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"Let it not be said that we did nothing."-Ron Paul
"We have set them on the hobby-horse of an idea about the absorption of individuality by the symbolic unit of COLLECTIVISM. They have never yet and they never will have the sense to reflect that this hobby-horse is a manifest violation of the most important law of nature, which has established from the very creation of the world one unit unlike another and precisely for the purpose of instituting individuality."- A Quote From Some Old Book
Last edited by enhanced_deficit; 12-02-2017 at 06:31 PM.
MAGA Allies: 'Bully Israel with undeclared nukes steals land'
Dangerous conspiracy theories on Right claim MAGA fake frontgroup
Poll: Should US apologize for financing radicalization of Afghan children in 80s?
Obama-Clinton Years: A Violent Chapter in World History
Trump: If (Neocon) Adelson Backs Rubio "He'll Have Total Control" Over Him
Delta variant, death of 9 Chinese engineers in terror attack led to airport chaos & quick Kabul fall?
Initial reporting is not always accurate and reporting on this fast evolving story at times is sketchy and should be read with many grains of salt.
That said, some Obama officials are jumping into the fray.
Legal experts: Trump's tweet could lead to obstruction of justice charges
By Jacqueline Thomsen - 12/02/17 06:55 PM EST
President Trump's tweet revealing that he knew former national security adviser Michael Flynn had lied to the FBI at the time of his firing has prompted ethics experts and political observers to question whether Mueller could probe the president for obstruction of justice.
Trump revealed that he knew about Flynn’s false statements in a tweet Saturday.
“I had to fire General Flynn because he lied to the Vice President and the FBI. He has pled guilty to those lies,” Trump tweeted.
“It is a shame because his actions during the transition were lawful. There was nothing to hide!”
Others quickly weighed in, including former Obama Department of Justice spokesman Matthew Miller.
“Oh my god, he just admitted to obstruction of justice,” Miller tweeted. “If Trump knew Flynn lied to the FBI when he asked Comey to let it go, then there is your case.”
http://thehill.com/homenews/administ...ion-of-justice
On unrelated note of macro political environment, if Trump went ahead with following reported plan, his political isolation will increase as will likely pace of ongoing investigations.
Trump poised to move U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and declare the ancient city the capital of Israel
November 30,2017
President Trump is preparing to formally declare Jerusalem the capital of Israel and order a review of the best way to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv, two officials said Thursday, actions that would reverse decades of U.S. policy and international peacemaking efforts, and could inflame the Arab world.
The White House hosted a high-level meeting Monday to discuss plans for transferring the embassy to the ancient holy city and to discuss a deadline Friday that requires the administration to notify Congress every six months if it will order the move — or issue a waiver, as previous administrations have done.
To the surprise of senior officials in attendance, Trump crashed the meeting with his own detailed agenda, according to a person familiar with White House deliberations.
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-fg-...130-story.html
Related
Trump went off on Manafort for suggesting he should not appear on Sunday shows: report
By Max Greenwood - 12/02/17
http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign...pear-on-sunday
No matter what Flynn says, the Trump family won't go to jail
Opinion CNN 1h ago
Trump transition official in email: Russia 'has just thrown the U.S.A election'
By Julia Manchester - 12/02/17 04:20 PM EST
President Trump's former deputy national security adviser K.T. McFarland told a friend in an email when she was on Trump's transition team that Russia "threw" the U.S. election to Trump, The New York Times reported Saturday.
http://thehill.com/homenews/administ...thrown-the-usa
Last edited by enhanced_deficit; 12-02-2017 at 07:57 PM.
MAGA Allies: 'Bully Israel with undeclared nukes steals land'
Dangerous conspiracy theories on Right claim MAGA fake frontgroup
Poll: Should US apologize for financing radicalization of Afghan children in 80s?
Obama-Clinton Years: A Violent Chapter in World History
Trump: If (Neocon) Adelson Backs Rubio "He'll Have Total Control" Over Him
Delta variant, death of 9 Chinese engineers in terror attack led to airport chaos & quick Kabul fall?
Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.
Robert Heinlein
Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler
Groucho Marx
I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.
Linus, from the Peanuts comic
You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith
Alexis de Torqueville
Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it
A Zero Hedge comment
In a way, this annoys me.
Of all the reasons for which Trump should be loathed and run out of office, this one is fairly trivial.
Nonetheless,
I don't get it. Even if Trump left the planet, he leaves behind Pence, a syphilis of the brain congress, ajusticeretributive system, and gangsters in the military. A swamp - a swamp he's done nothing either way to affect.
