Bad Bob Loc: Virginia

https://www.politicususa.com/2019/01/02/usa-today-gives-evidence-of-illegal-trump-collusion-with-russia.html


President Donald Trump engaged in campaign violations and colluded with Russia, committing both crimes “in plain sight” according to an op-ed published in USA Today.
Ethics watchdogs Fred Wertheimer and Norm Eisen wrote the op-ed, pointing out Trump’s obvious crimes. One, of course, occurred when Trump’s longtime attorney, Michael Cohen, implicated the president in a conspiracy when he pleaded guilty to violating campaign finance laws.
The other occurred when Trump called on Russia to find Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s missing emails during a July 27, 2016, speech. This event took place after the media reports showing that U.S. intelligence agencies had evidence that Russian operatives hacked the Democratic National Committee email servers.

According to Wertheimer and Eisen, Trump’s public comments requesting that Russia obtain Hillary Clinton’s emails were a clear violation of federal law.
They wrote:
“On July 27, 2016, Trump called on Russia to find presidential Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s missing emails. “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” Trump proclaimed. He added, “I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.” 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.”
“In asking Russia to find Clinton’s emails, presidential candidate Trump violated this statutory prohibition on seeking help from a foreign country to influence an election. Trump in essence called on a foreign adversary to locate and release something that was of great value to him and his campaign.”


The two ethics lawyers point out that federal law prohibits the mere solicitation of help from a foreign country. It does not matter whether anything is actually delivered, or if help is actually given.
But, they added, it appears that Russia soon after Trump’s speech did in fact hack Clinton’s computers and obtain her mails:
“But in this case, on or around the same day that Trump solicited help from Russia, Russia made its first attempt to break into servers that Hillary Clinton’s personal office used. That event is laid out in detail in an indictment of Russian hackers obtained by special counsel Robert Mueller.”
The writers also said that Trump had been warned just before his infamous “Russia, if you’re listening” speech that for him to ask for help from foreign interests would be illegal. They know because one them warned him.
At the time news organizations had reported that Trump’s campaign was violating the ban on foreign solicitations by emailing fundraising solicitations to foreign nationals, Wertheimer and Eisen pointed out. And after that, they filed complaints with the Federal Election Commission and the Justice Department against Trump’s presidential campaign committee for illegally soliciting financial support from foreign countries.

The time has come for Donald Trump to be held accountable for these crimes, the authors wrote, saying:
“The Trump campaign is legally responsible under principles of vicarious liability for the statements of its head, and so could be indicted. The Russia solicitation could be included in an indictment featuring other counts, such as charging the campaign and the Trump Organization for the separate alleged hush money violations described by Cohen.”
“No Justice Department policy prohibits prosecutors from naming the president as an unindicted co-conspirator in such an indictment.”
“And with a five-year statute of limitations, he could still be prosecuted for these alleged knowing and willful 2016 offenses should he fail to seek or secure re-election in 2020.”
As a new year starts, the time has come for Donald Trump to be held accountable and be indicted for the many crimes he committed during his campaign for the presidency. The authors of the USA Today editorial are legal experts who present clear evidence of such crimes, and so it is now up to Robert Mueller to take the necessary next step of indicting the guilty parties.

Smedley_buzkill

You mean the same Robert Mueller who has known about this from day one and has repeatedly said there is NO collusion? THAT Robert Mueller? Because a Liberal activist lawyer (Wertheimer) who has supported Liberal causes since the sixties said so?

plainlogic

Are you ever going to realize it's all fake? everything you repeat has been proven fake or false as facts come out. But you continue, why? a contagion called hate? But hey, we still have the freedom of 1st amendment, for now.

moldyoldy

Mueller has not said anything. And you know that, I hope.

Airforceone

Again I will say one thing the Trump supporters ignore all the evidence that are right in front of them. If Obama ever stood on a stage for the whole world to see and say I Believe Vladimir Putin in his denial of hacking into our election when ever intel agency had evidence that Russia did hack our elections. (HE WOULD HAVE BEEN IMPEACHED BEFORE HE GOT BACK TO THE US)

What Trump supporters don’t understand the FBI and the CIA were investigating Russia hacking not investigating Trump. In the process of there investigation they started to find Trump associates and campaign officials.

But they believe this whole investigation was to bring down the Trump presidency.

So the FBI, CIA, Justice Department are all corrupt. This defies any kind of common sense.

lindajoy Loc: right here with you....

