Five things you can do now that the Nunes memo has dropped

Well, it looks like we were right. The so-called “Nunes nemo” turned out to be faker than a Trump Tower orgasm. For all the buildup, it didn’t, as Republican Congressman Steve King promised, bring to light a conspiracy “worse than Watergate.” It didn’t, as wed been led to believe by Sean Hannity and others, prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that that a secret society of anti-Trump operatives at the highest levels of the FBI and Department of Justice had constructed the Russian narrative out of thin air. In fact, it pretty much proved the opposite.

We’d been told that this memo would contain evidence that our intelligence community had placed Trump advisor Carter Page, an innocent American, under federal surveillance, based upon nothing more than lies cooked up by the Clinton campaign, and fed to the Department of Justice by way of what we’ve come to know as the Steele dossier. That’s not at all what the Nunes memo does, though.

Here are my two big takeaways from the Nunes memo. First, it fails to prove that the FISA warrant against Page was based on the Steele dossier, which, yes, was funded at least in part by those close to the Clinton campaign. [The research was initiated, as we’ve already established, when the conservative website, The Washington Free Beacon, hired Fusion GPS to look into Trump’s unethical business dealings during the primaries.] The Nunes memo clearly acknowledges that the FISA application also included information about statements made by Trump foreign policy advisor George Papadopoulos, who, as you’ll recall, had told an Australian diplomat in London that the Trump campaign was about to receive Democratic Party emails stolen by the Russians. [At this point in time, as you may recall, the DNC didn’t even know that they’d been hacked.] And, second, the Nunes memo fails to make the case that Carter Page was surveilled because of his position on the Trump campaign. In fact, the Nunes memo confirms that American intelligence agencies had been keeping tabs on Page since 2013, when they first discovered that he was being recruited by the Kremlin. Oh, and here’s the best part. Just after the Nunes memo dropped, Time magazine released evidence of a letter to an academic publisher, written by Page on August 25, 2013, in which he actually refers to himself as “an informal advisor to the staff of the Kremlin.” So, to believe that the surveillance of Page was the work of deep state operatives intent on scuttling the Trump campaign, you’d have to believe that these shadowy figures started their work back in 2013, three years before Page joined the Trump team, and well before Trump even announced his run for president.

What’s more, we now know that the FISA warrant against Page wasn’t just signed-off on by one Republican-appointed federal judge, but by four, as it was renewed three times. Furthermore, we know that each of these 90-day renewals would have required additional information to be submitted. In other words, in the opinion of these judges, they didn’t just have cause to believe that Page was a Russian agent, but the FISA surveillance was generating evidence that proved this to be the case. So, even if the first FISA warrant were issued solely based on the Steele dossier, the intelligence community found enough additional evidence to justify the renewal of the surveillance three times.

And here’s another interesting tidbit. Nunes has since said that he’s never even seen the application for the FISA warrant against Page, which his whole memo is predicated upon. You know who has actually seen the application, though? Republican Congressman Trey Gowdy, who, by the way, has since said that “the contents of this memo do not – in any way – discredit his investigation. Curiously, Gowdy also just announced that he would not be seeking reelection in 2018. [Could he perhaps see the writing on the wall, that this is the end of the Republican Party?]

So, have you got all that? The Nunes memo, while it’ll likely be cited by President Trump as justification for shutting down the Mueller investigation, didn’t really do anything except show just what a weak hand the administration has… This was their big chance to demonstrate the existence of a deep state conspiracy, and all they showed was that Trump advisor Carter Page had been under surveillance for three years prior to joining the Trump administration, that the Steel dossier didn’t trigger anything, and that George Papadopoulos is the one who really blew the whole case wide open, when he told that Australian ambassador in London about how the Trump administration knew the Russians had successfully hacked Democratic Party emails.

Here, in case you missed them, are just a few of my favorite responses to the Nunes memo.

As for how the memo came to be, Congressman Adam Schiff appears to think it’s very possible that Nunes and his staff coordinated with the White House. Here’s video from the Congressman’s appearance earlier today on This Week. [So, if someone on the office of Devin Nunes flips, that’s just one more nail in Donald Trump’s obstruction of justice coffin.]

At least one person, though, still seems to think that the Nunes memo proves a conspiracy at the highest levels of our American intelligence infrastructure, and that’s our President’s son, Donald Trump Jr., who today said that the Russia investigation is akin to “McCarthyism,” and that “Democrats would rather see America fail than succeed with Donald Trump at the helm.” Oh, and he also tweeted out the following.

OK, so here’s what you can do, assuming all of this makes you want to stand up and do something.

1. You can call you elected officials and demand that they support the release of “the Democratic memo,” which both corrects mistakes found in the Nunes memo and provides much needed context for the Nunes memo.

2. When you have them on the phone, you can request that your elected representatives in D.C. also support bipartisan legislation to protect the Mueller investigation, so that Donald Trump cannot shut it down.

3. You can ask your Representative in the House to demand that Nunes be removed from the House Intelligence Committee for this most recent stunt, which has done incredible damage to our intelligence gathering capabilities.

4. You can donate a few bucks to Andrew Janz, the Democrat who will be running against Nunes in November.

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199 Comments

  1. Demetrius
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 8:09 am | Permalink

    I appreciate your thoughtful analysis, but I doubt 95 percent of Americans would ever take the time to read something this detailed, and I bet fewer still really understand the memo and what it actually does, and doesn’t, mean.

    I’ll be if this registers to most Americans at all, it is as yet another brick in a wall of claims and counter-claims between two competing political factions … just further proof that Washington politicians are more interested in out-maneuvering each other politically (and satisfying their donor base) than in actually doing anything to help the average person.

    Sorry to be so negative, but Ds and Rs have been throwing punches at each other since long before Trump got elected, and all of we’ve got to show for it is massive tax cuts for the rich, unprecedented deregulation, chipping away at health care, etc.

    I figure as long as people remain distracted by drama of the “Punch and Judy” show that Washington politics has become, they won’t notice the ongoing erosion of our democracy.

  2. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 9:22 am | Permalink

    No FISA warrant granted on Page till 10/21/17. Huh!

    Oops – now this:

    http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/devin-nunes-open-to-releasing-transcript-of-andrew-mccabe-testimony-about-fisa-application/article/2648001

    “House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., said he is not opposed to releasing the transcript of FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe’s testimony in which he allegedly said that the agency would not have pursued placing a Trump campaign adviser under surveillance without the unverified “Trump dossier” written by former British spy Christopher Steele.’

  3. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 9:38 am | Permalink

    *10/21/16 rather

  4. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 9:39 am | Permalink

    Riiight before the what?

  5. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 9:56 am | Permalink

    Clinton/Comey dopetrack

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=34&v=WIARMMtUdZQ

  6. Meta
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 10:00 am | Permalink

    Former CIA Director Leon Panetta: “I’ve been in public life for over 50 years. I have never in my lifetime seen anything like this happen.”

    The following is from the CBS News transcript of their discussion with him.

    Q: You read the memo. What are your initial thoughts?

    Panetta: “Well my principle concern here, and I think it’s the concern of the American people is whether or not this was an effort to find the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, uh or whether this was simply a partisan effort to select a few facts to make some political points. If it was an effort to find the truth then one has to ask why did the committee did not look at the entire application for this warrant, why did they not interview the FISA judge who was involved in making the decision. Why did they not talk to the FBI agents that were involved and that wanted to testify on this issue? Why did they short cut the process with simply a staff member memo to summarize its own views. That’s what concerns me, is that I don’t, I don’t see this as a serious committee investigation, of an issue that they were concerned about.”

    Read more:
    https://www.cbsnews.com/news/leon-panetta-transcript-cbs-news-interview-gop-memo-release/

  7. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 10:03 am | Permalink

    Leon Panetta!

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jul/27/leon-panetta-anti-war-protesters-democratic-convention

  8. Donald Trump weighs in
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 10:11 am | Permalink

    Donald Trump just Tweeted this:

    “Representative Devin Nunes, a man of tremendous courage and grit, may someday be recognized as a Great American Hero for what he has exposed and what he has had to endure!”

    Who wants to bet on how Nunes will go down in history?

  9. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 10:24 am | Permalink

    Proper dopetrack link – definitely worth a listen to the whole thing.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIARMMtUdZQ

  10. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 10:39 am | Permalink

    “Who wants to bet on how Nunes will go down in history?’

    Definitely a GAH.

  11. Iron Lung
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 10:41 am | Permalink

    As predicted, the “memo” turns out to be a lot of nothing, outside of a tribalist opportunism to rally the more simple minded of right wing supporters.

    So sad that the Party of Lincoln is now the Party of Conspiracy Theorists and Gullible Fools.

  12. Kyle Griffin by proxy
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 10:50 am | Permalink

    Nunes and his team have claimed to members that they’ve found other examples of politically motivated “wrongdoing” across agencies—including the FBI, DOJ, and State Dept.—and may release as many as five additional memos or reports, according to Axios.

    https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/960488174345703425

  13. Jcp2
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 11:05 am | Permalink

    If you define “wrongdoing” as anything that puts Mr. Trump in a bad light, then yes, there has been a whole lot of “wrongdoing”. Across all branches of government as well as mainstream media. And not just in our country either. It’s a global conspiracy!!!