President Donald Trump's personal lawyer John Dowd drafted the president's Saturday morning tweet that stated he fired former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn for lying not only to Vice President Mike Pence but also to the FBI, Dowd told ABC News Saturday.
The apparent admission by the president -- that he knew Flynn had lied to the FBI at the time of his firing -- seems to add a potentially explosive new dimension to the ongoing special counsel investigation.
If true, why then would Trump ask the FBI director to go easy on Flynn, as former FBI Director James Comey later testified? The message set off renewed talk of potential evidence of obstruction of justice.
But now Dowd, corroborated by a second source familiar with the matter, said the tweet was not drafted by the president himself but rather by the lawyer -- and done so in a "sloppy" manner.
More at: https://www.yahoo.com/gma/trumps-law...opstories.html
Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.
Robert Heinlein
Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler
Groucho Marx
I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.
Linus, from the Peanuts comic
You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith
Alexis de Torqueville
Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it
A Zero Hedge comment
It's astonishing how stupid people are. The latest example: the Left jumping all over Trump's tweet suggesting he fired Flynn for lying to Pence AND the FBI, and then telling Comey to not pursue Flynn.
Dorks, the President has several executive powers given he's in charge of the Executive Branch. One of the powers is that he's the Chief Law Enforcement Officer of the country. If Comey can tell investigators to stop/go within the FBI, Comey's boss (Trump) can tell them to stop/go. In fact, it's his Constitutional power to do so, whereas Comey just has a statutory one.
Also, not sure how Trump could have obstructed justice given he has the authority to pardon anyone, which stops any investigation. Not sure how one could make the argument that Trump obstructed justice by ordering or hinting to stop an investigation when he himself can pardon anyone in the country, which then stops the investigation. It's moronic. It's just amazing how people are arguing the President and the DOJ and by extension the FBI are to be separate branches or something. They're not. You might as well say a lawmaker filibustering a bill is "obstructing justice" because they're preventing a bill from becoming law.
John Dowd, an attorney for Trump's private legal team, told CNN that the president's tweet "was a paraphrase" of a statement by White House special counsel Ty Cobb.
The statement doesn't refer to lying to the FBI but does mention "the false statements involved mirror the false statements to White House officials which resulted in his resignation in February of this year."
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2017...p&utm_medium=4
It is not about Logan at all. That is a false distraction. No one is investigating under Logan. The Logan Act is a non-issue. Neither Flynn nor anyone else is being charged with the Logan Act. Mueller is not even considering the Logan Act. No one is and no one ever will be. The Logan Act is constantly violated day in and out on a massive scale. Yet, No one ever has been prosecuted under the Logan Act despite it being over two centuries old. Constitutional and legal scholarship of virtually every political stripe are near unanimous that the Logan Act would never stand Constitutional muster if anyone ever were prosecuted under it. The Logan Act is an impotent piece of ancient useless cobweb.
The Logan Act, 18 U.S.C. §953:"Any citizen of the United States, wherever he may be, who, without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.
This section shall not abridge the right of a citizen to apply, himself or his agent, to any foreign government or the agents thereof for redress of any injury which he may have sustained from such government or any of its agents or subjects."
It bans private individuals from any "correspondence or intercourse" either "directly or indirectly" "in relation to any disputes or controversies". It covers all speech between a US citizen and any foreign government official. Its reach is over-broad. Its language unconstitutionally vague.
The Logan Act is both unconstitutionally vague and unconstitutionally over-broad, and directly violates of the guarantees of the First Amendment. It is a blanket ban on speech based upon content, topic , idea or message. Such laws are presumptive unconstitutional on their face.
The US government is in perpetual dispute with every nation at all times.
For instance Boycotting Israel and sending petitions for its concentration camp policy for Palestinians, or its official policy of bulldozing houses and stealing land of Palestinians to give to other individuals go against US policy, as well as calling out Israel for it nuclear arms and petitions to have it admit, stop and join the non-proliferation treaty or the IAEA, or all the sycophant politicians or candidates who go pledge undying support to its policies with the US conflict with US policy and are technically illegal under Logan. And the list of dispute or controversies goes on and one from human rights violations, to trade policies, to antagonism with neighbors, to its friendliness with Russia and China, to the nuclear arms, to interfering in US elections and vice versa, and on and on
Likewise Mexico is in dispute or controversy with he US over the border wall and illegal immigration and deportations, and border patrol skirmishes with Mexican agents, border Coyotes, and cartels. Yet candidate Trump met with Mexico's president to discuss these disputes and controversies.
