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arpov-blog-blog · 1 year ago

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...."John Durham—the special counsel who was appointed by then-Attorney General Bill Barr to investigate the FBI’s investigation of the Trump-Russia scandal and who utterly failed to produce evidence it was a hoax—testified before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday. In doing so, he made false statements to Congress. He might even have lied.

Durham spent four years on a crusade that Donald Trump and others hoped would back up Trump’s claim that the Russia investigation was cooked up by his enemies within the supposed Deep State. Yet Durham came up empty on this front, losing two jury trials unrelated to the origins of the FBI’s inquiry and winning a guilty plea from an FBI lawyer who had altered an email to support a surveillance warrant for a former Trump campaign adviser. He prosecuted no FBI officials or Obama administration officials for the supposedly big crime of mounting a plot (or witch hunt!) against Trump. Durham even concluded there was justification for the FBI to have initiated a preliminary investigation, just not a full investigation, of Russia’s attack on the 2016 election and contacts between the Trump campaign and Russia.

When Durham came before the committee, House Republicans eagerly picked over the scraps in his final report, which has been much criticized, and they treated him as a hero. But under questioning from Democratic and Republican members, Durham misrepresented key aspects of the Russia scandal, suggesting he was either unfamiliar with basic facts or was purposefully trying to mislead the committee and the American public.

During his turn to question Durham, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) asked Durham about the infamous meeting held in Trump Tower on June 9, 2016, when Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort—three of Trump’s top campaign advisers—sat down with an emissary of the Russian government whom they were told had dirt on Hillary Clinton to share. An email sent to Trump Jr. from a business associate that set up this session informed the candidate’s son that this meeting was part of a secret Russian scheme to help Trump’s campaign. Durham dismissed the matter, remarking, “People get phone calls all the time from individuals who claim to have information like that.”

This meeting signaled to Moscow that the Trump camp was receptive to Russian endeavors to intervene in the election to boost Trump’s chances, and Schiff expressed surprise that Durham found it insignificant. “Are you really trying to diminish the importance of what happened here?” he asked.

Durham answered: “The more complete story is that they met, and it was a ruse, and they didn’t talk about Mrs. Clinton.”

That is not true.

The report produced by special counsel Robert Mueller notes that the Russian emissary, a lawyer named Natalia Veselnitskaya, did discuss Clinton: “Participants agreed that Veselnitskaya stated that the Ziff brothers [an American family investment firm] had broken Russian laws and had donated their profits to the DNC or the Clinton Campaign. She asserted that the Ziff brothers had engaged in tax evasion and money laundering in both the United States and Russia.” (There was no evidence that Ziff Brothers Investments had engaged in wrongdoing.)

The Mueller report points out that Trump Jr. zeroed in on this: “Trump Jr. asked follow-up questions about how the alleged payments could be tied specifically to the Clinton Campaign, but Veselnitskaya indicated that she could not trace the money once it entered the United States.” The report quotes a participant in the meeting recalling “that Trump Jr. asked what they [the Russians] have on Clinton.”

Durham’s characterization of the meeting—that it had nothing to do with Clinton—lined up with what the Trump camp first claimed when the meeting was revealed a year afterward, in 2017. At that time, Trump Jr. issued a false statement dictated by his father that insisted the conversation had focused “primarily” on the adoption of Russian children by Americans. That was a phony cover story. Later on, when more information came out, even the elder Trump conceded that the point of the meeting was to gather negative information on Clinton from a foreign adversary. “This was a meeting to get information on an opponent,” Trump said. Yet years later, Durham was still pushing the original disinformation about the meeting propagated by Trump and his allies.

In a subsequent exchange with Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.), Durham misled the committee about another key element of the Trump-Russia scandal. McClintock observed that the “central charge in the Russia collusion hoax was that Trump campaign operatives were in contact with Russian intelligence sources.”

Replying to that remark, Durham said, “There was no such evidence.”

That’s not true.

While running Trump’s campaign in the summer of 2016, Manafort had regular contact with Konstantin Kilimnik, a former Manafort employee in Ukraine who has been repeatedly identified by US government officials as a Russian agent.

In a detailed, bipartisan 2020 report, the Senate Intelligence Committee, then chaired by Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, called Kilimnik “a Russian intelligence officer.” A year earlier, the Mueller report said, “The FBI…assesses that Kilimnik has ties to Russian intelligence.” The US Treasury in 2021 declared Kilimnik was a “known Russian Intelligence Services agent implementing influence operations on their behalf.” The department added, “During the 2016 U.S. presidential election campaign, Kilimnik provided the Russian Intelligence Services with sensitive information on polling and campaign strategy.” In 2018, Mueller indicted Kilimnik on charges of obstruction of justice.

The contacts between Manafort and Kilimnik have been well chronicled by Mueller, the Senate Intelligence Committee, and media reports. Durham should be well-versed in this. Manafort and Kilimnik met secretly in a Manhattan cigar bar. Manafort handed Kilimnik Trump campaign polling data that were to be passed to an oligarch close to Russian leader Vladimir Putin, and he arranged to continue sharing sensitive campaign information through Kilimnik.

Kilimnik also wanted something from Manafort. He asked Manafort to secure Trump’s backing for a Kremlin-approved “peace plan” for Ukraine that would have entailed creating an autonomous zone in eastern Ukraine, a scheme Manafort knew would offer a “’backdoor’ means for Russia to control eastern Ukraine,” according to the Senate report. This sounds like an early attempt to gain Trump’s assistance in securing what Russia later invaded Ukraine to obtain.

The Senate committee also revealed that it had found information, which it did not publicly detail, “suggesting Kilimnik may have been connected to the [Russian] hack and leak operation targeting the 2016 U.S. election.” And it referenced “two pieces of information” that “raise the possibility” that Manafort, too, was connected to Russia’s “hack-and-leak operations.”

The Manafort-Kilimnik connection—which the Senate Intelligence Committee report characterized as a “grave counterintelligence threat“—is one of the most serious and still not fully explained components of the Trump-Russia scandal. It belies all the claims of Trump and his crowd that the Russia investigation was nothing but a hoax orchestrated by a nefarious den of anti-Trump vipers within the law enforcement and national security communities. It is inconceivable that Durham is unaware of this troubling link. But by ignoring the well-documented contacts between Manafort and an identified Russian agent and asserting that there was no evidence of interactions between the Trump campaign and Russian intelligence, Durham was supporting Trump’s never-ending coverup.

Durham’s investigation and report raised several questions about his aims. Was he running a fair and balanced probe or weaponizing a government inquiry to buttress Trump’s self-serving lies about the Russia scandal? Durham’s false statements to Congress about essential facts provide more reason for suspicion, and they further undermine his credibility. They might even merit their own investigation. "

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brexiiton · 2 years ago

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Manhattan DA hits back as tensions escalate over Trump indictment

By Farrah Tomazin

Updated April 1, 2023 — 10.38amfirst published at 8.53am

Washington: The Manhattan District Attorney at the centre of Donald Trump’s historic indictment has accused Republicans of “unlawful political interference” as tensions in escalated ahead of the former US president’s arraignment next week.

A day after a grand jury in New York took the unprecedented step of indicting Trump over hush money paid to a porn star, Trump launched a new fundraising blitz off the back of his plight. In a statement on Saturday (AEDT), he said he had raised $US4 million in the 24 hours following the charges, adding 25 per cent of it came from first-time donors.

Meanwhile, his allies in Congress called for people to protest in the streets and Trump’s favourite daughter Ivanka broke her silence over the case, declaring: “I love my father, and I love my country. Today, I am pained for both.”

Trump is expected to be arraigned in New York on Tuesday at 2.15pm, New York time, which will mark the first time a former US president has ever been processed, fingerprinted, and had his mugshot taken before appearing in court where his charges will be outlined and he will enter a plea.

His team has reportedly made arrangements with the district attorney’s legal team to surrender without handcuffs, and according to his lawyer, Joe Tacopina, Trump would plead not guilty and there was “zero” chance he would take a plea deal because “there’s no crime”.

But as Americans braced themselves for this extraordinary arraignment, the office of District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, hit back at House Republicans after they demanded he provide Congress with documents and an explanation for his actions, which they described as a “witch hunt”.

In a scathing six-page letter to senior Republicans Jim Jordan, James Comer and Bryan Steil, Bragg’s general counsel Leslie Dubeck cited Trump’s attacks on the district attorney and his social media threat last week that an arrest could unleash “death and destruction”.

“As committee chairmen, you could use the stature of your office to denounce these attacks and urge respect for the fairness of our justice system and for the work of the impartial grand jury,” she said.

“Instead you and many of your colleagues have chosen to collaborate with Mr Trump’s efforts to vilify and denigrate the integrity of elected state prosecutors and trial judges and made unfounded allegations ... We urge you to refrain from these inflammatory accusations, withdraw your demand for information, and let the criminal justice process proceed without unlawful political interference.”

The broadside is one of the latest signs of the deepening chasm over Trump’s indictment.

