A report from the Roosevelt Institute finds more than a correlation.
The notion that inequality is a driver of climate change is unfamiliar, perhaps even counterintuitive. Nevertheless,research shows a clear and positive relationship between economic and social inequality and environmental harm.
This evidence raises important questions: Is inequality itself the driver of environmental damage, including the higher levels of greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming? Or are inequality and climate change only correlated,such that societies with high inequality levels are also likely to pollute their environments more? We argue that both statements are true: Drivers of inequality—such as financialization and corporate short-termism— are also drivers of environmental harm, but there are also specific mechanisms by which inequality itself damages our environment.
Even more reason for a socialist movement to combat the human and environmental toll of capitalism.
Changes in climate affect agriculture, infrastructure and livability, which in turn affect occupations and quality of life and can force people to migrate. These effects may lead to loss of personal and professional identity, loss of social support structures, loss of a sense of control and autonomy and other mental health impacts such as feelings of helplessness, fear and fatalism. High levels of stress and anxiety are also linked to physical health effects, such as a weakened immune system. Worry about actual or potential impacts of climate change can lead to stress that can build over time and eventually lead to stress-related problems, such as substance abuse, anxiety disorders and depression, according to research reviewed in the report.
It's not easy learning to contemplate and live with what Guy McPherson calls our terminal diagnosis. The awareness comes and goes. For the most part I ignore it and go on looking at the future as if nothing much will change.
Update (May 21): Viewing McPherson's video, he doesn't seem like a crazy person. It's not without controversy, but there are indications warming is happening faster than expected.
Update (May 23): Scott K. Johnson disputes the notion of near term extinction. It could be we've already lost control, but it could play out over many decades or centuries. Or do I just selfishly want my "full" retirement?
Update (May 24): Methane hydrate is now being mined by China and Japan. They may not be as much of a threat as previously thought. But Bruce Melton presents several forms of circumstantial evidence for abrupt climate change.
Modeling can't tell us when abrupt climate change is beginning, at least not to the satisfaction of the consensus community that creates our climate policy. So, how do we know if we are in the early stages of an abrupt shift? It sure seems that we are warming a lot faster than before. Is this an abrupt change? Are there things other than temperature that we can use to imply that we are changing our climate abruptly?
[As one example], in a stable climate, the number of new high temperature records should be the same as the number of new low temperature records (1 to 1). From 1900 to the 1990s in the US, the number of new high vs. low temperature records was between 0.77 to 1 and 1.14 to 1, or really close to 1 to 1.
In the 1990s the ratio increased to 1.36 to 1; high records outpaced low records by 36 percent. In the 2000s the ratio was 2.04 to 1 -- twice as abundant. In the previous 365 days to April 1 (no joking), globally we saw 5,996 high temperature records and only 814 lows, or a ratio of 7.4 to 1. This is 700 percent more highs than lows, or seven times more. Not only is this number meaningful, the short amount of time that we have gone from stable to big-gulp radical is meaningful in an abrupt climate change way.
Update (June 8): It's not just environmental concerns that cause psychological problems.
Update (September 11): Eve Andrews offers this advice for handling climate anxiety.
You feel what you feel, you do what you can, and you try not to carry the weight of every errant carbon molecule on your shoulders. Everyone else is carrying that weight, too, whether they’ve dealt with it or not — and most are just as lost as you are. You help them figure out their thing that they can do, rather than tell them what they should be doing. You try to be patient.
And doing all of these things, is what will keep you from giving up hope.
Update (January 17, 2018): s.e. smith elaborates on the mental health impact of climate change.
Update (April 17, 2018): Neville Ellis and Ashlee Cunsolo document the loss that certain populations are already experiencing.
We do not see ecological grief as submitting to despair, and neither does it justify ‘switching off’ from the many environmental problems that confront humanity. Instead, we find great hope in the responses ecological grief is likely to invoke. Just as grief over the loss of a loved person puts into perspective what matters in our lives, collective experiences of ecological grief may coalesce into a strengthened sense of love and commitment to the places, ecosystems and species that inspire, nurture and sustain us. There is much grief work to be done, and much of it will be hard. However, being open to the pain of ecological loss may be what is needed to prevent such losses from occurring in the first place.
Focus on what you can control — and turn that into action Flip off the television for a little while Get prepared Move your body Turn your attention to the now Reframe negative thoughts into something more productive Schedule time to worry (yes, really)
Update (February 17, 2020): I think concern about climate change has been growing the past year or so--and it's lead to greater local activism. I'm not sure it's the greatest source of all my anxiety, but I think it is there. Two recent articles highlight the idea that we need to help each other deal with this trauma and that we need to be especially concerned about what children are exposed to.
Update (February 27, 2020): Hayley Smith reports on the increasing concern with eco-anxiety. Therapist Andrew Bryant has a site devoted to the topic, Climate and Mind.
What truly separates this form of anxiety is the immensity of it. There’s no finality. Instead, we’re constantly subjected to new information that can re-trigger the grief, because there’s always more news about the environment or the planet that reminds us that it isn’t over, and that there’s worse to come. It’s an ever-increasing fear.
[Von Clownstick] was thinking about the FBI’s investigation into potential ties between [his] campaign and Russia when he decided to fire FBI Director James Comey, the president said in a highly anticipated interview with NBC News.
"I was going to fire Comey, knowing there was no good time to do it. And in fact when I decided to just do it, I said to myself, I said, 'You know, this Russia thing with [me] and Russia is a made-up story, it's an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election.'"
But if it's a fake story, then it couldn't hold up under investigation. Meanwhile, as Nixon found out, the attempts to cover up (obstruction of justice) become as bad as the original crime.
Update (May 12): I hope this three ring circus doesn't turn out to be some bullshit to distract everyone from some hidden evil.
And then there's this early morning tweet from Dear Leader.
James Comey better hope that there are no "tapes" of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!
Update (May 15): Bob Cesca thinks Fuckface has big problems.
Charges of collusion are very much alive and he knows it. But the thing is, those collusion charges could evaporate tomorrow and we’d still be left with two more scandals: the cover-up and the dubious financial links to Russian oligarchs. Those could be more than enough to summarily boot him out of the Oval Office and into a federal penitentiary where orange could be the new orange.
Highest rated reality show ever! What a piece of shit.
Update (May 16): Are you not entertained? Yet another "bombshell" report. But isn't this what millions of voters wanted? The chaos of the campaign slides effortlessly into the chaos of government.
The New York Times reports the existence of a memo from James Comey about a private meeting with Von Clownstick.
“I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go,” the president told Comey, according to the memo, the Times and NBC reported. “He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go.”
But, not to worry! I'm sure the "tapes" will clear all this up. And here's the kicker--his campaign is using the story as a fundraising opportunity. From an e-mail sent to supporters:
You already knew the media was out to get us. But sadly it’s not just the fake news … There are people within our own unelected bureaucracy that want to sabotage [Fuckface von Clownstick] and our entire America First movement.
Update (May 17): Former F.B.I. Director Robert Mueller has been appointed as special counsel.
Update (May 18): Be prepared for a relentless series of revelations.
[Von Clownstick] asked former FBI Director James Comey in a phone call when federal authorities would publicly announce the president wasn’t under suspicion in the bureau’s investigation of possible ... campaign ties to Russia, The New York Times reported Thursday.
Two people briefed on the call told the newspaper it took place just weeks after [the Orange One's] inauguration. Comey declined to answer the question.
I think he's about to learn the hard way that you don't fuck with the F.B.I. We elected a mobster and gave law enforcement a difficult problem to deal with.
[Fuckface von Clownstick] made separate appeals to the director of national intelligence, Daniel Coats, and to Adm. Michael S. Rogers, the director of the National Security Agency, urging them to publicly deny the existence of any evidence of collusion during the 2016 election.
Coats and Rogers refused to comply with the requests, which they both deemed to be inappropriate, according to two current and two former officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private communications with the president.
[Von Clownstick] sought the assistance of Coats and Rogers after FBI Director James B. Comey told the House Intelligence Committee on March 20 that the FBI was investigating “the nature of any links between individuals associated with the [von Clownstick] campaign and the Russian government and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and Russia’s efforts.”
Update (May 23): Heather Digby Parton and Josh Marshall speculate that the Russian problem may be more financial than electoral. Parton:
It’s entirely possible that [his] panic over the Russia investigation doesn’t stem from any collusion with the Russian government over the election but rather from his possible involvement with Russian mobsters and oligarchs involved in money laundering and other criminal activities.
[Von Clownstick] may not know much about how the presidency works, but he surely has enough street smarts to know that once the authorities get all up in your business they will follow wherever the trail leads.
Even apart from big bad acts and corrupt deals, look at the stuff David Fahrenthold dug up on [his] Foundation and his Potemkin charitable giving. Beyond issues of possible illegality, the big takeaway there was that [von Clownstick] operates with a seemingly almost total disregard for rule-following or even a lot of elementary record keeping. So on top of substantively shady deals things are executed in really slapdash and hazard ways. In other words, [his] Organization sounds a lot like the [von Clownstick] White House.
Update (May 24): Douglas Blackmon gives an overview of the unfolding scandal.
[T]his is an investigation about one thing: the now-undeniable fact that a Russian espionage conspiracy accomplished an objective that has never previously occurred in American history — compromising the highest levels of US government, penetrating the White House, establishing influence and leverage over the president’s national security adviser and planting false information with the vice president of the United States — who then, wittingly or unwittingly, repeated those fictions to the American people.
Update (May 25): The Wall Street Journal reports that a Republican operative in Florida solicited information about Democratic candidates from a Russian hacker and published some of it on his blog.
The Washington Post reports that the F.BI. is investigating the son-in-law for his meetings with the Russian ambassador and a Russian banker. The investigation includes possible financial crimes.
And Mary Buffett says the clown presidency is already over.
The end began when the adults took over the investigation and now the only thing that remains are dates and times of the final resignation.
Update (May 26):More about the son-in-law and his contacts with Russian officials.
My position is that [von Clownstick] is a symptom of the fundamental brokenness of American politics, not the cause. Electing a Democratic House majority (which is 95 percent unlikely to happen) and impeaching [him] (which is 100 percent not going to happen) might feel good in the moment, but wouldn’t actually fix what is broken.
Anthony DiMaggio argues that the Russia story obscures a bigger scandal.
The Washington Post reported in November 2016 that foreign efforts to curry favor with [von Clownstick] and his family via financial transactions had already begun.
One can ignore the ... findings as nothing more than “a businessman doing business,” but a sober analysis of these financial connections raises serious questions about [von Clownstick] and what look to be blatant violations of the U.S. Constitution’s Emoluments Clause. That clause explicitly prohibits presidents from accepting “any present, emolument, office or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign state.” Such actions are an impeachable offense, and represent a significant scandal. The “open secret” of [von Clownstick's] personal profiteering from foreign leaders has flown under the radar, however, since Democratic and Republican officials have largely ignored these sleazy business transactions.
Update (June 7): Eric Boehlert explains how the flood of lies is a deliberate propaganda effort.
Update (June 8): Heather Digby Parton says legitimacy is the issue. And von Clownstick hurt himself by harping about "rigged" elections during the campaign.
In fact, [he] did more to create mistrust and doubt in the U.S. electoral system than the Russian government’s highly developed hacking and misinformation campaign. Whether they were working together is still unknown but they were definitely rowing in the same direction. As much as the president likes to whine and complain about the Democrats being sore losers, the irony is that [von Clownstick] himself played the greatest role in undermining the legitimacy of his win.
Update (June 11): The Justice Department argues that payments from foreign governments to a President's private business should not be considered emoluments.
Also, Steven Rosenfeld takes a close look at the questions Comey wouldn't answer publicly.
Comey declined to answer questions about the involvement of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, whether there were secret back channels to Moscow, whether the investigation had grown beyond Flynn, whether Russian banks and ... son-in-law Jared Kushner were involved, whether there were other unreported meetings with Russians, whether [von Clownstick's] team used encryption to hide their communiqués, and whether they destroyed any evidence.
Update (June 19): I'm not all that interested in the daily drama of the Russian investigation.
[W]hen the nation's leading progressive writes about what stops Democrats from winning, as Bernie Sanders did in a New York Times commentary Wednesday, he points to a losing agenda—“too many in our party cling to an overly cautious centrist agenda.”
Sanders doesn’t blame Russians or hacking for why progressives are not in sufficient positions inside the party or in elected office. He blames a party culture that’s not changing with the times.
It feels like a giant distraction from the fact Republicans want to repeal Obamacare (and Medicare and Social Security and ...). But I don't mind reading about Keith Olbermann's belief that von Clownsitck is self-destructing and that von Clownstick himself hates his job.
If there’s one thing clear by now it’s that [Fuckface von Clownstick] demands loyalty from the people around him and that when he doesn’t get it, he gets very upset. But he has rarely shown such loyalty in return. For some reason he has shown tremendous loyalty to Michael Flynn and the reason for that has to be one of the major lines of inquiry in the investigation into Flynn’s activities.
Update (June 23): What?! He lied about the "tapes"?
Update (June 30): Heather Digby Parton considers updates linking Flynn to hackers via a Republican operative, as well as previously undisclosed Russian business dealings.
Update (July 2): Even as the Republicans are in disarray, Andrew O'Hehir sees perhaps an even bigger split on the left.
If you’re not willing to examine your own preconceptions — your starting point — you never quite know where you are, and the stories you tell are likely to be unreliable.
So it is with the Russia scandal, which is perceived by some liberals and progressives as a massive, history-shaping event — the biggest single factor in the national crisis of the [von Clownstick] presidency, and perhaps the central explanation or meaning behind that crisis. For another group, and I guess it’s fair to call them leftists or radicals, the convoluted and hypothetical skulduggery of the Russian affair has a different status — maybe not irrelevant but secondary or ancillary, a distraction from more important issues.
This creates a difficult paradox for the so-called resistance, with no obvious solution. We can continue playing out the tribal and ideological conflict revealed during the 2016 primary campaign — which was a long time coming, which neither side can win, and which risks creating a long-term rupture within the left-liberal electorate. We can forge an awkward, unstable coalition of opposition that temporarily ignores profound areas of disagreement about strategy, tactics, worldview and goals. That’s a super-inspiring vision, right? Or we can forget the whole politics thing and gratefully embrace issues where we can all come together: The president definitely shouldn’t send nasty tweets to some lady on TV. She seems nice, and he doesn’t.
Update (July 5): The Russian investigation is expanding to look at possible collusion between "fake news" web sites and people supporting and/or working for the Republican campaign.
Update (July 9): Investigator: "Did you commit the crime?"
The Crown prosecutor of Russia met with his father Aras this morning and in their meeting offered to provide the [von Clownstick] campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father.
This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government’s support for [Mr. von Clownstick].
It's falling apart fast (this is a new story just hours since the above update). Von Clownstick himself from June of 2016:
“I am going to give a major speech on probably Monday of next week, and we’re going to be discussing all of the things that have taken place with the Clintons. I think you’re going to find it very informative and very, very interesting. I wonder if the press will want to attend. Who knows?”
[Von Clownstick's] promise of big Clinton news came four days after his eldest son was contacted by publicist Rob Goldstone about information obtained by the Russian government that would be damaging to Clinton.
Well, shoot. Now that his presidency is over, I think I'm kind of going to miss the fun.
But why now? Who needs him out of the way now?
