The Trump-Russia Conspiracy Theory (aka The Big Lie)

[Dos Equis]

Nor did he say it was accurate!
Dos--lemmie drop it on you like a sack of dark black coal given to bad kids on Christmas..it's gonna suck--it's gonna hurt---but it's what you need babe...sucks it has to me ME to deliver it---but I know what's best for you.

Mueller stated conclusively that he could not disprove that Trump committed obstruction. It's that simple. And that is a big part of why dems are now moving toward impeachment.

Nice attempt to put a spin on it. That letter fell of deaf ears by the way....waste of time writing it. OF COURSE the lawyers complained. That's what Trump does.
You're a MOD---I don't need to tell YOU where my sign up sheet is do I?? Naaaa--u know..u know.

Love ya!
xoxo

Bruh your big wind up never delivers.  Give it up already. 

We know that Mueller conclusively did not say Trump obstructed justice.  What exactly did Barr's letter say about obstruction was false? 

[Dos Equis]

Thank you.  Completely agree. 

Trump tells Dems 'it's over,' says McGahn won't testify, hits Biden's 'very dumb statement' in Fox News interview
By Catherine Herridge, Gregg Re, Bill Mears | Fox News

President Trump told Fox News in an exclusive wide-ranging interview Thursday evening that the White House has lost patience with congressional Democrats, and forcefully dismissed their efforts to subpoena former White House counsel Don McGahn and other administration officials to testify.

. . . .

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-democrats-subpoena-biden-very-dumb-statement

[Yamcha]

Sure you can--come to Vegas and meet me babe!
Me and my boyfriend.
He's really good looking too--hands off!!
 

Are Tim Fogerty and Bay invited?

[Dos Equis]

Top Dem claims Mueller report shows Russia ‘artificially’ placed Trump in White House
By Adam Shaw | Fox News

New York Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, Democratic member of the House Judiciary Committee, defends effort to procure special counsel Robert Mueller's unredacted report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

A top Democratic lawmaker claimed Wednesday that Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia report shows Moscow “artificially” placed President Trump in the White House -- despite the report finding no evidence of Trump-Russia collusion.

The statement came amid a fiery session of the House Judiciary Committee where lawmakers weighed holding Attorney General Bill Barr in contempt for defying a subpoena for the full Mueller report.

“Seventeen different intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia interfered with our election, attacked our democracy for the sole purpose of artificially placing someone at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue,” Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., the House Democratic Caucus chairman, said. “They were successful, and that’s also what the Mueller report shows.”

. . . .

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/top-dem-claims-mueller-report-shows-russia-artificially-placed-trump-in-white-house

[Dos Equis]

And this is why they are attacking Barr so viciously.  People like Comey and Brennan are going to be exposed.

Barr Appoints Prosecutor To Investigate Start Of Russia Probe: Reports
Trump had been demanding a new probe to investigate the people who investigated him.
By Nick Visser
05/14/2019

Attorney General William Barr has ordered a federal prosecutor to investigate the inception of the Russia probe, according to multiple media accounts.

John Durham, the U.S. attorney in Connecticut, has been appointed to oversee the inquiry, The New York Times first reported. The effort will focus heavily on intelligence collection methods used by investigators during the early days of special counsel Robert Mueller’s efforts, per The Associated Press.

The appointment has long been demanded by President Donald Trump, who has continued to attack the Russia investigation as a “witch hunt,” even after Mueller’s report was delivered to the Justice Department last month. While the report found no evidence of criminal collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign, the special counsel highlighted 10 instances of potential obstruction of justice by the president.

Trump has falsely championed himself as exonerated and has pushed far more aggressively for the new investigation since the Mueller report was completed.

Barr used his congressional testimony last month to tell lawmakers he believed “spying did occur” during the 2016 election cycle against then-candidate Donald Trump, effectively undercutting his own department.

“I think spying on a political campaign is a big deal,” Barr, who was confirmed to lead the DOJ in February, said during testimony to the Senate Appropriations Committee. “I think spying did occur. But the question is whether it was ... adequately predicated. I’m not suggesting it wasn’t predicated. I need to explore that.”

There is no public evidence that there was any spying on the Trump campaign, but the president has raised the specter of such things many times in an effort to attack both the FBI and the broader Justice Department.

FBI Director Christopher Wray defended his agency last week, saying the work done by bureau agents was not “spying.”

The FBI did obtain a secret surveillance warrant to monitor Carter Page, a former Trump campaign adviser, after he left the campaign.