Saudi Arabia likewise has an avalanche of disputes and controversies with the US, from oil price, to oil sales, to human rights violations, to spreading and funding Wahhabism, to sovereign wealth fund activities, to trade policy, cooperation with China and so forth. Yet politicians and candidates prostrate themselves and discuss these issues on a regular basis with Saudis, even to be lobbied and receive campaign funds, as well as business and private individuals correspond and discussing theses issues with Saudis.
Every AIPAC, Saudi and other lobbyist in the US that meets and communicates with any foreign government official about any issues of controversy is violating the act.
Tulsi Gabbard's visit with Syrian officials and suggestion that US should stop funding and arming terrorists, stop demanding Assad must resign, violates the act.
Mueller has not even mentioned Logan and will never charge anyone with Logan. No prosecutor with any iota of competence ever will, because it is dead in the water before it starts. Because no one has ever been prosecuted under the Act despite its over two hundred years of existence, no court has ever had opportunity to review. The only reported case mentioning the Logan Act, was in dicta only and stating it was likely unconstitutional on its face. Waldron v. British Petroleum Co., 231 F. Supp. 72 (S.D.N.Y. 1964)
"Let it not be said that we did nothing." - Dr. Ron Paul. "Stand up for what you believe in, even if you are standing alone." - Sophie Magdalena Scholl
"War is the health of the State." - Randolph Bourne "Freedom is the answer. ... Now, what's the question?" - Ernie Hancock.
Dershowitz take:
Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz argued that former Trump National Security Adviser Michael Flynn’s guilty plea is a “show of weakness” for Special Counsel Robert Mueller. …
“the last thing any prosecutor wants to do is to have to indict his primary witness for lying. Because if you indict your witness for lying, it really means he’s not useful as a witness, he has no credibility. I’m sure the prosecutor was trying to indict him for some scheme or conspiracy that involved other people in the White House, but there is nothing there, and he had to, finally come down and indict him for lying, which makes him a useless witness. So, this is not a show of strength by the prosecutor. It’s a show of weakness. It’s a show that they really have nothing on anybody above of Flynn … the two things he lied about were perfectly lawful and perfectly proper for somebody to do during the transition. And so, I think it really reflects a weakness, not a strength in Mueller’s prosecution.” …
Mueller is “going on the domino theory …You go for the lowest-hanging fruit. You indict people for lying to the FBI, failing to fill out the proper forms. These are forms of essentially political jaywalking, then you squeeze them and you hope that maybe they’ll give you information that would lead to somebody higher up. But in the end, it’s hope over reality. So, I would not say this is a day for celebrating for the prosecution in the Mueller office.”
"Let it not be said that we did nothing." - Dr. Ron Paul. "Stand up for what you believe in, even if you are standing alone." - Sophie Magdalena Scholl
"War is the health of the State." - Randolph Bourne "Freedom is the answer. ... Now, what's the question?" - Ernie Hancock.
Not clear how much of it is factual or editorialized view but following are some of the "legal" arguments being floated in media.
I'm of the opinion that this issue is at least as much political as legal especially if target of investigation goes beyond inner orbit of President Trump.
Is Kushner in trouble?
And what that deal would involve would deeply interest Mueller, partly if it involves benefits that would not merely accrue to Trump’s presidency, but to Kushner’s personal fortune. Writing for Bloomberg News, Timothy O’Brien, a Trump biographer, said Kushner’s interests with Russia and Israel may extend well beyond his father-in-law’s foreign policy considerations. Kushner’s family is in debt because of its ownership of a Manhattan office tower and Mueller is intrigued about a meeting Kushner took with a banker during the transition. (Kushner has said he met with the banker because of his close ties to Russian president Vladimir Putin, and for no other reason.) He has also in his real estate dealings partnered with one of Israel’s wealthiest families.
There’s more: Kushner reportedly pressed his father to sack then-FBI director James Comey in May. Comey was investigating the very events that have entangled Flynn — and, we now know, Kushner.
So we’re back to the Logan Act. Have the Democrats noticed?
