dagblog - Comments for "Clinton campaign, DNC paid for research that led to Russia dossier"

that's exactly the kinda Josh

artappraiser — Wed, 25 Oct 2017 20:27:56 +0000

In reply to It's likely that many people

that's exactly the kinda Josh Marshall analysis I always liked.! Especially the overall attitude of "keep your shirts on, folks, sit down, have a cup and thimk big picture"

It's likely that many people

ocean-kat — Wed, 25 Oct 2017 19:39:28 +0000

In reply to Clinton campaign, DNC paid for research that led to Russia dossier

It's likely that many people here are reading TPM but I'd like to add that Josh's analysis of the Russian story has been excellent. Here's his most recent article on it.

To review, the President is arguing that the news about the so-called Steele Dossier is now revealed as a hoax and that the Uranium One conspiracy theory floated by John Solomon in The Hill means it was the Democrats who colluded with Russia. The entirety of this is so nonsensical as to not require or merit any real discussion. Some people are up in arms that Trump needs to be proven wrong otherwise he’ll ‘win’. I’m not terribly worried about this. These probes have a life of their own and I don’t think Trump is convincing anyone that he hasn’t already.

But that misses what matters. We don’t know for a fact that Trump or his campaign took affirmative steps to collude with Russia in its 2016 election subversion campaign. We have overwhelming evidence that the subversion campaign happened. We now know it was far broader than the theft and distribution of confidential emails that gained so much attention last year. We know that it continued on major social media networks until last month and almost certainly continues on those same networks today. Most importantly, we have every reason to think that the 2018 and 2020 election campaigns will be similarly targeted.

Most of us likely see Trump’s comments in the context of his endless nonsense and lying. But that’s not the important part. Russia may not be an enemy but it is an adversary state which has defined a strategic priority of destabilizing the US and the European Union. That includes information operations and likely actual vote tally tampering as well. This is all happening. It’s a direct attack on the country. It’s not something we need to overreact about. It’s not something we cannot combat through counter-intelligence operations and societal awareness. But it is a serious and on-going attack. If the President is out there publicly saying it’s not happening, saying it’s a hoax, he is actively and directly assisting the attack.

Okay, FWIW, see now that WaPo

artappraiser — Wed, 25 Oct 2017 14:30:59 +0000

In reply to Re: What is WAPO's point?

Okay, FWIW, see now that WaPo this morning still has the story near the top of the home page, so the editors are standing behind that they think it's an important story for some reason. But they've added this analysis link under it, supposedly splaining themselves, trying to answer you on "what's the point"?

The Fix Analysis

We now know who helped pay for the Trump dossier. Here’s what that means.

Four key takeaways from the new report, including what it means for Democrats.

By Aaron Blake
3 hours ago

on the page itself this piece is retitled The Clinton camp and DNC funded what became the Trump-Russia dossier: Here’s what it means

Re: What is WAPO's point?

artappraiser — Wed, 25 Oct 2017 14:20:41 +0000

In reply to Had I known, I would have

Re: What is WAPO's point?

First I thought "they are being played" after I saw this retweeted by Maggie Haberman of the NYT yesterday (I check her feed because she is the main one @ NYT who administration leakers seem to want to call, even though she's not sympathetic). Like you say, it was known that it was funded by "Clinton supporters" following Republicans:

First CNN story on the Steele dossier in early Jan. indicated it was funded first by Rs then by Clinton supporters. https://t.co/ZDavm2kUqb pic.twitter.com/8GLlG5DaFR
— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) October 24, 2017

And then she tweeted this sort of pointed out it's confusing what's going on here:

Mueller probe does not exist because of the dossier. A bit difficult to follow the plot on why it should now be shut down, per Trump allies
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) October 25, 2017

And I went back to the article itself, and read more carefully, at the end there is this, about Fusion GPS refusing to hand over records:

Congressional Republicans have tried to force Fusion GPS to identify the Democrat or group behind Steele’s work, but the firm has said that it will not do so, citing confidentiality agreements with its clients.

