This was tweeted later in that tweet thread.
Does anybody know what they mean by this? Specifically, how does the story differ from Mueller’s filings?
Marcy seems kind of bummed that some of her blog pieces last week about other suborning perjury evidence (in this case regarding Flynn) didn’t get much notice. It may be that she’s arguing that Mueller has never mentioned this in court filings, but he’s not obligated to do so, either.
Ah, ok thanks.
This is kind of a wild guess, but I’m wondering if the sources for this story got this info from the same draft of the Mueller report that Bernstein claimed to have seen.
Interesting. And I wouldn’t dismiss that possibility.
One thing’s for sure: the Post, NYT, CNN, NBC, CBS, ABC, FOX and the WSJ all have reporters working every source they can find to try to corroborate the BuzzFeed story. I hate to say it, but it almost seems too ironclad to be true, y’know?
It’s just that Mueller’s team has kept things on lockdown so well and all of a sudden stuff is coming out. If there is a draft circulating among DoJ officials, it would make sense.
Would he make use of SDNY or the NY Field Office people to look at Trump org things?
Sometime ago, two reporters from Buzzfeed news had a lengthy AMA on reddit. As you know, these guys are legit, non-partisan investigative journalists and I would be really surprised if they didn’t have this story nail downed. IIRC one of them did mention they had been working on a huge story and this may have been it.
Their colleagues in the journalism world definitely think so, and that provides some confidence, for sure.
https://twitter.com/ScottShaneNYT/status/1086255297696542722
I spooled a thread on twitter, and want to clearly specify that this thread is PURE SPECULATION.
But it is educated speculation, and it makes a little sense. It is a theory. It isn’t proven. It may not be correct. But it is worth keeping at hand, in mind.
Okay, hear me out…
In 2016, the ultra-greedy, short-sighted Trump only cared about one thing:
Sucking up to Russia to pave the way for the Trump Moscow Hotel and a $300+ mil. payday.
He didn’t care about the presidency. He actually wanted to lose.
Trump, in his narcissistic, simplistic thinking, thought he was just laying the groundwork to capitalize on losing.
So, when Russia came along and said “Let’s work together…” Trump was happy to agree because he thought it was just buddying up to Putin.
So when Russia offered dirt on Hillary, Trump happily says “thanks, you’re such a great partner…”.
…and then Russia says “How about changing your platform on the Ukraine?”
…and Trump says “Happy to, my friends!” thinking he’ll never be in office to folllw-through.
So Trump was just taking the quids and promising the quos as a courtship of sorts.
He thought he was being smart.
Posturing like he’d bend over backwards for Russia without actually having to do anything… since he’d lose and not have to deliver.
In Trump’s lizard brain, he’d think that was brilliant. His fantasy:
“I told them I’d do anything for them. I’d lift sanctions. I’d break up NATO. Whatever they wanted. I didn’t have to do any of it… but they were so happy, they gave me a big hotel deal. I’m a genius.”
…but then he won. Russia delivered on their end of the bargain.
Then Trump was trapped.
No hotel. No $300 million. None of the goodies he wanted… and Russian partners who could put him and put him in prison if he didn’t pay up on his end of the deal.
I dunno, I think this is all quite plausible.
Trump thought he was being a super slick grifter. Blowing smoke up the asses of his Russian friends. Setting them up to close the deal he wanted.
Then he ended up upside down with Putin calling to collect.
Trump was working on his big Moscow deal right up to close to the election.
His plan was to win by losing… and then he lost by winning.
Now it’s all coming out and he’s sunk.
He’s just dumb enough for this crazy theory to be true. We’ll see.
What’s attractive about this speculation is that it doesn’t rely on any pee tape for Russia’s kompromat on Trump. The kompromat is the action of Trump’s own campaign during the 2016 election.
It seems quite likely to me. It certainly fits Trump’s life-long MO and it fits all the known facts very well.
Yeah, that seems to fit the pieces of the puzzle we’ve been shown so far.
Indeed, some people were predicting this before the election.
http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2015/08/springtime-for-donald
Yeah, that seems about right.