Trump's Russian Collusion

[Typical Lax Dad]

I have to give it to you TLD, you are one patient man, you love waiting for everything. AS my grandfather would say "the longer you wait, the better it is". Hope you do not get what you wait for however, because it would be a bad day for America.

You have more confidence in Manafort, Stone and Don jr. than I do!

[foreverlax]

Andrew McCabe: I told congressional leaders that the FBI was investigating President Trump – and they didn't object

Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe said Tuesday that no congressional leaders voiced objections when he told them in May 2017 that the bureau had opened a counterintelligence investigation into President Donald Trump.

O

n the Senate side, the group of lawmakers at the time were Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C., and ranking member Mark Warner, D-Va.

The House members were then-Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and then-Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., as well as former House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., and then-ranking member Adam Schiff, D-Calif.

Will wait to see who tweets McCabe is lying about this....

[a fan]

If McCabe is proven correct on this count, the whole "Deep State" crap totally unravels, and there's a whole mess of posters here who owe our investigative folks in the Executive and Judicial Branch a big fat apology.

I also want to know why these Congressional leaders didn't back up the FBI? For two years FoxNation have been bashing this crew as if they "went rogue". If it turns out that nope, they told a bipartisan group that they were investigating Trump and his crew....What the heck? Why didn't they back them up?

This whole thing is such a **itshow.

[old salt]

If McCabe is proven correct on this count, the whole "Deep State" crap totally unravels, and there's a whole mess of posters here who owe our investigative folks in the Executive and Judicial Branch a big fat apology.

I also want to know why these Congressional leaders didn't back up the FBI? For two years FoxNation have been bashing this crew as if they "went rogue". If it turns out that nope, they told a bipartisan group that they were investigating Trump and his crew....What the heck? Why didn't they back them up?

This whole thing is such a **itshow.

The Congressional leaders (mostly) kept their mouths shut & didn't leak to the media, ...unlike Comey, McCabe & the Deep State leakers.
The investigation was classified & intended to remain so.

It was counter intel investigation of Russian interference.
If a counter intel investigation targets a US citizen, it must become a criminal investigation.
Did McCabe tell the Gang of 8 that Trump became the target of a criminal investigation ?
That's a critical distinction.

McCabe's in a jam for misleading the IG & the FBI OPR about his leaking.

[Trinity]

About the Hillary Investigation. Not Trump and his Russians.

[old salt]

If McCabe is proven correct on this count, the whole "Deep State" crap totally unravels, and there's a whole mess of posters here who owe our investigative folks in the Executive and Judicial Branch a big fat apology.

I also want to know why these Congressional leaders didn't back up the FBI? For two years FoxNation have been bashing this crew as if they "went rogue". If it turns out that nope, they told a bipartisan group that they were investigating Trump and his crew....What the heck? Why didn't they back them up?

This whole thing is such a **itshow.

The Congressional leaders (mostly) kept their mouths shut & didn't leak to the media, ...unlike Comey, McCabe & the Deep State leakers.
The investigation was classified & intended to remain so.

It was counter intel investigation of Russian interference.
If a counter intel investigation targets a US citizen, it must become a criminal investigation.
Did McCabe tell the Gang of 8 that Trump became the target of a criminal investigation ?
That's a critical distinction.

McCabe's in a jam for misleading the IG & the FBI OPR about his leaking.

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/andrew- ... bout-trump

Because the FBI did not have solid evidence of a crime, they did it under counterintelligence authority rather than criminal authority – calculating that the cover of probing Russia’s interference in the 2016 election would enable them to keep investigating while they tried to tighten up the obstruction case or find some other criminal offense.

Ostensibly, the surveillance application targeted Carter Page. But Page was just a side issue. The dossier was principally about Trump – not Page, not Paul Manafort, Michael Cohen, or other Trump associates referred to by Steele. The dossier’s main allegation was that Trump was in an espionage conspiracy with Russia to swing the election to Trump, after which Trump would do Putin’s bidding from the White House. The FBI and the Obama Justice Department could not verify the dossier, but they undeniably believed it.