It took place on Thursday (Friday AEST) when a 23-member grand jury of New Yorkers decided Bragg’s team had presented enough evidence to bring charges against Trump over an alleged hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.

Daniels said she had a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006, the year after he married third wife Melania. The adult film star had sought to sell her story for years, and in the weeks before the 2016 election, Trump’s then attorney and “fixer” Michael Cohen paid her $US130,000 ($194,000) to stay silent over the affair.

She was due to have an exclusive interview with Piers Morgan on Friday, but pulled out due to apparent security concerns.

“Unfortunately, Stormy Daniels has had to suddenly postpone our interview tonight due to some security issues that have arisen. Hope she’s OK,” Morgan tweeted.

While the full charges won’t be known until the indictment is unsealed next week, prosecutors have built their case around the allegation that Trump reimbursed Cohen but may have falsified business records to hide it and violated campaign finance laws.

Trump has denied the allegations and described the indictment as “political persecution”. Nevertheless, his fundraising is in overdrive.

A pitch includes a T-shirt emblazoned with the words “I Stand With Trump”. Another calls on people to donate to a new campaign fund, “The President’s Trust”, in which he urges supporters to make a donation “to defend our movement”.

Asked how the former president was feeling, Tacopina told CBS: “He’s not worried at all.”

“I mean, he’s upset, angry, he is being persecuted politically. That is clear to many people, not only on the right, but on the left, and we as Americans honestly should be concerned,” Tacopina said.

Then US president Donald Trump watches his daughter Ivanka speak at a rally ahead of the 2020 election.

Then US president Donald Trump watches his daughter Ivanka speak at a rally ahead of the 2020 election. AP

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. AP

The broadside is one of the latest signs of the deepening chasm over Trump’s indictment.

Donald Trump could face criminal charges over his alleged role in hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels.

UPDATED US POLITICS

Donald Trump indicted on criminal charges in New York

She was due to have an exclusive interview with Piers Morgan on Friday, but pulled out due to apparent security concerns.

“Unfortunately, Stormy Daniels has had to suddenly postpone our interview tonight due to some security issues that have arisen. Hope she’s OK,” Morgan tweeted.

Trump has denied the allegations and described the indictment as “political persecution”. Nevertheless, his fundraising is in overdrive.

Asked how the former president was feeling, Tacopina told CBS: “He’s not worried at all.”

A group of Black Trump supporters demonstrate in favour of former the former US president.

A group of Black Trump supporters demonstrate in favour of former the former US president. AP

“Today it’s Donald Trump, tomorrow it’s going to be a Democrat, the day after that it can be your brother, your son, your daughter.”

Months after Trump was blamed for the Republicans’ poor showing at the midterm elections, many senior party members are now rallying around him, while others are merely strengthening their loyalty.

Among them is far-right congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who said she would travel to New York next week to protest against the indictment and urged others to join her.

“I’m going to New York on Tuesday. We MUST protest the unconstitutional WITCH HUNT!” Greene tweeted.

An almost tearful South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham choked up on Fox News’ Hannity program as he branded the indictment “legal voodoo” and begged supporters to send Trump more money.

“They’re trying to drain him dry. He’s spent more money on lawyers than most people spent on campaigns,” he said.

And former vice-president Mike Pence, who is expected to run against Trump for the Republican 2024 presidential nomination, said the indictment sent a “terrible message” to the world about American justice.

“There are dictators and authoritarians around the world that will point to that to justify their own abuse of their own so-called justice system,” Pence said during an interview at the National Review’s Ideas Summit.

Amid concern about the potential for violence, the New York Police Department – which includes 36,000 officers and 19,000 civilian employees – has ordered every member of the force to turn up in full uniform.

Authorities were also on high alert in Washington DC, where the January 6 Capitol attack took place in 2021. However, neither city reported any major signs of civil unrest.

US President Joe Biden, meanwhile, has refused to weigh in on the matter, repeatedly telling reporters “no comment” as he left the White House en route to Mississippi to support the community following last week’s tornado.

“I’m not going to talk about Trump’s indictment,” he said.

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go-redgirl · 4 years ago

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President Donald Trump Pardons Sixteen People Including Charlie Kushner, Paul Manafort, Roger Stone

President Donald Trump issued another round of pardons on Wednesday to sixteen people, including his former campaign manager Paul Manafort, his sometimes adviser Roger Stone, and his son-in-law Jared Kushner’s father, Charlie Kushner.

Charlie Kushner was prosecuted in 2005 by former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who was New Jersey’s Attorney General at the time. Kushner, a top donor to Democrats, pleadguilty to 18 counts of tax evasion, witness tampering, and making illegal campaign donations.

Charlie Kushner served 14 months of a two-year sentence in an Alabama prison before he was released in April 2006. Jared Kushner cites visiting his father in prison as an influence for pursuing the issue of criminal justice reform.

Manafort served two years of his seven and a half years in prison after he was prosecuted for financial crimes from consulting work for pro-Russian Ukrainian leaders before he joined the Trump campaign. Special Counsel Robert Mueller also charged Manafort with two counts of conspiracy.

In a statement, Trump noted there was “blatant prosecutorial overreach” in Manafort’s case.

“Mr. Manafort has endured years of unfair treatment and is one of the most prominent victims of what has been revealed to be perhaps the greatest witch hunt in American history,” a statement from the White House read.

Trump also pardoned political operative Roger Stone, after commuting his prison sentence in July, citing the unfair investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

“Pardoning him will help to right the injustices he faced at the hands of the Mueller investigation,” the statement from the White House read.

Read the full list of other pardons below:

James Kassouf — President Trump granted a full pardon to James Kassouf. This pardon is supported by former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, Representative David Joyce, Representative Darrell Issa, Pastor Darrell Scott, and many friends in Northeast Ohio.

Mr. Kassouf pled guilty in 1989 to one count of filing a false tax return. Since his conviction, he has devoted extensive time and resources to supporting causes such as Doctors Without Borders, the Red Cross, and his local church and fire department. Mr. Kassouf’s pastor, who also writes in support of today’s action, highlights Mr. Kassouf’s “vision” to make his community a better place. Mr. Kassouf is dedicated to revitalizing the city of Cleveland and has been intensely involved in the Northeast Ohio community.

Mary McCarty — President Trump granted Mary McCarty a full pardon. Former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi and Christopher Ruddy are among those supportive of Ms. McCarty. Ms. McCarty was a longtime public servant in Palm Beach, Florida, serving as one of its County Commissioners. In 2009, she pled guilty to one count of honest services fraud. The Supreme Court has since interpreted that statute more narrowly, meaning that Ms. McCarty’s conduct might not be criminally prosecuted today.

Christopher Wade — President Trump granted a full pardon to Christopher Wade. Wade’s pardon is supported by Isaac Perlmutter, Mark Templeton, and numerous current and former law-enforcement officials. Mr. Wade served two years’ probation after pleading guilty to various cyber-crimes. Since his conviction, he has shown remorse and sought to make his community a safer place.

Christopher II X, formerly Christopher Anthony Bryant — President Trump granted a full pardon to Christopher II X, a prominent community leader. This Federal pardon is supported by Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky as well as Tori Murden McClure, the President of Spalding University, among others. Mr. II X is a powerful example of the possibility of redemption. For a two-decade period ending in 1998, Mr. II X battled a severe addiction to both cocaine and marijuana. In this period he committed numerous state and federal offenses.

Since overcoming his drug dependency and following his release from prison for the last time over 20 years ago, Mr. II X has become an acknowledged community leader in his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky. Today, Mr. II X runs a non-profit organization, Game Changers, which is dedicated to guiding youth to productive, meaningful lives.

He is also widely credited as a trusted voice of reason and peace in Louisville that both sides turn to if tensions arise between the police and local community.

In recognition of the many contributions to his community, in December 2019 Governor Matt Bevin of Kentucky issued Mr. II X a full pardon for each of his State crimes. Today’s Federal pardon achieves the same for Mr. II X’s Federal cocaine offenses.

Cesar Lozada — President Trump granted a full pardon to Cesar Lozada. This act of clemency is supported by U.S. Representative-elect Maria Elvira Salazar and members of Mr. Lozada’s community. Mr. Lozada, an immigrant from Cuba, started a small business cleaning and servicing pools in Miami-Dade County. Since then, his business, now a pool equipment company, has grown and employs dozens of people. Today’s pardon addresses a mistake Mr. Lozada made in 2004 of conspiring to distribute marijuana, for which Mr. Lozada took full responsibility, served his sentence of 14 months in prison and three years supervised release, and paid a $10,000 fine. Mr. Lozada volunteers on weekends at a charity mission and serves food to the poor.

Joseph Martin Stephens — President Trump granted Joseph Martin Stephens a full pardon. Mr. Stephens’ Federal conviction – a guilty plea in 2008 to being a felon in possession of a firearm – is predicated on a State felony conviction from 1991, when he was 19. Although the state offered Mr. Stephens deferred adjudication, he turned it down. When Federal authorities prosecuted him nearly 20 years later for possessing a firearm, he took full responsibility for his conduct and served a sentence of 18 months in prison and three years on supervised release. Clemency for Mr. Stephens is supported by business associates.