The Times notes that Durham, the top law enforcement official in Connecticut, was nominated by Trump in 2017 and has worked at the DOJ since 1982. He has a history of investigating claims of wrongdoing by national security officials, including those who worked for the FBI and the CIA.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/william-barr-prosecutor-russia-probe_n_5cda5eb6e4b0615b08181d41

[jude2]

This is getting good.

[Skeletor]

And this is why they are attacking Barr so viciously.  People like Comey and Brennan are going to be exposed.

Barr Appoints Prosecutor To Investigate Start Of Russia Probe: Reports
Trump had been demanding a new probe to investigate the people who investigated him.
By Nick Visser
05/14/2019

Attorney General William Barr has ordered a federal prosecutor to investigate the inception of the Russia probe, according to multiple media accounts.

John Durham, the U.S. attorney in Connecticut, has been appointed to oversee the inquiry, The New York Times first reported. The effort will focus heavily on intelligence collection methods used by investigators during the early days of special counsel Robert Mueller’s efforts, per The Associated Press.

The appointment has long been demanded by President Donald Trump, who has continued to attack the Russia investigation as a “witch hunt,” even after Mueller’s report was delivered to the Justice Department last month. While the report found no evidence of criminal collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign, the special counsel highlighted 10 instances of potential obstruction of justice by the president.

Trump has falsely championed himself as exonerated and has pushed far more aggressively for the new investigation since the Mueller report was completed.

Barr used his congressional testimony last month to tell lawmakers he believed “spying did occur” during the 2016 election cycle against then-candidate Donald Trump, effectively undercutting his own department.

“I think spying on a political campaign is a big deal,” Barr, who was confirmed to lead the DOJ in February, said during testimony to the Senate Appropriations Committee. “I think spying did occur. But the question is whether it was ... adequately predicated. I’m not suggesting it wasn’t predicated. I need to explore that.”

There is no public evidence that there was any spying on the Trump campaign, but the president has raised the specter of such things many times in an effort to attack both the FBI and the broader Justice Department.

FBI Director Christopher Wray defended his agency last week, saying the work done by bureau agents was not “spying.”

The FBI did obtain a secret surveillance warrant to monitor Carter Page, a former Trump campaign adviser, after he left the campaign.

The Times notes that Durham, the top law enforcement official in Connecticut, was nominated by Trump in 2017 and has worked at the DOJ since 1982. He has a history of investigating claims of wrongdoing by national security officials, including those who worked for the FBI and the CIA.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/william-barr-prosecutor-russia-probe_n_5cda5eb6e4b0615b08181d41

Hopefully Durham will also investigate any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation and prosecute any federal crimes arising from the investigation of these matters.

[Dos Equis]

Hopefully Durham will also investigate any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation and prosecute any federal crimes arising from the investigation of these matters.

I hope so too, but I'm not holding my breath for any criminal convictions coming out of all of this. 

[Skeletor]

I hope so too, but I'm not holding my breath for any criminal convictions coming out of all of this. 

Unfortunately laws don't seem to apply to people beyond a certain pay grade. Likewise for all the theater congressional "committees" that "investigate" and yet do nothing.

[Dos Equis]

Unfortunately laws don't seem to apply to people beyond a certain pay grade. Likewise for all the theater congressional "committees" that "investigate" and yet do nothing.

Sad but true. 

[Dos Equis]

Dispute erupts over whether Brennan, Comey pushed Steele dossier, as DOJ probe into misconduct begins
By Gregg Re, Catherine Herridge | Fox News

Sources tell Fox that Durham is focused on the months leading up to the election; chief intelligence correspondent Catherine Herridge reports.

A high-level dispute over which senior government officials pushed the unverified Steele dossier amid efforts to surveil the Trump campaign has broken out into the open again, after it emerged that Attorney General William Barr appointed a U.S. attorney to examine the origins of the Russia investigation and determine if the FBI and DOJ's actions were "lawful and appropriate."

Sources familiar with the records told Fox News that a late-2016 email chain indicated then-FBI Director James Comey told bureau subordinates that then-CIA Director John Brennan insisted the dossier be included in the intelligence community assessment on Russian interference, known as the ICA.

Fox News was told that the email chain – not yet public -- referred to the dossier as "crown material," but it was not clear why this apparent code was used. On Tuesday night, former GOP Rep. Trey Gowdy said on Fox News' "The Story with Martha MacCallum" that "Comey has a better argument than Brennan, based on what I've seen."