If you believe the dossier, then of course Trump is the main focus of the probe.

The FBI and DOJ knew this would be controversial – the incumbent administration spying on the opposition campaign in the absence of corroborated evidence of a crime. So, they designed the investigation in a way that allowed them to focus on Trump without saying they were doing so. Before Trump was elected, they papered the files to indicate that they were focusing on the Trump campaign or people connected to it, like Page and Papadopoulos. This way, they could try to collect evidence about Trump without formally documenting that Trump was the target.

After Trump was elected, the FBI realized that Trump was soon going to have access to government intelligence files. If they honestly told the president-elect that they had been investigating his campaign in hope of making a case on him, they had to be concerned that he would shut the investigation down and clean house at the FBI and DOJ. So, they misleadingly told him the investigation was about Russia and a few stray people in his campaign, but they assured him he personally was not under investigation.

This was not true. The investigation was always hoping to find something on Trump. That is why, for example, when director Comey briefed then-President-elect Trump about the Steele dossier, he told Trump only about the salacious allegation involving prostitutes in a Moscow hotel; he did not tell the president-elect either that the main thrust of the dossier was Trump’s purported espionage conspiracy with the Kremlin, nor that the FBI had gone to the FISC to get surveillance warrants based on the dossier. The FBI was telling the president-elect that the allegations were salacious and unverified, yet at that very moment they were presenting them to a federal court as information the judges could rely on to authorize spying.

Later, though Comey repeatedly told President Trump he was not a suspect, he gave House testimony patently geared to lead the public and the media to believe Trump was a suspect – which is exactly how the media reported it. In so doing, the FBI (and the Obama holdovers in the Justice Department who authorized Comey’s testimony) violated DOJ rules about publicly confirming the existence of an investigation, and publicly identifying a subject of an investigation: the Trump campaign, which Comey publicly announced was suspected of “coordinating” in the Kremlin’s widely reported cyberespionage interference in the 2016 campaign.

Comey’s firing on May 9, 2017, was not the start of an investigation of Trump. It was the point when the FBI and Justice Department rashly determined that they finally had a crime to pin on Trump — obstruction. In their haste and overconfidence, they rationalized that (a) Comey’s firing must have been intended to impede the Russia investigation, and that they could couple this with; (b) the claim that Trump may have impeded the Flynn investigation – based on a memo Comey leaked to the New York Times a few days after his firing.

Legally, none of this was obstruction. Yet, the FBI and Justice Department settled on this novel and flawed legal theory...
But all of these steps were just a matter of finally being overt about something that had been true for over a year: The FBI was conducting a probe to try to make a criminal case on Trump. Because they did not have solid evidence of a crime, they did it under counterintelligence authority rather than criminal authority – calculating that the cover of probing Russia’s interference in the 2016 election would enable them to keep investigating while they tried to tighten up the obstruction case or find some other criminal offense.

Make no mistake, though: The investigation was always about Donald Trump, from Day One.

[Trinity]

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics ... grand-jury

Mueller’s scorecard for the front nine. It’s not like these clowns were framed. Gates is the key guy. He was everywhere from the Havana Cigar Bar with Kilimnik to the Inaugural. Tom Barrack’s guy. The Saudi Suckup. The guy who insisted Manafort got the campaign job. A volunteer! What a miracle!

[old salt]

Andrew McCabe: I told congressional leaders that the FBI was investigating President Trump – and they didn't object

Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe said Tuesday that no congressional leaders voiced objections when he told them in May 2017 that the bureau had opened a counterintelligence investigation into President Donald Trump.

O

n the Senate side, the group of lawmakers at the time were Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C., and ranking member Mark Warner, D-Va.

The House members were then-Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and then-Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., as well as former House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., and then-ranking member Adam Schiff, D-Calif.