Andrew Barron Worden — President Trump granted a full pardon to Andrew Barron Worden, an entrepreneur who has worked extensively in the solar energy field. Mr. Worden has exhibited a decades-long commitment to philanthropy, including founding charitable foundations and teaching and research grant programs.

Mr. Worden enjoys the support of business associates and his community for this pardon, which pertains to a 1998 conviction for wire fraud. At the time, Mr. Worden had just graduated from college and made mistakes in running an investment firm he founded. However, Mr. Worden voluntarily stopped his wrongful conduct and began to repay his victims before any criminal charges were filed, an action his sentencing judge called “extraordinary.”

Robert Coughlin — President Trump granted a full pardon to Robert Coughlin. This act of clemency has the support of former interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeffrey Taylor and Adam Ciongoli, and former counselor to Attorney General Ashcroft. Mr. Coughlin pled guilty to a single count of conflict of interest in performing his duties as a Department of Justice official. He was charged for doing favors on matters before the Department of Justice in exchange for sports and concert tickets. Mr. Coughlin voluntarily surrendered his law license and was sentenced to 30 days in a halfway house and 200 hours of community service. Mr. Coughlin is remorseful and has volunteered in his community through organizations including Meals on Wheels and Toys for Tots. Recently, he was reinstated to the D.C. Bar and wishes to put his mistakes behind him.

John Boultbee and Peter Atkinson — President Trump granted a full pardon to John Boultbee and Peter Atkinson. Mr. Boultbee is the former chief financial officer and Mr. Atkinson is the former vice president of Hollinger International. Both men were convicted as part of an alleged fraud scheme involving Lord Conrad Black, and both served nearly a year in prison for mail fraud. President Trump previously pardoned Lord Black, and for similar reasons and with the support of Lord Black, former Assistant U.S. Attorney Ronald Safer, and David Nathanson, he has now granted a full pardon to Messrs. Boultbee and Atkinson.

Joseph Occhipinti — President Trump granted a full pardon to Joseph Occhipinti, a 70-year-old former Supervisory Special Agent with the Immigration and Naturalization Service. This pardon is supported by the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, National Association of Police Organizations, and Representative Christopher Smith. In 1991, Mr. Occhipinti was convicted of conspiracy to violate civil rights under the color of law and making false statements. Mr. Occhipinti had a 22-year highly decorated career in which he earned 76 separate commendations, including three from Attorneys General. Mr. Occhipinti’s 37 month long sentence was commuted by President George H.W. Bush after only seven months’ incarceration.

Rebekah Charleston — President Trump granted a full pardon to Rebekah Charleston. Ms. Charleston’s pardon is supported by her friends, family, and even the Special Agent who arrested her in 2006 for tax evasion.

Ms. Charleston is a victim of sex trafficking who has suffered a litany of abuses and endured a life of forced prostitution. Despite these hardships, Ms. Charleston has become a champion for survivors of all crimes, particularly sex trafficking. She obtained a master’s degree in criminal justice and has worked tirelessly to give a voice to the voiceless victims of sex trafficking. Ms. Charleston volunteers much of her time helping those who are currently or have previously been victims.

Rickey Kanter — President Trump granted a full pardon to Rickey Kanter. Mr. Kanter was the owner and CEO of Dr. Comfort, a company that manufactures special shoes and inserts for diabetics. Although there was no evidence that Dr. Comfort’s customers were ever harmed by the company’s shoe inserts, the company and Mr. Kanter settled claims in civil court regarding shoe inserts that were technically non-compliant with Medicare regulations.

It was only after this point when the Federal Government filed a criminal action against Mr. Kanter. Mr. Kanter pled guilty to one count of mail fraud and completed his sentence of one year and one day in 2012. Since his period of incarceration, Mr. Kanter has been a model member of his community.

Topeka Sam — President Trump granted a full pardon to Topeka Sam. This pardon is supported by Alice Johnson and David Safavian.

Ms. Sam’s life is a story of redemption. She has become a powerful advocate for criminal justice reform since she completed three years of a 130-month sentence she received in 2012 as a result of pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to possess and distribute cocaine. Ms. Sam has since dedicated her life to helping other women in need turn from a path of despair towards a path of redemption. Ms. Sam founded Ladies of Hope Ministries, where she helps formerly incarcerated women transition back into society through education, entrepreneurship, spiritual empowerment, and advocacy. Along with others, she championed the historic First Step Act that President Trump signed in to law in 2018.

James Batmasian — President Trump granted a full pardon to James Batmasian. Mr. Batmasian’s pardon is supported by Representative Brian Mast, Alice Johnson, and former Masters Champion Bernhard Langer, among many others from the South Florida community that Mr. Batmasian has done so much to serve through his extensive charitable works.

Mr. Batmasian runs an extensive property management business in South Florida. Over a three-year period from 2001 to 2003, Mr. Batmasian made overtime payments without withholding for income taxes or FICA contributions. While illegal, Mr. Batmasian recorded all of these payments and made no attempt to hide them when confronted by IRS investigators. In 2008, Mr. Batmasian pled guilty to willful failure to collect and remit payroll taxes. Mr. Batmasian accepted full responsibility for his actions, fully repaid the IRS the money he owed, and served his 8-month sentence.

William J. Plemons, Jr. — President Trump granted a full pardon to William J. Plemons, Jr. Business associates attest to his generosity and service to children and the underprivileged. His clemency is also supported by Richard Greene, former State Senator of Georgia.

Mr. Plemons served in the U.S. Air Force and was honorably discharged. He has spent decades supporting the Boy Scouts, the Cure Childhood Cancer Hospital, and other charitable efforts. Although he was convicted of various financial crimes in the late 1990s and early 2000s, he has taken responsibility for his conduct, served a sentence of 27 months in prison, and paid $400,000 in restitution.

Russell Plaisance — President Trump granted a full posthumous pardon to Russell Plaisance. His clemency is supported by numerous local officials, including the Sheriff of the parish. The prosecutor on his case also does not object to a pardon.

In life, Mr. Plaisance built a tug boat business from the ground up that has grown into seven vessels and employment for over 50 individuals. He has also contributed his time and resources to local charitable causes. His Federal case, dating back to 1987, involves a single count of conspiracy to import cocaine stemming from one conversation in which he participated. The sentencing judge called the event “totally inconsistent with [Mr. Plaisance’s] life history and [his] character.” Mr. Plaisance is survived by his wife of 54 years, children, and grandchildren.

Daniela Gozes-Wagner — President Trump commuted the sentence and restitution order imposed upon Ms. Gozes-Wagner. Numerous former law-enforcement officials, including U.S. Attorneys General Michael Mukasey, Ed Meese, Ramsey Clark, and John Ashcroft; Acting Attorneys General Peter Keisler and Matt Whitaker; an FBI Director, two U.S. Solicitors General, and scores of U.S. Attorneys, among others, have supported commutation for Ms. Gosez-Wager, arguing that she received a disproportionate sentence. The Aleph Institute also supports her commutation.

Ms. Wagner is a single mother of two children who has been in federal custody since her 2017 conviction for health care fraud and money laundering. Ms. Gozes-Wagner worked as a mid-level manager for a company that improperly received Medicare and Medicaid funds. Of the individuals in Ms. Gozes-Wagner’s case, Ms. Gozes-Wagner was the only defendant to go to trial. She received a sentence of 20 years’ imprisonment and was ordered to pay $15.2 million in restitution. This sentence was significantly more severe than the sentences imposed on the other defendants, several of whom played a more central role in the fraud. Her sentence was criticized by numerous former high-ranking U.S. officials as disproportionate to her crime.

Mark Siljander — President Trump granted a full pardon to Mark Siljander. His pardon is supported by Former United States Attorney General Edwin Meese, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, Alabama Congressman Robert Aderholt, and Pastor Andrew Brunson.

Mr. Siljander served in the U.S. House of Representatives for six years, representing the people of Michigan’s 4th district. During his time in Congress, Mr. Siljander was one of Congress’s most stalwart defenders of pro-life principles and the namesake of the ��Siljander Amendment,” which prohibits U.S. funds from being used to lobby for or against abortion.

Mr. Siljander served a year in prison for obstruction of justice and failing to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Since his incarceration, Mr. Siljander has devoted himself to traveling in the Middle East and Africa to promote peace and mutual understanding.

Stephanie Mohr — President Trump granted a full pardon to Stephanie Mohr. Her clemency is supported by the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund and the Fraternal Order of Police.

Ms. Mohr was a police officer in Prince George’s County where she achieved the distinction of being the first female canine handler in the Department’s history. She served 10 years in prison for releasing her K-9 partner on a burglary suspect in 1995, resulting in a bite wound requiring ten stitches. Officer Mohr was a highly commended member of the police force prior to her prosecution. Today’s action recognizes that service and the lengthy-term that Ms. Mohr served in prison.

