Day 685

[matt (Matt Kiser)]

Updated 12/5/2018 1:54 PM PST

1/ Robert Mueller's office recommended that Michael Flynn serve no jail time because he provided "substantial assistance" with the Russian probe. A court filing submitted by the special counsel's office says Flynn provided "firsthand information about the content and context of interactions between the transition team and Russian government officials." Flynn gave 19 interviews to Mueller's team and other investigators and, as a result, Mueller asked a federal judge not to sentence Flynn to prison. Flynn also provided details about other criminal investigations, but those details were heavily redacted from the court filing in order to keep information about ongoing probes secret. The redactions suggest there is more to come in the probe into Russian election interference. (Reuters / New York Times / CNN / Axios / NBC News / Washington Post / CNBC)

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This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/2018/12/05/day-685/

[dragonfly9]

Some speculation about why the Judge in Maria Butina’s case is scheduling a conference call for Thurs at 11am (tomorrow) and whether she will be doing a plea bargain.

This is from a Buzzfeed reporter, and lists her legal activity that Ms. Butina has been involved with to date.

Chris Geidner (chrisgeidner)

[dragonfly9]

Outgoing Senator Flake will stay the course on not allowing the Judicial nominees go through unless a bill to protect Robert Mueller goes through. Looks like Flake’s vote is one of two to stick it to McConnell. This eliminates Farr’s nomination…who was a someone very biased.

Senate Judiciary Committee scrapegoats on judges because of Flake

On Wednesday, Flake stood by his commitment to not vote for judicial nominees until the Mueller bill gets a vote.

"We can have the markup, I will just vote no," Flake told CNN.

Flake made his promise to block Trump judicial nominees last month following Trump’s decision to fire then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions and replace him with acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker, an outspoken critic of Mueller’s investigation.

Installing conservative judges throughout the nation’s judiciary branch has been a marquee promise of both Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican who has consistently worked to approve conservative nominees through his chamber.

Given the GOP’s narrow 51-49 Senate majority, Flake has also played a part in sinking Trump’s nominees on the Senate floor – most notably Thomas Farr, a nominee to be a US district judge in North Carolina who was accused of disenfranchising African-American voters. South Carolina Republican Sen. Tim Scott joined Flake in opposing Farr’s nomination last month, effectively ending that nomination.

Senate Judiciary Committee scraps votes on judges because of Flake

GOP blocks vote on Mueller protection bill

[Keaton_James]

Trump aide's appearances on RT channel are focus for Russia inquiry

Midst all the chaos, this stands out as a big development in the Trump/Russia investigation. The headline focuses on the relationship that Ted Malloch, a Trump campaign advisor, has with Russia Today (this is the same media outlet that secretly paid Flynn). However, the real bombshell here is that Malloch was the person who may have visited Assange in the Ecuadorian embassy to pick up the DNC hacked emails. Here’s a stunning quotation from Jerome Corsi that appeared in an earlier Guardian article:

“Ted Malloch and I were in touch. Roger Stone wanted Malloch to go and see Julian Assange and I did pass the message on,” said Corsi. “But to my knowledge he did not. I don’t think he ever saw Assange.”

So Corsi admits he asked Malloch to visit Assange at Stone’s request. Then he goes on to say he does’t know if Malloch followed through. However, Corsi is a documented liar, so we shall see. (Malloch is also a documented liar having repeatedly misrepresented his credentials.)

As the article relates, Nigel Farage (“Mr. Brexit”) is wrapped up in this as well. I’m surprised the article doesn’t mention that Farage was spotted exiting the Ecuadorian embassy in March, 2017. This was well after the DNC email leak, but it still begs the question whether or not Farage had also made earlier visits, or if his visit in March involved some kind of follow-up business related to the leak.

Side Note: “Russia Today” now wants us to call them “RT,” but I’m not going to let them hide behind their initials. I’m always going to refer to them as “Russia Today.” A Trump-supporting acquaintance recently related a story to me that he saw on “RT.” I asked him if he knew that stands for “Russia Today” and he was taken aback – so apparently their ruse is working – many Americans actually don’t realize that “RT” is a Russian news outlet. I urge all Americans to continue identifying “RT” as “Russia Today.”