Last week, Fusion GPS executives invoked their constitutional right not to answer questions from the House Intelligence Committee. The firm’s founder, Glenn Simpson, had previously given a 10-hour interview to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Over objections from Democrats, the Republican leader of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Devin Nunes (Calif.), subpoenaed Fusion GPS’s bank records to try to identify the mystery client.

Fusion GPS has been fighting the release of its bank records. A judge on Tuesday extended a deadline for Fusion GPS’s bank to respond to the subpoena until Friday while the company attempts to negotiate a resolution with Nunes.

So it's probably not that simple what is going on here, maybe not the simple situation of GOP sources trying to spin, but somebody trying to counterspin them? Anyhow, this morning Maggie Haberman retweeted this:

.@PressSec, this afternoon: "I wouldn't use the Washington Post as my source" @PressSec, exactly 4 hours later: Check out this WaPo report pic.twitter.com/07VrNStmHN
— Mark Berman (@markberman) October 25, 2017

Throw in that I noticed yesterday a lot of media people tweeting that while all the anti-Trump Flake and Corker stuff was going on yesterday that Fox News was doing wall-to-wall on the supposed Hillary uranium scandal. So that clearly shows how right wing media just wants to keep the focus off Trump and on Hillary investigations.

In the end, I am thinking this WaPo story about the dossier could be from Fusion people, basically saying: this is already basically known, here we are saying it again, so now leave us alone, we don't want to turn over all of our many clients' confidential records? I know that's how I felt when I got a subpoena for all my business records for a minor DOJ investigation.

Still, confusing, the point is not clear. Not a good job by WaPo.

Both sides do it Hillary

rmrd0000 — Wed, 25 Oct 2017 12:02:10 +0000

In reply to Ditto on both CVille & AA -

Both sides do it Hillary getting information about Trump’s ties to Russia is the same as Trump colluding with Russians to get information on Hillary.

Ditto on both CVille & AA -

PeraclesPlease — Wed, 25 Oct 2017 06:06:00 +0000

In reply to Good point:

Ditto on both CVille & AA - this is just another serup for "Hillary knew all along, it was rigged" intrigue which WaPo has participated in with glee. Just trying to put a stick in the Russky collusion spokes before indictments et al go out.

Good point:

artappraiser — Wed, 25 Oct 2017 04:35:13 +0000

In reply to Clinton campaign, DNC paid for research that led to Russia dossier

Good point:

I’m no campaign strategist but if I paid for the creation of an explosive oppo dossier on my opponent I’d release it before the election.
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) October 25, 2017

Had I known, I would have

CVille Dem — Wed, 25 Oct 2017 03:33:08 +0000

In reply to Clinton campaign, DNC paid for research that led to Russia dossier

Had I known, I would have chipped in myself. But on the other hand, I'm pretty sure I already heard this "news" when the dossier first came out...I also heard that Jeb Bush was initially behind it.

why is Thai such a blockbuster story? What is WAPO's point?

Is there a Ben Ghazi in the

PeraclesPlease — Wed, 25 Oct 2017 00:26:08 +0000

In reply to Related to sources of above

Is there a Ben Ghazi in the House?

Related to sources of above

artappraiser — Tue, 24 Oct 2017 22:59:10 +0000

In reply to Clinton campaign, DNC paid for research that led to Russia dossier

Related to sources of above story? Just askin'

Launch probes! Congressional GOPers try desperately to take focus off Trump

Analysis by Chris Cillizza, CNN Editor-at-large, Updated 4:50 PM ET, Tue October 24, 2017

[....] On Tuesday, Republicans finally took some action -- doing one of the only things left to them: They launched investigations of the past Democratic administration and the last Democratic presidential nominee!

House Intelligence Commitee Chairman Devin Nunes announced Monday afternoon his committee -- along with the Oversight and Government Reform Committee -- was opening up a probe into a US-Russia uranium deal that occurred during when Barack Obama was president and Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State. "We're not going to jump to any conclusions at this time," insisted Nunes.

Meanwhile, House oversight alongside the House judiciary committee announced their plans to look into how the Department of Justice handled the investigation into Clinton's use of a private email server [....]