Gary Brugman — President Trump granted a full pardon to Gary Brugman. His clemency is supported by numerous elected officials, including Lt. Governor Dan Patrick, Senators Ted Cruz, and John Cornyn, Representative Louie Gohmert, Representative Ted Poe, Representative Steve King, Representative Paul Gosar, Representative Walter Jones, Representative Brian Babin, and Representative John Culberson. Others who support this pardon include Laura Ingraham, Sara Carter, Glenn Beck, Lou Dobbs, Bernie Kerik, and numerous members of the U.S. Border Patrol.

Mr. Brugman served this country for eight years in the Coast Guard and then for four years as a U.S. Border Patrol agent. While protecting our borders at Eagle Pass, Texas, Mr. Brugman intercepted nearly a dozen illegal immigrants, pursued them on foot, and apprehended them.

Mr. Brugman was accused of knocking one of the illegal immigrants to the ground and was prosecuted on that basis for deprivation of rights. He served 27 months in prison, where other inmates sought to harm him because of his law enforcement background. After being released from prison, Mr. Brugman went on to obtain his Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and Management.

John Tate and Jesse Benton — President Trump granted John Tate and Jesse Benton full pardons. This action is supported by Senator Rand Paul and Lee Goodman, former Chairman of the Federal Election Commission. Both Mr. Tate and Mr. Benton were convicted based on indirect campaign payments to a state Senator. According to Mr. Goodman, the reporting law violated was unclear and not well established at the time. Each individual received 6 months home confinement and 2 years’ probation.

Charles Kushner — President Trump granted a full pardon to Charles Kushner. Former United States Attorney for the District of Utah Brett Tolman and the American Conservative Union’s Matt Schlapp and David Safavian support a pardon of Mr. Kushner. Since completing his sentence in 2006, Mr. Kushner has been devoted to important philanthropic organizations and causes, such as Saint Barnabas Medical Center and United Cerebral Palsy. This record of reform and charity overshadows Mr. Kushner’s conviction and 2 year sentence for preparing false tax returns, witness retaliation, and making false statements to the FEC.

Margaret Hunter— President Trump granted a full pardon to Margaret Hunter. According to former Federal Election Commission Commissioner Bradley Smith, the conduct forming the basis of Ms. Hunter’s 2019 guilty plea to one count of conspiracy to misuse campaign funds for personal expenses should have been treated as a civil case by the agency. Mrs. Hunter was sentenced to three years’ probation. President Trump previously issued a full pardon to former Congressman Hunter for the same alleged conduct.

Paul Manafort—Today, President Trump has issued a full and complete pardon to Paul Manafort, stemming from convictions prosecuted in the course of Special Counsel Mueller’s investigation, which was premised on the Russian collusion hoax. Mr. Manafort has already spent two years in prison, including a stretch of time in solitary confinement – treatment worse than what many of the most violent criminals receive. As a result of blatant prosecutorial overreach, Mr. Manafort has endured years of unfair treatment and is one of the most prominent victims of what has been revealed to be perhaps the greatest witch hunt in American history. As Mr. Manafort’s trial judge observed, prior to the Special Counsel investigation, Mr. Manafort had led an “otherwise blameless life.” Since May, Mr. Manafort has been released to home confinement as a result of COVID-19 concerns.

Roger Stone— Today, President Trump granted a full and unconditional pardon to Roger Stone, Jr. President Trump had previously commuted Mr. Stone’s sentence in July of this year. Mr. Stone is a 68-year-old man with numerous medical conditions. Due to prosecutorial misconduct by Special Counsel Mueller’s team, Mr. Stone was treated very unfairly. He was subjected to a pre-dawn raid of his home, which the media conveniently captured on camera. Mr. Stone also faced potential political bias at his jury trial. Pardoning him will help to right the injustices he faced at the hands of the Mueller investigation.

Mark Shapiro and Irving Stitsky — President Trump granted commutations to Mark Shapiro and Irving Stitsky, for the remainder of both of their sentences. Messrs. Shapiro and Stitsky founded a real estate investment firm, but hid their prior felony convictions and used a straw CEO. Due to the 2008 financial crisis, the business lost millions for its investors.

Prior to trial, prosecutors offered Messrs. Shapiro and Stitsky plea agreements for 5 to 7 years and 7 to 9 years, respectively. Both declined the deal and exercised their Constitutional right to a jury trial. Both men were found guilty and sentenced to 85 years imprisonment. This sentence was over 10 times the plea offer for Mr. Shapiro and almost 10 times the plea offer for Mr. Stitsky. Messrs. Shapiro and Stitsky have already served more time than their plea offers.

Since their incarceration, both men have become model prisoners, earning support and praise from their fellow inmates. Mr. Shapiro has renewed his faith in Judaism and taught fellow inmates the dangers of dishonesty, while Mr. Stitsky has reflected on the victims of his crime and the remorse that he now has.

This clemency is supported by the Aleph Institute, Alice Johnson, several criminal justice advocacy groups, former Attorney General Edwin Meese, former Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson, former District Judge William Bassler, former United States Attorneys Brett Tolman and James Reynolds, Professors of Law Bennett Gershman and Harold Krent, and several of the victims.

READ MORE STORIES ABOUT:

2020 Election Politics Charlie Kushner Donald Trump Jared Kushner Paul Manafort Robert Mueller Roger Stone

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totalconservative · 4 years ago

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New Post has been published on Total Conservative News

New Post has been published on http://totalconservative.com/its-my-great-honor-trump-gives-michael-flynn-a-full-pardon/

“It’s My Great Honor”: Trump Gives Michael Flynn a Full Pardon

In a pardon of a “crime” that was never committed, President Donald Trump let his former national security adviser Michael Flynn completely off the hook on Wednesday, putting an end to one of the most disturbing episodes in Justice Department history. This case should have been over in the spring when Attorney General William Barr instructed his prosecutors to drop the flimsy, made-up, witch hunt of a case. But because Flynn had the misfortune of drawing Judge Emmet Sullivan, he was forced to endure further prosecution – not at the whims of the federal government, but at the whim of this judge.

“It is my Great Honor to announce that General Michael T. Flynn has been granted a Full Pardon. Congratulations to @GenFlynn and his wonderful family, I know you will now have a truly fantastic Thanksgiving!” Trump tweeted.

In an effort to keep the Justice Department from going after his family, Flynn plead guilty to lying to the FBI in December 2017. However, he later withdrew that plea under the advice of new counsel, setting the stage for a prosecution that was based less in law and more in the Deep State’s resistance to Trump.

“It’s on the question of materiality that we feel really that a crime cannot be established here because there was not, in our view, a legitimate investigation going on,” Barr said in May. “They did not have a basis for a counterintelligence investigation against Flynn at that stage, based on a perfectly legitimate and appropriate call he made as a member of the transition.”

That didn’t fly with Judge Sullivan, however, who refused to dismiss the case.

In a statement on Thursday, Flynn tweeted his appreciation of the president’s move.

“This ‘Pardon of Innocence’ is historic, sincerely appreciated & should never happen in our country again. I will issue a personal statement later today. My family issued one yesterday,” Flynn said. “Thank you America. Happy Thanksgiving.”

Flynn’s family, in their own statement, was unapologetically angry that things had to come to this.

“For four long years, our family and millions of American patriots stood arm-in-arm together with our brother, General Michael T. Flynn, fighting the vicious, deep-rooted corruption of government institutions and vengeful individuals intent on destroying General Flynn and our country in shameful defiance of justice and the Rule of Law,” they wrote. “Those individuals have disgraced the United States of America. The perpetuation of this political persecution of General Flynn was further fermented by Judge Emmet Sullivan’s refusal to dismiss the fraudulent prosecution. Judge Sullivan’s inactions are a reprehensible assault against the Constitution and will live in infamy the world over and is his legacy.”

With just a few changes, this statement could serve as a condemnation of virtually everything the Democrats have done over the last four years. How anyone could have looked at this record of “resistance” and thought, yeah, let’s put THOSE guys in charge…it’s just beyond us.

