***Official Political Discussion Thread***

[RustyShackleford]

Of the world Craig!

MBS right now....

 

[IATT]

 

[Belgium]

Not from today's article but regarding her partner, GOP operative Paul Erickson. He recently received a 'target' letter from the DOJ, which doesn't necessarily guarantee an indictment but certainly makes it very likely.

Is you taking notes on a criminal ****ing conspiracy?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/loca...ory.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.05ad263fb8c1
Russian Maria Butina pleads guilty in case to forge Kremlin bond with U.S. conservatives
A Russian gun rights activist pleaded guilty Thursday to conspiring with a senior Russian official to infiltrate the conservative movement in the United States as an agent for the Kremlin from 2015 until her arrest in July.

Maria Butina, 30, became the first Russian national convicted of seeking to influence U.S. policy in the run-up and through the 2016 election as a foreign agent, agreeing to cooperate in a plea deal with U.S. investigators in exchange for less prison time.

Butina admitted to working with an American political operative and under the direction of a former Russian senator and deputy governor of Russia’s central bank to forge bonds with officials at the National Rifle Association, conservative leaders, and 2016 U.S. presidential candidates, including Donald Trump, whose rise to the Oval Office she presciently predicted to her Russian contact.

“Guilty,” Butina said with a light accent in entering her plea with U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan at a hearing Thursday morning in federal court in Washington.

As part of her plea, Butina admitted seeking to establish and use “unofficial lines of communication with Americans having influence over U.S. politics” for the benefit of the Russian government, through a person fitting the description of sanctioned Russian central banker Alexander Torshin, prosecutor Erik Kenerson said.

Court documents indicate that Butina worked closely in her efforts to advance Russia’s interests with a Republican Party consultant with whom she had a romantic relationship after they met while he visited Moscow in 2013.

The operative, previously named as Paul Erickson, is a longtime GOP political advisor from South Dakota who managed the 1992 presidential campaign of Pat Buchanan.

In a statement Wednesday, Erickson’s lawyer, William Hurd, said, “Paul Erickson is a good American. He has never done anything to hurt our country and never would.”

Butina’s case is a vivid “part of larger mosaic of Russian influence operations” laid out in part by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation of Russian interference, said David Laufman, former chief from of the Justice Department’s National Security Division’s counterintelligence section from 2014 until earlier this year.

“This case shines important light on the nature and aggressiveness of Russian influence operations targeting the United States, a threat that we need an unequivocal U.S. government commitment to counter, including the president of the United States, and both houses of Congress,” he said.

In plea documents read by prosecutors in court Thursday, Butina admitted undertaking a multiyear influence campaign coordinated through Torshin, a top Russian official, that she proposed in March 2015 as multiyear “Diplomacy Project.”

Requesting $125,000 from a Russian billionaire and citing the NRA’s influence on the Republican Party, Butina traveled to conferences to socialize with GOP presidential candidates, host “friendship dinners” with wealthy Americans, bond with NRA leaders and organize a Russian delegation to the influential National Prayer Breakfast in Washington.

Butina’s efforts, which continued after she moved to Washington as a graduate student at American University in 2016, included asking whether the Russian government was ready to meet her contacts.

Butina’s initiative came during what the U.S. intelligence community has said was a concerted Russian government effort to help elect Trump, including by hacking and distributing emails stolen from Democrats. Although Robert S. Mueller is investigating links between that effort and individuals in Trump’s campaign, Butina was prosecuted by the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington.

Butina crossed paths with Trump in July 2015, when she asked the newly declared Republican candidate about Russia and sanctions at a public event in Las Vegas. “We get along with Putin,” Trump told Butina, referring to the Russian president. “I don’t think you’d need the sanctions.”

Erickson also tried to get Trump to meet Torshin when both attended the NRA’s convention in May 2016, referring to Torshin as “Putin’s emissary” in an email to a campaign official. The campaign declined a meeting, but documents provided to Congress show Butina and Torshin met briefly during the event with Donald Trump Jr., one of the president’s sons.