  14. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 11:13 am | Permalink

    How is illegal spying on a US presidential campaign nothing? That alone is sedition. Wait till the full scope of the spying comes out. Axios is right: Nunes is just getting started.

  15. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 11:24 am | Permalink

    “As predicted, the “memo” turns out to be a lot of nothing, outside of a tribalist opportunism to rally the more simple minded of right wing supporters.
    So sad that the Party of Lincoln is now the Party of Conspiracy Theorists and Gullible Fools.”

    No information as usual. Pure propaganda. Strange.

  16. Proton
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 12:09 pm | Permalink

    http://www.moonofalabama.org/2018/02/memo-democrats-made-up-evidence-enabled-eavesdropping-on-trump-campaign.html#comments
    “What I really can’t get over are the Clintonists who like to think they are progressive (but aren’t) who are intent on defending the FBI, DoJ, CIA, NSA, and other repressive parts of the Washington Regime, because they can’t accept that the blessed Hillary lost because of her vicious history, corrupt policies and arrogant campaign among other reasons. Instead they falsely blame collusion between Trump and Putin because they are wimps who won’t confront the Republicans over voter suppression which was far more influential.”

  17. Anonymous
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 1:01 pm | Permalink

    Nunes went on Fox News and said, “As far as we can tell, Papadopoulos never even knew who Trump was — never even met with the president.”

    The only problem is, we have photos of the two men meeting together.

    This doesn’t speak well for the Chairman’s credibility.

    https://www.vox.com/world/2018/2/5/16973936/nunes-memo-trump-george-papadopoulos

  18. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 1:19 pm | Permalink

    Whoah – George Popaderpoulos sat in on a meeting with Trump! Treason!

  19. Jean Henry
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 1:33 pm | Permalink

    Oh my god, HW you are so boring and predictable at this point.

    Demetrius, I seem to remember you buying into all the Clinton conspiracy theories so long as Bernie was running? You think only the Dems and GOP play divisive partisan politics? You think you were more justified in repeated fake news because your political perspective is more correct?

    Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe you have always been a voice of moderation and balance. I can’t remember. All I remember is being attacked by you whenever I suggested that Bernie and his plans might be less than perfect and that some of the rhetoric employed against the Clinton campaign was sexist and most of it was unsubstantiated and based on 30 years of aggression and propaganda by the right (Much of which we see repeated here by HW). By suggesting there could be anything ‘divisive’ and inaccurate about the rhetoric used by Bernie supporters, I was called basically bat shit crazy. I was definitely called a Republican in disguise and anti-progressive. Oh and sexist… for mentioning sexism in the Bernie campaign. Bernie bros don’t exist; Clinton made them up. (HW voted for Bernie.) Remember that? Screw you and your calls for less divisiveness and a commitment to being informed. You are just as vulnerable to bullshit when you have a horse in the race.

  20. M
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 1:36 pm | Permalink

    “What I really can’t get over are the Clintonists who like to think they are progressive (but aren’t) who are intent on defending the FBI, DoJ, CIA, NSA, and other repressive parts of the Washington Regime, because they can’t accept that the blessed Hillary lost because of her vicious history, corrupt policies and arrogant campaign among other reasons.”

    Proton, if you think this is all just because people aren’t happy that Clinton won, you’re not paying attention at all. There were a lot of us who weren’t happy when the second George Bush was elected. We didn’t push for impeachment, though. This is a different animal altogether. This is about preserving the integrity of our nation. I hate to break it to you, but the Trump administration is a criminal enterprise. This has nothing to do with being upset over an election that didn’t go our way. This is about defending our nation from hostile governments and criminal organizations.

  21. Iron Lung
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 1:47 pm | Permalink

    I can only speak for myself, but my opinion of Donald Trump and my feeling that this investigation must continue has nothing at all to do with Hillary Clinton.

  22. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 1:56 pm | Permalink

    You are still 180˚ from the reality, M. It’s the Clinton Foundation and their cronies who are the criminal enterprise. Corrupting law enforcement, bribery, attempt to overthrow the President of the USA (!!!) There is no Trump collusion (where is it?) and how could it be obstruction to fire a crooked cop at the top of the FBI? It’s incredible to see the denial.

  23. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 2:00 pm | Permalink

    It does have to do with Hillary Clinton because Hillary Clinton made the Trump investigation possible by using election funds to buy an unverified dossier.

  24. Iron Lung
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 2:04 pm | Permalink

    The Mr. Warlord, in addition to having trouble understanding how legislation occurs in the United States, also has trouble reading.

    My opinion of Donald Trump has nothing at all to do with Hillary Clinton. I have disliked him for decades.

    My view that the investigation must continue also has nothing to do with Hillary Clinton. All Presidents, independent of party, should be put under the most intense scrutiny at all times. They should also fear that scrutiny intensely. This is necessary for a democratic state.

  25. Trey Gowdy
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 2:06 pm | Permalink

    “There would be a Russia investigation even without a dossier.”

    https://twitter.com/MarchForTruth17/status/960133465441218562

  26. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 2:06 pm | Permalink

    The Mr. Derpy Derp fails to understand basic logic. Strange. No Hillary/DNC dossier, no investigation.

  27. wobblie
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 2:08 pm | Permalink

    I’m with IL on this. Clinton was the absolutely worst candidate the Democrats could have chosen. Just as Trump was the absolutely worst candidate the Republicans could have chosen. For the good of the country the investigations must go on. It is the only way to put fear into them. Since Trump is President he is the one we should fear the most.

  28. Iron Lung
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 2:10 pm | Permalink

    “No Hillary/DNC dossier, no investigation.”

    Perhaps, but investigation must continue. It matters not what started the investigation. If a crime has been committed by the sitting President of the United States, anyone in his campaign or anyone in his administration, the American people deserve to know.

    The Mr. Warlord fails to understand “basic logic.”

  29. Iron Lung
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 2:13 pm | Permalink

    “Clinton was the absolutely worst candidate the Democrats could have chosen.”

    Perhaps. But Clinton lost the election. Clinton will never be President. At this point, Clinton is wholly irrelevant.

  30. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 2:14 pm | Permalink

    “Trey Gowdy
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 2:06 pm | Permalink
    “There would be a Russia investigation even without a dossier.”

    You don’t suppose he could be undermining the attempt to frame the memo as an attempt to distract from the investigation, do you? When you think about it there is no way he could know if there would be an investigation based on only those things. No dossier, no warrant according to McCabe so how can it be said there would be an investigation without it? If he is saying there are legitimate questions that need to be looked at then fine. That could be true. Let’s look at them but let’s find out the full extent of the abuse of power/criminal behavior related to the dossier.

  31. Iron Lung
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 2:16 pm | Permalink

    In retrospect, I support Ken Starr’s investigation. In democracies, leaders at all levels need to be held accountable. The courts should decide if the charges are false.

  32. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 2:18 pm | Permalink

    “Perhaps, but investigation must continue. It matters not what started the investigation. If a crime has been committed by the sitting President of the United States, anyone in his campaign or anyone in his administration, the American people deserve to know.”

    So you would have no problem with the police planting evidence on someone and then searching the homes of those associated with that person. That is basically what happened to Trump. It is truly scary that derps like you are actually walking around.

  33. Iron Lung
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 2:21 pm | Permalink

    Donald Trump is no longer a private citizen. He is a public servant accountable to the American people. In theory, he should have fewer rights than private citizens.

    For example, his tax returns should be made public, his visitor logs should be public record, all of his phone, email and text conversations should be recorded and preserved.

  34. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 2:25 pm | Permalink

    Well then let’s just open up the NSA surveillance on everyone and see who is doing what? No need for privacy anymore. That’s a thing of the past, right? I’m sure the Clinton Foundation and these KGB-like FBI officials would have nothing nefarious at all come to light.

  35. Iron Lung
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 2:31 pm | Permalink

    If Mr. Trump and his associates have done nothing wrong, they have nothing to fear.

    Again, Donald Trump is now a public employee. As anyone who has worked in such a capacity knows (particularly in a military capacity), public employees are not afforded the same level of privacy as private citizens. As an elected official holding the most powerful position in the land, one should expect to be held to an even higher standard.

    It is interesting that the Mr. Warlord does not seem to understand the distinction between the private citizenry and public servants.

  36. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 2:35 pm | Permalink

    “If Mr. Trump and his associates have done nothing wrong, they have nothing to fear.”

    Not true when people with the power to initiate an investigation lied in order to do it. If they did that then they could do anything to stitch up some bogus thing.

  37. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 2:36 pm | Permalink

    What I said applies to public servants too. Another derpy comment. Strange.

  38. Iron Lung
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 2:40 pm | Permalink

    The courts are capable of deciding if there was wrongdoing in the investigation.

    As with Ken Starr/Clinton, the investigation should continue.