You bet. “This shows a Trump associate negotiating with the Russians against U.S. policy and interests before Donald Trump took office and after it was announced that Russia had interfered in our election,” Bloomberg quoted Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., as saying. “That’s a stunning revelation and could be a violation of the Logan Act, which forbids unauthorized U.S. citizens from negotiating with a foreign power.”
https://www.jta.org/2017/12/03/news-...ner-and-israel
Kushner May Fry for Trying to Block Obama’s UNSC Betrayal of Israel
December 2, 2017
On Dec. 23, 2016, the UN Security Council voted to condemn Israeli settlements, with 14 members voting yes and a US abstention. The resolution said Israel’s settlements in the territories it liberated in 1967 including eastern Jerusalem, had “no legal validity” and were a “flagrant violation” of international law, and demanded that “all Israeli settlement activities” be put on hold, because this “is essential for salvaging the two-state solution.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, fearing just this kind of betrayal, spent the days leading up to the vote, according to Reuters, in a desperate effort to prevent or at least delay to UN vote. He called “high level” officials on President-elect Trump’s transition team, asking for help. According to Michael Flynn’s confession, as recorded in court documents made public on Friday, a high ranking member of the transition team, identified by sources as Jared Kushner, instructed Flynn on the day before the vote to contact UNSC member governments, Russia included, conveying a message from the next president of the United States asking them to delay or vote against the resolution.
Flynn confessed that he contacted then-Russian Ambassador to the US Sergei Kislyak both on the Thursday before and on the Friday of the vote. Kislyak refused the request both times. Flynn also contacted the Uruguay and Malaysia UN missions. Kushner contacted the British ambassador to the United States.
Earlier, according to Reuters, President-elect Trump contacted Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, and got him to withdraw the original draft, which had been submitted by the Egyptian delegation. The Friday vote was initiated by New Zealand, Malaysia, Senegal and Venezuela.
Which brings us back to the Logan Act, signed into law by President John Adams on January 30, 1799. It was a response to a Philadelphia Quaker named George Logan who had tried to negotiate directly with the French government, ignoring the policy of the Federalist party which was in control of Congress and the White House. It goes:
“Any citizen of the United States, wherever he may be, who, without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.”
In United States v. Curtiss-Wright Export Corp., 299 U.S. 304 (1936), Justice Sutherland, writing for the Court, observed: “[T]he President alone has the power to speak or listen as a representative of the nation. He makes treaties with the advice and consent of the Senate; but he alone negotiates. Into the field of negotiation the Senate cannot intrude; and Congress itself is powerless to invade it. As Marshall said in his great argument of March 7, 1800, in the House of Representatives, ‘The President is the sole organ of the nation in its external relations, and its sole representative with foreign nations.'”
If Flynn is to be believed, then Jared Kushner indeed violated the Logan Act, of all things to prevent Israel from being shamed publicly.
http://www.jewishpress.com/news/us-n...el/2017/12/02/
First article also refers to Trump as Kushner's "father", so perhaps things are being pushed out in a hurry.
Yes, very possible.
MAGA Allies: 'Bully Israel with undeclared nukes steals land'
Dangerous conspiracy theories on Right claim MAGA fake frontgroup
Poll: Should US apologize for financing radicalization of Afghan children in 80s?
Obama-Clinton Years: A Violent Chapter in World History
Trump: If (Neocon) Adelson Backs Rubio "He'll Have Total Control" Over Him
Delta variant, death of 9 Chinese engineers in terror attack led to airport chaos & quick Kabul fall?
Many things in MSM news tend to be trivial in reality but underlying news here might be tad bit less trivial than Clinton-Monica scandal over which America was gripped with Clinton impeachment proceedings for over a year.
Jared Kushner Failed to Disclose He Led a Foundation Funding Illegal Israeli Settlements Before U.N. Vote
12/3/17
http://www.newsweek.com/jared-kushne...e-house-729290
9/11 was to punish U.S. for Israel policy: Philip Zelikow 9/11 Commission Exec. Dir.
Israel targeted under law passed to help 9/11 families sue Saudis
In a 103-page complaint filed Feb. 1, attorney Martin F. McMahon alleges that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as U.S. charities tied to President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and Trump's Israel ambassador pick David Friedman, are complicit in war crimes against Palestinians because of their financial support for settlement activity in the West Bank.
https://www.politico.com/story/2017/...-israel-234700
Abbas envoys warn Kushner peace talks end if US backs Israeli claim to Jerusalem
i24NEWS 11h ago
Wow, talk about jumping way ahead of actual situation. Good thing Meghan McCain was there to keep it under control.
Kushner may lack experience but to be fair some of the recent views critical of him may have crossed the line:
Caution Graphic Language: Bill Maher called Kushner "a ****ing idiot"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahpp27WAT2M
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wE05NDSmafY
Muhammad bin Kushner, Jared bin Salman, Daffy Duck & Co
The problem with Daffy Duck, if you recall, is how, with his very limited mental means and compromised moral imagination, he is always trying to cover up his natural cowardice with vainglorious misadventures.
