[News] Trump, Russia, and the 2016 Election

All news related to Donald Trump's alleged ties to Russia and to the Russian interference in the 2016 Presidential election. New details should be cited to reputable sources.

The real "have it both ways" scenario is their:

"I can't believe you would allege that he did that! That is preposterous and beyond the pale! You should be ashamed of yourself!"

6 months later:
"Oh yeah of course he does that. Everyone does that, it's normal."

Veselnitskaya, Russian in Trump Tower Meeting, Is Charged in Case That Shows Kremlin Ties

Natalia V. Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer who in 2016 met with Trump campaign officials in Trump Tower, was charged on Tuesday in a separate case that showed her close ties to the Kremlin.

Ms. Veselnitskaya, a pivotal figure in the investigation into Russian interference in the presidential election, was charged by federal prosecutors in New York with seeking to thwart an earlier Justice Department investigation into money laundering that involved an influential Russian businessman and his investment firm.

The money-laundering case was not directly related to the Trump Tower meeting. But a federal indictment returned in Manhattan seemed to confirm that Ms. Veselnitskaya had deep ties to senior Russian government officials and rekindled questions about whether the Kremlin tried to use her as an intermediary to Donald J. Trump’s campaign.

So we now know that Manafort gave Trump campaign polling data to the Russian government.

We know Russia pushed micro-targeted advertising at voters through Facebook to suppress the vote.

We know Russia expected, in return, an easing of sanctions, which the Trump administration has done, including recently relieving Oleg Deripaska of all sanctions.

The investigation seems to literally be proving collusion.

It’s all conjecture!

A little collusion is perfectly legal!

Hillary did it first!

No collusion!

You're the colluder!

WRONG!
Only the best collusion. Believe me.

The polls were wrong anyway!

Supreme Court rules against mystery corporation from ‘Country A’ fighting subpoena in Mueller investigation

WaPo wrote:

The Supreme Court on Tuesday left in place a lower-court order requiring an unnamed foreign-owned corporation to comply with a subpoena said to be part of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election.

The court dissolved a temporary stay that had been put in place by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. In a short order, it did not give a reason for the decision or note any dissents.

The entity that is the subject of the cloaked legal battle — known in court papers simply as a “Corporation” from “Country A” — is a foreign financial institution that was issued a subpoena by a grand jury hearing evidence in the special counsel investigation, according to two people familiar with the case.

It is thought to be the first time that an aspect of Mueller’s wide-ranging probe into Russian interference in the 2016 campaign has reached the Supreme Court.

Earlier Tuesday, the corporation’s lawyers indicated that they plan to continue fighting the subpoena, asking the Supreme Court to review the merits of the decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

Last year, a federal court in Washington ordered the corporation to pay a daily fine of $50,000 until it complied with the subpoena, according to court records. An appeals court panel upheld that decision last month.

In a separate redacted opinion published Tuesday, the D.C. Circuit reiterated its reasoning, writing that even though the subpoena targets a foreign entity, “there is a reasonable probability the information sought through the subpoena here concerns a commercial activity that caused a direct effect in the United States.”

The appeals court concluded that the foreign company is not immune from the reach of a U.S. grand jury.

Trump: the Super-Obstructing Super-Colluder.

Michael Cohen, Trump's former lawyer, to testify publicly before Congress

President Donald Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen will testify before the House Oversight Committee, the first major move by House Democrats to haul in a member of Trump's team connected to special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, according to a schedule published by the committee.

So yesterday the NYT said that the FBI started investigating Trump for ties to Russia after Comey was fired and today gives us WaPo saying Trump has concealed details of his face-to-face encounters with Putin from senior officials in administration.

President Trump has gone to extraordinary lengths to conceal details of his conversations with Russian President Vladi­mir Putin, including on at least one occasion taking possession of the notes of his own interpreter and instructing the linguist not to discuss what had transpired with other administration officials, current and former U.S. officials said.