In plea papers, prosecutors agreed to drop a second count against Butina of violating a law that requires foreigners working for their government to register with the U.S. Justice Department. There is no suggestion in the documents that Butina was employed by the Russian intelligence services, but violations of the law are considered more serious than a separate law that requires registration by paid lobbyists for foreign entities.

Under her deal, Butina agreed to cooperate “completely and forthrightly” with American law enforcement about “any and all” matters deemed relevant by the U.S. government, including participating in interviews and debriefings outside the presence of her lawyers, testifying and providing sworn, written statements.

Butina faces a possible maximum prison sentence of five years followed by deportation. Under the deal, her defense agreed that she could face a recommended zero to six months in prison under federal guidelines, and could seek a lower sentence. Prosecutors did not agree on any guidelines range, but agreed to request leniency if she provides “substantial assistance.”

Butina, who has been jailed since her arrest in July, agreed to remain behind bars pending sentencing. She appeared thinner in court Thursday than in appearances last summer, wearing a green jail jumpsuit with holes in the elbows of a white thermal undershirt, with her red hair braided.

The court did not set a sentencing date pending Butina’s ongoing cooperation with prosecutors but set another hearing for Feb. 12 on the status of her case.

Before the plea, the Russian foreign ministry continued to support Butina, planning to send embassy personnel to her hearing and posting a statement on Twitter by spokeswoman Maria Zakharov, saying, “We demand that Washington observe legal rights of Maria Butina & release her as soon as possible.”

On Tuesday Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed Butina’s case at a meeting of a Kremlin council on human rights in Moscow, saying: “I asked all the heads of our intelligence services what is happening, ‘Who is she?’ No one knows a thing about her.”

In the “Diplomacy Project,” Butina suggested using unofficial channels to influence U.S. foreign policy.

Butina had served as an interpreter for Torshin, an NRA member, as he attended its annual conventions, and her profile as a self-made gun activist in Putin’s restrictive Russia charmed American associates.

Butina and Torshin invited NRA leaders to Moscow in December 2015, a delegation that includedDavid Keene, a former NRA president and past head of the powerful American Conservative Union. Documents reviewed previously by The Washington Post show the group met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

After the meeting ended, Butina sent Torshin a message: “We should let them express their gratitude now, we will put pressure on them quietly later.”

 

[IATT]

 

[stuntman mike]

the cheeto doth protest too much, methinks.

 

[dacomeup]

Of the world Craig!

They're going to have to give Seth Abramson a Pullitzer when this is over. He's been so far ahead of this.

 

[chao7]

Of the world Craig!

I want to get Seth Abramson's book. He's been on this stuff way before the media at large reports it. For example, "The Grand Bargain" has been discussed at length in his feed for several months.

 

[whywesteppin]

They're going to have to give Seth Abramson a Pullitzer when this is over. He's been so far ahead of this.

He has. It really amazes me he has so many opponents and doubters.

A large portion are of course Russian trolls and Trump stans, but a lot are "Independents" or "skeptical liberals," aka **** out of here you pieces of ****.

 

[boris]

This is a weird thing to lie about considering Trump is totally innocent and all the indictments and convictions have nothing to do with Trump-Russia collusion.

 

[Kimchi Papi]

Ironic the deplorable in chief is always throwing out "fake news" & he's mixed up with the national enquirer...

And these deplorables rechirp this BS...

"You people" got me chuckling all the time...

 

[Nike Jordan]

 

[Based Jesus]

If Trump had a cooking show they’d caught the douchebag diet. McDonald’s, chocolate ice cream, and girls that look like Ivanka are all he ever eats.

 

[blastercombo]

His best bud is a pedophile. Why is this news again? How many little girls did trump ****? How many times did he **** his own girl?

 

[stuntman mike]

lol butina wasn't even on trump's campaign staff. why are they grasping at straws?!?!
what a complete waste of time.

 

[AEA18]

His best bud is a pedophile. Why is this news again? How many little girls did trump ****? How many times did he **** his own girl?

