4766

Yes. This is the giant flaw in our judicial system. That its bloat and capriciousness is being used against those who deserve it does nothing to exonerate the inherent failures of the system. The results are good, but the process is bad.

4767
4768

Following earlier reports that detailed its more alarming components, Foreign Policy on Thursday got its hands on a full transcript of the memo and published it online. In addition to radical language and the myriad references to “deep state” conspiracies and government subversion, the memo also unintentionally exposed the remaining close ties between the Trump administration and the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., a supposed outsider with no formal White House title.

According to two sources who spoke with the outlet, Trump Jr. was one of the people who received the emailed memo, despite not having the proper security clearance or any official position in the Trump administration that would warrant such a transmission. (It wasn’t exactly clear whether Higgins had intended to include him on the list of recipients.) Trump Jr. later passed the message to his father, who reportedly “gushed over it.”

4769

Mr Mueller is asking for records including details of specific meetings with administration and campaign officials, and any related documents such as transcripts.

The meetings he is asking about specifically include those related to Mr Trump’s decision to fire former FBI Director James Comey, according to the report.

Mr Mueller is considering whether Mr Trump obstructed justice with his dismissal of Mr Comey, which would be grounds for impeachment.

Mr Priebus is likely to be familiar with the details of all White House meetings.

4770
4771

Three days after Donald Trump named his campaign foreign policy team in March 2016, the youngest of the new advisers sent an email to seven campaign officials with the subject line: “Meeting with Russian Leadership - Including Putin.”

The adviser, George Papadopoulos, offered to set up “a meeting between us and the Russian leadership to discuss US-Russia ties under President Trump,” telling them his Russian contacts welcomed the opportunity, according to internal campaign emails read to The Washington Post.

The proposal sent a ripple of concern through campaign headquarters in Trump Tower. Campaign co-chairman Sam Clovis wrote that he thought NATO allies should be consulted before any plans were made. Another Trump adviser, retired Navy Rear Adm. Charles Kubic, cited legal concerns, including a possible violation of U.S. sanctions against Russia and of the Logan Act, which prohibits U.S. citizens from unauthorized negotiation with foreign governments.

But Papadopoulos, a campaign volunteer with scant foreign policy experience, persisted. Between March and September, the self-described energy consultant sent at least a half-dozen requests for Trump, as he turned from primary candidate to party nominee, or for members of his team to meet with Russian officials. Among those to express concern about the effort was then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who rejected in May 2016 a proposal from Papadopoulos for Trump to do so.

The exchanges are among more than 20,000 pages of documents the Trump campaign turned over to congressional committees this month after review by White House and defense lawyers. The selection of Papadopoulos’s emails were read to The Post by a person with access to them. Two other people with access to the emails confirmed the general tone of the exchanges and some specific passages within them.

4772

George Papadopoulos… Webster’s dad?!

Xtien, please post another picture of Rerun.

4773

Ma’am… George… why are there Russians here?

4774

Paul Manafort partnered on an $850 million New York real estate deal with an ally of Vladimir Putin and a Ukrainian moneyman whom the Justice Department recently described as an “organized crime member.”

That’s according a 2008 memo written by Rick Gates, Manafort’s business partner and fellow alumnus of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. In it, Gates enthused about finalizing with the financing necessary to acquire New York’s louche Drake Hotel.

Two former federal prosecutors told The Daily Beast that the hotel deal was likely to be an item of focus for Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s inquiry into ties between Trump associates and the Kremlin.
[…]
Firtash’s alliance with Manafort to acquire the Drake has been reported before. But far less attention has gone to the involvement of another party: Oleg Deripaska, one of the wealthiest men in Russia—and a longtime Putin associate. In 2006, according to the Associated Press, Deripaska signed a $10 million annual contract with Manafort for what Manafort pitched as political and economic efforts inside the U.S. to “greatly benefit the Putin Government.”

But Manafort was more than Deripaska’s political operative. They were business partners, as well.

“When Paul met with Mr. D last month he told Paul to lock in the other financing elements and then come back to him for the final piece of investment,” Gates wrote to two longtime business associates of Deripaska, Anton Vishnevsky and Andrey Zagorskiy, on July 1, 2008.

According to ex-prosecutors, a business relationship between a Kremlin-tied oligarch, an accused gangster and the manager of Donald Trump’s campaign is the sort of arrangement currently occupying Mueller’s time.

4775

Vice President Mike Pence says he “never witnessed” any evidence of collusion between the Russian government and Trump campaign officials during the 2016 campaign, and reaffirmed his commitment to cooperating with the special counsel’s investigation into Russian election interference and possible Russian ties to the Trump organization.

During his visit to a Christian mission in Cartagena, Colombia on Monday, Pence told reporters “during all of my experience on the campaign, I never witnessed any evidence of collusion or any of the allegations, I’m not aware of that ever having occurred.”

4776

These denials are becoming comically narrow.
“I never personally touched any Russians on a Tuesday.”

4777

Dude’s been burned once, doesn’t want to get busted again making unequivocal denials that are shortly followed by evidence to the contrary. Soon he’ll just be walking everywhere in a big coat, glasses and a fake mustache. “Who is this Pence guy you’re talking about? Never heard of him.”

4778
4779

Kaspersky himself was freaking trained by the FSB.
He’s a billionaire living in Russia.

Either one of those would mean he’s owned by the Russian oligarchy.

This ain’t rocket science, folks.

4780

He literally does a steam bath on a regular basis with the head of the FSB.

4781

The Kaspersky stuff is old news. I’ve known about that for 10+ years and there have been media reports on it for longer than that.

4782

This. Why is this suddenly news?

4783

Because the right wing has decided to start being russophiles, and they’re entertaining arguments that these guys aren’t actual Russian agents.

4784

It’s time for Viggo Mortensen from ‘Eastern Promises’ to clear up this shit.

4785

A Russian security firm accompanying Russian security services as computer specialists, where’s the surprise or plot?

Or.

Cisco hardware being pre-loaded with NSA “presents” (https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/05/photos-of-an-nsa-upgrade-factory-show-cisco-router-getting-implant/) , Juniper firewalls with ‘mysterious’ backdoors (http://www.securityweek.com/backdoors-not-patched-many-juniper-firewalls) , RSA & ANSI cryptography standards being shown as intentionally weakened and exploitable (https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/01/after-nsa-backdoors-security-experts-leave-rsa-conference-they-can-trust), Symantec & McAfee (no links required as everyone know they’re shit…). With all that++, I’d think I would trust Kaspersky more than the alternative.

Feels like US security services are still mad about Kaspersky assisting with the dismantling of Stuxnet (http://spectrum.ieee.org/telecom/security/the-real-story-of-stuxnet).

  • Torch: Maybe if the DNC used Kaspersky, they would’n’t have gotten hacked.