Mueller Investigation

Juicy, juicy stuff.

See, here's the thing about Evangelicals. In their collective mind, God came down from heaven on election day and placed His Divine Finger on the scales to get Trump elected. Trump was literally chosen by God. Trump is the Holy American President by Divine Right. Between Hillary cheating, the Media spreading their fake news, The Deep State throwing it's weight around, and the millions of illegal aliens voting against him, and him still winning, how could it be any other way? So if God Almighty is okay with Trump being a lying, cheating, thieving, philandering, abusive whore dog, then who are they to say otherwise?

You're giving Evangelicals as a whole far too much credit if you think they put that much thought into it. I'm sure some of them believe exactly that, but for the most part I suspect it's just them condemning specks and ignoring planks like they have basically forever.

You should all take a moment to read this:

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/04/the-last-temptation/554066/

A similar article from Forbes:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/chrisladd/2018/03/11/why-white-evangelicalism-is-so-cruel/#f2fa50671f67

Mueller Weighs Putting Off Trump Obstruction Decision

Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into whether President Donald Trump obstructed justice is said to be close to completion, but he may set it aside while he finishes other key parts of his probe, such as possible collusion and the hacking of Democrats, according to current and former U.S. officials.

That’s because Mueller may calculate that if he tries to bring charges in the obstruction case -- the part that may hit closest to Trump personally -- witnesses may become less cooperative in other parts of the probe, or the president may move to shut it down altogether.

The revelation is a peek into Mueller’s calculations as he proceeds with his many-headed probe, while pressure builds from the president’s advisers and other Republicans to show progress or wrap it up.

The obstruction portion of the probe could likely be completed after several key outstanding interviews, including with the president and his son, Donald Trump Jr. The president’s lawyers have been negotiating with Mueller’s team over such an encounter since late last year. But even if Trump testifies in the coming weeks, Mueller may make a strategic calculation to keep his findings on obstruction secret, according to the current and former U.S. officials, who discussed the strategy on condition of anonymity.

Any clear outcome of the obstruction inquiry could be used against Mueller: Filing charges against Trump or his family could prompt the president to take action to fire him. Publicly clearing Trump of obstruction charges -- as the president’s lawyers have requested -- could be used by his allies to build pressure for the broader investigation to be shut down.

Other key matters under investigation by Mueller’s team, with its 17 career prosecutors, include whether Trump or any of his associates helped Russia meddle in the 2016 campaign. Mueller is also expected to indict some of those responsible for hacking the Democratic National Committee before the election and publicly leaking stolen material in an effort to hurt Democrat Hillary Clinton.

The timing for whether -- and when -- to interview Trump or his family members is one of the most sensitive decisions Mueller faces at this stage of his investigation. The special counsel’s office declined to comment for this story.

Trump, who has branded the probe a “witch hunt,” is growing increasingly frustrated as Mueller’s work continues, and the president’s lawyers have signaled that they expect the investigation to wrap up quickly.

Expansive, Aggressive
Recent reports provide a glimpse into how expansive and aggressive Mueller’s investigation is. The New York Times and Washington Post, for example, suggest Mueller’s team recently began probing efforts by the United Arab Emirates to influence the Trump team, including a meeting the Gulf kingdom apparently helped organize in the Seychelles where an informal Trump adviser also met with a Russian banker.

The Post also reported that Mueller has been asking about several Russia-related incidents involving longtime Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, including his role in trying to help the Trump Organization build a tower in Moscow in 2015.

When it comes to the obstruction portion of the investigation, Mueller is said to be focused on three main episodes: Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey last May; the drafting of a misleading statement about the purpose of a June 2016 meeting between Don Jr., Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and a group of Russians at Trump Tower; and the disclosure that Trump considered firing Mueller last June.

Mueller’s team of FBI agents and prosecutors has already interviewed people who could provide firsthand knowledge of possible obstruction of justice, including Comey, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and National Security Agency Director Michael Rogers.