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saraseo · 4 years ago

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bigyack-com · 5 years ago

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US Justice Department Drops Case Against Ex-Donald Trump Aide Michael Flynn

The department said FBI's original probe of Michael Flynn had no "legitimate investigative basis."Washington: The US Justice Department withdrew its case against former White House national security advisor Michael Flynn Thursday, handing President Donald Trump a major political victory.The department said in a filing that Flynn's December 2017 guilty plea for lying to the FBI in an interview over his Russia contacts was moot because the alleged lies were not significant.It also said the FBI's original probe of him had no "legitimate investigative basis."The decision by the Justice Department, led by close Trump ally Attorney General Bill Barr, came as Flynn was fighting the court's move toward a decision on his sentence, and after public statements by Trump that Flynn was the political victim of "filthy cops."Flynn's secret talks with the Russian ambassador to Washington in December 2016, before Trump was inaugurated, was a cornerstone of the sprawling investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller into Moscow's meddling in the US election.Even though Trump fired Flynn just 22 days into his administration, the president has always claimed the investigation was a political "witch hunt" and that Flynn, a former general and head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, was a "good man."The Justice Department filing Thursday gave support to Trump's claim, saying there were no grounds for the original investigation."The government has concluded that the interview of Mr Flynn was untethered to, and unjustified by, the FBI's counterintelligence investigation into Mr Flynn -- a no longer justifiably predicated investigation," it said.The department said the January 24, 2017 interview was not "conducted with a legitimate investigative basis, and therefore does not believe Mr Flynn's statements were material if untrue."(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.) Read the full article

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rauthschild · 5 years ago

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Trump Raid On CDC Comes Into Focus As Pentagon Shifts To War Mode And Mueller Prosecutors Flee From Russians

By: Sorcha Faal

A breathtaking new Security Council (SC) report circulating in the Kremlin today discussing the 16 February 2018 “joke indictment” case against Russian company Concord Management filed by former Special Counsel Robert Mueller as a means to harm President Donald Trump by lyingly claiming Russian interference in the 2016 US Presidential Election, notes that yesterday Mueller’s prosecutors quietly slunk into a US Federal Courthouse in Washington D.C. where they dropped what the leftist US media called the “Biggest Bombshell Indictment” and saw it being dismissed with prejudice—a case dismissal destroying the very foundation of the entire Mueller investigation witch hunt against Trump the American people aren’t being allowed to know about due their nations present coronavirus hysteria—but most certainly is known by Trump, who then ordered an immediate halt to all DEFENDER-Europe 2020 deployments to Europe involving tens-of-thousands of heavily armed US Army combat troops, as well as his ordering those few who had been deployed to immediately return to the United States—that Trump quickly followed by issuing another order to keep US Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Deputy Defense Secretary David Norquist separated from each other—war actions confirming the Ministry of Defense (MoD) assessment made this week that Trump’s military moves are a feinting maneuver presaging open conflict in America itself—and whose origins of which began in the days just prior to Trump being sworn into office on 20 January 2017—a frightful period of time that saw top socialist Democrat Party US Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer directly threatening Trump and warning him: “Let me tell you, you take on the intelligence community, they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you”—a warning quickly followed by the US intelligence community dragging President-elect Trump and his top aides into a tabletop exercise exhibiting a disease crippling the United States worse than the influenza pandemic since 1918—which explains why just three-days after Trump took power, he ordered the FBI to conduct an early morning raid on the Centers of Disease Control headquarters in Atlanta-Georgia on 23 January 2017—a raid followed, on 17 December 2017, when the Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport was completely shut down for 11 hours while a specialized aircraft owned by Cal Cargo Airlines was met on the runway by a heavily guarded convoy having originated from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that placed 3 large vehicles aboard this aircraft, and was the only plane allowed to takeoff during this shutdown—the same Centers of Disease Control that botched the coronavirus test—which led to Trump taking full control of the battle against the coronavirus pandemic himself.

The actions of President Donald Trump since the day he took office shows clear pattern of his knowledge that America would be struck by an engineered pandemic.

According to this report, upon his taking office, President Trump was beset by enemies all around him, most particularly those from within his own US intelligence community—and to protect himself saw Trump appointing as his top National Security Advisor retired United States Army Lieutenant General Michael Flynn—who as one of Americans most accomplished intelligence officials in modern history, knew how to battle against and defeat all of Trump’s enemies.

On 24 January 2017, just four days after taking his office in the White House, however, this report details, General Flynn was approached by two FBI agents—that began a sordid saga that continues to this day, but most critically decapitated his ability to protect Trump—a decapitation caused by Mueller prosecutors threatening to target Flynn’s son—and to protect saw Flynn agreeing to a plea deal for which he pled guilty to lying to the two FBI agents who first approached him—a plea deal Flynn has now asked to be withdrawn—most particularly because the evidence proves Flynn didn’t lie to these FBI agents at all—a fact known by even top Obama officials in the Department of Justice who “voiced alarm over the FBI’s treatment of Flynn”—and this week was a case against Flynn that descended into farce when it was stunningly revealed in US Federal Court that the FBI had “lost” all of their original Flynn interview notes—a farce that then turned into a Greek tragedy when the US Federal Judge presiding over Flynn’s case shockingly met the FBI’s stunning admission with the words “things happen”—a vile miscarriage of justice Trump answered with his saying that he is now “strongly considering” a full pardon of Flynn.

The importance of noting what’s occurring with General Flynn, this report concludes, is that it proves to President Trump that the normal process of law and justice in the United States has been so corrupted it’s effectively been rendered meaningless—but whose cure for is actually contained in the United States Constitution and thousands of US federal laws giving Trump such power, distinguished law Professor Wendy Parmet of Northeastern University has called them “awe-inspiring in their breadth”—awe-inspiring powers, however, Trump couldn’t unleash unless his nation was under a dire national security threat—like a planned globalist-socialist plot to bring down Trump using a manufactured pandemic to destroy the US economy and throw him from power—a plot of such enormous dimensions ordinary American peoples are unable to even contemplate such a thing being true, while at the same time they know that the catastrophic attacks of 11 September 2001 were committed by their own government—but is a plot fully understood by a Trump who, on 13 March 2020, signed and put into full force one of the most fearsome documents ever seen in US history titled “Proclamation on Declaring a National Emergency Concerning the Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Outbreak”—the full and terrible dimensions of which caused the powerful socialist Democrat Party leader US Congressman James Clyburn to yesterday warn in great detail of what he sees as troubling parallels between America today and Nazi Germany and fearfully say: “I used to wonder how could the people of Germany allow Hitler to exist. But with each passing day, I'm beginning to understand how. And that's why I'm trying to sound the alarm”—a fear-based warning issued by Clyburn that’s historically accurate as it pertains to Nazi leader Adolph Hitler using a national emergency to take full control over Germany and change his nation forever—but is the only Hitler-Trump comparison that’s comparable to what is now occurring in America—as like President Abraham Lincoln before him, all of the evidence points to President Trump using his dictatorial powers to smash this globalist- socialist plot against him and his nation by any means necessary—as, also like Lincoln before him, Trump knows that a divided America is a dead America—and as Lincoln most famously said the last time America was tearing itself to shreds: “A house divided against itself, cannot stand”.

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memestreammedia · 6 years ago

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Welcome to Hell

It should be clear as anything that if the Republicans could have substantiated a SINGLE charge against Hilary, they would have charged her with something.

They didn’t, because they couldn’t. Whatever the merits of the original investigation were, and there is nothing inherently wrong with trying to find out what happened at Benghazi and what steps could be taken to lessen the likelihood of a recurrence, it obviously became nothing more than a Partisan tactic to keep the base loyal and to help keep Clinton from being elected.

ON THE OTHER HAND, not only was the investigation into the question of Russian interference in the American election TOTALLY LEGITIMATE, it would have been so even if it had turned out to be, like Benghazi, all smoke and no fire.

But, it wasn’t smoke without fire, as the multiple indictments, guilty pleas, and successful prosecutions CLEARLY SHOW. There was a “there” there. RUSSIA ATTEMPTED TO TAMPER WITH AN AMERICAN ELECTION, and may well have succeeded to a degree. It was never an investigation to “get” Trump. It was an investigation to get to the truth, wherever it led. If there was no collusion between directly Trump and the Russians, there was clearly collusion between some in the Trump campaign and the Russians, and Mueller’s conclusion wasn’t that Trump comes out of it exonerated, it was that there wasn’t conclusive, actionable evidence that he was involved. That’s a different thing than being completely cleared.

Let’s not forget that Trump did nothing but act like a guilty person the whole time. He attempted to tamper with the investigation through firings, threats, and media tantrums that might constitute obstruction of justice, even if there was no underlying crime.

Look at the difference between his whining and tantrums, and the quiet dignity with which Clinton endured the endless Benghazi hearings. That’s the difference between an innocent person with nothing to hide, and a guilty one with a closet full of skeletons

Incredibly now that it’s over, he’s calling for an investigation into the investigation, on the grounds it was a Partisan witch hunt…even though the indictments and convictions show it clearly wasn’t.

This guy belongs in a looney bin or a jail cell or even back running his shady empire. Anywhere but the White House.

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whittlebaggett8 · 6 years ago

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Attorney General Barr delivers principal conclusions from Robert Mueller’s Russia probe report, Defence Online

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Robert Mueller.

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Ann Heisenfelt/Getty Images

Attorney General William Barr delivered his summary of the special counsel Robert Mueller’s main findings in the Russia investigation on Sunday.

Mueller was tasked with investigating Russia’s interference in the 2016 US election, whether members of the Trump campaign colluded with Moscow to tilt the race in his favor, and whether Trump sought to obstruct justice when he learned of the investigation’s existence.

According to Barr’s summary, Mueller “determined not to make a traditional prosecutorial judgement.”

Mueller also “states that ‘while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.’”

Attorney General William Barr on Sunday delivered his highly anticipated summary of the special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on the FBI’s Russia investigation.

