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What The Fuck Happened Over The Weekend?

General Discussion
#207

Rosenstien’s carefully worded response from the 14th,

“As to the specific portions of this interview provided to the Department of Justice by ‘60 Minutes’ in advance, the Deputy Attorney General again rejects Mr. McCabe’s recitation of events as inaccurate and factually incorrect,” A Justice Department spokesperson said in a statement. “The Deputy Attorney General never authorized any recording that Mr. McCabe references. As the Deputy Attorney General previously has stated, based on his personal dealings with the President, there is no basis to invoke the 25th Amendment, nor was the DAG in a position to consider invoking the 25th Amendment.”

The spokesperson further dismissed the idea of a coordinated effort between Rosenstein and Comey to appoint special counsel Robert Mueller to take over the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

“Finally, the Deputy Attorney General never spoke to Mr. Comey about appointing a Special Counsel,” the spokesperson said. “The Deputy Attorney General in fact appointed Special Counsel Mueller, and directed that Mr. McCabe be removed from any participation in that investigation. Subsequent to his removal, DOJ’s Inspector General found that Mr. McCabe did not tell the truth to federal authorities on multiple occasions, leading to his termination from the FBI.”

Rosenstein and McCabe are in a serious disagreement about what transpired leading up to the instatement of Mueller as special counsel. There’s so much that’s is still classified, we’re still getting the redacted version.

Team McCabe all the way, he did the right thing when Trump fired Comey. What did Rosenstein do? He wrote the memo to help justify Comey’s firing and then didn’t recuse from the investigation into said firing. Rosenstein days are numbered anyways, the new AG gets to pick his own deputies.

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#208

Good point…we got no vantage point in on this. It’s hidden for now.

Seems that Rosenstein and McCabe were majorly thrown by all of it.

Let’s hope Barr will uphold the intention of the Russian Investigation…to see if there was collusion/conspiracy among the T campaign/group and not withhold the report or not give the indicted pardons.

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#209

It’s definitely in the top ten of crazy Trump events. I’m wondering why they’re having this out now? Is it just a response to the book tour? Are they clearly this time period up for a reason unbeknownst to us?

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#210

There are so many questions…:question::question:

I’d rather stick to believing that McCabe is a loyal and straight-up patriot. And even with Rosenstein befuddled by those 8 days pre-Mueller appointment, that Rosenstein is a straight shooter, one who abides and reveres the law but just desperate enough that he may have worn a wire.

#WishfulThinking

#211

I think he’s desperate to get out of this administration and this situation. Remember Rosenstein endorsed Barr as AG.

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#212

Yes…he wants out. I agree.

And a revisit of how the Rosenstein memo got written

F.B.I. Official Wrote Secret Memo Fearing Trump Got a Cover Story for Comey Firing - The New York Times

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#213

Another democracy is now facing cyber attacks weeks before an election.

When the Australian Parliament and political parties are hacked, the Prime Minister makes a major speech to reassure the nation that their government is doing everything within its power to identify the country that attacked them and to shield their democracy from future assaults.

But when our democratic institutions come under cyber attack where is our leader? Not one word from him. In fact, he’s not just guilty of negligence; it’s worse than that. At every turn he is actively blocking the investigations and today he even spread a message calling for the lead investigator to be thrown in jail.

SYDNEY, Australia — Prime Minister Scott Morrison of Australia on Monday blamed a “sophisticated state actor” for the recent hacking of Parliament’s computer network, raising the specter of foreign interference in the country’s politics weeks before a national election.

The government has not identified the country behind the attack, but Mr. Morrison said that along with Parliament, the networks of the major political parties were also affected.

Mr. Morrison did not detail how the country’s security agencies had detected or dealt with the malicious activity, but he insisted that “there is no evidence of any electoral interference.”

Cybersecurity experts, he said, briefed the country’s electoral commissions and met with state and territory officials. “They have also worked with global antivirus companies to ensure Australia’s friends and allies have the capacity to detect this malicious activity,” he said.

Alastair MacGibbon, the national cybersecurity adviser, said on Monday that the government had not learned the identity of the hacker before it acted to block the activity…

A government cybersecurity expert said one difficulty in identifying the perpetrators was that the hackers used tools that had not previously been seen.

