Tag: Investigations

Mueller: Man Of The Hour

A Special Counsel has been named…Robert Mueller, the former head of the FBI has been tasked with the duties surrounding the Russia thingy…..and he quickly became the talk of the town….DC that is…….

(Don’t worry this will not be the story it was a couple of days ago….but it will make a comeback….in due time)

And as usual the Right wing dolts are doing their hatchet job in protection of their petty dictator….

There are pros and cons about this person….since few will give you both at the same time then let me be the first…..

Robert Mueller is getting bipartisan praise, but President Trump thinks the appointment of a special prosecutor over the Russia-Trump campaign probe is a “witch hunt.” What does the media say? Dueling editorials from the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times offer opposite takes:

  • The WSJ argues that special prosecutors are almost always a bust, largely because they’re basically accountable to no one. This appointment “opens up years of political risk to the Trump Administration with no guarantee that the public will end up with any better understanding of what really happened,” the paper’s editorial says. What is really needed is a counterintelligence investigation, but “Mueller will be under pressure to bring criminal indictments of some kind to justify his existence.” Full editorial here.
  • The NYT, though, says this is the only way Americans will have confidence that any alleged ties between Trump’s campaign and Russia are fully investigated. “Even before the stunning events of the past week, Mr. Mueller would have had plenty to work with,” its editorial states. “But after the president’s abrupt firing of Mr. Comey on May 9—followed by his apparent admission that he did so with the Russia investigation in mind, followed by reports that he previously pressed Mr. Comey to pledge his loyalty and asked him to drop a related inquiry into Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, Mr. Trump’s former national security adviser—it became clear that the investigation needed to be kept alive at all costs, and as far from Mr. Trump as possible.” Full editorial here.

This was a smart move….now the GOP can get back to discussing policies and issues and stop being bombarded with the mundane crap from the media.

But I am sure that the Righties will keep this situation alive as long as they can try and blame Obama and even GW when they can……

But as far as reality goes…..we all have to let this play out….for better or for worse……it MUST play out!

“All The President’s Men”

With the drama playing out in DC these days maybe some channel should show the Watergate Drama on a continuous loop…just as a reminder to those “Ignorati” that cannot remember the history of this country. (thanx to beetleypete for the idea)…..bye the bye…this situation will make an excellent movie in the future……and look for a novel with this scenario come out soon also.

But that aside there is lots happening in Foggy Bottom…especially around the presidents men……

This is for those readers that do not want to spend hours on Google or Twitter…..

Flynn

The Senate Intelligence Committee issued a subpoena Wednesday to force former national security adviser Michael Flynn to turn over documents related to the panel’s probe into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 elections, including possible ties between the Kremlin and the presidential campaigns. – Washington Post

White House lawyers have had to warn President Donald Trump repeatedly against reaching out to his fired National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, two people familiar with the matter tell The Daily Beast. – The Daily Beast

Targeted in widening investigations of his foreign entanglements, President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, is at odds with his former Turkish client over two unusual payments totaling $80,000 that Flynn’s firm sent back last year to the client. The disagreement points to inconsistencies in Flynn’s accounts to the U.S. government about his work for interests outside the United States. – Associated Press

Trump-Russia Connections

Acting FBI director Andrew McCabe and other top U.S. intelligence officials are scheduled to testify before a congressional committee in a public hearing Thursday that has taken on new significance since President Trump suddenly removed James B. Comey as the leader of the FBI.   – Washington Post

The Senate Intelligence committee’s leading Democrat, Sen. Mark Warner, said Wednesday that he has asked former FBI Director James B. Comey, who was fired by the White House Tuesday, to testify before the committee next week. – Washington Times

Senate Democrats laid out new demands on Wednesday in the aftershock of FBI Director James Comey’s firing that they said would ensure the current federal probe into potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian officials is not impeded. – Politico

I am sure there are others out there but these are the largest circulation…..we will see how far the cowards in Congress are willing to go…..my guess is they will procrastinate for as long as they can before they actual do something…..they will continue to pout party ahead of country.

