10/18/18: Amid the turmoil of the Judge Kavanaugh hearings and the pummeling of Florida by Hurricane Michael, several developments in the Russia investigation may have escaped notice.
First, Trump had not tweeted, “WITCH HUNT,” in almost a month! That streak was broken two days ago, complete with lots of question marks and Trump’s trademark CAPITAL LETTERS:
Is
it really possible that Bruce Ohr, whose wife Nellie was paid by Simpson and
GPS Fusion for work done on the Fake Dossier, and who was used as a Pawn in
this whole SCAM WITCH HUNT, is still working for the Department of Justice?????
Can this really be so?????
While he was at it, the president also thought it might be fun to attack Stormy Daniels, a private citizen.
Recently, a judge dismissed one of two lawsuits filed by Daniels against our beloved Chief Exec. In case you live under a bridge where the Three Billy Goats like to cross, Stormy is the porn star Trump paid off in 2016 so she wouldn’t talk about their one-night stand.
So, with “victory” in hand, Trump couldn’t resist a tweet. Would his tweet demean the office of the presidency? Trump pondered a moment, giving it the same kind of consideration he used to give before grabbing women by the pussy. Then he started to type:
“Federal Judge throws out Stormy
Danials lawsuit versus Trump. Trump is entitled to full legal fees.” @FoxNews
Great, now I can go after Horseface and her 3rd rate lawyer in the Great
State of Texas. She will confirm the letter she signed! She knows nothing about
me, a total con!
I, for one, am trying to imagine Abraham Lincoln
communicating in the same way. Maybe, during a debate: “Get ‘Liddle Toadstool’
off this stage! Am I the only candidate who thinks Stephen Douglas looks like a
midget?”
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Sen. Stephen Douglas. |
Well, Stormy is a porn star with large breasts. She’s not easily embarrassed. She fires back at once:
Ladies and Gentlemen, may I
present your president. In addition to his...umm... shortcomings, he has
demonstrated his incompetence, hatred of women and lack of self control on
Twitter AGAIN! And perhaps a penchant for bestiality. Game on, Tiny.
“Tiny!” It has a certain ring. Even more insulting, in the
Trumpian style, than “Lyin’ Ted” or “Crooked Hillary.”
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Potential for a “smoking gun” to turn up easily discounted.
AS I WAS SAYING before I got distracted, our main topic today is Russians. We now know Paul Manafort has dropped by to talk to Special Counsel Mueller and his investigators nine times in the last month. We know investigators have zeroed in on Roger Stone, whom they suspect may have played a direct and illegal role in release of all stolen Clinton and Democratic National Committee emails. Several Stone associates have been called in for questioning, too. Stone claims he’s innocent and says any stories to the contrary are “defamatory.”
Investigators also want to know about any contacts with Russians that Manafort might have had during the campaign. If he had contacts – and it seems certain he did – who else in the campaign knew? A key area for inquiry: Who knew about the secret meeting with Russians in Trump Tower in June 2016? What was really discussed? Did Don Jr., who helped set it up, brief his dad?
Manafort was in that meeting, and the potential for a
“smoking gun” to turn up as a result is not easily discounted.
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Trump has to pray that Manafort (wearing pink tie) doesn't talk. |
If that’s not bad enough for Team Trump – but good for the country – we know Michael Cohen has also been talking to Mueller’s crew. And he is talking a lot. Like 50 hours, so far. His old boss, the president, is worried enough to start downing Cohen at every opportunity. In a recent interview with the Associated Press, Trump says Cohen’s claim – that then Candidate Trump told him to pay Stormy Daniels $130,000 to buy silence – is “totally false.”
Trump says he hardly remembers the man! Cohen was nothing but “a PR person who did small legal work.”
In the meantime, honoring a tradition of not interfering in coming elections, Mueller’s team has been quietly going about its job during the run-up to the midterms. Reporters note, however, “a flurry of court paperwork.” The Grand Jury has continued to meet almost every Friday. Scores of witnesses have been called as investigator try to construct a case. Those not called – indicating they could be targets of investigation – include Stone, Donald Jr., and Jared Kushner.
Rick Gates, who is also cooperating, has provided valuable insights into the machinations of the Trump campaign. According to The New York Times, Gates has told Mueller’s people that in early 2016, he solicited proposals from an Israeli company “to create fake online identities [emphasis added throughout], to use social media manipulation and to gather intelligence to help defeat Hillary Clinton.”
That’s a little better than working with Russians – a hostile
power – but still indicative of a campaign that might have been happy to accept help from foreign nations
to impact a U.S. election.
First, Gates wanted to know if the company could create “bogus personas” to sway the opinions of 5,000 delegates to the 2016 National Republican Convention. The target in that case would be Sen. Ted Cruz, then Trump’s last remaining challenger. Another proposal, sources told the Times, would involve “complimentary intelligence activities” to damage Mrs. Clinton and individuals close to her.
A third proposal involved the Israelis working to “expose and amplify” divisions among rival campaigns and among the American people in such a way as to aid Candidate Trump. That operation would be code named, “Project Rome.” Mr. Trump would be “Lion.” (Given his weird orange mane, I think “Orangutan” would have been better.) Mrs. Clinton would be “Forest.”