The nations most likely to carry out such an attack are China and Russia, security experts said, though Iran, Israel and North Korea also have sophisticated cyberwarfare capabilities.

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#214

A senior German official, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak on such matters, shrugged his shoulders and said: “No one any longer believes that Trump cares about the views or interests of the allies. It’s broken.”

—

Even the normally gloomy Russian foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, happily noted the strains, remarking that the Euro-Atlantic relationship had become increasingly “tense.”

“We see new cracks forming, and old cracks deepening,” Mr. Lavrov said.

The Europeans no longer believe that Washington will change, not when Mr. Trump sees traditional allies as economic rivals and leadership as diktat. His distaste for multilateralism and international cooperation is a challenge to the very heart of what Europe is and needs to be in order to have an impact in the world.

But beyond the Trump administration, an increasing number of Europeans say they believe that relations with the United States will never be the same again.

Karl Kaiser, a longtime analyst of German-American relations, said, “Two years of Mr. Trump, and a majority of French and Germans now trust Russia and China more than the United States.”

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#215

And the problem with that is, that those are from the alt-right, and the alt-left. The old political divides are fast disappearing as popularism and reactions to the increasing inequalities that have resulted from mega-corporate greed. This dissatisfaction is fostered by on-line dialogue generated from Russia and China, on social media sites.
Even as we “speak” the British Labour Party is splitting asunder, and the Tories are in not much better shape. France is beset with “green jackets” protests, Italians are are loggerheads with each other, the German alt-right is constantly demanding more and more attention.
Corporations have to wake up to the damage they are causing with their insatiable greed, as more and more of the worlds resources end up under their control. How to regulate social media is another matter. You have had your problems in 2016 and according to some experts you face a mega storm in 2020. The Australians are currently reporting interference from a foreign power in the lead up to their elections this year.
Trump is a significant factor, but there is much more to it than just him.

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#216

The FBI is dismantling a special unit that investigates international war crimes and hunts down war criminals—including suspected torturers and perpetrators of genocide, Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting has learned.

The unit, which was created a decade ago and has its roots in federal efforts to hunt down Nazis living in the United States after World War II, has had a hand in many high-profile prosecutions.

—

In a statement, the FBI confirmed the shuttering of the war crimes unit but argued its dissolution “in no way reflects a reduced commitment by the FBI” to enforce human rights law. The agents previously dedicated to human rights work will continue that work as members of the FBI’s civil rights program, the agency said.

But the move could run afoul of Congress, which mandated the unit’s establishment and funds its work every year as part of the FBI’s budget. Sources tell Reveal that most of the agents previously dedicated to human rights likely will now be assigned to other jobs and worry that perpetrators of torture and genocide will be free to act with impunity.

In addition to finding international war criminals living in the United States, the FBI’s human rights unit also has investigated and apprehended perpetrators of war crimes against Americans abroad, along with Americans who commit war crimes themselves—such as military contractors accused of killing civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan or U.S. citizens who fight alongside the Islamic State. All those efforts now could fall through the cracks.

Human rights advocates, who have become increasingly concerned with President Donald Trump’s embrace of ruthless autocrats such as Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, worry that the move could be political.

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#217

Here’s more of a clarification of what was revealed in McCabe’s CBS interview…from our :boom: friend, Benjamin Wittes at Lawfare

While I will never parse through details like a lawyer, the details re-stated here gives more credence to the NY Times reporting of the need for a counterintelligence resource, which McCabe meeting with the President about starting right after he met w/ T.

Less clear is what Rosenstein is admitting or revealing, which never actually refutes the question that the 25th Amendment was discussed, just not acted on.

Should any of this change one’s fundamental understanding of any of the individuals or events in question? Probably not. But as the picture comes into tighter focus, the image that emerges is of a chaotic period, one in which everyone was under intense stress and Rosenstein in particular was handling the stress badly and making erratic judgments. McCabe’s account doesn’t change the fundamentals of the story, but it puts a lot of flesh on the bones. And it makes clear that at least one former senior official will put his name behind a series of stories that until now had been sourced anonymously in the New York Times.

NYT’s article referenced above.