Trey Gowdy on where US attorney Durham should start his investigation into the Russia probeVideo
A day earlier, Gowdy told Fox News, "Whoever is looking into this, tell them to look into emails" from December 2016 involving Brennan and Comey. Gowdy, who is now a Fox News contributor, said his assessment was based on sensitive Russia records he reviewed as then-chairman of the Republican-led House Oversight Committee.

But in a statement to Fox News, a former CIA official put the blame squarely on Comey.

"Former Director Brennan, along with former [Director of National Intelligence] James Clapper, are the ones who opposed James Comey’s recommendation that the Steele Dossier be included in the intelligence report," the official said.

"They opposed this because the dossier was in no way used to develop the ICA," the official continued. "The intelligence analysts didn't include it when they were doing their work because it wasn't corroborated intelligence, therefore it wasn't used and it wasn't included. Brennan and Clapper prevented it from being added into the official assessment. James Comey then decided on his own to brief Trump about the document."

Fox News has reached out to Comey's legal team twice, and provided the statement from the former CIA official, but did not receive a reply on the record.

In March, Republican Sen. Rand Paul leveled similar allegations on Twitter, citing a "high-level source" who said Brennan had "insisted that the unverified and fake Steele dossier" be included in the January 2017 ICA.

Senator Rand Paul
✔
@RandPaul
 BREAKING: A high-level source tells me it was Brennan who insisted that the unverified and fake Steele dossier be included in the Intelligence Report... Brennan should be asked to testify under oath in Congress ASAP.

78.6K
9:32 AM - Mar 27, 2019
Twitter Ads info and privacy
36.5K people are talking about this
FOX NEWS EXCLUSIVE: INTERNAL FBI TEXTS SHOW DOJ WARNED FBI OF 'BIAS' IN KEY FISA SOURCE -- BUT FBI PRESSED ON

Clapper previously testified that the dossier was not ultimately used in the ICA. News that Comey had briefed Trump personally on the dossier before the inauguration -- purportedly to warn him of potential blackmail threats -- leaked within days and opened the door for media outlets to publicize the dossier's lurid claims.

Whether the FBI acted appropriately in obtaining the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant to Trump campaign aide Carter Page is now the subject not only of U.S. Attorney John Durham's new probe, but also the ongoing review by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz. U.S. Attorney for Utah John Huber has been conducting his own investigation separately, although details of his progress were unclear.

As one example, in its FISA application, the bureau repeatedly and incorrectly assured the court in a footnote that it "does not believe" British ex-spy Christopher Steele was the direct source for a Yahoo News article implicating Page in Russian collusion, and instead asserted that the Yahoo article provided an independent basis to believe Steele.

Steele has told a British court that he briefed multiple news organizations during the fall of 2016 -- including Yahoo News.

Gowdy's remarks echoed Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, who told Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures" this past weekend that he was pushing to declassify documents that would expose the FBI's poor efforts to corroborate the dossier.

"There's a document that's classified that I'm gonna try to get unclassified that takes the dossier -- all the pages of it -- and it has verification to one side," Graham said. "There really is no verification, other than media reports that were generated by reporters that received the dossier."

Graham cited a report from The Hill's John Solomon that the FBI was told expressly that Steele, the bureau's confidential informant, had admitted to a State Department contact he was "keen" to leak his discredited dossier for purposes of influencing the 2016 election.

Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Kathleen Kavalec’s written account of her meeting with Steele on Oct. 11, 2016, was sent to the FBI prior to the bureau's FISA warrant application to monitor Page, according to records unearthed in a transparency lawsuit by Citizens United.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/dispute-erupts-over-whether-brennan-comey-pushed-steele-dossier-as-doj-probe-into-misconduct-begins?fbclid=IwAR0dISFEdVvohkL4TZDkdZpmsw3qzcZgrGGbQ3W5iTHwlMfmwcyWbS2jWfY

[Humble Narcissist]

The rats are jumping ship.

[Dos Equis]

Sunday Sadness: WashPost Empathizes with Leftists Who Made Mueller Prayer Candles
By Tim Graham | May 20, 2019

Sunday's Washington Post Magazine carried an article on how leftist Robert Mueller superfans -- oops, we won't explicitly label them ideologically -- the "Mueller faithful" are handling the hard fact that their hero failed to allege Trump colluded with the Russian government, and failed to render a verdict on obstruction of justice. This is not how they wanted this story to turn out! 

