team politics talking points.

[JohnRoberts]

The correct spelling is "whatabout".

cute but "how about that" for dirty tricks? It still stands to be seen if Sussmann will flip on his employer (not obvious, it could be bad for his health) but Clinton is the obvious target of the investigation.

Is Hunter running for office and someone hasn't told me?

Evidence of corruption in the "family" business... The laptop presented evidence of Hunter selling access to his father. Of course President Biden denied an knowledge of Hunter's business dealing. I guess now he can believably say "he doesn't recall" .

The recent Libya story is same thing but just happened years earlier during Obama administration.

Also, didn't you write this just a few years ago? I wonder what changed since 2018?

There is a difference between gratuitous sliming a candidate's children and investigating Hunter's suspicious business dealings. The irony here is that Trump gets investigated and even impeached for things he didn't do (russian collusion), and Hunter gets protected by mainstream media and big tech for things he did do.

Squashing actual news that could change an election outcome is just wrong, but media is full on playing team politics. As the actual news finally trickles out it stands to be seen if the public will actually notice.

Of course the partisan response is nothing to see here....

JR

 

[Matador]

There is a difference between gratuitous sliming a candidate's children and investigating Hunter's suspicious business dealings.

I will 100% agree with you: opinions really do vary.

#twomovies

 

[hodad]

There is a difference between gratuitous sliming a candidate's children and investigating Hunter's suspicious business dealings.

Do you only read the special Mississippi edition of Pravda? Is that all you can get down there?

Trump's children take in millions overseas as president slams Biden's son

Trump criticizes the Bidens, but his own family’s business raises questions

Qatar Shocked, Shocked to Learn It Accidentally Bailed Out Jared Kushner

 

[Matador]

It's always fake news Hodad, unless it's targeting a Democrat.

Geesh even I know that, and I'm just a dirty uninformed commie.

 

[JohnRoberts]

Do you only read the special Mississippi edition of Pravda? Is that all you can get down there?

Trump's children take in millions overseas as president slams Biden's son

Trump criticizes the Bidens, but his own family’s business raises questions

Qatar Shocked, Shocked to Learn It Accidentally Bailed Out Jared Kushner

President Trump's family business is an actual business. I feel confident that his family business practices are rigorously investigated for legality.

Hunter Biden's family business apparently was corrupt political influence pedaling, and more recently expensive modern art sales. If these art sales were above board, why would the buyer's names be kept confidential by the white house. It seems the WH is exactly who shouldn't know who the buyers are.

JR

PS; I almost forget where I live from reading all your worldly opinions voiced here.

 

[hodad]

President Trump's family business is an actual business. I feel confident that his family business practices are rigorously investigated for legality.

You feel confident? You don't know? You haven't bothered to read any of the articles chronicling the alleged wrongdoings of Trump and his children? It's all about your feelings?

What is it Trump-loving Republicans like to say about feelings? Oh, yeah, now I remember........

 

[JohnRoberts]

I read about Trump organization investigations all the time. The NY attorney general is making a career out of investigating him personally and his family business.

alleged? Hunter's laptop in FBI possession is full of actual evidence suppressed by a biased media and big tech.

I never did "love" ex president Trump but compared to President Biden "come on man..." I hear Trump just held a rally in your back yard, did anybody show up?

The democrats are still running against Trump, the CA recall election was kind of bizarre calling Larry Elder a white supremacist.

President Biden's policy is apparently to reverse and undo as many things that President Trump did as he can. How is that working out (oil pipelines and drilling permits, southern border "challenge", Afghanistan pull out debacle, etc)?

JR

 

[hodad]

I read about Trump organization investigations all the time. The NY attorney general is making a career out of investigating him personally and his family business.

See, this right here is a weak argument. You're attacking the AG personally while not speaking in the least about the merits of the facts exposed in her (and others') investigations. That's garbage and you know it.

She can be "making a career of it" or not--so what? That doesn't make Trump or any of his family members innocent.

So now I know you've read personal attacks on Letitia James--and probably on Cy Vance Jr. as well. Congratulations for keeping up on right wing hit pieces. So far I see nothing to indicate you've read any of the details of the investigations--the charges or the evidence behind them.

 

[JohnRoberts]

We have courts and juries for that, if he is guilty and they have evidence I expect they will convict him (two impeachments didn't work).

I have been waiting years for the Durham investigation to deliver some fruit and that is just now beginning.

I am not as wound up about all this small ball politics as some seem to be.

