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  • Current Events & Politics Moderators: deficiT | tryptakid | Foreigner

US Politics The Mueller Investigation - report is out

i kinda brace myself for the news that trump has been charged, been committed to a secure mental health ward, resigned or dropped dead.
Don't hold your breath.
Although you could pray for him to die if that's what you really desire.

anyway, his "poitical career" just keeps getting more precarious and untenable each day.
I'd say the longer he's in power it seems the more solid his presidency is and the more it looks like there's no substantial evidence against him

uh-oh:

FBI: Pedophile Jeffrey Epstein Was Informant for Mueller's FBI; Special Counsel Under Fire for Deal with Sex Offender

https://truepundit.com/fbi-pedophil...ounsel-under-fire-for-deal-with-sex-offender/

The FBI tweeted out a link to its files on Jeffrey Epstein on Thursday.

Twitter sleuth @Techno_Fog mined an interesting gem from the files, showing that Epstein likely served as an informant to the FBI. Robert Mueller?' FBI in 2008.

Yikes.
.......

Epstein is a controversial figure and friend of the Clinton family, alleged to run the sexual "Lolita Express" to his private island.

The FBI's release includes heavily redacted pages and also a large number of deleted pages, among other unredacted documents.
 
^Epstein is a close personal friend and longtime associate of Donald Trump. Bill Clinton is buddies with Epstein too: as a matter of fact, lots of powerful dudes are friends with Epstein, because Epstein has the hook-up on the hottest 15-year old pussy, a commodity which stays in perpetually high demand among the Viagra and Brioni suit crowd.

Clinton's potential wrongdoing is a totally different issue from Trump's potential wrongdoing, though. It exists, and it's a thing. But Trump's does too. And although there's some evidence linking Epstein to Bill Clinton, there's a lot more linking him to Trump. I'd bet the house that all three of those dudes were fucking teenage girls, because that's just a very common occurrence in certain circles. Particularly ones involving a bunch of wealthy commercial real estate dudes in New York.

NSFW:
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Power in this country isn't partisan in the slightest. Partisanship is a sort of prop, it's like a beach-ball for the little people to swat around. At the top, everybody's on the same team and plays by their own set of rules. Your boy Trump is no different. It's the nature of power itself, and it's been the same way since the beginning of human history and it will probably always be the same way until we evolve into a different species entirely.
 
And although there's some evidence linking Epstein to Bill Clinton, there's a lot more linking him to Trump

Um, no there isn't. As you might be aware Epstein operated a pedophile island full of underage sex slaves, flying his friends there on his private jet nicknamed the 'Lolita Express'.
Trump flew on the Lolita Express ONCE, which implies he was not a fan of whatever he witnessed. Bill Clinton flew on the Lolita Express more than 25 times, and Hillary Clinton at least 5-6 times. Trump actually banned Epstein from his private club after he was caught harassing the young daughter of a member there. (some other frequent flyers on the LE was Kevin Spacey, Chris Tucker, Prince Andrew)

That file you posted, what was the outcome of that case? Conviction? Settlement?

Also I left you a bunch of questions in the Clinton thread. Feel free to answer them.
 
Perhaps it's time to catch up a bit before the WITCH HUNT!!!!!! crowd starts up.

Question: Who will flip first? Manafort or Cohen?
CD's answer: Cohen. Manafort probably can't-- he's worked with some really nasty people. Like threaten to kill-your-family nasty.

Also, Manafort's right-hand guy flipped, so I'm not sure he can cut a deal. I'm guessing he's the "example of what happens when you don't cooperate and are a really awful person".

Unless he has dirt on Trump that Gates doesn't. The legal saying is "always plead up". Meaning Manafort has to have dirt on a bigger fish than Gates does.

Question: Will Trump start handing out pardons?
CD's Answer: Hard to say. I think he's going with the "if I tweet enough people will believe me". I'm not sure he's wrong. :\

It is awesome :D that Manafort keeps losing important motions in court. He's a scumbag.

