Russian interference with the 2016 election

[Mountain Man]

Fusion GPS essentially admits that there is no "there" there, says people should stop focusing on "Russian collusion".

http://www.breitbart.com/big-journal...sia-collusion/

[Mountain Man]

A new batch of text messages from lovers Lisa Page and Peter Strzok have been released. The most interesting part, I think, is that the "small group" inside the FBI who had been discussing an "insurance policy" (that is the "Russian collusion" hoax) in the event that Trump won the election, were in contact with Robert Mueller's law firm before he had been appointed as special counsel! Notably, Page and Strzok were discussing who would be the most ideologically compatible person to serve as special counsel. This supports the hypothesis that Mueller didn't pick his team but that his team picked him as a cover for the anti-Trump scheme that was already in operation.

https://theconservativetreehouse.com...-pdf-included/

This story just keeps getting more and more interesting, doesn't it?

[Zymologist]

This story just keeping more and more interesting, doesn't it?

For sure--Trump will get impeached any day now, just you wait!

[Mountain Man]

Hmmmm!

First, NBC News accidentally spilled the beans on the extent of Mueller's overreach, reporting that he has essentially been wiretapping the Trump administration from day one. We know this was a slip-up on NBC's part because they almost immediately tried to walk it back.

Which leads us to...

Source: Federal Judge Catches Robert Mueller Using Preexisting FISA Title-1 Warrant Against Paul Manafort Instead of Title 3 Authority�

https://theconservativetreehouse.com...e-3-authority/

© Copyright Original Source

[Mountain Man]

Source: Judge in Manafort case says Mueller's aim is to hurt Trump

"You don't really care about Mr. Manafort's bank fraud," [District Judge T.S. Ellis] said to prosecutor Michael Dreeben, at times losing his temper. Ellis said prosecutors were interested in Manafort because of his potential to provide material that would lead to Trump's "prosecution or impeachment," Ellis said.

"That's what you're really interested in," said Ellis, who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan.

Ellis repeated his suspicion several times in the hour-long court hearing. He said he'll make a decision at a later date about whether Manafort's case can go forward.

"We don't want anyone in this country with unfettered power. It's unlikely you're going to persuade me the special prosecutor has power to do anything he or she wants," Ellis told Dreeben. "The American people feel pretty strongly that no one has unfettered power."

When Dreeben answered Ellis' question about how the investigation and its charges date back to before the Trump campaign formed, the judge shot back, "None of that information has to do with information related to Russian government coordination and the campaign of Donald Trump."

At one point, Ellis posed a hypothetical question, speaking as if he were the prosecutor, about why Mueller's office referred a criminal investigation about Trump's personal attorney Michael Cohen to New York authorities and kept the Manafort case in Virginia.

They weren't interested in it because it didn't "further our core effort to get Trump," Ellis said, mimicking a prosecutor in the case.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/04/polit...ing/index.html

© Copyright Original Source

[Juvenal]

https://theconservativetreehouse.com...-pdf-included/

This story just keeps getting more and more interesting, doesn't it?

TCT's abundant creativity aside, e.g., speculation on the odd chance that a passage in which we can be nearly certain the name FLYNN was redacted actually covered POTUS, it's quite the stretch to suggest Strzok, who was taken off the team by Mueller, was actually in charge of staffing it.

Hmmmm!

First, [URL="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/feds-tapped-trump-lawyer-michael-cohen-s-phones-n871011"]

[...]

Which leads us to...

https://theconservativetreehouse.com...e-3-authority/[/cite]

[...]

Even before the leak of Mueller's suggestive question for Trump, it was assumed Manafort was acting as a Russian agent. That is, after all, why he was dumped from the Trump campaign, and how he became a target of the FBI. I'm not seeing any further reason to question the use of a FISA warrant in investigating Manafort.

I do see further reason to disregard TCT.

The media, and broad media-consumption public, are currently unaware the Mueller probe was simply a continuance of the 2016 FBI counterintelligence operation.

While I question how much attention the media consuming public is following the investigation, I can't imagine anyone is unaware that Mueller took over a pre-existing investigation, in particular an investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, which remains the focus of this thread.

For sure--Trump will get impeached any day now, just you wait!

Trump's impeachment, and especially, less serious discussion of Trump's impeachment, is the topic for some other thread. Neither are welcome here.

[Mountain Man]

Yep, keep pretending that all of this is a big nothing-burger.

[Mountain Man]

I can't imagine anyone is unaware that Mueller took over a pre-existing investigation, in particular an investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, which remains the focus of this thread.

Sorry, but that's low-info talk. Mueller's investigation was pitched and promoted as something new sparked by Trump's justified firing of incompetent James Comey. We were never told that it was simply a continuation of an effort to depose Trump that started back during the 2016 presidential campaign (the infamous "insurance policy" discussed by Page and Stzork). The fact that Mueller has been conducting a Title 3 criminal investigation using a much broader Title 1 counter-intelligence warrant is a big, big deal!

Source: Special Counsel Tells Federal Court Rosenstein Investigative Scope Was Detailed in Super-Secret Verbal Instructions�

https://theconservativetreehouse.com...-instructions/

© Copyright Original Source

Very simply, Mueller is in very real danger of seeing his entire investigation tossed out. That's yuge.

