Giuliani Distances Himself From Ukrainian Sanctioned By U.S. As Russian Agent

President Trump’s lawyer sought to downplay his meeting and contacts with a Ukrainian member of parliament who has been described by the U.S. as attempting to interfere in the 2020 election.

Windthin · September 12, 2020, 5:51pm

‘Pure Evil’: Report On Trump Administration Draining Fund For FDNY’s 9/11 Responders Draws Outrage

dragonfly9 · September 13, 2020, 12:54pm

Oh please…! Will he supply T with multiple sharpies to change the face of all climate reports.

David Legates, a University of Delaware professor of climatology who has spent much of his career questioning basic tenets of climate science, has been hired for a top position at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Legates confirmed to NPR that he was recently hired as NOAA’s deputy assistant secretary of commerce for observation and prediction. The position suggests that he reports directly to Neil Jacobs, the acting head of the agency that is in charge of the federal government’s sprawling weather and climate prediction work.

…

Legates has a long history of using his position as an academic scientist to publicly cast doubt on climate science. His appointment to NOAA comes as Americans face profound threats stoked by climate change, from the vast, deadly wildfires in the West to an unusually active hurricane season in the South and East.

Global temperatures have already risen nearly 2 degrees Fahrenheit as a result of greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels. Warming is happening the fastest at the Earth’s poles, where sea ice is melting, permafrost is thawing and ocean temperatures are heating up, with devastating effects on animals and humans alike.

In 2007, Legates was one of the authors of a paper that questioned previous findings about the role of climate change in destroying the habitat of polar bears. That research was partially funded by grants from Koch Industries, the lobbying group the American Petroleum Institute and ExxonMobil, according to InsideClimate News.

dragonfly9 · September 13, 2020, 1:34pm

Discussion between CNN’s Jake Tapper, and Peter Navarro, representing the President’s view on what the WH says about T’s remarks to Bob Woodward about the airborne nature to Covid-19 and how much stronger it is than the Flu. Navarro is not answering this example of what the President knew and what he told the public, from a question of press Dr. Sanjay Gupta about what is worse flu or covid.

An abomination of course.

Video between CNN’s Jake Tapper and Peter Navarro, WH representative for Trade/T spokesman

More video on interview w/ Tapper and Navarro, with Navarro re-writing the question “fog of war” references.

Pet_Proletariat · September 14, 2020, 5:21pm

Trump Health Aide Alleges Broad Conspiracies and Warns of Armed Revolt

Michael Caputo, 58, the assistant secretary of public affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services, said without evidence that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was harboring a “resistance unit” determined to undermine President Trump.

Mr. Caputo, who has faced criticism for leading efforts to warp C.D.C. weekly bulletinsto fit Mr. Trump’s pandemic narrative, suggested that he personally could be in danger.

“You understand that they’re going to have to kill me, and unfortunately, I think that’s where this is going,” Mr. Caputo, a Trump loyalist installed by the White House in April, told followers in a video he hosted live on his personal Facebook page. Mr. Caputo has 5,000 Facebook friends, and the video has been viewed more than 850 times. It has been shared by 44 followers.

The fuck? We’re at almost 200,000 American deaths and this asshole instead of taking some semblance of responsibility, blames some made up “deep state” conspiracy? Which is well known Russian propaganda talking point, btw.

The party of personal responsibility takes no responsibility for their own failures in governance. The Republican Party is a zombie party only kept to serve the Trump loyalists.

Pet_Proletariat · September 14, 2020, 8:49pm

It’s never ending

dragonfly9 · September 14, 2020, 8:52pm

Here comes a possible slow down on Roger Stone’s position with the Justice Dept IG coming in to investigate this case again. Was there undue pressure as per prosecutor Zelinsky.

Justice Department internal watchdog is investigating Roger Stone’s sentencing, say sources

Prosecutor Aaron Zelinsky told Congress the U.S. Attorney’s office in D.C. told him to recommend a lighter sentence because of Stone’s ties to Trump.

The Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General has begun investigating the circumstances surrounding the sentencing recommendation for Roger Stone, a longtime friend of President Donald Trump, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

The investigation is focused on events in February, according to the two sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity, when prosecutors for Stone have said they were told to seek a lighter sentence for Stone than they had previously considered.

Attorney General William Barr ultimately intervened to override the prosecutors’ recommendation of seven to nine years and ask for a lighter sentence. All four prosecutors quit the case as a result.

One of those prosecutors, Aaron Zelinsky, testified before Congress in June that he was told by the office of the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia to recommend a lighter sentence for Stone than he otherwise would have because of Stone’s close personal relationship with Trump.

Zelinsky said the U.S. Attorney, Timothy Shea, was "receiving heavy pressure from the highest levels of the Department of Justice to cut Stone a break, and that the U.S. Attorney’s sentencing instructions to us were based on political considerations."