Cohen??? Lololl that’s rich, Bob.. and calling on Russia to find emails??? Even better🍻Lets see if this goes down as so stated in your propaganda piece of pure BS~~ lololol wowwwww

lindajoy Loc: right here with you....

lindajoy Loc: right here with you....

Au contraire if you remember before he went to trial he made it clear there was nothing about President Trump that was going to be claimed or alleged...

Now do I believe that no he lives just as much is the rest of them if not more so but we’ll see what happens with it if anything comes about regarding President Trump

slatten49 Loc: Lake Whitney, Texas

By blogger Bruce Spielbauer

(1) Mueller was not assigned to investigate anything called “collusion.” That word does not even appear in his orders. Anyone who uses that word, tells us a great deal about them and their sources — and nothing about the investigation.
(2.) Mueller is conducting an investigation. The investigation involves conspiracy. That means, he must work in secret (so as to avoid tipping off co-conspirators.) This is an ongoing investigation. You and I have no idea what evidence Mueller has uncovered “so far” — except, for that revealed in the 35 indictments he has brought. Some of those indictments indirectly indicate the conspiracy that he is investigating. Some of those are more direct. Mueller is not going to bring any indictment to the Grand Jury until he is certain it will not compromise the remainder of his investigation.
(3) Outside of the 35 indictments, the whole world has seen very strong “smoking gun” evidence of Trump’s campaign conspiring with the Russian Government to alter the election. If I saw this, and you saw this, you had better believe that Mueller saw it. (In fact, there is no doubt Mueller saw it long before we saw it.)

The E-Mails of Donald Trump, Jr:

Email to Donald Trump, Jr., June 3, 2016:
“…to provide the Trump 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. Trump.”
Email Reply, from Donald Trump, Jr., June 3, 2016:
“…if that’s the case, I love it!”
Email to Donald Trump, Jr., June 6, 2016:
“Let me know when you are free to talk with Emin by phone about this Hillary info - you had mentioned early this week so wanted to try to schedule a time and day.”
“and so wondered if 3pm or later on Thursday works for you?”
Email Reply, from Donald Trump, Jr., June 7, 2016:
“How about 3 at our offices? Thanks rob appreciate you helping set it up.”
Email to Donald Trump, Jr., June 7, 2016:
“Perfect won't sit in on the meeting, but will bring them at 3pm and introduce you etc. I will send the names of the two people meeting with you for security when I have them later today.”
Email Reply, from Donald Trump, Jr., June 7, 2016:
Great. It will likely be Paul Manafort (campaign boss) my brother in law and me, 725 Fifth Ave 25th floor.

NOTE: The meeting took place on June 9, 2016. We know with absolute certainty that Donald Trump, Jr., and Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort met with the Russians in that meeting. We are not positive who else might have been in the room.

Eventually, at least three people will be indicted over the Trump Tower Meeting of June 9, 2016. We know this will occur. The fact that it has not yet occurred, suggests that 1) others were also involved; 2) Mueller knows it might be a mistake to indict two family members of the guy in the Oval Office at this early date.

If you read the actual indictments very carefully, you will find at six instances where they mention evidence of the campaign conspiring with the Russian Government in order to alter the results of the election. Mueller’s indictments just use anonymous generic names, because he is not ready to indict those conspirators. Yet. Mueller uses names such as “American 1” or American 2″ or “A high ranking member of the Campaign” or “A Frequent Consultant to the Campaign.” This does not mean he is ignoring those people. It just means he is not ready to bring those indictments YET — even though he already has the evidence.

Here is an instance where Mueller mentions a Congressman who conspired with Putin:
“On or about August 15, 2016, the Conspirators, posing as Guccifer 2.0, received a request for stolen documents from a candidate for the U.S. Congress. The Conspirators responded using the Guccifer 2.0 persona and sent the candidate stolen documents related to the candidate’s opponent.”

Now, a Grand Jury has seen that evidence. They were convinced by that evidence. We do not know who the Congressman is. We do not know who that “candidate for the U.S. Congress” is. Yet. But, he WILL eventually be indicted.

When Mueller is ready to bring that indictment. The fact he has not yet brought that indictment suggests that he cannot announce it, yet — without “tipping off” the other Americans who were also a part of that particular crime.

The key phrase you used — “so far” — is the key to your understanding. Mueller is not working within your timetable. Mueller is working on a timetable of what is best for the investigation. Mueller’s job is to reveal the truth. All of the truth.

Mueller’s exact order, issued on May 17, 2017:
To investigate:
(1.) any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump; and
(2.) any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation; and
(3.) any other matters within the scope of 28 C.F.R. § 600.4(a).

permafrost Loc: Minnesota

Great information.. thanks..

moldyoldy

Exactly who are you talking about Mueller or Cohen?

