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The Robert Mueller Investigation


Hugo Stiglitz

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Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) said on Wednesday that there were not enough Republican votes to impeach Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein - at least right now. 

"Today? No," Gaetz, who serves on the House Judiciary Committee, told Hill.TV's Buck Sexton and Krystal Ball on "Rising," in response to a question about whether there was enough support to impeach Rosenstein.

He added that he did not know whether leadership would allow a vote on impeachment. 

But Gaetz said there was reason to impeach Rosenstein, who a group of conservatives have targeted for not providing documents to Congress. Gaetz also criticized Rosenstein for redactions in documents that have been sent to Congress, and for inconsistent statements.

"There is a basis for that impeachment as a result of inconsistent statements that Rosenstein has given, unwillingness to produce documents, and then to me what's the most insidious thing is when they redact information that has no reason to be redacted from a national security standpoint," Gaetz said.

Rosenstein has been a target of Republicans critical of special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into Russia's election meddling. 

The deputy attorney general has overseen the investigation since Attorney General Jeff Sessionsrecused himself last year. 

Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee grilledRosenstein last month as he defended Mueller's probe, saying it was being carried out as quickly as possible.

http://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/397659-key-gop-lawmaker-throws-cold-water-on-rosenstein-impeachment

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Story from Feb 2017:

 

https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-kremlin-and-gop-have-a-new-friendand-boy-does-she-love-guns

 

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On Nov. 12, 2016, shortly after the election of President Donald Trump, Butina held a birthday party at Cafe Deluxe near American University, where she attends graduate school classes.

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The event was a costume party attended by Trump campaign aides and Erickson, who told guests that he was on the Trump presidential transition team. She dressed as Russian Empress Alexandra while Erickson was dressed as Rasputin.

As chilled vodka flowed through an ice sculpture—a bottle imprinted with the Soviet hammer and sickle—she took some time to brag. She brazenly claimed that she had been part of the Trump campaign’s communications with Russia, two individuals who were present said. On other occasions, in one of her graduate classes, she repeated this claim.

“She said so in my class. And she said so several times in the last semester,” Svetlana Savranskaya, Butina’s former American University professor and a staffer at the National Security Archive, told The Daily Beast. “She is a former journalist, so she keeps up her connections in Russia. And she also works and [claims to] keep connections with a member of the Russian Duma.”

 

 

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On 7/17/2018 at 2:38 PM, Tuco said:

It's worth noting that Erickson has had multiple lawsuits against him for misleading investors on projects which didn't pan out.  He appears to be ambitious and unethical. 

So, you're saying he's the new national security advisor to Trump?

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So, you're saying he's the new national security advisor to Trump?


Speaking of Erickson, when does he get arrested? From the affidavit, it is obvious that he was assisting Butina in lobbying for Russia. It’s possible he would claim that he did not know her sponsors were the the Russia government, but he knew Torshin and knew enough about him.
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27 minutes ago, GopherRock said:

Right now, the safest place for both her and Manafort is jail. 

Something else to consider as we watch the Butina thing go down is how it effects our spies in Russia.

Russia usually just executes their traitors but holding Butina in the United States could get them to hold off killing in order to have something of value to trade for Butina.

It’s no mistake that Butina is so obviously a Russian agent.  Putin will have a difficult time “fake newsing” away that she is a Russian patriot.  This increases her value to us and places more pressure on him to “do something!”

 

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Surprised to see this ?  It shouldn't be that anyone could possibly suspect Wilbur Ross' history in Russian and international money laundering via Bank of Cyprus.  It's that a Senate Committee is actually taking a direct look.  More evidence lines are being drawn.  The tide is starting to turn faster.

 

 

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1 hour ago, triplehorn said:

Prosecuting Foreign Hackers Carries Benefits Beyond A Trial - Former US Atty David Hickton who pioneered the tactic of indicting state actors for hacking

  Reveal hidden contents
  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

 

That's interesting.  I vaguely remember the Chinese indictment.  I might take issue with the notion than a criminal indictment is the best vehicle for making public these kinds of things.  And the other advantages of it don't seem to be tied to the fact that the grand expository document is an indictment rather than some sort of report or something.  There is a sort of gravitas (probably unwarranted given the "ham sandwich" meme, which is actually true) attached to a criminal indictment, but I think the audience is rather limited.

