Thread: Mueller's Russian Interference investigation

i know, topper.

i was responding to your post about image, etc.:

Originally Posted by Farangrakthai

Originally Posted by CSFFan

however his image, his business and his family

slick willy got a blow job in the oval office and was impeached (not convicted in the senate) and in the years out of office has been treated like an elder statesman.

it's an american tradition.

no matter how much the right despised bill cllinton and how much the left despises trump.

Originally Posted by CSFFan

You didn't answer my question, Earl.

You mean the question: are you or aren't you a fake news troll?
Here be da answer: Yes!

Of all the characters targeted by Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the presidential election, Alex van der Zwaan, minor though he may seem, will make history. A well-moneyed former associate at Skadden Arps, the powerful New York law firm, the attorney had the gall to lie time and again to Mueller’s team during an interview with federal investigators. Van der Zwaan got caught, faced charges for it, pleaded guilty, and is now awaiting sentencing in federal court in Washington. Next month, when he goes before a judge, he’ll be the first defendant in Mueller’s sights who may land behind bars. His lawyers have asked for leniency.

But it’s not the prospect of jail time for van der Zwaan that matters. In a sentencing memorandum federal prosecutors filed late Tuesday, they even told the judge that the Department of Justice “does not take a position with respect to a particular sentence to be imposed.” Instead, Mueller’s team wanted to make it very clear to the court that van der Zwaan, for all his sophistication and legal experience, is a big liar with a thing for destroying evidence. And that no matter the warnings he received from the special counsel’s office about the legal perils of being untruthful, he nonetheless “deliberately and repeatedly lied” about matters that are critical to Mueller’s probe. All this, while his lawyer was in the interview room with him.

Lied about what matters? That van der Zwaan had had communications, in the heat of the presidential election, with Rick Gates, a longtime business partner of Paul Manafort and Donald Trump’s campaign deputy who is now facing criminal charges of his own. And that he knew that Gates, who has since pleaded guilty and is cooperating with Mueller, was “directly communicating,” also during the campaign, with a mysterious “Person A” — whom the FBI has determined “has ties to Russian intelligence service and had such ties in 2016,” emphasis mine.

Mueller's office says FBI agents determined that a person who worked with Manafort and Gates "has ties to a Russian intelligence service." He told Van Der Zwaan that he was a former GRU intelligence officer. pic.twitter.com/IuYvuKcSsq
— Brad Heath (@bradheath) March 28, 2018

The Washington Post reported Wednesday that Person A is Konstantin Kilimnik, a Manafort associate who oversaw one of his business offices in Kiev, Ukraine’s capital. Previous reporting had already documented the long-standing ties between Kilimnik and Manafort, including meetings the pair had during the campaign. But Tuesday night’s court filing was the first time the federal government put it on the record that the man was an active Russian spy in the run-up to 2016. (Kilimnik has denied any such links to Russian intelligence.) That is to say, Manafort was employing a person who probably had a direct line, and who knows what other secret connections, to the Kremlin. And van der Zwaan, all along, had grown far too close to the trio. Or “gone native,” as Mueller’s filing puts it.

What all of this means in the grand scheme is yet to be seen. But for what’s otherwise a routine court document filed ahead of sentencing, Mueller pulled no punches with it — embarrassing van der Zwaan and peeling the curtain back ever so slightly on the trove of evidence and incriminating conduct we’ve yet to learn about. Trump’s legal team may be in utter disarray, even as it beats the drum that there was never any coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia. But Mueller, slowly and methodically, continues to prove them wrong by connecting the dots, his work as unflappable as ever. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, we ain’t seen nothing yet.

Has Paul Manafort?s Russia Cover Just Been Blown?

^

many (including me) have opined that the SC's investigation will result in money laundering and obstruction of justice charges....this new document indicates that congress may have to vote on whether or not there was collusion.

Originally Posted by misskit

Truth is stranger than fiction.

comma......because fiction has to make sense.

Good job, Jeff Sessions. Trump won't be happy with this! Expect to hear accusation that Sessions is a closet Democrat.


Sessions declines to appoint second special counsel

Attorney General Jeff Sessions revealed in a letter to lawmakers Thursday that he had declined to name a second special counsel to investigate allegations of surveillance abuse within the Department of Justice (DOJ), despite pressure from the Republican Party for him to do so.


In his letter to GOP committee chairmen Chuck Grassley (Iowa), Bob Goodlatte (Va.) and Trey Gowdy (S.C.), Sessions said the appointment of a special counsel only occurs under "the most 'extraordinary circumstances.'"


"To justify such an appointment, the Attorney General would need to conclude that 'the public interest would be served by removing a large degree of responsibility for the matter from the Department of Justice,'" Sessions wrote.