    Donald Trump (and William Clinton during the Starr investigation), however, should be afforded no special privileges.

  39. Iron Lung
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 2:42 pm | Permalink

    The Mr. Warlord strangely feels as if Mr Trump should be exempt from scrutiny.

    Perhaps the Mr. Warlord would be more suited to Vladimir Putin’s Russia or Maduro’s Venezuela, or perhaps Mugabe era Zimbabwe. Maybe Suddam Hussein’s Iraq or present day North Korea would be appealing to him.

  40. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 2:47 pm | Permalink

    The Mr. Derpy Derp calls using and lying to the FISC about the Dirty Dossier ‘scrutiny’. The Mr. Derp appears to have an affinity for KGB-like practices by some of our nation’s top officials. Strange.

  41. Jean Henry
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 2:50 pm | Permalink

    Mr Warlord is content to point to the private messages of FBI employees as proof of collusion against Trump by the ‘deep state’, but objects to the same standard applied to Trump. Same goes for Hillary’s emails.

  42. Jean Henry
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 2:52 pm | Permalink

    “Not true when people with the power to initiate an investigation lied in order to do it. If they did that then they could do anything to stitch up some bogus thing.” — HW

    You mean like Benghazi?

  43. Jean Henry
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 2:53 pm | Permalink

    Or the Birther movement?

  44. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 2:53 pm | Permalink

    Ms. Henry fails to admit there is much more now in the public eye than some texts to show abuse of power.

  45. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 2:54 pm | Permalink

    “You mean like Benghazi?”

    Nerp

  46. Iron Lung
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 2:56 pm | Permalink

    Unquestioning cheerleaders like the Mr. Warlord enable abuses of power.

  47. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 2:57 pm | Permalink

    “Or the Birther movement?”

    Nerpity nerp. Even snopes had to admit this One Weird Thing about Barack Obama.

    https://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/birthers/booklet.asp

  48. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 2:58 pm | Permalink

    “Iron Lung
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 2:56 pm | Permalink
    Unquestioning cheerleaders like myself, the Mr. Lung enable abuses of power.”

    Fixed

  49. Meta
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 2:59 pm | Permalink

    The Washington Post: “Trump’s latest stunt is about to blow up in his face”

    It is still very possible that President Trump could use the Nunes memo as a pretext to try to quash or constrain special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s probe. Trump tweeted over the weekend that the memo “totally vindicates” his claim that the investigation is a “witch hunt,” which is an absurd lie in every possible respect, but it shows he’s still mulling a move on Mueller.

    But the performance of congressional Republicans on the Sunday shows — and a weekend’s worth of legal analysis taking apart the Nunes effort — together suggest another possibility. The Nunes memo affair may be shaping up as a much bigger fiasco than we even know — so bad, in fact, that it could ultimately undermine Trump’s position even more dramatically than we could have expected.

    Today Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee will push for a vote to release Rep. Adam Schiff’s rebuttal to the Nunes memo. We now know enough to speculate that the Schiff rebuttal — which wouldn’t exist in the first place if Nunes hadn’t embarked on this charade with the White House’s blessing — may actually give us new information about the genesis of the Russia probe that only further underscores its legitimacy.

    A key conclusion about the Nunes memo reached by legal analysts is that the memo actually confirmed that the FBI’s investigation was launched in July 2016, well in advance of the awarding in October 2016 of a warrant to conduct surveillance on former Trump adviser Carter Page due to his suspected links to Russia, based to an indeterminate extent on Democratic-funded research in the “Steele dossier.” The Nunes memo vaguely notes that information gathered on Trump adviser George Papadopoulos is what triggered the FBI inquiry. Papadopoulos revealed in his plea that he had learned of “dirt” collected on Hillary Clinton by the Russians.

    What’s more, the Nunes memo notes that surveillance warrants were subsequently granted numerous times. As Paul Rosenzweig, a former Whitewater investigator, points out, these could only have been granted if new evidence had demonstrated sufficient grounds for suspicion of Page, meaning “independent reviews” by “separate judges” actually “validated the FBI’s investigation.”

    If Schiff’s rebuttal is released, it is likely to add detail, where possible, filling in this picture of the genesis of the probe. The New York Times reports that the rebuttal will supply “crucial context” to the FBI’s case for getting the warrant.

    Read more:
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2018/02/05/trumps-latest-stunt-is-about-to-blow-up-in-his-face/

  50. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 3:02 pm | Permalink

    Think this through. Trump doesn’t have to dismantle the probe. Indictments based on fraudulently-obtained warrants are going to be dismissed.

  51. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 3:04 pm | Permalink

    Again why was Flynn’s sentencing delayed last week due to the “status of the investigation”? What IS the status of the investigation? Flynn was interviewed by who? Who also interviewed who?

  52. Iron Lung
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 3:09 pm | Permalink

    “Think this through. Trump doesn’t have to dismantle the probe. Indictments based on fraudulently-obtained warrants are going to be dismissed.”

    Assuming that the warrants were, in fact, “fraudulently-obtained” then it would be the obvious case that courts may choose to dismiss all or part of the case.

    The investigation, then, can and should continue and the courts can rule on it’s merit. If, in fact, Mr. Trump has done nothing wrong, he has nothing to fear.

  53. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 3:17 pm | Permalink

    No need to assume. There is evidence in public now. That’s what the memo represents. It’s a fraud. How is it not? Derp, dude!

  54. Jean Henry
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 3:25 pm | Permalink

    “Even snopes had to admit this One Weird Thing about Barack Obama.”
    Please note that HW points to a single mis-statement in a press release as evidence that a cavalcade of other accurate and multiple-source verified facts to the contrary are inaccurate. That’s his QED for narratives he likes– one piece of debunked ‘evidence’ is sufficient proof.
    With regards to narratives he dislikes, one piece of ‘information’ to the contrary throws it all into question.

    This is HW rhetoric 101.

    This piece by Masha Gessen made me think of how much HW’s use of inflated language around his lies and misinformation echoes Trump’s own. HW is a baby autocrat and a bigot. I won’t apologize for deriding him or Trump whenever I have time and cause. http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2017/05/13/the-autocrats-language/

  55. Iron Lung
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 3:26 pm | Permalink

    That is for the courts to decide, not the public. The investigation has not been completed, and the courts have yet to hear cases related to the investigation.

  56. Iron Lung
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 3:26 pm | Permalink

    The Mr. Warlord appears to believe that we live in an episode of “Law and Order.”

  57. wobblie
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 3:28 pm | Permalink

    Flynn’s sentencing was delayed—perhaps he has violated the terms of his plea. As the investigation has progressed they now have evidence that he lied when he was given his plea. “What IS the status of the investigation? ” I thought you followed the news. The Mueller investigation has been proceeding in a typical methodical manner. Did you forget that Flynn was the first fish Mueller caught? I suspect that Flynn has been interviewed by numerous FBI agents and DOJ attorneys at this point.

    Mueller, like a good prosecutor is not disclosing his evidence. That is how you swoop up all the criminals involved in a conspiracy. I suspect he has additional evidence against Flynn that eviscerates the plea deal. If Flynn is smart he will flip, and additional fish will be caught up in Mueller’s net.

  58. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 3:29 pm | Permalink

    “note that HW points to a single mis-statement in a press release”

    Where did they get that idea then? I have never heard of such a thing. If someone did a blurb about you and put in there that you were born in Nepal you’d be like “wtf?”

  59. Iron Lung
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 3:31 pm | Permalink

    ” “What IS the status of the investigation? ” I thought you followed the news.”

    We have already established that the Mr. Warlord’s intellectual powers are not nearly as developed as advertised. He may be overwhelmed and seeking assistance from others to better develop his understanding of current events… or… not.

  60. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 3:32 pm | Permalink

    But now Mueller knows for a fact the warrants were obtained fraudulently. If he is honest anything based on the warrants goes no further…in Trump’s direction at least.

  61. Jean Henry
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 3:34 pm | Permalink

    Biographical details of people who have lived in multiple places are often wrong. I have had maybe 8 press pieces about me that included biographical information. All had inaccuracies. Anyone who is in the press will often find that the reporter tends to have a preferred narrative going in and sticks with it no matter what you say to the contrary.

    Sound familiar?

  62. wobblie
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 3:35 pm | Permalink

    Anybody following the evaporation of wealth that has been going on since Friday? Be interesting to see if the market rallies tomorrow, or if the selling keeps going. The standard prediction for months has been the stock market is over valued. The problem is once things head south it becomes harder and harder to stop the bottom from falling out.

  63. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 3:37 pm | Permalink

    “Derpy McDerpson
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 3:31 pm | Permalink

    We have already established that the Mr. Warlord’s intellectual powers are not nearly as developed as advertised. He may be overwhelmed and seeking assistance from others to better develop his understanding of current events… or… not.”

    “We have already used all the derpunition we have! We need reinderpments! Derrrp!!!”

  64. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 3:38 pm | Permalink

    “Biographical details of people who have lived in multiple places are often wrong. I have had maybe 8 press pieces about me that included biographical information. All had inaccuracies. Anyone who is in the press will often find that the reporter tends to have a preferred narrative going in and sticks with it no matter what you say to the contrary.
    Sound familiar?”