Carl foster

When Trump called out to Russia that they might have HRC's subpoenaed (and illegally missing)e-mails, it was clearly meant as a joke, and the audience laughter showed it was taken as one. This was at the beginning of the whole Dem plan to blame any loss on Russian interference. It was a ridiculous charge then and even more so now. To use hardcore Clintonites w/the phony title of ethicists as some sort of reference is more of the same TDS. Virtually everything that Trump says is twisted into some kind of derogatory insult that his haters repeat over and over. MSM is only to eager to repeat these gross distortions of fact and they take on a life of their own. Another for instance, the remarks about Charlottesville. Trump never praised the handful of white supremacists who were there, he was clearly talking about many ppl who think it's wrong to destroy any reference to southern historical figures. And yet the story is constantly repeated that he was "praising" KKK or Nazis or white supremacists or some kind of aberrations. This is why Trump haters are called deranged, therefrenzy has no basis in fact.

markc Loc: Tennessee

Interesting read, Heather Cox Richardson, Historian:

Over the holiday, someone asked me to explain what is happening with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into the Russian government's attempt to interfere in the 2016 election. Perfect timing, because I stumbled across something a few weeks ago that frames the whole investigation nicely.

In 2011, when Mueller was FBI Director, he gave a speech in New York. He explained that globalization and modern technology had changed the nature of organized crime. Rather than being regional networks with a clear structure, he said, organized crime had become international, fluid, sophisticated, and had stakes in the multi-billion dollar range. Its operators were cross-pollinating across countries, religions, and political affiliations, sharing only their greed. They did not care about ideology; they cared about money. They would do anything for a price.

These criminal enterprises, he noted, were working to corner the market on oil, gas, and precious metals. And to do so, Mueller explained, they "may infiltrate our businesses. They may provide logistical support to hostile foreign powers. They may try to manipulate those at the highest levels of government. Indeed, these so-called 'iron triangles' of organized criminals, corrupt government officials, and business leaders pose a significant national security threat."

To combat that threat, Mueller said, the FBI had shifted focus "from a law-enforcement agency to a national security service that is threat-driven and intelligence-led."

It appears that various members of the 2016 GOP campaign were part of such an iron triangle.

Donald Trump had sought Russian business since 1996, but his financial connections with Russians really took off in 2008, when wealthy Russians poured money into Trump's US properties at a time when few others were interested in working with Trump. In September 2008, Don Jr. told a reporter: "Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets.... We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia." Trump pursued the idea of a Trump Tower in Moscow, and in 2013, took the Miss Universe pageant there.

Then, in 2014, in response to Russian efforts to destabilize and absorb Ukraine, the US put sanctions on a number of Russian oligarchs close to Vladimir Putin, freezing their assets and denying them visas. (Interestingly, at the time, GOP congresspeople complained that President Obama did not hit Putin more harshly.)

Now, it appears that Russia offered to help Trump get elected in 2016 in exchange for-- among other things-- an end to sanctions. And a Russian spy, Maria Butina, has recently admitted to infiltrating the NRA, which poured more than $400 million-- an unprecedented sum-- behind GOP candidates in the 2016 election.

It is this iron triangle of business, government, and criminals that Mueller is chasing down. It is taking a huge amount of time as he and his staff look at money laundering, cyber-hacking, blackmail, and what is popularly (but not legally) known as treason. It seems to me that he is aiming not at any one person, but rather at a criminal organization that is attempting to destroy NATO and turn the world over to an international cabal of oligarchs.

Mueller is spreading his evidence out in the court records he is filing, making it almost impossible for the president to stifle his discoveries, and he is spreading out cases amongst different agencies for similar reasons. And he is getting results. As of November, Mueller had indicted 33 people or entities, and 7 of them have pled guilty (5 were aides to Trump). There are also more than 3 dozen sealed indictments at the DC federal court, and it is likely that many, or most, or all, of them are related the Mueller investigation.

Mueller is the man who took down the Gambino crime family when no one else could make anything stick. He is thorough and he is tough. Sadly, I expect his final conclusions are going to be shocking: it seems to me that we will discover that not simply administration officials, but also a number of congresspeople and prominent business leaders are part of that iron triangle of international criminality Mueller warned about back in 2011, when the rest of us were still naive.

moldyoldy

Statues of traitors to the US should have never been allowed.

Bad Bob Loc: Virginia