He said that he had named a federal prosecutor in Utah named John Huber to lead the investigation into Republicans' allegations that the FBI and DOJ abused a surveillance program against a former Trump campaign aide.

MORE Sessions declines to appoint second special counsel | TheHill

Let the petulant Tweet storm commence!

Mueller probing Russia contacts at Republican convention: sources

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Investigators probing whether Donald Trump’s presidential campaign colluded with Russia have been questioning witnesses about events at the 2016 Republican National Convention, according to two sources familiar with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s inquiries.


Mueller’s team has been asking about a convention-related event attended by both Russia’s U.S. ambassador and Jeff Sessions, the first U.S. senator to support Trump and now his attorney general, said one source, who requested anonymity due to the ongoing investigation.


Another issue Mueller’s team has been asking about is how and why Republican Party platform language hostile to Russia was deleted from a section of the document related to Ukraine, said another source who also requested anonymity.


Mueller’s interest in what happened at the Republican convention in Cleveland, Ohio in July 2016, is an indication that Trump campaign contacts and actions related to Russia remain central to the special counsel’s investigation.


MORE. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-u...-idUSKBN1H52VT

^

as he should.

the trump campaign radically changed the GOP platform in a way that directly benefited the russians.

And ....Mueller has grabbed another one coming in at an airport for questioning about the Trump campaign. Confiscated his phone. The fool apparently calls Jeremy Corsi of InfoWars during the FBI interview.



FBI questions Ted Malloch, Trump campaign figure and Farage ally


A controversial London-based academic with close ties to Nigel Farage has been detained by the FBI upon arrival in the US and issued a subpoena to testify before Robert Mueller, the special counsel who is investigating possible collusion between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin.


Ted Malloch, an American touted last year as a possible candidate to serve as US ambassador to the EU, said he was interrogated by the FBI at Boston’s Logan airport on Wednesday following a flight from London and questioned about his involvement in the Trump campaign.


In a statement sent to the Guardian, Malloch, who described himself as a policy wonk and defender of Trump, said the FBI also asked him about his relationship with Roger Stone, the Republican strategist, and whether he had ever visited the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where the Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has resided for nearly six years.

MORE
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...nd-farage-ally

Originally Posted by misskit

Malloch, who described himself as a policy wonk

he should be prosecuted, imprisoned and tortured just for saying that .

Originally Posted by misskit

said the FBI also asked him about his relationship with Roger Stone, the Republican strategist, and whether he had ever visited the Ecuadorian embassy

more evidence that indicates stone is in mueller's crosshairs.


if anyone doesn't know how much of douchebag roger stone is, check out this recent documentary:

^ Watched the whole thing last night. Very interesting stuff. I knew Stone went back to the Nixon administration but didn't really know how he was involved.

Speaking of Roger Stone. Sam Nunberg's appearance on the news shows has him rattled. Roger Stone is making a sharp break with Sam Nunberg, now threatening legal action against news organizations that report what he says. "Sam Nunberg is a cocaine addict and any news organization that takes anything he says seriously is courting a serious lawsuit"

https://twitter.com/levinejonathan/s...357471745?s=12

Depth Of Russian Politician's Cultivation Of NRA Ties Revealed

A prominent Kremlin-linked Russian politician has methodically cultivated ties with leaders of the National Rifle Association and documented efforts in real time over six years to leverage those connections and gain deeper access into American politics, NPR has learned.


Russian politician Alexander Torshin said his ties to the NRA provided him access to Donald Trump — and the opportunity to serve as a foreign election observer in the United States during the 2012 election.


Torshin is a prolific Twitter user, logging nearly 150,000 tweets, mostly in Russian, since his account was created in 2011. Previously obscured by language and sheer volume of tweets, Torshin has written numerous times about his connections with the NRA, of which he is a known paid lifetime member. NPR has translated a selection of those posts that document Torshin's relationship to the group.


These revelations come amid news that the FBI is investigating whether Torshin, the deputy governor of the Bank of Russia, illegally funneled money to the NRA to assist the Trump campaign in 2016, McClatchy reported in January.


In a letter to Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., a member of the Senate intelligence committee, the NRA denied any wrongdoing and suggested the FBI is investigating Torshin, not the NRA.

Neither the NRA nor Torshin responded to inquiries from NPR.


Investigations by Congress and the Department of Justice have revealed that the Russian government has sought to sharpen political divisions among American citizens by amplifying controversial social issues. Investigators have expressed concern about Russian links to the NRA, one of the most politically polarizing organizations in the U.S.


Torshin is a former Russian senator and served as the deputy speaker of Russia's parliament for more than a decade. Known as a Putin ally, he also spent time on Russia's National Anti-Terrorism Committee, a state body that includes the director of Russia's internal security service and the ministers of defense, interior and foreign affairs.


