Trump doesn’t believe Mueller-Grand Jury
indictments
(But, expects public to believe and fully trust him)
Breaking story from here – highlights below and this late update with more details (from CNBC via MSN) within today's indictment of the 12 Russian Intelligence Officers and their hacking of the DNC/DNCC and other DEM emails.
Dep AG Rod Rosenstein said he briefed Trump on
the latest allegations earlier this week, adding that although Americans
corresponded with the indicted Russians, no
Americans knowingly conspired with Russian intelligence officers.
(I Note: Consider this - perhaps some Americans
may have “unknowingly” assisted the Russians in their mission. Cite: The Trump
Jr. (along with Manafort and Kushner) and
several high ranking Russians in June 2016 met at Trump Tower (emails revealed) that told them that they
had “dirt on Hillary Clinton,” Jr. replied: “I love it.”)
(Further, the Trumps and
a few others contend that the Russians only wanted to talk about adoptions and U.S. sanctions on them. So, can attempted collusion be a crime?)
(That is: To attempt to
collude, but failed – at least according to the Trump side.)
(Then suppose for a minute that Jr. said the sanctions on adoptions were to be lifted. Would the Russian then have forked over “dirt” on
Hillary Clinton? It is very easy to believe that, yes, they would have, but sadly w/o
hard evidence and proof, it’s hard to make that stick in court. That too is the
current Trump camp talking point with the title page that says: Deny, deflect, and bury anything about that meeting ASAP and sustain
that story line constantly).
Former Gov. Chris Christie, a
one-time Trump adviser and now an ABC News consultant, said Mueller wanted
Trump to enter his meeting with Putin next week with these indictments in front
of him and then he added: “The unmistakable conclusion is that Bob Mueller
wanted to show that this is not a debatable point. There is no debate that the
Russians meddled in the election.” As for Trump and his supporters: They repeatedly
call Mueller’s investigation a “Witch Hunt.”
I NOTE: Seems
Mueller has caught the key witches, and in just over a year since his appointment
as special counsel, he and his hand-picked prosecutors have now filed 10 indictments
covering 32 individuals and three businesses, earned 5 guilty pleas, have 2 criminal
cases headed to trial, and seen one person sent to prison.
These indictments come as Rosenstein
faces increased scrutiny from Trump’s backers on Capitol Hill, e.g., House
Republicans have threatened to hold Rosenstein in contempt of Congress for what
they say is the DOJ’s failure to comply in a timely manner with a subpoena for
documents related to the Clinton email and Trump-Russia investigations. The DOJ
for their part had sent a letter to two House committees insisting it had fully
complied.
Related all this seems to be Roger Stone — seems he had
contact with those indicted Russian Intel Officers when, or shortly before or after they
hacked into the DNC-DCCC and John Podesta email accounts that appeared later on
WikiLeaks. You know, the time when Trump once said: “I love WikiLeaks.”
More sources for this story are:
======================================================
To date and related from here is this list of all publicly known
indictments and plea deals from S/C Mueller’s probe:
(1) George Papadopoulos,
former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser (Nickname from Trump: Just Coffee
Boy), pleaded
guilty in October to making false statements to the FBI.
(2) Michael
Flynn, Trump’s former NSC adviser, pleaded
guilty in December to making false statements to the FBI.
(3) Paul
Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chairman, was
indicted in October in Washington, DC on charges of conspiracy, money
laundering, and making false statements — all related to his work for Ukrainian
politicians before he joined the Trump campaign. He’s pleaded not guilty on all
counts. In February, Mueller filed a new
case against him in VA re: tax, financial, and bank fraud charges.
(4) Rick
Gates, a former Trump campaign aide and Manafort’s longtime junior business
partner, was indicted on similar charges to Manafort. In February he agreed to
a plea
deal with Mueller’s team, pleading guilty to just one false statements
charge and one
conspiracy charge.
(5 - 20) 13
Russian nationals and three Russian companies were indicted on
conspiracy charges, with some also being accused of identity theft. The charges
related to a Russian propaganda effort designed to interfere with the 2016
campaign. The companies involved are the Internet
Research Agency, often described as a “Russian troll farm,” and two other
companies that helped finance it. The Russian nationals indicted include 12 of
the agency’s employees and its alleged financier, Yevgeny Prigozhin.
(21) Richard
Pinedo: A California man who pleaded
guilty to an identity theft charge in connection with the Russian
indictments, and has agreed to cooperate with Mueller.
(22) Alex
van der Zwaan: This London lawyer pleaded
guilty to making false statements to the FBI about his contacts with
Rick Gates and another unnamed person based in Ukraine. Went to jail, now, and deported
out of the U.S.
(23)
Konstantin Kilimnik: A longtime business associate of Manafort and Gates, currently
based in Russia, was
charged along with Manafort with attempting to obstruct justice by
tampering with witnesses in Manafort’s pending case.
(24 - 35) Now,
Mueller has indicted 12 Russian GRU officers: These officers of Russia’s
military intelligence service have been charged with crimes related
to the hacking and leaking of leading Democrat (DNC, DCCC, and John Podesta) emails in
2016.
My 2 cents: So far, no Trump associates have been
specifically charged with any crimes directly relating to helping Russia
interfere with the 2016 election.
The closest to that is Papadopoulos and Flynn both now
admit that they lied to the FBI about their contacts with people connected to
the Russian government.
All the above noted indictments are in the public
domain – others could be in the pipeline as it were and thus, stay tuned.
So, just a witch hunt, right Mr. Trump: Well it seems
there are now 35 unemployed witches, um? Maybe for your 2020 run, you think?
Thanks for stopping by.
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