Update (July 12): A good point from Senator Chris Murphy about the son-in-law:
That no one in the [von Clownstick] operation met with the Russian government or operatives of the Russian government. He watched those individuals go out and engage in that parade of lies. Now, maybe they knew they were lies, but giving them the benefit of the doubt, [he] at least knew that they were lies.
[I]nvestigators are specifically evaluating if the digital operation headed by [the] son-in-law ... directed Russian cyber operatives to particular voting jurisdictions in key states where support for Clinton was waning.
Update (July 13): The Republican Congressional leadership and the Republican electoral base don't care.
Yes, despite claims of growing frustration among Republicans, I doubt anything is going to change. And it's important to know that even with a new president, there's a larger perspective to keep in mind as Noam Chomsky via Peter Certo reminds us:
Is Russian hacking really more significant than ... for example, the Republican campaign to destroy the conditions for organized social existence, in defiance of the entire world? Or to enhance the already dire threat of terminal nuclear war? Or even such real but lesser crimes such as the Republican initiative to deprive tens of millions of health care and to drive helpless people out of nursing homes in order to enrich their actual constituency of corporate power and wealth even further? Or to dismantle the limited regulatory system set up to mitigate the impact of the financial crisis that their favorites are likely to bring about once again? And on, and on.
Someone is doing a masterful job dribbling out the information.
Ranit Akhmetshin, a Russian American lobbyist and former Soviet counterintelligence officer, told The Associated Press on Friday he took part in the meeting on June 9, 2016, along with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya. Akhmetshin said Veselnitskaya brought a folder full of documents, which he said she left behind after the meeting.
Nine days after the meeting, an entity who identifies as “Guccifer 2.0” ― believed to be a front for Russia’s intelligence services ― released a cache of documents that appear to have been stolen from a DNC server. The contents seem similar to those described by Akhmetshin in Friday’s interview.
If the files Akhmetshin said were left in [Junior's] office and those released by Guccifer 2.0 are the same, it would apparently show an information pipeline flowing from Russian intelligence to the [Republican] campaign.
Without knowing more about the documents reportedly left in [Junior's] office, it’s unclear whether that’s actually the case.
If I didn't know better, one could imagine von Clownstick is actually a mole bent on destroying the Republican Party.
Update (July 15): Andrew O'Hehir interviews Norman Solomon.
It’s not hard to believe that Putin tried to affect the 2016 U.S. election, any more than it’s surprising that U.S. presidents have tried to affect the results of elections in other countries. It seems highly farfetched that anything Putin did determined the outcome. The wounds to American democracy are overwhelmingly self-inflicted; we’re suffering from a thousand cuts but it’s much more popular to talk about one that the Kremlin may have inflicted.
[T]he Democratic Party’s Russia fixation is so dominant that it leaves messaging on vital economic issues in the lurch. The Russia fixation may be an excellent way of trashing and discrediting [von Clownstick], but whether it advances the Democratic Party or progressive alternatives is a whole other matter. Branding itself as the anti-Russia party doesn’t make the Democratic Party seem more compelling for the working people who deserted it in 2016.
Update (July 16): Does the president know anything and when did he know it?
Also, Russia's involvement with the creation and dissemination of "fake news" seems to fall into a grey area of U.S. election law.
Spending even a single dollar on any type of ad telling voters to support [von Clownstick] or oppose Clinton would have been illegal for Russia, as foreign entities are prohibited from participating in federal elections.
But the invention of false news and posting or reposting it on websites without paying advertising fees – that is not explicitly outlawed.
If Putin did have [as many as 1000] people working to elect [von Clownstick], his operation was more than twice as large as the [von Clownstick] campaign’s paid staff in the final weeks before the election. And if each Putin cybersoldier was paid just $10,000 over the course of the year, that would put Russia’s expenditure on its pro-[Fuckface] propaganda at $10 million, making Putin one of [von Clownstick's] biggest financial supporters.
Russia didn’t need to hack America’s voting machinery to mess with voters or the counts, even though they were probing those computer database systems. That’s because the Russians found a much more effective way to influence the election: bombard voters on social media.
Update (July 19): Well, I guess Junior is guilty of spreading "fake news" because only 45 percent of von Clownstick voters believe the meeting with a Russian lawyer actually happened.
Update (July 21): Chauncey DeVega reflects on that same poll.
As if confirming just how effectively Putin and the American right-wing propaganda machine have “flipped” Republican voters against the United States — as though they were characters in a spy novel — Public Policy Polling reports that 77 percent of [von Clownstick's] voters would continue to support him even if it was proven that he coordinated with Russia to steal the 2016 election.
This is American democracy in its twilight. Such a condition is, I worry, a type of new normal — one ushered in by the Republican Party and how too many millions of Americans value power and “winning” over principle and patriotism.
Update (July 22): The Russian ambassador to the U.S. says he discussed the presidential campaign with then Senator Jeff Sessions.
If Kislyak’s comments are accurate, they contradict what Sessions has publicly said about his interactions with Russian officials. He specifically denied any conversations with Russians about the campaign after he recused himself from overseeing the FBI’s investigation into whether [von Clownstick] associates colluded with Russians to influence the 2016 election.
“I never had meetings with Russian operatives or Russian intermediaries about the [von Clownstick] campaign,” Sessions said in March. “And the idea that I was part of a quote, ‘continuing exchange of information’ during the campaign between [von Clownstick] surrogates and intermediaries for the Russian government is totally false.”
Congress announced Saturday that a bipartisan deal was struck between House and Senate members on a Russian sanctions bill that is intended to punish the Kremlin for interfering in the 2016 presidential elections.
If the bill passes the House and Senate, [von Clownstick] will be forced to determine the law’s fate. [Von Clownstick] has indicated in the past that he is wary of imposing sanctions on Moscow. Democrats and anti-[von Clownstick] conservatives have been skeptical of this stance. Russia President Vladimir Putin has long derided U.S. imposed sanctions, which have crippled Russia’s economy, especially in the energy sector.
It will be very interesting to see just how much Republican support the bill gets. What does it say if they couldn't get health insurance done, but sanctions passes? The bill had been held up in the House for a while, but now Democrats have the leverage to move it. It includes sanctions against Iran and North Korea making it very difficult to veto.
Update (July 25): Sanctions passed 419 to 3 in the House, but needs reconciliation with the Senate.
Update (July 29): I'm not quite sure the bill is final, but apparently sanctions aren't a controversy.
Update (July 31): Chris York reports on the testimony from financier Bill Browder to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
I estimate that [Putin] has accumulated $200 billion of ill-gotten gains from [various] operations over his 17 years in power.
He keeps his money in the West and all of his money in the West is potentially exposed to asset freezes and confiscation. Therefore, he has a significant and very personal interest in finding a way to get rid of the Magnitsky sanctions.
And the Washington Post reports personal involvement in trying to cover up the intent of that meeting with a Russian lawyer.
Flying home from Germany on July 8 aboard Air Force One, [von Clownstick] personally dictated a statement in which [Junior] said that he and the Russian lawyer had “primarily discussed a program about the adoption of Russian children” when they met in June 2016, according to multiple people with knowledge of the deliberations.
Update (August 2): The sanctions bill was delivered July 28 and hasn't been signed yet.
And Heather Digby Parton continues to speculate that von Clownstick's finances are the real issue behind his resistance to the Russian investigations.
[W]hatever it is that’s got [von Clownstick] so distressed, it’s so important to him that he’s risking everything, even the national security of the United States, to keep it a secret.
The sanctions bill did get signed today--forced by a veto proof majority. But Fuckface is pissed:
Congress could not even negotiate a healthcare bill after seven years of talking.
Update (August 6): Matthew Rozsa clarifies the complications of the Russia story.
[The] scandal has exposed some complex truths about American political life. There are few true-blue good guys in the game of politics, and even the people who operate with the best of intentions are often too blinded by their own agendas to acknowledge facts that run athwart of them.
Rozsa acknowledges the outcome of the election probably wouldn't have changed.
Yet based on what we know — not what we suspect, or what we want to believe, but what we know for sure — [von Clownstick's] relationship with Russia has delegitimized him, if the term “legitimacy” is to have any meaning. A president should not be able to conceal potentially compromising relationships with a hostile foreign nation without being considered illegitimate. A president or a candidate should not encourage that country to meddle in our political process on his behalf without being considered illegitimate. He should not be able to fire, threaten or intimidate government officials who are doing their job in enforcing the law in order to cover up his interactions with that country without seeming illegitimate.
Update (August 11): It seems Paul Manafort is the source on Junior's meeting with a Russian lawyer.
Update (August 15): Patrick Lawrence reports in The Nation on a memo from Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity claiming that the DNC email release was a leak and not a Russian hack. I did come across this story a couple weeks ago and it seemed strange since there was so much insistence on Russian involvement. There were other forms of interference and the Republican campaign knew about it, yet it could be nothing was really illegal. So why a leak? And is Fuckface going to blow himself up anyway?
Update (August 22): A lobbyist who attended Junior's meeting seems to have extensive contacts with officials in the Russian government.
Update (August 25): Heather Digby Parton catches up on the investigations and cites several sources indicating von Clownstick is obsessed with Russia.
All of this is circumstantial. But between [Dear Leader's] increasingly manic insistence on discrediting the press, resisting any sanctions or pushback for Russian meddling, and demanding the Congress cease exercising its oversight duties it’s hard to escape the suspicion that he’s getting ever more nervous about something. He must be going against his lawyers’ advice, since he is clearly feeding suspicions of obstruction of justice, which is one of the charges the special counsel is investigating.
Common sense says that normal people who have nothing to hide don’t act this way. Of course, nobody ever said [Fuckface von Clownstick] was normal.
Update (August 29): Heather Digby Parton continues to follow the emerging stories.
[I]t might mean we finally learn whether [von Clownstick] was merely making corrupt deals with Russian oligarchs to line his own pockets or was actively colluding with the Russian government to become president of the United States. What a choice.
Update (September 1): Robert Mueller keeps the pressure on by pursuing state charges (a presidential pardon is only for federal crimes) and by teaming up with IRS agents.
I frankly don’t understand why people are still wondering if there was collusion during the campaign. Clearly, Junior was happy to receive information on Clinton from what he was told was the Russian government. His colleagues Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort were copied on the same offer, and they attended the meeting where the info was supposed to be turned over. Those are confirmed events. Whether they received any information is still unknown but there is no doubt they were at least willing to collude, which seems like it should be a problem (at the very least) for Kushner, who is currently working in the White House with a top security clearance.
Perhaps even more interesting is an early draft of the letter to James Comey about his termination. Keith Olbermann thinks the draft shows a "premeditated obstruction of justice" and will bring von Clownstick's presidency to an end.
Update (September 8): Miles Mogulescu reminds us that you don't have to succeed to have committed a crime.
Referring to his July, 2016 meeting with Kremlin associates in which he, Paul Manafort, and Jared Kushner were promised damaging information on Hillary Clinton illegally obtained by Russia, [Junior] testified “The meeting provided no meaningful information and turned out not to be about what had been represented.”
That statement alone may be enough for Robert Mueller to start preparing an indictment for criminal conspiracy against [Junior], Manafort, and Kushner, unless they strike a deal to turn on [the president].
Update (September 11): Questions continue to be raised about the Russian "influence campaign".
The FBI recently questioned a former White House correspondent for Sputnik, the Russian-government-funded news agency, as part of an investigation into whether it is acting as an undeclared propaganda arm of the Kremlin in violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
Update (September 13): Matthew Sheffield makes the case that there was Russian hacking, but much of the evidence isn't public.
The data firm Cambridge Analytica, headed by [von Clownstick] megadonor Robert Mercer, used personal information harvested from Facebook users to build psychological profiles based on 5,000 separate pieces of data on 220 million American voters, which the company used to target their emotions and influence their thoughts and behavior.
That allowed the [von Clownstick] campaign to turn Facebook into a propaganda cannon, and investigators are looking into whether Kushner helped Russia bombard American voters with fake news intended to help [Fuckface] win.
Update (September 17): Matthew Sheffield responds to Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity. There is disagreement among VIPS members on the conclusions of the July 24 memo.
Update (September 19): I hope this doesn't just all collapse into a conspiracy theory. Keith Olbermann pulls together a pretty coherent story on the Russian interference. It wasn't tampering with votes, but the social media efforts did involve campaign contributions. Olbermann quotes former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti.
It is a crime to know that a crime is taking place and to help it succeed. That’s aiding and abetting. If any [von Clownstick] associate knew about the foreign contributions that Mueller’s search warrant focused on and helped that effort in a tangible way, they could be charged.
Update (October 2): More keeps coming out. For example:
While $150,000 is a pittance in a U.S. presidential campaign, a pittance in social media fabrication can yield an enormous political payoff. One fake news story, concocted by a [von Clownstick] supporter with no Russian connections, reached 6 million people. It cost exactly $5 to produce.
Update (October 6): Bob Cesca discusses the targeted ads.
The bloated orange elephant in the room is whether the [Republican] campaign deliberately fed its demographic targeting data to Russian intelligence and its troll farms in order to more precisely focus the attack.
Update (October 9): Russians also bought ads on Google.
Update (October 10): There is a strong case for impeachment.
In a new paper published by the Brookings Institute, authors Norm Eisen, Barry Berke and Noah Bookbinder make a detailed case that [von Clownstick] did indeed fire Comey with the intention of thwarting the investigation into Russia’s interference with the 2016 presidential election.
But as Heather Digby Parton points out, the "adults" in the room aren't moving too quickly to do anything about it.
It's hard to believe that the party that fetishized macho nationalism and swaddled itself in the flag for decades is now sitting idly by while the schoolyard-bully president puts the whole world in danger.
Update (October 11): Israel uncovered Russian espionage against the U.S. two years ago.
Update (October 19): The Clintons appear to have profited from a uranium deal with Russia while Hillary was Secretary of State. Meanwhile, von Clownstick missed a deadline for implementing Russian sanctions that he signed in August. Cenk Uygur thinks the Russians were simply playing both sides out of their own interests.
Update (October 23):More evidence that Russian may have been working both sides.
Updates (October 24): Heather Digby Parton writes about how Republicans are eager for a Democratic Russian scandal.
All these people seem to be certain that Russian interference in our elections is nothing to worry about. One cannot help wondering why they are so confident that, if it continues, it will always accrue to their benefit.
Update (October 29): The investigation is heating up.
Special counsel Robert Mueller will be carefully monitoring [Fuckface von Clownstick's] reaction to the indictments in his investigation into Russian collusion in the election, said former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara. He hinted to CNN’s Jake Tapper that [von Clownstick's] actions, such as bullying behavior toward witnesses, could create legal trouble for him.
Never seen such Republican ANGER & UNITY as I have concerning the lack of investigation on Clinton made Fake Dossier (now $12,000,000?), the Uranium to Russia deal, the 33,000 plus deleted Emails, the Comey fix and so much more. Instead they look at phony [Fuckface]/Russia "collusion," which doesn't exist. The Dems are using this terrible (and bad for our country) Witch Hunt for evil politics, but the R's are now fighting back like never before. There is so much GUILT by Democrats/Clinton, and now the facts are pouring out. DO SOMETHING!
Update (October 30): It's gettinggood. (Even as we know damage is still being done.)
Not long after Manafort and Gates were in federal custody, special counsel Robert Mueller’s team dropped another bombshell: They’d flipped a former ... campaign adviser months ago.