And Benjamin’s conclusion after speaking the FBI’s fired lawyer, Jim Baker, that “Obstruction was the Collusion” theory

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#218

Ohhhhh Roger Stone is beyond words…provocateur who’s actions are going to bring him down faster, messing with the Judge presiding over his case.
I mean common man…

UPDATED 4:15 PST Roger has apologized…legally. :exploding_head:

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#219

@dragonfly9 I think McCabe was wrongfully terminated, he had already retired when the IG report came out, they didn’t have to fire him. That IG report was harsh but didn’t find bias in the work of any of the investigators.

Worth rereading the Rosenstein Memo justifying the firing of Director Comey over the FBI handling of Clinton email case.

I just think it’s too convenient to fire the man that opened the investigation to find out if the President is a Russian asset and then over the next year clean house at the FBI. Wittes is placing too much emphasis on the IG report, it’s a false equivalency compared to the mountains of lies we’ve heard from this administration.

As emptywheel points out, it’s up to the courts to decide and so far they all agree with the FBI.

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#220

So true. And let’s not forget that the person employing these Mafia-style tactics has been a close confidant of our President for many years.

Here’s WaPo’s reporting:

Days after a federal judge imposed a limited gag order on him, Roger Stone posted a photograph of that judge to his Instagram page that included her name, a close-up of her face and what appeared to be the crosshairs of a gun sight near her head.

Stone, a longtime confidant of President Trump, deleted the picture soon afterward, then reposted it without the crosshairs before deleting that second post as well.

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson is presiding over Stone’s criminal trial, in which he has pleaded not guilty to charges of lying about his efforts to gather information about hacked 2016 Democratic Party emails that were published by WikiLeaks. …

To me, what he writes below the photo is nearly as disturbing as the photo itself (which can be seen in the WaPo article):

Through legal trickery Deep State hitman Robert Mueller has guaranteed that my upcoming show trial is before Judge Amy Berman Jackson , an Obama appointed Judge who dismissed the Benghazi charges again [sic] Hillary Clinton and incarcerated Paul Manafort prior to his conviction for any crime. #fixisin Help me fight for my life at @StoneDefenseFund.com,”

BTW, there was no “legal trickery” involved. Prosecutors presented evidence that Stone’s case is related to the case of the indicted Russian hackers (a case which she is adjudicating) because he was communicating with them. Thus, the two cases are interwoven. In these circumstances, the same judge is almost invariably put in charge of both trials. It just makes sense – it’s not a “conspiracy” – it’s a result of the sound and fair manner in which our judicial system operates.

Also, the reason Manafort was confined before his trial was that he was caught witness tampering (until then he was free to live at home). And he was not placed in “solitary confinement” (which is meant to sound draconian). Instead, he was kept apart from other prisoners for his own safety – a logical precaution that is taken for many high-profile prisoners. At first he was allowed the use of a VIP cell with his own private shower, TV, phone, electronic tablet, etc. But then he even abused those privileges and so was housed in a more conventional manner.

In other words, it’s ridiculous for Stone and the alt-right to portray Manafort as a victim of prejudicial treatment by Judge Jackson. She afforded him every opportunity to stay at home in comfort awaiting his trial until he blew it in multiple ways. The biggest proof of this is that his cohort Rick Gates, who was arrested along with Manafort and who has been cooperative and has not participated in witness tampering, is still enjoying life outside jail as he awaits sentencing.

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#221

@anon95374541 - thanks for posting the more encompassing legal strategies that JABJ may be considering, along with the other judges when it comes to revealing what kinds of defenses that the various T indictees - Papadopoulis, Manafort, Flynn, Cohen had been hoping to create.

I agree with Marcie’s EmptyWheel’s assessments…and while deep in legal fact and going on what’s been redacted, it makes sense what the Mueller group is preventing from being seen, and the kinds of defenses that these guys had wanted to present.

Thx for Rosenstein memo…and it is also clarifying to note it focused solely on the Clinton email handling by Comey. That was ‘safe’ ground that Rosenstein could create a reason to terminate him for T.

