Trump's Russian Collusion

[seacoaster]

"...Repeat after me:
There was no collision!!! "

OK, happy to oblige, just this once: There was no collision.

[njbill]

Bandito, you must have some kind of gizmo on your TV that sends the live transmission from the hearing through some type of Alex Jones filter which has the effect of reconfiguring and fictionalizing what actually transpires before it is transmitted to the TV in your living room. Amazing what technology can do today.

[old salt]

Bob Mueller is rightly regarded as an American hero & for good reason.
This is painful to watch. It's not right to put him in this position.
If these hearings are supposed to be the movie, rather than the book,
then the movie is Weekend at Bernies.

[RedFromMI]

Bob Mueller is rightly regarded as an American hero & for good reason.
This is painful to watch. It's not right to put him in this position.
If these hearings are supposed to be the movie, rather than the book,
then the movie is Weekend at Bernies.

Alexandra Petri from her Twitter feed:

this felt like putting a cat in a suit: the cat made it pretty clear he didn’t want to be in the suit, but folks persisted in putting him in the suit, and when he was in the suit it was fun for no one

[Typical Lax Dad]

Republicans in the House Judiciary did a superb job today. I can't feel more proud. Democrats had everybody believing Mueller was some type of wizard, but instead he was exposed to be a partisan hack and a mumbling fool. The Dems should be embarrassed and ashamed of themselves.

You mean the Republican Mueller?

[holmes435]

So just to reiterate:

1. There was collusion.
2. There was no criminal conspiracy from said collusion.
3. There are a dozen or so instances of where Trump obstructed justice.
4. The DOJ does not indict sitting presidents at this time regardless of any crime committed.
5. Any impeachment proceedings that make it through the House won't make it through the Senate.

From the hearing this morning:

"Could you charge the president with a crime after he left office?" Rep. Ken Buck (Republican), R-Colo., asked.
"Yes," Mueller said.
"You believe that he committed -- you could charge the president of the United States with obstruction of justice after he left office?" Buck asked again.
"Yes," Mueller answered. Transcript Source

So we're basically stuck twiddling our thumbs until election day on any crimes Trump has committed and may commit?

[cradleandshoot]

So just to reiterate:

1. There was collusion.
2. There was no criminal conspiracy from said collusion.
3. There are a dozen or so instances of where Trump obstructed justice.
4. The DOJ does not indict sitting presidents at this time regardless of any crime committed.
5. Any impeachment proceedings that make it through the House won't make it through the Senate.

From the hearing this morning:

"Could you charge the president with a crime after he left office?" Rep. Ken Buck (Republican), R-Colo., asked.
"Yes," Mueller said.
"You believe that he committed -- you could charge the president of the United States with obstruction of justice after he left office?" Buck asked again.
"Yes," Mueller answered. Transcript Source

So we're basically stuck twiddling our thumbs until election day on any crimes Trump has committed and may commit?

Can you think of another reason why Trump wants so badly to be re elected... savin his arse is pretty potent motivation.

[CU88]

Here Are All of the Indictments, Guilty Pleas and Convictions From Robert Mueller's Investigation

https://time.com/5556331/mueller-invest ... lty-pleas/

3 dozen Russians and Americans indicted

Trump's former campaign chairman and personal attorney in jail

Trump's 1st natsec advisor pleaded out

$42 million profit to the taxpayer from property seizures

2 panels of Republicans flipping out and screaming at Robert Mueller today

[ggait]

Holmes -- a lot of what we are seeing today is heavily determined by the legal construct the investigations are taking place under.

Go back and look at the Ken Starr report, which was done under a different IC/SC law then in effect. That report was delivered directly to Congress, not DOJ. The full unredacted report was released in two days (!!) to the public. That law specifically required Starr to make conclusions and referrals regarding impeachment. So it was much much more straightforward and there was none of this blithering about the OLC memo. Here's the first sentence from Starr, which couldn't be more clear:

"As required by Section 595(c) of Title 28 of the United States Code, the Office of the Independent Counsel ("OIC" or "Office") hereby submits substantial and credible information that President William Jefferson Clinton committed acts that may constitute grounds for an impeachment."

That IC law was overhauled in response to Starr and replaced with the current SC guidelines. So in Mueller's case: Mueller's boss is Barr; Mueller issues his report confidentially to Barr; Barr decides how much of the report to disclose and when and how to disclose it; Mueller can't say anything directly about impeachment (because impeachment is for Congress and Mueller doesn't work for Congress); Mueller is bound by the OLC opinion (so while sitting, the president has immunity); Mueller (in Mueller's view) can't even say if the evidence adds up to a crime (putting aside that he can't charge it).

It is just a totally different playing field -- Clinton was away; Trump's playing at home. And the home field advantage under the current SC system gets bigger if you have an AG like Barr, an amoral guy like Trump, and a megaphone like FNC.

Not sure what the right answer is -- I don't think we want to go back to the Starr Chamber. Other than hope the voters handle it.

[holmes435]

Can you think of another reason why Trump wants so badly to be re elected... savin his arse is pretty potent motivation.

Yep, followed by an Ivanka run in 2024 and a pre-emptive pardon following her inauguration

[youthathletics]

So just to reiterate:

1. There was collusion.
2. There was no criminal conspiracy from said collusion.
3. There are a dozen or so instances of where Trump obstructed justice.
4. The DOJ does not indict sitting presidents at this time regardless of any crime committed.
5. Any impeachment proceedings that make it through the House won't make it through the Senate.