The charges against ... former foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos ... may end up being a much bigger part of the Russia investigation. The Papadopoulos charges, dated Oct. 5 but only unsealed on Monday, deal directly with his work during the election and his attempt to link up the Russian government with the ... campaign. His statements also make clear that he was acting with the involvement of higher-ranking officials in [von Clownstick's] orbit.
Very good. (Apologies to Brad Reed for a fair use violation.)
[B]uried within the announcement of Papadopoulos’s guilty plea is a key footnote that may implicate the high-level officials within the [von Clownstick] campaign in knowledge of collusion with the Russian government.
The footnote describes two top campaign officials’ reactions to Papadopoulos’s message that he was coordinating a “high-level” meeting between [Fuckface] and members of the Russian government. In fact, the former campaign aide even sent an email to someone described as a “high-ranking campaign official” with the subject line, “Request from Russia to meet Mr. [von Clownstick].”
The footnote states that this campaign official forwarded Papadopoulos’s email to another campaign official, where he said that they needed to make it clear that they would not send [Fuckface] himself to Russia.
“Let[‘]s discuss,” the official wrote. “We need someone to communicate that [FvC] is not doing these trips. It should be someone low level in the campaign so as not to send any signal.”
Update (October 31): Matthew Sheffield offers a different perspective on the whole circus.
[I]t looks increasingly likely that an anonymous Russian’s characterization of the separate 2016 social media trolling operation is also true about the Putin regime’s activities regarding Steele: “There was no task to support [von Clownstick],” the propagandist told the independent Russian media outlet RBC earlier this month. Instead, trolls were directed to “uncover and highlight existing problems and social issues in the United States.”
This core aspect of the Russian hacking and propaganda campaign is what has largely gone missing from the national discussion about it. No one thought [Fuckface] was going to win, including himself. The point was to undermine confidence in a future Hillary Clinton administration and the larger American political system. The "beautiful" thing about active measures campaigns is that they can still work even after they are exposed. They may work even better, as the current scandal has been demonstrating.
Update (November 1): CNN reports that Jeff Sessions rejected the idea of the Republican candidate meeting with Vladimir Putin.
[C]iting an unnamed source in the room when [von Clownstick] met with foreign policy advisers in March 2016, ... [Fuckface] “didn’t say yes and he didn’t say no” when his former campaign adviser George Papadopoulos floated the idea.
The Young Turks points out that both Sessions and von Clownstick previously lied when asked about such Russian connections with anyone in the campaign. (Sessions memory has suddenly improved recently.)
Update (November 2): The walls are closing in on him. This is what one of his friends is saying:
Here’s what Manafort’s indictment tells me: Mueller is going to go over every financial dealing of Jared Kushner and the [Fuckface] Organization. [Von Clownstick] is at 33 percent in Gallup. You can’t go any lower. He’s fucked.
Update (November 5): The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists has released millions of financial documents referred to as the Paradise Papers. Among the findings:
U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross shares business interests with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s son-in-law, a connection that he failed to disclose earlier this year during his confirmation hearing for his Cabinet post.
It was also revealed that the son-in-law also has undisclosed Russian connections.
At least 13 allies, major donors and Cabinet members of [Fuckface von Clownstick] appear, including Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross’s interests in a shipping company that makes millions from an energy firm whose owners include Russian President Vladimir Putin’s son-in-law and a sanctioned Russian tycoon.
Also, the Russian lawyer who met with Junior in June 2016 now quotes him as saying:
Looking ahead, if we come to power, we can return to this issue and think what to do about it.
The lawyer claims Junior asked her to provide evidence the Clinton campaign took illegal donations.
Update (November 10): We do seem to be living in a fictional world--this would be ridiculous in a spy novel.
Special counsel Robert Mueller is investigating whether [Fuckface von Clownstick's] first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, was involved in an alleged plan to seize a Muslim cleric and deliver him to Turkey in exchange for millions of dollars, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.
Under the plan, Flynn, who was fired by [von Clownstick] after just 24 days in the job, and his son, Michael Flynn Jr, were to receive up to $15 million for forcibly removing Fethullah Gulen from his U.S. home and delivering him to the Turkish government, people familiar with the investigation told the Journal.
Update (November 13): Julia Ioffe reports on a large number of messages between Junior and WikiLeaks.
Also, Richard North Patterson recounts the story so far.
[T]he pattern of entwinement is striking. During the campaign [von Clownstick's] son, son-in-law, campaign manager, future National Security Advisor, future Attorney General, and two foreign policy advisors met repeatedly with Russians connected to the Kremlin – then lied about or “forgot” these contacts.
That's really the crux--if nothing was going on, why didn't they just come clean from the beginning?
Update (November 14): On the same day that Junior tweeted a link from WikiLeaks, Mike Pence was denying that the campaign had any contact with WikiLeaks.
I will not accept and reject accusations that I have ever lied under oath. That is a lie.
Update (November 16): Oh, no. The son-in-law failed to disclose his contacts with WikiLeaks.
Update (November 17): Liz Posner is going to get Onion editors thinking, "OK, I give up."
[F]or 10 years, a [von Clownstick] property in Panama City collected millions of dollars from the Russian mafia and Colombian drug cartels. An investigation from Global Witness, an international NGO that probes corruption and money laundering, reveals how the [Fuckface] Ocean Club International Hotel and Tower turned a blind eye to crime lords looking for a safe haven to stash their blood money.
Update (November 23): S.V. Date says the facts are pointing toward collusion.
Update (November 24): Bill Moyers interviews Steven Harper:
[T]he most innocent explanation [for everything we now know about the Republican campaign] would be a level of incompetence and ignorance and stupidity that I honestly don’t think anyone could credibly believe.
The most damning explanation is that the Russians launched a sophisticated intelligence operation. They found willing partners up and down the line throughout the ... organization. And ... as the details of that intelligence operation became known, the participants lied about it, lied about its existence, lied about their personal involvement in it and now they are all facing serious criminal jeopardy as a result.
Update (November 27): Lawyers for Michael Flynn met with Robert Mueller's team.
ABC News reports that the two sides met on Monday morning, days after a separate report claimed that Flynn’s legal team had stopped sharing information about the probe with [von Clownstick's] attorneys.
Keith Olbermann, for one, believes the speculation that this indicates a plea deal for Flynn. It seems logical that the only reason Flynn is taking these actions is to cut a deal, especially to protect his son, and that the only deal Mueller would make would be to take down Fuckface. Olbermann is so convinced that this is the end, he claims this is his last comment about it.
Update (November 30): The New York Times reports that von Clownstick has had conversations with Republican Senators about the Russian investigation saying that he hoped "you can conclude this as quickly as possible". Senator Richard Burr brushed it off, but even Senator Diane Feinstein said it was inappropriate.
It is pressure that should never be brought to bear by an official when the legislative branch is in the process of an investigation.
Update (December 1): Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the F.B.I. about his contacts with Russian officials. Flynn admits that he discussed sanctions with the Russian ambassador to the U.S. before the inauguration. And ABC News reports that the son-in-law directed Flynn to contact several governments during the transition about a U.N. resolution regarding Israel that the Obama administration had decided not to veto. Such negotiations by citizens are a violation of the Logan Act.
As part of his plea deal, Flynn has agreed to “cooperate fully, truthfully, completely, and forthrightly” with Mueller’s office or any other federal, state and local law enforcement authorities Mueller’s office identifies where Flynn’s cooperation would be relevant. Flynn also must “promptly” turn over “any and all evidence of crimes” of which he’s aware.
Update (December 3): Dear Leader tweeted this statement in reaction to Flynn's guilty plea.
I had to fire General Flynn because he lied to the Vice President and the FBI.
ABC News reports that his personal lawyer, John Dowd, claims to have drafted the text. Why would his lawyer say that?
The apparent admission by the president -- that he knew Flynn had lied to the FBI at the time of his firing -- seems to add a potentially explosive new dimension to the ongoing special counsel investigation.
If true, why then would [Fuckface] ask the FBI director to go easy on Flynn, as former FBI Director James Comey later testified? The message set off renewed talk of potential evidence of obstruction of justice.
Of course, there's a fresh denial that Comey was asked to drop the investigation of Flynn. OK, but then why is his lawyer giving excuses about writing a "sloppy" tweet?
And then there's a leaked e-mail from KT McFarland last year which includes this puzzling statement:
If there is a tit-for-tat escalation [von Clownstick] will have difficulty improving relations with Russia, which has just thrown the U.S.A. election to him.
Update (December 4): Dowd now claims that the president "cannot obstruct justice because he is the chief law enforcement officer". Jeremy Binckes sees a problem with that.
Dowd's legal claim seems to be admitting that there's no way to deny that [von Clownstick] hadn't obstructed justice. Anyone looking for obstruction of justice charges could easily point to his tweet, or his longstanding threats to have special counsel Robert Mueller fired. Or they could take the words from the president's mouth — like when he told Lester Holt on national television that he fired Comey to put an end to the Russia investigation.
If he wants to do it, he'll do it. After this weekend it feels as though the odds of such an impulsive action just went up. For an innocent man, the president is sure acting rattled.
Also, the son-in-law appears to have an undisclosed conflict of interest on that U.N. resolution about Israel, and KT McFarland seems to have contradicted herself on Flynn's Russian contacts in Congressional testimony versus her e-mail record.
Update (December 6): A lot of stories about "ripping up" sanctions, asking Russians for evidence of illegal foundation contributions, secretspies, obtainingfinancial records. It gets to be too much to keep up with. It could be that von Clownstick's huge financial ties to the Russians gave them the leverage to offer help in exchange for lifting sanctions which would make deals like nuclear plants possible. But I'm just guessing! It could be all about Israel.
Update (December 7): Heather Digby Parton sums up where we're at:
We still don't know why [von Clownstick] associates met with all those Russians during the campaign and the presidential transition. And we don't know whether the Russian government was holding something over [Fuckface's] head, or what that might have been. But it's clear what the Russians wanted in return for their help: They wanted those sanctions lifted. Although we don't know exactly why, it's also clear that the [von Clownstick] team did everything in its power to get that done. Maybe it's all one big coincidence. But every day more evidence emerges that makes that harder to believe.
In the meantime, Jefferson Morley describes six phases leading to Mueller being fired--four of which have already been accomplished.
Also, NBC News reports that the investigation is focusing on Flynn's time in the White House.
Mueller is trying to determine why Flynn remained in his post for 18 days after [von Clownstick] learned of Yates' warning, according to two people familiar with the probe. He appears to be interested in whether [Fuckface] directed him to lie to senior officials, including Pence, or the FBI, and if so why, the sources said.
News reports have focused on the possibility that [von Clownstick] ordered Flynn’s outreach to Russia. [But violations of the Logan Act haven't been tested in court.]
But NBC is raising a different, and more serious, possibility: that [Fuckface] also instructed Flynn to lie to the FBI about his conversation. That scenario would explain a lot. It would explain why Flynn took not one but two gigantic legal risks. It would explain why the White House took so long to fire him, why [von Clownstick] asked James Comey to let Flynn off the hook and then fired him when he failed to promise to do so, and why [Fuckface] continued to signal his affection for Flynn even afterward.
[F]or the first time, we have a clear line of sight to a potential act of undeniable illegality by [the president].
Update (December 15): Von Clownstick continues to claim it's been "proven" there was no collusion with Russia. Yet, S.V. Date points out that during the campaign, U.S. intelligence already considered WikiLeaks to be "essentially an arm of Russian intelligence".
[O]ut in the open and indisputable the entire time was [Fuckface's] daily praise of WikiLeaks in the final weeks of the campaign, starting right after the Oct. 7 release of the “Access Hollywood” tape that seemed capable of sinking his candidacy. That tape contained his boast that he could grab women by the genitals because of his celebrity. WikiLeaks began releasing a new batch of damaging-to-Democrats emails within an hour after the tape story broke, and [von Clownstick] began talking up those emails in his campaign speeches days later.
A report in the Washington Post describes early efforts to face the facts.
In the final days before [Fuckface von Clownstick] was sworn in as president, members of his inner circle pleaded with him to acknowledge publicly what U.S. intelligence agencies had already concluded — that Russia’s interference in the 2016 election was real.
They sought to convince [him] that he could affirm the validity of the intelligence without diminishing his electoral win, according to three officials involved in the sessions. More important, they said that doing so was the only way to put the matter behind him politically and free him to pursue his goal of closer ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“This was part of the normalization process,” one participant said. “There was a big effort to get him to be a standard president.”
Heather Digby Parton thinks there's some spin going on.
[Y]ou get the sense that somebody in the White House has decided that the best defense against charges that [Dear Leader] colluded with Russia is for people to believe that he behaves as he does because he's a narcissistic simpleton who can't deal with the fact that he didn't win the popular vote. While that description may be accurate, it doesn't let him off the hook.
[T]he authors seem to take at face value the assertion that [Fuckface's] insistence that the Russians played no part in the election is because "the idea that he’s been put into office by Vladimir Putin is pretty insulting.” [Von Clownstick] is essentially depicted as a juvenile egomaniac who lacks the capacity or imagination to have done anything as sophisticated as collude with a foreign country.
Update (December 19): NBC News reports that warnings about interference were given to both presidential campaigns.
In the weeks after he became the Republican nominee on July 19, 2016, [Fuckface von Clownstick] was warned that foreign adversaries, including Russia, would probably try to spy on and infiltrate his campaign, according to multiple government officials familiar with the matter.
The candidates were urged to alert the FBI about any suspicious overtures to their campaigns.
Heather Digby Parton speculates that the FBI already knew about contacts even as the campaign publicly denied it.
[Von Clownstick] continues to deny that Russians were behind the election interference. He has made numerous moves as president to shut down the investigation, including firing former FBI Director James Comey. Now we know that [Fuckface] was warned that Russian actors would try to infiltrate his campaign and that he never reported the dozens of contacts we now know about. [Von Clownstick's] behavior certainly appears to show what prosecutors call a "consciousness of guilt." And that is always what leads to a cover-up.
Also, Donna Goldstein examines the implications of Michael Flynn's proposed nuclear plants.
Once the ... administration “ripped up” the Russia sanctions, as Flynn allegedly put it, money would flow into the project and facilitate the largest nuclear energy deal in the history of the world. The United States would then be in the position of having to supply ongoing military support to defend these 45 installations. This situation would indeed create the recolonizing effect allegedly mentioned by Copson, and it would also make “a lot of very wealthy people” for decades to come.
If the whistleblower’s description of Flynn’s text message to Copson is accurate, it may hold the key to understanding why Flynn lied to the FBI. Perhaps it is the conjoined motivations of money and imperial power together that best explain the feckless general’s brazen enthusiasm on that inaugural day.
Update (December 20): Ariel Dorfman offers a reminder that Mueller's investigation will not solve our biggest problems.
We must vigorously protest the president’s craven actions, but above all we need to acknowledge that what ultimately matters is not what a foreign power did to America, but what America did to itself. The crucial question of what is wrong with our country, what could have driven us to this edge of catastrophe, cannot be resolved by a special counsel or a Democratic takeover of the House of Representatives or spectacular revelations about Russia’s interference.
Update (December 31): Some loose talk to an Australian diplomat in May 2016 seems to have started this whole thing.
