The Witch Hunt Caldron Heats up Megathread

[Jacque67 7,328]

1 minute ago, Il Mango Dulce said:

he gets one as part of the adults in the room club

Grab them

[Jacque67 7,328]

Ahh, how sweet! Ivanka sticking with daddy through the tough times!

 

 

[Jacque67 7,328]

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/06/us/politics/donald-trump-jr-senate-investigators-russia.html

 

Diaper Don has also agreed to testify in a public hearing b4 the judiciary comm. dry run for Mueller Time!

 

[Jacque67 7,328]

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/09/michael-cohen-interview-donald-trump

Michael Cohen would take a bullet for Donald Trump.

 

The taxi king's lawyers must be peeved he gave this interview. Seems desperate to communicate to Donnie, that he will remain loyal. As Mariotti points out, it is odd to say an email abt getting "Putin's team" to make T prez was "business as usual". He emailed an open source, when he's coordinating with Sater?? The denial of conspiracy is only as to hacking or search engine optimization...🤔

[Amica Nostra 4,803]

3 hours ago, Jacque67 said:

Ahh, how sweet! Ivanka sticking with daddy through the tough times!

 

 

Creepy shtick.

[Jacque67 7,328]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/facebook-says-it-sold-political-ads-to-russian-company-during-2016-election/2017/09/06/32f01fd2-931e-11e7-89fa-bb822a46da5b_story.html

 

facebook has reportedly given mueller data on russian ads. Hmm..jared.

[Amica Nostra 4,803]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/global-opinions/wp/2017/09/08/the-case-for-trump-russia-collusion-were-getting-very-very-close/?utm_term=.ecced7967798

 

The case for Trump-Russia collusion: We’re getting very, very close

 

We now know the motives. In backing Donald Trump, Russia’s oligarchical class sought not only to disrupt U.S. politics but also to reverse sanctions, both those applied in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and those connected to the Magnitsky Act, which targeted officials involved in human rights violations. In seeking Russian support, Trump sought not only to become president but also to make money: Even as he launched his presidential campaign, he hoped to receive a major influx of money from a proposed Trump Tower in Moscow.

Along with the motives, we know the methods. As the New York Times has just graphically demonstrated, professional Russian Internet trolls, probably operating out of St. Petersburg, set up hundreds of fake Facebook and Twitter accounts during the election campaign. The trolls then posted thousands of fake stories, memes and slogans, supported anti-Clinton hashtags and narratives, and linked back to DCLeaks, the website that posted emails that Russian hackers stole from the Clinton campaign.  The emails “revealed” by that hack were utterly banal. But the fake operatives said they contained “hidden truths,” hinted that they were part of a secret “Soros” operation, after liberal financier George Soros, and persuaded people to click. This is a method Russian operatives had used before. Previous elections, in Poland and Ukraine, demonstrated that stolen material — any stolen material — can be used to foment conspiracy theories that never die.

 

We know what happened next: The fake stories, memes and slogans moved from the network of Russian-sponsored “American” accounts into the networks of real Americans. Some, such as “pizzagate,” the theory that Hillary Clinton was part of a pedophile ring being run out of Washington pizza parlor, got a lot of attention. Others, such as the theory that Barack Obama founded the Islamic State, or the theory that the Google search engine was working on Clinton’s behalf, got less attention but were notable for another reason: They were not only promoted on the fake Russian network, which bought advertising in order to push them further, but also were promoted on open Russian news networks, including the Sputnik English-language news services. Afterwards, they were repeated, also openly, by candidate Trump.

 

Now here is a piece of the story that we don’t know: How did the Russians behind the fake “American” accounts know which real Americans would be most excited to read conspiracy theories on Facebook? How did they know how to target their ads? Perhaps they just got lucky. Perhaps they just happened upon broad networks of people who were willing to click on their conspiracy theories and pass them on. Or perhaps they had some help. Certainly the Trump campaign had this kind of information — recently, one of Trump’s online campaign managers bragged to the BBC about their ability to “target” on Facebook and elsewhere.

Here is another piece we don’t know: How did Trump happen to use the same conspiracy theories that were proliferating on Russian media, both real and fake? Again, this could be coincidence. Or, again, there could have been coordination. Messages tested by Russian trolls might have been passed on to the Trump campaign — or vice versa.

I still believe, as I’ve been writing for months, that Trump’s sympathy for Russian President Vladimir Putin, a cynicial and vicious dictator, should, by itself, have eliminated him from U.S. politics. Nothing else that we will ever learn about him makes him more unqualified to be president of the United States

[Amica Nostra 4,803]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/did-trump-pardon-arpaio-for-a-corrupt-purpose-mueller-will-want-to-find-out

Did Trump Pardon Arpaio for a Corrupt Purpose? Mueller Will Want to Find Out

The president supposedly tried to stop the investigation into his pal, then when he couldn’t, stopped the prosecution. That pattern could put Trump in further legal danger.

BARBARA MCQUADE

08.29.17 12:38 PM ET

President Donald Trump’s pardon of Sheriff Joe Arpaio shows that he continues to be the disrupter-in-chief.  Not only does this exercise of power rattle the rule of law, but it also could disrupt special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference with the 2016 election. However, recent reporting suggests that Trump’s efforts to disrupt the Arpaio case prior to the pardon may have crossed a legal line. 

The pardon of Arpaio is different from most other cases because of the nature of the underlying conviction. Most often, the president is exercising his executive power over a matter that was brought entirely by that same executive branch—a federal offense referred by a federal investigative agency and charged by the Department of Justice or one of the 94 U.S. Attorney’s offices. In those instances, the president is showing forgiveness in the interest of the public good. And although the work of the executive branch is cast aside, the public readily accepts that the president, as head of the executive branch, gets to make that call.