Mueller was appointed special counsel in May 2017 and was tasked with investigating Russia’s interference in the 2016 US election.

Mueller turned in his final report to Barr on Friday.

Barr’s full summary has not yet been released to the public, but according to House Judiciary Chair Jerry Nadler, Barr’s conclusions were as follows:

The Department of Justice “determined not to make a traditional prosecutorial judgement.”

“The Special Counsel states that ‘while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.’”

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FILE PHOTO: Special Counsel Mueller departs after briefing members of the U.S. Senate on his investigation in Washington

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Reuters

A look back: 8 guilty pleas and nearly 200 charges against 34 people and 3 entities

The FBI’s investigation began almost a year before Mueller’s appointment, after the Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos bragged to a top Australian diplomat in May 2016 that Russia had dirt on Hillary Clinton’s campaign in the form of “thousands” of hacked emails.

Two months later, in July, when the radical pro-transparency group WikiLeaks posted a trove of hacked Democratic National Committee emails online, Australian officials informed their American counterparts of Papadopoulos’ conversation with Downer, the Times reported. The FBI began scrutinizing the Trump campaign’s Russia ties that month.

Read more: We now know the tipping point that prompted the FBI to launch its Trump-Russia investigation

Broadly, the Russia investigation consists of three main threads: whether there was a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Russian government to tilt the 2016 race in his favor, whether Russia has kompromat on Trump that could affect his ability to effectively govern the US, and whether Trump and his associates sought to obstruct justice after the public learned of the investigation’s existence in March 2017.

Papadopoulos is one of six top Trump associates who have been charged in the investigation.

Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to one count of lying to the FBI. He cooperated with investigators and served 12 days in jail.

Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was convicted of eight counts of tax fraud, bank fraud, and failure to report foreign bank accounts. He also pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy and obstruction. Manafort initially cooperated with investigators, but his plea deal was voided after a federal judge ruled that he lied to prosecutors after agreeing to cooperate. He was recently sentenced to seven and a half years in prison.

Trump’s longtime former lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, pleaded guilty to one count of lying to Congress. He also pleaded guilty to eight counts of tax evasion, bank fraud, and campaign-finance violations as part of the Manhattan US attorney’s office’s investigation into Trump’s business dealings during the 2016 campaign. He is cooperating with investigators and is set to report to prison for a three-year sentence on May 6.

Former Trump campaign deputy chairman Rick Gates pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and one count of lying to the FBI. He is cooperating with investigators, and earlier this month, prosecutors asked for a fifth time that his sentencing be delayed, citing his continued cooperation in “several ongoing investigations.”

Former national security adviser Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to one count of lying to the FBI. Flynn recently finished cooperating with prosecutors and is due for a second sentencing hearing after his lawyers said at his first hearing that he would continue to cooperate.

The longtime GOP strategist and informal Trump adviser Roger Stone was indicted on seven counts of obstruction, witness tampering, and false statements. Stone has pleaded not guilty to all counts and intends to go to trial.

Mueller’s office also charged others who weren’t directly linked to the Trump campaign but were connected to Russia’s interference in the election.

13 Russian nationals and three Russian entities were charged with conspiracy, and some were charged with identity theft. They are accused of running a wide-ranging social media disinformation campaign to either sway American voters toward Trump in the election or to dissuade Democratic voters from casting their ballots by denigrating the Clinton campaign.

12 Russian intelligence officers working for the GRU (Russia’s primary military intelligence unit) were indicted on conspiracy and hacking charges related to the theft and release of Democratic emails in 2016.

The former Russian intelligence officer Konstantin Kilimnik, a top Manafort associate, was indicted alongside Manafort and charged with attempting to obstruct justice by tampering with witness testimony in early 2018 – months after Manafort and Gates were first indicted as part of the Russia probe.

The Dutch lawyer Alex van der Zwaan pleaded guilty to one count of lying to the FBI about his contacts with Gates and another unnamed person based in Ukraine.

The California resident Richard Pinedo pleaded guilty to one count of identity theft in connection to the indictment of the 12 Russian military intelligence officers.

The GOP operative and lobbyist Sam Patten was initially investigated as part of the Russia investigation, but Mueller later handed his case over to other Justice Department offices. He eventually pleaded guilty to failure to register as a foreign agent.

Dozens of ongoing threads and court cases

On Friday, after Mueller submitted his final report to Barr, a senior Justice Department official told several media outlets that the special counsel would not be recommending any more indictments or criminal charges.

Trumpworld erupted into celebration at the news, slamming the “collusion truthers” whom they claimed were determined to undermine the president but to no avail. They also said the fact that Mueller had investigated Trump for two years but did not charge him was proof that the investigation was a “witch hunt” and a “hoax,” as the president has long claimed.

But legal experts say their celebration may be premature because the release of Barr’s summary of Mueller’s findings does not necessarily signify the end of the Russia investigation. There are a plethora of court cases, cooperation agreements, and potential future indictments that could drop well into the future, given the complex nature of the investigation.

Read more: Mueller turned his final report in to Attorney General William Barr, but the Russia probe is nowhere near finished

Mueller’s office began handing off casework to other Justice Department offices – primarily the US attorney’s offices in Washington, DC, and the Southern District of New York – weeks ago. Those offices are also conducting their own investigations into Trump’s and his associates’ dealings before, during, and after the election.

Both Cohen and Gates are cooperating with some of those investigations. The US attorney’s office in Washington, DC, will also take over prosecuting Stone’s case.

The Manhattan US attorney’s office is probing Trump’s involvement in several hush-money payments during the election to women who said they had affairs with him. Cohen and several Trump Organization executives are cooperating with the ongoing investigation. Trump’s longtime bookkeeper, Allen Weisselberg, also testified before a grand jury in the investigation.

New York federal prosecutors subpoenaed Trump’s inaugural committee for documents related to its finances. The committee has long been under scrutiny from investigators examining whether foreign governments – such as Russia and the United Arab Emirates – illegally funneled money into the operation to influence White House policy.

Paul Erickson, a GOP strategist and the boyfriend of the Russian spy Maria Butina, was charged by the Justice Department in an unrelated fraud scheme, and if he strikes a plea deal, it could open up new investigative threads for prosecutors.

The House Intelligence Committee recently sent the Justice Department the transcripts of testimony from several individuals that lawmakers believe may have lied to Congress, including Donald Trump Jr. and the Trump associate Erik Prince.

Mueller was locked in a legal battle with an unknown foreign corporation that’s fighting a grand-jury subpoena for documents and testimony. The US attorney’s office in Washington, DC, is now handling the case.

Prosecutors are also in a court fight with Andrew Miller, a Stone associate who’s fighting a separate grand-jury subpoena to provide witness testimony.

The US attorney’s office in Washington, DC, is also taking over a case involving a Russian social-media conspiracy.

Indeed, one former senior Justice Department official who worked closely with Mueller characterized the release of his findings to INSIDER as a “halfway point” in the investigation, predicting that Trumpworld’s legal troubles are far from over.

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Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump.

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Win McNamee/Getty Images

Unanswered questions

Mueller’s office has shed light on many of the key questions in the Russia investigation: the nature and extent of Russia’s influence campaign; Manafort’s deep financial ties to Russian and pro-Russian interests; the extent of the Trump Organization’s efforts to erect a Trump Tower in Moscow and Trump’s and Cohen’s attempts to conceal those negotiations; Stone’s continued overtures to WikiLeaks and those connected to it to find out more about the timing and release of hacked Democratic emails; and more.

But there are still myriad unresolved threads about Trump-Russia contacts that have yet to be answered even after the release of Barr’s summary.

Did Stone coordinate with anyone on the Trump campaign about a WikiLeaks email dump that happened minutes after the release of the Access Hollywood tape? In their charging document, prosecutors wrote that a “senior Trump campaign official” was directed by someone to stay in touch with the GOP strategist about WikiLeaks’ dumps. It’s not known who that official was or who directed them. Cohen also testified to Congress that Trump had advance knowledge of the 2016 DNC hack.

Was there any connection between Trump’s statement during an infamous July 27, 2016 press conference – “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 [Clinton] emails that are missing” – and the start of the Russian hacking campaign against Clinton? In their charging document, prosecutors wrote that on the same day as Trump made his overture, “the Conspirators attempted after hours to spearphish for the first time email accounts at a domain hosted by a third-party provider and used by Clinton’s personal office.”

What was the purpose of a January 2017 meeting in the Seychelles between Trump adviser Erik Prince and the Russian businessman Kirill Dmitriev, who is known to be an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin?

Why did Flynn and Jared Kushner, Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law, meet with then Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak in December 2016 to discuss setting up a secret backchannel between the two sides using Russian diplomatic facilities?

Why did Kushner meet with the Russian banker and Putin ally Sergey Gorkov around the same time? Gorkov is the head of a top sanctioned Russian bank, and Reuters reported that investigators were probing whether Gorkov offered funding for Trump associates’ business dealings if the US relaxed sanctions on Russia.