Will wait to see who tweets McCabe is lying about this....

What precisely did McCabe tell the Gang of 8 ?

What was the date ? Before or after Comey was fired ?

Did McCabe say tell the Gang of 8 that Trump was the target of a counter intel investigation, or that Trump was the target of a criminal investigation for obstruction &/or espionage ?

[a fan]

If McCabe is proven correct on this count, the whole "Deep State" crap totally unravels, and there's a whole mess of posters here who owe our investigative folks in the Executive and Judicial Branch a big fat apology.

I also want to know why these Congressional leaders didn't back up the FBI? For two years FoxNation have been bashing this crew as if they "went rogue". If it turns out that nope, they told a bipartisan group that they were investigating Trump and his crew....What the heck? Why didn't they back them up?

This whole thing is such a **itshow.

The Congressional leaders (mostly) kept their mouths shut & didn't leak to the media, ...unlike Comey, McCabe & the Deep State leakers.
The investigation was classified & intended to remain so.

I'm not talking about while the investigation was happening. I'm talking about NOW.

Why hasn't Congress come out to back the FBI agents for doing their job, and telling both parties what they were doing?

It totally destroys the idea that the the FBI was out to get Trump. It shows a bunch of people doing the jobs we paid them to do, rather than a bunch of Trump hating lefties breaking laws, and going rogue.

And yes----when did the FBI have this conversation with the bipartisan group?

[Trinity]

Our @oversightdems report reveals that White House advisors including Michael Flynn & Jared Kushner were & possibly still are working to rush highly sensitive nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia, and some stood to personally make money off new power plants.
We will investigate. Rep Rouda.

Hey, guess who is in on this project? Tom Barrack.

Now imagine Mohammed Bonesaw with nukes. Thanks, Trump!

[Chips O'Toole]

What precisely did McCabe tell the Gang of 8 ?

What was the date ? Before or after Comey was fired ?

Did McCabe say tell the Gang of 8 that Trump was the target of a counter intel investigation, or that Trump was the target of a criminal investigation for obstruction &/or espionage ?

Watch the NBC interview. He told them a counter-intel investigation had been opened. Obviously it was after Comey was fired, or it would have been Comey telling them. Are you rearranging deck chairs again?

[a fan]

What precisely did McCabe tell the Gang of 8 ?

As little as possible, I'd hope.

[Trinity]

Nunes did not belong in that room.

[old salt]

If McCabe is proven correct on this count, the whole "Deep State" crap totally unravels, and there's a whole mess of posters here who owe our investigative folks in the Executive and Judicial Branch a big fat apology.

I also want to know why these Congressional leaders didn't back up the FBI? For two years FoxNation have been bashing this crew as if they "went rogue". If it turns out that nope, they told a bipartisan group that they were investigating Trump and his crew....What the heck? Why didn't they back them up?

This whole thing is such a **itshow.

The Congressional leaders (mostly) kept their mouths shut & didn't leak to the media, ...unlike Comey, McCabe & the Deep State leakers.
The investigation was classified & intended to remain so.

I'm not talking about while the investigation was happening. I'm talking about NOW.

Why hasn't Congress come out to back the FBI agents for doing their job, and telling both parties what they were doing?

It totally destroys the idea that the the FBI was out to get Trump. It shows a bunch of people doing the jobs we paid them to do, rather than a bunch of Trump hating lefties breaking laws, and going rogue.

And yes----when did the FBI have this conversation with the bipartisan group?

The FBI didn't. McCabe did.

You're going strictly with McCabe's version of events, from his own (CYA) perspective.
You have no idea what Wray's been doing since he took over (& fired McCabe).
...& Rosenstein's still on the job.
You think they haven't been briefing Congress.
They just haven't been leaking like McCabe & Comey did.

[old salt]

What precisely did McCabe tell the Gang of 8 ?

What was the date ? Before or after Comey was fired ?