Torshin's use of NRA connections to open doors, and his 2015 claim to know Trump through the organization, raise new questions about the group's connections with Russian officials — at a time when the organization is being roundly criticized by its opponents, and at times the president himself, for opposition to gun control.


The president has also defended the group in recent days as the gun debate has re-emerged following a Florida school shooting, including a tweet calling the group's leaders "Great American Patriots."


The NRA has been a key part of Trump's conservative base. After a meeting with lawmakers in which Trump angered many conservatives for entertaining proposals for gun control, the president tweeted that he had another meeting with NRA leaders in the Oval Office on Thursday night.

On his verified Twitter account, Torshin talked about how he knew Trump through the NRA, citing a connection at the group's 2015 convention. Responding to a tweet about comedian Larry David accusing Trump of being a racist, Torshin said he knew the businessman through the NRA, and he defended him.


"I saw him in Nashville" in April 2015, Torshin that Trump has ever met Torshin.


Among his tens of thousands of tweets, Torshin also documented his attendance at every NRA convention between 2012 and 2016, only some of which have been previously reported.


Torshin's attendance at the NRA convention in 2016 is where he reportedly met with Donald Trump Jr.


Torshin had made repeated attempts to meet with Donald Trump himself at that convention during the presidential election year, but there is no evidence of this occurring. A conservative activist with ties to Torshin aide Maria Butina reached out to the Trump campaign in 2016, saying that Russia was "quietly but actively seeking a dialogue with the U.S." and would try to use the NRA convention to make "first contact," the New York Times reported.


"Putin is deadly serious about building a good relationship with Mr. Trump," the activist, Paul Erickson, wrote. "He wants to extend an invitation to Mr. Trump to visit him in the Kremlin before the election." Erickson has business ties to Butina, having started an LLC with her in South Dakota.


Torshin has used his repeated trips to NRA conventions to cultivate relationships with top NRA officials. And his Twitter account documents that he has personally met with every person who has been president of the NRA since 2012.


On Twitter, Torshin portrayed these meetings as more than merely casual encounters. In 2017, he tweeted that he was bringing a gift to then-NRA President Allan Cors and suggested he was familiar with Cors' hobbies.


Cors is the founder of the Virginia Museum of Military Vehicles, according to its website.


In a public Dropbox album that Torshin linked to from his Twitter account, he is seen meeting with former NRA President Jim Porter as well as another former NRA president, David Keene.


His tweets suggest a longtime relationship with Keene, who repeatedly appears in photos as Torshin documents his visits, suggesting that their meeting was not merely coincidental. Keene did not respond to a request for comment.


Torshin has also met the current president of the NRA, Pete Brownell, who was part of an NRA delegation that visited Moscow in 2015.


These relationships that he cultivated appeared to open another door. Torshin came to the United States in 2012 as an international election observer and watched as ballots were cast during the Obama-Romney presidential contest in Tennessee. This was possible, he wrote, because of his NRA links.


"Tennessee resident Kline Preston requested Mr. Torshin to be an international observer in November 2012," Adam Ghassemi, a spokesman for the Tennessee secretary of state, told NPR. The Washington Post reported last year that Preston, a Tennessee lawyer, was the one who originally introduced Torshin to Keene back in 2011.


The heat is on the Russian politician, who was alleged by Spanish police to have directed financial transactions for the Russian mob. Not only is the FBI reportedly investigating him — the bureau declined to comment for this story — but lawmakers involved in congressional investigations have also expressed interest in Torshin.


Both the Senate and House intelligence committees are currently engaged in investigations into potential ties between the Trump campaign and Russia.


Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee and a member of the Senate intelligence committee, has demanded that the Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network hand over documents related to Torshin and the NRA.


"The NRA and its related entities do not accept funds from foreign persons or entities in connection with United States elections," NRA General Counsel John Frazer wrote in response to a request from Wyden to turn over documents related to transactions between the NRA and Russian citizens. "NRA political decisions are made by NRA officers and executive staff, all of whom are United States citizens. No foreign nationals are consulted in any way on these decisions."


Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House intelligence committee, told NPR this week that the committee's members have asked relevant witnesses about the NRA through the course of their investigation.


"I can't go into what we've been able to learn thus far on that issue. I can tell you it's one of deep concern to me and to other members of the committee, that we get to the bottom of these allegations that the Russians may have sought to funnel money through the NRA," Schiff said. "It would be negligent of us not to investigate."


Glenn Simpson, the co-founder of research firm Fusion GPS, alluded to Torshin and the NRA during his closed-door testimony before the House intelligence committee in November.
"It appears the Russians, you know, infiltrated the NRA. And there is more than one explanation for why," Simpson told lawmakers. "But I would say broadly speaking, it appears that the Russian operation was designed to infiltrate conservative organizations. And they targeted various conservative organizations, religious and otherwise, and they seem to have made a very concerted effort to get in with the NRA."