JR

 

[scott2000]

https://www.npr.org/2021/09/27/1040872498/john-hinckley-unconditional-release

 

[hodad]

Oh, yes, the Durham investigation. So far, one guy has been accused of having ulterior motives for reporting something truthful to the FBI. Definitely deserves the chair for that.

But conspiracy to overturn the results of a presidential election? Small ball. Nothing worth seeing there. Move along.

 

[Matador]

Here's the meat of the Sussman matter: Sussman was asked about possible ties between Trump and various foreign banks. The FBI agent leading the discussion was Baker, and in his notes to his boss, he wrote that Sussman wasn't there answering questions on behalf of either the Democratic party or Clinton's campaign. Sussman was known at the time to be a lawyer for Clinton's campaign. Hence, Sussman is guilty of lying? There is no evidence he said anything of the sort: no transcript, no video. Sussman denies that he said it. There's no direct evidence he did say it other than the note.

In order to be convicted, amongst other requirements, the lie must materially impact the investigation. As in, as a result of the lie, the investigation must be hampered in a material way. In 2018 Baker walked back not only Sussman's alleged lie, but also completely disclaimed that even if it was a lie, it wasn't a material lie (which is key to the law):

https://www.lawfareblog.com/documen...view-house-judiciary-and-oversight-committees

Q. Okay. So when Mr. Sussman came to you to provide some evidence, you were not specifically aware that he was representing the DNC or the Hillary Clinton campaign at the time?

A. I don’t recall, I don’t recall him specifically saying that at the time.

Q: Did you know at the time that he was representing the DNC in the Clinton campaign?
A: I can't remember. I have learned that at some point. I don't -- as I think I said last time, I don't specifically remember when I learned that. So I don't know that I had that in my head when he showed up in my office. I just can't remember.

Q. Did you learn that shortly thereafter if you didn't know it at the time?

A. I wish I could give you a better answer. I just don't remember.

Wow. That's some damning testimony!

 

[JohnRoberts]

I am not a lawyer like you guys... My understanding is that Sussman was specifically asked and denied that he was acting on behalf of any client, while clearly working for Hillary to spread fertilizer to damage Trump campaign.

The grand jury indictment against Sussmann centers on a September 2016 meeting between him and then-FBI General Counsel James Baker in which Sussmann passed along allegations claiming there was a secret backchannel between Russia’s Alfa Bank and the Trump Organization. While Durham says Sussmann told Baker he was not working for any specific client, the special counsel contends he was secretly doing the bidding of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign as well as working on behalf of a yet-unnamed technology company executive. Sussmann pleaded not guilty.

The Durham indictment states that “on or about September 15, 2016, Campaign Lawyer-1 exchanged emails with the Clinton Campaign's campaign manager, communications director, and foreign policy advisor concerning the Russian Bank-1 allegations that SUSSMANN had recently shared with Reporter-1.” Durham wrote that “Campaign Lawyer-1 billed his time for this correspondence” to the Clinton campaign, with the billing entry of “email correspondence with [name of foreign policy advisor], [name of campaign manager], [name of communications director] re: [Russian Bank-1] Article.”

yahoo link

Of course innocent until proved guilty he is only indicted at this point. This is from the standard playbook for flipping low level shysters (process crime of lying to investigators). Martha Stewart did time in the gray bar hotel for this particular beef. I am not optimistic about any big fish getting hooked quickly, but at least some sunlight on the misbehavior by multiple government players might provide some disinfection benefit and prevent future such abuses.

JR

 

[hodad]

It's interesting how you (and many other Republicans) believe that the thinnest, most fragile threads are leading you to the Great Democrat Conspiracy, while you stare Republican wrongdoing straight in the eye & dismiss it with the wave of a hand.

*On a somewhat different note, I will say that Trump revealed himself to be quite crafty in evading actually telling someone to go do a crime. The calls to Georgia SOS Raffensperger are a great example. He asks Raffensperger to "find" 12K votes--even after the SOS tells him there aren't any votes to find. If Raffensperger & Kemp went along, they would have to commit a crime to do so--it's abundantly clear. But Trump never orders or even directly asks them to do a crime--it's just that if they do what he's asking, they have to commit a crime.
I suspect Fani Willis's efforts to charge & convict Trump for his election meddling here will come to nought, but is that really the standard you hold your politicians to, John? Just enough plausible deniability to keep them out of jail? It's quite clear that Trump had no concern how those votes materialized, just that they did materialize and that he had just enough distance to avoid criminal charges (probably.) You think that an open effort to subvert democracy is okay simply because he's unlikely to be charged?