    I doubt they changed your place of birth to some far flung location. Straw man

  65. Jcp2
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 3:39 pm | Permalink

    JH. IL. You cannot sway Mr. Warlord. He operates on a different plane of facts. In fact, it’s closely related to this plane.

    http://Www.tfes.org

  66. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 3:42 pm | Permalink

    “Anybody following the evaporation of wealth that has been going on since Friday? Be interesting to see if the market rallies tomorrow, or if the selling keeps going. The standard prediction for months has been the stock market is over valued. The problem is once things head south it becomes harder and harder to stop the bottom from falling out.”

    Could be big players trying to protect their assets from being frozen or possibly trying to crash the market to derail the Trump train.

  67. Jean Henry
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 3:45 pm | Permalink

    Just copying and pasting this HW comment from the last thread over here for anyone who would like to defend Mr. Warlord’s logic and apply legitimizing equivalence to his points and others here:

    “How are you going to ask me about Richard Spencer after I said long ago I think he was given a platform for ulterior purposes. They wanted to smear Trump as a white supremacist so ta daa! Instant white supremacist, just add cameras.”

    PS Is Mr Warlord’s creative use of the future tense more evidence of time signaling powers?

  68. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 3:48 pm | Permalink

    I would paste what you wrote about me but I don’t want to get derp all over my clipboard.

  69. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 3:53 pm | Permalink

    My logic needs dederping how? And you want someone to apply lederpimizing equivalderps?!

  70. Jean Henry
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 3:54 pm | Permalink

    “I doubt they changed your place of birth to some far flung location. Straw man.”

    Not quite but close.

    I was raised in PA and had lived In Michigan from 1984 to 1994. I have owned a home here since 1988. When I returned to MI in 1999, after 4 years in California, I was referred to in the Ann Arbor News as a ‘recent Californian transplant’. The article painted my business as evidence of gentrification. It also described the interior of my business, remodeled with a very Detroit-specific machine age gas station aesthetic, as Californian.

    No mention was made of my place of birth or the decade I had spent here working in restaurants and going to school. If I ever ran for local office, perhaps the article will be used as evidence of my evil outsider intent.

  71. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 3:58 pm | Permalink

    Nerp even close to being born in Kenya being on the flap of Obama’s book. If that doesn’t make you go wtf one little bit then maybe it’s time to think about the benefits of dederping.

  72. Jean Henry
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 4:06 pm | Permalink

    “Anybody following the evaporation of wealth that has been going on since Friday? Be interesting to see if the market rallies tomorrow, or if the selling keeps going. The standard prediction for months has been the stock market is over valued. The problem is once things head south it becomes harder and harder to stop the bottom from falling out.”

    Could be big players trying to protect their assets from being frozen or possibly trying to crash the market to derail the Trump train.– HW

    HW clearly knows nothing about the size and scope of the market or how it works. He believes a few people can manipulate it– from some place in the deep state, no doubt. Everything that is not in Trump’s favor is a conspiracy to unseat him. Everything appearing to be in his favor is proof of Trump’s brilliance and the country’s resurgence under his reign. Nowhere could this be less true than the current economy.

  73. wobblie
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 4:10 pm | Permalink

    We are seeing the beginning of the Trump market. His Fed chair just started today. People are seeing the effects of the tax program. approx. 1700 points in two days. Probably rally tomorrow, but volatility is quit high and margin calls could send all the money running to safe havens.

  74. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 4:12 pm | Permalink

    Ms. Derpy clearly knows nothing about major investors being in the President’s sights.

  75. Jean Henry
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 4:12 pm | Permalink

    Some good news:

    http://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/372352-supreme-court-denies-stay-in-pa-gerrymandering-case-reports

  76. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 4:16 pm | Permalink

    The beginning of the Trump market got to where we are now. The current market volatility is due to the release of the FISA memo signaling to ‘bad actors’ that The Storm is real and they could get caught in it.

  77. Jean Henry
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 4:17 pm | Permalink

    Mr Hyperbole Warlord clearly does not know that ‘major investors’ partake in alternative investments and have limited relative holdings in the kinds of stock traded in the open market. http://www.businessinsider.com/who-actually-owns-the-stock-market-2016-5

  78. Jean Henry
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 4:19 pm | Permalink

    My Hyperbole Warlord is a genius in analysis of economic markets as with all other subject areas.

  79. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 4:20 pm | Permalink

    Ms. Derpy clearly does not care to know information available to the public about major investors.

    https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/05/citigroup-twitter-held-by-detained-billionaire-alwaleed-bin-talal.html

  80. Jean Henry
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 4:22 pm | Permalink

    “Over the next few days, a wealth of evidence emerged to suggest that Trump and Sanders were playing fast and loose with the truth. But we now have the documents to prove that decisively. Their disclosure was not a leak but an authorized action by the FBI, which released to us under the Freedom of Information Act more than 100 pages of leadership communications to staff dealing with the firing. This material tells a dramatic story about the FBI’s reaction to the Comey firing—but it is neither a story of gratitude to the president nor a story of an organization in turmoil relieved by a much-needed leadership transition.”
    https://www.lawfareblog.com/i-hope-instance-fake-news-fbi-messages-show-bureaus-real-reaction-trump-firing-james-comey

  81. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 4:24 pm | Permalink

    Ms. Heen Jenry seems make sarcastic comments about people who have the ability to easily dederps what she says.

  82. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 4:26 pm | Permalink

    Ms. Jerpy seems to defend corrupt US intelligence officials. Strange.

  83. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 4:27 pm | Permalink

    *dederp, not dederps

  84. Jean Henry
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 4:31 pm | Permalink

    HW– “”I think there could be some volatility in names that the prince owns, but the data suggests he doesn’t own significant stakes relative to those stocks’ liquidity.”
    — from the article YOU posted.

  85. Jean Henry
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 4:33 pm | Permalink

    Mr Warlord is boring me with his attempts to be clever. Fail.

  86. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 4:59 pm | Permalink

    Enough of a stake to cause volatility when arrested. Citigroup and Twitter both dropped. Guess who chose Obama’s cabinet by the way? https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/10/15/wiki-o15.html

  87. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 5:05 pm | Permalink

    Ms. Derpy is derping me with her attermps to be derper.

  88. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 5:06 pm | Permalink

    …Derp.

  89. Frosted Flakes
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 5:07 pm | Permalink

    Mark,

    You have done a good job of summarizing what the memo doesn’t do. However, like pretty much everyone else on this blog you have not even attempted to confront the actual allegation contained within the memo. Would you be willing to finish the following sentence for me by filling in the blank?

    “If it turns out to be true that the dossier was essential piece for granting a fisa warrant against Page, as Gowdy claims, and if it turns out to be true that there was a failure to disclose the funding sources, then __________________. Further, if the dossier was an essential piece for granting fisa warrants for surveiling other Americans, and if there was also a failure to reveal the funding sources in those other cases then________________.”

  90. Jean Henry
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 5:52 pm | Permalink

    HW– You do understand that the total market is larger than 2 stocks, correct?

    FF– It’s not just MM who is saying there’s no there, there. It’s most of the major media. What do you suppose should be the result if the continuance of surveillance of Page was ok’d because of additional information contained in the Steele dossier.
    What do you think should be the result? Should we end the Russia investigation? Should Mueller be fired?

    Actually, just fill in your own blanks.

  91. Frosted Flakes
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 6:27 pm | Permalink

    JH,

    Mark’s framing of the issue is very consistent with the vast majority of media outlets. What is that supposed to prove/ show?

    The memo proves nothing about the Mueller investigation or potential collusion, obviously. Trump is a complete weirdo to claim it proves anything about his innocense regarding potential Russian collusion ….However, again, for the third time, what the memo does make are a couple of allegations. Is it not reasonable to reflect on the possible implications of those allegations if they turn out to be true and also consistent with a larger pattern? Media outlets generally have either turned away from those allegations in the days following the release of the memo or have come up with some interesting rationalizations to quickly explain those allegations away in some “interesting ways” in my opinion. While I don’t think the allegations in the memo are strong enough to call a red flag; the covering up of any discussion of the actual allegations is sort of a red flag, in my mind.

    Also note. In the hour right after the release of the memo, even cnn had a series of guests, that were pointing directly at the pertinent allegations and discussing why those allegations might be troubling if true. Of course there was a narrative shift….It as if everyone has a lawyer and their lawyer’s have all said to them “yeah, don’t talk about what was in the memo but feel free to talk about what is not in the memo.”

  92. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 6:40 pm | Permalink

    JH, you do underpstand there is more than one major investor, correct?

  93. M
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 6:56 pm | Permalink

    Headline from NBC News: “The House Intelligence Committee voted Monday to send the White House a classified memorandum challenging claims that federal investigators improperly obtained a surveillance warrant on a former Donald Trump campaign adviser, giving the president five days to decide whether to release the information.”