Paul Manafort is having a very bad month ? and the odds of him flipping on Trump just keep getting higher

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  • A series of rapid developments in one of the two cases against President Donald Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort indicate he is fighting an uphill battle against special counsel Robert Mueller.


  • Over the last month, Manafort lost motions to dismiss the case, dismiss new charges against him, and suppress new evidence.


  • He was also accused of attempted witness tampering, hit with a new superseding indictment, and sent to jail.


  • The mounting pressure significantly raises the odds of Manafort flipping on Trump.

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Paul Manafort, the former chairman and manager of President Donald Trump's campaign, is waging an uphill battle against special counsel Robert Mueller in the Russia investigation.

Manafort is the defendant in two separate criminal indictments from Mueller's office ? one in Virginia and one in Washington, DC. He stands charged with over two dozen counts related to tax and bank fraud, conspiracy, obstruction of justice, making false statements, and failure to register as a foreign agent.

Manafort's lawyers have put up an aggressive defense against Mueller, who is investigating Russian election interference, but a series of developments over the last month in the Washington, DC case indicate that the outcome for Manafort could be bleak.

First strike

Manafort's lawyers filed two motions to dismiss the Washington, DC and Virginia cases, respectively.

Manafort's lawyers argued that Mueller had overstepped his authority by charging Manafort with crimes unrelated to Russian collusion, and that the scope of Mueller's mandate was overly broad.

In May, US District Judge Amy Berman Jackson struck down Manafort's motion to dismiss the Washington, DC case.

Jackson concluded in a 37-page opinion that Manafort is an "obvious person of interest" for Mueller "given the combination of his prominence within the campaign and his ties to Ukrainian officials supported by and operating out of Russia, as well as to Russian oligarchs."

She added that charging him "falls squarely" within Mueller's mandate, pointing to an August 2017 memo that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein sent to Mueller outlining the scope of his investigative authority.

Second strike

In early June, prosecutors asked the court to revoke Manafort's bail, accusing him and his longtime associate, the former Russian intelligence operative Konstantin Kilimnik, of attempted witness tampering.

Witness tampering "interferes with the proper functioning of the trial," and for that reason, judges tend to view it as a serious infraction, Jens David Ohlin, a vice dean at Cornell Law School who is an expert in criminal law, said in an earlier interview. "I'd expect the judge to come down hard on Manafort and revoke bail ? assuming that Mueller has solid evidence of improper contact between Manafort and the witness."

Ohlin added: "What was he thinking?"

Third strike

Four days later, Mueller's office hit Manafort and Kilimnik with a new superseding indictment that charged them with conspiracy to obstruct justice and obstruction of justice related to their alleged attempts to influence witness testimony.

Manafort's lawyers fired back in a court filing later that night, arguing that prosecutors were using "heavy-handed tactics" to "corruptly persuade" two witnesses to perjure themselves at Manafort's September trial.

Adding that he did not ask any witnesses to falsely testify or lie to the court, they asked the judge to toss out the two new charges against Manafort.

They also said Mueller publicly disclosed Manafort's alleged witness-tampering attempts in order to sabotage his request to be released from home detention.

Jackson refused to dismiss the charges.

Fourth strike

Less than a week later, Jackson sided with prosecutors on their motion to revoke Manafort's bail. He was subsequently sent to jail.

Legal experts said Manafort is now faced with the same decision as others in the Russia investigation: should he flip?

"It's one thing to be a stand-up guy and not cooperate with prosecutors when you're out and about," said Jeffrey Cramer, a longtime former federal prosecutor who spent 12 years at the Justice Department. "That dynamic changes once the cell door locks and you spend your first night in prison."

Mueller's team first asked the court in December to revise the terms of Manafort's release after it learned that, while out on bail, he was ghostwriting an op-ed article about his lobbying work for Ukraine. Jackson issued a warning to Manafort at the time and did not penalize him.

"This is not about politics," she said after deciding to revoke his bail this month. "It is not about the conduct of the Office of Special Counsel. It is about the defendant's alleged conduct."

"Manafort did this to himself," Cramer said. "And now he's caught between a rock and a hard place, because he's going to be in jail for months."

