@Zombie 's big fail here is thinking that because neither Obama nor Hillary were crooks even though Republicans lied and pretended they were that this some how means Trump is not a crook. Even though we know he has a long history of being both a crook and incompetent.
I agree Donnie will either be impeached and resign or just resign when impeachment seems likely (he was already bored with the job by the time he spent the first weekend at Mar a Lago two weeks after the inauguration). Pence, however, is mindful of what happened to Gerald Ford's prospects after he pardoned Nixon. Pence wants the Presidency very, very much. He'll cite his "Christian conscience" as not allowing him to issue a pardon, but there will be no consequences. Donnie can spend the rest of his life with Secret Service protection as he commutes from the Tower to Mar a Lago and back again bragging to his cronies about how he "did that President thing."
In the past, being removed from the highest office in the land would be damaging enough. But with Trump? As long as the banks keep him afloat and he can salve his ego in the praise of 25% of America and the willing thighs of Russian whores, I doubt he'd ever admit to himself he done fucked up. He always has someone else to blame, always.
https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/...connects-russian-oligarch-money-gop-campaigns Many, many Republicans have been lmtaking money from Putin and his corrupt friends. Millions and millions. No wonder they've stayed so quiet about Trump's corruption; they didn't want to draw attention to their own.
Mueller Seeks White House Documents on Flynn WASHINGTON — Investigators working for the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, recently asked the White House for documents related to the former national security adviser Michael T. Flynn, and have questioned witnesses about whether he was secretly paid by the Turkish government during the final months of the presidential campaign, according to people close to the investigation. Though not a formal subpoena, the document request is the first known instance of Mr. Mueller’s team asking the White House to hand over records. In interviews with potential witnesses in recent weeks, prosecutors and F.B.I. agents have spent hours poring over the details of Mr. Flynn’s business dealings with a Turkish-American businessman who worked last year with Mr. Flynn and his consulting business, the Flynn Intel Group. The company was paid $530,000 to run a campaign to discredit an opponent of the Turkish government who has been accused of orchestrating last year’s failed coup in the country.
http://www.rawstory.com/2017/08/mue...rimes-because-theyre-faster-to-prosecute-cnn/ Interesting new information.
Staggering, but not surprising, amount of denial and false equivalency from the righties here, particularly the hard core Trump cultists. I'm not sure they can make something stick to Trump himself, it depends on (a) whether there is the equivilant of DTJ's e that directly involves dad; or (b) whether he can be drawn into the previous money laundering crimes BUT probably the best case outcome for he Democrats (speaking politically, not "good of the country" here is for Trump' massive ego sets up a siege state in which the GOP is begging him to resign and he refuses, essentially freezing all conservative legislative and administrative action.
thing is, a LOT of Trump appointees are Koch operatives (up to and including Pence) notwithstanding many of them - including Pence - overlap with CNP interests, and so while the Kochs and their minions (Mercers for example) basically financed Trump, he was the vehicle to get there, they don't actually need HIM. So it's going to be fascinating when they cut bait if the sense of betrayal Trump will surely feel will finally drive him into a complete mental breakdown.
point of these seemingly random excerpts being that the web of connections between Russian money all sort of dirty illegal dealings is so complex that it's effective cover for basically anything you want to do. But the flip side of that is that when someone decides to dig in there's probably a ton of misdeeds to find. Most of Trump's business dealings over the last 20-30 years have thick connections to this underground money (there's some evidence more legitimate and more regulated U.S. banks and financers washed their hands of his schemes at some point) and his properties have been fined for money laundering, and settled not a few other charges over the years and no one has bothered to follow the trail back to him - but that doesn't mean no trail exists.
A coincidence that Trump- projects financed with dirty foreign money–SoHo, Baja, Tampa, Ft Lauderdale, Toronto–all ended in failure? Or were these projects just a front for laundering sketchy overseas money in and out of the US, designed to fail?
these and very much more come from the twitter account of a man named Adam Khan (@Khanoisseur) who's been doing yoeman's work for a year or more tying together information that already in the public sphere but not typically linked in such a way that one could follow the connections and recognize the pattern. A formal investigation with top-shelf full time investigators (and Mueller has apparently put together a literal all-star team) can and will have a field day with such a wealth of targets. If he doesn't construct a laundry list of criminal offenses Trump was party to (entirely previous to the formal campaign) which serve as the chrysalis within which the campaign connections can easily form. Some might argue that the financial crimes over the last few decades, if they exist, are not relevant to what Mueller is investigating - but cooperation with he foreign meddling did not spring to life in a vacuum, and it's perfectly legitimate to pull the thread in hand to see what it leads to. Unless we're going to say we're perfectly fine with a mob family running the country because "Abortion!Guns!! 'Murcia!!!"
Believe it or not National Review has a decent article about how Mueller's investigation will probably go.
One of Trump's own lawyers revealed today that the President has sent messages of "appreciation and greetings" to Mueller, despite publically denouncing the probe as an unfair witch hunt and Mueller himself as biased and conflicted. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news...e-messages-special-counsel-mueller/547917001/
FBI conducted predawn raid of former Trump campaign chairman Manafort’s home FBI agents raided the Alexandria home of President Trump’s former campaign chairman late last month, using a search warrant to seize documents and other materials, according to people familiar with the special counsel investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. Federal agents appeared at Paul Manafort’s home without advance warning in the predawn hours of July 26, the day after he met voluntarily with the staff for the Senate Intelligence Committee. The search warrant was wide-ranging and FBI agents working with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III departed the home with various records. The raid came as Manafort has been voluntarily producing documents to congressional committees investigating Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election. The search warrant indicates investigators may have argued to a federal judge they had reason to believe Manafort could not be trusted to turn over all records in response to a grand jury subpoena. It could also have been intended to send a message to President Trump’s former campaign chairman that he should not expect gentle treatment or legal courtesies from Mueller’s team.
My guess is eventually Flynn gets immunity in order to testify. Flynn says he has a story to tell and I believe him. He got stabbed in the back and sold down river by Donnie Small Hands and he is already facing charges and expensive legal fees so he seems to be the obvious weakest link. That is what the grand jury is for after all. To get people to turn on each other so the truth comes out.
Turns out the same day of the Manafort raid was when Trump tweeted this about Acting Director McCabe, who presumably authorized it.
It was not a no knock warrant. That's bullshit. No knock raids are violent events done by a SWAT team and had the FBI in the early morning stormed Manafort's house like he was a terrorist it would have been all over the news that day. No knock raids require you storm the house and violently take control of everyone in the house to prevent them from acting against you, destroying evidence, escape, or hurting hostages. They showed up. Knocked and were let in. Manafort has been cooperating according to the reports so there would be zero reason for the FBI to storm his house. Showing up unannounced is not the same as a no knock raid.