The Russia Investigations and other Trump-related cases

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Frelga
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Re: Trump's America

Post by Frelga »

FWIW, here's Seth Abramson's take.
Given the new charge Mueller just filed against a Manafort-connected lawyer, today seems like a good day for anyone who "accidentally" forgot to turn over something to Mueller or withheld info to say "Oops!" and call Mueller's office and fix it.

Maybe that was Mueller's point.
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Re: Trump's America

Post by Voronwë the Faithful »

That may be it, but there may be more to it than that. It depends on who "Person A" is and why Mueller and team felt it was necessary to keep the identity secret.
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Re: Trump's America

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So what does it mean to indict a foreign national?
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Re: Trump's America

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It means that a foreign national has been indicted. If the person is in the US he can be tried. If not, he would need to be extradited in order to be tried.
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Re: Trump's America

Post by Voronwë the Faithful »

In the case of Van Der Zwaan it is a non-issue because he is in the U.S. and has reportedly forfeited his passport and is expected to plead guilty and cooperate with the investigators. He is the son-in-law of one of the richest men in Russia, German Khan, who is one of the oligarchs who has sued Fusion GPS (the firm that employed Steele, who wrote the infamous Trump dossier) for defamation for alleging in that dossier that Khan's bank had ties to Putin. So while none of this is on its face related to the Russian interference in the 2016 election it is possible that it could get there.
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Frelga
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Re: Trump's America

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V, do you think we should have a separate thread for the investigation?

There's so much going now, someone compared it to a denial of service attack. What in another administration would have occupied the entire news cycle now barely gets a glance before the next terrible thing happens.

Here's something not terrible for a change.

Dem wins Kentucky state House seat in district Trump won by 49 points
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Re: Trump's America

Post by Voronwë the Faithful »

Frelga wrote:V, do you think we should have a separate thread for the investigation?
Probably. :)
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Re: Trump's America

Post by Primula Baggins »

A thread for the investigation(s) is a great idea. If no one else starts one today, I'll try to get to it tonight (work is tight right now).
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Re: Trump's America

Post by Voronwë the Faithful »

It would be good to extract the discussion about the investigation from this thread into the new thread, but it might be more work than either of us wants to take on.
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Re: Trump's America

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I could try to do that for at least the last few weeks, but not until tonight—I'm finishing a work project that has lasted a year, and there are tiny odds and ends flying my way all day long.
“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
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Re: Trump's America

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Yeah, I don't think we could go back further than the past few weeks. If I get to it before you, I'll let you know!
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Re: The Russia Investigations

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Mueller has filed new charges against both Manafort and Gates, but they are sealed, so we don't know what they are. Don't whether the fact that Gates is also being hit with new charges has any impact on the expectation that he will be changing his plea to guilty soon.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics ... spartanntp
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Re: The Russia Investigations

Post by Primula Baggins »

Thanks for doing this, Voronwë.

As for the investigation, I keep thinking of Mueller as pulling brick after brick out of a wall. Once he pulls the right ones, the whole thing will come down. I'm glad he's being careful and methodical, but I look forward to the truth emerging eventually.
“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
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Re: The Russia Investigations

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Latest Mueller Indictments Shed Light on One Californian’s Role in Russian Disinformation Campaign
That man, Santa Paula resident Richard Pinedo, made a formal admission of guilt to the office of special counsel Robert Mueller, acknowledged selling stolen bank information and selling it to parties who used it to make online transactions.

Those transactions were used, the special counsel’s office said, in efforts by Russian operatives to eventually buy ads to damage the candidacy of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
Buried in the article is the mention that the Calexit campaign was also run from Russia, although the people who run it now claim to be independent.

PS: a part of me refuses to believe that "was run" is correct.
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Frelga
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Re: The Russia Investigations

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Mueller files new 32-count indictment against Paul Manafort and Rick Gates. Read it here: https://t.co/NPF9tTxHbV
https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status ... 5925502977
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Re: The Russia Investigations

Post by Voronwë the Faithful »

Unlike the original indictment, some of the alleged actions in this indictment include actions taken while Manafort and Gates worked for the campaign. But it does not appear to include anything related to collusion with Russia about the election.

The situation with Gates still seems to be in limbo. It still is not clear whether he is pleading guilty, or even who represents him!

Meanwhile, Adam Schiff is still hoping that he can work out a deal with the FBI/Justice department on appropriate redactions to his memo responding to the Nunes memo so that it can be released to the public, though it still would need to be approved by the president.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/21/politics ... index.html
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Re: The Russia Investigations

Post by Voronwë the Faithful »

Here is a report saying Gates is firing his new lawyer and not pleading guilty. But the lawyer says it's poppycock. We'll see!

https://www.thedailybeast.com/ex-trump- ... ssia-probe

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Re: The Russia Investigations

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But wait, there's more!
JUST IN (and contra Daily Beast): Tom Green just entered an appearance in the DC case as Rick Gates' lawyer. Green then filed a notice Gates does not oppose his other lawyers withdrawing from the case. https://t.co/LZmnVRyb0M
The link in the quote goes to the image of the documents and the Twitter thread starts here https://twitter.com/chrisgeidner/status ... 5715902464 and has a number of plot twists.

Geidner is Buzzfeed's legal editor
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Re: The Russia Investigations

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:cannotpass:
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Re: The Russia Investigations

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I've lost the plot as far as Gates and his lawyers go.
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