Investigation: The “Bots” Did It!

Beware of the “Bots”.

We all have heard the accusations about the 2016 election and the meddling by Russia……they, the FBI, is focusing on the social media as their investigations progresses……

Today, it’s social media bots, with investigators looking into the question of whether sites publishing pro-Trump news, of which Breitbart News and InfoWars were singled out by sources, were “assisting Russia’s operatives” in getting Trump elected.

There’s seemingly no evidence of that, but certain bots were flooding Facebook and Twitter with links to the “pro-Trump stories” from the two media outlets, along with Russia’s Sputnik News and RT. Officials are also claiming some of the stories “were false.”

While social media bots are ubiquitous, the FBI appears to believe that this could lead to a link between the sites and Russia. Rep. Adan Schiff (D – CA), always eager to push the Trump-Russia narrative, says it amounts to “circumstantial evidence of collusion,” and suggested that Congress would get involved to investigate the “deception” by the media outlets.

There is little doubt that someone somewhere manipulated the social media and the news with crap…..and the FBI is looking at two of the biggest crap generators

As part of the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) inquiry into collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016 election, hard-right media outlets are facing scrutiny.

Outlets including Breitbart News and Infowars are being investigated by the FBI Counterintelligence Division to see exactly what their role was in the Russian manipulation of last year’s election. Their part in spreading pro-Trump news and anti-Hillary rumors happen to have coincided with “operatives for Russia [who] appear to have strategically timed the computer commands, known as ‘bots,’ to blitz social media with links to the pro-Trump stories.”

According to Journalists Peter Stone and Greg Gordon: “The bots’ end products were largely millions of Twitter and Facebook posts carrying links to stories on conservative internet sites such as Breitbart News and InfoWars, as well as on the Kremlin-backed RT News and Sputnik News. Some of the stories were false or mixed fact and fiction.”

Source: FBI Investigating Infowars, Breitbart for Colluding with Russia to Manipulate the 2016 Election | Top US & World News | Susanne Posel

Also it appears that some of those around Trump may have been playing hide the weenie with Russia…..people like Flynn, Manafort, and on and on……

The FBI has information that indicates associates of President Donald Trump communicated with suspected Russian operatives to possibly coordinate the release of information damaging to Hillary Clinton’s campaign, US officials told CNN.

This is partly what FBI Director James Comey was referring to when he made a bombshell announcement Monday before Congress that the FBI is investigating the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia, according to one source.
Source: US Officials Say Evidence Suggests Trump Associates May Have Coordinated with Russians | World Affairs Journal
This issue is becoming interesting…there is so many twists and turns that it is playing like a Guy Richie movie…..
There is one more thing….to get into a official press conference one must have the proper credentials….we already have nutjobs on the Right with them and now a new player wants to get into the fun……

Russian state-owned news outlet Sputnik has applied for a White House press pass, Politico reported Friday.

Sputnik is applying to be a member in the White House Foreign Press Group, which would give it a chance to be a part of a group of about 22 foreign outlets covering Trump alongside pool reporters from U.S. news sources.

The White House Foreign Press Group head Philip Crowther told Politico that if Sputnik meets the required criteria, there “shouldn’t be any reason” for the Russian publication to not join the press pool.The requirements would include a membership in the White House Correspondents’ Association, a verification by the State Department that Sputnik is based in Russia, and a White House-approved hard pass.

Interesting…..with all the hub-bub about Russia these days….will they be permitted into the inner sanctum of news?

The Tap That Wasn’t

Are you pleased that the dick Brady has had his jersey from the Super Bowl located?  Maybe now this whiny twat will shut the Hell up.

The other news from Monday is the testimony of FBI head honcho about that dastardly act against the Master…the all too moronic wiretap…….

