Hhmm.

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The special counsel office's criminal case against Concord Management and Catering has gotten so heated that the Russian company's defense attorney Eric Dubelier told prosecutor Jeannie Rhee her presentation in court Wednesday was "bulls***."

Dubelier appeared to lose his temper as he approached Rhee moments after the judge left the courtroom. The brief outburst followed weeks of Dubelier indicating in court filings and hearings that he's ready to play hardball with Mueller's team and Rhee in particular.

During the hearing, Dubelier described a plan of attacking the prosecutors' case, which accuses Concord of funding a Russian operation to spread election propaganda on social media, from all angles. His team would challenge the constitutionality of the conspiracy charge Concord faces and would attack the authority of the special counsel's office both "generally and specifically," he said.

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Concord Management's hearing Wednesday was the first time the company appeared before US District Judge Dabney Friedrich, who will oversee the case as it progresses to trial. Concord Management pleaded not guilty to a conspiracy charge before a magistrate judge last week.

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While the legal teams picked at one another in and out of court, Mueller's office has been preparing to turn over the data it collected in the case, which now amounts to 1.5 to 2 terabytes of social media data, largely in Russian, Rhee said Wednesday.

A terabyte is equivalent to 1 trillion bytes, and in this case represents hundreds of social media accounts.

The amount of data prosecutors have in the case will play into the attempt Concord Management has made to review all documents as soon as possible and force a trial by summer.

"We're going to get this massive dump of social media stuff that's in Russian," Dubelier told the judge. "This is an American court."

Rhee countered that some but not all of the data in Russian had been translated by the government's team, and that it was "voluminous" evidence of Concord Management's conduct and own statements. The data included email and other accounts, she said, that spoke to the internal operations of the alleged conspiracy.

"It is not a data dump, your honor," she said.

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LINK

Would love to read the transcript of that hearing.

Your tax dollars hard at work, folks. Translating Russian social media posts.

What % of the American Electorate can read Russian ? The Mueller team are idiots !

techno-ag said:

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Looks like they picked the wrong lawyers to mess with.

And just how did Russian social media written in Russian influence Americans to vote against Hillary?

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Team Mueller claimed that Conchord had internal emails that were in Russian, discussing their plot. But of course they never expected to have to actually prove that.

For lawyers, this is getting into the legal comedy zone. Too insane to believe highly respected lawyers are trashing their reputations over this effort to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.

UncleNateFitch said:

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Your tax dollars hard at work, folks. Translating Russian social media posts.

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Zuckerberg needs to be given the damn bill.

What is "I bet this won't even get one share" in Russian?

Not sure if true but love the little ***** reference.

techno-ag said:

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Looks like they picked the wrong lawyers to mess with.

And just how did Russian social media written in Russian influence Americans to vote against Hillary?

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Exactly

aggiehawg said:

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techno-ag said:

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Looks like they picked the wrong lawyers to mess with.

And just how did Russian social media written in Russian influence Americans to vote against Hillary?

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Team Mueller claimed that Conchord had internal emails that were in Russian, discussing their plot. But of course they never expected to have to actually prove that.

For lawyers, this is getting into the legal comedy zone. Too insane to believe highly respected lawyers are trashing their reputations over this effort to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.

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He had to have some Russian bad guys, so he thought he could get away with just making some up

RoscoePColtrane said:

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Boom?

Kimberley Strassel's latest. Could someone with access please post relevant parts? It's paywalled to me.

drcrinum said:

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Kimberley Strassel's latest. Could someone with access please post relevant parts? It's paywalled to me.

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House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes appeared on "Fox & Friends" Tuesday, where he provided a potentially explosive hint at what's driving his demand to see documents related to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Trump-Russia probe. "If the campaign was somehow set up," he told the hosts, "I think that would be a problem."