    Anyone want to guess what Trump will decide to do? As he said that the Nunes memo had to be released because the American people deserved to have all of the information, I’m guessing he’ll be fine with it.

  94. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 7:19 pm | Permalink

    I think he will allow the Derpocrat memo as long as is doesn’t compromise national security. If it has derpious information it will be a good opportunity to dederp it in the public eye.

  95. Jean Henry
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 7:23 pm | Permalink

    FF– My impression was that those early commentators were looking for something to report on in the memo, but soon enough realized they had nothing.
    That would be one interpretation of why their tone changed as more was revealed– One that makes more sense than collusion to conceal, because the press operates in a market that profits from sensation and controversy. They are also, post Trump. more committed to truth than ever. The last thing the press wants to say ever is there is no news here.

    I find your interpretation suspicious (all meanings).

    HW– Arguing with you is like pushing against a curtain. How can I respod to a post that makes no sense? You have not proven any bit of your assertion Trump’s human rights crack down or some collusion to make Trump look bad caused the market downturn. It was an absurd assertion and your defense of it grows incrementally more absurd. “O, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive” I used to be married to a drunk and your logical tendencies are not too far off from his as his condition worsened. He got sober, I hope you do too.

  96. Jean Henry
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 7:28 pm | Permalink

    HW– Please refer back to the business insider article I posted that shows who in fact holds the majority of stock shares. (hint: not individual investors, not even close)

  97. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 7:50 pm | Permalink

    “You have not proven any bit of your assertion Trump’s human rights crack down or some collusion to make Trump look bad caused the market downturn.”

    It’s a hunch. I don’t know if it is provable at this time. It could be strictly because of interest rates but the timing coinciding with the memo is worth looking at. Could be just nervousness about the memo itself. Watch players like Al-Waleed and his Kingdom Holding Company, Soros Fund Management LLC, Rothschild Investment Corp., groups like that. It doesn’t take a majority of investors to cause effects I am sure.

  98. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 7:56 pm | Permalink

    “I used to be married to a drunk and your logical tendencies are not too far off from his as his condition worsened. He got sober, I hope you do too.”

    How does someone with zero logic whatsoever feels competent to critique someone else who at least has a decent understanding of it? I hope you are able to get off the derp yourself.

  99. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 7:59 pm | Permalink

    You keep smirkin’ that derp and you’ll rot your brain!

  100. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 8:00 pm | Permalink

    *feel* compederp

  101. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 8:06 pm | Permalink

    It must have been derpressing to be married to an alcohol-derp.

  102. Jean Henry
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 8:36 pm | Permalink

    It was, in fact, horrible. Deeply so, but, as with everything, there were some very good things that came of it too. Some of the best and worst times of my life, often at once.

    Living in this moment in history is not unlike that time. Drunks are narcissists when they are drinking. Trump is a narcissist who does not drink. My ex was a much better person drunk than Trump will ever be sober.

  103. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 8:56 pm | Permalink

    Imagine how deeply derpy it would be to live with a derp like yourself though. No doubt the stress drove him to derp. That kind of thing just feeds itself – It’s a derpous circle.

  104. Jean Henry
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 9:19 pm | Permalink

    That was a predictable response HW.
    You sound like a drunk who’s still drinking.

    Here’s something you should know. A real drunk will use every excuse to take a drink. Good day, bad day, good wife, bad wife, sunny day, cloudy day, daytime, nighttime, work, weekend, vacation…drink, drink, drink, drink, drink, drink, drink, drink, drink, drink, drink.

  105. wobblie
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 9:24 pm | Permalink

    Here are some of the answers FF is looking for. As anyone with an academic or legal background is aware many of the details are in the footnotes.

    https://www.politico.com/story/2018/02/05/fbi-footnote-carter-page-warrant-390795

  106. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 9:30 pm | Permalink

    Jean Derpy: “Derp derp derp derp derp derp derp…”

  107. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 9:36 pm | Permalink

    Jean Henry sounds like a derp who needs to get some quality derping in before her final derpcap for the evening. Then it’s derpy dreams until derpfast time!

  108. Iron Lung
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 9:44 pm | Permalink

    It is highly unlikely that the Mr. Warlord knows anything at all about stock markets given his poor grasp on even the basic of how the government of the United States functions.

    He is so uninformed, he probably believes that the Dow Index is the price of stock for Dow Chemical.

  109. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 9:56 pm | Permalink

    It is highly likely the Mr. Derpy McDarpson is extremely derpceptive. He rilly, rilly knows what he is derping about. He is now even able to derp about basic concerpts of sciernce!

  110. Frosted Flakes
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 9:57 pm | Permalink

    Wobblie,

    It sounds like the source of funding was characterized, in the footnote, as having a “political aspect” without naming “Clinton” or “DNC”. Why? Seems strange.

  111. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 10:01 pm | Permalink

    Nunes: “We have evidence of collusion between Russia and the Clinton State Department.”

    YEAH!!! Whoo! Oh, this is going to be soo-o-o-o GOOD!!!

  112. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 10:25 pm | Permalink

    Dossier says Page was offered 19% of Rosneft. Wikipedia: “As of 29 December 2006, the company’s market value was US $83.908 billion.” Does anyone on this planet think it is plausible Carter Page would be in a deal of that magnitude?

  113. Jean Henry
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 11:16 pm | Permalink

    What we learned today, is that when Mr. Warlord actually makes a conscious effort to be a troll, he’s really really bad at it.

  114. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 11:21 pm | Permalink

    Do you need your derpers changed? You smell like derp.

  115. wobblie
    Posted February 6, 2018 at 9:20 am | Permalink

    FF perhaps because the initial funding came from Republican sources. Multiple funding sources not all Clinton or DNC, so accurate. Republicans want to make it all partisan, but the opposition to Trump is bi-partisan. After all it was McCain who ultimately forced the disclosure of dossier.

  116. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 6, 2018 at 9:27 am | Permalink

    I thought the Free Beacon or whatever it is called only paid $50,000. Their goal was to smear before the primary. How much was paid out of Clinton/DNC coffers to try to destroy Trump before and after the election?

  117. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 6, 2018 at 9:45 am | Permalink

    “opposition to Trump is bi-partisan. After all it was McCain who ultimately forced the disclosure of dossier.”

    Traitors to the USA come in all stripes. I’ve said it all along.

  118. Jean Henry
    Posted February 6, 2018 at 9:55 am | Permalink

    McCain as a traitor to the US?!? — That’s rich. I don’t support many of the guy’s policies and his run v Obama was ridiculous and he has shown a very casual old guy sexism, but he has integrity. He has been willing to stand up to the party when its representatives acts in ways he sees as threatening to democratic governance. He is willing to stand up to Trump or any president. He had zero political stake in releasing the memo (he may hate Trump but he was already the GOP nominee and their agenda stood to gain a lot from control of two branches of government). McCain must have felt it was important to protect our electoral process from Russian interference. Crazy idea I know. Sounds like a treasonous concern.

    https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/05/politics/trump-speech-treason/index.html

  119. Meta
    Posted February 6, 2018 at 10:00 am | Permalink

    Wired: “BOB MUELLER’S INVESTIGATION IS LARGER—AND FURTHER ALONG—THAN YOU THINK”

    The first thing we know is that we know it is large.

    We speak about the “Mueller probe” as a single entity, but it’s important to understand that there are no fewer than five (known) separate investigations under the broad umbrella of the special counsel’s office—some threads of these investigations may overlap or intersect, some may be completely free-standing, and some potential targets may be part of multiple threads. But it’s important to understand the different “buckets” of Mueller’s probe.

    As special counsel, Mueller has broad authority to investigate “any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump,” as well as “any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation,” a catch-all phrase that allows him to pursue other criminality he may stumble across in the course of the investigation. As the acting attorney general overseeing Mueller, Rod Rosenstein has the ability to grant Mueller the ability to expand his investigation as necessary and has been briefed regularly on how the work is unfolding. Yet even without being privy to those conversations, we have a good sense of the purview of his investigation.

    Right now, we know it involves at least five separate investigative angles:

    1. Preexisting Business Deals and Money Laundering. Business dealings and money laundering related to Trump campaign staff, including former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and former campaign aide Rick Gates, are a major target of the inquiry. While this phase of the investigation has already led to the indictment of Gates and Manafort, it almost certainly will continue to bear further fruit. Gates appears to be heading toward a plea deal with Mueller, and there is expected to be a so-called “superseding” indictment that may add to or refine the existing charges. Such indictments are common in federal prosecutions, particularly in complicated financial cases where additional evidence may surface. Mueller’s team is believed to have amassed more than 400,000 documents in this part of the investigation alone. There have also been reports—largely advanced through intriguing reporting by Buzzfeed—about suspicious payments flagged by Citibank that passed through the accounts of the Russian embassy in the United States, including an abnormal attempted $150,000 cash withdrawal by the embassy just days after the election.

    2. Russian Information Operations. When we speak in shorthand about the “hacking of the election,” we are actually talking about unique and distinct efforts, with varying degrees of coordination, by different entities associated with the Russian government. One of these is the “information operations” (bots and trolls) that swirled around the 2016 election, focused on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, possibly with the coordination or involvement of the Trump campaign’s data team, Cambridge Analytica.