Fifth strike

On Thursday night, Jackson dealt yet another blow to Manafort's case when she concluded that the FBI's search and seizure of a storage unit in Virginia belonging to Manafort's consulting firm was lawful.

Manafort's attorneys filed a motion earlier this year seeking to suppress the evidence that was seized, arguing that it should not be used in court because the initial search was conducted without a warrant.

Jackson wrote that the initial search was lawful because the FBI got permission to conduct it from a person listed as a lessee for the storage locker. She added that even if the initial search was unlawful, the seizure of the storage locker's contents was permitted because the search warrant the FBI obtained was based on an affidavit that spelled out why investigators believed Manafort was engaging in criminal activity.

Another key pillar of Manafort's lawyers' argument to suppress evidence was that the warrant itself was too broad and amounted to a carte blanche in violation of Manafort's Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable search and seizure.

Jackson on Thursday struck down that argument as well, writing that the warrant specifically instructed FBI agents to look for evidence related to the criminal activity related to his Ukraine lobbying work that Manafort is accused of engaging in.

Manafort is currently incarcerated at Northern Neck Regional Jail in Virginia. His trial in the Virginia case is scheduled for July 25, and his trial in Washington, DC is set for September 17.
 
I think we have a cooperator...

Michael Cohen breaks his silence and makes a full split from Trump: 'I put family and country first'

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  • President Donald Trump's longtime lawyer Michael Cohen broke his silence in an interview with ABC News revealed Monday.
  • He publicly split with the president on several topics, including Russian election meddling and FBI criticism.
  • "To be crystal clear, my wife, my daughter, and my son and this country have my first loyalty," Cohen said.

President Donald Trump's longtime lawyer Michael Cohen has broken his silence on the federal criminal investigation into him and publicly split with his old boss in an off-camera interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos.

In the Saturday interview, which Stephanopoulos detailed in an article published Monday morning and also discussed on "Good Morning America," Cohen said he would "put family and country first" when considering what he should do regarding that criminal investigation.


When Stephanopoulos pressed Cohen about his past vow to "take a bullet" for Trump, Cohen doubled down, saying: "To be crystal clear, my wife, my daughter, and my son and this country have my first loyalty."
Cohen, who worked for Trump over the past decade, is the focus of an investigation in the Southern District of New York into whether he violated campaign-finance laws or committed bank fraud, wire fraud, illegal lobbying, or other crimes. The FBI raided his home, his office, and his hotel room in April, seizing roughly 4 million documents from the lawyer. At the time, Trump raged against the raid and tweeted that "attorney-client privilege is dead!"


But in reviewing the documents to decide what to claim as privileged, Cohen's legal team selected only about 12,000 of the 4 million documents, a number experts said was an exceedingly low percentage for a lawyer.


In June, Cohen hired Guy Petrillo as the latest lawyer representing him in the case after it was reported that Cohen was breaking up with his legal team. Petrillo, a partner at Petrillo Klein & Boxer, has extensive experience in the Southern District of New York, which is something Cohen reportedly sought. Experts told Business Insider Petrillo was the kind of lawyer a person would choose if he or she were seeking to cut a deal with prosecutors.


"Once I understand what charges might be filed against me, if any at all, I will defer to my new counsel, Guy Petrillo, for guidance," Cohen told ABC News.

In the past few weeks, Cohen seemed to be sending Trump signals regarding whether he planned to cooperate with authorities.


In a resignation letter to the Republican National Committee, he publicly criticized Trump's family separations at the US-Mexico border, and people close to him told The Wall Street Journal and CNN he was frustrated Trump wasn't paying his legal bills ? even suggesting Cohen was open to cooperating with the government and providing information on Trump.


Trump has distanced himself from Cohen, suggesting that the investigation has far more to do with Cohen's business dealings than anything Cohen did for the president. Trump has also said he is not worried about Cohen giving the government anything damaging on him because he hasn't done anything wrong.


Stephanopoulos asked Cohen how he might respond if Trump and his legal team began trying to discredit him, and Cohen said he would "not be a punching bag as part of anyone's defense strategy."