[T]he investigation into collusion between Russian operatives and members of [von Clownstick's] campaign staff had its beginning in a London wine bar where ... adviser George Papadopoulos bragged about having “dirt” on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Update (January 3, 2018): Glenn Simpson and Peter Fritsch discuss how their investigation was independent of other investigations.
We don’t believe the Steele dossier was the trigger for the F.B.I.’s investigation into Russian meddling.
[W]e hired Mr. Steele, a highly respected Russia expert, ... and gave him ... this basic question: Why did Mr. [von Clownstick] repeatedly seek to do deals in a notoriously corrupt police state that most serious investors shun?
Mr. Steele’s sources in Russia (who were not paid) reported on an extensive — and now confirmed — effort by the Kremlin to help elect Mr. [von Clownstick] president. Mr. Steele saw this as a crime in progress and decided he needed to report it to the F.B.I.
Update (January 4, 2018): Heather Digby Parton reiterates the idea that von Clownstick most fears the investigation into his money laundering.
No doubt [Fuckface] did not enjoy hearing the words of his former close associate Steve Bannon echoing those claims all over television the next day. Bannon was right, after all. Mueller did choose the money-laundering expert Andrew Weissman for a reason, and [Dear Leader] undoubtedly knows it. Until now the president has been hoping that the investigation would wind up quickly without getting into all those unpleasant financial questions from his past. That hope is fading and he's getting very worried.
Update (January 6, 2018):More on the case for obstruction of justice from the New York Times even as sordid details serve as further distraction and lead to desperate efforts to defend this asshole.
[T]he president took aggressive steps to prevent Attorney General Jeff Sessions from recusing himself from the Justice Department’s investigation because he needed Mr. Sessions to protect and safeguard him.
[T]he president’s lawyers believed that his efforts aboard Air Force One last summer to shape his [son's] statement about a meeting at [the] Tower with Russians was “an explicit attempt to throw sand into the investigation’s gears.” ... If the president knowingly caused his son to make a false statement to interfere with the investigations or cover up the facts, that alone could constitute obstruction of justice.
[Further,] Robert Mueller has substantiated Mr. Comey’s narrative of his dealings with the president.
Also, Norman Solomon discusses the prospect that Russian social media had little impact on the 2016 election.
Update (January 9, 2018): Senator Dianne Feinstein has released the transcript of the Judiciary Committee testimony of Glenn Simpson by his request. Jessica Schulberg lists several main points.
Update (January 10, 2018): Heather Digby Parton gives the background on the release of Simpson's testimony.
[T]he upshot is that Simpson says Steele (who was effectively his subcontractor) went to the FBI because he learned in the course of his investigation that Russian agents were attempting to conspire with the campaign of the Republican candidate for president. Republicans in Congress have been trying to cover that up for obvious reasons: It's not only damning information on its own, it's also an indictment of every [Fuckface] associate who remained silent or played along.
Update (January 19, 2018): Is it possible that the Republican ground game was outsourced to the NRA and paid for by Russia?
Update (January 20, 2018): Deutsche Bank has informed regulators about "suspicious" transactions by the son-in-law.
The rumors I’ve heard on Capitol Hill are that the NRA-Kremlin story is going to get bigger, particularly because we’re talking about some potentially very large sums of money being involved.
Update (January 25, 2018): After repeated denials that he was even thinking about it, the New York Times reports that it only took a month to make the decision.
[Fuckface von Clownstick] ordered the firing last June of Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel overseeing the Russia investigation, according to four people told of the matter, but ultimately backed down after the White House counsel threatened to resign rather than carry out the directive.
Update (January 28, 2018): Naturally, the Times story is fake and conservatives are freakingout. Does the "rule of law" mean anything?
Update (January 29, 2018): The newly revealed order to fire Mueller is just one of ten counts of obstruction of justice compiled by David Leonhardt.
Greg Sargent warns "there is a massive propaganda apparatus out there — one that reaches deep into the right-wing media and into the Congress that has been pushing the alt-narrative and would back up [von Clownstick] if he does take drastic steps — that didn’t really exist in Nixon’s time." The Republican base is "bombarded" with this propaganda which portrays Fuckface as a victim of the investigation. Sargent quotes Tim Weiner:
We are seeing a repeat of Watergate at warp speed. If [Dear Leader] moves to tear down the temple by firing Mueller and Rosenstein and putting in a platoon of stooges in charge of the administration of justice, and if Congress does nothing, then it will be beyond anything that Watergate presented.
We are two tweets away from an extraordinary constitutional crisis. We are in a very dangerous point now in American political life.
Update (February 7, 2018): Throughout this whole "fake" Russian investigation, Fuckface has had no concern about interference with U.S. elections. And yet, the Secretary of State readily acknowledges the issue.
I think it's important we just continue to say to Russia, ‘Look, you think we don't see what you're doing. We do see it and you need to stop. If you don't, you're going to just continue to invite consequences for yourself.'
Update (February 10, 2018): While stories are circulating about Russian infiltration, Steven Rosenfeld points out that some of the information isn't new and sensational reporting spread by social media makes things worse.
[T]his week’s obsessive, incompetent reporting on Russian hacking—and the way it was amplified and spread online by Silicon Valley algorithms—presents real dangers to America’s already imperfect democracy and system of voting and elections.
Rosenfeld quotes a former Department of Justice attorney.
[P]eople start doubting our own election system and they do not participate anymore. And it’s what the election officials right now are fighting so hard against.
We’re doing Russia’s work for them. I don’t think NBC is working for Putin. But because it’s easy clickbait to say Russia’s penetrating our election systems, even though this is literally the same language that [DHS cyber security director] Jeanette [Manfra] used for her testimony back in June. There’s no one happier right now than Vladimir sitting on his throne in Moscow. This is exactly what he was hoping for.
Update (February 12, 2018): Heather Digby Parton points to an article by Jonathan Alter and Nick Akerman. While the public evidence for obstruction of justice is overwhelming, "the crime could very well be worse than the coverup".
The conspiracy case--the heart of Mueller’s efforts-- almost certainly boils down to an old-fashioned quid pro quo. Flynn’s “quid”—the substance of his recorded conversations with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak— was lifting the sanctions that President Obama imposed on Russia in late 2016 and the earlier sanctions related to Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine. The “quo” was collusion (“conspiracy” in legal terms) with Russians to harm Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign, which Flynn effectively admitted was “material” to his lies after the election. Anyone associated with this deal is in deep legal trouble.
Update (February 14, 2018): Parton reports on the Global Threat Hearing in the Senate. The intelligence leaders continue to support the finding that Russia interfered in the 2016 election and agree that Russia will try again this year. But von Clownstick doesn't give a shit.
We knew that [Fuckface] didn't like to hear about Russia in his intelligence briefings and that he had not convened even a single meeting about the possible threat to future elections. His efforts to impede the investigations and his administration's ongoing refusal to enforce congressionally mandated sanctions against Russian interests are obvious and well documented. Now we know that he has never even bothered to task his government with stopping Russian interference going forward.
Update (February 16, 2018): Happy President's Day weekend motherfucker.
A federal grand jury empaneled by Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted 13 Russians and three Russian entities on Friday, laying out evidence that foreign nationals interfered in the 2016 election and boosted the candidacy of [Fuckface von Clownstick].
The 37-page indictment represents a massive blow to [Dear Leader] and his supporters on Capitol Hill, who for months have tried to undermine Mueller’s investigation and have dismissed the existence of pro-[Orange] Russian activity in the 2016 election.
Russians apparently posed as Americans and participated in election activities. Campaign officials and volunteers who had contact with the Russians are described as "unwitting".
Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general who appointed Mueller and has overseen the investigation, said at a press conference on Friday that there was no allegation presented in the indictment that the Russian activity actually had an impact on the outcome of the election. That essentially means that DOJ isn’t taking a position on whether the Russian activity swung the election. Rosenstein said there was no evidence presented that Americans knew they were working with Russians.
Update (February 17, 2018): There are a lot of hawkish reasons that Democrats focus on the Russian story and Sophia McClennen warns against the obsession. The problems with U.S. democracy go far beyond Russia. That includes right-wing sources of misinformation and the fact that many Democrats themselves are part of the oligarchy that runs the country.
Update (February 19, 2018): Robert Kuttner calls the new indictments by Mueller "a tactical and investigative masterstroke".
First, these disclosures end [von Clownstick's] intermittent efforts to fire Mueller. If he were to try that now, it would be an open-and-shut case of obstruction of justice. Congressional Republicans would have no choice but to begin the impeachment process.
Second, they drive a further wedge between [Dear Leader] and the Republican leadership in the House and Senate. All key Republicans, whatever their marriage of convenience with [von Clownstick] on other issues, have expressed outrage at the Russian operations and praised Mueller. [Fuckface], by contrast, has only proclaimed his own lack of complicity, and has said nothing about what documented Russian interference means for American democracy, much less vowed to resist it and punish Putin.
Also, now that he can't deny meddling, von Clownstick is blaming everyone else for the problem while he has yet to condemn Russia's actions as even Shepard Smith points out. The Right may even be suggesting Obama knew it was supposed to help Clinton and so he did nothing to stop it. Never mind McConnell refused to issue a bipartisan statement at the time.
Update (February 20, 2018): Heather Digby Parton describes the new problems von Clownstick faces by having to acknowledge the Russian interference.
Obviously, [he] has known about this since long before the election when he started getting security briefings. He has been president for more than a year and he has done nothing about this. He has not held one Cabinet-level meeting about this issue, and according to the directors of his intelligence agencies has not told them to ensure it never happens again. In fact, [Fuckface] has not only obstructed the investigation into what happened, he has tried to stop congressional committees from doing anything to prevent future attacks. And then there are his repeated attempts to lift the sanctions imposed by the Obama administration, and his refusal to implement the ones mandated by Congress as punishment for the interference.
None of that has anything to do with allegations of "collusion." If he didn't think the Russia interference itself was a hoax, then what is his excuse for inaction? Even if you want to grant him the widely-held assumption that he is just a pathological narcissist obsessed about the legitimacy of his victory, this is a dereliction of duty and he's accidentally admitted to it.
Update (February 22, 2018):New charges against Paul Manafort and Rick Gates. And Richard North Patterson wonders why Fuckface continues to defend Putin and not the United States.
The most basic obligation of a president is to defend American democracy against attack. [Von Clownstick's] failure to do so is an inexcusable act of dereliction and disloyalty.
Update (February 23, 2018): The son-in-law has had to make many additions and corrections to his security clearance application. I like this quote:
It’s really uncommon you’d still be trying to get the form correct at this stage in the game.
Update (February 24, 2018): S.V. Date argues the Russians likely did swing votes and notes that the Republican campaign was also using social media and planting fake stories. Date quotes consultant Rick Tyler:
You can’t say that what you were doing was effective, but what the Russians were doing wasn’t effective.
In a sense, these charges are plucking the low-hanging fruit of Russian interference.
While these social media posts may be objectionable and may have involved violations of federal laws, it’s highly unlikely that they actually affected the outcome of the election. When put in context with the overall amount of media Americans were exposed to about the 2016 campaign, from a plethora of sources, the Russian efforts were likely a drop in a far larger bucket.
Update (February 25, 2018): Joyce Nelson sees more ominous implications.
Mueller’s indictments have helped set the stage for further smearing of leftist candidates for office, equating dissent with foreign subversion, and justifying the first-use of nuclear weapons as retaliation for a so-called “cyber-attack”.
Is the investigation itself using anti-Fuckface sentiment to enhance elite control? To keep a lid on "populism"?
Update (February 26, 2018): Stanley Cohen explains the "low hanging fruit" can be just the start.
The indictment itself is not static. As noted, it can, and likely will, be superseded to include new charges and defendants who, by additional overt acts or aims, shared the criminal intent set forth within the underlying indictment; namely to illegally impact the election of 2016 and thus to defraud the United States.
One need not be a soothsayer to envision a host of additional overt acts that may very well end up swept within the reach of the conspiracy found to date, or as evidence of a new one. For example, a meeting, let’s say in a tower, between campaign officials and foreign nationals in which discussions about how to obtain an unlawful election edge, information or otherwise, could easily be weaved into a variation of the current conspiracy. Exchanges of emails, calls and texts before or after the meeting to further its aim are no less problematic for potential co-conspirators.
Meanwhile, John Escow wants just a little bit of time devoted to injustices other than the Russia story.
Update (February 27, 2018): Looks like Rick Gates' cooperation has Mueller proposing to drop 17 charges from his indictment.
Update (February 28, 2018):Anotherbad day at the White House.
Update (March 3, 2018): Glenn Greenwald and James Risen debate Russia. They talk a lot about the need for compelling evidence and seem to agree that while there is now evidence for some type of Russian interference, we're a long way from "collusion" just yet. There's an exchange toward the end that may explain the contrast on the left to approaching this issue:
Greenwald: You know when you have Democrats comparing what the Russians did to 9/11, which led to 17 years of endless war and the erosion of civil liberties and Pearl Harbor which led to the nuking of Japan, I think the rhetoric is getting really dangerous. And so a big part of what I’ve done is try and reign that in out of concern that we’re just going to unintentionally end up in a new Cold War or in a hot confrontation with a dangerous country.
Risen: I think that gets to the heart of the difference ... in how you and I approach the story. I think you approach it as a political question and I think that’s one of the key differences between us. I’m trying to find out: What are the facts in this case? Is this a good story to follow? How do we investigate this? What are the next steps?
I think you’re looking at it as a political problem that has a lot of political consequences for the country and it certainly does, but that’s a different approach to the way I’m trying to look at it. I’m just trying to do this — is this a really good story? Yes, it’s a good news story. And I think you see it as “this is a political threat to your political agenda,” which is a very valid way to look at it, it’s just different from mine.
Update (March 5, 2018): Jane Meyer writes about Christopher Steele's work.
One subject that Steele is believed to have discussed with Mueller’s investigators is a memo that he wrote in late November, 2016, after his contract with Fusion had ended. This memo, which did not surface publicly with the others, is shorter than the rest, and is based on one source, described as “a senior Russian official.” The official said that he was merely relaying talk circulating in the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but what he’d heard was astonishing: people were saying that the Kremlin had intervened to block [Fuckface's] initial choice for Secretary of State, Mitt Romney. (During Romney’s run for the White House in 2012, he was notably hawkish on Russia, calling it the single greatest threat to the U.S.) The memo said that the Kremlin, through unspecified channels, had asked [von Clownstick] to appoint someone who would be prepared to lift Ukraine-related sanctions, and who would coöperate on security issues of interest to Russia, such as the conflict in Syria. If what the source heard was true, then a foreign power was exercising pivotal influence over U.S. foreign policy—and an incoming President.
Rex Tillerson has strong ties to Russia. Cenk Uygur says Fuckface is finished if this is true.
[F]inancial shenanigans involving Russia and the [von Clownstick] organization almost certainly did take place. If Russiagate investigators do their job properly, it is extremely likely that they will find that this, not his campaign’s “collusion” with “the Russians,” is what [Fuckface] is trying so hard to cover up.
Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee say they have completed interviews for their investigation into possible collusion between [von Clownstick's] campaign and Russians, and that they have found no evidence of such scheming.
Update (March 15, 2018): So those sanctions are finally being implemented now that the election interference can't be denied.
But the bigger news is that Robert Mueller has subpoenaed documents from Fuckface's organization seeking business ties to Russia. Oh, oh!
Update (March 17, 2018): Andrew McCabe responds to getting fired:
I am being singled out and treated this way because of the role I played, the actions I took, and the events I witnessed in the aftermath of the firing of James Comey.