FBI chief James Comey has begun testifying before Congress, and he’s made headlines early on two fronts: Regarding President Trump’s claims that his predecessor wiretapped Trump Tower, Comey declared, “I have no information to support those tweets,” per ABC News. He said the FBI had “carefully” looked into the claims. Comey also confirmed to the House Intelligence Committee that his agency is investigating Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election, including any possible links to the Trump campaign. He provided no details about what he characterized as a “counterintelligence investigation” to the committee. He added that he wouldn’t typically comment on the existence of such an investigation but said he was doing so because of extraordinary public interest, notes Politico.

Earlier, committee chair Rep. Devin Nunes said there was no physical wiretap on Trump Tower, but added that it was possible “other surveillance activities” were used against Trump and his associates, per the AP. The California Republican also said the committee has seen no evidence to date that officials from any campaign conspired with Russian agents, but will continue to investigate that question. He added that the committee will investigate who has been leaking classified information about investigations into Russia’s interference.

I would say that we can put this issue to bed but we both know that will not happen…the Right will be all up in the condemnation of the FBI but if the verdict had gone the other way then the FBI and Comey would be nominated for sainthood…..and the so-called Left will be rattling on about the blatant lies…..

The GOP will cover their asses and come out in favor of the investigation but with exceptions….

Somewhere this waste of time needs to be dealt with publicly to keep it from happening again….but that ain’t happening.

Will paranoia and egotism allow this issue to die off?  Hahahaha….sorry I could ask that question with a straight face.

All eyes will be on Twitter!

Did Russia Or Did It Not?

All this silly back and forth over the Russian influence over our elections and some of the players in that election may soon come to a head….

After screaming and yelling for some sort of investigation into the Russia thing….it appears as if some wishes are about to be answered….at least in the House of Representatives….

The House is moving forward with an investigation into Russia’s alleged attempts to tamper with the US election, scheduling the first public hearing on the matter for March 20, Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes announced. FBI Director James Comey, National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers, former CIA Director John Brennan, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, and former Attorney General Sally Yates have been invited to testify, CNN reports.

Nunes also told reporters he has not seen any evidence to support President Trump’s accusation that Obama wiretapped him, but that his panel will investigate the allegations, Reuters reports. On the Senate side, Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr told CNN Tuesday that he was not ruling out the possibility his panel would also look into Trump’s allegations. “We’re going to go anywhere there is intelligence or facts that send us,” he said. “So I’m not going to limit it one way or the other. But we don’t have anything today that would send us in that direction, but that’s not to say that we might not find something.”

The only question that needs answering now is….is this a show trial or will it be a real search for answers?

From The Manure Pile Of A Cover-Up

I apologize to my readers for the large number of posts today and probably for the week…..I have 30 drafts in waiting and need to get them cleared out for events will start spiraling soon and I need the space….enjoy.

Not since Nixon and Reagan and possibly Clinton has there been a hint of a possible cover-up….but don’t you know that if anyone would be capable of a cover-up it would be Trump and the malignant toads that surround him.

What I am referring to is the meeting between Rancid Prius and the FBI…..

White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus asked a top FBI official to dispute media reports that President Trump’s campaign advisers were frequently in touch with Russian intelligence agents during the election, a White House official told the AP late Thursday. The official said Priebus’ request came after the FBI told the White House it didn’t believe a New York Times report last week describing those contacts. As of Thursday, the FBI had not stated that position publicly and there was no indication it planned to. The White House official would not comment when asked if the administration was concerned about the appropriateness of Priebus’ communications with FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.

Priebus’ discussion with McCabe sparked outrage among some Democrats, who said he was violating policies intended to limit communications between the law enforcement agency and the White House on pending investigations. “The White House is simply not permitted to pressure the FBI to make public statements about a pending investigation of the president and his advisers,” says Michigan Rep. John Conyers. CNN reports that after it first reported the discussion, White House press secretary Sean Spicer disputed their account. “We didn’t try to knock the story down,” he said. “We asked them to tell the truth.” The FBI declined to comment.

Do you think that some media reported on this meeting is the reason they are barred from the White House?