From the hearing this morning:

"Could you charge the president with a crime after he left office?" Rep. Ken Buck (Republican), R-Colo., asked.
"Yes," Mueller said.
"You believe that he committed -- you could charge the president of the United States with obstruction of justice after he left office?" Buck asked again.
"Yes," Mueller answered. Transcript Source

So we're basically stuck twiddling our thumbs until election day on any crimes Trump has committed and may commit?

I thought I heard Mueller come back and correct the record, no?

[RedFromMI]

So just to reiterate:

1. There was collusion.
2. There was no criminal conspiracy from said collusion.
3. There are a dozen or so instances of where Trump obstructed justice.
4. The DOJ does not indict sitting presidents at this time regardless of any crime committed.
5. Any impeachment proceedings that make it through the House won't make it through the Senate.

From the hearing this morning:

"Could you charge the president with a crime after he left office?" Rep. Ken Buck (Republican), R-Colo., asked.
"Yes," Mueller said.
"You believe that he committed -- you could charge the president of the United States with obstruction of justice after he left office?" Buck asked again.
"Yes," Mueller answered. Transcript Source

So we're basically stuck twiddling our thumbs until election day on any crimes Trump has committed and may commit?

I thought I heard Mueller come back and correct the record, no?

He corrected the record specifically about an answer to Ted Lieu, not the one from Ken Buck. That question clarified whether the ONLY reason Mueller did not indict the president was the OLC opinion that you cannot do that, but he clarified to say that

Now before we go to questions I want to go back to one thing that was said this morning by Mr. Lieu who said, and I quote, ‘you didn’t charge the President because of the OLC opinion.’ That is not the correct way to say it. As we say in the report, and as I said at the opening, we did not reach a determination as to whether the President committed a crime

[ggait]

So Mueller says that Trump's written answers were untruthful..."generally."

And then Mueller smiles. Priceless. Telling.

https://crooksandliars.com/cltv/2019/07 ... ul-written

[RedFromMI]

So Mueller says that Trump's written answers were untruthful..."generally."

And then Mueller smiles. Priceless. Telling.

https://crooksandliars.com/cltv/2019/07 ... ul-written

Didn't catch that one!

[old salt]

So just to reiterate:

1. There was collusion.
2. There was no criminal conspiracy from said collusion.
3. There are a dozen or so instances of where Trump obstructed justice.
4. The DOJ does not indict sitting presidents at this time regardless of any crime committed.
5. Any impeachment proceedings that make it through the House won't make it through the Senate.

From the hearing this morning:

"Could you charge the president with a crime after he left office?" Rep. Ken Buck (Republican), R-Colo., asked.
"Yes," Mueller said.
"You believe that he committed -- you could charge the president of the United States with obstruction of justice after he left office?" Buck asked again.
"Yes," Mueller answered. Transcript Source

So we're basically stuck twiddling our thumbs until election day on any crimes Trump has committed and may commit?

I thought I heard Mueller come back and correct the record, no?

He corrected the record specifically about an answer to Ted Lieu, not the one from Ken Buck. That question clarified whether the ONLY reason Mueller did not indict the president was the OLC opinion that you cannot do that, but he clarified to say that

Now before we go to questions I want to go back to one thing that was said this morning by Mr. Lieu who said, and I quote, ‘you didn’t charge the President because of the OLC opinion.’ That is not the correct way to say it. As we say in the report, and as I said at the opening, we did not reach a determination as to whether the President committed a crime

As we say in the report, and as I said at the opening, we did not reach a determination as to whether the President committed a crime

[old salt]

Nadler is a political genius.
Nicole Wallace looks like her puppy was just run over.

[youthathletics]

Nice youtube clip OS. Waiting for TLD's counter.


https://www.instagram.com/p/B0TZYvZncUt ... hare_sheet

[Typical Lax Dad]

Nice youtube clip OS. Waiting for TLD's counter.


https://www.instagram.com/p/B0TZYvZncUt ... hare_sheet

Saw all of 15 minutes of it. Saw Nunes and a couple people before him. Just confirmed what we knew. Russian intelligence was an arm of the Trump Campaign. Manafort delivering polling data on Michigan, Wisconsin and Ohio (coupled with WikiLeaks theft of the DNC’s voter database) was a nothinburger. Have no idea why we even bothered to investigate. Obviously it was no big deal as the government has taken 0 steps to stop it from happening again. Will read about it tomorrow.

[get it to x]

Bob Mueller is rightly regarded as an American hero & for good reason.
This is painful to watch. It's not right to put him in this position.
If these hearings are supposed to be the movie, rather than the book,
then the movie is Weekend at Bernies.

To all of our liberal friends, you should stop digging. This is a dry well. Just look at Schiff's countenance. Even he knows it's over.

Salt, you're a good dude but you're wrong about Mueller. He is a dirty cop. He let men rot in jail to protect Whitey Bulger. He wrongly went after Richard Jewell for the Atlanta bombings. Can we talk about the Anthrax ordeal? In addition, no scrupulous attorney would have allowed the word "exoneration" to get anywhere near his report, knowing that it's not only not legal theory, but it's a loaded word with political implications.

[Trinity]

Rep. Demings: "Isn't it fair to say [Trump's] written answers were not only inadequate and incomplete because he didn't answer many of your questions, but where he did, his answers show that he wasn't always being truthful?"

Mueller: "Generally."