Bill Of Impeachment: Article I, Obstruction Of Justice

[ex-khobar Andy]

Scooter - that's the thought I have been trying to express for months but was unable to fit into one clear sentence.

This is why we will never see the 'pee tape.' I am convinced that it, or something very like it, exists; but it is far more useful to the Russian (= Putin) agenda locked in the top drawer of Putin's desk than it ever would be if it were released. And even if it does not exist we know enough about Trump's behavior (Stormy Daniels, Karen McDougal, all the rest) to know that he did not go back to his hotel room in Moscow after a hard day at the Miss Universe competition in order to watch 'You've Got Mail' on the telly. They don't even have to have a tape of it. After all, if he has the wherewithall to pay a hooker $130K for a quick fumble, the post-KGB types at the Kremlin just have to come up with $150K (or, more likely, plausible threats against her family) to get sufficient details of what went on to persuade a gullible half-wit that they have a record of it which, in exchange for future considerations TBD, need never see the light of day.

[RayThom]

At this point, if the pee-pee tape does exist, and if it were to surface, I contend that it would not make Lord Dampnut appear any worse to his deaf, dumb, and blind, minions than he does now. The bar is now lowered below ground level -- there's nothing left to step over.

I'm now just waiting for the Micky D's cheeseburgers, the taco bowls, and the soda pop, to work their magic on the old, fat, bastard's arteries. Drumpf's funeral will be magnificent, the most magnificent funeral we will ever see.

"Thoughts and prayers... thoughts and prayers..."

[Joe Guy]

Tweets we'd like to see...

[BoSoxGal]

I'm not supposed to wish death on anyone, but is seems the board makes an exception for Donald J. Trump?



Ok, I get that.

[datsunaholic]

One of my RAAC (Republican At Any Cost) friends finally had enough. Actually started debating another one of my RAAC friends over the latter's unwavering support of trump. It was music to my ears. A glimmer of hope in humanity where I'd seen none before.

[Bicycle Bill]

I'm not saying that I would wish death onto Trump, or anyone else, for that matter.  But if I were to wake up tomorrow morning and find his obituary on the front page of the daily newspaper, I would take a great deal of pleasure and satisfaction in reading — and re-reading — it.

-"BB"-

[Scooter]

And the dominoes continue to fall:

Former Trump aide Richard Gates to plead guilty; agrees to testify against Manafort, sources say

A former top aide to Donald Trump's presidential campaign will plead guilty to fraud-related charges within days — and has made clear to prosecutors that he would testify against Paul Manafort, the lawyer-lobbyist who once managed the campaign.

The change of heart by Trump's former deputy campaign manager Richard Gates, who had pleaded not guilty after being indicted in October on charges similar to Manafort's, was described in interviews by people familiar with the case.

"Rick Gates is going to change his plea to guilty,'' said a person with direct knowledge of the new developments, adding that the revised plea will be presented in federal court in Washington "within the next few days.''

That individual and others who discussed the matter spoke on condition of anonymity, citing a judge's gag order restricting comments about the case to the news media or public.

Gates' defense lawyer, Thomas C. Green, did not respond to messages left by phone and email. Peter Carr, a spokesman for special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, declined on Saturday to comment.

Mueller is heading the prosecutions of Gates and Manafort as part of the wide-ranging investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and whether Trump or his aides committed crimes before, during or since the campaign.

The imminent change of Gates' plea follows negotiations over the last several weeks between Green and two of Mueller's prosecutors – senior assistant special counsels Andrew Weissmann and Greg D. Andres.

According to a person familiar with those talks, Gates, a longtime political consultant, can expect "a substantial reduction in his sentence'' if he fully cooperates with the investigation. He said Gates is likely to serve about 18 months in prison.

The delicate terms reached by the opposing lawyers, he said, will not be specified in writing: Gates "understands that the government may move to reduce his sentence if he substantially cooperates, but it won't be spelled out.''

One of the final discussion points has centered on exactly how much cash or other valuables — derived from Gates' allegedly illegal activity — that the government will require him to forfeit as part of the guilty plea.