The career prosecutors had recommended the longer sentence in accordance with a 2017 policy put forth by Trump‘s first attorney general, Jeff Sessions, which requires prosecutors to seek the maximum sentence called for under the guidelines unless there are significant mitigating circumstances.

One source familiar with the matter said comments made by Zelinsky during his testimony triggered the Inspector General’s Office to open an investigation. It is not known how far the Office of the Inspector General has proceeded in its investigation, who they have interviewed or whether they have found any evidence of wrongdoing.

A federal jury convicted Stone of seven felonies after a trial in which prosecutors accused him of lying to Congress and intimidating a witness. They said he was trying to protect President Trump by misleading a Congressional investigation into ties between Russia and Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.

Windthin · September 15, 2020, 1:07am

GOP source has been a Russian agent for a decade

GOP source is a Russian agent

The Treasury Department announced new sanctions against Andriy Derkach, a Ukrainian lawmaker, accusing him of being an “active Russian agent” who is part of Moscow’s interference in the 2020 campaign. Derkach has been actively promoting discredited anti-Biden materials for many months, including meeting with Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani to hand over disinformation

The Treasury Department announced new sanctions against Andriy Derkach, a Ukrainian lawmaker, accusing him of being an “active Russian agent” who is part of Moscow’s interference in the 2020 campaign. Derkach has been actively promoting discredited anti-Biden materials for many months, including meeting with Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani to hand over disinformation.

Between May and July 2020, Derkach released edited audio tapes and other unsupported information with the intent to discredit U.S. officials, and he levied unsubstantiated allegations against U.S. and international political figures.

These tapes were laundered through Giuliani to OANN, the Senate Homeland Security Committee (via Chairman Sen. Ron Johnson), Don Jr., and the president himself.

Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-OR) called out Sen. Johnson and Sen. Chuck Grassley (Chair of Senate Finance Cmte.) for collaborating with Derkach:

Derkach has been central in advancing the Russian disinformation that underpins Senate Republicans’ effort to smear Vice President Biden. For example, in April, the Republican chairmen of the Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs and Finance Committees requested information about purported calls between Vice President Biden and Ukrainian officials. Then in May edited excerpts of those same calls involving Biden were leaked by Derkach and Andrii Telizhenko, the Senate Republicans’ star witness.

…Senate investigations should not parrot conspiracy theories pushed by Russian agents under U.S. sanctions, and Senate Republicans should immediately abandon this blatantly political effort.

Pet_Proletariat · September 15, 2020, 2:56pm

Judge rules Chad Wolf likely unlawfully serving as Homeland Security secretary and temporarily blocks some asylum restrictions

A federal judge in Maryland has ruled that Chad Wolf is likely unlawfully serving as acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security and temporarily barred the Trump administration from enforcing new asylum restrictions on members of two immigration advocacy groups.

Pet_Proletariat · September 15, 2020, 3:01pm

Justice Dept. Opens Criminal Inquiry Into John Bolton’s Book

The department has convened a grand jury and subpoenaed for communications records from Simon & Schuster, which published Mr. Bolton’s memoir, “The Room Where It Happened,” a highly unflattering account of his 17 months working in the Trump administration.

The investigation marks a significant escalation in the fraught publication of the book. The Trump administration had sought earlier to stop publication, accusing Mr. Bolton in a lawsuit of moving forward with publication without receiving final notice that a prepublication review to scrub out classified information was complete. The director of national intelligence referred the matter to the Justice Department last month, two of the people said.

dragonfly9 · September 15, 2020, 4:15pm

Where are the ‘openings’ for Durham (and Barr) make claims that getting the Mueller Investigation initiated and was there a ‘legal’ predicate?

It is being rumored that a slimmed down version of Durham’s investigation of the investigator (Mueller), highlights will be released before the election, and understanding where this argument may be directed.

The Predication of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Investigation

Both Barr and Durham have contested one of the main conclusions from the Justice Department inspector general’s December 2019 report: that Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos’s comment to a foreign official that the Russians had dirt on Hillary Clinton was an adequate predicate to open a counterintelligence investigation into Russian election interference and links to the Trump campaign. In one interview, Barr called the incident “a very slender reed to get law enforcement intelligence agencies involved in investigating the campaign of one’s political opponent” and confirmed that Durham was looking at the matter.

The Senate Intelligence Committee’s report does not explicitly address the FBI’s decision to open an investigation. But it does, in considerable detail, analyze Papadopoulos’s communications with foreign nationals throughout 2016. Based on those contacts, the committee concluded:

Papadopoulos’s efforts introduced him to several individuals that raise counterintelligence concerns, due to their associations with individuals from hostile foreign governments as well as actions these individuals undertook. The Committee assesses that Papadopoulos was not a witting cooptee of the Russian intelligence services, but nonetheless presented a prime intelligence target and potential vector for malign Russian influence. (Emphasis added.)