Writer Samuel Ashworth sensitively chronicled their "merchandising of anxiety," with Mueller prayer candles and tank tops. Take Clare Winter:

Winter is an atheist but was raised Catholic, and that fall, she says, "all I could think was, 'I wish I could pray to someone.' "

Then one day she saw an image of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, with his lantern jaw and no-nonsense gray hair. “I just thought, you know, someone needs to put a halo around that guy,” she says. So she did. She worked with an artist friend to design a votive-style prayer candle depicting Mueller as a Catholic saint, with a shimmering silver halo and a suit and tie.

She has sold 9,000 of hers, at $16 a pop. Ashworth and the Post loved the atheist take on the Catholic tradition: "Images of saints invariably portray them as calm and beatific. Consider the depictions of Saint Sebastian looking fondly skyward as his body is riddled with arrows. And in this sense, the seemingly imperturbable Mueller made for an ideal religious icon." 

No one was brought in to say atheists look silly making devotional candles.

Naturally, the conspiracy theorists aren't letting go of their conspiracy. They've decided, like the press, that Bill Barr is a villain and Mueller is still a hero, not a failure:

How do they feel about what has transpired? And now that their hero’s work is done, is it time to snuff the candles and put them away?

Not quite. “We’re still keeping them on the shelves, and we’re still keeping them lit,” says Bridgid Blackburn, owner of Cargo Inc., a shop in Portland, Ore., that has sold more than 4,500 of Winter’s votives after a Facebook post advertising them went viral. There was a slowdown right after the Barr letter, she says, but sales later picked up....

For some, that faith hasn’t diminished now that the investigation is over. A.G. [of the "Mueller She Wrote" podcast] sees the report as vindication: “Sometimes, you question your own sanity. You ask, ‘Is my confirmation bias so strong that I’m making it all up in my own head?’ And then … you realize you were right all along, and it’s still sad.”

Insert the sad tuba for The Price Is Right losers. It's time for new heroes, Ashworth concluded, like a certain Latina socialist:

Still, even Mueller’s most ardent fans must now contemplate a future without him. One possibility is for his devotees to focus on their own power as organizers and activists — or as A.G. puts it, “We’re the Muellers we’re looking for.”

For her part, Winter is taking a break from making Mueller candles — she’s exhausted — but she has a vision for other candles. “The idea of having a product where people can light a match and imagine a way of making our country better,” she says, “that’s a product I’d like to sell.”

Blackburn, the Portland shop owner, already has a replacement in mind for the Mueller candles once they run out. She recently started stocking Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez prayer candles. She says the first batch sold out “immediately.”

https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/tim-graham/2019/05/20/sunday-sadness-washpost-empathizes-leftists-who-made-mueller-prayer

[Prudence]

I LOVE it!

[Dos Equis]

It can't be just a CT because the FBI is deeply investigating this.....I'm not saying Trump knew anything but he had a strange group of people that no one had ever heard of SUDDENLY involved in his campaign ALL OF WHOM had either taken money from the Russians or had contacts with Russian operatives.....Flynn.... ..Manafort........Carter Page.......ALL OF WHOM LIED about their contacts with the Russians......

The author of this thread has seriously got his head in the sand............

This did not age well. 

[Dos Equis]

This will be settled by those with more legal expertise then us  .

Here's my 2 cents since we are the ones debating on the forum:

1. I think Comey is very credible , honest and careful to operate within the law

2. There may never be actual hard proof that Trump (himself ) colluded with Russia on the election.
I do think Trump's careless ways will bite him in the ass eventually.

Holy smokes . . . .

[jude2]

Holy smokes . . . .

And he is a teacher

[The Scott]

I LOVE it!

Such as you have no concept of what the word "love" truly means.  Foul craven.

[JustPlaneJane]

Hmmmm.

And now Loretta Lynch and Little Jimmy Comey are at each other’s throats, calling each other liars.

Does everybody remember when Comey was the Democrat great hope to take down President Donald Trump?

How’s that working out for ya?

[Yamcha]

I LOVE it!

wow, memes really do become reality

[Dos Equis]

Trump vows to uncover Russia probe roots with declassification call: ‘We’re exposing everything’
By Brooke Singman | Fox News

President Trump tells reporters outside the White House that everything Attorney General Barr needs to investigate the Russia 'hoax' has been made available to him.

President Trump vowed Friday to uncover the origins of the Russia investigation for all to see after he approved the declassification of documents related to the surveillance of his campaign during the 2016 presidential election.

Before departing the White House for a trip to Japan, the president defended his decision in the face of Democratic accusations that he had overridden "longstanding rules" on classified material.

“We want to be very transparent, so as you know, I declassified everything,” Trump told reporters. “We are exposing everything.”

. . . .