Gates, 45, who is married with four children, does not appear to be well positioned financially to sustain a high-powered legal defense.

"He can't afford to pay it,'' said one lawyer who is involved with the investigation. "If you go to trial on this, that's $1 million to $1.5 million. Maybe more, if you need experts'' to appear as witnesses.

The Oct. 27 indictment showed that prosecutors had amassed substantial documentation to buttress their charges that Manafort and Gates — who were colleagues in political consulting for about a decade — had engaged in a complex series of allegedly illegal transactions rooted in Ukraine. The indictment alleged that both men, who for years were unregistered agents of the Ukrainian government, hid millions of dollars of Ukraine-based payments from U.S. authorities.

According to the indictment, Gates and Manafort "laundered the money through scores of United States and foreign corporations, partnerships and bank accounts'' and took steps to evade related U.S. taxes.

If Manafort maintains his not-guilty plea and fights the charges at a trial, the testimony from Gates could provide Mueller's team with first-person descriptions of much of the allegedly illegal conduct. Gates' testimony, said a person familiar with the pending guilty plea, would place a "cherry on top'' of the government's already formidable case against Manafort.

[Econoline]

The Official Robert Mueller Theme Song....

[Lord Jim]

It really ain't a good idea to lie to Bob Mueller:

Robert Mueller team reveals Russian oligarch's son-in-law is set to plead guilty to lying to investigators

The son-in-law of a Russian oligarch is slated to plead guilty to lying to investigators working for special counsel Robert Mueller's office, according to court filings unsealed on Tuesday.

Alex Van Der Zwaan, a London-based attorney and the son-in-law of Russian oligarch German Khan, is set to appear in a D.C. court around 2:30 p.m. to enter a guilty plea to making false statements to Mueller's team about his work involving the Ukrainian government.

Van Der Zwaan, who worked for a law firm engaged by the Ukraine ministry of justice in 2012, allegedly lied to investigators about contacts with former Trump campaign aide Rick Gates and a person referred to only as "Person A" in court documents.

Gates, already facing a slew of charges from Mueller's office, is reportedly expected to accept a plea deal this week and has been working with prosecutors.

More:

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politic ... -1.3830985

[Econoline]

Ya just gotta love Wonkette's...errr, speculation about "Person A":

• Who could “Person A” be? Almost rhymes with “Saul Grundlesnort,” but not quite? We are just curious!

[Lord Jim]

The fact that Mueller has now shown that he can get a guilty plea from the son-in-law of an oligarch should have Trump as nervous as a Jehovah's Witness with an appendicitis...

[Econoline]

[Big RR]

Nah, Trump honestly believes "his people" will protect him; or they will rise up and storm the capitol should they try to remove him from office. I think Nixon thought that once as well, until he saw how no one went apoplectic when Agnew (his Trump--sorry Spiro) resigned.

[ex-khobar Andy]

In case we'd all forgotten - the Schiff memo should be out this week.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/adam- ... le/2649593

Apparently he has been working with FBI/DOJ to redact or amend those bits they find troubling. I don't know how the process works - if they give it the OK can he just release it or does it still require Trump OK? In which case I assume we will see it right alongside his tax returns.

[Lord Jim]

I've been arguing for a long time that Il Boobce's repeated public berating of Sessions for refusing to obstruct justice on his behalf constituted further proof of Trump's intent to do exactly that; obstruct justice...

Looks like good ol' Bob is taking a long hard look at that:

Mueller is reportedly investigating Trump’s threats to fire Jeff Sessions

The president’s public bashing might factor into the obstruction of justice probe.

Add another item to the list of things that special counsel Robert Mueller is investigating: President Donald Trump’s public humiliation of Attorney General Jeff Sessions in the summer of 2017.

The Washington Post’s Devlin Barrett, Josh Dawsey, and Rosalind S. Helderman report that Mueller is specifically interested in whether Trump’s apparent frustration with his “beleaguered A.G.” was part of a larger effort to force Sessions out, or get him to quit in order to install a friendlier attorney general in the Justice Department, one who didn’t have to recuse him or herself from the Russia probe.

