DOJ Initial Russia Hearings

[TGHusker]

Trumpsters blame the "DEEP STATE' for their troubles. It is all one big conspiracy against him.

 

Well, when you start your administration being critical of intelligence gathering agencies like the CIA, FBI, you should know that

it won't go well Especially if you demand loyalty from the FBI director. If you don't come clean with your taxes, if you don't come

clean wt Michael Flynn and Jared's contacts or your own conversations in the Oval Office wt Russian diplomats, questions will be raised

and investigations started. However, that does not make for a conspiracy - that makes for the need to get to the facts that if provided

willingly by the administration would end this whole issue. If the failure to bring forth everything clearly, the real conspiracy is what

may be going on being the Oval Office doors and not the doors of the staffers in these various departments.

 

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/336178-the-memo-is-trump-a-victim-of-the-deep-state

A few quotes:

 

Is President Trump being undermined by a “deep state” eager to leak damaging information about him?

The president’s allies, both within the White House and in friendly media outlets, say yes. Trump himself has complained repeatedly that he is being victimized by underhanded leaks.

To Trump’s critics, the talk of a deep state amounts to a conspiracy theory that has been pushed toward the mainstream from the wildest corners of right-wing media.

In their telling, the leakers have done the nation a vital service, shining a light onto previously secret communications between Russia and close Trump associates such as former national security adviser Michael Flynn and senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner.

The nexus of Russia, leaks, the intelligence services and the deep state will come to the fore again this week, with fired FBI Director James Comey scheduled to testify before Congress — unless he is blocked at the last minute by the White House invoking executive privilege.

 

Beyond the partisan arguments, the question of whether a deep state exists — and whether the leaks about Trump are justified — divides intelligence experts, including those who have served in leading agencies.

Gene Coyle, who worked for the CIA for 30 years before becoming a lecturer at Indiana University, Bloomington, was skeptical of the concept of a deep state, in the sense of hordes of government officials working in concert in the shadows.

But he said the Trump administration has legitimate grounds for complaint about the number of leaks.

“If you are that appalled at the actions of an administration, you should quit, hold a press conference and publicly state your objections,” said Coyle, a former field operations officer. “You can’t run an executive branch if more and more people think, ‘I don’t like the policies of this president, therefore I will leak information to make him look bad.’ ”

Coyle also suggested that leakers were working hand-in-hand with news organizations that are too credulous about any kind of anti-Trump information.

That idea finds wide currency in the president’s orbit.

David Bossie, who served as deputy campaign manager for Trump last year, told The Hill via email: "Call it what you want — leaks, deep state, or the permanent bureaucracy — it is dangerous for government employees to engage in activities that undermine a sitting president. This issue must be addressed immediately and in a bipartisan manner."‎

Trump’s chief strategist, Stephen Bannon, has reportedly propounded on the existence of a deep state working to delegitimize the president. Breitbart News, where Bannon served as executive chairman before going to work for Trump, has invoked the idea repeatedly.

 

 

Let me tell you, you take on the intelligence community, they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you,” Schumer told MSNBC's Rachel Maddow.

Schumer’s argument that the intelligence community could work to take vengeance on an elected president — and the lack of disquiet he or other Democrats expressed at such a prospect — was a sign of the times.

Skepticism of the intelligence community has historically been more prevalent on the left than on the right. But that dynamic has reversed as classified information damaging to Trump has come to light.

“Everything is viewed through partisan lenses — it is ironic but it doesn't surprise me,” said Ronald Kessler, a journalist and author who has written extensively about the intelligence services. “The Republicans do the same thing: When they liked what Comey was doing, they thought he was great. When they didn’t like what he was doing, they thought he was bad.”

Kessler is also among those who argue the terminology of the deep state is excessively conspiratorial — even if he takes a dim view of the leaks themselves.

“I don’t seen any point in calling it the deep state,” he said. “Obviously, there are a lot of people in the government who hate Trump. … I don’t think it’s very mysterious.”

Others don't see nefarious leakers working against an elected president, but people doing their patriotic duty to get information to the public.

 

“Leaks happen because the machinery of government is broken, and they come from people who — if I’m talking about the CIA or FBI or other members of the intelligence community — know of what they speak and are outraged by the conduct of a president,” said Tim Weiner, the author of an award-winning history of the CIA, "Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA."

Perhaps the most dramatic example of a leak came when The Washington Post learned that Flynn had discussed sanctions with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S., Sergey Kislyak, during the transition period. The information led to Flynn’s forced resignation after the shortest-ever tenure for a national security adviser.

Defenders of leaks point to other examples, too, such as the revelation that Trump disclosed classified information during an Oval Office meeting last month with Kislyak and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

“Team Trump keeps shooting itself every day,” Weiner said. “Trump himself disclosed classified information to the Russians, unilaterally! He burned one of our oldest intelligence partners since the Cold War, which is the State of Israel and its intelligence services. Now, that’s a leak. You are giving a strategic enemy the most highly classified information from a strategic ally? That’s extraordinary!”

