Russia Investigation Heating Up

[ClydeR]

Trump is still making critical remarks about Sessions. It appears Trump wants Sessions to resign but does not want to ask for Sessions' resignation. Sessions is smart enough to know that. From this morning..

And about Republicans generally. From yesterday..

[cwolff]

I love that. He's calling out Sessions as beleaguered when, he's the one fucking with the guy. Any sense of truth has exited the WH a long time ago. Still can't believe that Americans are totally cool with that.

[time4fun]

Kushner released his formal statement about the campaign meeting with representatives of the Russian government offering to support their campaign:

In June 2016, my brother-in-law, Donald Trump Jr. asked if I was free to stop by a meeting on June 9 at 3:00 p.m. The campaign was headquartered in the same building as his office in Trump Tower, and it was common for each of us to swing by the other’s meetings when requested. He eventually sent me his own email changing the time of the meeting to 4:00 p.m. That email was on top of a long back and forth that I did not read at the time. As I did with most emails when I was working remotely, I quickly reviewed on my iPhone the relevant message that the meeting would occur at 4:00 PM at his office. Documents confirm my memory that this was calendared as “Meeting: Don Jr.| Jared Kushner.” No one else was mentioned.

I arrived at the meeting a little late. When I got there, the person who has since been identified as a Russian attorney was talking about the issue of a ban on U.S. adoptions of Russian children. I had no idea why that topic was being raised and quickly determined that my time was not well-spent at this meeting. Reviewing emails recently confirmed my memory that the meeting was a waste of our time and that, in looking for a polite way to leave and get back to my work, I actually emailed an assistant from the meeting after I had been there for ten or so minutes and wrote “Can u pls call me on my cell? Need excuse to get out of meeting.”

I had not met the attorney before the meeting nor spoken with her since. I thought nothing more of this short meeting until it came to my attention recently. I did not read or recall this email exchange before it was shown to me by my lawyers when reviewing documents for submission to the committees. No part of the meeting I attended included anything about the campaign, there was no follow up to the meeting that I am aware of, I do not recall how many people were there (or their names), and I have no knowledge of any documents being offered or accepted. Finally, after seeing the email, I disclosed this meeting prior to it being reported in the press on a supplement to my security clearance form, even if that was not required as meeting the definitions of the form.

Picture a Bus.

Now picture Donald Trump Jr under it.


A few notes:

1) He never acknowledges whether or not he read the original email that clearly states the purpose of this meeting

2) He states the meeting was Don Jr | Jared Kushner as though anyone would have put "Russian Government Collusion Exploration Meeting". (Also, anyone here who has joint calendars at work knows that you don't have multiple calendar entries for the same meeting- you can't book the same room twice at the same time)

3) He is very clear about arriving late- giving plausible deniability. "By the time I got there- they had stopped talking about collusion!" He mentions it was "about adoption"- but EVERYONE in that room knew full well that "adoption" meant "sanctions". It's a weak defense at best.

4) I 100% believe that he emailed his assistant asking to get out of the meeting. That doesn't mean he did so because he thought it wasn't worth his time. He may very well have recognized what was going on and wanted nothing linking him to it.

5) Lots of "I don't recall/not aware of"- which is standard liability limiting language. It's easy to read into that language, but any half-way decent lawyer is going to make sure that's used- no matter what.

6) Kushner misrepresents this meeting and his candor. He was required to put this on his forms, and he left it out originally. He doesn't get brownie points for fixing his forms once the Russia invesatigation started moving his way.

Ultimately, this statement requires us to simultaneously believe that this meeting was so important that it required 8 people (including Trump's son and son-in-law as well as his campaign manager), but it was so unimportant that no one would have possibly talked about what was in that original email to anyone else.

Playing that game also lands them in very hot water in regards to the parts of the email chain that clearly indicate there is a Russian government plan to actively support their campaign. There is literally no way that anyone who was hearing that for the first time WOULDN'T go running to the top levels of the campaign to discuss it (and the FBI if they were decent Americans) It's not a small thing. The only way you can construe that as not noteworthy is if the campaign already knew.

Either way- not good.

[cwolff]

Right! He ran that little fucker right the hell over.

We should take a moment to recall Comey insisting on a public hearing and he was under oath.

Emailing the assistant is interesting to me. Has he provided that email by the way? I have to assume it exists and is verifiable or he wouldn't bring it up. I find it interesting that someone has to email to get a call to excuse himself from a meeting. He could just look at his phone and say, "wow, I just got a text from my assistant and I'll have to excuse myself".

[Tgo01]

Picture a Bus.