Millions of Pages
Mueller also has turned Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, into a cooperating witness. He has interviewed more than four dozen White House and campaign aides and requested more than 1.4 million pages of documents, according to Trump’s lawyers.

Kushner spoke to Mueller early on in the investigation for a limited interview, while Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter who’s also an adviser, have yet to be interviewed, according to a person familiar with the investigation.

There is also no indication that Mueller has yet interviewed Trump’s former bodyguard Keith Schiller, who was at Trump’s side on a trip to Moscow and during each day of the campaign and his presidency until he resigned over the summer. When Trump moved to fire Comey, Schiller hand-delivered the note to the FBI.

Here are three of the main episodes Mueller is investigating on a potential obstruction of justice:

Weekend in Bedminster
One focus for Mueller is a rainy weekend that Trump and top aides spent holed up at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, shortly before Comey was fired. Trump stayed out of public view the entire weekend. While the White House released little information about his activities except to say he had “meetings and calls,” it’s clear Trump and his advisers were discussing Comey’s fate.

Traveling with Trump that weekend was then-Deputy National Security Adviser K.T. McFarland, a Flynn ally; senior adviser Stephen Miller; then-White House communications director Hope Hicks, social media director Dan Scavino; Kushner; and Ivanka Trump.

That Sunday morning in Bedminster, Trump publicly aired his frustrations on the Russia probe, tweeting: “Why did the Obama Administration start an investigation into the Trump Campaign (with zero proof of wrongdoing) long before the Election in November? Wanted to discredit so Crooked H would win. Unprecedented. Bigger than Watergate! Plus, Obama did NOTHING about Russian meddling.”

Late that day, Trump flew back to Washington with staff and his daughter and son-in-law. After landing at Andrews Air Force Base, he spent more than 40 minutes on the tarmac before deplaning, an unusually long time. When he did exit Air Force One, Kushner told reporters “everything is good, he was working on something.”

Less than 12 hours later, Trump woke the next morning and began venting again about the investigation. He wrote six Twitter posts attacking the probe, three of them aimed at former acting Attorney General Sally Yates. “The Russia-Trump collusion story is a total hoax, when will this taxpayer funded charade end?” one of them read. Trump fired Comey the next day.

Don Jr.’s Statement
Mueller also has been prodding witnesses about the crafting of the misleading statement by Trump Jr. to the New York Times concerning the meeting with Russians at Trump Tower in Manhattan. Mueller interviewed the former spokesman for Trump’s legal team, Mark Corallo, after the release of author Michael Wolff’s book “Fire and Fury,” which said Corallo believed the crafting of the statement could amount to obstruction of justice.

The statement -- crafted aboard Air Force One by Trump and Hicks and relayed to Trump Jr. -- portrayed the meeting as being mostly about Russian adoptions. Kushner spokesman Josh Raffel also gave input on the response. Emails later released by Trump Jr. showed an organizer told him the Russians would produce damaging information on Clinton. The White House has said of the statement that Trump “weighed in, as any father would, based on the limited information that he had," while on a return trip from Germany.

Corallo told investigators that in a phone call with Hicks and Trump raising concern about the statement Hicks insisted the emails would "never get out," which Corallo found deeply naive, according to a person familiar with the investigation.

Firing Mueller
The third main area Mueller is probing for potential obstruction involves Trump’s desire to fire Mueller. Trump became enraged with Sessions when he recused himself from anything to do with the Russia investigation, a decision that continues to rankle the president. After Trump fired Comey, Rosenstein appointed Mueller as special counsel.

Trump wanted to fire Mueller in June, three people familiar with the matter said, raising concern among his top aides and closest supporters that Trump would put himself in legal jeopardy. Trump ultimately relented after White House Counsel Don McGahn refused to carry out the order and made clear he’d resign rather than acquiesce.

i mean, it takes time to upconvert a piss tape to 3D and 4k, it was probably shot on a camcorder or cell phone for godsake

The House has abruptly ended its probe, GOP saying no collusion, Dems saying this is premature and they weren't told this was coming, Trump using ALL CAPS on Twitter claiming vindication. Nunes's tongue tasting hamburgers and coke.

