WTF Community

šŸ” All things Mueller - What we know he has on Trump 'n Co

Who knows where the best legal angle to get T out will beā€¦but this Campaign Finance issue does have a lot of back up corroboration.

Regardless if T goes on Fox News and plays it backā€¦playing to his base of course, this is incriminating information **.

The ā€œstatement of admitted factsā€ says that AMI admitted making a $150,000 payment ā€œin concert with the campaign,ā€ and says that Pecker, Cohen and ā€œat least one other member of the campaignā€ were in the meeting. According to a person familiar with the matter, the ā€œother memberā€ was Trump.

Trump was first identified as attending the meeting by The Wall Street Journal.

Donald Trump Played Central Role in Hush Payoffs to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal
Federal prosecutors have gathered evidence of presidentā€™s participation in transactions that violated campaign-finance laws

**

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5g4cAskc-Jk

2 Likes

Senate Intel Committee co-chairs Sen Burr and Sen Warner are prepared to call in those witnesses who have been indicted, provided of course it is ok with Mueller.
This Committee has stood their ground as far as being a fair bi-partisan group.

Letā€™s do some more digging then.

Now that President Donald Trumpā€™s former ā€œfixer,ā€ Michael Cohen, has been sentenced to prison, leaders of the House and Senate Intelligence committees are preparing to haul him back before Congress before he begins serving time.

Heā€™s not the only one.

The Senate Intelligence Committee is also seeking to speak to other officials in Trumpā€™s orbit who have been charged in special counsel Robert Muellerā€™s investigation, including former national security adviser Michael Flynn, former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, his former deputy Rick Gates and former campaign adviser George Papadopoulos, according to committee leaders and sources familiar with the probe.

ā€œI think itā€™s safe to say if they were indicted, they were on our list,ā€ Senate Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr, a North Carolina Republican, told CNN. ā€œWe potentially will talk to a lot of folks.ā€

4 Likes

George Conway strikes again (KellyAnneā€™s other half) :boom:

George Conway
gtconway3d

Given that Trump has repeatedly lied about the Daniels and McDougal paymentsā€”and given that he lies about virtually everything else, to the point that his own former personal lawyer described him as a ā€œf****ing liarā€ā€”why should we take his word over that of federal prosecutors?
7:09 PM - 13 Dec 2018

3 Likes

Special counsel Robert Mueller appeared to be locked in a subpoena battle with a recalcitrant witness Friday in a sealed federal appeals courtroom, the latest development in a mystery case that has piqued the curiosity of Mueller-obsessives and scoop-hungry journalists.

Oral arguments in the highly secretive fight played out behind closed doors under tight security. Officials at the U.S. Courthouse in Washington, D.C. even took the extraordinary measure of shutting down to the public the entire fifth floor, where the hearing was taking place.

More than a dozen reporters who had been staked out in the hallway adjacent to the courtroom ā€” in the hopes of eyeballing attorneys for Mueller or the mystery appellantā€™s lawyers ā€” were kicked off the floor and lost their best chance to spot anyone involved in the months-long legal dispute as they were entering or exiting the chambers.

Journalists relocated to other stakeout spots, but few new details emerged after several hours of waiting.

:popcorn:

4 Likes

Butinaā€™s connection to the NRA was solidified by a signed agreement, pulling in both into the den of legal trouble.

Maria Butina Claimed to Have a ā€œSigned Cooperation Agreementā€ With the National Rifle Association ā€“ Mother Jones

Confessed Russian agent Maria Butina claimed more than five years ago that her gun rights group had entered into a ā€œsigned cooperation agreementā€ with the National Rifle Association, according to a contemporaneous account of a talk Butina gave to an Israeli organization.

Butina, who pleaded guilty in federal court Thursday for her role in a wide-ranging conspiracy to covertly influence American politics, founded the Right to Bear Arms in Moscow in 2010 with support from high-ranking Russian official Alexander Torshin. Prosecutors detailed how Butina used her profile as a gun rights advocate to build a relationship with NRA officials and other influential political figures in the run-up to the 2016 election.

1 Like

This is a very big deal because it reveals that David Peckerā€™s value as a cooperating witness may be far greater than previously known.

A couple days ago the news broke that Pecker, Trumpā€™s long-time friend who publishes the National Enquirer, has become a cooperating witness for prosecutors in the Southern District of New York. (BTW, although Pecker was flipped by the SDNY, Iā€™m posting this in the Mueller thread because Iā€™m confident that Mueller will now also be interviewing this cooperating witness ā€“ if he hasnā€™t already.)

The focus so far has been on Peckerā€™s corroboration of Michael Cohenā€™s testimony regarding the hush money payments made by Cohen, allegedly at Trumpā€™s direction and allegedly done so with Trumpā€™s full knowledge that the payments were a violation of campaign finance laws (this is one of the crimes for which Cohen himself will be serving prison time). So Peckerā€™s cooperation is already big news. However, this breaking story from The Daily Beast shows that Pecker may have knowledge that is far more damaging to the Trump administration and Jared Kushner in particular. No specific allegations have been made. However, the fact that Pecker was in close contact with Kushner during the early days of Trumpā€™s presidency and is now spilling everything he knows, has got to be devastating news for Kushner and the Administration.

