207 replies to this topic

[D. C. Sessions]

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The Obama chief of staff said he didn’t know why McConnell had insisted on watering down the letter.

I'm sure he his orders from ... above.

[LFC]

Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, received the details of secret testimony made before the House Intelligence Committee. I'd say the leaking of information to a figure who is likely under investigation by the Special Counsel sounds a bit like obstruction of justice. Republicans continue their traitorous ways.

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On Dec. 19, 2017, a former staffer for Sen. John McCain named David Kramer testified before the House intelligence committee behind closed doors. He’d played a role in bringing the salacious and unverified Steele dossier to the FBI’s attention, and members peppered him with questions about it.

Then something unusual happened. Word of Kramer's testimony got out—to the lawyer of another witness.

The following, based on conversations with multiple sources familiar with the matter, illuminates the extraordinary breakdown of trust between committee investigators and the witnesses they call. It also suggests that some people working on the committee investigation may be trying to covertly assist one of the president’s closest allies—when the president’s inner circle is ostensibly a focus of their probe.

A few days after Kramer’s testimony, his lawyer, Larry Robbins, got a strange call. The call was from Stephen Ryan, a lawyer who represents Trump’s longtime personal attorney Michael Cohen. Cohen is facing scrutiny from Special Counsel Robert Mueller and congressional investigators regarding potential coordination between Trump’s team and the Kremlin. He featured prominently in the Steele dossier—the document that Kramer handled—and is currently suing Buzzfeed for publishing it.

Ryan told Robbins he reached out because someone from the House told him that Robbins’ client, Kramer, had information about the Steele dossier that could help Cohen.

Robbins declined to help. Ryan then asked Robbins not to tell the House intelligence committee about their conversation.

Robbins told the committee anyway. CNN reported in February that Robbins wrote a letter to the committee complaining about leaks to another client’s lawyer. The Daily Beast can now confirm that this letter was regarding Stephen Ryan and Michael Cohen.

[golden_valley]

LFC, on 06 March 2018 - 04:41 PM, said:

Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, received the details of secret testimony made before the House Intelligence Committee. I'd say the leaking of information to a figure who is likely under investigation by the Special Counsel sounds a bit like obstruction of justice. Republicans continue their traitorous ways.

Gee I wonder who would leak such stuff?

[Traveler]

More on Cohen. Not Cohn....

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One area of focus has been negotiations Cohen undertook during the campaign to help the Trump Organization build a tower in Moscow. Cohen brought Trump a letter of intent in October 2015 from a Russian developer to build a Moscow project. Later, he sent an email to Russian President Vladi­mir Putin’s chief spokesman seeking help to advance the stalled project. He said he did not recall receiving a response.

Another area that Mueller’s team has explored is a Russia-friendly peace proposal for Ukraine that was delivered to Cohen by a Ukrainian lawmaker one week after Trump took office, the people said.

Cohen is also among nine Trump associates whose communications with former Trump aide Sam Nunberg are being sought by the special counsel, according to a grand jury subpoena sent to Nunberg last week.

[LFC]

Treytor Gowdy (R-Minsk) is still at it though more subtly than Devin Nunes (R-Putin's Colon).

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Two Republican House committee chairmen on Tuesday asked the Justice Department to appoint a special counsel to investigate any bias at the Justice Department and FBI in the latest attempt by conservatives to paint the Russia investigation as a witch hunt out to hurt President Donald Trump.

House Oversight Committee Chair Trey Gowdy (R-SC) and House Judiciary Committee Chair Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) told Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in a letter that they are concerned about “decisions made and not made” at the DOJ and FBI in 2016 and 2017. They wrote that in the majority of cases, U.S. law enforcement officials have acted appropriately but claimed that there are “instances in which an actual or potential conflict of interest exists or appears to exist.”

Though they do not single out the Russia investigation or the so-called Trump dossier authored by former British spy Christopher Steele, it’s apparent that Gowdy and Goodlatte are concerned about exactly that.

“There is evidence of bias, trending toward animus, among those charged with investigating serious cases. There is evidence political opposition research was used in court filings. There is evidence this political opposition research was neither vetted before it was used nor fully revealed to the relevant tribunal,” Gowdy and Goodlatte wrote, adding that they also have concerns about the surveillance application process.

House Republicans; the ultimate concern trolls.

[Progressive whisperer]

Sure, they should definitely investigate the NY office and it’s ties to Guliani - oh, wait.

[LFC]

Putin takes a victory lap. Thanks to all the Republican traitors out there for making this possible.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin lavished praise on President Donald Trump on Wednesday, but added that he was sorely disappointed with the U.S. political system, saying that it has been “eating itself up.”

Speaking in an interview with the Russian state television, Putin described Trump as a great communicator.

“I have no disappointment at all,” Putin said when asked about the U.S. president. “Moreover, on a personal level he made a very good impression on me.”

The two leaders met on the sidelines of international summits last year. Putin praised Trump as a “balanced” man, who easily gets into the gist of various issues and listens to his interlocutor.

“It’s possible to negotiate with him, to search for compromises,” Putin added.

He's right about the U.S. political system though it isn't eating itself up, the Republicans have been eating it up.

[LFC]

LFC, on 06 March 2018 - 04:41 PM, said:

Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, received the details of secret testimony made before the House Intelligence Committee. I'd say the leaking of information to a figure who is likely under investigation by the Special Counsel sounds a bit like obstruction of justice. Republicans continue their traitorous ways.