The report also found that “Papadopoulos likely learned about the Russian active measures campaign as early as April 2016 from Joseph Mifsud, a Maltese academic with longstanding Russia ties, well before any public awareness of the Russian effort.” The committee described Papadopoulos’s contacts with Mifsud and another individual named Sergei Millian, both of whom “have significant ties to Russian government and business circles,” as “highly suspicious.” Still, the full picture is not public as a subheading of the report titled “Counterintelligence Concerns about Papadopoulos’s Interactions” remains almost entirely redacted.

Additionally, the committee determined that while it did not have affirmative evidence that Papadopoulos communicated his knowledge that the Russians had compromising information on Clinton to Trump campaign officials, “the Committee finds it implausible that Papadopoulos did not do so.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/09/14/two-new-stories-ramp-up-focus-barrs-willingness-boost-trump-before-election/

…

The New York Times reports that Barr wanted Durham to move quickly, and it’s possible Barr himself could release what the investigation has found so far if Durham isn’t finished before the election. That’s especially notable given that Barr framed the findings in the Mueller probe in a way that benefited Trump before releasing the whole thing.

Windthin · September 15, 2020, 4:22pm

Here is Donald Trump bragging about wanting to be the world’s biggest arms dealer.

How can anybody think he deserves a Nobel Peace Prize?

dragonfly9 · September 15, 2020, 6:45pm

Here is another one of the goon squad - like Caputo and Roger Stone who want to terrify the ‘enemy,’ and keep T president…THis Michael Scheuer looks positively dangerous to the Republic. WTF

The former senior CIA official once in charge of the hunt for Osama bin Laden has spent the summer calling for the slaughter of his fellow Americans.

Michael Scheuer calls Black Lives Matter a “terrorist organization” and a “semi-human mob.” On his blog and his podcast, Scheuer rages against a widespread, treasonous conspiracy targeting not only President Trump but the fundamental character of the American republic. It deserves “punishment… we’ve not seen before in this country.” Kyle Rittenhouse, the 17-year old charged with murder for shooting demonstrators at a Kenosha, Wisconsin, protest, is a “young hero.” If America is lucky, Scheuer wrote last week, “Rittenhouse’s necessary, patriotic, and constitutional actions will power the formation of militias across the United States.” In July, he wrote that “loyal Americans know their domestic enemies, as well as their locations, in detail, and will be able to act swiftly to eliminate them and the threat they pose.”

Scheuer’s advocacy of violence follows a long trajectory. In December, he endorsed the increasingly violent QAnon conspiracy movement, which the FBI has called a potential wellspring of domestic terrorism. Those who deny QAnon’s unhinged hallucinations are, to Scheuer, “coup-ists [and] insurrectionists.” Last month, Scheuer claimed vindication against critics when Trump seemed to acknowledge QAnon. Scheuer has long been comfortable with violence. His career-making 2004 book Imperial Hubris argued that America would need to wage a far bloodier war, including the destruction of civilian infrastructure, unless it divests its imperial role in the Mideast. Sixteen years later, Scheuer’s enemy is domestic. “The only thing I would be upset about if it came to war is that not enough Democrats would get killed,” he said on his podcast in July.

Counterterrorism experts have long since written Scheuer off as a crank. Yet Scheuer’s advocacy of political violence looks disturbingly like a harbinger. Trump’s one-time consigliere Roger Stone urged Trump to declare martial law and jail his critics if he loses the November election. Ally Michael Caputo, now at the Department of Health and Human Services, reportedly invented a left-wing insurrection on a Facebook Live chat. And over the weekend, Trump endorsed federal agents shooting dead a suspect in the killing of a right-wing protester. “That’s the way it has to be, there has to be retribution when you have crime like this,” he told Fox News, echoing a point he made earlier in the summer.

dragonfly9 · September 15, 2020, 7:14pm

The health department’s top spokesperson Michael Caputo called an emergency staff meeting on Tuesday to apologize for drawing negative attention to the Trump administration’s health care strategy and signaled that he might be soon departing his role, according to five people with knowledge of the meeting.

The departure of Caputo, who has closely controlled the health agencies’ dissemination of information about coronavirus, would be a blow to the Trump administration’s efforts to promote a possible vaccine, if one is approved in the fall

Caputo told staffers that his series of false accusations on Facebook Live this weekend — which included unfounded allegations that the Centers for Disease Control was harboring a “resistance unit” — reflected poorly on HHS’ communications office. He blamed his recent behavior on a combination of physical health issues and the toll of fielding death threats against his family. Caputo also acknowledged that he had never read one of the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports, despite his team’s ongoing efforts to try to edit those documents.

Caputo told staff that he is scheduled to meet with HHS Secretary Alex Azar later Tuesday, the people with knowledge of the meeting said.

