old salt wrote: ↑Wed Aug 21, 2019 10:50 am
MDlaxfan76 wrote: ↑Tue Aug 20, 2019 11:49 pm
old salt wrote: ↑Tue Aug 20, 2019 10:25 pm
3rdPersonPlural wrote: ↑Tue Aug 20, 2019 9:18 pm
old salt wrote: ↑Tue Aug 20, 2019 8:07 pm
Trump put Papadop & Carter Page on his advisory panel just because he needed some warm body PhD "subject matter experts" to feed to the media. He never met those 2, or sought their advice. Sam Clovis was their baby sitter & did a commendable job keeping them from acting out their schemes & doing anything even more stupid.
Yup. These guys were just added because they looked to the hoi polloi like serious scholars. Window dressing. Right?
Old Salt wrote:
Once their names were in the news, they sought to exploit their presumed access. Big deal artists from all directions made runs at them. No surprise that some were spies (aka informants when they're our spies). Carter Page is so far out there, he still likes Stefan Halper because he'd listen to his disjointed ramblings. I can't believe the FBI took these clowns seriously for so long.
Yup. So when you post an article that claims that because these guys were jokers we should admit that the whole witch hunt was ill advised, I step up and differ.
It should not have taken that long to figure out & the investigation should not have been leaked to the media.
It was a pretext for an investigation to damage Trump. The IG's, Durham's & Huber's investigations will determine if there was adequate predicate for the investigation & if it was conducted within DoJ guidelines. You're free to prejudge the outcome. I'll wait for the results of those investigations.
Glad we're "free to prejudge the outcome".
From your post, sounds like you've done a whole lot of prejudging, with zero basis, so ok.
Zero basis ? The Crossfire Hurricane & Mueller investigations are complete.
Based on the results of those investigations, it's my judgement that there was insufficient justification to initiate them, then leak them, then undermine a new Presidency, undermine foreign policy & put the nation through this disruption, turmoil & division. I'm happy to wait for the IG & US Arry's Durham & Huber to either confirm or refute my judgement & to provide the answers which have been withheld from us about what our IC & DoJ did to impact the 2016 election & the new Presidency it yielded.
hmmm, you castigate folks for "prejudging" but that's sure a lot of "judgement" you're spouting there, Salty.
But, yes, that's clearly your opinion. Based on a very flawed logic, IMO.
The Mueller Report makes clear that the Russian effort was large, extensive and multi-faceted. It made clear that the Trump crew knew that was the case both during the campaign and after the election (yet lied about it over and over again, before and after the election), they didn't report various approaches by the Russians to them, in fact they warmly welcomed the election interference, and even went so far as to provide targeted election messaging and specific polling data, they aligned and amplified the messaging of the Russians and vice versa.
It also makes clear that, contrary to Trump's numerous assurances to the American voters, he and his company were actively engaged in a massive business proposition with the Russians, requiring Putin's approval, deep into the campaign. Lies and more lies.
The Report makes clear that both during the campaign and the transition, the Trump crew were having secret meetings with the Russians...and lying about it.
Of course, they also uncovered other criminal activity of folks like the Campaign Chairman and Deputy Campaign Chairman, including working with Russian proxies.
So, a whole bunch of lies, a considerable amount of witness tampering, and other obstructive activity. Some of which the Mueller Report made clear was prosecutable of Trump himself once he leaves office, though not before.
But according to you and Trump, the whole thing was a hoax. The FBI should never have grown suspicious, shouldn't have investigated the Russians, shouldn't have investigated Trump and his campaign's relationship with the Russians, I suppose should have just said, "well, he won, he's the King".
It appears that Barr agrees with you, the whole 'unitary' power thing. Sure smacks of the authoritarian to me. I'd say exactly the same thing if this was Dem in office (I'm a lifelong R).
But you agree with some of his policies. Hoo boy.