Thread: Mueller's Russian Interference investigation

Originally Posted by Farangrakthai

whatever the russians did, it was just messing with america like america messes with countries all over the world and has done for decades (iran, central and south america first come to mind).

who really thinks the russians had a magic ball and thought trump actually had a chance to win and were trying to put their hand on the scale?

ridiculous, IMO.

nobody thought trump would win, even experts like nate silver.

seems some have forgotten this.

working class voters in the rust belt who previously had voted for obama had a surprise for everyone.

What IS ridiculous is think the US and Russia mess around with other countries just for the fun of it.
Nobody has said the Russians thought he might win. What I said was the Russians would have wanted him to win.

Question for Trump’s security chief about the PeePee Tape



Longtime Trump bodyguard to face questions about 2013 Moscow trip

One of President Trump’s most trusted confidants, a security chief who served as his sounding board for nearly two decades, will face questions from congressional investigators next week about Trump’s 2013 trip to Moscow, according to people familiar with their plans.


The excursion is at the center of some of the most salacious allegations contained in a now-famous dossier, which contains unverified charges that Trump has vehemently disputed.


The House Intelligence Committee has called former longtime bodyguard Keith Schiller to appear for an interview Tuesday as part of its probe of Russian meddling in the 2016 election. Investigators plan to press Schiller about allegations in the 35-page dossier that Russian officials obtained compromising information about Trump’s personal behavior when he visited Moscow for the 2013 Miss Universe pageant, according to people familiar with the investigation.


The document, produced by a former British spy working for a firm hired by Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign, is a compilation of claims about coordination between Russian nationals and the Trump campaign amid a Kremlin-directed effort to tip the election in Trump’s favor.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...=.cd9734e00e54




Oh, please, please, please, let the PeePee Tapes be true!

^ When Meuller calls him in I will get excited. The house investigation is a sham controlled by the repubs. They are rushing through it as fast as possible.

Originally Posted by Farangrakthai

next year (as mentioned) with the podestas, clintons, obama cabinet officials, IMO and the dodgy dossier, and spying on the trump campaign.

wrong thread (as mentioned).

^ Yeah. I saw part of that interview. Made me sick.

Trump really thinks he can run the US government the way he runs his businesses. He thinks he can save money on employees by making all the top decisions himself.

He is deluded.

Ineptocracy.

In February, the president was asked a series of questions about his campaign’s contacts with Russia. His answers don’t hold up.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/11/trump-just-got-caught-in-a-big-lie-about-russia/544886/

Originally Posted by misskit

Oh, please, please, please, let the PeePee Tapes be true!

Please, oh, pleeeeeease.

Originally Posted by thailazer

Trump has not appointed a single person that has decent qualifications to any position. Look at that Alabama redneck politician that is now the Attorney General. The State Department has plenty of experts on world politics and threats, yet only Trump matters. Pathetic.

'I'm The Only One That Matters,' Trump Says Of State Dept. Job Vacancies : The Two-Way : NPR

I read this morning but got distracted before posting another of 45's appointments. This time as Science Adviser to some department. The chap (a climate denier), in 2012, is quoted as saying the air is too clean for our kids as they need the impurities to build up resistance to air pollution.

I'll have a scout and see if I can find it.

His "Energy Secretary" says that fossil fuels are good because they stop rapes in African villages....

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...sexual-assault

Originally Posted by Maanaam

This time as Science Adviser to some department. The chap (a climate denier), in 2012, is quoted as saying the air is too clean for our kids as they need the impurities to build up resistance to air pollution.

this fat fcuk?




well, he recently withdrew his nomination for the agriculture department's chief scientist because of ......wait for it......wait for it.....ties to the russian election scandal.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...=.05bef07d540a

^

Ya he was a real piece of work. A total scumbag be glad he withdrew.

Sexy...in a porky pig kinda way

^ Interesting comment. Different strokes...

Rick Gates Failed to Disclose Second Passport, U.S. Tells Judge

Rick Gates failed to disclose he had a second passport until three days after he surrendered to face charges with Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman that they hid their work as agents of Ukraine and laundered millions of dollars, prosecutors said.



Prosecutors for Special Counsel Robert Mueller cited that omission as one of several reasons they oppose Gates’s request to ease his bail terms, which confine him to his home in Richmond, Virginia, with electronic monitoring. Gates asked the judge to end the monitoring and allow him to travel around the U.S. and internationally.