President Donald Trump — a close ally of Caputo who helped install him as HHS’ communication head this year — is also expected to be involved in any decision about Caputo’s next steps.

Three people with knowledge of Caputo’s decision-making confirmed that he was mulling stepping aside as the department’s assistant secretary for public affairs to take medical leave. One former HHS official told POLITICO that Caputo, a former Trump campaign official, has long complained of the stress caused by having been mentioned in the special counsel’s investigation on Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Windthin · September 15, 2020, 9:50pm

I started looking at these two Michaels. What I find is it leads back to Roger Stone. Did a little thread about it. All three are nuts, and all three are fomenting violence on different, intertwined levels.

dragonfly9 · September 16, 2020, 6:35pm

Wow.

This is a step in an authoritarian direction…and a way to contain protests from AG Barr as he discusses this option with federal prosecutors.

Sedition - definition is conduct or speech inciting people to rebel against the authority of a state or monarch .

(Had to look this up)

Attorney General William Barr told the nation’s federal prosecutors to be aggressive when charging violent demonstrators with crimes, including potentially prosecuting them for plotting to overthrow the U.S. government, people familiar with the conversation said.

In a conference call with U.S. attorneys across the country last week, Mr. Barr warned that sometimes violent demonstrations across the U.S. could worsen as the November presidential election approaches. He encouraged the prosecutors to seek a number federal charges, including under a rarely used sedition law, even when state charges could apply, the people said.

The call underscores the priority Mr. Barr has given to prosecuting crimes connected to months of protests against racial injustice that have at times become violent and led to major property damage, as President Trump has made a broader crackdown on violence accompanying the demonstrations a key campaign issue. U.S. attorneys have broad discretion in what charges they bring.

Federal prosecutors have charged more than 200 people with violent crimes related to the protests, most of whom face counts of arson, assaulting federal officers, or gun crimes. FBI officials earlier this year described the perpetrators as largely opportunistic individuals taking advantage of the protests. In more recent months, police officials say they are alarmed by the presence of armed fringe groups from both sides of the political spectrum.

Windthin · September 17, 2020, 5:03pm

And here comes more. Let’s stop calling AG Barr the US AG. He’s the DT AG.

AG Barr: COVID lockdowns are worst threat to civil liberties since slavery

Barr: COVID response is second “greatest intrusion on civil liberties” ever in US.

AG Barr calls coronavirus lockdown history’s ‘greatest intrusion on civil liberties’ — except for slavery

Barr blasts his own DOJ prosecutors, equates them to preschoolers and ‘headhunters’

Barr also said too much deference is given to career prosecutors in remarks likely to further strain relations between Barr and some of the Justice Department’s longtime attorneys.

A reminder from May:

Bill Barr’s Bullshit Weaponizes Justice’s Civil Rights Division to Fight Against Trump’s Own COVID-19 Guidance

The DOJ gets mixed up in a local matter it insists doesn’t involve any issues under its jurisdiction to help a buffoonish local lawmaker keep goading a “Democrat” governor.

Seattle mayor says Barr’s suggestions to charge her are ‘chilling’

dragonfly9 · September 17, 2020, 5:15pm

A lot of alarm bells going off as the far-right is ramping up a misinformation/propaganda campaign amplified on Breitbart, A. Jones, and other far right outlets that if Biden wins, it’s going to be considered a coup, and illegal.

A bunch of articles follow which talk exactly about that.

Perhaps this is why Biden is getting together a legal team to support his efforts for a free and fair election, as well as Dan Coat’s Opinion piece also suggestion that a committee be set up to watch the election. Those efforts are described here… Biden’s legal team on election & Dan Coat’s Op Ed

@zackbeauchamp
](https://twitter.com/zackbeauchamp)

Right-wing media outlets are priming their audiences to see a Biden victory as a coup. This stuff is really scary.

dragonfly9 · September 17, 2020, 5:29pm

President Trump’s luxury properties have charged the U.S. government more than $1.1 million in private transactions since Trump took office — including for room rentals at his Bedminster, N.J., club this spring while it was closed for the coronavirus pandemic, new documents show.

The documents, including receipts and invoices from Trump’s businesses, were released by the Secret Service after The Washington Post filed a public-records lawsuit. They added $188,000 in previously unknown charges to The Post’s running total of payments to Trump’s properties related to the presence of Secret Service agents.

In Bedminster this spring, the records show, Trump’s club charged the Secret Service more than $21,800 to rent a cottage and other rooms while the club was closed and otherwise off-limits to guests. The documents don’t give a reason for these rentals. Trump didn’t visit the club while it was closed, but his eldest daughter, Ivanka Trump, and her family reportedly visited at least once.

WTF Community

More Questionable Behavior from Trump, T Admin, DOJ, and R's vs Dems, Press, Justice