It’s almost not worth blogging the Trump-Russia scandal, because as soon as I have an angle to blog about a new story comes out that changes things. Watergate oozed along at a snail’s pace; this story moves at light speed.
In more or less reverse order — the most recent headline is that Trump’s personal lawyer has refused requests from both the House and Senate investigations for more information.
President Donald Trump’s longtime ally and personal attorney, Michael Cohen, has refused congressional requests to provide “information and testimony†pertinent to their investigations into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, ABC News reported Tuesday.
“I declined the invitation to participate as the request was poorly phrased, overly broad and not capable of being answered,†Cohen told ABC via email of the requests for his contacts with Kremlin-linked officials.
Josh Marshall says that the investigators’ interest in Michael Cohen is “very bad news for Donald Trump.”
In simple terms, whatever happened during the 2016 campaign, if I wanted to understand Donald Trump’s ties to Russia, the countries of the former Soviet Union and money from those countries and emigres from those countries, there’s no single person I’d want to look at more closely than Michael Cohen.
Read the article for all the ways Cohen has been a significant link between Trump and Russia. He’ll get a subpoena eventually.
Earlier today, CNN reported that Russians had bragged about owning Trump:
Russian government officials discussed having potentially “derogatory” information about then-presidential candidate Donald Trump and some of his top aides in conversations intercepted by US intelligence during the 2016 election, according to two former intelligence officials and a congressional source.
One source described the information as financial in nature and said the discussion centered on whether the Russians had leverage over Trump’s inner circle. The source said the intercepted communications suggested to US intelligence that Russians believed “they had the ability to influence the administration through the derogatory information.”
Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, was looking for a direct line to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia — a search that in mid-December found him in a room with a Russian banker whose financial institution was deeply intertwined with Russian intelligence, and remains under sanction by the United States.
Federal and congressional investigators are now examining what exactly Mr. Kushner and the Russian banker, Sergey N. Gorkov, wanted from each other. The banker is a close associate of Mr. Putin, but he has not been known to play a diplomatic role for the Russian leader. That has raised questions about why he was meeting with Mr. Kushner at a crucial moment in the presidential transition, according to current and former officials familiar with the investigations.
President t-RUMPLE-thin-sKKKin doesn’t comprehend “intelligence,” probably because it’s given by “intelligant” people.
He doesn’t understand “intelligent.”
But he’s fluent in dumb-assery!
This could be a race to get Trump and his “ettes” out before he deep-sixes the US.
I worry that too many on the Right won’t care, they’ll just want to beat Democrats, and too many on the Left won’t care, they’ll just want to beat Democrats, when elections role around.
Keep your eye on Flynn. All this other stuff is important and interesting, but Flynn will go to jail for the deal with Turkey – a half-million bucks he did not disclose. Jail. Flynn wants that to go away – it will take either a presidential pardon or a Congressional “get out of jail free” card. The problem Flynn has with a deal with Congress is that it will cost Trump the presidency and hypothetically could send Trump to jail. (It depends.) If Flynn makes a deal to tell Congress everything, and it’s later discovered Flynn held back, I’m guessing the deal would be off and Flynn would go to jail.
That’s my opinion – I don’t see how even republicans can give Flynn immunity for incomplete testimony. There’s an active FBI investigation and even Flynn can’t be sure how much they know. I don’t think Flynn wants Congressional immunity if he still could wind up in jail.
What Flynn wants is a presidential pardon in exchange for his silence. The problem with that deal is that it works for Flynn, but if the FBI investigation shows that the purpose of the pardon was to shut Flynn up, Trump may be the one to go to jail – The pardon would be valid and binding for Flynn, but it would be criminal obstruction of justice for Trump. Again, it depends on what the FBI has and Trump doesn’t know either.
The conventional wisdom that I go along with is that the Russians wanted two things in the 2016 election. If possible, they wanted a president who would do the Kremlin’s bidding. Second, if they could not get what they wanted (If Clinton won or Trump was not able to deliver) the Russians wanted to sow discord – create chaos. They got the chaos and discord but with the spotlight on the role of Russia, Trump can’t lift sanctions or give away Syria and Ukraine. As things progress, Trump becomes more and more useless to the Kremlin EXCEPT as a tool of chaos. (Boy, is he good at that!)
