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MORE BAD NEWS FOR PODESTA, MERCURY & SKADDEN: As part of MANAFORT's plea deal, he agrees to testify before all grand juries in DC and "elsewhere." The inquiries into @PodestaGroup, Mercury & @SkaddenArps are being run out of the Southern District of New York....
Not sure what they'd base that recusal on since these crimes with Podesta and Craig bredate Trump even declaring his run for POTUS.drcrinum said:
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1040595358718537728.htmlQuote:
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MORE BAD NEWS FOR PODESTA, MERCURY & SKADDEN: As part of MANAFORT's plea deal, he agrees to testify before all grand juries in DC and "elsewhere." The inquiries into @PodestaGroup, Mercury & @SkaddenArps are being run out of the Southern District of New York....
Interesting thread. The question now becomes: "Will the Trump appointed AG for the SDNY be recused from these investigations like he was for Cohen?"
Mueller won't stop until he gets Trump, one way or the other.MouthBQ98 said:
I bet we are nearing the end of the Mueller probe because it keeps pointing more and more towards Obama and Clinton associates than Trump ones.
Something I just want to point out right now. You will hear lib commentators including some with law degrees use the Manafort plea as evidence that Trump "is an unindicted co-conspirator." That is completely false.RoscoePColtrane said:
Edit: Why are S-P text messages still coming out? How many more are there we still haven't seen?Quote:
- A new text message shows that Peter Strzok wanted to use reports about the release of the Steele dossier as an excuse to interview witnesses in the Trump-Russia probe
- "We're discussing whether, now that this is out, we use it as a pretext to go interview some people," Strzok wrote to FBI lawyer Lisa Page
- Weeks later, the FBI approached former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos under the guise of interviewing him about his contacts with an alleged source for the dossier
A newly revealed text message suggests that former FBI official Peter Strzok sought to capitalize on news reports in January 2017 that President Donald Trump had been briefed about allegations in the infamous Steele dossier.
Strzok wanted to use a CNN report related to the dossier as a reason to interview witnesses as part of the FBI's investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian government, according to the text message.
"Sitting with Bill watching CNN. A TON more out," Strzok, a former FBI counterintelligence official, texted to FBI lawyer Lisa Page on Jan. 10, 2017.
"Hey let me know when you can talk. We're discussing whether, now that this is out, we use it as a pretext to go interview some people," continued Strzok, according to a CNN report published Friday.
Just before Strzok sent the message, CNN had reported that top government officials, including then-FBI Director James Comey, briefed then-President-Elect Trump on Jan. 6, 2017 about some of the salacious allegations in the dossier, which was authored by former British spy Christopher Steele and financed by Democrats.
Hours after CNN reported about the briefing, BuzzFeed News published the unverified dossier in full....
The FBI may have used the dossier as a pretext to interview George Papadopoulos, another Trump associate who has pleaded guilty to the special counsel for lying to the FBI.
According to Papadopoulos's attorneys, the FBI approached the former Trump aide at his mother's home in Chicago on Jan. 27, 2017, claiming to be interested in discussing Sergei Millian, a Belarus-born businessman who had been identified just days earlier as a major source for the dossier....
Why do you keep saying the bold? It is wrong. 18 US 371 outlines the crime for "conspiracy to commit offense or to defraud United States" and sets forth the statutory framework for a conspiracy to commit an offense against the US:aggiehawg said:Something I just want to point out right now. You will hear lib commentators including some with law degrees use the Manafort plea as evidence that Trump "is an unindicted co-conspirator." That is completely false.RoscoePColtrane said:
Only a grand jury can make that designation and Mueller threw out the indictments on Manafort in lieu of a new charging document called an information. The language "conspiracy against the United States" sounds really really bad but there actually isn't such a statutory crime, just Mueller's creative use of language, i.e. pulling crap out of his ass.
Bottomline, Mueller extracted his pound of flesh from Manafort. Little point in further beating a dead horse.
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If two or more persons conspire either to commit any offense against the United States, or to defraud the United States, or any agency thereof in any manner or for any purpose, and one or more of such persons do any act to effect the object of the conspiracy, each shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.
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Why are S-P text messages still coming out? How many more are there we still haven't seen?
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He did not need another trial and additional jail time to ratchet up pressure. So prosecutors dropped the money-laundering charges as well as allegations that Manafort made false statements and failed to register as a foreign agent of a Kremlin-connected Ukranian party; but Mueller still got Manafort to admit to the underlying conduct in those charges by having the defendant plead guilty to the special counsel's favorite device, the amorphous, elastic charge of "conspiracy against the United States."
The 'new' text messages that have been coming out recently...who has been releasing them? Horowitz? Sessions? House Committee members (HPSCI -- Nunes)? Trump legal staff?redline248 said:Quote:
Why are S-P text messages still coming out? How many more are there we still haven't seen?