Now picture Donald Trump Jr under it.

Uh, what? What he said was pretty much the story we have so far from everyone involved.

What the fuck are you talking about?

1) He never acknowledges whether or not he read the original email that clearly states the purpose of this meeting

What? He said at the time he didn't read it.

2) He states the meeting was Don Jr | Jared Kushner as though anyone would have put "Russian Government Collusion Exploration Meeting".

Then again people don't typically leave a paper trail such as this if they are doing something they know is against the law, but why bring any sort of logic or reason into this?

"Hey should we make a note of that illegal meeting we have tomorrow that we are trying to keep super secret?"

"Yeah, go ahead and put both of our names on it too and the time and place!"

3) He is very clear about arriving late- giving plausible deniability. "By the time I got there- they had stopped talking about collusion!"

Wait wait, maybe I haven't been keeping up on this story as much as you have, but do we now know "OMG COLLUSION!" was discussed, or is this just yet more bullshit you are pulling directly out of your asshole? Yet again, this seems to be in line with what we have been told; that Russian adoption was discussed at the meeting. What the fuck are you even going on about? I seriously wonder about your mental health sometimes.

4) I 100% believe that he emailed his assistant asking to get out of the meeting. That doesn't mean he did so because he thought it wasn't worth his time. He may very well have recognized what was going on and wanted nothing linking him to it.

"Oh shit! They discussing something super illegal in here! Instead of leaving right away I'm going to email my assistant (yet again leaving more paper trails), ask her to call me, and wait around for god knows how long before she reads the email and call me to give me an excuse to leave." Does this sound even remotely reasonable to you?

5) Lots of "I don't recall/not aware of"- which is standard liability limiting language.

It's also the language of a very busy man (I know you like to view the entire Trump family as a bunch of spoiled rotten kids who lounge around all day watching TV, but grow the fuck up) who probably had upwards of a dozen different meetings a day every day around this time and it happened, what, over a year ago now? How much detail can you remember of a meeting you had over a year ago about something you were apparently so disinterested in that you had to email your assistant and have her call you to give you an excuse to leave?

The continued Trump butt hurt is among the top funniest things I have ever witnessed in my life.

[time4fun]

Right! He ran that little fucker right the hell over.

We should take a moment to recall Comey insisting on a public hearing and he was under oath.

Oh there's very real strategy here. Neither Trump Jr nor Kushner are going to be testifying under oath in public. But the partner in the organization that ordered the dossier will be.

Congressional Republicans don't want the Kushner/Trump testimony being reported on. Instead, they'll ask a LOT of critical questions about the dossier this week in hopes of the weekly narrative being about how unreliable the dossier is.

[cwolff]

Oh there's very real strategy here. Neither Trump Jr nor Kushner are going to be testifying under oath in public. But the partner in the organization that ordered the dossier will be.

Congressional Republicans don't want the Kushner/Trump testimony being reported on. Instead, they'll ask a LOT of critical questions about the dossier this week in hopes of the weekly narrative being about how unreliable the dossier is.

I speculated that it's a self incrimination thing. If they get hung up on charges outside of this proceeding their lawyers can say that they weren't under oath and not to use the transcript. They'd risk running afoul of laws relating to lying to congress but it'd be the best case out of a bad situation.

[time4fun]

I speculated that it's a self incrimination thing. If they get hung up on charges outside of this proceeding their lawyers can say that they weren't under oath and not to use the transcript. They'd risk running afoul of laws relating to lying to congress but it'd be the best case out of a bad situation.

Yes, that's also a big part of it.

The whole thing was also a deal struck to get Manafort and Trump Jr to turn over extra documents- which is insane. Congress has subpeona power. They don't need to "cut deals" to get the documents they need for an investigation.

[Wrathbringer]

Yes, that's also a big part of it.

The whole thing was also a deal struck to get Manafort and Trump Jr to turn over extra documents- which is insane. Congress has subpeona power. They don't need to "cut deals" to get the documents they need for an investigation.

No one cares. Fake news.

[cwolff]

Yes, that's also a big part of it.

The whole thing was also a deal struck to get Manafort and Trump Jr to turn over extra documents- which is insane. Congress has subpeona power. They don't need to "cut deals" to get the documents they need for an investigation.

I know. It's disappointing to say the least. I suppose this is the fastest way to get documents. The three could put up a legal fight and make a hash of it all, but still it's disappointing. Especially after this exchange:

“And you have nothing to hide,” Fox News host Sean Hannity told Trump Jr. during an interview that aired Tuesday night. “That means you'll testify under oath, all of that?"

“All of it,” Trump Jr. responded.