    Presumably these so-called active measures were conducted by or with the coordination of what’s known colloquially as the Russian troll factory, the Internet Research Agency, in St. Petersburg. The extent to which these social media efforts impacted the outcome of the election remains an open question, but according to Bloomberg these social media sites are a “red hot” focus of Mueller’s team, and he obtained search warrants to examine the records of companies like Facebook. In recent weeks, social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter have begun working to notify more than a million users they suspect interacted with Russian trolls and propaganda.

    3. Active Cyber Intrusions. Separate from the trolls and bots on social media were a series of active operations and cyber intrusions carried out by Russian intelligence officers at the GRU and the FSB against political targets like John Podesta and the DNC. We know that Russian intelligence also penetrated the Republican National Committee, but none of those emails or documents were made public. This thread of the investigation may also involve unofficial or official campaign contacts with WikiLeaks or other campaign advisers, like Roger Stone, as well as the warning—via the Australian government—that former foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos appeared to have foreknowledge of the hacking of Democratic emails.

    Western intelligence, specifically the Dutch intelligence service AIVD, has evidently been monitoring for years the “Advanced Persistent Threats”—government-sponsored hackers who make up the Russia teams known as Fancy Bear and Cozy Bear, which were responsible for the attacks on Democratic targets. AIVD even evidently managed to penetrate a security camera in the workspace of Cozy Bear, near Red Square in Moscow, and take screenshots of those working for the team. According to The Wall Street Journal, there are at least six Russian intelligence officers who may already be identified as personally responsible for at least some of these intrusions. Bringing criminal charges against these individuals would be consistent with the practices established over the past five years by the Justice Department’s National Security Division, which indicted—and in some cases even arrested—specific government and military hackers from nation-states like Iran, China, and Russia.

    4. Russian Campaign Contacts. This corner of the investigation remains perhaps the most mysterious aspect of Mueller’s probe, as questions continue to swirl about the links and contacts among Russian nationals and officials and Trump campaign staff, including Carter Page, the subject of the FISA warrant that was the focus of the Nunes memo. Numerous campaign (and now administration) officials have lied about or failed to disclose contacts with both Russian nationals and Russian government officials, from meetings with Ambassador Sergey Kislyak to government banker Sergey Gorkov to the infamous Trump Tower meeting arranged by Donald Trump Jr. with Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer Natalia V. Veselnitskaya.

    At least two members of the campaign—Papadopoulos and former national security adviser Michael Flynn—have already pleaded guilty to lying to federal investigators about these contacts. But many other Trump aides face scrutiny, including Attorney General Jeff Sessions, White House adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner, and Donald Trump Jr. Some of these contacts may go back years; Page himself originally surfaced in January 2015 as “Male #1” in the indictment of three Russian SVR agents, working undercover in New York City, who had tried to recruit Page, an oil and gas adviser, as an intelligence asset, only to decide that he was too scatterbrained to be a useful source.

    5. Obstruction of Justice. This is the big kahuna—the question of whether President Trump obstructed justice by pressuring FBI director James Comey to “look past” the FBI’s investigation of Michael Flynn and whether his firing in May was in any way tied to Comey’s refusal to stop the investigation. This thread, as far as we know from public reporting, remains the only part of the investigation that stretches directly into the Oval Office. It likely focuses not only on the President and the FBI director but also on a handful of related questions about the FBI investigation of Flynn and the White House’s statements about the Trump Tower meeting. The president himself has said publicly that he fired Comey over “this Russia thing.”

    There’s fresh reason to believe that this is an active criminal investigation; lost amid the news of the Nunes memo on Friday was a court ruling in a lawsuit where I and a handful of other reporters from outlets like CNN and Daily Caller are suing the Justice Department to release the “Comey memos”: The ruling held that, based on the FBI’s private testimony to the court—including evidence from Michael Dreeben, one of the leaders of the special counsel’s office—releasing the memos would compromise the investigation. “Having heard this, the Court is now fully convinced that disclosure ‘could reasonably be expected to interfere’ with that ongoing investigation,” the judge wrote in our case.

    Even the most generous interpretation of the Nunes memo—which has been widely debunked by serious analysts—raises questions only around the fourth thread of this investigation, insofar as it focuses on Carter Page, the one-time foreign policy adviser who appears to be ancillary to most of the rest of the Russia probes. All of the other avenues remain unsullied by the Nunes memo.

    The second thing that we know is that large parts of the investigation remain out of sight. While we’ve seen four indictments or guilty pleas, they only involve threads one (money laundering) and four (Russian campaign contacts). We haven’t seen any public moves or charges by Mueller’s team regarding the information operations, the active cyber intrusions, or the obstruction of justice investigation.

    We also know there’s significant relevant evidence that’s not yet public: Both Flynn and Papadopoulos traded cooperation and information as part of their respective plea deals, and none of the information that they provided has become public yet.

    We also know that, despite the relative period of quiet since Flynn’s guilty plea in December, Mueller is moving fast. While parts of the case will likely unfold and continue for years, particularly if some defendants head for trial, Mueller has in recent weeks been interviewing senior and central figures, like Comey and Sessions. He’s also begun working to interview President Trump himself. Given that standard procedure would be to interview the central figure in an investigation last—when all the evidence is gathered—it seems likely that such interest means that Mueller is confident he knows what he needs to know for the obstruction case, at least.

    All of these pieces of public evidence, the “known knowns,” point to one conclusion: Bob Mueller has a busy few weeks ahead of him—and the sturm und drang of the last week will likely only intensify as more of the investigation comes into public view.

    Read more:
    https://www.wired.com/story/bob-muellers-investigation-is-largerand-further-alongthan-you-think/

  120. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 6, 2018 at 10:03 am | Permalink

    McCain should be up on sedition just for being a conduit for the dossier, let alone all the other things he has done. For one thing the McCain Foundation will be found to be a money laundering front that doesn’t really stop human trafficking at all. He is known as Songbird McCain for all he gave to the North Viet Namese.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqtrhoIbXIo

  121. Frosted Flakes
    Posted February 6, 2018 at 11:00 am | Permalink

    Wobblie,

    Maybe that is the explanation. Is it a good explanation? Would it have been better to explicitly state the funding sources. Would it have been better to give a timeline of the funding sources? Would it have been better to attach a chronology to specific “truth claims” and tie the chronological discovery of those alleged facts to the different funding source timeline? Not sure how it was handled honestly, but it brings up a lot of questions, that are not easily explained away, I think.

  122. Frosted Flakes
    Posted February 6, 2018 at 11:02 am | Permalink

    Anybody else read the Graham grassley memo?

  123. Frosted Flakes
    Posted February 6, 2018 at 11:03 am | Permalink

    It reminded me of that one ac/dc album cover.

  124. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 6, 2018 at 11:14 am | Permalink

    Well I’m back in black
    Yes I’m back in black!

  125. Frosted Flakes
    Posted February 6, 2018 at 11:25 am | Permalink

    I was thinking of another one of their album covers. Artwork done by Hipgnosis.

  126. wobblie
    Posted February 6, 2018 at 11:26 am | Permalink

    FF, if any of those things were necessary, the Judge would have denied the warrant. Since the Judge was satisfied he granted the warrant. Nothing illegal or “shady” about it. Page had been under investigation for over a year and there was more than the dossier to make a finding of probable cause to issue a warrant.

    If you want to argue that warrants are issued too easily, or that our “right” to privacy is steadily being eroded, no argument here. But given how this court has only turned down a handful of request for warrants in over 30 years, nothing out of the ordinary here.

    I think Trump feeling he needs to call the opposition party “treasonous” is telling us where this is all heading.

  127. wobblie
    Posted February 6, 2018 at 11:28 am | Permalink

    This is what a modern 21 century economy with a viable labor movement looks like.

    https://www.ft.com/content/e7f0490e-0b1c-11e8-8eb7-42f857ea9f09

  128. wobblie
    Posted February 6, 2018 at 11:30 am | Permalink

    Great quote from Mark Twain, “It is easier to fool people than convince them they have been fooled”

  129. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 6, 2018 at 11:33 am | Permalink

    They obtained the warrant with in James Comey’s words an “unverified, salacious document” without disclosing it was paid for by the Clinton-controlled DNC. They used an article fed by Steele to create the appearance of corroboration. It is a fraud. There is no way around it.

  130. Frosted Flakes
    Posted February 6, 2018 at 11:35 am | Permalink

    I ask because I don’t know: Did the FISA request include the claim that the dossier was “unverified”?

    I don’t know if I would try to characterize it as potentially “shady” rather we are possibly talking about the absence of light on potentially relevant info. Not shade. Anyway, I appreciate you engaging a bit here. Just want to raise questions…..

  131. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 6, 2018 at 11:36 am | Permalink

    “Great quote from Mark Twain, “It is easier to fool people than convince them they have been fooled”

    It’s going to be even greater when you finally understand what it means. You and just about everyone have been fooled on a level you never imagined. I have too but the difference is I know it.