[TGHusker]

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/05/us/politics/trump-discontent-attorney-general-jeff-sessions.html

 

And now it appears, based on 'unknown sources' within the admin, Trump is frustrated wt Sessions - why because he did the right thing and recused himself from

the investigation.

[Danny Bateman]

 

Trump WH currently not willing to say they have confidence in Sessions, FWIW...

[Danny Bateman]

Also, who DIDN'T Trump ask to tamp down the Russia investigation?

 

 

On March 22, less than a week after being confirmed by the Senate, Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats attended a briefing at the White House together with officials from several government agencies. As the briefing was wrapping up, Trump asked everyone to leave the room except for Coats and CIA Director Mike Pompeo.

 

The president then started complaining about the FBI investigation and Comey’s handling of it, said officials familiar with the account Coats gave to associates. Two days earlier, Comey had confirmed in a congressional hearing that the bureau was probing whether Trump’s campaign coordinated with Russia during the 2016 race.

After the encounter, Coats discussed the conversation with other officials and decided that intervening with Comey as Trump had suggested would be inappropriate, according to officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive internal matters.

The events involving Coats show the president went further than just asking intelligence officials to deny publicly the existence of any evidence showing collusion during the 2016 election, as The Washington Post reported in May. The interaction with Coats indicates that Trump aimed to enlist top officials to have Comey curtail the bureau’s probe.

-----------

A day or two after the March 22 meeting, the president followed up with a phone call to Coats, according to officials familiar with the discussions. In the call, Trump asked Coats to issue a public statement denying the existence of any evidence of coordination between his campaign and the Russian government. Again, Coats decided not to act on the request.

Trump similarly approached Adm. Mike Rogers, the director of the National Security Agency, to ask him to publicly deny the existence of any evidence of coordination, as The Post previously reported, according to current and former officials. Like Coats, Rogers refused to comply with the president’s request.

[zoogs]

Law firms declining to represent Trump: http://abovethelaw.com/2017/06/the-biglaw-firms-that-said-no-to-trump/

 

“The concerns were, ‘The guy won’t pay and he won’t listen,’” said one lawyer close to the White House who is familiar with some of the discussions between the firms and the administration, as well as deliberations within the firms themselves.

[RedDenver]

Law firms declining to represent Trump: http://abovethelaw.com/2017/06/the-biglaw-firms-that-said-no-to-trump/

 

“The concerns were, ‘The guy won’t pay and he won’t listen,’” said one lawyer close to the White House who is familiar with some of the discussions between the firms and the administration, as well as deliberations within the firms themselves.

 

His past bad business dealings and current big mouth are coming together right here.

[Moiraine]

[TGHusker]

 

Law firms declining to represent Trump: http://abovethelaw.com/2017/06/the-biglaw-firms-that-said-no-to-trump/

 

“The concerns were, ‘The guy won’t pay and he won’t listen,’” said one lawyer close to the White House who is familiar with some of the discussions between the firms and the administration, as well as deliberations within the firms themselves.

 

His past bad business dealings and current big mouth are coming together right here.

 

Sounds like Trump made his own bed and has to now sleep in it.

[RedDenver]

 

 

Law firms declining to represent Trump: http://abovethelaw.com/2017/06/the-biglaw-firms-that-said-no-to-trump/

 

“The concerns were, ‘The guy won’t pay and he won’t listen,’” said one lawyer close to the White House who is familiar with some of the discussions between the firms and the administration, as well as deliberations within the firms themselves.

 

His past bad business dealings and current big mouth are coming together right here.

 

Sounds like Trump made his own bed and has to now sleep in it.

 

He's rich, so I'm not holding my breath he'll pay any serious consequences.

[QMany]

 

 

Hold them in Contempt of Congress!

[QMany]

 

 

Tomorrow should be fun!

 

I spoke alone with President Obama twice in person (and never on the phone) – once in 2015 to discuss law enforcement policy issues and a second time, briefly, for him to say goodbye in late 2016. In neither of those circumstances did I memorialize the discussions. I can recall nine one-on-one conversations with President Trump in four months – three in person and six on the phone.

[Danny Bateman]

Read Comey's written correspondence to the Intel Committee here:

 

https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/documents/os-jcomey-060817.pdf

[QMany]

Getting that defense strategy ready:

 

The President went on to say that if there were some “satellite” associates of his who did something wrong, it would be good to find that out, but that he hadn’t done anything wrong and hoped I would find a way to get it out that we weren’t investigating him.

[Danny Bateman]

He will readily chuck anyone under the bus if he thinks it will save his own hide. That's been his MO his entire career.

 

I'm still blown away a quote about POTUS denying his use of hookers made it into a government document.

[knapplc]

Sounds eerily similar to another explanation of how things beneficial to Putin's politics may have happened:

Artists may act on behalf of their country. They wake up in good mood and paint things. Same with hackers, they woke up today, read something about the state-to-state relations.

If they are patriotic, they contribute in a way they think is right, to fight against those who say bad things about Russia.