Did McCabe say tell the Gang of 8 that Trump was the target of a counter intel investigation, or that Trump was the target of a criminal investigation for obstruction &/or espionage ?

Watch the NBC interview. He told them a counter-intel investigation had been opened. Obviously it was after Comey was fired, or it would have been Comey telling them. Are you rearranging deck chairs again?

Read the article by McCarthy I linked. If Trump was named as a target, it had to be a criminal investigation, which McCabe opened (for obstruction) when Comey was fired.

[Trinity]

Nunes is screwed, working for Putin the last few years.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/19/us/p ... tions.html
Trump’s all Obstruction, 24-7.

[a fan]

The FBI didn't. McCabe did.

You're going strictly with McCabe's version of events, from his own (CYA) perspective.
You have no idea what Wray's been doing since he took over (& fired McCabe).
...& Rosenstein's still on the job.
You think they haven't been briefing Congress.
They just haven't been leaking like McCabe & Comey did.

You lost me. You think McCabe is going to go on 60 Minutes, and tell the world that he met with both sides of the aisle about opening an investigation----and he's lying? Seriously?

Great. So where are the denials that this happened? There aren't any.

I don't care what Wray is doing. You're missing my entire point, and I suspect intentionally.

If Congress was told that they were investigating Russia and Trump, the FoxNation's---and yours, if I recall----narrative that the FBI was breaking laws, acting recklessly, and going rogue in their pursuit of Trump is all nonsense.

Now we learn that nope, they told key bipartisans what they were doing. That's a big, big change in the narrative.

And think how stupid it is, from an investigative standpoint---telling a bunch of Republican politicians that you're investigating Russia and possible involvement with the leader of their party. And yet they did it anyway? This changes everything for me. I have to rethink all the criticism leveled against folks that were just doing their doggone jobs.

[Trinity]

You’d think one of the GOP gangsters would have called off the dogs.

[MDlaxfan76]

Good lord, Salty, you sure are a Trumpist, through and through.
It's flat out ridiculous the stuff you spout.

That said, seems to me we should all take a deep breath on this particular revelation about the Gang of 8 knowing that the counter-intel investigation had been opened. We don't actually have confirmation that's accurate, just yet.

Speculate away, but let's let the facts play out before claiming one way or the other on this one.

Here's what I think we actually do know (chuck the dossier BS):

1) Trump and his crew were actually trying to do a hugely lucrative deal in Moscow deep into the campaign and were lying about it, then and ever since.

2) Trump's son, son-in-law, and Campaign Chairman took a meeting with Russians knowing it was about receiving dirt on Clinton, and then lied about it repeatedly. Trump dictated part of that lying.

3) Trump told various people, including the Russian ambassador, publicly on TV, and perhaps directly to Rosenstein, that he was firing Comey to stop the investigation into the Russian attempts to influence the election.

4) Helsinki.

There's a lot more that we know, but if that's not alone sufficient to be darn concerned about whether DJT is putting his own interests ahead of those of the USA, I don't know what kind of drugs you're shooting or snorting, but they have to be pretty darn hallucinatory.

[foreverlax]

Andrew McCabe: I told congressional leaders that the FBI was investigating President Trump – and they didn't object

Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe said Tuesday that no congressional leaders voiced objections when he told them in May 2017 that the bureau had opened a counterintelligence investigation into President Donald Trump.

O

n the Senate side, the group of lawmakers at the time were Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C., and ranking member Mark Warner, D-Va.

The House members were then-Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and then-Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., as well as former House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., and then-ranking member Adam Schiff, D-Calif.

Will wait to see who tweets McCabe is lying about this....

What precisely did McCabe tell the Gang of 8 ? great question, no clue

What was the date ? Before or after Comey was fired ? great question, no clue

Did McCabe say tell the Gang of 8 that Trump was the target of a counter intel investigation, or that Trump was the target of a criminal investigation for obstruction &/or espionage ?great question, no clue

All great questions and deserve answers. I will continue to do what I have been doing....waiting.