  132. wobblie
    Posted February 6, 2018 at 11:48 am | Permalink

    I’m not sure where this quote originated, “Takes a fool to know one”

  133. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 6, 2018 at 11:54 am | Permalink

    I never thought that was true. If you are as much of a fool as the other guy then you’ll just see him as a regular fellow. If you know what a fool you are then seemingly paradoxically it makes you less of one. Then and only then can you know what a fool the other one is.

  134. Jean Henry
    Posted February 6, 2018 at 11:57 am | Permalink

    “The most outrageous lies that can be invented will find believers if a man only tells them with all his might.”

  135. Jean Henry
    Posted February 6, 2018 at 12:02 pm | Permalink

    Twain never wrote “It is easier to fool people than convince them they have been fooled.”

    It was derived from this: “How easy it is to make people believe a lie, and how hard it is to undo that work again!”

    This seems to more apt to the Trump election than anything else.

  136. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 6, 2018 at 12:03 pm | Permalink

    Almost everyone believes outrageous lies and they are told with the might of a lot more than a single man.

  137. Jean Henry
    Posted February 6, 2018 at 12:05 pm | Permalink

    From the same passage: “The glory which is built upon a lie soon becomes a most unpleasant incumbrance.” (Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 2)

  138. Jean Henry
    Posted February 6, 2018 at 12:06 pm | Permalink

    HW corrects Mark Twain.

  139. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 6, 2018 at 12:07 pm | Permalink

    The Storm is upon us. Watch for falling truth bombs.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4C2K889u_90

  140. Frosted Flakes
    Posted February 6, 2018 at 12:07 pm | Permalink

    Repeat question : Did the fisa request also say the dossier info was “unverified”? I wonder….It was either verified or it wasn’t. It’s a chronological thing. I know it is a very stupid question….

  141. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 6, 2018 at 12:08 pm | Permalink

    “HW corrects Mark Twain.”

    Twain is correcting you but you are still in derpnial.

  142. Jean Henry
    Posted February 6, 2018 at 12:09 pm | Permalink

    “It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.”

  143. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 6, 2018 at 12:10 pm | Permalink

    They “verified” it with circular reporting. The Yahoo article was fed to the reporter by Steele.

  144. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 6, 2018 at 12:11 pm | Permalink

    “It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.”

    That’s right so you should do what?

  145. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 6, 2018 at 12:20 pm | Permalink

    From the same passage: “The glory which is built upon a lie soon becomes a most unpleasant incumbrance.” (Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 2)

    I love that one. It’s amazing to see you of all people post it because everything you believe is based on a lie. It applies so very well to all the corrupt people getting caught in their lies right now.

  146. Frosted Flakes
    Posted February 6, 2018 at 12:24 pm | Permalink

    Isn’t the alleged use of the yahoo news article as corroboration, if true, interesting? What say you army of mm.com critical thinkers?

  147. wobblie
    Posted February 6, 2018 at 12:43 pm | Permalink

    FF, should we just assume that the FBI knew that Steele had fed the article to Yahoo news? I know that the was how the war criminal Cheney used NY times reporter Judith Miller to convince us that Saddam was buying aluminum tubes for nuclear weapons.

    Or was it just Steele using Yahoo news to bolster his credibility. The FBI was not investigating Steele, rather they were investigating Page. Law enforcement regularly uses stooges, snitches, criminals and other ner do wells to generate information on other criminals. Judges regularly grant warrants on the basis of information obtained from “less than reliable sources”. The standards we hold “Law Enforcement” too is pretty low, ask the citizens of Ferguson, of the Native Americans at Standing Rock.

    You won’t find me defending the FBI or the rest of the “intelligence” community. But Nunes, and every other Republican had an opportunity to reign in this lawlessness just weeks ago. They instead chose to reauthorize all of this evil. Trump could have manned up, and vetoed the legislation, but chose to cheer it on.

  148. Frosted Flakes
    Posted February 6, 2018 at 12:59 pm | Permalink

    Like the dossier the yahoo article, issues of extent aside, was either verified or not. The status and extent of a truth claims verification is something that the person making a truth claim can not possibly not know. Was the status of the verification reported? I don’t know. I am interested in finding out.

  149. Jean Henry
    Posted February 6, 2018 at 2:11 pm | Permalink

    “Repeat question : Did the fisa request also say the dossier info was “unverified”? I wonder….It was either verified or it wasn’t. It’s a chronological thing. I know it is a very stupid question….”

    FF– You’ll have to ask Trey Gowdy or the handful of other people who have seen the entire FISA document. Not Nunez ( http://thehill.com/homenews/house/372119-nunes-admits-he-did-not-view-the-surveillance-warrant-applications-that-form ) and def not HW, who speaks regularly with great authority on things he knows little or nothing about. In this case, he cant know.

  150. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 6, 2018 at 2:14 pm | Permalink

    Comey himself called it unverified under oath, Hean Jernry. Don’t be mad because I know what I am talking about and you don’t.

  151. Jean Henry
    Posted February 6, 2018 at 2:16 pm | Permalink

    Steele was interviewed by the FBI and briefly hired by them.
    How much does it matter whether the dossier was verified at the time, since much of it has been verified by the investigation since? http://www.newsweek.com/trump-russia-dossier-one-year-later-what-we-know-777116

    Why does everyone seem to expect an ongoing FBI investigation to be so transparent that they would have access to this information?

  152. Jean Henry
    Posted February 6, 2018 at 2:20 pm | Permalink

    Comey saying ‘unverified’ was just him playing it safe. Obviously it could not all be verified before issuing the warrant. It appeared to be legitimate, parts of it were already verified, and it originated from a legitimate and interviewed source.

    If the dossier had been able to be fully verified at the time, why would we need ongoing surveillance and an investigation at all?

  153. Jean Henry
    Posted February 6, 2018 at 2:21 pm | Permalink

    “[Comey had] said portions of the memo were “salacious and unverified,” not the whole thing”

    http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2018/feb/05/devin-nunes/nunes-memo-twists-james-comeys-words-steele-dossie/

  154. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 6, 2018 at 2:26 pm | Permalink

    Playing it safe under oath would imply telling the what? Creating the false appearance of legitimacy is the issue. How could it be verified with news planted by the same source? Jeezus. Think.

  155. Jean Henry
    Posted February 6, 2018 at 2:30 pm | Permalink

    Dude– you assertion that it was ONLY verified by the yahoo news piece is not verified. And cant be, because you don’t know. None of us do.

  156. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 6, 2018 at 2:39 pm | Permalink

    When did I “assert” it was “ONLY” that? Derp. They attempted to verify it with the Yahoo article. That is true. Think logically.

  157. wobblie
    Posted February 6, 2018 at 2:44 pm | Permalink

    an article about why HW thinks the way he does

    http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/white-house/article198556159.html

  158. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 6, 2018 at 2:53 pm | Permalink

    Pffft. You people watch CNN and shit like that and actually believe it. I even spoonfeed you with sources like that most of the time so you can’t say that shit about me.

  159. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 6, 2018 at 3:09 pm | Permalink

    Bad ass one going out to the traitors against the American people about to get caught in The Storm:

    “If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands that feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and my your posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.” -Samuel Adams

  160. wobblie
    Posted February 6, 2018 at 3:19 pm | Permalink

    This is an interesting talk on the economy from a weak ago. Seems like he has a real sense of what he was addressing

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-9hX3H_9qI

  161. Iron Lung
    Posted February 6, 2018 at 4:50 pm | Permalink

    “You people watch CNN and shit like that and actually believe it. I even spoonfeed you with sources like that most of the time so you can’t say that shit about me.”

    lol

  162. Frosted Flakes
    Posted February 6, 2018 at 5:38 pm | Permalink

    JH,

    Your suggestion that the Dossier is a lot of little bits of info makes perfect sense. It is silly to say the whole dossier was unverified. Comey probably meant the dossier as a whole was not verified because bits of info were not verified. I wonder if it was noted to the court which bits of info were unverified. If the court was not given an itemized assessment of the estimated veracity of the bits of information in dossier/ yahoo story, then isn’t that odd? One of the four things Mark suggested we do was to ask that Nunes be removed for this “stunt”. I’m hoping we demand more info instead. It feels like a lot of questions need to be answered, no? ( I fear having FF just “ask Gowdy”, as you suggested, will not result in answers ….)

  163. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 6, 2018 at 6:19 pm | Permalink

    Haha – combination of a derp and a dork!

    Iron Dorp
    Posted February 6, 2018 at 4:50 pm | Permalink

    “derp”

  164. Jean Henry
    Posted February 6, 2018 at 7:30 pm | Permalink

    FF– The problem is very very few people have seen the actual FISA request in person, so all of this speculation is just spinning perceptions of reality out of fear and narrative bias. We don’t know. And we won’t know until the application is released to the public, which will be after the investigation is closed, if ever. There could be a court challenge. In which case your questions could be answered. Right now, no one on this local web comment thread can answer your question. Those who pretend to know, should be seriously questioned.