The information was out but the party of family values ignored it.

 

[Based Jesus]

I thought I had finally acclimated to how ****ed up this admin is, but I was wrong

 

[blastercombo]

The information was out but the party of family values ignored it.

All these girls came out sharing the same story and they were dismissed as liars becuase “you just waited till now????” idiot argument. Trump is a pedo. Said his pedo friend had “great” taste in women. Who’s ***** made enough to back that. I’ll wait for ignored content to pop up

 

[RustyShackleford]

I thought I had finally acclimated to how ****ed up this admin is, but I was wrong

**** Trump, **** this administration, **** the GOP, **** ICE, and **** anyone that defends this even a little bit.

 

[blastercombo]

“Its just like a camp from what I see”


Actually said in here by a complete idiot

 

[Belgium]

Fox & Friends wasn't trying to hear one word of this
https://www.thedailybeast.com/fox-n...king-points-on-michael-cohen?via=twitter_page (video)
Fox News’ Judge Napolitano Patiently Bats Down ‘Fox & Friends’ Talking Points on Michael Cohen

 

[Mark Antony]

All these girls came out sharing the same story and they were dismissed as liars becuase “you just waited till now????” idiot argument. Trump is a pedo. Said his pedo friend had “great” taste in women. Who’s ***** made enough to back that. I’ll wait for ignored content to pop up

Why you wait till now to bring up the "wait till now" argument?

 

[stuntman mike]

that judge must share the same dark corner at fox with shep smith

 

[Belgium]

House Oversight Subcommittee Hearing on the Clinton Foundation
The House Oversight Government Operations Subcommittee holds a hearing on oversight of nonprofit organizations and restrictions to their political activities, with a focus on the New York-based Clinton Foundation.

 

[elpablo21]

Foot on Neck Szn

 

[Belgium]

The experts in the Clinton Foundation hearing state they believe there is an open FBI criminal investigation in Little Rock Arkansas based on the questions they were asked by the assistant US Attorney after submitting their documentation.

Guess we can add another criminal investigation today.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-...eral-prosecutors-11544736455?mod=hp_lead_pos2
Trump Inauguration Spending Under Criminal Investigation by Federal Prosecutors
Probe looking into whether committee misspent funds and top donors gave money in exchange for access to the administration
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan are investigating whether President Trump’s 2017 inaugural committee misspent some of the record $107 million it raised from donations, people familiar with the matter said.

The criminal probe by the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office, which is in its early stages, also is examining whether some of the committee’s top donors gave money in exchange for access to the incoming Trump administration, policy concessions or to influence official administration positions, some of the people said.

Giving money in exchange for political favors could run afoul of federal corruption laws. Diverting funds from the organization, which was registered as a nonprofit, could also violate federal law.

The investigation represents another potential legal threat to people who are or were in Mr. Trump’s orbit. Their business dealings and activities during and since the campaign have led to a number of indictments and guilty pleas. Many of the president’s biggest campaign backers were involved in the inaugural fund.

The investigation partly arises out of materials seized in the federal probe of former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen’s business dealings, according to people familiar with the matter.

In April raids of Mr. Cohen’s home, office and hotel room, Federal Bureau of Investigation agents obtained a recorded conversation between Mr. Cohen and Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, a former adviser to Melania Trump, who worked on the inaugural events. In the recording, Ms. Wolkoff expressed concern about how the inaugural committee was spending money, according to a person familiar with the Cohen investigation.

The Wall Street Journal couldn’t determine when the conversation between Mr. Cohen and Ms. Wolkoff took place, or why it was recorded. The recording is now in the hands of federal prosecutors in Manhattan, a person familiar with the matter said.

The inaugural committee hasn’t been asked for records or been contacted by prosecutors, according to a lawyer close to the matter, who said: “We are not aware of any evidence the investigation the Journal is reporting actually exists.”