Of course according to the Trump camp and the throngs of adoring worshipers this is a “fake” story.  And to control these “fake Stories”…..the Trump clown show has decided to secretly go after anyone who commits the damnable crime of leaking…..and then there was a oops! moment……

Now even White House leak crackdowns are leaking to the press. At a meeting called by press secretary Sean Spicer, staffers were told to dump their phones on a table for a “phone check,” to prove they had nothing to hide. New security measures include random phone checks of staffers, overseen by White House attorneys.

Source: Spicer Leak Crackdown Leaked to Press | RealClearInvestigations

You just cannot make-up a comedy sketch like this one…..gets NO better than this….now does it?

Closing Thought–26Jan17

It’s all that voter fraud!

If one wants to know what is on the mind of those Right wing dillies without having to brows the gambit of sites then pick one Right wing blog to follow and read…..once you have read that blog no need to go any further….why?  Because whatever you read is the talking point of the day in the world of the Alt Right and the sheeple follow.

Since Trump made his infamous statement that there were 3-5 million votes by those people not qualified to vote…..massive fraud and they all voted for Clinton (the odds are pretty staggering of this)…….this is a lame attempt to explain away the almost 3 million popular votes that went to Clinton…..

To further this pipe dream Trump is calling for a massive investigation into the “voter fraud”……

President Trump isn’t just doubling down on his claims that voter fraud cost him the popular vote, he says he plans to call for an investigation. In twotweets Wednesday morning, Trump wrote: “I will be asking for a major investigation into VOTER FRAUD, including those registered to vote in two states, those who are illegal and…even, those registered to vote who are dead (and many for a long time). Depending on results, we will strengthen up voting procedures!” Earlier this week, the president repeated his claim that 3 million to 5 million “illegals” voted, and he says that’s the only reason Hillary Clinton beat him in the popular vote by about 3 million ballots.

On Tuesday, White House press secretary Sean Spicer backed up his boss. Trump “has believed that for a while based on studies and information he has,” said Spicer, per CNN. The problem is that no news service can find any such studies. The New York Times notes that a post on the discredited InfoWars website made the claim about millions of fraudulent voters in November, and Trump has appeared on the show with host Alex Jones. Spicer did reference a Pew study, but that study’s own author says there’s “zero evidence” of fraud in the 2016 vote. The Washington Post fact checker blog digs into the particulars and remains unswayed: “Spicer cited repeatedly debunked research,” it says, adding that “these studies do not support Trump’s Four-Pinocchio claims of ‘millions’ of people voting illegally.”

I know this will hit home to the “alt-ers” for the Tea Party and some in the GOP have been pushing this paradigm to try and limit who gets to vote.  Even though there is NO evidence of this massive fraud…even conservs think this is a bullshit issue.  Besides…yes there has been some voter fraud in the past but unfortunately most of it has been tied to the GOP and their people (please notice I said “most” not all)

But since he has called for an investigation and Comey is a brown nose bastard he will get it and maybe he should start the investigation a little closer to home….

When President Trump called for an investigation into voter fraud Wednesday morning, he tweeted that it would include people registered to vote in two states. He might want to have a talk with top adviser Steve Bannon: The Guardian reports that Bannon is still registered in both Florida and New York. Bannon voted for Trump in New York, listing his rented apartment in Manhattan for an address. However, state records in Florida show that he remains registered there, too, with his given address the home of Breitbart News friend Andy Badolato in Sarasota County. The newspaper points out that it’s not illegal to be registered in two states, only to vote in two states.

Remember that private email account that was so troublesome for Clinton?

I wondering whether it was really all that important as Trump made it seem……

Senior Trump administration staffers, including Kellyanne Conway, Jared Kushner, Sean Spicer and Steve Bannon, have active accounts on a Republican National Committee (RNC) email system, Newsweek has learned.

The system (rnchq.org) is the same one the George W. Bush administration was accused of using to evade transparency rules after claiming to have “lost” 22 million emails

But after then-candidate Donald Trump and the Republicans repeatedly called for “locking up” Hillary Clinton for handling government work with a private server while secretary of state, the new White House staff risks repeating the same mistake that dogged the Democrat’s presidential campaign. They also face a security challenge: The RNC email system, according to U.S. intelligence, was hacked during the 2016 race. “They better be careful after making such a huge ruckus over the private email over at the State Department,” says former Bush administration lawyer Richard Painter.

