7/13/18: Having thoroughly trashed NATO, Trump has plunked down in Great Britain to see what kind of mess he can make. He has already insulted the mayor of London. Now he faces massive protests. Speaking at a press conference, with British Prime Minister Theresa May by his side, the president is forced to deny he has just blasted her in an interview the day before.
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“There’s two people I think Putin pays. Rohrabacher and Trump.”
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy
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Next, he takes questions from reporters about the Russian investigation, which gets on his nerves.
“I think that we’re being hurt very badly by the – I would call it the witch hunt,” he tells the British press. He brings up the hearing the day before, involving F.B.I. agent Peter Strzok and all the body-language-interpreting GOP lawmakers. “I would call it the rigged witch hunt, after watching some of the little clips.… I think that really hurts our country, and it really hurts our relationship with Russia [emphasis added, unless otherwise noted].”
Very sad. Hurting our relationship with Russia…
*
“Senior members of the presidential campaign of Donald J. Trump.”
ON THE OTHER SIDE of the Atlantic, the Department of Justice and the Mueller team fire three shots across the bow of the idiots who have been insisting the Russian investigation is a witch hunt. That would include:
Donald J. Trump, Idiot-in-Chief;
Rep. Paul Gosar, Body Language Dentist;
Rep. Louis Gohmert, Smirk Buster.
An even dozen Russian military officers are indicted for interfering in the 2016 election. It wasn’t some 400-lb. fat guy sitting on his bed doing the hacking, as Candidate Trump once hinted. It wasn’t China or some other country. It wasn’t chipmunks or squirrels chewing through computer wires. It was Russian military – which means they had to have the go-ahead from Putin himself.
The White House responds to the new set of indictments by noting that no Americans were named. Apparently, the White House is hoping we won’t notice the fine print in the 29-page court filing.
If you do read the indictment, and reach page 15, you notice something odd. The Russians clearly had suspicious contacts with multiple Americans during the 2016 campaign. In Paragraph 43 we learn that a candidate for Congress requested dirt on his opponent from Guccifer 2.0, a hacking site set up by the Russian military. The Russians “sent the candidate stolen documents.”
Also, on page 16, we learn that 2.5 gigabytes of stolen information were sent to a “then
state-registered lobbyist and online source of political news.” That same day
the hackers sent information related to Black Lives Matter to a reporter, so
the reporter could attack that group.
In Paragraph 44, investigators note that the Russians communicated with “U.S. persons about the release of stolen documents” including at least one American “in regular contact with senior members of the presidential campaign of Donald J. Trump.”
In Paragraph 57, we learn that the hackers are accused of money-laundering in furtherance of their scheme.
In Paragraph 69, on page 25, we learn that the Russians are charged with conspiracy,
…to hack into the computers of
U.S. persons and entities responsible for the administration of the 2016 U.S.
elections, such as state boards of election, secretaries of state, and U.S.
companies that supplied software and other technology related to the
administration of U.S. elections.
Of course, if you had been listening to President Trump for
more than a year and listened again when he spoke in Helsinki (see: 7/16/18), you would have thought
none of this illicit activity had transpired.
*
The liars back-pedal furiously.
AT THIS POINT all good Americans might be wise to remember a May 2017 report from the Washington Post.
In a leaked recording of a meeting of top Republican lawmakers, in June 2016, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy can be heard joking, “There’s two people I think Putin pays: [Rep. Dana] Rohrabacher and Trump.”
The Post explained:
Some of the lawmakers laughed at
McCarthy’s comment. Then McCarthy quickly added: “Swear to God.”
“This is an off the record,”
[Speaker Paul] Ryan said.
Some lawmakers laughed at that.
“No leaks, all right?” Ryan
said, adding: “This is how we know we’re a real family here.”
“That’s how you know that we’re
tight,” [Rep. Steve] Scalise said.
“What’s said in the family stays
in the family,” Ryan added.
The remarks remained secret for
nearly a year….
Evan McMullin, who in his role
as policy director to the House Republican Conference participated in the
June 15 conversation, said: “It’s true that Majority Leader McCarthy said
that he thought candidate Trump was on
the Kremlin’s payroll. Speaker Ryan was concerned about that leaking.”
McMullin ran for president last
year as an independent and has been a vocal critic of Trump.
When initially asked to comment
on the exchange, Brendan Buck, a spokesman for Ryan, said: “That never
happened,” and Matt Sparks, a spokesman for McCarthy, said: “The idea that
McCarthy would assert this is absurd and false.”
After being told that The Post would cite a recording of the
exchange, Buck, speaking for the GOP House leadership, said: “This entire
year-old exchange was clearly an attempt at humor. No one believed the majority
leader was seriously asserting that Donald Trump or any of our members were
being paid by the Russians. What’s more, the speaker and leadership team have
repeatedly spoken out against Russia’s interference in our election, and the
House continues to investigate that activity.”
“This was a failed attempt at
humor,” Sparks said.
And there you have it. As has so often been true where Russians and investigations are concerned, first you get lies from Republicans. Then the free press confronts the liars with evidence.
Then the liars back-pedal furiously.
 |
Rep. McCarthy trying to remember which lie he just told. |
POSTSCRIPT: We now know that Rep. Rohrabacher traveled to Moscow during the 2016 campaign. We know he received documents from Yuri Y. Chaika, Russia’s prosecutor general, a post equivalent to the U.S. Attorney General.
Rohrabacher denies using anything he received from Chaika to damage Hillary or the Democrats. (See: 7/18/18.)
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