Not only are congressional investigators interested in the NRA's relationship with Russia, but this inquiry comes as the NRA is receiving additional pressure from groups hoping to pass more gun restrictions into law and as dozens of American companies have cut ties with the organization in response to the Parkland, Fla., shooting last month.
"These revelations suggest that for years the NRA courted a top Putin ally who is now reportedly attracting scrutiny from the FBI," John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety, told NPR. "NRA leaders still haven't explained their close relationship with Russian officials in Putin's orbit. Until they do, people will continue to wonder what the NRA is hiding."


https://www.npr.org/2018/03/01/59007...-ties-revealed
View image on Twitter

Now that's the icing on the cake....

Imagine the fallout if the NRA had to admit it took money from Russians.

in 2016 the NRA spent $30 million on positive adds for trump and negative clinton ads.

that's a lot of money...even for the NRA.

as far as i know, the NRA has not publicly denied that it received money from the russians.

why wouldn't they just come out and say..."we have never received money from the russians"...... and i'm not talking about providing verifiable proof....just put out a statement.

and i'm going to guess the reason they haven't done this is because they did take the money.....and they can't lie about it because mueller is already all over it.

Originally Posted by CSFFan

Imagine the fallout if the NRA had to admit it took money from Russians.

I do not think that there will be much. The base of its support has already been brainwashed into thinking that Putin is some sort of badass who would be a better leader for America than Hillary. The hard right in the US has been completely hijacked and is utterly brainwashed at this point.

Originally Posted by bsnub

The base of its support has already been brainwashed into thinking that Putin is some sort of badass who would be a better leader for America than Hillary

That's the part that still bemuses me... I get that some people are distrustful of their own governments and whatnot, it's probably even warranted in some cases, but what's odd is how they've brought into this whole propaganda-Cult-of-Personality thing surrounding Putin where a demagogue who oppresses his own people and denies human rights has been promoted as the ideal.

Strikes me as weak people clinging to an idealized version of strength.

Dutch attorney gets 30 days in first sentence for Mueller probe

Alex van der Zwaan had admitted to lying to investigators.

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/...r-probe-498266

Grabbing Russian oligarchs coming into the US for questioning now!


Mueller's team questioning Russian oligarchs

Special counsel Robert Mueller's team has taken the unusual step of questioning Russian oligarchs who traveled into the US, stopping at least one and searching his electronic devices when his private jet landed at a New York area airport, according to multiple sources familiar with the inquiry.



A second Russian oligarch was stopped during a recent trip to the US, although it is not clear if he was searched, according to a person briefed on the matter.


Mueller's team has also made an informal voluntary document and interview request to a third Russian oligarch who has not traveled to the US recently.


The situations have one thing in common: Investigators are asking whether wealthy Russians illegally funneled cash donations directly or indirectly into Donald Trump's presidential campaign and inauguration.


Investigators' interest in Russian oligarchs has not been previously reported. It reveals that Mueller's team has intensified its focus into the potential flow of money from Russia into the US election as part of its wide-ranging investigation into whether the Trump team colluded with Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential election.


The approach to Russian oligarchs in recent weeks may reflect that Mueller's team has already obtained records or documents that it has legal jurisdiction over and can get easily, one source said, and now it's a "wish list" to see what other information they can obtain from Russians entering the US or through their voluntary cooperation.


MORE. https://edition.cnn.com/2018/04/04/p...chs/index.html

It's as some have already said on this thread, following the $$$...

Originally Posted by misskit

through their voluntary cooperation.

..."why yes, officer: I donated millions to the media effort to elect Trump...please, not too tight on my wrists..."

appears that the investigation into russian interference in the election has merit, while the investigation into trump conspiring with the russians to defeat hillay will come to an end.

except for ray, topper and harry, imagine most will agree that was the likely conclusion.

https://nypost.com/2018/04/04/democr...ion-delusions/

Much of the case for the impeachment of Trump is tethered to the alleged illegitimacy of his election — and much of that case relies on the findings of the Mueller investigation. Judging from the reaction we’ve seen so far to the reports that Trump is merely a subject, but not a target, of the special counsel, it seems most Democrats haven’t fully prepared themselves for the eventuality that the investigation may end up vindicating Trump.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/ampht...trump-is-weak/

Mueller told Trump he’s not a criminal target in the Russia probe.

Originally Posted by Farangrakthai

while the investigation into trump conspiring with the russians to defeat hillay will come to an end.

Not sure this shows the conclusion of the Trump collusion part of the investigation at all. Being a subject of an investigation means there is not enough evidence to bring charges. If you read further into that WaPo article, some believe Mueller is just trying to get Trump to sit down and talk.

Exactly, and the second part of the headline literally reads "That may not mean what you think."