(Since this story was published, the RNC has deleted the emails of Bannon, Kushner and Conway. Newsweek is waiting for further comment.)

This will do nothing to change the tune…..there are large enough rugs on the White House under which it can be swept.

From Under A Rock

The big story….not that the media wants to report it……is those 28 pages of the 9/11 investigation…..the story is that there is a debate on whether the American people should know the extent that the Saudis may have been involved in the attacks on that fateful day.

The question is…..should the American people know the whole story?  Should there be total transparency?

A member of the original investigation team has voiced his opinion…..

A member of the official commission that investigated the 9/11 attacks is ratcheting up pressure on the White House to make public 28 pages of a congressional report dealing with suspected Saudi involvement. In an interview with the Guardian, former Navy secretary John Lehman lays it out in blunt terms: “There was an awful lot of participation by Saudi individuals in supporting the hijackers, and some of those people worked in the Saudi government,” he says. “Our report should never have been read as an exoneration of Saudi Arabia.” Lehman adds that he’s not implicating members of the Saudi royal family or top civilian officials, but rather lower-echelon employees, perhaps in the Saudi ministry of Islamic affairs.

Last month, the leaders of the commission—former GOP Gov. Tom Kean of New Jersey and former Democratic congressman Lee Hamilton of Indiana—cautioned against releasing the 28 pages and noted that just one Saudi official had been implicated in the plot. (That was diplomat Fahad al-Thumairy, who was deported and remains a “person of interest,” notes the New York Times.) But Lehman says he knows of at least five other Saudi employees who were under suspicion. “They may not have been indicted, but they were certainly implicated,” he says. “There was an awful lot of circumstantial evidence.”

What say you?  Should we know the full extent of any participation by the Saudis in that horrendous attack?  Or should we just forget it because they are a valued “buddy”?

 

The Clinton Investigation Enters a Dangerous Phase

Yes, I know that everyone has had enough of the e-mail issue for the Clinton campaign people…..the problem is that there may well be something “sinister” in this whole issue and not just the with hunt that the Repubs were trying to stir up.

Hillary may have done something not quite kosher with her e-mail account…..like any other issue we will have to wait and see just what the Justice Department finds out during their investigation….

(Read it for yourself and then decide…….)

The FBI investigation of former Secretary of State……. Clinton’s failure to protect state secrets contained in her emails has entered its penultimate phase, and it is a dangerous one for her and her aides.

Federal law enforcement sources have let it be known that federal prosecutors and the FBI have completed their examination of raw data in the case. After the FBI acquires raw data — for example, the nature and number of the state secrets in the emails Clinton failed to protect or the regular, consistent, systematic nature of that failure — prosecutors and agents proceed to draw rational inferences from that data.

Source: The Clinton Investigation Enters a Dangerous Phase – Reason.com

Personally, I want to know if the law was broken….

Those Pesky Congressional Hearings

The Benghazi debacle has been drawn out to last 72 weeks and it still has little to report…..wasting money instead of doing the country’s business is the norm these days…..trying for political dominance is the goal….and that is just sad on so many levels.

I am not saying that there should be NO hearings on situations that the government is involved with…..I am saying that there should be some things investigated that have been somehow overlooked…..

Juan Cole has a list that I completely agree with………

The fruitless carnival barking that was the GOP Benghazi inquisition did the nation the disservice of taking focus off the things really wrong with US policies, and places there really was wrongdoing. So here are some suggestions for real investigations:

1. We still don’t know why Bush-Cheney launched a groundless war of aggression on Iraq in 2003 and tore up the United Nations Charter that post-Nazi diplomats hoped would forestall further such wars of mere aggrandizement. Shouldn’t Congress, which was kept in the dark and actively lied to, look into how it and the country got snookered into destabilizing the Middle East?  (please read on…..)

Source: Top Five Things Congress Should investigate instead of Benghazi | Informed Comment