Ted Cruz would be “Bear.”
The Times is
careful to note that there is no evidence the campaign acted on these
proposals. But the owner of the company, Psy-Group, Joel Zamel, did meet
with Donald Trump Jr. in August 2016. Sources told the Times that Mueller’s team had copies of the proposals and had
questioned Psy-Group employees.
Again, before anyone doses off reading this story, keep in mind. This would be an effort to get an Israeli company to shape the election. Gates told investigators he first heard about Psy-Group during a March 2016 meeting with George Birnbaum. The Times calls him “a Republican consultant with close ties to current and former Israeli government officials.” Birnbaum is a protégé of Arthur J. Finkelstein. Finkelstein is remembered for helping Benjamin Netanyahu win election to be prime minister of Israel in 1996. And we know Netanyahu had no love for Secretary of State Clinton.
Evidence hints at several legal problems for Team Trump. Birnbaum allegedly initiated contact with Gates, first asking a man named Eckart Sager, to pitch him ideas. Sager’s name came to light when investigators charged Manafort with witness tampering. That is: he wanted Sager to lie about what he had been up to during the campaign.
So Sager may know more than the Trump folks would like investigators to know and he may be talking.
Illegal for foreigners to perform campaign work on U.S. soil.
There are plenty of signs that the people floating these ideas knew they might be breaking the law. The proposals all promise high-level secrecy, with code names for people involved and password-protected documents. All this for the low, low price of $3,000,000. Psy-Group would hire an additional fifty employees to make sure the work got done, including at least a few Americans. (It would absolutely be illegal for foreigners to perform campaign work on U.S. soil – which gives you some idea how closely these people were skirting the line.)
We do know that on August 3, 2016, Mr. Zamel pitched his ideas on interference in a meeting with Donald Trump Jr. Also attending that day were George Nader, an emissary of the United Arab Emirates (yes, another foreign power) and Erik Prince, former head of Blackwater Security. It is not known if any members of the campaign crossed any lines into illegality.
We do know they were working hard to cover their tracks.
Marc Mukasey, a lawyer for Mr. Zamel, obviously understood
the danger his client might be in if more damaging information surfaced.
Speaking to reporters, he explained, “Mr. Zamel never pitched, or otherwise
discussed, any of Psy-Group’s proposals relating to the U.S. elections with
anyone related to the Trump campaign, including not with Donald Trump Jr.,
except for outlining the capabilities of some of his companies in general
terms.”
Still, there seems to be disagreement among thieves. Zamel and Nader clash over whether any work was carried out for the campaign.
Mueller’s team is interested, then, in why Nader paid Zamel $2,000,000 after the election. We do know U.S. investigators presented a court order to Israeli police to confiscate Psy-Group’s computers.
So the threads Mueller and his team need to pull lead all the
way to Petah Tivka, east of Tel Aviv, where the company was formerly located.
Psy-Group, as the Times report
concludes, “is now in liquidation.”
*
ANY OTHER PRETINENT NEWS, involving President Trump and the Russians? Thanks for asking. There is indeed.
Mueller’s team has presented questions to the president to be answered and – surprisingly enough – investigators seem willing to let Trump’s lawyers help him craft written replies. The virtue of getting Trump’s answers in writing, even if his own lawyers do have to sedate him to keep him from going off on wild tangents and perjuring himself, might not be clear. Legal experts note that if investigators get his answers on paper and have other evidence to undercut those answers, good old Donald won’t be able to weasel his way out of trouble.
Here it strikes me: “Weasel” would have been a good code name for Trump in all the Psy-Group proposals.
Trump was asked in a recent interview with the Associated Press, if he would sit for an interview with Robert Mueller, or stick to written answers.
“You know that’s in process. It’s a tremendous waste of time for the president of the United States,” he grumbled.
Yes, Trump hates to “waste” presidential time. That’s why, since he took office, he has tweeted thousands of times and spent:
162 days at his private golf courses.
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____________________
They are too
clueless to grasp why pounding reporters, or cutting them up in pieces, is
what truly terrible governments prefer.
____________________
WITH WHOLE WORLD watching and wondering how Trump will react to evidence that the Saudis have murdered a reporter, who was living in the United States, and who has three children who are U.S. citizens, Trump decides to go to another campaign rally. This time he’s headed for Montana.
He decides to compliment Greg Gianforte, Montana’s lone member in the U.S. House of Representatives, for body-slamming a reporter during his run for office in a special 2017 election.
From the podium at the rally, Trump points at other reporters
in attendance and grins, as if to say, you could be next if you keep
criticizing me. Then he mimics slamming a person to the ground. His fans laugh
and cheer like contented patrons at the gladiatorial games. Trump beams at the
audience, like an emperor about to give a “thumbs down.”
His fans don’t care that Gianforte lied and said he didn’t slam the reporter. Trump doesn’t care. Neither Trump nor his fans care that Gianforte was sentenced to 40 hours of community service and 20 hours of anger management. They don’t care that he was ordered to pay court costs and provide $4,464.97 in restitution. And they are too clueless to grasp why pounding reporters, or cutting them up in pieces, is what truly terrible governments prefer.
It helps alleviate the irritations of dealing with a free
press.
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