Here he is posing as a fast-drawing gunslinger pulling his guns to threaten some big men playing poker in a saloon - unaware he has actually pulled down his own pants and exposed his colourful underwear.
The same is with the two rich daddy's boys - Jared Kushner and Mohammed bin Salman - who are now so intertwined we get their names mixed up as they are committing war crimes in Yemen, throwing the Palestinian cause under the bus, reforming Islam Israeli-style, causing mayhem in Lebanon, and hope to begin bombing Iran and to invade with the last American soldier their petrodollars and AIPAC lobby can buy.
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opi...092338779.html
“Morning Joe” co-hosts claim that the White House (Kushner) attempted to blackmail the morning show
https://www.thewrap.com/jared-kushne...-trump-report/
Last edited by enhanced_deficit; 12-03-2017 at 01:06 PM.
MAGA Allies: 'Bully Israel with undeclared nukes steals land'
Dangerous conspiracy theories on Right claim MAGA fake frontgroup
Poll: Should US apologize for financing radicalization of Afghan children in 80s?
Obama-Clinton Years: A Violent Chapter in World History
Trump: If (Neocon) Adelson Backs Rubio "He'll Have Total Control" Over Him
Delta variant, death of 9 Chinese engineers in terror attack led to airport chaos & quick Kabul fall?
The 'hens' and Twitter are in a tizzy over this - that's sad.
People Really Appreciate The Irony Of Michael Flynn’s ‘Lock Her Up’ Chant
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry...b0a02abe90dc55The “lock her up” chant had arisen out of Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was secretary of state,
which the FBI investigated last year. But Clinton was never charged with anything.
“If I did a tenth, a tenth of what she did, I would be in jail,” said Flynn during the convention.
His actions then, the current charges and his guilty plea have sent Twitter users into a tizzy.
Michael Flynn Led a 'Lock Her Up' Chant at the Republican Convention. Now He's Charged With Lying to the FBI
After leading the crowd in a chant of “lock her up,” a common occurrence at Trump rallies but an unusual one
for a national convention, Flynn then cited his national security background to bolster the case.
“You know why we’re saying that?” he said. “We’re saying that because if I, a guy who knows this business,
if I did a tenth, a tenth of what she did, I would be in jail today.”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/michael-f...154734349.html
Last edited by Jan2017; 12-03-2017 at 03:41 PM.
Please do this Deep State. Then the voting charade can end.
Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.
Robert Heinlein
Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler
Groucho Marx
I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.
Linus, from the Peanuts comic
You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith
Alexis de Torqueville
Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it
A Zero Hedge comment
Caution that such fast moving story media reports should be read with many grains of salt:
December 3, 2017
Flynn plea is ominous
Fleeting former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn’s indictment and plea Friday – and the fact that three others associated with the Trump administration have also been charged in its first year – looks terrible.
But it could get worse – much worse – for this administration if Flynn or others in the loop have damaging information and turn on the White House. Speculation has run rampant that short-term adviser George Papadopoulos may have worn a wire to record conversations.
Flynn’s capitulation is not a good sign for Mr. Trump – who may not have done anything wrong in his camp’s contacts with Russian officials, but may have in trying to blunt an investigation of them.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...mueller-russia
Was Michael Flynn asked to wear a wire in Mueller hunt for evidence on Russia?
Plea agreement includes clause showing Flynn consented to participate in ‘covert law enforcement activities” if required
Marcia Chambers and Charles Kaiser
Sunday 3 December 2017
The least-noticed sentence in Michael Flynn’s plea agreement with special counsel Robert Mueller may also be the most important one.
Section eight of the deal reached by Donald Trump’s former national security adviser in the inquiry into Russian meddling in the US election is entitled “cooperation”. It specifies that as well as answering questions and submitting to government-administered polygraph tests, Flynn’s cooperation “may include … participating in covert law enforcement activities”.
Long-time students of federal law enforcement practices agreed, speaking anonymously, that “covert law enforcement activities” likely refers to the possibility of wearing a concealed wire or recording telephone conversations with other potential suspects. It is not known whether Flynn has worn a wire at any time.
“If the other subjects of investigation have had any conversations with Flynn during the last few months, that phrase must have all of them shaking in their boots,” said John Flannery, a former federal prosecutor in the southern district of New York.
