dagblog - Comments for "Trump confides to friends he's concerned about impeachment"

Just noticed this - no, it

PeraclesPlease — Fri, 21 Dec 2018 10:29:42 +0000

Just noticed this - no, it doesn't reveal big problems with the "collusion theory" - it just reveals problems with Isikoff. There's Russia-Trump collusion going back 5 years at least involving 2 different hotel deals and Trump even planning on giving Putin a $50 million love nest in one, along with direct quid pro quo trades for hacking of his opponent & social media support for changes in US sanctions on Russia, resulting in his illegal election.

First, Marcy Wheeler has long suggested the Steele Dossier was as much *disinformation* to throw off anyone looking, and even if not, a few missing overhyped items like the pee-pee tape don't sink the rest of the raw intelligence. (we *do* know that 3 hookers came up to Trump's room & Trump's bodyguard went off to bed though "presumes" nothing happened). As for Cohen, he lied about so many things and has admitted so many things, it's really unimportant whether he made that exact trip to Prague - he made other known payoffs that are just as felonious.

Isikoff seems an idiot about Butina - Mueller doesn't want a Russian who supplied money in jail - he wants all the Americans who knowingly took this cash as payoffs and political favors and illegal campaign funds in jail. Given a choice between taking down a corrupt heavily lobbying NRA or a then 27-year-old foreign student who shouldn't have been allowed anywhere near these important politicians, which one would you take? and of course she wasn't spending her own money - she was just the delivery boy. Her life is over now anyway - she probably ain't going back to Russia.

Worse is that Isikoff is for some reason intentionally ignoring the pivot to Saudi/Qatar/Israel, which is a whole branch of investigation tied in with Nadler, Erik Prince, et al.

Worst is Isikoff ignores that as of Jan 3, Mueller will just then have access to a whole lot of intelligence data and false testimony and Trump tax records via the House that's been withheld from him to date (though it seems Nunes has released Roger Stones' transcript), and that will mark the start of a lot more seriousness in the evidence, confirmation of what he has now, et al. [not that I wouldn't be surprised if Trump's tax records somehow mysteriously disappear in the meantime]

It's just begun, and Isikoff is more of an idiot than I'd realized - my badd.

Extensive Interview with

artappraiser — Tue, 18 Dec 2018 07:13:47 +0000

In reply to Trump confides to friends he's concerned about impeachment

Extensive Interview with ‘Russian Roulette’ Coauthor Isikoff Reveals Big Problems With ‘Collusion’ Theory

by John Zieger @ mediaite.com, Dec 16th, 2018

One of the most dangerous aspects of journalism is that, when reporters specialize in a subject, they can easily become inherently invested in a narrative surrounding it which is the most popular or helpful to them personally

When it comes to the investigation into Russian influence on the 2016 presidential election, it has always seemed to be a landscape ripe for confirmation bias to overtake a group of “experts” who are mostly very anti-Trump, as well as desirous that a story on which their opinion is greatly valued be perceived as the most significant political scandal of our time.

As someone who has long been on the fence about what really happened in this case (my basic position is that Donald Trump is guilty of serious offenses, probably obstruction of justice and perjury, but maybe not actual “collusion,” depending on how that highly nebulous term is defined), I was really looking forward to my interview with famed Yahoo investigative reporter Michael Isikoff.

This is because Isikoff is the co-author of a great book about the Russian scandal called, Russian Roulette, which makes him an important voice on the subject. And because based on his journalistic history, there was no reason to think that he would blindly buy into a narrative just because that story-line might help him personally.

I was not remotely disappointed. Isikoff, who generously gave me a highly-informative hour-long discussion, directly answered every question I could get in during the allotted time, and clearly had no agenda other than trying to figure out what the truth is.

By the end of the interview, which actually begins with a look at his large role in the recent Amazon/A&E miniseries The Clinton Affair (about Bill Clinton’s impeachment) it was quite clear that, against the grain of the rest of the media horde, Isikoff is now leaning, rather clearly, against the idea that Robert Mueller is likely to claim criminal “collusion” between the Trump campaign and Russia. As a result of his highly reasoned, though admittedly circumstantial argument, he now has me inclined more decidedly in that direction as well.

Isikoff concluded that portion of our interview by declaring, seemingly against his own self-interest, “All the signs to me are, Mueller is reaching his end game, and we may see less than what many people want him to find.”

There seem to be at least four basic reasons behind Isikoff coming to his tentative conclusion about where this is all going (or, perhaps, not heading). Here they are in no particular order [....]