Here’s how the Post sums it up:

In mid-July, Trump started escalating his public criticisms of Sessions, including angry tweets. Around that time, according to people familiar with internal White House discussions, the president discussed firing Sessions or forcing him out of the Justice Department. Those discussions are of particular interest to Mueller’s investigators, as they seek to determine the president’s intentions, according to a person familiar with the probe.

Trump’s fury at Sessions’s decision to recuse himself from what he calls the Russia “hoax” — which put Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in charge — is well-documented. “If he would have recused himself before the job, I would have said, ‘Thanks, Jeff, but I can’t, you know, I’m not going to take you.’ It’s extremely unfair, and that’s a mild word, to the president,” Trump told the New York Times in July.

Around that time, Trump began to relentlessly torment Jeff Sessions on Twitter, which Vox’s Andrew Prokop wrote “sure looks like President Donald Trump is waging a deliberate public campaign to push his own attorney general to resign.”

The theory went that, with Sessions gone, Trump could install a friendly attorney general, one who didn’t have to recuse himself from a Russia investigation. That person would then become Mueller’s boss — and could stymie the special counsel’s work.

So Trump’s antipathy toward Sessions is nothing new, and the New York Times reported in January that Mueller was looking at Trump’s decision to dispatch White House counsel Don McGahn to try to prevent Sessions from recusing himself from the investigation. McGahn failed, but the incident fueled questions about whether the president tried to obstruct justice.

The Washington Post’s latest story builds on that, revealing that Mueller is looking at whether Trump’s ridicule of Jeff Sessions fits into a larger attempt to force out his attorney general. The the report also offered some details about how Trump makes fun of Jeff Sessions behind his back: He calls him Mr. Magoo, and has complained to “associates that he has hired the best lawyers for his entire life, but is stuck with Sessions, who is not defending him and is not sufficiently loyal.”

https://www.vox.com/2018/2/28/17065278/ ... estigation


And of course on the very day that this story breaks, Trump does it again:

Trump attacks Sessions as 'disgraceful' — and the attorney general pushes back

President Trump has added “disgraceful” to the list of insults he’s thrown at his own attorney general. But this time, Jeff Sessions, the nation’s top lawman, is pushing back.

Trump, who has shredded long-standing norms by repeatedly attacking his own FBI and Justice Department, on Wednesday tweeted his unhappiness that Sessions had referred charges raised in a memo by House Intelligence Committee Republicans to the Justice Department’s inspector general.

“Will take forever, has no prosecutorial power and already late with reports on Comey etc.” the president complained, referring to an ongoing review of former FBI Director James Comey’s actions during the 2016 election.

He added a slap at Michael Horowitz, the inspector general: “Isn’t the IG an Obama guy? Why not use Justice Department lawyers? DISGRACEFUL!”

Sessions, who remained stoic after previous Trump Twitter storms calling him “beleaguered” and “weak,” on Wednesday flashed a trace of defiance.

“We have initiated the appropriate process that will ensure complaints against this Department will be fully and fairly acted upon if necessary,” he said in a statement issued by the Justice Department.

“As long as I am the attorney general, I will continue to discharge my duties with integrity and honor, and this department will continue to do its work in a fair and impartial manner according to the law and Constitution,” he added.

More:

http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-p ... story.html

What Trump is doing here, is attacking Sessions for his failure to use the justice department to promote a diversion investigation in order to take attention away from the Russiagate probe and help Trump politically...

Yet more proof of intent to obstruct...

[Lord Jim]

It's been a busy week for the Special Counsel....

(On top of last week's busy week, where he laid a pile of new charges on Manafort and flipped Gates)

Robert Mueller Has Trump and Family in His Crosshairs

Over the last day, three new reports have come out about Robert Mueller’s investigation. Yesterday evening, CNN reported that Jared Kushner has not been able to obtain a security clearance due to the Russia investigation. (This confirmed what had been strongly implied by a Washington Post report from last week, that “significant information requiring additional investigation” was holding up Kushner. CNN confirms that the new information is related to Mueller’s probe.)