Why were Kushner, Manafort, and Donald Trump Jr. keen on meeting two Russian lobbyists offering dirt on the Clinton campaign at Trump Tower in June 2016 even after they were told that the meeting was “part of Russia and its government’s support” for Trump? The people involved have said that nothing came of the meeting and that the lobbyists instead wanted to discuss the Magnitsky Act.

Why did Manafort share confidential 2016 Trump campaign polling data with Kilimnik? And why did Manafort offer the Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska “private briefings” on the campaign while he was spearheading it?

Why did Cohen meet with the Russian energy tycoon and Putin confidant Viktor Vekselberg at Trump Tower 11 days before Trump’s inauguration in January 2017?

Why did Ivanka Trump repeatedly try to connect Cohen with the Russian athlete Dmitry Klokov in connection to the Trump Tower Moscow project?

Why did Flynn lie to the FBI about his conversations during the transition with Kislyak about US sanctions on Russia?

Mueller also demonstrated a keen focus on the obstruction thread of his investigation. The New York Times reported last year on the nearly 50 questions Mueller had for Trump, which Trump in turn sent written answers to. Among other things, the special counsel wanted to know:

Why Trump fired FBI director James Comey. The White House initially said Comey was fired because of the way the FBI handled the Clinton email investigation, but Trump later said on national television that he ousted Comey because of “this Russia thing.” He also reportedly told two top Russian officials that firing “nut job” Comey had taken “great pressure” off of him.

Whether Trump knew about Flynn’s conversations with Kislyak about US sanctions, and why Trump went so far to protect Flynn after he was forced to resign (one day later, Trump asked Comey to “let go” of the FBI’s investigation into Flynn).

Trump’s role in allegedly dictating an initially misleading statement that his son, Donald Trump Jr., put out after The Times revealed the existence of the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting with Russian lobbyists. Cohen testified to Congress that Trump had advance knowledge of the meeting but did not provide corroborating evidence, and Trump denies the claim.

Why Trump was so angry at then Attorney General Jeff Sessions for recusing himself from overseeing the Russia investigation. In the months following Sessions’ recusal, Trump called the attorney general “weak” and “beleaguered” and reportedly raged to his advisers about why “my guys” at the “Trump Justice Department” weren’t doing more to shield him from Mueller’s scrutiny.

Why Trump tried, on multiple occasions, to engineer Mueller’s removal as special counsel. In one reported instance, Trump asked then White House counsel Don McGahn to fire Mueller but backed off when McGahn threatened to resign.

In a unique twist, the special counsel also focused on several tweets Trump sent out about the Russia investigation. In one tweet Mueller expressed interest in, Trump warned shortly before Comey’s congressional testimony that he “better hope there are no ‘tapes’ of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!” In another, Trump raged against Sessions for having a “very WEAK position” on investigating Clinton.

Mueller also wanted to know more about Trump’s tweets and statements in September and October 2017, regarding an investigation into Comey and his repeated criticisms of former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe.

The biggest and most lingering question of all, however, makes up the crux of the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation: is the president acting as a witting or unwitting agent of the Russian government?

The bureau reportedly launched that line of inquiry after Trump fired Comey in May 2017. At the time, investigators were almost a year into probing Russia’s interference in the election.

FBI agents had already been suspicious of Trump’s ties to Russia since his 2016 presidential campaign but, according to The Times, there was some concerns within the agency about how to approach the situation given its sensitivity. His decision to fire Comey, however, prompted them to move forward with the investigation.

National-security and counterintelligence officials were also been alarmed by Trump’s repeated endorsements of Putin’s views over the US intelligence community’s. The president shocked observers when he initially refused to accept the intelligence community’s assessment that Russia had interfered in the election, saying that it could have been anyone and there was no definitive proof that the Russians did it under Kremlin orders.

The post Attorney General Barr delivers principal conclusions from Robert Mueller’s Russia probe report, Defence Online appeared first on Defence Online.

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#Collusion #Donald Trump #Life #mueller report #News #obstruction of justice #robert mueller #Russia

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science-criticaltheory · 6 years ago

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It’s Not Looking Good for ‘Individual-1’ by David Atkins

Gage Skidmore/Flickr

Friday, December 6, 2018, will mark the day that Donald Trump, aka “Individual-1,” was officially implicated as a criminal felon by American law enforcement. As our own Martin Longman noted, the crimes themselves weren’t of the highest order–not yet anyway. But they were still felonies.

In short, the Department of Justice, speaking through the acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, is alleging that the president of the United States coordinated and directed a surrogate to commit a campaign finance violation punishable with time in prison. While the filing does not specify that the president “knowingly and willfully” violated the law, as is required by the statute, this is the first time that the government has alleged in its own voice that President Trump is personally involved in what it considers to be federal offenses.

And it does not hold back in describing the magnitude of those offenses. The memo states that Cohen’s actions, “struck a blow to one of the core goals of the federal campaign finance laws: transparency. While many Americans who desired a particular outcome to the election knocked on doors, toiled at phone banks, or found any number of other legal ways to make their voices heard, Cohen sought to influence the election from the shadows.” His sentence “should reflect the seriousness of Cohen’s brazen violations of the election laws and attempt to counter the public cynicism that may arise when individuals like Cohen act as if the political process belongs to the rich and powerful.”

Keep in mind that it’s not just the crime involved. There’s the political angle in terms of the salaciousness of the crime: we’re talking about a nominee for president of the United States paying hush money to a pornographic actress with whom he had an affair, so that the scandal wouldn’t jeopardize his presidential campaign. That’s dime novel villain stuff.

And then there’s the Manafort business:

In a second blow to the president, on Friday prosecutors also disclosed a list of false statements that Paul Manafort, his former campaign chairman, allegedly made to federal investigators in breach of the cooperation agreement he entered into following his conviction for financial fraud and subsequent guilty plea to criminal conspiracy.

Some of the lies that the special counsel spells out in the redacted memorandum appear to implicate the president and those close to him in possible collusion and obstruction crimes. Notably, Mr. Manafort is accused of lying to the special counsel regarding his contacts with the Trump administration.

We don’t know the content of those contacts, but considering public statements about potential pardons, it is not hard to imagine they could implicate the president and others in a conspiracy to obstruct justice or witness tampering if, for example, they suggested a potential pardon if Mr. Manafort protected the president.

It’s important to recall the breathtaking scope of Trump’s alleged crimes. As of now, neither of the alleged crimes revealed Friday night involve Trump with: direct collusion with Russia; quid pro quo agreements involving sanctions, tax fraud, graft, emoluments, and bribes; lying to investigators; or even direct obstruction of justice involving firings and such. So far, this is just the (failed) porn-star payoff and the (failed) inducements to keep Manafort quiet.

There is much more to come. We’re barely getting started, but things are already looking very bad for “Individual-1.”

The big question, of course, is whether the full weight of the revealed alleged crimes will lead even Republicans to act. That’s still quite unclear, and I tend to be a bit more pessimistic about that than my colleague Martin.

As much as the entire GOP and the conservative media establishment have been preparing to brazen out the Mueller report and excuse away Trump’s transgressions and call it all a witch hunt, one gets the sense that even they may have a breaking point. It’s one thing to just imagine ignoring a festering pile of garbage next to you and soldiering on regardless; it’s quite another thing to actually do it when the stench comes wafting in. There have been signs, for instance, that Fox News may be cagily stepping back from Trump so as not to get sucked into the vortex with him.

The problem for the GOP is that they are now inseparably tied to Donald Trump. There is no other unifying standardbearer waiting in the wings. In the 1990s, if Bill Clinton had gone down in flames, Democrats would have treated it as a personal failure and, after some adjustment, rallied fairly happily around Al Gore. The same could not reasonably be said now for Republicans and Mike Pence. The GOP base identifies deeply and personally with Trump in a way that will make it difficult for Republicans to move forward without him, especially if he collapses in disgrace. So they’re stuck, in other words, between a rock and hard place.

But they can’t say they didn’t see it coming. Trump’s disrespect for ethics and common decency has been obvious since the moment he rode down that Trump Tower escalator in June 2015 to announce his candidacy.

#individual-1 #muller investigation

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oregonpipeline · 6 years ago

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The report, by all who have knowledge of it, is expected to be a huge disappointment and only to show that we have wasted unknown resources because of TDS.

In two years they've been unable to link Trump to any successful Russian meddling in our election that year. That's with the full power and authority of a special investigator and about half the country helping.

None of the convictions or guilty pleas are connected to what the investigation was about, so this is a witch hunt.

What has he done that's so bad you want him out of office? I'm assuming you didn't vote for him, but that doesn't mean much and it certainly isn't grounds for impeachment.

Post 139: Impending Mueller report may just be the beginning of Trump's investigation woes

Read: 4 March 2019

Democrats are already (not so silently) planning impeachment. The Mueller report is expected to be the smoking gun for Trump’s impeachment. House Democrats are already planning on creating an “abuse of power” committee that investigates the Trump campaign and everything surrounding it.