"I am not a villain of this story, and I will not allow others to try to depict me that way," Cohen said.

Further splitting from Trump

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Cohen also refused to criticize the federal investigators digging into his business dealings and legal work.
"I respect the prosecutors," he said. "I respect the process. I would not do or say anything that might be perceived as interfering with their professional review of the evidence and the facts."


At the center of Cohen's troubles is a $130,000 payment he facilitated weeks before the 2016 presidential election to the porn star Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, to keep her quiet about her allegation of a 2006 affair with Trump. The FBI sought documents related to that payment and other similar agreements with women.
Trump, Cohen, and the White House denied that an affair took place. Originally, Cohen said Trump did not reimburse him for the payment. In May, however, Trump acknowledged paying back his lawyer for the cost.


Asked whether Trump directed him to pay Daniels, Cohen said he could not comment now but hoped to soon.


"I want to answer," he said. "One day I will answer. But for now, I can't comment further on advice of my counsel."


Cohen split with Trump over the pushback to federal investigators, both those involved in the criminal investigation into the attorney and those tied to the special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.


"I don't agree with those who demonize or vilify the FBI," Cohen said. "I respect the FBI as an institution, as well as their agents."


Cohen said the FBI conducted itself properly in the way it conducted the April raids.
"When they searched my hotel room and my home, it was obviously upsetting to me and my family," he said. "Nonetheless, the agents were respectful, courteous, and professional. I thanked them for their service, and as they left we shook hands."


Cohen specifically called out the phrase "witch hunt," which Trump frequently uses and has repeatedly called Mueller's investigation.


"I don't like the term 'witch hunt,'" he said, adding that he condemned Russia for its election meddling. "As an American, I repudiate Russia's or any other foreign government's attempt to interfere or meddle in our democratic process, and I would call on all Americans to do the same."


Cohen also pushed back on a tweet Trump sent last week mentioning Russia's denial of any election interference.
"Simply accepting the denial of" Russian President Vladimir Putin was "unsustainable," he said.


He added: "I respect our nation's intelligence agencies'... unanimous conclusions."


Cohen criticized members of Trump's inner circle ? such as his son Donald Trump Jr. and his son-in-law Jared Kushner, now a White House senior adviser ? for participating in the infamous June 2016 Trump Tower meeting with several Russians after being promised dirt on the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton.


"I believe it was a mistake by those from the Trump campaign who did participate," he said. "It was simply an example of poor judgment."


Cohen said he could not comment "under advice of my counsel" on whether Trump knew of the meeting before it happened.
 
australia' national broadcaster did an investigation into trump's russia links and russia's attacks on america's demcratic and legal institutions.

it's a bloody good piece of investigative journalism, and i'd recommend people watch these 3 40 minute pieces, if you have time.
i just watched them, and they're pretty interesting.




 
^i watched a bit of the hilarious ABC propaganda pieces..

James Clapper: "The Russians are famous for interfering in elections, theirs and other people's"
Excuse me what the fuck? I thought it was the USA that deposed 50+ often democratically-elected governments, one of the more recent was influencing Ukraine and we all saw what that led to.

I'll assume the gist of those clips is that Trump is compromised by Russia.
Well then did they talk about the Uranium One deal if we want to discuss presidential candidates colluding with the Russian government?

WHAT IF Trump sent Melania to meet with Vladimir Putin at his home, Melania then gave a speech (lifted from Michelle O) and she received $500,000 from a Kremlin bank..
Then later on the Trump Foundation received $150 million from some Russians connected to a government deal which then allowed Putin to obtain a massive chunk of US uranium.
Then the uranium is illegally removed from the US to Canada and then onto Europe, because FBI Director Wray finds Russian foul play but Trump ignores it and Pompeo signs off on the deal.

Would that shit fly? Hell no, and that's exactly what happened, except it was Robert Mueller who was in charge of the FBI at the time! The guy investigating Trump was directly involved in Russian collusion!
Can't make this up.

Also I've yet to hear a good argument against improving relations with the Russian state.
 
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