“The one who must be particularly terrified is [Trump son-in-law and adviser] Jared Kushner, if he spoke to the special counsel’s office without immunity about the very matter that is the subject of Flynn’s plea. I think he must be paralyzed if he talked to Flynn before or after the investigators debriefed him.”
For some reason, Newsweek has gone more negative on Jared:
Jared Kushner Can’t Pass His Security Clearance Investigation, Officials Say
By Chris Riotta On 12/1/17
http://www.newsweek.com/jared-kushne...d-trump-723993
Jared Kushner’s parents donated tens of thousands to settlement groups
Trump's son-in-law sits on board of parents' foundation; grantees also include Israeli hospitals, US Jewish schools
JTA
Jared Kushner Failed to Disclose He Led a Foundation Funding Illegal Israeli Settlements Before U.N. Vote
12/3/17
http://www.newsweek.com/jared-kushne...e-house-729290
On a side note, turns out Kushner's father had had some unfortunate interaction with GOP Presidential candidate turned Trump ally Chris Chistie few years back:
Attorney Chris Christie negotiated a plea agreement with Kushner, under which he pleaded guilty to 18 counts of illegal campaign contributions, tax evasion, and witness tampering.[14] The witness-tampering charge arose from Kushner's act of retaliation against William Schulder, his sister Esther's husband, who was cooperating with federal investigators; Kushner hired a prostitute to seduce his brother-in-law, arranged to record an encounter between the two, and had the tape sent to his sister.[15][16][17][14] Kushner was sentenced to two years in prison,[15] and served 14 months at Federal Prison Camp, Montgomery in Alabama[18][19] before being sent to a halfway house in Newark, New Jersey, to complete his sentence.[18][19][20] He was released from prison on August 25, 2006.[21]
That is quite plausible defense.
Though many in media as expected are not convinced:
Dec 3, 2017
Believe Trump's Lawyer Wrote That Crazy 'Firing Flynn' Tweet? I've Got Some Great Swampland For You
Victor Lipman
https://www.forbes.com/sites/victorl...mpland-for-you
MAGA Allies: 'Bully Israel with undeclared nukes steals land'
Dangerous conspiracy theories on Right claim MAGA fake frontgroup
Poll: Should US apologize for financing radicalization of Afghan children in 80s?
Obama-Clinton Years: A Violent Chapter in World History
Trump: If (Neocon) Adelson Backs Rubio "He'll Have Total Control" Over Him
Delta variant, death of 9 Chinese engineers in terror attack led to airport chaos & quick Kabul fall?
UN resolution against Israeli settlements at center of Flynn guilty plea
- Mueller probing Kushner’s 2016 attempts to block UNSC settlement resolution
- Ex-Trump adviser Flynn charged with lying to FBI in Russia probe
December 1, 2017
In the lead up to the anti-settlement resolution which angered Jerusalem, Trump’s team had urged the US to veto the resolution.
Jerusalem Post
Jared Kushner Failed to Disclose He Led a Foundation Funding Illegal Israeli Settlements Before U.N. Vote
12/3/17
http://www.newsweek.com/jared-kushne...e-house-729290
Be interesting to see if current shadow Sec of State Kushner will issue a press release in response to this news:
Palestinian farmer, 48, killed by settlers on his land in Qusra
December 1, 2017
Uprooted olive tree in Qusra village, from Qusra.net
Israeli settlers open fire on Palestinian farmers, killing 1, injuring another
NABLUS (Ma‘an) 30 Nov — A Palestinian farmer was shot dead by Israeli settlers on Thursday while he was working on his land near the village of Qusra, to the south of Nablus in the northern occupied West Bank, according to local sources. An official who monitors settlement activity in the northern West Bank told Ma‘an that Israeli settlers from the illegal Yash Kod settlement outpost raided Palestinian lands near Qusra and attacked a farmer, Mahmoud Ahmad Zaal Odeh, 48, as he was working the land. According to locals, Odeh attempted to prevent the settlers from entering his land, at which point, the settlers opened fire on him, shooting him in the chest.
http://mondoweiss.net/2017/12/palest...rmer-settlers/
Related
Settlers from Kushner family-funded community attack 3 Israeli grandmothers
MAGA Allies: 'Bully Israel with undeclared nukes steals land'
Dangerous conspiracy theories on Right claim MAGA fake frontgroup
Poll: Should US apologize for financing radicalization of Afghan children in 80s?
Obama-Clinton Years: A Violent Chapter in World History
Trump: If (Neocon) Adelson Backs Rubio "He'll Have Total Control" Over Him
Delta variant, death of 9 Chinese engineers in terror attack led to airport chaos & quick Kabul fall?