Trump has already gone batshit and tweeted out that the “crazed” Democrats were going on a “witch-hunt”

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lodelss · 5 years ago

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An Indictment in All But Name The report dispassionately lays out the facts, which are an indictment in all but name.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s long-awaited report, released to the public in a redacted version on April 18, lays out in meticulous detail both a blatantly illegal effort by Russia to throw the 2016 presidential election to Donald Trump and repeated efforts by President Trump to end, limit, or impede Mueller’s investigation of Russian interference. Trump’s efforts included firing or attempting to fire those overseeing the investigation, directing subordinates to lie on his behalf, cajoling witnesses not to cooperate, and doctoring a public statement about a Trump Tower meeting between his son and closest advisers and a Russian lawyer offering compromising information on Hillary Clinton.

Attorney General William Barr, who has shown himself to be exactly the kind of presidential protector Trump wanted Jeff Sessions to be, did his best to whitewash the report. Almost four weeks before it was released to the public, Barr wrote a four-page letter to Congress purporting to summarize its findings. But as The New York Times’s Charlie Savage has shown, in the letter Barr took Mueller’s words out of context and omitted all mention of the damning evidence that courses through the report.* Just before releasing the report to the public, Barr also held a press conference in which he again distorted its conclusions, stating that it found no collusion with the Russians and no obstruction of justice by the president. Both statements are profoundly misleading.

The Mueller report did not address “collusion,” a term that has no legal definition, but the narrower question of criminal conspiracy. It found no evidence that Trump campaign officials conspired with the Russians’ disinformation campaigns or hacking of computers belonging to the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign. But it describes extensive contacts between the Trump campaign and the Russians, many of which Trump campaign officials lied about. And it finds substantial evidence both “that the Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome, and that the Campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts.” Russian intelligence agency hackers targeted Hillary Clinton’s home office within five hours of Trump’s public request in July 2016 that the Russians find her deleted e-mails. And WikiLeaks, which was in close touch with Trump advisers, began releasing its trove of e-mails stolen by the Russians from Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta one hour after the Access Hollywood tape in which Trump bragged about assaulting women was made public in October 2016. Trump has repeatedly dismissed the investigation as a “witch hunt.” But Mueller found “sweeping and systematic” intrusions by Russia in the presidential campaign, all aimed at supporting Trump’s election. He and his team indicted twenty-five Russians and secured the convictions or guilty pleas of several Trump campaign officials for lying in connection with the investigation, including campaign chairman Paul Manafort, top deputy Rick Gates, campaign advisers Michael Flynn and George Papadopoulos, and Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen. Trump’s longtime friend Roger Stone faces multiple criminal charges arising out of his attempts to conceal his contacts with WikiLeaks. If this was a witch hunt, it found a lot of witches...

Read the full piece in The New York Review of Books here.

Published April 24, 2019 at 08:15PM via ACLU http://bit.ly/2Pr4NK8

#IFTTT #Blogger

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nancydhooper · 6 years ago

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An Indictment in All But Name

The report dispassionately lays out the facts, which are an indictment in all but name.

Read the full piece in The New York Review of Books here.

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8247012 https://www.aclu.org/blog/executive-branch/indictment-all-name via http://www.rssmix.com/

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thewebofslime · 6 years ago

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Attorney General William Barr received a report by special counsel Robert Mueller on Friday that summed up the findings from Mueller's investigation into the Russian attack on the 2016 presidential election. Barr notified congressional leaders in a letter that said he is "reviewing the report and anticipate that I may be in a position to advise you of the special counsel's principal conclusions as soon as this weekend." POLITICS READ: Attorney General Barr's Letter On Mueller Report The letter was addressed to the leaders and ranking members of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees. Barr also said he intends to consult with Mueller and with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein "to determine what other information from the report can be released to Congress and the public consistent with the law." A message from Mueller was delivered early Friday afternoon to Rosenstein and given "within minutes" to Barr, a Justice Department spokeswoman said. Officials would not characterize the length of Mueller's report but would say it is "comprehensive." POLITICS Trump Backs Public Release Of Mueller Report The White House learned about the completion of the report before around 5 p.m. Attorney Emmet Flood in the White House Counsel's office received the notification. Barr has committed generally before to airing publicly what he gets from Mueller — as much as permitted by the law and regulations. He may opt to uphold that pledge by releasing a redacted version of what Mueller has prepared, or Barr may write his own report to summarize the confidential findings for public consumption. The precise next steps weren't immediately clear. One thing that has become clear is that the leadership of the Justice Department did not reject any proposed action by Mueller. Regulations require the attorney general to notify Congress if the attorney general says no to some request. Barr wrote that he had no such notifications to make. Rosenstein was expected to call Mueller to thank him for his work. Calls start for Mueller report to be public Members of Congress in both parties, including the leaders of the House and Senate, called for the report to be released. NATIONAL SECURITY The Mueller Report Is Getting A Lot Of Attention. Here's How We Got Here Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., the vice chairman of the Senate intelligence committee also said Congress must get access to the report's underlying documents and other materials. "Congress and the American people deserve to judge the facts for themselves," Warner said. "The special counsel's report must be provided to Congress immediately, and the attorney general should swiftly prepare a declassified version of the report for the public. Nothing short of that will suffice." Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga., the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, wrote on Twitter that he agreed. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, called it significant that Barr had told Congress that the leadership of the Justice Department hadn't rejected any requests for authority by Mueller. "Importantly, the notification also indicates that there were no areas of disagreement between the attorney general or the acting attorney general and special counsel Mueller regarding courses of action," Graham said. "I have always believed it was important that Mr. Mueller be allowed to do his job without interference, and that has been accomplished," Graham said White House: Next moves are up to Barr It wasn't immediately clear whether the White House might object to the public release of the report, for example on the ground that it can shield its own workings under executive privilege. Press secretary Sarah Sanders said administration officials have not yet been briefed about it. What happens next is up to Barr, Sanders said. Inflection point The report is expected to provide the most comprehensive accounting so far about what the special counsel and his office have uncovered since his appointment following the dismissal of FBI Director James Comey in May 2017. POLITICS The James Comey Saga, In Timeline Form Mueller's office took over an FBI counterintelligence investigation that had been underway at that point for nearly a year. President Trump goes back and forth about what he accepts about the Russian interference; he even briefly absolved Russian President Vladimir Putin in person at a 2018 summit in Finland. But all along, Trump has maintained that the notion that his campaign had conspired with the Russians was a "hoax," one he said was perpetuated by what he called biased conspirators and Democrats desperate for an excuse about why they lost the 2016 election. The president also frequently referred to the investigation led by Mueller as a "witch hunt" begun by Democrats based on unproven claims. In fact, suggestions about Russian cyberattacks against the U.S. appeared as early as 2015, when Britain's signals intelligence agency detected Russian activity aimed at political targets in the United States. Then in the summer of 2016, an Australian diplomat told American officials that a Trump campaign aide he had met in London — junior foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos — said Russians or their agents had been offering him dirt on Hillary Clinton. NATIONAL SECURITY All The Criminal Charges To Emerge So Far From Robert Mueller's Investigation The FBI began to investigate Papadopoulos and others, including another campaign adviser, Carter Page; onetime campaign chairman Paul Manafort; and national security adviser Michael Flynn. Papadopoulos, Manafort and Flynn all were eventually charged, along with several others. Long-burning fuse The existence of the investigation remained an official secret through the election in 2016 and until the early spring of 2017, when Comey revealed at a public hearing of the House intelligence committee that it not only had taken place — it was ongoing. Trump fired Comey that May. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein then commissioned Mueller to take over the inquiry as a special counsel within the Justice Department. Mueller appointed attorneys, investigators and other specialists to join the effort. NATIONAL SECURITY The Russia Investigations: What You Need To Know About Russian 'Active Measures' Mueller's office has negotiated a number of guilty pleas and brought criminal indictments involving both onetime Trump aides and a coterie of Russian military and other operatives charged with attacking the election. In legal documents, the special counsel's office has painted a detailed picture of the vast information warfare campaign that was conceived by Russian leaders as early as 2014 and then shifted into high gear for the 2016 presidential election. Russian government operatives traveled to the United States for a reconnaissance trip and then followed up with a multipronged suite of "active measures": — They waged cyberattacks against hundreds of targets, including top political figures; stole internal emails and documents; and then released them to wreak havoc. — They probed state-level election systems to look for weakness and to explore what data were included in voter databases, although officials have said no votes were changed. — They wreaked chaos within the political conversation taking place between Americans both online and in the real world. Not only did online operatives flood social networks with false stories and extreme posts to inflame disagreement, but they also plotted real-life disturbances and demonstrations in the real world during the 2016 campaign. First, the focus of the activity was to benefit the candidates whom the Russians considered the most extreme in 2016 — including Trump and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. Eventually, it sharpened into a full-scale program in support of Trump. That realization, combined with Trump's sympathetic messaging about Russia and the contacts discovered between his 2016 campaign and Russians, raised the question of whether Trump's camp might have conspired with the interference.

#TheWebOfSlime

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