[Mountain Man]

Source: Manafort Lawyers Claim Leaky Mueller Probe Has Provided No Evidence Of Contacts With Russian Officials

the government has provided no evidence of any contact between Manafort and Russian officials the filing in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District Virginia says. , they say in the court filing.

http://thefederalist.com/2018/05/03/...ian-officials/

© Copyright Original Source

[Mountain Man]

Looks like Mueller is having a bad time this weekend; seems the wheels are coming off his plan to give the Democrats an assist in the mid-terms by coasting this sham of an investigation through November.

Source: Judge rejects Mueller's request for delay in Russian troll farm case

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/...e-delay-570627

© Copyright Original Source

So we look at the Manafort case where prosecutors were forced to admit that they didn't have the evidence they were claiming to have. Mueller's case against Flynn could be in peril because of his failure to alert the courts to exculpatory evidence in Flynn's favor. And now Mueller looks to have botched his indictment against the 13 Russian ham sandwiches for similar reasons.

So what's the deal with Mueller? Is he incompetent? Is he deliberately throwing these cases? Is this the first time the light is being shone on his corrupt tactics?

[Tassman]

Very simply, Mueller is in very real danger of seeing his entire investigation tossed out. That's yuge.

Sure! A "yuge" amount of wishful thinking on the part of unenlightened individuals that support Trump. Dream on!

[Mountain Man]

Laughing in the face of facts just makes you look ignorant. The fact that Mueller has been conducting a criminal investigation using the wrong warrant, and that he has been called out by a federal judge for it, is not something that can be simply brushed aside with an idle wave of the have.

[Juvenal]

Sure! A "yuge" amount of wishful thinking on the part of unenlightened individuals that support Trump. Dream on!

The "Dream on!' is clearly directed toward MM, making the "unenlightened individuals" a personal attack.

Not in this thread, please.


I'll note again that while much of MM's interpretation is arguably hyperbolic, he's adding real content to the thread. Detractors should take note, and respond accordingly.

[Juvenal]

The fact that Mueller has been conducting a criminal investigation using the wrong warrant, and that he has been called out by a federal judge for it, is not something that can be simply brushed aside with an idle wave of the have.

TCT's analysis of the warrants takes no account of the fact the Manafort investigation began in 2014 as a counter-intelligence investigation in which FISA warrants are entirely appropriate.

I agree with the judge that the prosecution of Manafort is directed toward flipping him. As is clear from public reporting, including the primer provided by the Federalist upthread, there's a great deal of compromising information on Manafort, e.g., an emailed offer two weeks after taking over the Trump campaign to provide private briefings to the Russian mobster and oligarch, Deripaska, in an attempt to "get whole."

Did Manafort Use Trump to Curry Favor With a Putin Ally?

OVD is Deripaska.

Deripaska has since sued Manafort for $25 million.

Come on, man!

At the same time, it actually is about bank fraud, and that was planned in order to leave Mueller's team free to tell Manafort's team to go pound dirt. No, they can't ask what Mueller knows about Manafort's Russian engagements. Of course, you can't say that in court, so you have to improvise. Mueller has no material responsive to their requests.

Now there's a real angle here. I've transcribed the relevant non-redacted portion of the scope memo in its entirety.

Allegations that Paul Manafort:

Committed a crime or crimes by colluding with Russian government officials with respect to the Russian government's efforts to interfere with the 2016 election for President of the IUnited States, in violation of United States Law,

Committed a crime or crimes arising out of payments he received from the Ukrainian government before and during the tenure of President Viktor Yanukovych:

Manafort's in court before Ellis, and in DC as well, because Mueller was given the latter scope, but everyone knows the latter was included to provide leverage on the former. We shouldn't forget Mueller tried to combine the cases in DC, but Manafort's team objected, likely because they liked what they saw in Ellis, too.

Manafort's team is thinking Mueller doesn't need both cases, so they're angling for a dismissal before Ellis. I don't believe that's going to work.

My feeling is that Ellis is a bit peeved finding himself playing fulcrum to a lever without getting to see what he's lifting, and so he's pushing for a peek up top. Good for him. I hope he gets it.

Then there's others, of less repute. The Freedom Caucus has been whinging loudly about releasing the rest of that scope memo, going so far as to leak a draft impeachment order on Rosenstein, which caught its own mocking reply.

"They can't even resist leaking their own drafts," Rosenstein quipped during a moderated discussion at the Newseum to commemorate Law Day.

That kind of self-restraint is needed before asking to see classified information.

The investigation will proceed at its own pace, which can only grow slower under political interference. Manafort's team is already milking the billable hours. Add in a contested subpoena in front of the Supreme Court and whatever may turn up from a flipped Cohen, and Mueller could have work for Trump's entire term.

[Mountain Man]

I agree with the judge that the prosecution of Manafort is directed toward flipping him.

Yes, but if they used the wrong warrant, which it appears they did, then all the evidence gets tossed, and Mueller has zero leverage. And evidence suggests that Mueller's overreach wasn't a one-time thing with NBC's slip revealing that Mueller has been wiretapping everybody in the Trump administration using a Title 1 warrant while conducting Title 3 criminal investigations!

trump-mueller-1.jpg

"There has been a crusade in this country led by a group that wishes to overturn the election and impeach President Trump. Robert Mueller leads a special council of at least 17 partisan Democrat attorneys who have yet to find a single piece of evidence against the President, yet they ignore the mounting verifiable evidence against Russian collusion with the DNC and the Clinton Foundation. The political bias and negligence of those who have lead the Department of Justice and the FBI is forthcoming. There comes a time when you have to take a stand the Expose the Truth!"
http://jonmcnaughton.com/expose-the-...-open-edition/