“Republicans used to

artappraiser — Tue, 18 Dec 2018 05:48:13 +0000

In reply to Trump confides to friends he's concerned about impeachment

“Republicans used to understand that the actions of a president matter… where are those Republicans today?” former FBI director and longtime Republican James Comey said, slamming GOP politicians who "slink into retirement" rather than confront the president pic.twitter.com/BypOnbTKTw
— POLITICO (@politico) December 17, 2018

.@realDonaldTrump asking for

artappraiser — Tue, 18 Dec 2018 04:44:04 +0000

In reply to Trump confides to friends he's concerned about impeachment

.@realDonaldTrump asking for an unusual intervention by an appeals court to block discovery in the MD/DC AGs' lawsuit against him, which alleges he's violating the Constitution by doing business w/ foreign govts. https://t.co/muEuloBh87
— David Fahrenthold (@Fahrenthold) December 17, 2018

Sr. Dem for @cia on Intel

artappraiser — Tue, 18 Dec 2018 04:40:20 +0000

In reply to Trump confides to friends he's concerned about impeachment

Sr. Dem for @cia on Intel Cmte.:

I love my country, respect our order and customs, and don’t say this lightly. But if you are a current or former prosecutor, please tell me how @realDonaldTrump is it not acting like a mob boss? Our president. Acting. Like. A. Mobster. This can never be normal.
— Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) December 18, 2018

Interesting fact:

artappraiser — Sun, 16 Dec 2018 11:27:34 +0000

In reply to Trump confides to friends he's concerned about impeachment

Interesting fact:

Not even half of the forfeitures at $47 million from Manafort, already collected! https://t.co/RRMfWnJOr4
— John Dean (@JohnWDean) December 15, 2018

The Special Counsel Is

artappraiser — Sun, 16 Dec 2018 03:10:46 +0000

In reply to Trump confides to friends he's concerned about impeachment

The Special Counsel Is Fighting a Witness in Court. Who Is It?

By Michael S. Schmidt @ NYTimes.com, Dec. 15

WASHINGTON — For the past several months, journalists, legal experts and close followers of the special counsel’s investigation have been trying to uncover one particular secret about the inquiry: Is the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, in a closed-door legal battle? If so, with whom?

In October, Politico reported that Mr. Mueller appeared to be in a secret fight with a witness who was refusing to testify before a grand jury investigating Russia’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 election. A CNN journalist reported seeing two of Mr. Mueller’s top prosecutors enter a courtroom in September to argue against lawyers for an unnamed client before a judge who deals with grand jury matters.

A confidential hearing in the dispute was held on Friday at the federal courthouse in Washington. One floor of the building was closed to protect the identities of the lawyers involved. But that failed to deter roughly a dozen reporters who were spotted rummaging around the courthouse trying to figure out who was involved.

Here is what we know, and do not know, about the battle: [....]

Trump is like those French

artappraiser — Sun, 16 Dec 2018 02:45:46 +0000

In reply to Trump confides to friends he's concerned about impeachment

Trump is like those French soldiers who celebrated their glorious early victories on the March to Moscow.
Winter is coming. https://t.co/jNNOW8oi3t
— David Brooks (@nytdavidbrooks) December 15, 2018

Adam Schiff’s Plans to

artappraiser — Sat, 15 Dec 2018 23:57:54 +0000

In reply to Trump confides to friends he's concerned about impeachment

Adam Schiff’s Plans to Obliterate Trump’s Red Line

With the Democrats controlling the House, Schiff’s congressional investigation will follow the money.

By Jeffrey Toobin @ NewYorker.com, for the Dec. 24/31 print issue, online now in full

President Trump said some time ago that he believes his personal finances should be off limits to investigators. In an interview with the Times in July, 2017, he asserted that if Robert Mueller, the special counsel, sought to investigate the Trump family’s business dealings he would be crossing a “red line.” [....]

[....] On a recent weekend, at a busy restaurant in downtown Burbank, in the heart of his congressional district, Schiff talked about his plans for conducting an investigation that will be parallel to Mueller’s, probing Trump’s connections to Russia, Saudi Arabia, and other places around the world. As Schiff described his approach, it became clear that he wasn’t just planning to cross Trump’s red line—he intended to obliterate it [....]

Dispatch from court today,

artappraiser — Fri, 14 Dec 2018 22:15:24 +0000

In reply to Trump confides to friends he's concerned about impeachment

Dispatch from court today, where something happened, and we don't know really what it was, but it caused quite a stir. Was it related to Mueller? Maybe, who knows https://t.co/STLwh6DCJL
— Zoe Tillman (@ZoeTillman) December 14, 2018

Hello from the federal courthouse, where the DC Circuit is set to hear arguments in a sealed grand jury matter. Politico previously reported observing someone refer to it as a special counsel matter: https://t.co/L469FxtYlr Arguments are sealed, we're waiting to see who goes in
— Zoe Tillman (@ZoeTillman) December 14, 2018

Several dozen former Democratic and Republican senators have urged the Senate to be a “zealous guardian” of US democracy as special counsel Robert Mueller moved towards completing the Russia investigation.https://t.co/lz5SjOLfE0
— Financial Times (@FinancialTimes) December 14, 2018