  165. Jean Henry
    Posted February 6, 2018 at 7:31 pm | Permalink

    FF–NPR had multiple law professors and writers, specialists in this area, review the Nunez memo and critique it’s legal basis. I would suggest you look that up. I’d link but dont have time now.

  166. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 6, 2018 at 8:31 pm | Permalink

    Gowdy saw it. Congressmen have stated that McCabe said under oath there would have been no warrant request without it. Nunes said he would be happy to release the transcript. Grasping at straws. “There is still SOME chance it could turn out the way I want!”

  167. Jean Henry
    Posted February 6, 2018 at 9:22 pm | Permalink

    You guy, HW, is an autocrat in the making. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trumps-marching-orders-to-the-pentagon-plan-a-grand-military-parade/2018/02/06/9e19ca88-0b55-11e8-8b0d-891602206fb7_story.html

  168. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 6, 2018 at 9:42 pm | Permalink

    Nice derpflection there.

    Unredacted Grassley memo says Steele lied to FBI about talking to media.

  169. Jean Henry
    Posted February 6, 2018 at 10:28 pm | Permalink

    THIS IS YOUR GUY: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/article198549039.html

  170. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 6, 2018 at 10:38 pm | Permalink

    Dossier confirmed to be bulk of warrant request.

  171. Jean Henry
    Posted February 7, 2018 at 5:51 am | Permalink

    https://twitter.com/dylanmatt/status/960853119797288963

  172. Jean Henry
    Posted February 7, 2018 at 6:03 am | Permalink

    HW–Your information is corrupt.The Graham Grassley memo full of more unverified accusations amounts to a call for a show trial to take down one of Trump’s accusers. This is the creep towards totalitarianism. The cut off of aid to those who cant work, the unprecedented show of strength military parade–: all pieces of that puzzle.

    Your man and those, like you, who demonstrate blind allegiance to him are the traitors to this countries highest ideals… and the fools.

  173. Jean Henry
    Posted February 7, 2018 at 6:33 am | Permalink

    Not applauding the President is something he calls treasonous. Standing up to the President and the GOP, as McCain did, is treasonous according to HW.

    HW is a man who believes in speaking truth to power, by his own account.

    When Trump says something grotesque, ‘he’s just playing you people.’

    I can only assume the same with HW. (Although recent attempts to troll here show he’s not very skilled at it)

    So, there is no reason to take HW seriously.

    Unfortunately, we have no choice but to take Trump seriously. Many of us tried to dismiss him for too long.

    The whole Nunez memo/Graham Grassley thing is over, HW. Nothing there and nobody cares. You were dead wrong and it’s all fading from view as we speak.

    Cue a new Fox conspiracy in 1,2,3…

  174. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 7, 2018 at 7:57 am | Permalink

    It’s fun to see you lose your mind over the truth coming to light. No facts, only freakouts.

  175. Jean Henry
    Posted February 7, 2018 at 8:01 am | Permalink

    Grassley memo is political stage show. Not worth countering. Most people can see through it. No one cares.

    Dem memo will be released with Trump making political redactions. Unprecedented. More totalitarian creep.

  176. wobblie
    Posted February 7, 2018 at 8:02 am | Permalink

    More and more scientific experiments are demonstrating that the loss of Arctic sea ice is changing our weather, a growing scientific consensus is developing that our current weather patterns are being driven by global warming

    https://www.wunderground.com/cat6/models-coming-agreement-widespread-effects-arctic-sea-ice-loss

  177. Jean Henry
    Posted February 7, 2018 at 8:04 am | Permalink

    It’s ok, Wobblie. Elon Musk is going to make escape to Mars available to those who can pay up. I’d rather go down with the earth ship.

  178. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 7, 2018 at 8:08 am | Permalink

    “Grassley memo is political stage show. Not worth countering.”

    I don’t even think you are aware of what I am referring to. It’s the criminal referral for Christopher Steele by Grassley and Graham that was unredacted just last night.

  179. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 7, 2018 at 8:21 am | Permalink

    Soothing the savage derp

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrW1v0qpK10

  180. Iron Lung
    Posted February 7, 2018 at 8:27 am | Permalink

    “It’s fun to see you lose your mind over the truth coming to light. No facts, only freakouts.”

    My life has not changed in the least.

  181. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 7, 2018 at 8:37 am | Permalink

    “My life has not changed in the least.”

    Must be because you are so derpceptive.

  182. Iron Lung
    Posted February 7, 2018 at 8:39 am | Permalink

    The Mr. Warlord imagines people to have reactions to political events that they do not.

    Perhaps this is not a bad thing. He is like a good child who is able to entertain himself with self-constructed toys.

  183. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 7, 2018 at 8:44 am | Permalink

    The Mr. Derp Derp imagines he knows what Hyborian Warlord is even talking about. Perhaps it is not a bad thing. He is like an unthinking creature who somehow aspires to consciousness.

  184. Iron Lung
    Posted February 7, 2018 at 8:49 am | Permalink

    The Mr. “Derp Derp” Warlord imagines himself a god.

  185. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 7, 2018 at 8:54 am | Permalink

    Actually Derpy Lung, I think we are all kind of like gods only we don’t know it. Most of us are lost in the derp.

  186. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 7, 2018 at 8:56 am | Permalink

    Just trying to decode your derp-logic hurts my brain. You think that I think the world is going to change…because I say so?! Fuckin’ DERP!!! Derpy derp!

  187. Frosted Flakes
    Posted February 7, 2018 at 9:03 am | Permalink

    Why should we be so sure the Graham Grassley memo is just fake politics? I don’t get. It is easy to see through the gg memo?

  188. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 7, 2018 at 9:09 am | Permalink

    These derps don’t even know what they are talking about at all, Flakes. It’s just attack in the derpiest way possible to try fending off what they can’t understand.

  189. Iron Lung
    Posted February 7, 2018 at 9:13 am | Permalink

    The Mr. Warlord is a giant walking the earth.

  190. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 7, 2018 at 9:27 am | Permalink

    When Iron Derp was born Daddy Derp was all like “The Derp is strong in this one.”

  191. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 7, 2018 at 9:29 am | Permalink

    The derp-fruit doesn’t fall far from the derp tree. That’s what I always say.

  192. Maria Huffman
    Posted February 7, 2018 at 6:29 pm | Permalink

    Reins,not reigns.

  193. Jean Henry
    Posted February 7, 2018 at 8:44 pm | Permalink

    Trey Gowdy, the only GOP to actually read the FISA file, said it has no bearing on the legitimacy of the Mueller investigation:
    “There is a Russia investigation without a dossier… To the extent the memo deals with the dossier and the FISA process, the dossier has nothing to do with the meeting at Trump Tower,” Gowdy said. “The dossier has nothing to do with an email sent by Cambridge Analytica. The dossier really has nothing to do with George Papadopoulos’ meeting in Great Britain. It also doesn’t have anything to do with obstruction of justice.”

    https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/04/politics/trey-gowdy-memo/index.html

  194. Jean Henry
    Posted February 7, 2018 at 8:46 pm | Permalink

    Shit. Forgot that was in Mark’s post. HW cited Gowdy seeing the memo as somehow legitimizing his claims on another thread. I forgot MM mentioned that. Maybe we would all be better off if HW just addressed Mark’s points.

  195. Jean Henry
    Posted February 7, 2018 at 8:54 pm | Permalink

    FF: re “Why should we be so sure the Graham Grassley memo is just fake politics? I don’t get. It is easy to see through the gg memo?”

    [But legal experts threw cold water on that assertion, pointing out that there is no evidence that Steele lied about his media contacts while giving a formal interview to the FBI. …
    “A witness not mentioning that he spoke to a media outlet is not the basis for a criminal case,” Cramer said. “These referrals seem more political in nature than real concern for law enforcement.”
    Experts also underscored the distinction between a witness’ personal biases and the veracity of the information they provide.
    The FBI has already corroborated parts of the Steele dossier with intelligence collected as it investigates Russia’s election interference, and Cramer said that while a judge should factor in a witness’s possible biases when considering a warrant, “you should not quickly discount what is being told to the FBI simply because of who may have hired the source.”

    He added that it is “absolutely relevant to consider, but a person’s evaluation of the facts should not be contingent upon who they voted for.”]

    http://www.businessinsider.com/declassified-grassley-graham-letter-steele-dossier-nunes-memo-2018-2

  196. Hyborian Warlord
    Posted February 7, 2018 at 8:59 pm | Permalink

    I already covered Gowdy’s comments. Try to keep up.

  197. Jean Henry
    Posted February 7, 2018 at 10:19 pm | Permalink

    yes you did with a bunch on speculative nonsense.

  198. Meta
    Posted February 10, 2018 at 10:05 am | Permalink

    JUST IN: Trump blocks release of Dem response to Nunes memo http://hill.cm/99oBYbw

  199. Frosted Flakes
    Posted December 16, 2019 at 10:06 pm | Permalink

    Comey
    Has
    A
    Posse

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