Buzzfeed publishes Steele dossier claiming Cohen went to Prague to meet Russian agents
Cohen denies ever going to Prague, sues Buzzfeed
Police raid Cohen’s office, seize documents
Leak claims Mueller has evidence Cohen was in Prague
Cohen drops libel suit
Coincidence?
Actually, it’s perfectly possible. Trump/Cohen have a long, long history of noisily announcing lawsuits against anyone who says anything bad about Trump … then quietly dropping the lawsuit later. The criminal investigation into Cohen is just shining a spotlight on what probably would have happened anyway. (Edit: though the criminal investigation probably did influence the timing of when they dropped it.)
Along with Comey’s comments in the book:
“The encounter left me shaken,” he writes. “I had never seen anything like it in the Oval Office. As I found myself thrust into the Trump orbit, I once again was having flashbacks to my earlier career as a prosecutor against the mob. The silent circle of assent. The boss in complete control. The loyalty oaths. The us-versus-them worldview. The lying about all things, large and small, in service to some code of loyalty that put the organization above morality and the truth.”
Was Comey trying to tell us something more than just the reference to what it felt like? Perhaps he was slipping there actually IS something to that statement.
I think Comey was also trying to sell a book, defend himself his reputation, and insult Trump (all in as honest a fashion as he could manage). I wouldn’t discount the possibility of Comey leaving breadcrumbs, but there are plenty of plausible alternative explanations for his phrasing.
Oh, absolutely true. I didn’t mean for that to sound quite to tinfoil hat-ish, but certainly I think he knows more than he let on in interviews and such. It was an internal FBI investigation prior to being an official investigation spun off to Mueller.
We’re going to be discussing these things for the rest of our lives (assuming the conversation doesn’t end up dominated by how we survive this nuclear winter).
He said in an interview, with Tapper I think, that he knows things that haven’t come out yet.
Justice OIG sent criminal referral on McCabe to the US Attorney in DC. So I guess they are skipping the appeal process?
Colbert, too.
Color me skeptical, though. The other recent “X is about to join Trump’s legal team!” stories recently have been leaked by the Trump team. They’ve been quickly followed by X saying, “Ummmmm, I need to wash my hair that day. Also I have guests coming in from out of town. And I’m changing my phone number, so please don’t call back.”
Apparently Trump has backed off of dumping Rosenstein and Mueller, because when he met with Rosenstein last week, Rosenstein told him he is not a target in Mueller’s investigation.
Edit: Apparently he was referring specifically to the Cohen investigation according to CNN report.
He could join soon. I could also join soon, but I don’t know what they’d want from me…and what I want from them is to get as far away from me as possible.
He should just tell Trump they’re investigating Hillary Clinton but keeping it secret so she doesn’t acid wash her emails again.
No way Guillianni jumps on board this dumpster fire, unless he really has started suffering dementia.
I think Giuliani has been demented for 20 years at least, in the sense of suffering from some serious mental illness, if not true senility. As mayor he started merely authoritarian but he ended almost monstrous. Somewhere in there he seemed to lose all grasp on rationality. Pity, since I have to concede he did a good job as a prosecutor attacking the mafia back in the day.
Rudy has lost it, confirmed.
(Or maybe it’s “Rudy wants Donnie to pay for his legal bills when Rudy himself gets charged.” Hmmmm…)
Anyway, here’s your regular reminder that Trump being told he’s not a “target” of an investigation doesn’t mean much. (Basically, they’ll only use the term “target” when they’re about get in their car to go to court to file an indictment, not before.)
Warning, NSFL.
This sounds fascinating…he’s going to negotiate an end to the probe. Because that’s how it works, right? Maybe $10M to a discrete account of Mueller’s choice and this all goes away!