This morning, CNN reported Mueller is asking witnesses about Trump’s business in Russia before his presidential run, including compromising information Russia may have had on Trump. And this afternoon, NBC reports Mueller is asking associates of Trump whether he knew about Russian hacking of Democratic emails.

It is always hard to discern exactly what any of these glimpses into the investigation reveal. As has been the case throughout, every leak appears to come from the defense side. Mueller’s team seems completely leakproof, and his indictments have often come as a surprise to everybody else.

More importantly, the fact Mueller is asking a question does not mean he will get an incriminating answer. Questioning witnesses about a potential crime is not the same as seeking an indictment (and an indictment, of course, is not a conviction).

So what can we take away? One safe conclusion is that the investigation is probably not near done. Another is that Trump and his family are not safe. Mueller has only so far charged people outside Trump’s family — his campaign manager, national security adviser, and 13 Russian internet trolls — which the president and his defenders have weirdly treated as a kind of vindication.

The big picture is that, after Trump burned enough creditors that American banks stopped dealing with him, he became deeply reliant on Russian capital. The Russian economy is deeply connected to Vladimir Putin, and uses its leverage to advance political goals. [We have a BINGO!]For instance, Vnesheconombank, which works closely with Putin, financed a Trump hotel in Toronto. Trump’s finances are totally opaque, and he has been willing to endure a great deal of critical media coverage — the thing he most hates in the world — in order to avoid publishing his tax returns.

Kushner is also an important figure. He has his own web of business ties with Russia, and had assumed a lead role in communicating with the Russians secretly. Remember the secret backchannel he conducted with Russia during the transition, designed to elude American intelligence? If a new development arose in recent weeks, that probably bodes poorly for the president’s son-in-law.

Meanwhile, as Steve Bannon sloppily confessed, after Donald Trump Jr. had a meeting with a Russian promising dirt on Hillary Clinton in June 2016, it is overwhelmingly likely that he proceeded immediately to tell the father whose approval is the thing he most craves. That may or may not be provable by Mueller. But he is certainly going to try.

The resignation of White House Communications Director Hope Hicks, the day after her House testimony on the Russia investigation, may or may not have any relation to what Hicks knows about Russia. But Hicks has a quasi-familial role, as one of the few genuine Trump loyalists (whose bond with the president is personal, not professional or ideological). Who knows if she knows anything pertinent, or plans to share it with the FBI?[If Hicks has lied to federal agents...and she spent 2 days being grilled by Mueller's investigators; plenty of opportunities for her to tell "little white lies" to federal agents...that could provide the leverage to flip her, which given the closeness of their relationship would be bigly bad news for Il Boobce...]

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/20 ... hairs.html

And it's only Wednesday...

[Lord Jim]

Mueller team asking if Kushner foreign business ties influenced Trump policy

WASHINGTON — Federal investigators are scrutinizing whether any of Jared Kushner's business discussions with foreigners during the presidential transition later shaped White House policies in ways designed to either benefit or retaliate against those he spoke with, according to witnesses and other people familiar with the investigation.

Special counsel Robert Mueller's team has asked witnesses about Kushner's efforts to secure financing for his family's real estate properties, focusing specifically on his discussions during the transition with individuals from Qatar and Turkey, as well as Russia, China and the United Arab Emirates, according to witnesses who have been interviewed as part of the investigation into possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign to sway the 2016 election.

As part of the scrutiny of Kushner's discussions with Turks, federal investigators have reached out to Turkish nationals for information on Kushner through the FBI's legal attache office in Ankara, according to two people familiar with the matter. Separately, Qatari government officials visiting the U.S. in late January and early February considered turning over to Mueller what they believe is evidence of efforts by their country's Persian Gulf neighbors in coordination with Kushner to hurt their country, four people familiar with the matter said. The Qatari officials decided against cooperating with Mueller for now out of fear it would further strain the country's relations with the White House, these people said.

Kushner's family real estate business, Kushner Companies, approached Qatar multiple times, including last spring, about investing in the company's troubled flagship property at 666 Fifth Avenue [my, what an appropriate address] in New York, but the government-run sovereign wealth fund declined, according to two people familiar with the discussion. Another discussion of interest to Mueller's team is a meeting Kushner held at Trump Tower during the transition in December 2016 with a former prime minister of Qatar, Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani, or HBJ, according to people familiar with the meeting.