Apparently it's "impeachment investigation" now for many in media and some Dem leaders.
From Drudge:
MAG: Impeachment Investigation...
It Is Now an Obstruction Investigation
by Andrew C. McCarthy December 4, 2017
Which means that it’s an impeachment investigation The smoke is clearing from an explosive Mueller investigation weekend of charges, chattering, and tweets. Before the next aftershock, it might be helpful to make three points about where things stand. In ascending order of importance, they are:
1.) There is a great deal of misinformation in the commentariat about how prosecutors build cases.
2.) For all practical purposes, the collusion probe is over. While the “counterintelligence” cover will continue to be exploited so that no jurisdictional limits are placed on Special Counsel Robert Mueller, this is now an obstruction investigation.
3.) That means it is, as it has always been, an impeachment investigation.
Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/articl...ng-impeachment
On RINO/GINO front:
GOP strategist: Impeachment 'closer' than people think
By Joe Concha - 12/04/17
Asked by Stephanopoulos if special council Robert Mueller "posed an existential threat" to the President Trump given former national security adviser Michael Flynn's guilty plea on Friday, the veteran strategist said "I don’t see that yet."
"All we have seen is charges for tax evasion and lying to the FBI. You know, only in Washington is it an industry that people go to jail for covering up crimes they don’t commit as a standard procedure," he said."But combined two converging currents, the Mueller investigation, looking for that obstruction of justice charge, and then Alabama," he continued. "Roy Moore coming to the Senate possibly in a week. And he becomes the face of the Republican Party for the next year when we’re already in danger of losing the House. It’s likely we’ll do that without him, lose the House. Trump gets impeached."
"We’re closer to impeachment now than we think," Castellanos concluded.
http://thehill.com/homenews/media/36...n-people-think
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Poll: Heaven forbid, IF Trump term/GOP agenda is jeopardized due to Israeli ambassador's action
Last edited by enhanced_deficit; 12-04-2017 at 04:24 PM.
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Dangerous conspiracy theories on Right claim MAGA fake frontgroup
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On unrelated note of macro political environment, if Trump went ahead with following reported plan, his political isolation will increase as will likely pace of ongoing investigations.
Trump poised to move U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and declare the ancient city the capital of Israel
November 30,2017
President Trump is preparing to formally declare Jerusalem the capital of Israel and order a review of the best way to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv, two officials said Thursday, actions that would reverse decades of U.S. policy and international peacemaking efforts, and could inflame the Arab world.
The White House hosted a high-level meeting Monday to discuss plans for transferring the embassy to the ancient holy city and to discuss a deadline Friday that requires the administration to notify Congress every six months if it will order the move — or issue a waiver, as previous administrations have done.
To the surprise of senior officials in attendance, Trump crashed the meeting with his own detailed agenda, according to a person familiar with White House deliberations.
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-fg-...130-story.html
Trump could shift position on this:
Trump Delays Final Decision on Moving U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, White House Says
France's Macron tells Trump he's worried about U.S. recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital ■ Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the U.S. says any Trump move on Jerusalem would hurt the peace process and heighten regional tensions
Amir Tibon (Washington)
Dec 05, 2017 3:56 AM
Over the weekend, senior Palestinian officials warned that U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital or the relocation of the American embassy would put an end to peace talks.
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.826831
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"Donald Trump Wants Ivanka and Jared Kushner to Move Back Home to NYC"
Last edited by enhanced_deficit; 12-04-2017 at 08:26 PM.
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Ron Paul, Rand Paul, Trump must be deranged. Why would anyone ever want to be president? No person in this day and age can successfully be president that goes against liberal ideology.
https://consortiumnews.com/2017/12/0...-of-gen-flynn/
For Americans who worry about how the pervasive surveillance powers of the U.S. government could be put to use criminalizing otherwise constitutionally protected speech and political associations, Flynn’s prosecution represents a troubling precedent
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With Ron and Rand it is a good kind of crazy, I think with Trump it is a case of megalomania. (or is it MAGAlomania?)
Definition of megalomania
1 : a mania (see mania 2a) for great or grandiose performance
- an outburst of wildly extravagant commercial megalomania
- —The Times Literary Supplement (London)
2 : a delusional mental illness that is marked by feelings of personal omnipotence and grandeur
MAGAlomania would entail that he wants to go down in history as the man who "Saved America"
Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.