The prosecutors said Gates’s lawyers didn’t tell them until Thursday about the second passport, even though he represented that he only had one when he pleaded not guilty in federal court in Washington on Monday.






Gates’s lawyers said in their request Thursday that he would be surrendering an additional passport, which had been pending, as well as another travel document.



Manafort’s international travels have also come under prosecutors’ scrutiny, as well as his three current passports with different numbers. The prosecutors said he had traveled to Mexico, China and Ecuador this year with a phone registered to an alias.


Gates, who faces as many as 12 1/2 years in prison, may flee if the judge eases the terms of his $5 million bail package, the prosecutors warned. Gates, who served as Manafort’s right-hand man in their international political consulting business, also failed to tell prosecutors about the nature and extent of his assets, according to the filing.


In his filing, Gates failed to address the “strong” evidence against him or the “existence of foreign bank records in his name, or his control over millions of dollars through these accounts,” prosecutors said.


While Gates’s lawyers had said his assets were limited, prosecutors said he claimed he was worth $30 million in a February 2016 application seeking a $3 million line of credit. In August, he and his wife had at least $1.9 million with a financial adviser, and they had paid $1.38 million since 2015 to a contractor working on their house.


The case is U.S. v. Manafort, 17-cr-201, U.S. District Court, District of Columbia (Washington).

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...-s-tells-judge

There's a lot more there says Mueller.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...s-papadopoulos

" ‘If you cooperate, you’ll get a very favourable deal’".
Hadn't something like this been always proposed to the witches chained in torture some time (not so long) ago?

Sorry bit busy today but more fun coming....

https://www.theguardian.com/news/201...o-they-tell-us

Federal investigators have gathered enough evidence to bring charges in their investigation of President Donald Trump's former national security adviser and his son as part of the probe into Russia's intervention in the 2016 election, according to multiple sources familiar with the investigation.

Michael T. Flynn, who was fired after just 24 days on the job, was one of the first Trump associates to come under scrutiny in the federal probe now led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller into possible collusion between Moscow and the Trump campaign.

Mueller is applying renewed pressure on Flynn following his indictment of Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, three sources familiar with the investigation told NBC News.

The investigators are speaking to multiple witnesses in coming days to gain more information surrounding Flynn's lobbying work, including whether he laundered money or lied to federal agents about his overseas contacts, according to three sources familiar with the investigation.

Mueller's team is also examining whether Flynn attempted to orchestrate the removal of a chief rival of Turkish President Recep Erdogan from the U.S. to Turkey in exchange for millions of dollars, two officials said.

Flynn's son, Michael G. Flynn, who worked closely with his father, accompanied him during the campaign and briefly worked on the presidential transition, could be indicted separately or at the same time as his father, according to three sources familiar with the investigation.

If the elder Flynn is willing to cooperate with investigators in order to help his son, two of the sources said, it could also change his own fate, potentially limiting any legal consequences.

The pressure on Flynn is the latest signal that Mueller is moving at a rapid and steady pace in his investigation. Last week, investigators unsealed indictments of Manafort and Manafort's business partner Rick Gates. They pleaded not guilty.

Investigators also revealed Monday that former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos had pleaded guilty to lying to federal officials and had been cooperating with Mueller's investigation.

If the senior Flynn is charged, he would be the first current or former Trump administration official formally accused of criminal wrongdoing by the Mueller team.

So far, the probe has only ensnared campaign officials, and the White House has argued that the connection to the president is minimal. An indictment of the president's former national security adviser and his son would scramble that dynamic.

A former senior law enforcement official said that in the weeks after Trump's inauguration the FBI was asked to conduct a new review of Turkey's 2016 request to extradite Fethullah Gulen, an elderly Muslim cleric living in the U.S. whom President Erdogan blames for orchestrating a coup to overthrow him.

The FBI pushed back on the request because Turkey had supplied no additional information that could incriminate Gulen following a review of the case during the Obama administration, the official said. It is unclear whether the request to investigate Gulen came from Flynn or through the typical diplomatic channels at the State Department.

The FBI is also investigating former CIA Director Jim Woolsey's account to The Wall Street Journal — which he confirmed to MSNBC — that Flynn and Turkish officials discussed a potential plan to forcibly remove Gulen from the country in September 2016, according to sources close to Woolsey, who say the former director has spoken to FBI agents working for Mueller about the matter.

Flynn was fired in February following public revelations that he had lied to Vice President Pence about his dealings with the Russian ambassador to the U.S., Sergey Kislyak.