HBJ had been in talks with Kushner Companies about investing in its Fifth Avenue property, which is facing roughly $1.4 billion in debt that is due in 2019, these people said. Those talks with the company continued after Kushner entered the White House and stepped away from the business, but last spring HBJ decided against investing, these people said.

In the weeks after Kushner Companies' talks with the Qatari government and HBJ collapsed, the White House strongly backed an economically punishing blockade against Qatar, led by Saudi Arabia and the UAE, citing the country's support for terrorism as the impetus. Kushner, who is both President Donald Trump's son-in-law and a key adviser, has played a major role in Trump's Middle East policy and has developed close relationships with the crown princes of Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Some top Qatari government officials believe the White House's position on the blockade may have been a form of retaliation driven by Kushner who was sour about the failed deal, according to multiple people familiar with the matter. Saudi Arabia and UAE have long had a rivalry with Qatar.

The White House, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have said the blockade against Qatar is in retaliation for their government’s support for terrorism.

Any cooperation with Mueller's probe from foreign nationals or government officials would mark a significant new dimension to the investigation beyond what is currently publicly known.

While Kushner and his business dealings have long been a focus of the investigation, this line of questioning suggests Mueller could be building a case that directly links action he took after the election to his conduct as a senior adviser in the White House.

More:

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white- ... mp-n852681

[RayThom]

I see the soon to arrive on our soil, Bibi Netanyahu, is under investigation for bribery, influence peddling, and other assorted malfeasance. A day after the last incident was confirmed Bibi's good buddy in the White House, Jared Kuchner, had his security clearance severely downgraded -- equal to kitchen staff, if I understand it correctly.

A coincidence? I don't think so.

[Lord Jim]

Mueller has secured sworn testimony from a little-known but pivotal witness in the Russia investigation

George Nader, a Middle East expert connected to several associates of President Donald Trump, is now cooperating with the special counsel Robert Mueller and has testified before a grand jury in the Russia investigation, The New York Times reported Tuesday.

FBI investigators approached Nader when he landed at Washington Dulles International Airport in January and served him with search warrants and a grand jury subpoena, the report said. At the time, Nader was en route to Mar-a-Lago to meet with President Donald Trump and his associates to celebrate the anniversary of Trump's first year in office.

Nader's inclusion in the Russia probe stems from his involvement in two meetings he attended as an adviser to and representative of the United Arab Emirates' Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan. The first meeting took place in New York in December 2016, and the second in the Seychelles islands in January 2017.

New details about the meetings and Nader's involvement contained in the Times report provide critical clues about the timeline of Trump-Russia contacts, as well as the degree to which the president's closest and highest-ranking associates were involved.

December 2016 Trump Tower meeting

The crown prince traveled to New York during the transition period in December 2016 and reportedly met with former national security adviser Michael Flynn, Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, and former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon at Trump Tower.

The meeting was said to have raised red flags within the US intelligence community because the government was not notified of Crown Prince Mohammed's visit. The Obama administration felt misled by the UAE as a result, which prompted then-national security adviser Susan Rice to request that Trump associates' names be unmasked in intelligence reports detailing the meeting.

A senior Middle East official acknowledged to CNN last year that the UAE did not inform the US of the crown prince's visit in advance but denied that the UAE had misled the Obama administration. The official said that the December Trump Tower meeting was merely part of an effort to build a relationship with the incoming administration.

Mueller's prosecutors have repeatedly questioned Nader about the meeting, as well as his meetings in the White House with Kushner and Bannon following Trump's inauguration.

That same month, Kushner met with Sergei Kislyak, then Russia's ambassador to the US, and reportedly proposed setting up a secure back-channel of communication between Trump and Moscow using Russian facilities.

Shortly after, Kushner had a separate meeting with Sergei Gorkov, the CEO of the sanctioned Russian state-owned bank Vnesheconombank, which was reportedly orchestrated by Kislyak. The interaction piqued investigators' scrutiny as the FBI began examining whether Russian officials suggested to Kushner that Russian banks could finance Trump associates' business ventures if US sanctions were lifted or relaxed.

