Mueller/Russia investigation

[Indy]

I just don't know if some of these problems can be fixed. Large low-population red states are always going to have outsized influence due to the nature of the Senate and electoral college. We can't change these things without a super-majority that would of course be voted against by those same states and congressmen.

I think even if they found out Kavanaugh "did it" or did other such bad things, the Republicans still wouldn't vote to impeach him. That's the state we're in right now.

Well, the electoral college is based on population.

[Mori Chu]

Well, the electoral college is based on population.

Yes, but it doesn't scale linearly. It gives voters in lower-population states an outsize influence.

I do think such voters matter. But more and more, we are consolidating in big cities. I don't think it is good to penalize the biggest cities/states in America as much as we do.

[Nodack]

A new plot. Trump supporters trying to pay women to say they were sexually assaulted by Robert Mueller. The women have reported it. Mueller has asked for an FBI investigation.

A 20 year old kid said he had nothing to do with it. Unfortunately for him the number used as the business number was his mothers home phone #.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/30/us/p ... laims.html

[Mori Chu]

I'm assuming that guy is about to get intimately familiar with the inside of a jail cell.

[Superbone]

A new plot. Trump supporters trying to pay women to say they were sexually assaulted by Robert Mueller. The women have reported it. Mueller has asked for an FBI investigation.

A 20 year old kid said he had nothing to do with it. Unfortunately for him the number used as the business number was his mothers home phone #.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/30/us/p ... laims.html

The lowest of the low.

[Mori Chu]

It's a real example of projection. He and his party often accuse others of what they themselves do. Other side is a violent mob? He encourages his supporters to become violent. Mueller is a sexual harasser? Appoint a sexual harasser on the SCOTUS. Election is rigged? They (maybe) help rig it. Dems want to take away your Medicare and protection for pre-existing conditions? They are literally in court fighting to do just that. And so on.

It wouldn't work except that they have their own propaganda media pipeline and can essentially create their own facts and reality out of whole cloth.

[Mori Chu]

Pretty big news dropped today. Michael Cohen just admitted that he was lying to Congress. He admits that Donald Trump worked directly with his top aides to set up meetings and discussions with the Kremlin about opening Trump hotels in Moscow and Russia in exchange for help in the 2016 election. They were talking to each other as late as June 2016.

This is collusion. Trump's former top lawyer has testified under oath that there was collusion with Russia, and that Trump himself knew about it and participated in it.

https://www.npr.org/2018/11/29/67193938 ... investigat

[ShelC]

I don't think anything matters. "I barely know Michael Cohen, he's just lying to cut a deal with Mueller who's really a Democrat". Or, "So, Hillary's people have been talking to Russia for years. How much money did they donate to her foundation?"

He'll always deflect, wave stuff off, claim it's not a big deal and his supporters will defend him. The next argument will be, "Well I'd rather have Trump collude with Russia and win the election than have Hillary as President".

He's actually threatening to declassify things about the investigation to show it's not fair to him. In the end, it'll be up to the members of the government to take action which I doubt will happen. They won't even vote to protect Mueller and the investigation. And if he's going to pardon Manafort, Corsi, Stone and the rest then they'll get away with whatever they're charged with. I still don't know how there isn't a gag order when he's out there pretty much saying he'll pardon Manafort. How can he comment on an ongoing investigation like that?

[Indy]

Pretty big news dropped today. Michael Cohen just admitted that he was lying to Congress. He admits that Donald Trump worked directly with his top aides to set up meetings and discussions with the Kremlin about opening Trump hotels in Moscow and Russia in exchange for help in the 2016 election. They were talking to each other as late as June 2016.

This is collusion. Trump's former top lawyer has testified under oath that there was collusion with Russia, and that Trump himself knew about it and participated in it.

https://www.npr.org/2018/11/29/67193938 ... investigat

I think this bolded part is supposition. I haven't read anything that says there is proof of this, or even Cohen saying this directly.

[Indy]

I don't think anything matters. "I barely know Michael Cohen, he's just lying to cut a deal with Mueller who's really a Democrat". Or, "So, Hillary's people have been talking to Russia for years. How much money did they donate to her foundation?"

He'll always deflect, wave stuff off, claim it's not a big deal and his supporters will defend him. The next argument will be, "Well I'd rather have Trump collude with Russia and win the election than have Hillary as President".

He's actually threatening to declassify things about the investigation to show it's not fair to him. In the end, it'll be up to the members of the government to take action which I doubt will happen. They won't even vote to protect Mueller and the investigation. And if he's going to pardon Manafort, Corsi, Stone and the rest then they'll get away with whatever they're charged with. I still don't know how there isn't a gag order when he's out there pretty much saying he'll pardon Manafort. How can he comment on an ongoing investigation like that?

It only matters if his supporters in Congress and around the country care that he lies and cons people. So far, they don't.

[Nodack]

Cohen and Manafort were reporting to Trump while supposedly cooperating with Mueller but, lying to Mueller at the same time. Sort of like double spies. They expect a pardon will save them. You can’t believe anything any of them say about anything.

[Mori Chu]

It sounds like Mueller has many of them on record lying under oath about their connections to Russia. Whether he'll be able to use that to prosecute any of them remains to be seen. I like how they keep calling it a "perjury trap." Okay. So if he asks you reasonable questions and then you lie in the answers, that's a "perjury trap?" Maybe don't perjure yourself by constantly lying about your criminal activity.

[Flagrant Fowl]

Mueller totally tricked them into committing perjury by asking questions they could only lie about.

/redhatlogic

[Mori Chu]

The sentencing document for Michael Cohen was released. It officially states that Cohen was directed to perform two felonies by "Individual 1" who was then elected President of the United States. This is the first time a legal document officially alleges that Trump commited a felony (well, two felonies).

[Mori Chu]

So, they just posted court documents (redacted, but they digitally un-redacted them) related to Paul Manafort's case that say that he gave all of the Trump campaign's data to Russian oligarchs who likely had ties to Putin and the Russian government. This is huge. Literally this is collusion (criminal conspiracy) between Trump's campaign manager and Russia.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions ... df26b4c12b

[Indy]

So, they just posted court documents (redacted, but they digitally un-redacted them) related to Paul Manafort's case that say that he gave all of the Trump campaign's data to Russian oligarchs who likely had ties to Putin and the Russian government. This is huge. Literally this is collusion (criminal conspiracy) between Trump's campaign manager and Russia.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions ... df26b4c12b

It is crazy that his lawyers didn't redact it correctly. Like, how do they do that unintentionally?

[Mori Chu]

I'm assuming it's just lack of tech savvy. In Adobe Acrobat you can cover text with a black rectangle. That works fine if you're going to print the document, but if you give the PDF to somebody tech-savvy, they can just open it back up in the editor and delete the black rectangle and get the text back. Oops.

[Indy]

Yes, but these are people that deal with confidential legal documents every day of their life. How do you miss that? Nobody at the firm has submitted a redacted PDF before? Seems so odd to me.

[Nodack]

Of course Trump denies any knowledge of anything that happened in his campaign.

Today he denies that he meant Mexico would pay for the wall. Now it has morphed into some form of figure of speach or something.

[Indy]

Of course Trump denies any knowledge of anything that happened in his campaign.

Today he denies that he meant Mexico would pay for the wall. Now it has morphed into some form of figure of speach or something.

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