There’s been talk that the Kremlin has ‘kompromat’ incriminating evidence on Trump. The last leak – or one of them – indicated that in intercepted communication, the blackmail is financial in nature. Let’s assume for a moment that the information involves criminal fraud that will send him to jail. (If Trump defrauded major banks of millions in the collapse of the Taj Mahal, that WILL put Trump in jail – the one thing a rich man is not allowed to do is steal from another rich man. Ask Bernie Maddoff.)
If Trump is going down, will the Kremlin send Trump to jail (assuming they have the goods) for the purpose of doing further damage to American politics? Trump nuts will riot if Trump goes to jail – regardless of the facts. I’m not saying this WILL happen, but I’m not sure I can see a reason it couldn’t happen.
Kushner was the one who advocated and pushed for the firing of Comey.. That to me is the biggest mistake/ miscalculation that has been made thus far. The leaks of information started pouring out of the intelligence community at light speed once Trump committed to that mistake.
You can sense that there is now a determined spirit circulating in the public arena to take Trump and the idiots who surround him down. I could be projecting my own desires in that assessment, but I believe that I’m not the only one who wants to see Trump and his presidency destroyed. And I also believe that there are people in positions of power that can and will effectuate that belief.
I remember vaguely some bible verse or perhaps the words of Lincoln or some esteemed scholar in history saying: “A big bag of shit can neither stand or long endure.” Well, something like that. 🙂
Well, seeing how there is no cost for being wrong and therapy is in the nature of the commenting..I’m predicting that Trump’s presidency is already mortally wounded. Even if all the investigations pan out to be nothing and nobody gets tagged for wrongdoing Trump has screwed it up right out of the starting gate to the point where his presidency can’t be rehabilitated.
Look at the travel ban.. you’d think that it would be wiser to let it drop as it stands than to push it to the supreme court and risk a failure that will personally reflect Trump’s inadequacies
Wow, that comment above self posted.. I guess I should take that as a sign from heaven, huh? Or at least wrap it up in rapid fashion..So with that in mind I’ll close with a final thought..Trump is a big bag of shit, and my hope is that he gets run out of office in disgrace. And the name Trump becomes synonymous with being a sleaze bucket shit bag shyster.
Here’s t-RUMP’s biggest “tell:”
From what I’ve seen, any and every thing he’s called “fake news,” is 100%
true!
And any news he considers “real news,” puts him in a better light – largrly by lying and/or kissing his ass, like (DUMB)FUX “news.”
At this point, I assume it takes make-up crews many hours a day, trying to hide the symptoms of hemorrhoids on the lips and tongues – and maybe noses – of FOX hosts and guests!!!
(And that’s just from kissing his ass from their studios!)
Hell, sometime in the near future, I assume that if t-RUMP ever actually went to FOX’S studios, the channel’s management would have to have teams of Proctologists ready to extract the heads of overly zealous ass kissers and prostate lickers, from out of t-RUMP’s ass!
“Watergate oozed along at a snail’s pace; this story moves at light speed”
It may slow a bit, it seems Trump has found the leakers!
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politicsvideo/white-house-identifies-three-leakers-of-classified-information/vi-BBBDYmj
Comey to testify publicly about Trump confrontations.
Yup, God is good all the time! I think the White House war council better start fillin sand bags and prepare to hunker down in anticipation of some incoming rounds.
I’m loving this..sorta like reliving my youth experiencing the never ending battle for truth, justice, and the American way.
I guess Donnie never learned that you don’t mess with the G-men.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgw_yprN_-w
Doug, I am at a loss on understanding what the Flynn business deal with Turkey as all about, but the Trump, Putin, Flynn triangle is obvious. The NYT today’s editors opinion article (quote follows) notes cultivation of far-right-wing allies as a Putin goal. Was that what Flynn was facilitating or does anyone know?
“Mr. Putin has meddled in the Baltic States, cultivated far-right-wing allies in Hungary and wooed President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey on NATO’s eastern flank. He is now courting Italy with a savvy ambassador to Rome and financing for anti-establishment parties.”