This attack on my credibility is one part of a larger effort not just to slander me personally, but to taint the FBI, law enforcement, and intelligence professionals more generally. It is part of this Administration’s ongoing war on the FBI and the efforts of the Special Counsel investigation, which continue to this day. Their persistence in this campaign only highlights the importance of the Special Counsel’s work.
Meanwhile, House Republicans are worried about their own credibility after shutting down their Russia investigation. And John Dowd is using McCabe's firing to call for the end of Mueller's investigation.
Oh crap. McCabe has turned over his memos to Robert Mueller. Maybe. And Democrats in Congress are making job offers with the intention of protecting McCabe's pension.
Update (March 18, 2018): Dear Leader complains about "Fake Memos". Can we call him Fake President?
Update (March 19, 2018): Cambridge Analytica is in moretrouble.
A former Cambridge Analytica employee accused the data analytics firm of mishandling the personal information of more than 50 million Facebook users in an effort to help [the Republican] 2016 presidential campaign.
[U]ndercover interviews with executives from U.K.-based political research firm Cambridge Analytica have revealed admissions of bribery, entrapment and the use of sex workers to sway political elections around the world.
And after firing McCabe, Heather Digby Parton believes von Clownstick's power is growing due to the mindless loyalty of his party.
[Fuckface] is on a roll and he's not likely to care what anyone thinks, in any case. Congressional Republicans have already shown their hand. Unless they're willing to impeach him, he now believes he can do whatever he wants.
The president has calculated ... the reaction from the Republicans. He is going to fire Robert Mueller. And you know what’s going to happen? Nothing. That’s what’s going to happen. There will be no response from Republican leadership.
McCabe oversaw a federal investigation into whether Sessions was untruthful when he assured members of Congress that he had not had contacts with Russian officials during [von Clownstick's] presidential campaign.
Sessions had been unaware of the investigation when he made the decision to fire McCabe.
Meanwhile, a lot of shit may be about to hit the fan.
So, I'm seeing this only minutes after the above update.
John Dowd is resigning as [Fuckface's] lead attorney assigned to handle Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe.
Update (March 23, 2018): With the Republican report from the House Intelligence Committee as an example, Steven Rosenfeld describes a scenario where an impeachment inquiry could lead to von Clownstick's exoneration. But I'm guessing that war is the actual strategy for winning the midterm election.
Also, the Washington Post reports on e-mail exchanges between George Papadopoulos and others in the campaign.
Update (March 24, 2018): The Daily Beast reports that the DNC hacker known a Guccifer 2.0 slipped up.
[O]n one occasion ... Guccifer failed to activate the VPN client before logging on. As a result, he left a real, Moscow-based Internet Protocol address in the server logs of an American social media company.
Working off the IP address, U.S. investigators identified Guccifer 2.0 as a particular GRU officer working out of the agency’s headquarters on Grizodubovoy Street in Moscow.
And now there's a link between the Russian government and the von Clownstick campaign.
[L]ongtime political adviser Roger Stone admitted being in touch with Guccifer over Twitter’s direct messaging service. And in August 2016, Stone published an article on the pro-[Fuckface]-friendly Breitbart News calling on his political opponents to “Stop Blaming Russia” for the hack. “I have some news for Hillary and Democrats—I think I’ve got the real culprit,” he wrote. “It doesn’t seem to be the Russians that hacked the DNC, but instead a hacker who goes by the name of Guccifer 2.0.”
Did Stone know the true identity and was anyone else in the campaign aware?
If the report is accurate, and Guccifer 2.0 is, in fact, a Russian intelligence officer, this could be the crucial link that allows Mueller to charge Stone and any other members of the campaign who assisted Guccifer 2.0.
Stone has denied having advance knowledge of the publication of the hacked emails, but, in August 2016, before the emails of Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta were released by Wikileaks in October 2016, Stone tweeted that “it will soon be Podesta’s time in the barrel.” His tweet suggested that he knew that Podesta’s emails had been hacked and would be released.
Mueller is likely looking to see whether Stone or other members of the [von Clownstick] campaign played a role in suggesting the timing of the release of the Podesta emails, which occurred on the same day as the release of the Access Hollywood tape in which [Fuckface] spoke in vulgar and disparaging ways about women. The release of the tape was a potentially campaign-ending event for [him]. Instead, that story competed for attention with the story of the Podesta emails.
Mueller need not show that the co-conspirators were involved in the hacking, as long as he can show that they agreed that the emails would be disseminated afterwards, since the crime is not based on the computer intrusion, but on the disruption of the election.
Update (March 27, 2018): Fuckface is having trouble finding lawyers and even Mueller may have had to say, "Whoa, dude, you don't want to do that." Bob Brigham quotes Neal Katyal.
Diligent prosecutors, when they see a defendant doing something profoundly dangerous to their self-interest (including hiring lawyers who have conflicts), will raise it with the defendant and suggest they rethink it.
A prosecutor would issue such a warning to a target, not to a witness.
Update (March 28, 2018): Patrick Cockburn warns not to make too much of the role played by Cambridge Analytica.
The Russian “meddling” story (again, note the careful choice of words, because “meddling” avoids any claim that the Russian actions had any impact) and the Cambridge Analytica saga are essentially conspiracy theories. They may damage those targeted such as [von Clownstick], but they also do harm to his opponents because it means that they do not look deeply enough into the real reasons for their defeat in 2016, or do enough to prevent it happening again.
But it turns out Rick Gates was in contact with someone he knew to be a former Russian intelligence agent.
Update (March 29, 2018): Heather Digby Parton also writes about the second big story this week.
John Dowd had been discussing the possibility of presidential pardons with the lawyers for Manafort and former national security adviser Michael Flynn during the period when they were being pressed to cooperate with Mueller.
Update (March 31, 2018): Jonathan O'Connell and David Fahrenthold summarize the multiple financial/legal entanglements for someone who refused to divest from his businesses.
On one side is special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, who has subpoenaed [Von Clownstick] Organization documents as part of his wide-ranging investigation into the 2016 campaign. On another is Stormy Daniels, the adult-film actress seeking internal correspondence as part of her effort to be freed from a nondisclosure agreement centering on an alleged affair with [Fuckface]. And in the most direct assault, the District and Maryland have sued [Dear Leader], alleging that he is improperly accepting gifts, or “emoluments,” from foreign or state governments through his businesses, including his hotels.
Update (April 3, 2018): Robert Mueller is drafting a report and apparently has told von Clownstick's lawyers that he is not a criminal target in the investigation. But Jeffrey Toobin points out that there are not just "targets" and "witnesses".
In between the two, there is something called the “subject.” That is someone who is under investigation but who may or may not be charged. [Fuckface] is a subject, and I don’t think that is particularly good news for him. It’s a big deal to be under criminal investigation by the FBI, particularly if you’re president of the United States.
Update (April 7, 2018): Lucian Truscott follows the money.
Mueller appears to be currently operating on a “theory of the case” that Russian money found its way into the [von Clownstick] campaign.
Update (April 9, 2018): Panama resurfaces the in parade of conflicts of interest. Matthew Rozsa reports that lawyers for von Clownstick's business sent a letter to the President of Panama.
The letter argued that the eviction of [Fuckface] Organization personnel could violate the Bilateral Investment Treaty and included a suggestion that the Panamanian government could face adverse consequences if the [Fuckface] Organization does not prevail in the dispute.
Representative Elijah Cummings explains the problem.
This is exactly what our Founding Fathers were concerned about when they wrote the Emoluments Clause—Presidents trying to use the levers of power to help themselves financially.
Update (April 22, 2018): Paul Manafort is suspected of serving as a "back channel" to Russia during the 2016 campaign. And a Republican fundraiser was working to help a Russian gas company get sanctions lifted.
Meanwhile, the Democratic National Committee filed a lawsuit against the Russian government, Wikileaks, and the von Clownstick campaign alleging conspiracy to interfere in the 2016 election.
Update (April 28, 2018): The Russian lawyer Junior and others met with in June 2016 now confirms that she did have ties to the Russian government.
Update (May 7, 2018): The Washington Post reports that Fuckface and his Organization spent over $400 million in cash on 14 properties in the decade before the 2016 election. Heather Digby Parton sounds suspicious.
[H]e went from being known as the "king of debt" in the real estate world to paying for risky properties in cash at a time when borrowed money was cheap. It was also around the same time [von Clownstick] hired [Michael] Cohen, whose "shadowy business empire" was profiled this weekend in The New York Times. These people were clearly up to something and that something looks a lot like money laundering, something that's been suspected for some time.
Update (May 8, 2018): I'm sure there's an innocent explanation that has nothing to do with Fuckface.
A consulting firm owned by Michael Cohen ... reportedly received payments totaling about $500,000 from the U.S. affiliate of a Russian billionaire’s company.
This could prove the conspiracy between the campaign and the Russians. I think it's conspiracy evidence for both the conspiracy to steal the emails and distribute them to help [von Clownstick] get elected president, as well as the conspiracy relating to Facebook and the use of social media to suppress the Clinton vote.
Update (May 9, 2018): Cohen calls the reports inaccurate.
Update (May 10, 2018):Cohen is in big trouble. Does anyone believe he won't flip?
Update (May 17, 2018): I think I should start watching soap operas where the story lines are less convoluted and more believable than the headlines.
A significant business partner of Michael D. Cohen ... has agreed to cooperate with the government as a potential witness, a development that could be used as leverage to pressure Mr. Cohen to work with the special counsel examining Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
Of course the Russian effort affected the outcome. Surprising even themselves, they swung the election to a [von Clownstick] win. To conclude otherwise stretches logic, common sense, and credulity to the breaking point.
Update (May 23, 2018): Giuliani says the e-mails stolen by Russia where "sort of like a gift". But receiving campaign gifts from foreign countries is actually illegal.
Update (May 27, 2018): Israeli Power Point slides?
Update (May 28, 2018): Former NSA analyst John Schindler says a lot of information was collected about the 2016 campaign.
Western intelligence agencies that were eavesdropping on the Kremlin and its spies—not [von Clownstick] or any of his retinue—heard numerous conversations about [Fuckface] and his secret Russian connections.
Schindler quotes a current NSA official and I actually hope this isn't all true.
We knew we had a Russian agent on our hands.
The Kremlin talked about [von Clownstick] like he was their boy, and their comments weren’t always flattering.
[Fuckface] and his kids knew what they were doing, and who they were doing it with.
Update (May 30, 2018): Representative Eric Swalwell argues that von Clownstick's attacks on his own government only bolsters Mueller's case.
I do think that his efforts to try and shame Attorney General Sessions does amount to obstruction.
Update (June 4, 2018): Robert Mueller is charging Paul Manafort with witness tampering.
The indictment is more significant from a broader perspective. It is Mueller's first indictment charging an American and a Russian for working together to commit a crime. He charged the former chair of [the Republican] campaign and a suspected Russian [inteligence] operative with conspiracy.
Update (June 14, 2018): The New York attorney general is suing The [von Clownstick] Foundation and family members for "persistently illegal conduct".
The 41-page complaint details a myriad of alleged wrongdoings, including the improper use of charity funds “to influence his election for president.”
Apparently, it's a civil suit, but it does seem like stealing money would send most people to jail.
Also, a report from the Justice Department Inspector General gives lie to many of Fuckface's claims about the FBI being biased against him during the campaign.
Update (June 15, 2018): The IG report illustrates how "working the refs" pays off. Rachel Maddow explains the mindset:
The inspector general finds that James Comey just didn't care if he might be seen as acting in a way that might hurt Hillary Clinton's campaign. But he really, really, really cared and he took great extraordinary action to avoid appearing like he might be helping Hillary Clinton in any way. That's how he weighed those two consequences.
Constant attacks are a strategy.
[Y]ou can make the justice department and the FBI worry about the perception that they might be perceived as soft on Democrats. ... Once they're worried about that perception you're halfway there to make them bend over backwards for you and in this case break policy for you to make sure they definitely don't help the Democrats and they thereby help the Republicans instead.
Update (June 16, 2018): Paul Manafort has been sent to jail.
Update (June 17, 2018): The Washington Post reports that Roger Stone had a previously undisclosed meeting in May 2016 with a Russian national offering "dirt" on Hillary Clinton.
Stone and Caputo’s interactions with Greenberg mean that at least 11 [Fuckface] associates or campaign officials have acknowledged interactions with a Russian during the election season or presidential transition. Those interactions have become public in the year and a half since a [von Clownstick] spokeswoman said that no one associated with the campaign had communications with Russians or other foreign entities.
But, hey, "nothing came of it" so therefore no collusion. Stone claims the meeting was actually an FBI sting operation.
Update (June 18, 2018): Heather Digby Parton discusses what was left out of Inspector General Horowitz's report.
The Republicans have been working the refs hard, and it's fair to conclude they may have worked Horowitz too. He focused on all the specious accusations of an anti-[Fuckface] conspiracy and left the more damning evidence of the FBI's successful sabotage of the Clinton campaign hovering between the lines.
A cabal of FBI agents in the New York office loyal to Rudy Giuliani apparently hectored their bosses, leaked to the press and urged former agents to go on television to put the Department of Justice and the FBI under pressure to act harshly against Hillary Clinton, even when if was outside the norms, rules and laws of the department. They were successful beyond their wildest dreams.
Update (June 22, 2018): McClatchy reports that plans to end sanctions against Russia were started by von Clownstick associates in early 2016. Also, the Washington Post reports that Fuckface signed off on tax returns for his Foundation that included false statements, a felony.
Update (June 27, 2018): A previously undisclosed search warrant application shows that a company owned by Paul Manafort and his wife had borrowed $10 million from a Russian with ties to that government. Chris Hayes sums it up:
Nothing to see here, just the indicted campaign manager of the president (who worked for free) owing a Russian oligarch $10 million dollars while Russia was sabotaging the election.
Update (June 29, 2018): Heather Digby Parton continues to wonder why Fuckface is so eager to please Putin.
Considering the pressure [von Clownstick] is under from the Mueller investigation, scheduling a summit with Putin and defending him publicly is a bizarre strategy unless he needs to communicate something. But he seems almost desperate to deliver something as well.
One has to wonder whether he's trying to beat Mueller's investigation or Putin's deadline.
I'm hoping he'll seek asylum in Russia during the summit.
[Von Clownstick's] long-time lawyer Michael Cohen is now the third person in [Fuckface's] circle to refuse to confirm that [Dear Leader] didn't know about a 2016 meeting with Russian lobbyists in [his] Tower.
Michael Cohen has brought in an outspoken critic of the president -- a former special counsel for Bill Clinton -- to help respond to a federal probe of his businesses and finances.
If you care about [Dear Leader], you ought to be worried. Lanny Davis is a political player ... who has an agenda here which is to avenge Hillary Clinton ... and [wants] to set things straight after the 2016 election with what he's going to be doing with Michael Cohen.
Update (July 13, 2018): The total is now 35 indictments with over 100 criminal counts.
A grand jury convened by special counsel Robert Mueller indicted 12 Russian intelligence officials in connection with the hack of a DNC server during the 2016 election.
All 12 of the defendants were connected to GRU, a Russian Federation intelligence agency within the Russian military.
********
The 11-count indictment includes charges of conspiracy by the Russian intelligence officials against the U.S., money laundering and attempts to break into state boards of elections and other government agencies.