Or an understatement. Mr. Nunes is still getting stiff-armed by the Justice Department over his subpoena, but this week his efforts did force the stunning admission that the FBI had indeed spied on the Trump campaign. This came in the form of a Thursday New York Times apologia in which government "officials" acknowledged that the bureau had used "at least one" human "informant" to spy on both Carter Page and George Papadopoulos. The Times slipped this mind-bending fact into the middle of an otherwise glowing profile of the noble bureauand dismissed it as no big deal.

But there's more to be revealed here, and Mr. Nunes's "set up" comment points in a certain direction. Getting to the conclusion requires thinking more broadly about events beyond the FBI's actions.
Think of the 2016 Trump-Russia narrative as two parallel strandsone politics, one law enforcement. The political side involves the actions of Fusion GPS, the Hillary Clinton campaign and Obama officialsall of whom were focused on destroying Donald Trump. The law-enforcement strand involves the FBIand what methods and evidence it used in its Trump investigation. At some point these strands intersectedand one crucial question is how early that happened.

What may well have kicked off both, however, is a key if overlooked moment detailed in the House Intelligence Committee's recent Russia report. In "late spring" of 2016, then-FBI Director James Comey briefed White House "National Security Council Principals" that the FBI had counterintelligence concerns about the Trump campaign. Carter Page was announced as a campaign adviser on March 21, and Paul Manafort joined the campaign March 29. The briefing likely referenced both men, since both had previously been on the radar of law enforcement. But here's what matters: With this briefing, Mr. Comey officially notified senior political operators on Team Obama that the bureau had eyes on Donald Trump and Russia. Imagine what might be done in these partisan times with such explosive information.

And what do you know? Sometime in April, the law firm Perkins Coie (on behalf the Clinton campaign) hired Fusion GPS, and Fusion turned its attention to Trump-Russia connections. The job of any good swamp operator is to gin up a fatal October surprise for the opposition candidate. And what could be more devastating than to paint a picture of Trump-Russia collusion that would provoke a full-fledged FBI investigation?

We already know of at least one way Fusion went about that project, with wild success. It hired former British spy Christopher Steele to compile that infamous dossier. In July, Mr. Steele wrote a memo that leveled spectacular conspiracy theories against two particular Trump campaign membersMessrs. Manafort and Page. For an FBI that already had suspicions about the duo, those allegations might prove hugeright? That is, if the FBI were to ever see them. Though, lucky for Mrs. Clinton, July is when the Fusion team decided it was a matter of urgent national security for Mr. Steele to play off his credentials and to take this political opposition research to the FBI.

The question Mr. Nunes's committee seems to be investigating is what other momentsif anywere engineered in the spring, summer or fall of 2016 to cast suspicion on Team Trump. The conservative press has produced some intriguing stories about a handful of odd invitations and meetings that were arranged for Messrs. Page and Papadopoulos starting in the springall emanating from the United Kingdom. On one hand, that country is home to the well-connected Mr. Steele, which could mean the political actors with whom he was working were involved. On the other hand, the Justice Department has admitted it was spying on both men, which could mean government was involved. Or maybe . . . both.

Which brings us to timing. It's long been known that Mr. Steele went to the FBI in early July to talk about the dossier, and that's the first known intersection of the strands. But given the oddity and timing of those U.K. interactions concerning Messrs. Page and Papadopoulos, and given the history of some of the people involved in arranging them, some wonder if the two strands were converging earlier than anyone has admitted. The Intelligence Committee subpoena is designed to sort all this out: Who was pulling the strings, and what was the goal? Information? Or entrapment?

Whatever the answerwhether it is straightforward, or whether it involves political chicaneryCongress and the public have a right to know. And a Justice Department willing to leak details of its "top secret" source to friendly media can have no excuse for not sharing with the duly elected members of Congress.

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Already posted.

Thank you!!

Sara Carter, tonight on Hannity, said expect the IG report to be released to the public in THREE to FOUR WEEKS.