Another angle here is that we now have reason to believe that Mueller is expanding his investigation into the shady (to say the least) ties between Trump and the Middle East. Kushner is Trumpā€™s point man there and Pecker has close ties there as well, especially with Saudi Arabiaā€™s Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, accused of ordering the murder of Jamal Kashoogi ā€“ Pecker even facilitated a massive publicity blitz for the prince.

Shortly after the 2016 presidential election, Donald Trumpā€™s son-in-law Jared Kushner was handed a task considered critical to the presidentā€™s operations. In addition to serving as a senior adviser in the White House, he would also be playing the role of the main conduit between Trump and his friend David Pecker, the National Enquirer publisher and chief executive of AMI, who prosecutors said on Wednesday admitted to making a $150,000 hush-money payment ā€œin concert withā€ the Trump campaign.

During the early months of the Trump era, Kushner performed the task admirably, discussing with Pecker various issues over the phone, including everything from international relations to media gossip, according to four sources familiar with the situation. Pecker, for his part, bragged to people that he was speaking to the presidentā€™s son-in-law and, more generally, about the level of access he had to the upper echelons of the West Wing, two sources with knowledge of the relationship recountedā€¦

Pecker, after all, was no bit player. He has been a valuable asset within Trumpā€™s orbit, at least until federal investigators came knocking. His ties to Trump began well before the president was elected to office. But before Kushner was his main conduit, that role was played by Michael Cohen, the presidentā€™s former attorney and fixerā€¦

Pecker had banked on Cohen remaining in Trumpā€™s political inner sanctum after the election. But during the presidential transition, it became clear that Trumpā€™s then-fixer wouldnā€™t be landing a plum job in the administrationā€¦

But Cohenā€™s slow-burning troubles and exile from Trumpworld nevertheless meant that Pecker needed a new point person in the White House. And according to four sources, he settled on Kushner.

It was an easy choice, given that the two men had a pre-existing relationship. Two people with direct knowledge of their acquaintance say that Kushner and Pecker got to know each other years before Trumpā€™s election, when Pecker was thinking about forging a business relationship with Kushner, who at the time owned The New York Observerā€¦

AMI [Peckerā€™s media company], like Kushner, cozied up to the despotic Saudi government, which included the production of a glossy propaganda magazine boosting Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

In July 2017 ā€¦ Pecker visited both Trump and Kushner at the White House, bringing along with him Kacy Grine, a French businessman with ties to the Saudi business elite and royal family, as The New York Times reported early this yearā€¦

ā€œThis is beyond the scope of David Peckerā€™s collusion or cooperation in snuffing out bad stories,ā€ said Jerry George, a former Enquirer Los Angeles bureau chief and assistant managing editor of all the AMI titles. ā€œIt goes to the core of Trumpworld."

5 Likes

Flynn lied to a lot of peopleā€¦but Muellerā€™s faith in what Flynn was able to help the investigation with must be very great.

Sentencing Memo

3 Likes

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/in-filing-intended-to-be-under-seal-us-prosecutors-ask-to-transport-maria-butina-possibly-to-testify-at-grand-jury/2018/12/14/6c3d22e2-ffe9-11e8-ad40-cdfd0e0dd65a_story.html?utm_term=.efdd228b5cf5

Oops ā€“ weā€™re not supposed to know this, but it looks like Maria Butina will be testifying before a Grand Jury within a month. Could that be Muellerā€™s Grand Jury?

U.S. prosecutors on Friday asked a federal judge for permission to move Maria Butina to and from jail for ongoing interviews, including potentially to testify before a grand jury, in a filing intended to be sealed that appeared on the public docket for her case.

Butina, 30, pleaded guilty Thursday to conspiring to act as an unregistered agent of the Russian government to infiltrate the National Rifle Association and the wider conservative movement to set up back-channel communications with leading Republicans around the time of the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

As part of her plea deal, she agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.

In a seven-page document filed Friday afternoon to a judge, prosecutors said they were making their travel request under seal because disclosing Butinaā€™s movements from Alexandria City Jail, where she has been held since July, ā€œmay jeopardize defendantā€™s safety and may jeopardize the ongoing investigation.ā€

ā€œThe proposed order references defendant Butinaā€™s possible transportation to a grand jury,ā€ which is a confidential proceeding under federal criminal rules, they added.

The request asks to cover movements through Jan. 17ā€¦

Although the request stated it was being filed under seal, and included a proposed order allowing it to be filed under seal, it was posted shortly before 5 p.m. on the courtā€™s public docket. It remained viewable only briefly, before the online link to the filing was disabled.

