WTF Community

Day 467

General Discussion
#1

Updated 5/1/2018 11:08 AM PDT

1/ Robert Mueller has at least 49 questions he wants to ask Trump regarding his ties to Russia and alleged obstruction. The questions deal primarily with Trump's firing of James Comey and Michael Flynn, as well as his treatment of Jeff Sessions and the 2016 Trump Tower meeting between Trump campaign officials and Russians who claimed to have damaging information on Hillary Clinton. Other topics of inquiry include Trump's conversations with Michael Cohen about a real estate deal in Moscow, Jared Kushner's attempts to set up a backchannel to Russia, contacts Trump had with Roger Stone, and Trump's 2013 trip to Moscow for the Miss Universe pageant. (New York Times)

This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/2018/05/01/day-467/
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#2

I am guessing it was probably John Bannon that leaked these questions. Can we get a forensic linguist in here to corroborate this assertion?

#4

Whoops I meant John Barron…

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#6

oh, man. good joke gone horribly wrong lol

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#7

Fascinating reading – link courtesy of currentstatus.io. :grinning:

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#8

Despite Ivanka Trump‘s Washington enemies actively floating the idea that she might be a “target” of special counsel’s investigation, this is a good, level-headed look at why Ivanka hasn’t been called, yet…

Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter and West Wing adviser, also spoke briefly at Trump Tower with a Russian lawyer and a lobbyist who was present for that meeting during the campaign […] has yet to be called in for questioning by special counsel Robert Mueller

But Mueller’s decision to steer clear of the first daughter – at least for now – is a signal of his “don’t poke the bear until you have to” strategy.

“Mueller would know that trying to interview Ivanka Trump would be like lighting a match to the highly combustible Donald Trump,” said Elizabeth de la Vega, a former federal prosecutor who reported directly to Mueller when he served in the U.S. Attorney’s office in the Northern District of California. “The team would want to wait to the last possible moment, if at all, before taking that step.”

Calling Ivanka Trump in for an interview, former Justice Department officials and legal experts said, would be risky primarily for two reasons: it would give the public perception that the prolonged investigation has reached the point of harassing the president’s family members, giving Trump more ammunition to decry how unfairly he and his family are being treated in an investigation he has already deemed a “witch hunt.”

And it would carry with it the very real possibility that the reactive president would “go nuclear,” according to a former federal prosecutor, once again raising the possibility of pardons or toying with the idea of firing the special counsel all together.

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#9

Missed this in today’s update, but…

The special counsel’s office wants two more months before it looks toward sentencing former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who has pleaded guilty to lying to investigators and is cooperating in the Russia probe.

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#10

A federal watchdog has found that Republican Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Commissioner Mike O’Rielly violated ethics laws during an appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in February, when he called on voters to re-elect President Trump and support GOP congressional candidates.

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#11

Wait, what? Who wrote the list? I’m so confused.
What is happening with this “list” story?

In the wake of the testy March 5 meeting, Mueller’s team agreed to provide the president’s lawyers with more specific information about the subjects that prosecutors wished to discuss with the president. With those details in hand, Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow compiled a list of 49 questions that the team believed the president would be asked, according to three of the four people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk publicly. The New York Times first reported the existence of the list.

#12

Don’t quote me on this, but it seems that "The List"™ was released by the Trump camp, based on conversations with Mueller – as in the Trump team created questions based on the topics discussed while negotiating a Trump interview.

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#13

@matt So what was the purpose of releasing the “list” because it seems like it doesn’t really help Team Trump? This gonna bug me.

#14

i dunno. probably to signal to allies what mueller wants to talk to him about and see how people respond?

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#15

I am a bit confused as well. Looks like Jay Sekulow compiled it and it was offloaded via aide (or Sekulow?) to NYT…purposefully leaked.

Check out the Investigate Russia link…they hash it out. (but it IS confusing)

#16

Ok I think I get it. So sometime in March, Team Mueller met with Team Trump, they exchange information and Team Mueller threatens to subpoena the President if he doesn’t willfully sit for an official interview. So Team Trump decides to write up this “list” to “prepare” the President and then it promptly gets leaked to the media by someone from Team Trump. Hmmm. :thinking: I don’t think this is going to play well for Team Trump. What do you guys think?

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#17

Yes, that is the framework…and all this is being discussed on the MSNBC block tonight…

New people and situations in the mix since the March meeting
Some possibilities

  1. Guiliani has come in to save the day. I think Guiliani is leaking this…having had an interview today with NYT/or WAPO and gives some quotes (Per Laurence O’Donnell)…but they are suggesting that he let slip the 49 questions which could be attributed to “a few unnamed sources.”

The reason for this is to get some public outrage at the Witch Hunt, and get Rosenstein impeached/out - concurrent with the R’s doing the paperwork for Rosenstein’s impeachment. (MSNBC’s theme today has been that it was purposefully leaked by T’s team…just out of reach of us knowing who might have done it. )

  1. John Dowd, ex T lawyer and recently let go…saw that T was never going to be able to testify and was adamant that he not testify, and perjure himself. He would have had access to said notes…but he may be less of a player (more standup lawyer than Guiliani) and would never leak to the press on any of it. I do not think he has real allegiances to T, but wouldn’t mess up the lawyer/client relationship.

3.) Because the subpoena is being dangled to get T to testify, Sekulow and others (Guiliani) want a fast track out of the legal imbroglio and will do anything not to have to make the Prez testify. Pundits are saying that the ‘notes’ of the 49 questions came directly from Jay Sekulow, indicating they were not the questions drawn up by Mueller where the language would have been tighter. I don’t think Sekulow/Guilliani can negotiate their way around this subpoena and are going for de-legitimizing the whole witch hunt claim.

  1. Mueller is delaying the Flynn sentencing to delay giving further evidence of what he’s got up his sleeve…and we’re certain he has a LOT on this group.

  2. As you say not going to play well for Team Trump. They are in for some legal trouble here…saw Hannity for a moment, T’s mouth piece and they want to rip up all these dumb questions. Trump team wants to short circuit all legal actions, (see Saturday Night Massacre) and be done with it.

But Rosenstein won’t be bullied…and perhaps not Sessions either. And we know, Mueller is a master at this game.

So we wait. :-:roll_eyes:

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#18

@dragonfly9

So Team Trump is just going to play Witch Hunt forever? Wow. Has that ever worked out?

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#19

It’s so that trump can point to all the topics & yell “witch hunt”, then “see? I told you Mueller is way out of bounds & must be stopped!” It’s the usual B.S. from the trump camp to make another scene in the media for his base & to justify firing Mueller or Rosenstein etc. :crazy_face:

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#20

Not really. Nixon ultimately failed with that kind of barrage of misinformation (and the tapes)

But I believe it is just another game called Blind Man’s Bluff…or Liar’s Poker

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#21
#3

Who’s John Bannon?

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