Coincidentally, the first attempts to hack Clinton's personal accounts happened the same day Fuckface said this: "Russia: If you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing." Well, Cody Fenwick might not be sure about the coincidence.
[I]t could be that the most obvious reading of the indictment and [Dear Leader's] statements is correct: [von Clownstick] gave foreign nationals a direction to commit a crime against the United States, and they listened.
Clearly, the indictment issued by Special Counsel Robert Mueller yesterday is saying that right after [Fuckface] called on “Russia” to “find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” the Russians did just that. They went looking for those emails by going after Clinton’s personal email server.
If that’s not collusion with the Russians to hack Hillary Clinton’s emails, I don’t know what is.
Anybody who gets elected to office in this country with the help of the intelligence agents of a foreign power has been elected illegitimately. It’s not a tough call. [Fuckface von Clownstick] is president because Vladimir Putin wanted him to be. He acts like he owes Putin every single day. Twelve agents of the Russian intelligence service the GRU didn’t do all that spearphishing and email disseminating all by themselves. They did it on orders from Putin. That’s why [Dear Leader] owes Putin. Read it for yourself. It’s right there in the indictment.
But, of course, we know it's really Obama's fault.
Update (July 16, 2018): It's hard to know where to begin--even Republicans were blasting the Fuckface performance at the join press conference after the summit with Putin. Senator Jeff Flake:
I never thought I would see the day when our American President would stand on the stage with the Russian President and place blame on the United States for Russian aggression. This is shameful.
The base will find some way to spin, but Cenk Uygur says it really comes down to either that he's the dumbest person ever elected to any office or he's totally corrupt, or, really, just both.
I would like to clarify, in a key sentence in my remarks, I said the word "would" instead of "wouldn’t". The sentence should have been: "I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t be Russia."
Meanwhile, The New York Times reports on the arrest of an actual spy.
A Russian woman who tried to broker a secret meeting between [Fuckface von Clownstick] and the Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin, during the 2016 presidential campaign was charged Monday and accused of working with Americans to carry out a secret Russian effort to influence American politics.
At the behest of a senior Russian government official, the woman, Maria Butina, made connections through the National Rifle Association, religious organizations and the National Prayer Breakfast to try to steer the Republican Party toward more pro-Russia policies.
Update (July 18, 2018): OK, maybe not treason, but Fuckface continues to make an adversary of out the truth.
A day after publicly reaffirming his confidence in U.S. intelligence agencies, [von Clownstick] has rejected their findings once again ... [telling] reporters Wednesday that he did not believe Russia was continuing to target the U.S., as Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats suggested last week.
"We’re doing very well. Probably as well as anybody has ever done with Russia. There’s been no president ever as tough as I have been on Russia."
Consternation and regret are growing among Republicans and voters. I think it's reasonable to take action against Russian interference without becoming anti-Russian. The U.S. certainly doesn't have clean hands and it's understandable why Putin is wary of the U.S. after watching what happened to Gaddafi.
Update (July 19, 2018): Heather Digby Parton has a thought about why Republicans aren't inclined to confront Fuckface.
The GOP establishment saw what [von Clownstick] did in Helsinki and was momentarily shaken. It was a stunning performance, to say the least. But it's pretty clear that after thinking it over they've decided that maybe Russian interference in the election isn't such a bad thing after all. It may be their only hope.
Also, The New York Times reports that Dear Leader was briefed with "highly classified" evidence for Russian interference in the election before the inauguration. Matthew Miller thinks the fact that the story is coming out now reveals a mistrust of Fuckface by the intelligence community.
[Sources and methods are] really the crown jewels of U.S. intelligence, and the fact that it made it out publicly was concerning to me. ... I read that story last night and found that the president has known going back to a year and a half now about what exactly Vladimir Putin did, and he helped [Putin] cover up that crime by lying about it it publicly.
And Michael McFaul points out the problems with von Clownstick's endorsement of Putin's "incredible offer" to help the U.S. with the investigation of election interference. Naturally, Russia would like to interrogate some Americans as well.
This is an active intimidation against me, and it’s going to create problems for me in the long run. My government, I hope, will step up today and categorically swat this back. When I mean my government, I mean my president of the United States of America.
When he just said last night (that) America is no longer under attack, I’m sorry — I’m an American, I’m under attack by Vladimir Putin right now. I hope he’ll stand up. But now they will make my life more difficult as I travel abroad, with Interpol, perhaps. They want to harass me and they want to intimidate me and make me quiet.
Update (July 20, 2018): Thom Hartmann argues that the Fuckface fealty to Putin is almost certainly due to the fact he owes billions of dollars to Russian oligarchs.
In the months leading up to the 2016 presidential election, the FBI believed that Carter Page, a campaign adviser to [Fuckface von Clownstick], was “conspiring and collaborating with the Russian government,” according to startling wiretap warrant applications.
Update (July 23, 2018): So now we're back to "hoax" and the idea that surveillance of Page means the FBI was "spying" on the campaign.
Meanwhile, Fuckface becomes more erratic as Paul Manafort's trial is about to start and with the announcement that prosecutors have 12 audio recordings from Michael Cohen. Mimi Rocah suggests Manafort won't flip because he's more afraid of something else, and Representative Eric Swalwell asks if having Russian contacts actually served as a qualification to be on the Republican campaign.
Update (July 24, 2018): Amanda Marcotte argues that Orangeman benefits from sowing confusion.
Odds are the typical Fox News viewer, when asked to explain who Page is and why his story somehow proves [Fuckface] is innocent, would have no idea what the hell is supposed to be going on and certainly not why any of this proves [von Clownstick's] innocence. But that's probably the point. The complex nature of the Page conspiracy theory works to shield the claims being made from critical inquiry. By dumping a bunch of hard-to-follow noise about Page and the Russians and FISA warrants and dossiers and Obama and Steele, [Dear Leader] and his propaganda administrators will scare most people away from even trying to figure out what the hell is going on.
After denial, then grudging acceptance, then redenial, now the claim is that Russians seek to interfere on behalf of Democrats. The quantity of bullshit overcomes any appraisal of quality. Dunning-Kruger showed that the least informed overestimate their level of knowledge. And the faithful followers are among the least informed--they're not going to believe their lying eyes.
Helping Democrats? Then I'm sure he's about to do everything in his power to stop this Russian meddling!
Update (July 25, 2018): Heather Digby Parton refers to a couple of interesting tidbits: A report from Rachel Maddow about the White House omitting the question to Putin about whether he supported von Clownstick in the election [Looks like Maddow was overzealous]. And a quote from Timothy Snyder.
You submit to tyranny when you renounce the difference between what you want to hear and what is actually the case.
Also, a federal judge ruled that the emoluments case against von Clownstick can proceed.
And, is trying to impeach Rod Rosenstein a sign of panic or can the Republicans really get away with it?
Update (July 28, 2018): It was reported July 11 last year and we need to see this reminder as often as possible.
Candidate [Fuckface von Clownstick] vowed to expose dirt on his political opponents Bill and Hillary Clinton just two days before the controversial 2016 ... Tower meeting that his former lawyer Michael Cohen insisted [Dear Leader] knew about.
Update (August 1, 2018): Murray Waas reports on evidence refuting Dear Leader's lawyer's claim that Fuckface was unaware of an FBI investigation when he asked James Comey to lay off of Michael Flynn.
[A] confidential White House memorandum, which is in the special counsel’s possession, explicitly states that when [von Clownstick] pressured Comey he had just been told by two of his top aides—his then chief of staff Reince Priebus and his White House counsel Don McGahn—that Flynn was under criminal investigation.
But then, every tweet seems to add to the evidence for obstruction of justice.
This is a terrible situation and Attorney General Jeff Sessions should stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now, before it continues to stain our country any further.
Update (August 5, 2018): Junior's meeting with Russians was "totally legal". Oh, and Fuckface totally didn't know anything about this totally legal meeting!
S.V. Date notes that the statement--"This was a meeting to get information on an opponent."--sounds a lot like a confession of attempted collusion. But then, none of this is illegal, so we're good.
Update (August 6, 2018): Adam Davidson summarizes what we now know:
The President’s son and top advisers knowingly met with individuals connected to the Russian government, hoping to obtain dirt on their political opponent.
Documents stolen from the Democratic National Committee and members of the Clinton campaign were later used in an overt effort to sway the election.
When the ... Tower meeting was uncovered, the President instructed his son and staff to lie about the meeting, and told them precisely which lies to use.
The President is attempting to end the investigation into this meeting and other instances of attempted collusion between his campaign staff and representatives of the Russian government.
Update (August 10, 2018): Buzzfeed gives evidence that Peter Smith, who was said to have ties to Michael Flynn, had contact with those he believed to be Russian hackers.
Just a day after he finished a report suggesting he was working with [Republican nominee] campaign officials, for example, he transferred $9,500 from an account he had set up to fund the email project to his personal account, later taking out more than $4,900 in cash. According to a person with direct knowledge of Smith’s project, the Republican operative stated that he was prepared to pay hackers “many thousands of dollars” for Clinton’s emails — and ultimately did so.
Update (August 20, 2018): Bob Cesca thinks Dear Leader's attacks on his enemies just might let him wiggle out of any accountability.
Update (August 21, 2018): It can't be good for Fuckface when his former campaign manager is facing a maximum of 80 years in jail (and his former lawyer also pleaded guilty today).
In addition to the guilty verdict on five tax fraud charges, the jury found Manafort responsible for two counts of bank fraud and one count of failing to report foreign bank and financial accounts.
A mistrial was declared on ten other counts. This trial wasn't campaign related--that is yet to come. Matthew Chapman:
[Von Clownstick] is in a no-win situation. The convictions are incredibly damning, especially given that Manafort's shady dealings were well known at the time [Orangeman] chose to hire him, if not in scope than certainly in gist. And [Dear Leader] has no way of making this go away, because the consequences of trying to pardon Manafort would only make things worse.
Update (August 22, 2018): Rachel Maddow points to two interesting developments involving Michael Cohen and his plea deal. The New York State Department of Taxation and Finance subpoenaed Cohen as they investigate whether the Von Clownstick Foundation violated state tax law and Cohen responded immediately. And a $50,000 payment Cohen made for "tech services" which was repaid from the Trust run by Junior and his brother is speculated to be related to a claim in the Steele documents that Cohen arranged "deniable" payments to Russian hackers.
It's comforting to know that people like New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood are doing their job even as the "moral invertebrates" in Congress slink under rocks.
Update (August 24, 2018): Is it over? Von Clownstick Organization chief financial officer Allan Weisselberg was granted immunity by federal prosecutors.
Update (September 2, 2018): Just trying to keep up--an associate of Paul Manafort funneled $50,000 to the inauguration committee from Ukrainian sources, and David Ohr claims that Christopher Steele believed the Russians had Fuckface "over a barrel".
Update (September 4, 2018): Here is the Leader of the Free World complaining about his own appointee for putting the rule of law above politics.
Two long running, Obama era, investigations of two very popular Republican Congressmen were brought to a well publicized charge, just ahead of the Mid-Terms, by the Jeff Sessions Justice Department. Two easy wins now in doubt because there is not enough time. Good job Jeff......
Update (September 9, 2018): Glenn Kirschner says the plea by George Papadopoulos points to collusion.
[W]hat's in writing in black and white in the court file in the Papadopoulos case is that he, as a member of the [von Clownstick] campaign, colluded with Russia and he lied about it. ... Bob Mueller virtually let him go with a simple [section] 1001 charge for lying to the FBI agents. That tells me that the Mueller team has so much more information on hand as part of its investigation that they didn't even need Papadopoulos as a cooperating witness, and that's not good for the president or his associates.
Update (September 12, 2018): BuzzFeed News reports on suspicious financial transactions following the June 2016 Tower meeting.
Update (September 14, 2018): Paul Manafort has now pleaded guilty to conspiracy against the United States and conspiracy to obstruct justice ahead of his Washington, D.C. trial. He will cooperate with special counsel.
Vanity Fair reports that Michael Cohen is also talking to special counsel.
Update (September 21, 2018): Dear Leader backs off for now.
Also, the New York Times reports that Rod Rosenstein has previously discussed invoking the 25th Amendment with other members of the administration. If he gets fired, the Mueller investigation could be shut down. This convenient excuse becomes available just as Michael Cohen is reported to be talking with Mueller.
Update (September 24, 2018): Rosenstein either offered to resign or expects to get fired. Cody Fenwick explains what might happen with special counsel.
[I]n preparation for potentially getting fired or being managed by someone hostile to his aims, Mueller is probably working to collect whatever information and work he has collected on any of his pending investigatory leads. He can decentralize this information by sending it to other offices in the Justice Department and to any state attorneys general that could have jurisdiction over the relevant cases. In that way, Mueller may be able to protect the investigation itself and the cases he's pursued, even if [Fuckface] does his best to intervene.
Update (September 28, 2018): Another federal ruling gives Democratic members of Congress standing to sue Fuckface over emoluments.
Update (October 10, 2018): The Wall Street Journal has now more firmly established Peter Smith's ties to Michael Flynn. In 2016, Smith was trying to obtain Clinton emails in an attempt to damage her campaign.
Update (October 26, 2018): A story came out right before the election about unusual contacts between computers owned by Dear Leader and Alfa Bank. Dexter Filkins follows up by reporting on the data scientists who likely uncovered evidence of conspiracy.
[If they] were communicating, what might they have been talking about? ... [S]cientists ... theorized that they may have been using the system to signal one another about events or tasks that had to be performed: money to be transferred, for instance, or data to be copied. ... [T]hat the system may have been used to coördinate the movement of data. ... [M]illions of personal records from Facebook ... could have been transferred to the Russian government, to help guide its targeting of American voters before the election.
Update (November 4, 2018):Will his own stupidity do the most to bring about his downfall?
A federal judge has refused to delay a landmark emoluments lawsuit ... and he pointed in his ruling to an attitude expressed by [Fuckface] in one of the president’s own tweets.
Update (November 7, 2018): Jeff Sessions is out of office one day after the election. Michael Beschloss warns:
If this leads to, let's say, the firing of Robert Mueller or the substantial limitation of the investigation — 10 times worse than Richard Nixon.
Update (November 12, 2018): Bob Cesca says Dear Leader doesn't care about the appearance of innocence any more.
[I]f obstructing Mueller's investigation isn’t the main reason Whitaker was appointed (in possible violation of the law and the Constitution), then [Fuckface] should be fine with Whitaker recusing himself from [Von Clownstick]-Russia matters due to his public statements, right? ... [No, he] needs Whitaker to stymie Mueller, otherwise why take these potentially illegal measures to sidestep the law?
Update (November 20, 2018): Can we call it fascism yet? The New York Times reports that Dear Leader wanted to force the Department of Justice to prosecute Hillary Clinton and James Comey. Don McGahn had to warn him that trying to lock up your enemies is an impeachable offense.
John Dean says even Nixon never tried to get away with something like this.
This is the sort of stuff of a banana republic. This is what an autocrat does. ... [I]t's rather frightening and kind of startling because he was told about this during the campaign when he started mentioning these sort of things, but he's never backed off. And it looks like he won't back off until he's forced to.
Update (November 23, 2018): U.S. District Court Judge Dabney Friedrich seems to agree that "collusion" is a crime.
Update (November 25, 2018): Representative Ted Deutch thinks that with Roger Stone associate Jerome Corsi in negotiations for a plea agreement, it's just a matter of time for Robert Mueller to connect the dots.