Trump did so after a meeting with Putin in 2017 in Hamburg that was also attended by then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. U.S. officials learned of Trump’s actions when a White House adviser and a senior State Department official sought information from the interpreter beyond a readout shared by Tillerson.

The constraints that Trump imposed are part of a broader pattern by the president of shielding his communications with Putin from public scrutiny and preventing even high-ranking officials in his own administration from fully knowing what he has told one of the United States’ main adversaries.

Yeah. I didn’t even post it yesterday, because what’s anyone going to do? The president is likely a Russian agent. If you’re still a Republican (and are represented by a Republican) at this point you have power. Call your Republican congressperson. Quit the party.

Otherwise there’s f*ck all the rest of us can do about it.

At this point, you have to wonder what level of Kompromat the Soviets have on McConnell.

Paleocon wrote:

At this point, you have to wonder what level of Kompromat the Soviets have on McConnell.

All they really need on any GOP is the fact that they had knowledge all along and did nothing. It’s obvious he is compromised and the level of indifference if not outright obstruction to do anything shows that the GOP is all in.

TheGameguru wrote:
Paleocon wrote:

At this point, you have to wonder what level of Kompromat the Soviets have on McConnell.

All they really need on any GOP is the fact that they had knowledge all along and did nothing. It’s obvious he is compromised and the level of indifference if not outright obstruction to do anything shows that the GOP is all in.

The kgb hacked the gop but never released what they stole. My guess is that they have the goods.

Maybe Russia is just threatening to tell the truth?

Like "those bumbling nincompoops the Democrats might have let you get away with letting the American people think the ACA is different from Obamacare, but we have the social media skills to make them informed voters!"

Could the Russians be threatening to use their computer skills to, like, return legitimate voters to the rolls?

"do what we say, Republicans, or we will engage in a massive non-dis-information plan, helping American voters to find their proper voting place and accurate hours of operation!"

Next Election Day, Russians could be putting fake mass transit vehicles on our streets running legitimate routes on schedule!

Or legitimately taking absentee ballots and putting them in the mail for the mobile challenged.

I started this whole thing thinking that the collusion was most likely tacit, an unspoken quid-pro-quo, but Trump is doing his damnedest to convince me that he's trying to hide his status as an active agent of Putin's Russia.

Also, isn't destroying the translator's records a violation of the Presidential Records Act? Or does that not apply here?

Gremlin wrote:

isn't destroying the translator's records a violation of the Presidential Records Act? Or does that not apply here?

Maybe?

Under the Presidential Records Act, the White House must preserve all memos, letters, emails and papers that the president touches, sending them to the National Archives for safekeeping as historical records.
BadKen wrote:
Gremlin wrote:

isn't destroying the translator's records a violation of the Presidential Records Act? Or does that not apply here?

Maybe?

Under the Presidential Records Act, the White House must preserve all memos, letters, emails and papers that the president touches, sending them to the National Archives for safekeeping as historical records.

That hasn't deterred President Hamster before.

Paleocon wrote:

At this point, you have to wonder what level of Kompromat the Soviets have on McConnell.

Well, let's not overextend here. It's possible to be a merciless, obstructionist, party-above-all bastard (cf. Newt Gingrich) without being a traitor. Remember McConnell has been at it long before any of this. He is just blind to anything except party supremacy.

I think that it's manifestly obvious that Individual 1 is compromised; at this point we're just trying to work around the problem without blowing up the country. That having been said, I'm certain that he truly believes he isn't compromised -- since of course he's too stupid to realize it.

It's no surprise but its still unbelievable. This story is popping up everywhere now. America's in uncharted territory.

Archangel wrote:
Paleocon wrote:

At this point, you have to wonder what level of Kompromat the Soviets have on McConnell.

Well, let's not overextend here. It's possible to be a merciless, obstructionist, party-above-all bastard (cf. Newt Gingrich) without being a traitor. Remember McConnell has been at it long before any of this. He is just blind to anything except party supremacy.

