The Russia Investigations and other Trump-related cases

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Mueller seeks Roger Stone’s testimony to House intelligence panel, suggesting special counsel is near end of probe of Trump adviser

This is a very strong indication that Mueller is going to indict Stone. I can't think of why he would want a certified copy of the transcript unless he was going to bring charges. Presumably, even if Nunes and friends stonewall, the certified transcript will be delivered soon after the new Congress takes office and the Democrats have a majority in the committee.

[yovargas]

Lord, it's getting so hard to keep track of who's getting charged with what at this point.....

[Primula Baggins]

They really ought to devise standardized fill-in-the-blank forms for this administration.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

The House Intelligence committee has in fact voted to provide the special counsel with the certified copy of the transcript of Stone's testimony.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/19/politics ... index.html

Meanwhile, the acting AG, Matthew Whittaker, has apparently gotten the go-ahead from Justice Dept. ethics officials to oversee the investigation.


https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/20/politics ... index.html

And Mr. Trump's pick to be the actual AG, William Barr, wrote a "secret memo" to the Justice Department back in June, unsolicited, criticizing Mueller's investigation.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/19/politics ... index.html

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Now I'm seeing that Whittaker is not recusing himself despite the conclusion from the Justice Department senior ethics attorney that he should recuse himself.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics ... spartanntp

[Voronwë the Faithful]

The "mystery company" has appealed to the Supreme Court. It will be interesting to see if they grant the petition. From what I understand, they have never in their history done an oral argument under seal. My best guess is that they will deny certiorari.

ETA: Chief Justice John Roberts has granted a stay of the contempt order temporarily while they decide whether to take the case. The government's (presumably the special counsel's, though that has never been formally stated) response is due by Dec. 31.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

This is interesting.

https://www-m.cnn.com/2018/12/29/politi ... cnn.com%2F

Sent from my LG G6 using Tapatalk

[River]

I've got this sudden and weird feeling that going to jail has done marvelous things for Manafort's life expectancy.

I read the Time. I found the bits about Manafort's activities in Montenegro fascinating. The reportage in English-language media was kinda scant while it was happening, but, in the run-up to Montenegro's decision to join NATO there was some civil unrest surrounding an attempt to unseat the government. What I knew I got through my household connection to the Balkans. Anyway, the opposition movement failed. The pro-Western government held on and Montenegro joined NATO and Russia's been salty about that ever since. And, apparently, the Time reporters have linked that chain of events with Manafort and the oligarch he owed money to. Apparently, thwarting Montenegro's bid to join NATO was a way Manafort could make the man he's indebted to whole.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

A number of developments today.

First and foremost, Manafort's attorneys "accidentally" revealed that one of the things that the special counsel claims that he lied about was that he was sharing polling data with Konstantin Kilimnik, his Russian associate alleged to have ties with the GRU, as well as that he discussed Ukranian peace plans with Kilimnik. These revelations were made in a filing that was supposed to be redacted and apparently was poorly done leaving some of what was supposed to be hidden initially visible. I suppose it is possible that it was a genuine mistake. I'm not sure what Manafort would have to gain by revealing these things publicly.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/08/politics ... index.html

Also, the Supreme Court has rejected the mystery foreign company's request to put the daily fines that are accruing as a result of its refusal to provide information in response to a subpoena that seems to be from the special counsel's office (though it never has actually been confirmed that it was from the special counsel's office). The court has not yet addressed the mystery company's separate request that it address its objection to the subpoena on its merits, but I doubt the Supreme Court will grant that request.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/08/politics ... index.html

Finally, Natalya Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer who requested the meeting with Donald Trump, Jr. has been charged in a separate case. While this case is not related to the Russian investigation, it is relevant in that it is the first time that she has been officially alleged to have direct ties to the Russian government, which bolsters the argument that Trump, Jr. (and Mr. Trump himself if it is proven that he knew about the meeting) were conspiring directly with the Russian government to get dirt on Clinton.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/08/politics ... index.html

[River]

The Manafort thing is spooky.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I can't emphasize how bizarre it is that the redacted document is readable if you copy and paste it. I can't even imagine how they did that, whether it was intentional or not. And it really is a BFD. There seems to be no reason why Manafort was sharing this polling data with Kilimnik other than to help the Russians in their illegal efforts to influence the campaign, as alleged in the indictment that Mueller has already submitted against the Russians. It is getting increasingly difficult to credibly claim that their was not an illegal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Russians.

[Griffon64]

I can't emphasize how bizarre it is that the redacted document is readable if you copy and paste it. I can't even imagine how they did that, whether it was intentional or not.

Was the document a PDF document? That’s a known “feature” of a PDF - it could store a separate text layer depending on the program you’re using to create it so you might happily redact it visually - even using a tool marketed as such! - and the stupid text layer stays intact, and since the text layer is what is used by the copy and paste API, there goes your original out to the world to read.

What is hard to believe is that people in the legal profession would not know to watch out for this.

[Primula Baggins]

I've encountered similar problems in working with PDFs, which is how proofreading is done these days. It's horrifying to see hours of work missing, then blinking back.

[Frelga]

PDF file format - Manafort's ancient nemesis.

From a year ago Paul Manafort’s downfall aided by his inability to convert a PDF into a Word doc

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I recall that, Frelga, though I had forgotten it until you mentioned it. Just another layer of weirdness. As Griffy notes, it seems beyond reason to think that people in the legal profession, particularly high-powered attorneys like those that work for Manafort, would make such a mistake accidentally.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

This will be interesting, though expect there will be a lot of "I can't comment because of the pending investigation" comments.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/10/politics ... index.html

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Half of me reacts to this by saying "this is the most extraordinary thing I've ever heard" and the other half says "well, duh! of course they were (and are; there is no indication that the investigation ended, just that it was taken up by the special counsel).

FBI investigated how Trump's actions seemed to benefit Russia

[Impenitent]

"Wow, just learned in the Failing New York Times that the corrupt former leaders of the FBI, almost all fired or forced to leave the agency for some very bad reasons, opened up an investigation on me, for no reason & with no proof, after I fired Lyin' James Comey, a total sleaze!" Trump wrote Saturday...

Read this over a couple of time; can't get over it. Who could write this stuff?!

Sent from a tiny phone keyboard via Tapatalk - typos inevitable.

[Primula Baggins]

The walls are closing in on him, and he's flipping out.

Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

[River]

Someone really needs to take the Twitter away. No one wants or needs to watch a tantrum.