[T]his provides the opportunity to see a line from Russia, who stole the emails, to WikiLeaks, who distributed the emails, WikiLeaks to Corsi and Stone, and Stone to the president.
Update (November 26, 2018): CNN reports that Corsi has rejected a plea deal.
Update (November 27, 2018): The Guardian is reporting that Paul Manafort (who denies it) met with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in 2013, 2015 and 2016.
And Manafort is being accused of violating his plea agreement. Mueller is going to proceed by presenting in court a "detailed sentencing submission … sett[ing] forth the nature of the defendant’s crimes and lies". Marcy Wheeler presents an interesting take on it.
There’s your Mueller report, which will be provided in a form that Matt Whitaker won’t be able to suppress.
Danny Cevallos points out that executive privilege could be used to suppress Mueller's formal report, but that a lot of evidence could be revealed at Manafort's sentencing.
Update (November 29, 2018): Michael Cohen pleadedguilty to lying to Congress about the Moscow Tower deal. And BuzzFeed News reports that part of the plan was to give Vladimir Putin a penthouse worth $50 million. There's speculation the deal had something to do with money laundering.
Cohen's plea makes it clear Fuckface lied about Russian connections during the campaign. As Jennifer Rubin puts it, he "lied his way into the presidency". Although Cohen was blasted as lying now to get a reduced sentence, Rudy Giuliani claims von Clownstick's recent written answers to Mueller's questions "match" Cohen's story. Which implies Cohen was knowingly lying at a time he was still working for Dear Leader. And if the answers don't match, then the perjury is in writing.
Update (November 30, 2018): Marcy Wheeler says Junior is in a world of trouble.
[W]ith Cohen’s plea, [Mueller is] inching closer to laying out a complex conspiracy in which Russians offered stolen emails and real estate in exchange for sanctions relief, with the president’s son at the center of everything.
Update (December 3, 2018): Peter Zeidenberg notes that Cohen's plea speaks to motive.
For those who long wondered why throughout the presidential campaign [von Clownstick] could not bring himself to say a critical word about Russian President Vladimir Putin, we now know the answer. [He] was hoping to do business in Russia, and doing so would require the approval of Putin.
And since dealing with the Russian bank VTB is illegal under U.S. sanctions, Putin needed to help his would-be business partner get elected.
Update (December 4, 2018): From the sentencing memo filed by Special Counsel about Michael Flynn.
Given the defendant’s substantial assistance and other considerations set forth below, a sentence at the low end of the guideline range—including a sentence that does not impose a term of incarceration—is appropriate and warranted.
Should someone be worried all that cooperation leads to forthcoming indictments? Jeffrey Toobin highlights one sentence in the memo.
The fact that [Mueller] is saying "senior government leaders should be held to the highest standards," I would be a little nervous if I were the people involved in the obstruction of justice investigation, starting, of course, with the president of the United States.
Update (December 8, 2018):Additional sentencing memos outline Paul Manafort's lies, Michael Cohen's lack of cooperation with the Southern District of New York, and Cohen's cooperation with the Special Counsel's Office.
Neal Katyal notes that the SDNY memo essentially accuses von Clownstick of committing a felony.
Cohen made these campaign finance payments at the direction of [Fuckface]. And what we're talking about here are payments made to two women for their silence for having alleged affairs with [Dear Leader] and were going to go public. And what happened was is that Cohen paid those folks and did so at a time when you're only supposed to give $2,700 to a campaign. And that's for a very important reason: Congress has said we don't want rich people buying elections — we want transparency in our election process.
The prosecutors say, 'The agreement's principal purpose was to suppress this woman's story so as to prevent the story from influencing the election. So they're taking away the [von Clownstick] defense, which was there in the [John] Edwards case: 'Oh, I was doing it to protect my private life, or something like that'. They're saying, 'No, this was done with a purpose of influencing the election.' That's what the campaign finance laws are all about.
Prosecutors refer to these violations as a "blow to our democracy". Fuckface will still have his defenders, but Juliette Kayyem says the real substance is the collusion with Russia. Not to mention obstruction of justice.
Update (December 11, 2018): Synergy equals collusion? And the trolls warn Democrats against spending too much time investigating Fuckface while Republicans use their last days in control of the House still trying to discredit the Mueller investigation. Also, David French debunks the "witch hunt" claim.
Update (December 12, 2018): Michael Cohen has been sentenced to three years in jail. Who's next? Richard Painter asks, "How much time should the client get?"
Also, Maria Butina has a plea agreement. She admits to trying to influence Republican politicians. She coordinated with Paul Erickson to use the National Rifle Association as a "conduit" between Russia and the Republican presidential campaign.
According to The Trace, both the NRA and [von Clownstick] campaign illegally coordinated to the point where their ad buys were authorized by the same person at the National Media Research firm.
Lucian Truscott suggests that Butina wouldn't make a deal without Vladimir Putin's approval.
Update (December 13, 2018): NBC confirms a report originally from The Wall Street Journal that Fuckface was "in the room" when Cohen discussed hush money with the National Inquirer.
If the [his] hotel charged more than the going rate for the venues, it could violate tax law. The inaugural committee’s payments to the ... Organization and [First Daughter's] role have not been previously reported or disclosed in public filings.
And here's a bit of good news I missed from the election--a black woman, Letitia James, was elected New York State's Attorney General.
Update (December 17, 2018): A report from the Senate Intelligence Committee documents the extent of Russian meddling in the 2016 election through social media.
What is clear is that all of the messaging clearly sought to benefit the Republican Party — and specifically [Fuckface von Clownstick]. [Orangeman] is mentioned most in campaigns targeting conservatives and right-wing voters, where the messaging encouraged these groups to support his campaign. The main groups that could challenge [Dear Leader] were then provided messaging that sought to confuse, distract and ultimately discourage members from voting.
Also, Marcy Wheeler looks at the FBI documentation of Michael Flynn's interview with them as evidence that Flynn lied specifically to protect Fuckface.
Investigations by special counsel Robert Mueller: Russian government’s election attack (the Internet Research Agency and GRU indictments) WikiLeaks Middle Eastern influence: Potentially the biggest unseen aspect of Mueller’s investigation is his year-long pursuit of Middle Eastern influence targeting the [von Clownstick] campaign. Paul Manafort’s activity [Fuckface] Tower Moscow project Other campaign and transition contacts with Russia Obstruction of justice Investigations by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York: Campaign conspiracy and [Fuckface] Organization finances Inauguration funding [Von Clownstick] super PAC funding Foreign lobbying Investigations by the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia: Maria Butina and the NRA Investigations by the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia: Elena Alekseevna Khusyaynova, the alleged chief accountant of the Internet Research Agency who was indicted separately earlier this fall, charged with activity that went above and beyond the 2016 campaign. Why she was prosecuted separately remains a mystery. Turkish influence: Michael Flynn’s plea agreement includes some details of the case, and he is cooperating with investigators. Investigations by New York City, New York State and other state attorneys general: Tax case: In the wake of a New York Times investigation that found [Fuckface] had benefited from more than $400 million in tax schemes, city officials said they were investigating [Von Clownstick's] tax payments, as did the New York State Tax Department. The [Fuckface] Foundation Emoluments lawsuit: The attorneys general for Maryland and D.C. sent out subpoenas earlier this month for [Fuckface] Organization and hotel financial records relating to their lawsuit that the president is in breach of the "Emoluments Clause" of the Constitution, which appears to prohibit the president from accepting payments from foreign powers while in office. And there's a mystery investigation from an unknown office: Redacted Case #2: A second, redacted Flynn investigation could be one of the other investigations mentioned here. It could also represent another as-yet-unknown unfolding criminal case or could be a counterintelligence investigation that will never become public.
Also, U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan had harsh words for Michael Flynn (in contrast to Administration claims that the FBI "ambushed" him) before ordering a delay in sentencing.
You were an unregistered agent of a foreign country while serving as the national security adviser to the president! Arguably, this undermines everything this flag over here stands for! Arguably, you sold your country out!
Update (December 18, 2018): Heather Digby Parton wonders why Flynn lied about Russian contacts even though his conversations had been recorded and finds it curious that Fuckface still says nice things about him.
This does raise the question of why the president can possibly be sure that Flynn hasn't implicated him. It makes you wonder whether the president's little mole in the Department of Justice, Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker, hasn't been whispering in his ear.
If that's so, [Dear Leader] and his fans should not rest easy. Michael Flynn walked out of the courtroom yesterday with an order from the judge that if he expects to get that lenient sentence he's going to have to earn it. If there's something he's been holding back, he knows what he has to do.
Update (December 26, 2018): Alternet describes reporting by Michael Hirsch that follows up on a story in May about the influx of cash into the Von Clownstick Organization.
Multiple anonymous sources, former associates of the president, told Hirsch that [Dear Leader] especially used Russian funds when American sources ran dry.
Some of this, it seems, came in the form of direct real estate purchases. Despite repeatedly denying any ties to the Kremlin, [Fuckface] has even admitted to one major deal with a Russian, Dmitry Rybolovlev, who is believed to be close to Putin. Rybolovlev bought a Palm Beach house from [Orangeman] for $100 million — $60 million more than what the president had initially paid for it, according to an ABC interview with [Individudal 1]. This is a remarkably high profit for any such deal — but it is even more startling because it happened in 2008, when the American real estate market was cratering.
"That deal delivered so much cash to [his tiny hands], it almost has to be seen as a campaign contribution, or the purchase of [Fuckface von Clownstick]," ... biographer Michael D’Antonio told Hirsch.
Update (January 2, 2019): As we await Robert Mueller's report sometime this year, Fred Wertheimer and Norm Eisen argue that simply asking Russia publicly to find Clinton's e-mails is a campaign finance violation.
Federal campaign finance law prohibits any person from soliciting campaign contributions, defined as anything of value to be given to influence an election, from a foreign national, including a foreign government.
Update (January 8, 2019): A poorly redacted court document reveals that Paul Manafort lied to Robert Mueller about sharing election polling data with Russian intelligence.
Update (January 9, 2019): The Manafort news is significant and it's important to keep in mind, as always, that Mueller knowsmore than everything publicly available. Chris Cillizza notes that two claims are no longer tenable:
1) All of Manafort's criminal activity and wrongdoing came years before he was formally involved in the [Republican nominee's] campaign.
2) There wasn't even the whiff of collusion between anyone in his campaign and the Russians.
Update (January 11, 2019): The Moscow Project by the Center for American Progress now documents 101 contacts with Russians by Dear Leader's campaign and transition team between September 2015 and January 2017.
Update (January 14, 2019): While Republicans make excuses for Fuckface, Democrats need to warn against witness tampering. And we're facing facts such as the FBI started a counterintelligence investigation of von Clownstick after James Comey was fired and Dear Leader hid details of his meetings with Vladimir Putin. Heather Digby Parton never expected to see this in the New York Times:
So it has come to this: The president of the United States was asked over the weekend whether he is a Russian agent. And he refused to answer.
Update (January 16, 2019): A report from the General Services Administration inspector general finds that GSA ignored the emoluments clause of the constitution when they reviewed the lease for Fuckface's hotel in Washington, D.C.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller has evidence that [Fuckface von Clownstick] directed his attorney Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about a real estate deal with Russia during the 2016 campaign, according to a new report from BuzzFeed News.
Update (January 20, 2019): BussFeed stands by the story.
Update (January 23, 2019): Plans for the Moscow Tower were further along than previously understood. An editorial in USA Today condemns the deal as an "extraordinary conflict of interest".
[Fuckface] sought to enrich himself by pursuing a luxury hotel/condominium/office deal in Russia ... [A]s a candidate, [he] repeatedly misled or lied to voters about his business with Russia.
Also, Michael Cohen postponed testimony to Congress citing threats from Dear Leader and his lawyer. Representative Ted Lieu:
Here is 18 U.S.C. § 1512:
"Whoever knowingly uses intimidation, threatens … or attempts to do so … with intent to … influence, delay, or prevent the testimony of any person" is guilty of a felony.
Update (January 25, 2019): Roger Stone was indicted on seven counts. The Young Turks reiterates the question--why were people associated with Fuckface constantly lying about Russian contacts?
Update (January 27, 2019): I left out the best part of the Stone story.
In a dramatic predawn raid, FBI agents placed Roger Stone, the Republican king of darkness under arrest at his Florida home.
Most likely, the raid was intended to send a clear message to other witnesses and potential defendants that witness tampering, a federal felony with a sentence of up to 20 years if it involves physical intimidation, will not be tolerated by the polite but tough former FBI director.
Update (January 28, 2019): Jerome Corsi suggests (without definitive proof) that Roger Stone wanted WikiLeaks to help the von Clownstick campaign with the timing of email releases.
I had one call from Roger, as I recall it — Roger disputes this — on the day that WikiLeaks did begin in October, dropping the final emails on John Podesta, and which Roger was essentially saying, we’ve got this timing issue, because the Billy Bush tape is going to be released, and we’d like to have [WikiLeaks founder Julian] Assange begin releasing emails now.
Update (February 5, 2019): Buzzfeed has released documents detailing negotiations over the Moscow Tower during the presidential campaign.
Also, the inaugural committee has been served with a subpoena for its records.
Update (February 16, 2019): Lucian Truscott thinks Paul Manafort is holding out for a pardon and a Russian payoff.
Manafort was [Fuckface's] cut-out to Putin’s intelligence operatives who were hacking the Democrats’ emails and releasing them through WikiLeaks. They obviously used the campaign polling data Manafort passed to Kilimnik in determining when to release information damaging to Hillary Clinton and her campaign chairman, John Podesta. Only Manafort knows what instructions [von Clownstick] gave him when he was dealing with the Russians during the campaign, and so far, he is keeping this very, very big secret.
Update (February 17, 2019): Nick Robins-Early and Ryan Reilly summarize the status of the Mueller investigation.
Update (February 19, 2019): Cody Fenwick summarizes a New York Times report documenting Dear Leader's "efforts to intimidate and defame the investigators" thus committing obstruction of justice. Times reporter Michael Schmidt notes that the acting attorney general didn't work out so well.
Whitaker ran into forces that were far greater and stronger than he thought he would face, and ultimately was not that successful in helping the President.
Update (February 20, 2019): Heather Digby Parton notes that innocent people don't act as guilty as Dear Leader.
He just can't stop obstructing justice. But then why would he? His new attorney general, William Barr, agrees with that Republican icon of corruption Richard Nixon, that "if the president does it, it's not illegal". Barr has told [Fuckface] he is perfectly free to interfere with investigations, order them up, protect his friends and punish his enemies. So I wouldn't expect any of it to stop unless Congress finally steps up to do its duty.
Update (February 24, 2019): Cody Fenwick reiterates what Robert Mueller has uncovered so far and concludes that von Clownstick's campaign "colluded with Russia as it intervened in the 2016 election, intervention that was widely regarded as an attack on national security".
It’s a relatively simple story, and even without any other charges, it should be absolutely politically damning for any sitting president. The fact that this is even controversial shows how deeply distorted American politics has become.