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-vows-to-uncover-russia-probe-roots-with-declassification-call-were-exposing-everything

[Dos Equis]

He's not going to answer questions?  Not surprised one bit.  If he gets put under oath and is asked when he knew this Russia conspiracy theory was a hoax, it would not end well for him.  He's nothing more than a useful idiot at this point. 

Dems ramp up calls for Trump impeachment after Mueller speaks out on Russia probe
By Ronn Blitzer | Fox News
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/dems-rally-behind-mueller-statement-poised-to-impeach

[Skeletor]

So we have misconduct, leaking sensitive information and violating federal law; however, "the prosecution of the Deputy Assistant Director was declined".

DOJ watchdog: Former FBI official illegally leaked court docs, disclosed 'sensitive' information and took gift from media

The Justice Department's internal watchdog announced in an investigative summary released Wednesday that an unnamed former FBI deputy assistant director engaged in "misconduct," including leaking "sensitive" information to the media, violating federal law by disclosing sealed court records and taking a gift from someone in the media.

Nevertheless, the inspector general (IG) indicated, without explanation, that "prosecution of the DAD [deputy assistant director] was declined." The investigation's findings will be referred to the FBI for potential further action, the IG said.

The official became the second high-level FBI employee to be formally rebuked by the IG over media contacts seen as improper. Former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe was fired from the bureau in March 2018 by then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions after an inspector general report revealed that he "lacked candor" when discussing his communications about federal probes with members of the media.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/doj-watchdog-finds-fmr-fbi-deputy-assistant-director-leaked-sensitive-information-took-gift-from-media-but-declines-prosecution

[Dos Equis]

So we have misconduct, leaking sensitive information and violating federal law; however, "the prosecution of the Deputy Assistant Director was declined".

DOJ watchdog: Former FBI official illegally leaked court docs, disclosed 'sensitive' information and took gift from media

The Justice Department's internal watchdog announced in an investigative summary released Wednesday that an unnamed former FBI deputy assistant director engaged in "misconduct," including leaking "sensitive" information to the media, violating federal law by disclosing sealed court records and taking a gift from someone in the media.

Nevertheless, the inspector general (IG) indicated, without explanation, that "prosecution of the DAD [deputy assistant director] was declined." The investigation's findings will be referred to the FBI for potential further action, the IG said.

The official became the second high-level FBI employee to be formally rebuked by the IG over media contacts seen as improper. Former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe was fired from the bureau in March 2018 by then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions after an inspector general report revealed that he "lacked candor" when discussing his communications about federal probes with members of the media.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/doj-watchdog-finds-fmr-fbi-deputy-assistant-director-leaked-sensitive-information-took-gift-from-media-but-declines-prosecution

Not surprised at all. 

[Dos Equis]

Alan Dershowitz to Newsmax TV: Mueller Crossed Line in Wednesday Remarks
By Jason Devaney    |   Wednesday, 29 May 2019

Robert Mueller was out of line to imply that President Donald Trump might have obstructed justice during the two-year Russia investigation, attorney Alan Dershowitz told Newsmax TV.

Minutes after Mueller addressed the media and the American public Wednesday morning to wrap up his Russia probe, Dershowitz joined Newsmax TV host John Bachman for his immediate thoughts.

"I think it was improper for Mueller to say that if there had been evidence that the president hadn't committed a crime, we would have said so. That sounds to me very much like what [former FBI director James] Comey said about Hillary Clinton and was so criticized," Dershowitz said.

"I don't think that was in his place to say that. He could just as easily have said, if there were evidence that [Trump] had committed a crime, we would have said so. But the implication was that maybe he committed a crime, but there wasn't sufficient evidence to prove it.

"I think he went beyond the authority of a prosecutor and committed the same error that we all condemned Comey for committing in relation to Hillary Clinton."

Dershowitz argued that Mueller, who announced in his Wednesday morning remarks that he is resigning as special counsel and returning to private life because his investigation into Russian election interference is over, gave a "different twist" on his report than Attorney General William Barr.

"The twist came from that one statement, saying if there were compelling evidence that he hadn't committed a crime, we would have said so. That was putting a spin on it," he said.

Dershowitz added that he wants independent special counsels to become a thing of the past moving forward.

"I would like to see structural changes made in the Justice Department, where we have a full-time, independent unit within the Justice Department that can routinely investigate these kinds of allegations," he said. "I think the role of the special counsel or special prosecutor has proved to be historically a failure."

https://www.newsmax.com/politics/alan-dershowitz-robert-mueller-russia/2019/05/29/id/918107/