 

[JohnRoberts]

The drip, drip, drip of indictments from the Durham investigation continue to roll out.

The latest shoe to drop is

(CNN)Igor Danchenko, a Russian analyst who was a source for the 2016 dossier of allegations about former President Donald Trump, was arrested and indicted Thursday for allegedly lying to the FBI, as part of Special Counsel John Durham's investigation into the origins of the FBI's Russia investigation.
He was charged with five counts of making false statements to the FBI, according to the indictment that was unsealed Thursday, and faces up to five years in prison for each count.
Danchenko was a key source of information used by former British intelligence operative Christopher Steele in a dossier that alleged Trump was compromised by ties to Russia ahead of the 2016 election. The dossier, which many of the claims in it were never proven, became one of the most controversial parts of the FBI's 2016 investigation into Trump and Russia, known as "Crossfire Hurricane," which led to special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation.

This is not "the" smoking gun but a smoking gun. This further discredits the Steele Dossier used to request FISA warrants, and base the Mueller investigation upon.

The big fish are FBI leadership and administration officials who continued to use this discredited evidence to pursue ex-president Trump's campaign even after learning that Danchenko lied.

I won't spoil the ending for you. Frankly I am surprised that the Democrats haven't figured out how to shut the Durham investigation down yet to avoid the embarrassment.

JR

 

[hodad]

I won't spoil the ending for you. Frankly I am surprised that the Democrats haven't figured out how to shut the Durham investigation down yet to avoid the embarrassment.

JR

I figured you'd be excited by this. Durham's spent how long on this, and this is what he's come up with? At some point I'd like to see them shut Durham down because he's wasting taxpayer money. Biden and Garland have let him run for ten months now on their watch--I consider this the height of indulgence. We've seen this movie before--partisan Republican investigations that drag on and on and on, churning up suspicion and paranoia amid the GOP faithful while revealing next to nothing. Whitewater, Benghazi, Hillary's emails, and now this. Meanwhile, Republicans blithely ignore or even celebrate the crimes committed by their own, or complain of partisan witch hunts or wrongful convictions.

I'm glad you have a sad old lunatic like Durham to feed your paranoid fantasies, John. I'm sure it makes life in small-town Mississippi much more interesting.

 

[JohnRoberts]

Why can't you control yourself enough to stop making multiple personal attacks?

Odd that you think this Durham investigation is a waste of money but believe(?) the orgy of spending going on inside the beltway right now won't cost anything according to POTUS'. (I know that's a multi $T whatabout ).

Don't confuse my letting you get away with insulting me as my acceptance of this behavior (by you or anybody it is still against the rules). You need to stop the insults, now.

You are entitled to your opinions about me, but not to openly attacking me (or anybody) here.

Life in small town MS is pretty uninteresting and that is one of it's best features. I do consider investigations of criminal misbehavior at the highest levels of government important and worth investigating. It hasn't actually gotten very exciting yet.... wait for it.

JR

 

[hodad]

Yes, investigations of criminal behavior in govt. are crucial--I'm glad Stone, Manafort, Flynn, et al were investigated, charged and convicted. Investigations that serve no legitimate end (Benghazi, Hillary's emails)--not so crazy about those.

I just don't see where Durham has achieved much of anything besides propping up Trump's paranoid fantasies. 19 months and counting--looks like yet another GOP fishing expedition.

 

[JohnRoberts]

I don't take great pleasure from stirring this pot but some related observations seem worth noting.

The Pulitzer prize winning WAPO deleted and and corrected portions of two articles about the Steele Dossier after the paper decided it “could no longer stand by the accuracy of those elements of the story.” WAPO article

I wonder if this means they have to give the Pulitzer prize back (joking)? In fact I give WAPO credit for trying to correct the record albeit years after the damage was done. This was effectively a massive political dirty trick***.

It is perhaps instructive how other media outlets have still not corrected their published misinformation that could clearly influence voters at the time.

Flame suit on..

JR

*** there is a long history of dirty tricks used in American politics by both sides, but rarely do these get support from the intelligence community and mainstream media.

 

[iturnknobs]

Two words:
Insurrection PowerPoint.

Who do you stand with? Silence is cooperation. I'm pretty sure I was throwing around this phrase prior to 1/6. Crystal balls available. PM me.