Looks like an ethics watchdog group has had it and is making this an issue. I bet Devin Nunes is scared spitless of Republicans losing the House. Treytor Gowdy? He's bailing out. Clearly he's smarter than Nunes. Yes, I know that's an incredibly low bar.

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An ethics watchdog has renewed its call for an investigation into House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes after a Daily Beast report revealed Trump lawyer Michael Cohen received inside info from the California Republican’s Russia probe. Last week, the Campaign for Accountability filed an ethics complaint against Nunes after the New York Times reported the Senate Intelligence Committee believed House Intelligence Committee Republicans leaked text messages between Sen. Mark Warner and a lobbyist for a Russian oligarch to the press. This week, The Daily Beast revealed that Trump lawyer Michael Cohen received inside info from the House Russia investigation, suggesting that some individuals working on it may be trying to covertly assist one of the president’s closest confidante. “Committee members and staff are abusing their positions of public trust in an effort to create a false narrative aimed at discrediting their political enemies,” CA Executive Director Daniel E. Stevens said, citing both reports. “This is the epitome of unethical conduct, and the House must take action to end it immediately.”

[Traveler]

Like CA has any authority to investigate this?

[LFC]

Traveler, on 08 March 2018 - 02:06 PM, said:

Like CA has any authority to investigate this?

Nope. Just gotta' keep it in the news cycle.

[Beelzebuddy]

Traveler, on 08 March 2018 - 02:06 PM, said:

Like CA has any authority to investigate this?

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...the Campaign for Accountability filed an ethics complaint against Nunes
...
CA Executive Director Daniel E. Stevens said

I don't think the 'CA' stands for California?

[Traveler]

Beelzebuddy, on 08 March 2018 - 03:02 PM, said:

I don't think the 'CA' stands for California?

Campaign for Accountability.

[Beelzebuddy]

Traveler, on 08 March 2018 - 05:43 PM, said:

Campaign for Accountability.

Sorry I misunderstood. They filed an ethics complaint. They did not open an investigation.

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An ethics watchdog has renewed its call for an investigation into House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes
...
the Campaign for Accountability filed an ethics complaint against Nunes

[Sinan]

Are all of us just a minority or is this nation irredeemably stupid? I am at a loss to explain how in the hell we got here. It shakes my ideas about who we are as a people. Is America doomed?

[LFC]

Sinan, on 08 March 2018 - 07:10 PM, said:

Is America doomed?

For now, yes. Our only hope are the Gen Xers and Millenials. The Silent Generation and the Baby Boomers f**ed this country up royally. Increased urbanization can help save us as well. The rural areas of our nation have supported a nearly endless list of self-destructive policies.

[golden_valley]

We are in a transition period, moving away from industrialization as a basis for organizing, not just the economy but for overall society as well. Industrialization let us create a middle class and define America's values based on where you fit into the economy. It let America "win" WW II and dominate the world because the rest of the world was devastated or not industrialized yet. It gave people enough money to allow them to stop worrying about subsistence. They didn't even have to grow their own food anymore thereby losing the sense that nature is in control. I suspect it also allowed people to feel they made it all on their own (as long as they have money) and they lost the sense of how precarious success and the ability to live well can be. I suspect the latter also led to the abandonment of religion and community groups because there was no more need to clump together to sustain life.

What is industrialization being replaced with? A high tech and service economy that doesn't need high school grads to work in factories. An economy that has a few dominant economic players and the whole wide world for them to operate in. Plus we have a government that forgot the lessons of the Gilded Age and then the Depression of the 1930s, so individuals are not protected from the excesses of the economic system. Many people didn't even realize how protected they once were. Yeah, people are crazy and stupid right now because the lessons they learned and relied on from the industrial age don't work anymore. They're looking for a time machine.

[Traveler]

Well said GV.

[pnwguy]

Traveler, on 09 March 2018 - 11:18 AM, said:

Well said GV.

Indeed. That's an insightful look at the sea change affecting our cultural, economic, and political organizing principles.

One of the overall problems facing humanity is that major technological improvements to our existence used to happen over generations, and not within people's lifetimes. Our tech evolution is happening faster than cultural evolution can happen, so it creates a backlash of people that resist the changes. The kinds of things that helped us thrive in the past, from family structures, community interdependence, food generation, non-farm employment, etc, are changing faster than the human psyche is used to.

While we are a highly adaptable species, giving us the dominance we have on the planet, we also crave stability. We are great at pattern recognition, as we develop from infancy. But in past generations, the patterns we learn in the developing brain used to be set and fairly consistent for the duration of our lives. Now the "life patterns" are changing several times in the average human life span.

[LFC]

golden_valley, on 09 March 2018 - 11:08 AM, said:

Plus we have a government that forgot the lessons of the Gilded Age and then the Depression of the 1930s, so individuals are not protected from the excesses of the economic system.

This is the one sentence I disagree with. The Republicans haven't forgotten the lessons. They're actively trying to restore the Gilded Age and when the next Depression hits prop the wealthy back up again. Hey, it worked in 2008 and the likes of the Kochs and Mercers know it.

[Progressive whisperer]

LFC, on 09 March 2018 - 01:01 PM, said:

This is the one sentence I disagree with. The Republicans haven't forgotten the lessons. They're actively trying to restore the Gilded Age and when the next Depression hits prop the wealthy back up again. Hey, it worked in 2008 and the likes of the Kochs and Mercers know it.

Why we need tumbrels or heads on sticks- pour encorager les autres.