The inaugural committee has publicly identified vendors accounting for $61 million of the $103 million it spent, and it hasn’t provided details on those expenses, according to tax filings. As a nonprofit organization, the fund is only required to make public its top five vendors.

The committee raised more than double what former President Barack Obama’s first inaugural fund reported raising in 2009, the previous record. President Trump’s funds came largely from wealthy donors and corporations who gave $1 million or more—including casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson,

AT&T Inc. and Boeing Co. , according to Federal Election Commission filings. There is no sign that those three donors are under investigation.

Federal prosecutors have asked Richard Gates, a former campaign aide who served as the inaugural committee’s deputy chairman, about the fund’s spending and its donors, according to people familiar with the matter. Mr. Gates has met with prosecutors from the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office and the special counsel’s office.

Mr. Gates, who served as deputy in the inaugural fund, in February pleaded guilty to conspiracy against the U.S. involving foreign political consulting work unrelated to the campaign. The case was brought by Mr. Mueller’s office. Mr. Gates agreed to cooperate with the Justice Department in ongoing investigations.

The committee was headed by Thomas Barrack Jr., a real-estate developer and longtime friend of Mr. Trump. There is no sign the investigation is targeting Mr. Barrack, and he hasn’t been approached by investigators since he was interviewed by special counsel Robert Mueller’s office last year, according to a person familiar with the matter. Mr. Mueller’s investigators,who are probing Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election, asked Mr. Barrack only a handful of questions about the inaugural fund, the person said.

Mr. Mueller has also probed whether any foreign money flowed to the inaugural fund, which is prohibited from accepting foreign funds. In August, the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, on a referral from Mr. Mueller, obtained a guilty plea from a Washington consultant who admitted he used a U.S. citizen to serve as a “straw purchaser” so that a “prominent Ukraine oligarch” could attend the inauguration. The names were never disclosed.

Manhattan federal prosecutors in recent months asked Tennessee developer Franklin L. Haney for documents related to a $1 million donation he made to Mr. Trump’s inaugural committee in December 2016, according to a person familiar with the matter. Mr. Haney in early April hired Mr. Cohen, at the time serving as Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer, to help obtain a $5 billion loan from the Energy Department for a nuclear-power project, the Journal has previously reported. Mr. Haney was asked for documents related to his correspondence with members of the committee, meeting calendars and paperwork for the donation, the person said. A loan application by Mr. Haney’s company is still pending at the Energy Department.

A lawyer for Mr. Haney didn’t respond to requests for comment.

The White House didn’t respond to requests for comment on the investigation. A lawyer for Mr. Cohen didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Since pleading guilty to federal crimes in August, Mr. Cohen has been cooperating with federal prosecutors in Manhattan and the special counsel’s office. He was sentenced Wednesday to three years in prison.

According to the inaugural fund’s tax filings, the committee’s top-paid vendor was an event-production firm led by Ms. Wolkoff called WIS Media Partners. The company, which California corporate records show was formed 45 days before the inauguration, was paid $25.8 million, the largest sum paid to a vendor.

Ms. Wolkoff is a former unpaid adviser to Mrs. Trump who also helped produce the inaugural. Ms. Wolkoff and several partners were paid about $1.6 million of the $25.8 million, and the remainder went to subcontractors, a person familiar with Ms. Wolkoff’s work said.

It couldn’t be determined which expenses are the focus of scrutiny by federal prosecutors. The committee said in its tax documents that it spent $77 million on conferences, conventions and meetings, plus $4 million on ticketing, $9 million on travel, $4.5 million on salaries and wages, and other expenses. Mr. Barrack has said that an external audit was completed of the inaugural committee’s finances, but the organization has declined to make that audit available.

The January 2017 inaugural events included a celebration concert at the Lincoln Memorial, receptions, private meals and inaugural balls.

People involved in Mr. Trump’s inaugural have attributed some of the costs to the last-minute nature of the planning. Few expected Mr. Trump to win the 2016 election, leaving his camp scrambling to arrange events for the inaugural, with little time to bid for competitive contracts, they said.