DOJ Initial Russia Hearings

[BigRedBuster]

Wait....who collided with something?  Hope they’re ok. 

Edited March 1, 2018 by BigRedBuster

[Moiraine]

10 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

So now that liberals concede that all the hysterics about collision were complete nonsense, where is the evidence of obstruction? Democrats were clamoring for Comey to be fired for months. Then Trump pulled the trigger and they went bananas that poor Comey was fired. Make up your minds.

 

 

No one here has said it was/is nonsense, and you seem confused about who you're discussing this with.

Many of the people you're replying to aren't liberals, and as far as I'm aware, none of us are members of the FBI.

If I was a member of the FBI and I felt there was even a slight chance the president colluded with a foreign country to try to win an election, I would investigate the matter.

Edited March 1, 2018 by Moiraine

[Ric Flair]

Just now, Moiraine said:

 

 

No one here has said it was/is nonsense, and you seem confused about who you're discussing this with.

As far as I'm aware, none of us are members of the FBI.

If I was a member of the FBI and I felt there was even a slight chance the president colluded with a foreign country to try to win an election, I would investigate the matter.

 

So where is the evidence of collusion? Reports citing sources from inside the Mueller investigation indicate they have found no evidence of that and are simply looking at obstruction now. 

 

Moreover, remember Hillary with her reset button and Obama mocking Romney for naming Russia as a threat? Pretty amazing those two idiots got things so wrong, right? They sure have changed their tunes.

[Moiraine]

Just now, Ric Flair said:

So where is the evidence of collusion?

 

 

How does one find evidence?

[Ric Flair]

11 minutes ago, Moiraine said:

 

 

How does one find evidence?

 

If the investigation into Trump is any indication, apparently by paying some supposed spy to put together a dossier based on third and fourth hand accounts of things that allegedly happened but can’t be verified and then peddling said dossier to a FISA court under false pretenses to get surveillance, wiretaps, etc. 

[commando]

5 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

 

If the investigation into Trump is any indication, apparently by paying some supposed spy to put together a dossier based on third and fourth hand accounts of things that allegedly happened but can’t be verified and then peddling said dossier to a FISA court under false pretenses to get surveillance, wiretaps, etc. 

you've been duped

[Moiraine]

There's a very high chance this woman is full of crap about the Trump stuff, but the real stuff in it is kinda fascinating.

 

 

Quote

Anastasia Vashukevich, an escort service worker from Belarus who catapulted to a certain measure of fame after filming a yacht trip with Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska and Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Prikhodko, was detained in Thailand over the weekend in a police raid on her “sex training” seminar. While still in custody Tuesday, she published Instagram videos asking U.S. journalists and intelligence agencies to help her.

 

Quote

Deripaska, with whom Vashukevich said she had an affair, used to employ former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort. But Vashukevich, better known by the alias Nastya Rybka, provided no evidence Tuesday to back up the claim that she had new information to offer related to the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

 

Quote

“I am the only witness and the missing link in the connection between Russia and the U.S. elections — the long chain of Oleg Deripaska, Prikhodko, Manafort, and Trump,” Vashukevich said in a live Instagram video Tuesday

 

Quote

Coincidentally or not, one of Russia’s most important security and intelligence officials was also in Thailand on Tuesday.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2018/02/27/in-thai-jail-after-sex-training-a-model-who-rattled-russian-elite-asks-u-s-for-help/

Edited March 1, 2018 by Moiraine

[QMany]

12 hours ago, Ric Flair said:

Is there any evidence that Trump or anyone from his campaign collided with Russia to fix the election?

 

Former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about talking in April 2016 to a professor with close ties to the Kremlin who had "dirt" on Hillary Clinton. The professor told him about thousands of emails the Russians had from the Clinton campaign.

 

Donald Trump Jr., Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, and former campaign chairman Paul Manafort met with a Russian attorney at Trump Tower in June 2016 after being promised "dirt" on Clinton. In July 2017, the president and White House advisers issued a statement lying about the nature of the Trump Tower meeting, saying that it was for the purpose of discussing Russian adoptions.

 

The Trump campaign knew through Papadopoulos that the Russians had obtained thousands of emails from the Clinton campaign. Then-candidate Trump publicly asked the Russians in July 2016 to hack Clinton and find her "30,000 emails that are missing." WikiLeaks began posting emails from the Clinton campaign in October, just weeks before the November election.

 

Former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn held secret conversations with Russian officials in December 2016 during the presidential transition period, promising to undermine sanctions imposed against Russia by the Obama administration for meddling in the U.S. election. Flynn pleaded guilty late last year to lying to the FBI about those conversations.