Nosmo said:

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Sara Carter, tonight on Hannity, said expect the IG report to be released to the public in THREE to FOUR WEEKS.

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Crap!!!!

sam callahan said:

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Tuned into CNN and looked at NPRs website to see signs of lib despair. They are continuing on with how bad things look for Trump.

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Which is the truest sign of lib dispare!

Nosmo said:

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Sara Carter, tonight on Hannity, said expect the IG report to be released to the public in THREE to FOUR WEEKS.

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You gotta be kidding me...

backintexas2013 said:

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You know McCabe has gone dark. He was a left darling when he got fired and he is nowhere to be found

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He's practicing how to hold on tight to the bar of soap!

Sorry for asking about the Strassel article. I don't think there is anything in it that we don't know already. It serves a purpose to the wider public that isn't closely following events as we are on this thread.

We know that Obama was spying on Americans for a long time, verified by the FISA Court report indicating 'private contractors' were performing unauthorized Queries well back into 2015 (at a minimum). The revelation today that Yates placed Flynn under FISA surveillance following his December 10, 2015 encounter with Putin (Flynn was paid by RT to give a speech at that banquet) likely really started the surveillance ball rolling. (There must have been significant bad blood between members of the Obama Admin & Flynn when he departed in 2014; a grudge perhaps?) Flynn joined the Trump Campaign in February 2016, so he would still have been under surveillance at that time. Manafort, Page & Papadopoulos joined Trump's Team in March 2016. April 2016 was when Mary Jacoby, Simpson's wife, went to the White House for a long meeting, and then it seems Fusion GPS sprang into action.The details we don't know is how did events proceed from April to the end of July when the formal FBI counterintelligence operation began. There is lots we don't know: Were there other surveillance warrants in effect during this interval? Was there active coordination between Fusion GPS & the FBI? What was Nellie Ohr's role? Other than Steele, how did the other British intel agencies become involved? Who was pulling the strings to mastermind & coordinate the scheme? Was there a formal group of conspirators in the FBI/DOJ? Was Trump Tower & Trump Jr an entrapment plot? What purposes were the private contractors serving who were performing the unauthorized Queries? Were there direct communications between the FBI/DOJ schemers and HRC/DNC? I could go on and on...we really don't know much about this whole plot other than it certainly is a complicated spider web.

By then the Flynn/McCabe issue reference Robyn Gritz might have also been in play.

RoscoePColtrane said:

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Prognightmare said:

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Mueller doesn't have the authority to grant immunity to anyone. Lazy journalist need to do their homework

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To Comey? Yeah, Mueller does.

aggiehawg said:

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RoscoePColtrane said:

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Prognightmare said:

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Mueller doesn't have the authority to grant immunity to anyone. Lazy journalist need to do their homework

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To Comey? Yeah, Mueller does.

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But Mrs. Hawg how broad is such immunity? Mueller can't give immunity to Hillary email stuff that Huber may prosecute?

I was under the understanding that he can request it but not grant it, under 32 CFR 719.112

They're saying the FBI/DOJ may be performing their redaction BS on the IG report. Not again! Dang sick and tired of them protecting themselves.

Rockdoc said:

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They're saying the FBI/DOJ may be performing their redaction BS on the IG report. Not again! Dang sick and tired of them protecting themselves.

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It's my understanding that the OIG rights a public report and a full report (non-public). The different subjects are allowed to submit comments in the margins, and the OIG will decide whether or not the comments are included or not. No mention of redaction privileges. Sounds like cynics stirring the pot.

The rats are trying to run out the clock. POTUS should order the full opening of the report without redaction.

The need for sunlight on this issue overcomes the desire of the FBI/DoJ to cover up malfeasance through inappropriate use of the FOIA Exemption 1.

The public has a right to know what their government was up to during Obama's second term in office. If the desire to drain the swamp has real muscle behind the words, then opening the IG Report in full for all to see would represent a strong first step toward that end.