A Multi-Legged Beast With Many Shoes to Drop

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Sessions recused himself from the Russia investigation, although he’s still the head of the Justice Department, so his underlings will still be involved. May I express skepticism that the recusal means all that much?

But even weirder, this afternoon the White House volunteered the information that Michael Flynnn and Jared Kushner met the Russian ambassador in December at Trump Tower. This makes me suspect the White House is hiding a whole lot more and is trying to get ahead of it.

Josh Marshall just published a post titled What The CIA and FBI Knew About Trump Before 2016 that needs to be read. It appears the Russians meddling in elections is just a side show.

15 thoughts on “A Multi-Legged Beast With Many Shoes to Drop”

  1. Regarding Putin and the Trump White House, I am reminded of the TV series I, Claudius, where Augustus exclaims “is there anyone in Rome who has NOT slept with [Messalina]?”

  2. I have little to add, except to say this:
    If you think our CIA agents and American (read: Italian) Mafia scare you, you never met the KGB and Russian Mafia!

  3. Tom_b ..I had a similar thought. I just read where another named individual associated with the Trump campaign was just revealed as having had a meeting with the Russian ambassador. It doesn’t look good when the White House initially said the only contact between the ambassador and Flynn and Kushner was in the form of a telephone call and text messaging…and now they acknowledge that a meeting in Trump Tower occurred. Oh, the curious powers of recall!
    And Spicer’s statement that we should be “ashamed” for pursuing the Russian connection regarding Sessions only intensifies the desire to pursue it.
    Maybe it just me..but I’m kinda partial to the voice of my own conscience dictating to me when I should feel ashamed.

  5. @Tom-b
    In I, Claudius, Augustus asks if there is anyone in Rome who has not slept with his daughter, Julia. (Messalina was the wife of Claudius).

    Sure does look like Microdigit Caligula was in bed with the Russians all the way down, doesn’t it?

  6. Recusal is just the first step. Sessions is toast, though it won’t happen overnight. I base that on who it is that’s pursuing him. This is serious, and they don’t f–k around.

  7. I’d like to know why the Russia friendly alteration of the Republican platform during the Republican National Convention in 2016 isn’t clear evidence of a quid pro quo between the known Russian hacking and dirty tricks pertaining to the ongoing election and the Trump campaign. All the other meetings before and after just make the relationship even clearer, but the Russians got what they wanted from that platform, which is a promise of policy to come. How hard is this supposed to be?

  8. What concerns me more than what the CIA and the FBI knew about Trump before 2016 is what the voting public knew about Trump..and in spite of that knowledge still chose to vote for him. It blows my mind. It was as clear as an alpine morning that Trump is a degenerate character given to pathological lying and consumed with narcissism. And yet enough people found his deviant character acceptable to place him in a position of leadership..The bible says: If the blind lead the blind, they both fall in a ditch. That saying has profound application when understood in the context of our democracy.
    It’s a simple question that every American should ask themselves in regard to Trump’s leadership of our country. How can you trust a proven pathological liar?
    My answer is you can’t! And according to the laws of metapsychics there will be a cost extracted on us all for failing to adhere to those laws. Thanks wingnuts!

  9. Oh, that should be metaphysics, not metapsychics. But you get the idea. Divine law?
    I do more typo errors before 12 noon than most people do all day. 🙂

  10. It is troubling, Swami, but that is “a story old, and vainly told.”

    Read Melville’s The Confidence Man, “The Great American Novel” in my view. That’s exactly what it is about. And when it was first published on April 1st, 1857, hardly anybody got it, which just proves the point.
    http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ma96/atkins/cmintro1.html

  11. Not counting the long time associates that TPM is covering, just why does the Trump campaign need 6,7,8 and counting team members all in contact with the Russians?
    OK, Jared was doing it for the $50k, are the rest getting fat envelopes?
    And back to Ivanka jetting off to Croatia a month after giving birth to party with Putin’s mistress? WTF!?

  12. I imagine it’s due to my age (like many things both good & bad), but having grown up in the 60’s, it is almost disorienting to check the news & see the D’s Russian-baiting the R’s. After all, until 1989 or so, the R’s claimed (with no little undeserved success) to have a monopoly on protecting the US from the Russkies.

    It also makes me a tad nervous. As we all know, the R’s shamelessly overplayed that hand on a very broad scale for decades, and a lot of innocent people got hurt as a result. I don’t think they have even come close yet, nor do I necessarily expect it, but I do hope that the D’s don’t go overboard on this down the road.

  13. Fiddlin Bill:

    I’d like to know why the Russia friendly alteration of the Republican platform during the Republican National Convention in 2016 isn’t clear evidence of a quid pro quo between the known Russian hacking and dirty tricks pertaining to the ongoing election and the Trump campaign.

    Because HOW DARE YOU SUGGEST SUCH A THING you partisan hack! I can’t believe you’re not even *trying* to be evenhanded!

    I’m not really joking. There are several factors.

    Cynicism is one. “He did a favor for another nation? And you’re shocked? awwww… poor child, so naive and innocent!”

    Trying to be even handed is another; “Well, the Democrats tried to do something good for (another nation, possibly in another time, certainly under other circumstances) – why is this different?”

    And finally, if enough people who are are, by decree, honorable, and each of whom must be intelligent enough to win elected office, state something is their deeply held belief and principled position, it’s automagically turned into a reasonable statement. How can you say a majority of the entire House and Senate are wrong, stupidly wrong, about X?

  14. 2 things worry me.
    Trump’s family business dealing with Russia and what we do not know about them. How indebted is Trump and to whom do they owe money?

    Sweden instituting the draft due to their concern re Russia and the Crimea. What is Europe thinking and if we do not CLEAN up this mess will we jeopardize our friendships elsewhere?

  15. Article in The New Yorker with broader perspective on Russian hacking. Not new, not about Trump being a puppet. Last paragraph gives the flavor:

    Alexey Venediktov, the editor-in-chief of Echo of Moscow, and a figure with deep contacts inside the Russian political élite, said, “Trump was attractive to people in Russia’s political establishment as a disturber of the peace for their counterparts in the American political establishment.” Venediktov suggested that, for Putin and those closest to him, any support that the Russian state provided to Trump’s candidacy was a move in a long-standing rivalry with the West; in Putin’s eyes, it is Russia’s most pressing strategic concern, one that predates Trump and will outlast him. Putin’s Russia has to come up with ways to make up for its economic and geopolitical weakness; its traditional levers of influence are limited, and, were it not for a formidable nuclear arsenal, it’s unclear how important a world power it would be. “So, well then, we have to create turbulence inside America itself,” Venediktov said. “A country that is beset by turbulence closes up on itself—and Russia’s hands are freed.”

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