 

That is the only information that Mueller has decided to release at this time.

 

12 hours ago, Ric Flair said:

Have any of Mueller’s charges had anything to do with Trump or anyone from the campaign colluding with Russia?

 

Flynn and Papadopoulos' pleas are directly tied to campaign collusion. At this time, what we know about the charges against Manafort (foreign lobbying, tax evasion, bank fraud), Gates (tax evasion, bank fraud), and van der Zwaan (lying about foreign lobbying) are not directly tied to campaign collusion.

[BigRedBuster]

10 hours ago, Ric Flair said:

So where is the evidence of collusion?

Can you tell me how long it took to put evidence together on Nixon?

[RedDenver]

Also, Flynn, Manafort, and Gates have all been indicted by a grand jury for failure to register as a foreign agent.

 

@Ric Flair, if you're really interested in the legal developments, I recommend the lawfare blog. Here's the section on the Russia investigation: https://www.lawfareblog.com/topic/russia-connection

 

EDIT: In reading the lawfare blog I saw additional indictments that support the collusion story (emphasis mine):

Quote

 

Between the original and the superseding indictment, here's how the charges stack up: 

• The indictments overlap in charging Manafort with four counts and Gates with three counts of “Failure To File Reports Of Foreign Bank And Financial Accounts” (31 U.S.C. §§ 5314 and 5322(a); 18 U.S.C. § 2).
• The original indictment charges both Manafort and Gates with one count each of “Conspiracy Against the United States” (18 USC § 371); “Conspiracy to Launder Money” (18 USC § 1956(h)); “Unregistered Agent of a Foreign Principal” (22 USC §§ 612 and 618(a); 18 USC § 2); “False and Misleading FARA Statements” (22 USC §§ 612 and 618(a)); and “False Statements” (18 USC §§ 2, 1001(a)).
• The superseding indictment builds on the original indictment in charging Manafort with five counts of “Subscribing to False United States Individual Income Tax Returns” (26 USC §§ 7206(1), 18 USC 2). Gates is charged with five counts of “Assisting in the Preparation of False United States Individual Income” (26 USC §§ 7206(2)) and six counts of “Subscribing to False United States Individual Income Tax Returns” (26 U.S.C. § 7206(1); 18 U.S.C. § 2). Both Manafort and Gates are charged with five counts of “Bank Fraud Conspiracy” (18 USC § 1349) and four counts of “Bank fraud” (18 USC §§1344, 2).

 

 

Edited March 1, 2018 by RedDenver

[BigRedBuster]

26 minutes ago, RedDenver said:

The original indictment charges both Manafort and Gates with one count each of “Conspiracy Against the United States” (18 USC § 371); “Conspiracy to Launder Money” (18 USC § 1956(h)); “Unregistered Agent of a Foreign Principal” (22 USC §§ 612 and 618(a); 18 USC § 2); “False and Misleading FARA Statements” (22 USC §§ 612 and 618(a)); and “False Statements” (18 USC §§ 2, 1001(a)).

 

And....Gates actually pled guilty of the bolded.  Let's make that clear.  He pled guilty of "CONSPIRACY AGAINST THE UNITED STATES".

 

Now, I'm sure Rush and Hannity either ignore that point and yell "BUT HILLARY".......or, rationalize it in some way that makes it no big deal...."BECAUSE LOOK AT HILLARY"!!!!!

 

And...people like Ric Flair think the entire thing is a hoax (excuse me....witch hunt) because the Dear Leader told them so.

Edited March 1, 2018 by BigRedBuster

[ZRod]

Guys, shouldn't we be asking Nature Boy to prove that there was no collusion? I think that's how these things work.

[RedDenver]

Just now, ZRod said:

Guys, shouldn't we be asking Nature Boy to prove that there was no collusion? I think that's how these things work.

No, we presume innocence until proven guilty, so the burden is proving collusion not the other way around.

[ZRod]

1 hour ago, RedDenver said:

No, we presume innocence until proven guilty, so the burden is proving collusion not the other way around.

Oh, sorry. I just thought that was how it worked since people always want to have other people prove a negative.

[Danny Bateman]

2 hours ago, BigRedBuster said:

 

And....Gates actually pled guilty of the bolded.  Let's make that clear.  He pled guilty of "CONSPIRACY AGAINST THE UNITED STATES".

 

Now, I'm sure Rush and Hannity either ignore that point and yell "BUT HILLARY".......or, rationalize it in some way that makes it no big deal...."BECAUSE LOOK AT HILLARY"!!!!!

 

And...people like Ric Flair think the entire thing is a hoax (excuse me....witch hunt) because the Dear Leader told them so.