I think that it's manifestly obvious that Individual 1 is compromised; at this point we're just trying to work around the problem without blowing up the country. That having been said, I'm certain that he truly believes he isn't compromised -- since of course he's too stupid to realize it.

He's acting a whole lot like that hijacker pretending to be a passenger.

Archangel wrote:
Paleocon wrote:

At this point, you have to wonder what level of Kompromat the Soviets have on McConnell.

Well, let's not overextend here. It's possible to be a merciless, obstructionist, party-above-all bastard (cf. Newt Gingrich) without being a traitor. Remember McConnell has been at it long before any of this. He is just blind to anything except party supremacy.

I think that it's manifestly obvious that Individual 1 is compromised; at this point we're just trying to work around the problem without blowing up the country. That having been said, I'm certain that he truly believes he isn't compromised -- since of course he's too stupid to realize it.

The RNC was hacked and we never got a single leak from that.

Also the NRA was infiltrated and subsequently spend more money on Trump than any election in their history.

Also, GOP senators frequently visit Moscow in groups, including on the 4th of July.

Probably all just coincidences.

"...he has become a witting, unwitting, or half-witting pawn"

Yeah, I know which option my money is on

So, even stepping back from the laws directly pertaining to (for lack of a better term because treason is such a high bar in American law) espionage and such, is Manafort handing over poll data to the Russians a violation of campaign finance law?

Like, from what I understand, a campaign can't co-ordinate with an outside group spending money in the election. Even after Citizens United that's still a valid restriction, right? If Russia was spending money to influence this election, even if it was stuff you'd see any PAC spend money on, they would still be spending that money in co-ordination with a candidate's campaign.

I haven't heard it mention because there's stuff that's so much bigger, but it just seems to me that this would be easier to prove than the kind of charges that are in the area of espionage. I'm sure the penalties are nowhere near that of an espionage charge, but it's still a concrete, "substantive" violation of the law upon which to hang the narrative of 'collusion'.

CaptainCrowbar wrote:

"...he has become a witting, unwitting, or half-witting pawn"

Yeah, I know which option my money is on :)

At this point, it is looking like Trump's best defense is that he is too stupid to knowingly collude.

Paleocon wrote:
CaptainCrowbar wrote:

"...he has become a witting, unwitting, or half-witting pawn"

Yeah, I know which option my money is on :)

At this point, it is looking like Trump's best defense is that he is too stupid to knowingly collude.

Right...he's the fourth option: a half-wit pawn.

cheeze_pavilion wrote:

So, even stepping back from the laws directly pertaining to (for lack of a better term because treason is such a high bar in American law) espionage and such, is Manafort handing over poll data to the Russians a violation of campaign finance law?

Like, from what I understand, a campaign can't co-ordinate with an outside group spending money in the election. Even after Citizens United that's still a valid restriction, right? If Russia was spending money to influence this election, even if it was stuff you'd see any PAC spend money on, they would still be spending that money in co-ordination with a candidate's campaign.

I haven't heard it mention because there's stuff that's so much bigger, but it just seems to me that this would be easier to prove than the kind of charges that are in the area of espionage. I'm sure the penalties are nowhere near that of an espionage charge, but it's still a concrete, "substantive" violation of the law upon which to hang the narrative of 'collusion'.

You are correct. The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 prevents foreign nationals from spending money to influence federal elections. Conspiring or assisting them doing so would be a crime. According to a 2011 Court ruling (so, after the 2010 Citizens United ruling), even making expenditures to advocate the election or defeat of a candidate would count as spending money. For fun: Brett Kavanaugh wrote the opinion in that case defending political contributions and express-advocacy expenditures, just not by foreign nationals.

Edit: I guess the point here is that to enforce these laws you have to depend on the FEC, a body that is paralyzed pretty much by design.