Still, at least one GOPper is being honest and is right that this might actually be a mercy killing because at least it's fairly obvious that the panel wasn't getting witnesses to answer the tough questions and wasn't going to subpoena, so it was all a sideshow anyway:

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/03/12/...gation-erin-burnett-outfront-cnntv/index.html

And Mueller soldiers on.

I admit I was a bit confused over this news. I forgot that the House GOP had its own dog and pony show.

Senate has theirs too, but they've been quiet. Too quiet.

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/03/13/gowdy-russia-undermine-clinton-republicans-461612?lo=ap_b1

Trey Gowdy has always been a raving partisan but it seems the pro Trump con job was a bridge to far even for him.

Still not even a hint of criminal behavior involving Russia collusion, right?

I know, still was "right," now it's been retcon'd into Russia's election meddling, or maybe some obstruction.

Nope, still wrong.

Oh, so that's how they spun it.

"The Russians weren't working towards Trump winning...they were working towards Clinton losing. See? Totally different. It's apples and pineapples. It's elephants and elephant seals."

Not even a hint? That's a pretty low bar. Certainly there are hints.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/amp19419383/trump-body-man/

That one kind of flew under the radar. Trump's long time personal aid got fired and escorted out of the Wgite House last Monday for "personal financial crimes". I wpuld be extremely surprised if Mueller wasn't both behind this and all over this.

Donnie sure does seem to surround himself with grifters and theives. Birds of a feather, I guess.

Florida Republican member of the House Intelligence committee admits the house investigation has lost all creditability.

Yes, and several crown's witnesses are a lot more than mere hints.

I'm an Evangelical. A Reformed Evangelical, but still an Evangelical. That doesn't describe me at all. I'm quite vocally anti-Trump. That said, I'm constantly shocked at the spiritual illiteracy of most people who profess to be Evangelical. The vast and overwhelming number of Christians in this nation are spiritual babies who are still stuck on the milk of the word of salvation and haven't moved onto the meat of faith grown through the teaching of sound doctrine. Of course, I also blame that, at least partially, on three generations of clergy preaching a sissified, needy version of Jesus.

*tries to combo green checkmark, fails*

https://apnews.com/b9268204c9e040c7...er's-latest-cooperator,-a-convicted-pedophile

I wonder what he had to say.

LOL, this is great. Buzzfeed is going to subpoena Stormy Daniels in order to get around her NDA.

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/03/14/buzzfeed-stormy-daniels-trump-462261?lo=ap_c1

Oh Snap! Mueller subpoenaing Trump Org.

https://a.msn.com/r/2/BBKgwn3?m=en-us

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.va...03/next-indictments-mueller-investigation/amp

Ok, that has a lot of speculation but what it says does make sense though I find it lacking in evidence so far. Putin has been very busy killing off defecters and old enemies and we saw two killed in the UK in the last week and a half. It might very well be that those two worked with or provided information to Christopher Steele and maybe even provided information to Mueller. That is why Putin is breaking all the rules of spycraft and going out and killing these people.

Putin is desperate to hide how he corrupted and coopted Donald Trump and how the two engaged in a conspiracy.

I said I found it lacking. That said, I report what the talk is and everyone gets to decided.

You will notice I went out of my way not to endorse that one.

But you still posted it.

Come on we all know you wish it was true.

https://www.google.com/amp/www.newsweek.com/russia-poison-spy-steele-dossier-836768?amp=1

I think the link should be investigated just to see if it holds any truth or not. Please do read the Newsweek story and then tell me if it at least deserves a once over instead of being dismissed out of hand the way you wanted to do.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.te...y-sergei-skripal-close-consultant-linked/amp/

The Telegraph has also recently covered the connection between Steele and the spy Putin tried to have killed.

So, yes, it is worth looking into at the very least.

If you are engaged in a cover-up you would try and make it look like an accident.

The way they tried to assassinate Sergei Skripal wasn't about creating a quiet accident, it was about Russia wanting to show it's not afraid to poke the bees nest.