Kushner's meeting with Gorkov came as he was looking for investors to shore up financing for a building on Fifth Avenue in New York that his family's real-estate company had purchased.

January 2017 Seychelles meeting

In addition to Nader's meeting with Kushner, Bannon, and Flynn in December 2016, investigators are also keenly interested in another meeting he attended that took place in the Seychelles islands shortly after the Trump Tower gathering.

Following that meeting, Blackwater founder and Trump associate Erik Prince approached the crown prince and told him he was authorized to act as an unofficial surrogate for Trump, according to The Washington Post. He then asked Crown Prince Mohammed to set up a meeting with Kirill Dmitriev, the head of a US-sanctioned Russian investment fund who is closely allied with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The meeting took place on January 11, 2017 in the Seychelles islands. While Nader attended the meeting as Crown Prince Mohammed's representative, Emirati officials believed Prince represented the Trump team and that Dmitriev represented Putin.

The meeting's purpose was to create a back-channel of communication between Trump and Russia, and UAE officials also participated in the hopes of helping to encourage Russia to distance itself from Iran, a major Kremlin ally, according to The Post.

The Trump administration has often expressed skepticism toward Iran and Trump has pushed hard to scrap the US's nuclear deal with Iran.

Nader's presence at the January 2017 Seychelles meeting is what landed him in the crosshairs of the special counsel, who is investigating Russia's interference in the 2016 US election and whether members of the Trump campaign colluded with Moscow to tilt the race in his favor. Nader, according to The Times, also once worked as a consultant to Blackwater.

Prince told the House Intelligence Committee last year that he knew Dmitriev was a Russian fund manager but did not know it was a sanctioned fund that was controlled by the Russian government.

Prince also denied that he attended the meeting as an official representative of the incoming administration, saying instead that he traveled to the Seychelles to meet with potential business customers from the UAE. During the meeting, Prince told lawmakers on the panel, the customers "mentioned a guy who I should also meet who was also in town," who turned out to be Dmitriev.

When he met Dmitriev, they discussed a range of topics, and Dmitriev stressed that he wished Russia and the US could resume normal trade relations, Prince said.

After the Seychelles meeting, Dmitriev also met with Anthony Scaramucci, who would later become the White House communications director, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Russian state media quoted Scaramucci as saying, after his meeting with Dmitriev, that the Obama administration's new sanctions on Russia — which were imposed that month to penalize it for interfering in the 2016 election — were ineffective and detrimental to the US-Russia relationship. [I wonder if The Mooch has spent quality time with the Special Counsel investigators yet...if not, I'm sure he soon will be...]

US softens its stance on Russia sanctions

Russia's economy was dealt a stinging blow in 2014, when the US imposed sweeping sanctions to punish Russia for its aggression toward neighboring Ukraine and its annexation of Crimea.

Dmitriev's company, the Russian Direct Investment Fund, was included on the list of Russian economic entities that were penalized as part of that decision.

The UAE, meanwhile, holds a significant stake in the company, which it invested in as part of an effort to foster closer ties to Russia, The Times reported.

The Obama administration announced another round of sanctions in December 2016, as a penalty for Russia's meddling. The US government also shuttered two Russian diplomatic facilities in the country and expelled 35 Russian diplomats.

After Obama left office, Congress overwhelmingly voted to impose new sanctions on Russia last summer, which Trump signed into law after facing public pressure from lawmakers and critics who accused him of catering to Putin's wishes.

However, the White House declined to enforce the law this year. [Which could easily form the basis for another Impeachment Article. Shame on the GOP Congressional leadership for not being all over Trump on this.] The State Department said that the law's mere existence was enough to penalize Russia, because it had already made a dent in Russian defense sales.

"From that perspective, if the law is working, sanctions on specific entities or individuals will not need to be imposed because the legislation is, in fact, serving as a deterrent," a State Department spokesperson said.

http://www.businessinsider.com/george-n ... sia-2018-3

[Econoline]