How would that one text have changed Horowicz' report?
drcrinum said:The 'new' text messages that have been coming out recently...who has been releasing them? Horowitz? Sessions? House Committee members (HPSCI -- Nunes)? Trump legal staff?redline248 said:Quote:
Why are S-P text messages still coming out? How many more are there we still haven't seen?
How would that one text have changed Horowicz' report?
I don't think these latest text messages have anything to do with Horowitz's first report, but it seems to me they would relate to the upcoming FISA abuse report...and I don't think we've seen the really damaging FISA abuse text messages.
aggiehawg said:
Take that subject up with Andy McCarthy. From the article:Quote:
He did not need another trial and additional jail time to ratchet up pressure. So prosecutors dropped the money-laundering charges as well as allegations that Manafort made false statements and failed to register as a foreign agent of a Kremlin-connected Ukranian party; but Mueller still got Manafort to admit to the underlying conduct in those charges by having the defendant plead guilty to the special counsel's favorite device, the amorphous, elastic charge of "conspiracy against the United States."
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This raises a question that should gnaw at those of us (like moi) who have championed robust national-security powers in an era dominated by international terrorism: Is this pretextual use of FISA something that the Justice Department and FBI designed specifically for the Trump-Russia investigation, or is it standard operating procedure in all counterintelligence cases? (We can't answer that question at the moment. FISA warrant documents are highly classified, which is why it's been so hard to get even partial disclosure regarding the Trump-Russia investigation; we do not know if FISA warrants in other cases mirror the ones we've been permitted to see.)
Let's cut to the chase. Every one of the four Page warrant applications makes the following assertion (the italics are mine):
The Purpose of the Authorities Requested
The FBI's foreign intelligence goals for this investigation are set forth in the certification of the Executive Branch official contained herein. However, the authorities requested in this application may produce information and material which might, when evaluated by prosecutive authorities, constitute evidence of a violation of United States law, and this investigation may result in an eventual criminal prosecution of the target.Nevertheless, as discussed in the certification, at least a significant purpose of this request for [REDACTED] is to collect foreign intelligence information as part of the FBI's investigation of this target.
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FISA authorities are not criminal-law authorities. It is not just that FISA is not designed to ferret out evidence of crime; it is not permitted to be used for that purpose. FISA's objective is the collection of foreign intelligence, the gathering of information about the actions and intentions of foreign powers that may threaten American interests.
The Page warrant application implies that it is a standard part of the process that "prosecutive authorities" i.e., prosecutors, criminal investigators, grand juries peruse FISA evidence to determine whether crimes have been committed. Not true. Prosecutors normally have nothing to do with FISA. Counterintelligence is not "prosecutive"; it aims to gather information about other countries and their operatives, not make criminal cases.
More Here.Quote:
It is worth noting that we don't just find this wayward approach in the FISA applications. It sings aloud in the breathtaking testimony of the FBI's then-director, James Comey, before the House Intelligence Committee on March 20, 2017 (my italics):Put aside that it is against Justice Department and FBI protocols to confirm the existence of an investigation and to identify as suspects uncharged persons or entities ("individuals associated with the Trump campaign"). It is simply not the case that every counterintelligence investigation includes "an assessment of whether any crimes were committed." Most counterintelligence investigations have no interest in crimes. Rather, in any random investigation, if evidence of a crime the investigators were not looking for happens to turns up, an assessment is then made of whether it should be referred for prosecution. This assessment is not supposed to be built into the process because it is extraordinary the purpose of FISA is not supposed to be to build a criminal case. That's why very few criminal cases include FISA evidence.Quote:
I have been authorized by the Department of Justice to confirm that the FBI, as part of our counterintelligence mission, is investigating the Russian government's efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election, and that includes investigating the nature of any links between individuals associated with the Trump campaign and the Russian government and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and Russia's efforts. As with any counterintelligence investigation, this will also include an assessment of whether any crimes were committed.
coyote68 said:
More confirmation of what we already knew. Under Comey and Lynch the FBI and DOJ were politically motivated and managed by people who had no regard for our laws or Constitution. These people committed the worst of crimes.
God bless America!!!
RoscoePColtrane said:
I too have serious reservations about Baker singing like a canary while working with Comey bestie Wittes at Lawfare blog. Since I never read that drivel, it could be that Baker has moved on, though.Quote:
Worth a read. Sundance is not optimistic about the investigation into the Deep State. I hope he's wrong, but think a moment about Trump's recent tweet:
My real beef with the few MSM writers that have begun to turn toward this line of thinking, is that they speak of Tony Podesta in the singular form. Tony podesta wasn't some solo act working on his own. He was the partner, with his brother John in the Podesta group. The Podesta Group were one of the most active on K Street and likely the most egregious in violating FARA. The two brothers were equal partners in that organization. But the MSM refuses to mention John Podesta's name in the same sentence with his brothers, because he has too close of ties to Hillary and Bill and Obama.biobioprof said:
siap, wonder if this will change anyone's viewif the witch hunt
It was. Jake Tapper confirmed it.Quote:
And I always thought that Clapper was the one who leaked this info.