:eyes:

5 Likes

Hereā€™s more from what Flynnā€™s cooperation with Mueller must have revealed, leading to this indictment. It was part of some of the sealed indictments which are slowly surfacing.

@jamditis just posted in the recap as well.:grin:

A former business partner of Michael T. Flynn has been charged with conspiracy and acting as an agent of a foreign government for his efforts to have Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen extradited from the United States.

Bijan Kian made his first appearance in Alexandria federal court Monday morning. According to the indictment, Kian, who ran a lobbying firm with Flynn, conspired with a Turkish businessman to illegally influence government officials and public opinion in the United States against Gulen.

The indictment demonstrates the extent to which Flynn was secretly working to advance the interests of his Turkish clients while publicly serving as a key surrogate to Donald Trump and auditioning for a role in his administration. According to the newly unsealed court document, Flynn was texting and emailing frequently about how to advance the Turkish agenda throughout the final weeks of the presidential campaign.

3 Likes

To me, the real question now becomes, ā€œAs head of the Transition Team that vetted Flynn, what did Pence know and when did he know it?ā€ Since Flynn and many others are cooperating with Mueller, this question has undoubtedly already been answered ā€“ now itā€™s just a matter of time until we find out, too. :hourglass_flowing_sand: :balance_scale:

4 Likes

Yes, perplexingā€¦and very important for us to know to not have this Elf-on-the-Shelf not be our president.

Who would know? Flynn, Trump, Gates (2 of the 3 have plea bargainsā€¦) So the odds are in our favor, that this truth will be coughed up. :zipper_mouth_face:

3 Likes

At the very least Pence should have known what was going on during the transition. It was his responsibility. Wasnā€™t Pence handpicked by Manafort for VP?

3 Likes

What makes it all the more confounding is that it is hard to have any assumptions about Penceā€¦

Pence appears God-fearing and squeaky clean (first clue of trouble ahead perhaps)

Pence should have known all the transition informationā€¦but there were some built-inā€™s already. People knew that Flynn and T got along really well, talked politics a LOT (or Flynn mentored T)ā€¦

Yes, Pence was picked by Manafort, and that might harken back to Manafortā€™s R strategist side, where he knows Conservative Right politics and not necessarily any connection with Manafortā€™s allegiences to autocratā€™s and Russians.

Gates also took a role in the transition, so he might have known the ā€˜dirtierā€™ elements perhaps.

Pence could have been intentionally lied to by Flynn etc. A lot of MSM is still sticking by this point, Alibiā€¦until proven differently.

Does Pence have an air of quiltiness on him? What is it called, suspicion of guilt. He says nothing, rocks no boatā€¦AND he acts Presidential when necessary to show up T.

4 Likes

Agreed, heā€™s not covered the same way Trump is covered by the press. However I believe theory #5 applies to Pence as head of the Trump transition team. He either knew about the corruption or he should have known.

I guess weā€™ll find out in the next few monthsā€¦

4 Likes

Live updates from Flynn sentencing happening nowā€¦

Flynn stands firm on guilty plea under judgeā€™s questioning

ā€œI do notā€ seek to withdraw the plea, Trumpā€™s former national security advisor Michael Flynn just told the judge overing seeing his sentencing for lying to the FBI.

Flynn said he is satisfied by his attorney representation, does not want extra time to speak with them, and does not want to speak with another, different attorney before this proceeds.
ā€œAre you continuing to accept responsibility for his false statements?ā€ Judge Emmet Sullivan asked. "I am, youā€™re honor," Flynn loudly responded.

Sullivan asks Flynn if he would like to postpone the sentencing, and Flynn says no.

What this means: He is standing firm on his decision to plead guilty to this crime.

2 Likes

Adam Schiff
ā€ @RepAdamSchiff
Dec 16

Today, the Presidentā€™s current lawyer said this of his last lawyer:

He lies to fit the situation heā€™s in;

He talked to a dozen reporters and lied and deceived them;

Heā€™s changed his story three or four times;

Heā€™s a serial liar.

What about the guy that hired them both?

3 Likes

Pre sentencing talkā€¦ from Judge Sullivan

@RGOODLAW
Truth from Judge Sullivan to Flynn:

ā€œYou were an unregistered agent of a foreign country will servingā€ the president
ā€œArguably this undermines everything this flag over here stands forā€
ā€œArguably, you sold your country out"
ā€œIā€™m not hidingā€¦my distain for this criminal offenseā€

4 Likes

Does this :boom: to you?

Meā€¦yes it does

Trump signed letter of intent for Trump Tower in Moscow, Giuliani incorrectly claimed he didnā€™t - CNNPolitics

4 Likes

Excellent time line detailing Trumpā€™s secret business negotiations with the Russians during the campaign ā€“ alongside the lies he was telling the public. This was put together before the signed letter of intent surfaced ā€“ Iā€™m sure that will be added here soon.

4 Likes

Linking to this podcastā€¦called MuellerSheWrote.

Just made some comments on day 699 here WTFJHT Day 699

1 Like