 

Vivid example.  I'm a lawdog, so I am probably above-average in awareness and significance of indictments.  Better still, I am an IP lawdog, so I am probably way above-average in awareness of China's intellectual property predations and didn't take great notice of the Chinese indictment in 2014, nor was it touted in the IP community concerned with such things as some sort of watershed moment in the revelations of China's criminality.

I'm certainly willing to be convinced otherwise, but for now I just don't see it.

I guess you have to add in that I have a very healthy skepticism toward the very common federal practice of "investigation by indictment," whereby lower-level drug types are indicted in hopes that they turn on higher level types.  Which never seems to work out and fills our prisons with dumb, lower level drug types.  So, overall not a fan of indicting people for reasons other than putting them to trial.

Edited by TwiceHorn
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10 minutes ago, SKJ said:

I'm gonna have to call bullshit in that case, Hugo.

What is bullshit?  Putin’s power rests on his loyalty to his intelligence officers.  He’s going to make an offer for Butina.  I don’t know exactly what we’re looking for in return for Butina but I’m confident it’s something.

The longer it takes Putin to come to the table, the more pressure will be applied to Butina. We could see some more Russian spies taken into custody too.

I really don’t see Butina spending 20 years in a U.S. prison.  She will most likely end up back in Russia.

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40 minutes ago, triplehorn said:

Surprised to see this ?  It shouldn't be that anyone could possibly suspect Wilbur Ross' history in Russian and international money laundering via Bank of Cyprus.  It's that a Senate Committee is actually taking a direct look.  More evidence lines are being drawn.  The tide is starting to turn faster.

 

The only surprise is that it took so long. 

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You know--when you think about it, Mueller has really been masterful in his timing on all of this.  It wasn't an accident that the Government just happened to roll out an indictment of 12 GRU agents the day before Trump went to meet Putin.  Mueller knew what he was doing.  He knew Trump was going to fellatiate Putin, and Mueller created the prism through which that was viewed.

And then, immediately afterwards, the Government followed with an indictment of a Russian spy in bed with the NRA.  And in so doing, the Government makes clear that other Republicans ought to think twice before supporting Trump too loudly, because they're going to get caught up in this.  So while you don't see many Republicans vocally criticizing Trump, nor do you see them loudly supporting him.

And now the IC is getting in on the act with the story in The New York Times this morning that Trump was briefed on the overwhelming mountain of evidence that implicates Putin personally.  And yet he still went and bent the knee to Putin.

The pace of all this is accelerating.  We're probably not going to have another set of indictments this week, but we might.  Because next week is the Manafort trial, which starts this whole thing going again.

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The government's witness  exhibit list in Manafort's tax evasion (ED Va) trial.  Also didn't see that it was posted earlier.

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/13xWOxbyxyY9Ol_CEpQy12IsRRTn2XA26/view

 

As might be expected, a lot of it seems to be personal-type financial documents and correspondence.  Quite a few email to Yanukovych and Kilimnik, but way pre-dating Trumpy bear.  I suspect this one, as perhaps opposed to the money laundering one, is going to be boring as shit and offer very little in the way of red meat.

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30 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

The government's witness list in Manafort's tax evasion (ED Va) trial.

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/13xWOxbyxyY9Ol_CEpQy12IsRRTn2XA26/view

 

As might be expected, a lot of it seems to be personal-type financial documents and correspondence.  Quite a few email to Yanukovych and Kilimnik, but way pre-dating Trumpy bear.  I suspect this one, as perhaps opposed to the money laundering one, is going to be boring as shit and offer very little in the way of red meat.

Is this the trial that is getting the immunity requests?

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34 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

The government's witness list in Manafort's tax evasion (ED Va) trial.

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/13xWOxbyxyY9Ol_CEpQy12IsRRTn2XA26/view

 

As might be expected, a lot of it seems to be personal-type financial documents and correspondence.  Quite a few email to Yanukovych and Kilimnik, but way pre-dating Trumpy bear.  I suspect this one, as perhaps opposed to the money laundering one, is going to be boring as shit and offer very little in the way of red meat.

So Bernie's gonna start showing up in the collusion infographics?

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20 minutes ago, Gap03 said:

Don't some of the Q Anon nutjobs actually believe this?  Seems like The Onion needs to up the absurdity factor in its stories in light of current events.

The Clinton foundation running a child-sex trafficking ring or the Russians using the NRA to funnel money to the GOP while the GOP leadership openly sucks Putin’s cock.

Which is more absurd?

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