying that he even knew Stormy Daniels, then he denied having a sexual relationship with her, then he said he didn’t know about any payoffs to her. Monday, he filed his required federal financial disclosure form in which he effectively admitted making the $130,000 payment to shut her up just before the election in 2016.
He did an about-face on trade restrictions on China, announcing that he would seek to help the Chinese communications giant ZTE, which paid a $1.2 billion fine last year for violating sanctions against trade with North Korea and Iran. Three days previously, China had issued a half-billion dollar loan to a development project in Singapore that includes Trump-branded hotels, golf courses and condos. A Qatar deal was announced. The revelation follows a report that during the transition in 2016, a Qatari diplomat was asked by Trump lawyer Michael Cohen for a $1 million “fee” in return for arranging connections to the Trump family. The government of Qatar bought a $6.5 million apartment in Trump World Tower on the east side of Manhattan recently.
The news of last week was a perfect mix of lies, thievery, buffoonery and malice that have characterized the entirety of Trump’s presidency. Last week he claimed he raised military pay for “the first time in 10 years.” President Obama raised military pay in every year of his presidency. Trump has claimed repeatedly that his White House “is running like a fine-tuned machine.” He filled it with wife beaters, worn-out Wall Street bucket shop shysters and half-baked neo-Nazi flacks. At this point, more than 40 top White House officials and aides have either resigned or been fired over the last 18 months. The place leaks like a shredded fish net. The Washington Post recently reported that the lies he has told in office now number more than 3,000.
But it’s his lies about Russia that really ring a bell. Trump and his White House surrogates began by claiming that the Trump campaign never met with any Russians and had nothing to do with Russia. Revelation after revelation about contacts between Trump people and Russians followed. Then they claimed they had met with only a few Russians. More revelations about more Russians. Then they claimed they had not met with any Russians “about the campaign.” The Trump Tower meeting was revealed. Meets between George Papadopoulos and Russians in London came to light. Trump suddenly started claiming that there was “no collusion.” Evidence of collusion emerged. Then Trump began claiming that even if there was collusion, it was not illegal. Indictments came down. Now Rudy Giuliani is out there telling the world that even if Trump did something wrong, he can’t be indicted as a sitting president. Wow. Watching Trump revisions on the Russia story is like watching a Slinky descend a staircase, flipping over and over and over and over.
But every set of stairs has a bottom and in Trump’s case, it’s the law. His lies and dissembling about Stormy Daniels came up against the law this week when he had to file his financial disclosure form. Lying or omitting information on a federal form is a felony, which is why Trump was forced to include the repayment of his debt to Michael Cohen which covered the $130,000 that had been paid out to silence Stormy Daniels in October of 2016. He lied about her and he lied about that payment until he came up against the law and then he was forced to tell the truth. He has reached the ground floor with Russia and everything else. You can lie at rallies, you can lie to the media, you can lie to voters, but lies don’t work when they come up against laws. That’s where Trump finds himself today. He’s a lying, thieving traitor who conspired with a hostile nation to steal the presidential election of 2016 and he got caught. Not even his bone spurs will get him a deferment this time. He’s going to be drafted for the farm team at Leavenworth. He’s going down.
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