Update (February 27, 2019): Michael Cohen gave highly anticipated public testimony to the House Oversight Committee. He seemed to implicate Fuckface in at least five felonies:
Conspiracy to defraud the US (knowledge of Stone/Wikileaks email dump)
Lying to FBI/Special Counsel (false answers on Stone/Wikileaks and [Tower meeting])
Suborning perjury (approving Cohen’s false testimony to Congress)
Campaign finance (hush money payment)
Bank, wire and tax fraud [(inflating assets for loans/deflating for tax purposes)]
Given my experience working for Mr. [von Clownstick], I fear that if he loses the election in 2020, that there will never be a peaceful transition of power.
Update (April 26, 2019): Deutsche Bank is now turning over documents to New York Attorney General Letitia James.
James opened an investigation into [Fuckface's] finances after his former longtime lawyer Michael Cohen testified that the president inflated his assets in official documents, including in financial statements he provided to Deutsche Bank.
Update (May 1, 2019): Senator Lindsey Graham doesn't care about the rule of law, but the legal battles are gearing up.
U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan rejected an argument by [the] Justice Department which held that the Constitution's Emoluments Clause only covers direct bribes for official presidential actions, according to Politico. As a result of Sullivan's decisions, a lawsuit filed by Democratic lawmakers will be allowed to continue, meaning that Democrats in the House of Representatives and Senate can learn more about whether [von Clownstick's] business empire has been profiting by the political offices held by himself and others due to his presidency.
Fuckface is going to resist a slew of investigations as hard as he can, but Heather Digby Parton thinks it's not going to work out for him.
For the first two years of his presidency, [Dear Leader] was under scrutiny by a tight-lipped prosecutor with a narrow mandate. Now he's dealing with at least a half-dozen congressional probes happening in the middle of his re-election campaign, run by people who like the cameras just as much as he does. He may soon find himself wishing for the good old days of the Mueller "Witch Hunt".
Update (May 6, 2019): Attorney General James has been busy.
Update (May 19, 2019): The New York Times reports that Deutsche Bank hired staff specifically for their expertise in money laundering. They prepared suspicious activity reports regarding the accounts of Fuckface and his son-in-law.
Update (May 24, 2019): In the midst of a temper tantrum over Congressional investigations, Fuckface seemingly admits to advance knowledge of the famous Tower meeting in June 2016 saying that Junior "called me and he had the meeting after".
Update (June 13, 2019): "No collusion" in 2016, but apparently not opposed to colluding in 2020.
[Fuckface von Clownstick] said that he would accept information from a foreign government on his opponents in the 2020 presidential election and suggested during his interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos that he also wouldn’t need to alert the FBI.
Obviously, the reason that [his] statement is big news is because it's a major detour from his repeated insistence that there was "no collusion" line. But [his] constantly shifting lies are less important than the actual facts. Those are that [Fuckface] repeatedly and shamelessly tried to get the Russian government to break the law on his behalf. The Russians repeatedly did that. And the president has just admitted he'd be perfectly content to see them do it again.
FEC Chair Ellen Weintraub said Orangeman is endorsing criminal behavior.
Let me make something 100% clear to the American public and anyone running for public office: It is illegal for any person to solicit, accept, or receive anything of value from a foreign national in connection with a U.S. election.
Update (June 14, 2019): Senator Mark Warner has this quaint notion candidates should follow the law.
This legislation is pretty simple, even for this body. It would require that any presidential campaign that receives offers of assistance from an agent of a foreign government has an obligation to report that offer of assistance to law enforcement, specifically the FBI.
Fortunately, Republicans won't put up with that nonsense.
Warner’s request for unanimous consent to pass a bill that would make it illegal not to report an offer of foreign help was blocked by Senator Marsha Blackburn.
Update (July 14, 2019): A U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has determined that state attorneys general do not have standing to bring an emoluments suit against von Clownstick.
Update (August 11, 2019): Banks are turning over information and Representative Jerry Nadler casually indicates "formal impeachment proceedings" are underway.
Update (August 28, 2019): As Deutsche Bank confirms possession of von Clownstick tax returns, Lawrence O'Donnell reports that Deutsche Bank loans to Fuckface were co-signed by Russian billionaires with ties to Vladimir Putin.
Maya Wiley explains why Dear Leader is so defensive about his tax returns: they could show he's not the successful businessman he claims to be; the under-reporting/over-reporting of income/assets could imply tax/bank fraud; they could show Russian leverage over him.
Attorney Charles Harder demands a retraction of O'Donnell's story.
He did say single source and "if true" and now O'Donnell makes this statement:
Last night I made an error in judgment by reporting an item about the president’s finances that didn’t go through our rigorous verification and standards process. I shouldn’t have reported it and I was wrong to discuss it on the air.
Not to worry--there's plenty of other corruption to investigate such as pushing for his own golf club for an international conference or telling aides to "take the land" for the wall and he'll pardon them later or reallocating budgets without the approval of Congress.
Update (August 29, 2019): I concede I really wanted the co-signer story to be true and it might still be true. But Andrew O'Hehir warns against journalistic recklessness on either end of the political spectrum.
[T]his ought to be a moment of reckoning not just for the mainstream media, which just saw one of their own scored a spectacular own-goal on [Fuckface von Clownstick's] behalf, but also for its audience. If we have all retreated into our private caves of meaning where we just know what’s true, with or without evidence, then that whole Enlightenment thing was kind of a bust. Which might be the larger point this dark period of history is trying to teach us.
Again, there's more than enough awful things to focus on. Amanda Marcotte notes how Dear Leader "accidentally" winks at racists by borrowing their words and images.
[Fuckface] is so bad — so racist, so corrupt, such a bully, such a pig — that merely describing what he's doing makes a person sound crazy. So instead of doing that, we minimize and ignore the real situation.
[A]s his policies show, he agrees with the white nationalist agenda. [H]e's doing this on purpose. There is no longer any reason, and has never been any real reason, to give [him] the benefit of the doubt.
Update (September 5, 2019): Russ Choma reports on a $50 million debt Fuckface owes to one of his own companies.
[Our] investigation has uncovered information that raises questions about the very existence of this loan, presenting the possibility that this debt was concocted as a ploy to evade income taxes—a move that could constitute tax fraud.
Update (September 9, 2019): Heather Digby Parton runs down the latest revelations of von Clownstick corruption.
Update (September 10, 2019): A story about the now corrupt Justice Department suing California over air quality rules includes a comment from Jonathan Chait.
This is the story of 2019, as [Dear Leader] has replaced institutionalists attempting to curtail his grossest instincts with loyalists happy to indulge them. It is playing out across multiple dimensions. This is the through-line between several seemingly disconnected episodes from the last several days…[Fuckface's] stench is slowly seeping into every corner of government.
Update (September 14, 2019): A federal appeals court has determined that business owners alleging unfair competition do have standing in an emoluments lawsuit against von Clownstick.
Update (October 12, 2019): All members of the Senate Intelligence Committee signed off on a report stating that Russia's Internet Research Agency "sought to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election by harming Hillary Clinton's chances of success and supporting [Fuckface von Clownstick] at the direction of the Kremlin".
Update (October 16, 2019): The full Circuit Court will rehear the emoluments case brought by two attorneys general.
Update (November 4, 2019): The walls might be caving in.
A federal appeals court has ruled that [Fuckface von Clownstick's] accounting firm Mazars must turn over his tax returns to New York prosecutors.
Update (November 15, 2019): Roger Stone was convicted on all seven counts.
Update (May 9, 2020): The Department of Justice has dropped charges against Michael Flynn. Heather Digby Parton reacts:
This move to drop the indictment is an unprecedented show of favoritism for an ally of the president of the United States.
Not one legal analyst or former prosecutor could think of a case in which someone had lied to the FBI and pleaded guilty twice to doing it, and then saw the charges withdrawn by the Justice Department.
Update (May 12, 2020): Almost 2000 former DOJ officials are calling for Attorney General William Barr to resign due to his actions in the Flynn case.
Our democracy depends on a Department of Justice that acts as an independent arbiter of equal justice, not as an arm of the president’s political apparatus.
Update (September 1, 2020): An appeals court ruled 8-2 to not dismiss charges against Michael Flynn. Update (May 15, 2020): By a 9 to 6 vote, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a motion to dismiss the emoluments suit brought by the attorneys general of Maryland and the District of Columbia. Fuckface attorney Jay Sekulow:
This case is another example of presidential harassment. We will be seeking review at the Supreme Court.
Update (May 18, 2020): Heather Digby Parton notes that the Administration has nothing to fear from the courts or Congress over the firing of several Inspector Generals the past few weeks.
One of [Dear Leader's] great gifts has been to offer up so much carnage, graft, incompetence and scandal that it's hard to keep track of it all.
[Fuckface] has demonstrated for all the world to see how easy it is for a corrupt leader with no integrity or honor to use the power of the presidency to dismantle all the levers of accountability, as long as he has enough members of the Senate behind him. A more intelligent and cunning demagogue will be able to use this much more efficiently and ruthlessly than he has done.
Update (May 19, 2020):Oh, dear. Could someone please remind me whether she voted for conviction or not?
"It’s very clear that the president has to provide a justification 30 days prior to the removal of an inspector general," stated Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), who co-wrote the law requiring notification to Congress prior to removal. "It is not a sufficient justification to say he simply lost confidence. As the co-author of that law, I know that is not what we intended. We intended a more fulsome explanation."
Update (June 13, 2020): After reviewing the governments request to dismiss charges against Michael Flynn, former U.S. District Judge John Gleeson finds the request should be denied due to "clear evidence of a gross abuse of prosecutorial power" and that the Justice Department "has engaged in highly irregular conduct to benefit a political ally of the President".
Update (June 23, 2020): From Aaron Zelinsky's testimony to the House Judiciary Committee:
What I saw was the Department of Justice exerting significant pressure on the line prosecutors in the case to obscure the correct Sentencing Guidelines calculation to which Roger Stone was subject – and to water down and in some cases outright distort the events that transpired in his trial and the criminal conduct that gave rise to his conviction. Such pressure resulted in the virtually unprecedented decision to override the original sentencing recommendation in his case and to file a new sentencing memorandum that included statements and assertions at odds with the record and contrary to Department of Justice policy.
What I heard – repeatedly – was that Roger Stone was being treated differently from any other defendant because of his relationship to the President. I was told that the Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, Timothy Shea, was receiving heavy pressure from the highest levels of the Department of Justice to cut Stone a break, and that the U.S. Attorney’s sentencing instructions to us were based on political considerations. I was also told that the acting U.S. Attorney was giving Stone such unprecedentedly favorable treatment because he was "afraid of the President."
Update (June 24, 2020): Walter Shaub reacts to Zelinsky's statement.
Short of assassinating opponents or using the military to quell public protests, I can't think of a form of corruption worse than a nation's leader influencing the administration of justice to protect friends and prosecute enemies. America is on the brink of total destruction.
Also, a U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled 2 to 1 to allow the Flynn case to be dismissed. A Fuckface appointee wrote the majority opinion.
Update (June 25, 2020): The New York Times reports that William Barr tried to interfer in the Michael Cohen case.
Update (July 9, 2020): In two 7 to 2 rulings, the Supreme Court determined that the president is not above the law in state criminal proceedings and that Congress has a right to subpoena financial records. But lower courts will determine how soon any records are submitted. No tax returns will be public before November.
Update (July 10, 2020): Immediately after a federal appeals court denied Roger Stone's motion to delay the start of his 40 month prison term, Dear Leader commuted that sentence. He just doesn't give a fuck. Even William Barr had "told [him] not to do it, and if he does, there will be a mutiny at DOJ".
Update (July 11, 2020): Reaction to the commutation from the Washington Post:
The president may have had the power to help his longtime friend. But that does not make it any less a perversion of justice — indeed, it is one of the most nauseating instances of corrupt government favoritism the United States has ever seen.
This is the most corrupt and cronyistic act, in perhaps all of recent history.
From Joyce Alene:
[He] has undermined the rule of law and our justice system to try to avoid whatever tales Stone might have to tell on him. He will burn down our system to save himself.
Unprecedented, historic corruption: an American president commutes the sentence of a person convicted by a jury of lying to shield that very president.
And Robert Mueller says "Stone was prosecuted and convicted because he committed federal crimes. He remains a convicted felon, and rightly so".
We made every decision in Stone’s case, as in all our cases, based solely on the facts and the law and in accordance with the rule of law. The women and men who conducted these investigations and prosecutions acted with the highest integrity. Claims to the contrary are false.
Update (July 13, 2020): Heather Digby Parton sums it up.
Roger Stone made sure in the days just before he was set to go to prison that the president understood exactly what he needed to do. ... Stone knows where a lot of bodies are buried. He helped bury many of them.
What's the harm in a little obstruction of justice among friends?
The president of the United States just exercised his constitutional powers to commit a crime in plain sight. And once again he will get away with it.
Update (August 18, 2020): The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence has released their final report.
Russia used Republican political operative Paul Manafort, the WikiLeaks website and others to try to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election to help [the Republican] campaign.
Alex Henderson and Cody Fenwick present highlights from the committee report. Here's a good one:
Despite [his denial], the Committee assesses that [Fuckface] did, in fact, speak with [Roger] Stone about WikiLeaks and with members of his Campaign about Stone’s access to WikiLeaks on multiple occasions.
The denial was made in written responses to questions from Robert Mueller. Lying to Special Counsel is, of course, a crime.
Update (August 19, 2020): The Senate committee report includes letters from private citizen Fuckface to Vladimir Putin.
I am a big fan of yours!
Heather Digby Parton notes there is plenty evidence of "collusion".
Essentially, the report shows the [Republican] campaign was crawling with Russians, many more than is commonly realized.
[C]ampaign chairman Paul Manafort was basically acting as a Russian agent.
The report calls [him] a "grave counter-intelligence threat." How that doesn't fit everyone's definition of collusion is hard to fathom.
The picture that emerges is of a presidential campaign, and an administration, so completely out of its depth that it "presented attractive targets for foreign influence, creating notable counterintelligence vulnerabilities." In other words, [Dear Leader] and his cronies were willing dupes and the Russian government took full advantage of it.
Also, Igor Derysh reports that the Intelligence Committee last year made criminal referrals on Junior, the son-in-law and others for lying to the committee.
Update (August 25, 2020): Steven Harper highlights five reasons the Senate committee report is relevant to this year's election:
1. [Von Clownstick's] Campaign Manager was a "Grave Counterintelligence Threat"
2. [Von Clownstick] Lied to Mueller
3. During [von Clownstick's] Impeachment, Congressional Republicans Knew the Truth and Didn't Care
4. The Cover-up Continues
5. It’s Happening Again
Update (February 24, 2023): Andrew Prokop evaluates revisionist views of the "Russiagate" story.
The revisionists have argued [that] the liberal establishment exaggerated the threat [von Clownstick] posed and that the real story was their own abuses of power.
But [Dear Leader's] behavior after the 2020 election torpedoed that defense, laying his character bare and revealing that, yes, he really was willing to go to shocking lengths to hold on to power. Knowing that, it hardly seems unreasonable for the press to have responded to his denials of Russian collusion with skepticism and to investigate whether it happened.
To be clear, there was too much hysterical and flawed reporting in [Fuckface]-Russia coverage, and that shouldn’t be defended. But a great deal of thoughtful, rigorous, and newsworthy work took place on that beat too. Journalists did not in the end find that [Orangeman] cut a deal with the Kremlin in 2016, but they unearthed a great deal about [him] and his allies in the process.
Dismissing the whole thing as a hoax or debacle — as the revisionists are doing — is too pat a dismissal. It was a complicated, messy endeavor in a complicated, messy time.