Robert Heinlein
Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler
Groucho Marx
I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.
Linus, from the Peanuts comic
You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith
Alexis de Torqueville
Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it
A Zero Hedge comment
- Don't lie.
- Don't cheat.
- Don't steal.
- Don't kill.
- Don't commit adultery.
- Don't covet what your neighbor has, especially his wife.
- Honor your father and mother.
- Remember the Sabbath and keep it Holy.
- Don’t use your Higher Power's name in vain, or anyone else's.
- Do unto others as you would have them do to you.
"For the love of money is the root of all evil..." -- I Timothy 6:10, KJV
Trey Gowdy on the case is a help - grossly negligent is the statutory language of the criminal action.
FBI agent dismissed from Mueller probe changed Comey's description of Clinton to 'extremely careless'
http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/04/politi...mey/index.htmlWashington (CNN)A former top counterintelligence expert at the FBI, now at the center of a political uproar for exchanging private messages that appeared to mock President Donald Trump, changed a key phrase in former FBI Director James Comey's description of how former secretary of state Hillary Clinton handled classified information, according to US officials familiar with the matter.
Electronic records show Peter Strzok, who led the investigation of Hillary Clinton's private email server as the No. 2 official in the counterintelligence division, changed Comey's earlier draft language describing Clinton's actions as "grossly negligent" to "extremely careless," the sources said.
Ousted FBI agent in Mueller probe softened language in Clinton email case
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ousted-...on-email-case/
Last edited by Jan2017; 12-05-2017 at 01:29 PM.
Media coverage on this getting bit out of hand:
‘Morning Joe’: Trump Team ‘Going to Jail ... for the Rest of Their Lives’
‘But the most remarkable thing about it is that even now that he’s president, it’s still all about money’
Dec 5, 2017
0:00 / 3:15
As the "noose" of Robert Mueller's probe into the Trump team's contacts with Russia is "tightening," members of the administration are starting to understand they're going "to jail ... for the rest of their lives," MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski said Tuesday.
"Knowing them, I think they're shocked that the noose is tightening," Brzezinski said. "I don't know if they were arrogant or incredibly un-self aware and really dumb about what the job was about, how important it was, and how under the microscope every move you made would be. I think they just thought they'd go in there and riff through it. And I think they're shocked that the noose is tightening and that people might go to jail."
"You're exactly right," her co-host and fiancé, Joe Scarborough, agreed.
"For the rest of their lives," Brzezinski added, perhaps hopefully.
Trump, Scarborough said, only ran for president as part of a money-making scheme, and did not actually expect to win.
Mueller Just Crossed Trump’s Red Line
The special prosecutor has demanded Deutsche Bank turn over financial information about Trump and his family.
Bess Levin
December 5, 2017
Back in July, The New York Times asked Donald Trump how he would react if Robert Mueller started looking into his finances beyond the Russia investigation. At the time, the president said he couldn’t say whether he would fire the special prosecutor because he was fairly confident Mueller wouldn’t go there, warning that it would be “a violation” if he did. Now, we may get to find out: Bloomberg reports that Mueller issued a subpoena to Deutsche Bank several weeks ago, demanding that it turn over documents pertaining to its “relationship with Trump and his family.” In a statement, the bank indicated it would comply with the request, saying “Deutsche Bank always cooperates with investigating authorities in all countries.”
The development seemed likely to send the already unraveling Trump into a tailspin, but by Tuesday afternoon the president had declined to comment on the story, via his Twitter account or otherwise. His legal team, on the other hand, released a statement openly countering the news: “no subpoena has been issued or received” by Deutsche Bank, White House lawyer Jay Sekulow said in a statement, adding that “we have confirmed this with the bank and other sources.” A Fox News report echoed Sekulow, but at least three other outlets purported to have independently confirmed the news.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017...-deutsche-bank
WIRE: MUELLER SUBPOENAS TRUMP DEUTSCHE BANK RECORDS...
Congress to Grill President's Longtime Assistant...
'MORNING JOE': Going to Jail for Rest of Lives...
PENCE STAYS CLEAR...
MAG: Dem Obsession with Impeachment Dangerous...
WHITE HOUSE: NO BANK RECORDS SUBPOENAED
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https://www.yahoo.com/news/abc-says-...153542390.html
Last edited by Swordsmyth; 12-05-2017 at 04:37 PM.
Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.
Robert Heinlein
Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler
Groucho Marx
I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.
Linus, from the Peanuts comic
You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith
Alexis de Torqueville
Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it
A Zero Hedge comment
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