Flynn's lawyer, Robert Kelner, declined to comment.

The younger Flynn's lawyer, Barry Coburn, declined to comment.

Father and Son

Both Flynns have for months been subjects of the Mueller investigation.

The elder Flynn, an Army lieutenant general, was pushed out as head of the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2014 and retired from the military. He then founded a lobbying firm, Flynn Intel Group, where his son worked closely with him. The younger Flynn was involved in the daily operations of his father's firm and functioned as his chief of staff. He often attended meetings with his father and would communicate with prospective clients.

The elder Flynn was paid $530,000 last year for work the Justice Department says benefited the government of Turkey. The elder Flynn did not register as a foreign lobbyist at the time, but did so retroactively this year. The issue has been part of Mueller's probe.

His lawyer later said Flynn didn't need to register because his client was a Turkish businessman and not a government official, but had opted to do so retroactively.

According to Flynn's Justice Department filing, the Flynn Intel Group was hired to gather information about Gulen, and to produce a short film about its findings.

During the contract, which ended the day after Trump won the election, Flynn had at least one meeting, in September 2016, with Turkish officials, according to officials. Woolsey says that it included a discussion about kidnapping Gulen and flying him to Turkey.

Flynn also was paid some $35,000 in 2015 by Russian state television for a speech in Moscow at a gala where he sat next to Russian President Vladimir Putin. The younger Flynn accompanied him on that trip. The trip raised concerns among federal officials.

NBC News has reported that others under scrutiny by Mueller include Carter Page, a Trump campaign ally; Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law and senior White House adviser; and the president's son, Donald Trump Jr. They have denied any collusion with Russia.

President Trump has denied any collusion with Russia during the campaign and has called the investigation a politically motivated witch hunt.

Kelner has declined to comment when asked if Flynn denies colluding with the Russian election interference effort.

Turkey has long demanded the U.S. extradite Gulen, saying he is considered a terrorist. Erdogan forcefully renewed that request after the attempted coup against him in July 2016. U.S. officials have said the Justice Department has not found sufficient evidence linking Gulen to the coup attempt despite the boxes of documents Turkey has submitted to the U.S. that Ankara says back up its claim.

Extradition requests are processed through the U.S. justice system and are not determined by the White House or other agencies.

Any quid-pro-quo deal such as the alleged agreement between Flynn and Turkey would be illegal, officials said.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...gation-n817666

^^ Trump commerce secretary's business links with Putin family laid out in leaked files

Donald Trump’s commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross, is doing business with Vladimir Putin’s son-in-law through a shipping venture in Russia.


Leaked documents and public filings show Ross holds a stake in a shipping company, Navigator, through a chain of offshore investments.

Navigator operates a lucrative partnership with Sibur, a Russian gas company part-owned by Kirill Shamalov, the husband of Putin’s daughter Katerina Tikhonova.


Ross, a billionaire and close friend of Trump, retained holdings in Navigator after taking office this year. The relationship means he stands to benefit from the operations of a Russian company run by Putin’s family and close allies, some of whom are under US sanctions.


Corporate records show Navigator ramped up its relationship with Sibur from 2014, as the US and EU imposed sanctions on Russians. The measures followed Putin’s aggression in eastern Ukraine and annexation of Crimea. Navigator has collected $68m in revenue from its Sibur partnership since 2014.


Ross, 79, has apparently faced little official scrutiny over the arrangement. He told a US ethics watchdog that he was keeping a pair of obscurely named holding companies, but did not specify whether he would also retain their interests in Navigator and its lucrative contract in Russia.


The Ross interests appear in the Paradise Papers, a trove of millions of leaked offshore files reviewed by the Guardian, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and other partners. They join established links between Ross and Russian finance that have raised questions over his selection by Trump to head the US Department of Commerce.


more https://www.theguardian.com/news/201...aradise-papers

When will it stop? The Paradise Papers exposes more of the Russian connection.


Russia funded Facebook and Twitter investments through Kushner associate

Two Russian state institutions with close ties to Vladimir Putin funded substantial investments in Twitter and Facebook through a business associate of Jared Kushner, leaked documents reveal.


The investments were made through a Russian technology magnate, Yuri Milner, who also holds a stake in a company co-owned by Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior White House adviser.


The discovery is likely to stir concerns over Russian influence in US politics and the role played by social media in last year’s presidential election. It may also raise new questions for the social media companies and for Kushner.

MORE https://www.theguardian.com/news/201...hner-associate

Curiouser and curiouser.