WTF Community

Day 1056

General Discussion
#1

1/ The Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee about the origins of the FBI's Russia investigation. Horowitz reaffirmed that the investigation was adequately justified despite "several errors," which FBI Director Christopher Wray has promised to address. Horowitz also said he met with Attorney General William Barr's handpicked prosecutor, U.S. Attorney John Durham, last month seeking information related to the opening of the Trump-Russia probe and the surveillance warrants the FBI obtained and renewed on former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. Horowitz said Durham's information failed to convince him that the FBI's 2016 investigation into Trump's campaign was improperly opened. When the report was released, however, Durham issued a public statement saying he didn't agree with Horowitz's conclusion. Barr also said he disagreed with Horowitz's conclusion and accused the FBI of having acted in "bad faith" by pursuing the case. The 434-page report concluded that while there were "serious performance failures," the FBI had adequate cause to launch the investigation and was not motivated by political bias. (Washington Post / New York Times / NBC News / Politico / ABC News)

This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/2019/12/11/day-1056/
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#2

So many twists and turns in this story…Direct links to Russia and payment from them.
now what?

Rudy Giuliani’s associate Lev Parnas got $1 million from an account in Russia in September, a month before he was charged with conspiring to funnel foreign money into U.S. political campaigns, according to U.S. prosecutors who asked a judge to jail him for understating his income and assets.

“The majority of that money appears to have been used on personal expenses and to purchase a home,” prosecutors said in a court filing Wednesday. Parnas failed to disclose the payment to the government, prosecutors said.

The payment raises provocative new questions about the nature of the work Parnas and his associate Igor Fruman were doing and who they were doing it for. Much about what they did remains unclear.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-12-11/giuliani-associate-parnas-got-1-million-from-russia-u-s-says

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#3

Pentagon will be slowing the T roll on the contracting of the Wall… Thanks @rusticgorilla

WASHINGTON — The Office of Inspector General for the Department of Defense will investigate a $400 million contract for border wall construction awarded to a North Dakota company after President Trump privately pushed the deal.

The chairman of the House Homeland Security committee, Representative Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, called for the inquiry into the decision made by the United States Army Corps of Engineers last week, raising concerns of “inappropriate influence.” Mr. Thompson wrote in a letter that Fisher Sand & Gravel “did not meet the operational requirements of U.S. Customs and Border Protection and its prototype project came in late and over budget.”

Glenn Fine, the principal deputy inspector general for the Department of Defense, wrote a letter to Mr. Thompson on Thursday saying the watchdog would investigate the contract for Arizona wall construction to see if it met solicitation standards.

“In response to your request, we have decided to initiate an audit of the solicitation and award of this contract,” Mr. Fine said in the letter to Mr. Thompson. “We are assessing the methodology of that audit and will formally announce the audit soon.”

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#4

That moment when the President of the United States and his large adult son both jealously attacked sixteen-year-old Greta Thunberg, TIME person of the year for her work in environmental activism, because they can’t handle climate change or being outshone by somebody far smarter & more mature.

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#5

Long time coming…wow!

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#6

Things are heating up on the document front - getting notes from a meeting with Putin is important. And Judge will not throw out the request.

Friday Dec 13th is a day when we may hear about some other withheld documents - ie, Taxes, Deutsch Bank, Capital One. via Mazars.

A federal judge on Wednesday rejected the Trump administration’s attempt to toss out a lawsuit over missing notes documenting President Donald Trump’s face-to-face meetings with President Vladimir Putin of Russia.

American Oversight and Democracy Forward, a pair of left-leaning nonpartisan watchdog groups, sued Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the State Department, the National Archives and Records Administration, and the archivist of the United States in June over the missing notes. The groups charge that Pompeo violated the Federal Records Act by allowing Trump to reportedly confiscate meeting notes prepared by State Department employees and for failing to preserve them.

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#7

What the hell…


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#9

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#8

Senate recognizes Armenian genocide over objections of Trump and Turkish government

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