But one tiny point, I think McCabe was fired before he was at the end of his term, or the day before he could legally retire. McCabe’s defense is to say he was wrongfully terminated though, unfairly etc. Clearly, the intent was to stick it to McCabe…

I could be creating more circles of information…but suffice it to say, am tracking with you on a lot of points! :grin:

After Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Friday carried through on an FBI recommendation to fire former bureau Deputy Director Andrew McCabe on the eve of his planned retirement, a massive legal imbroglio seems inevitable.

However, lawyers say McCabe’s legal options are few because most FBI employees have little legal recourse over attempts to punish them over alleged misconduct.

“I don’t see an obvious path for recourse,” said Katherine Atkinson, a Washington lawyer who represents federal workers. “FBI employees generally do not have those rights.”

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#222

@dragonfly9

Good because I want to go back to this DAG statement from earlier this week.

“directed that Mr. McCabe be removed from any participation in that investigation.”

Is this new information? Was it ever reported that McCabe was removed from the Investigation he began before he retired? I don’t recall and I’m not finding this referenced anywhere else.

I just always understood his departure from the case as being due to his retirement. I guess I didn’t know he was removed from the case prior to retirement by the DAG. I’m very interested in the chain of events that precisely lead to the creation of the Special Counsel.

This story is extremely nuanced. This matters because the Republicans believe the whole investigation is illegal.

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#223

Ok…am with you…re-reading these passages, listening to Wittes/Doran debate the merits of the origins/legality/scope of the Mueller probe…and

I do not think this is new information, but we are just seeing it explicitly written. At the point the Mueller term started Special Counsel Investigation May 17, 2017, it was decided by Rosenstein to off-load everything to Mueller.

Up through the election, Comey/McCabe/Chris Wray/Lisa Page/Strzok/ and a variety of FBI agents were working on checking into the Russian activity and through first week of May 2017, FBI had tabs on the transition team making calls to Kislyak, and knew that Manafort was double dealing w/ Ukraine. The FBI was on full alert and getting FISA warrants on people…one had already been started on Carter Page.

So the timeline is confusing, because just after the election, and Sessions was set up to be AG, all that knowledge of conversations w/ Kislyak and Sanctions/Flynn became known within the FBI and so when Rosenstein became DAG, he had those 8 days to consider wearing a wire, talking with cabinet members re: 25th Amendment.

After inauguration, T was briefed by FBI/Intel heads that Russia was working against us in the election and that they were worried about this.

DAG, Sally Yates had warned WH to be aware of Flynn’s activity just after the inauguration.

Post May 17, 2017 Mueller hired some of the same FBI folks who had been working on the investigation = see Strzok and Page.

McCabe was acting head of FBI…he did not have the same mandate any more afterwards I believe.

As far as knowing the nuances of the timeline…and what may happen with the Republican argument that this whole Mueller investigation is a sham, and what Doran said vs. Wittes. (and what may become William Barr’s position)

Lawfare Podcast - Benjamin Wittes/Mike Doran

From the Republican and perhaps Barr’s viewpoint…

  • Investigation should have not been started because

  • That the whole investigation started as a counterintelligence operation and assumed the Russians were colluding with T and his campaign. Doran argues that there was no probable cause to start investigation ( Rosenstein’s memo for SCI is redacted, so we don’t know)

  • They believe that George P’s discussions with Mifsud and the Australian ambassador was a big nothing…it never warranted a FISA.

  • They believe that the use of the Dossier was too loosely configured, and was never a good starting point for any investigation. Steele was funded by Dems, Steele leaked to press, and Simpson was too close to press as well. The FBI and DOJ subsequently validated this information by talking to TheHill

*They believe that Carter Page never merited a FISA agreement…it should never have happened. They like that Nunes released the circumstances from the redacted FISA?

So Republican lawmakers feel that the Mueller investigation should never have started, that FBI/DOJ are deep state and want to oust the President. They feel that the FBI/DOJ is ramming this ‘story’ down the American public’s mouth, via the press and a lot of leaking.

What what of the 35 + indictments and discussions that we know Roger Stone and his goons, Guccifer 2.0 had with Assange, the DNC hacking, and all of the rest of it?

I think the T administration is a fraud and T should be impeached or run out of town, and definitely tried in court. I think Mueller has a lock on what’s been illegal and has it all buttoned up.

So, what will happen now that there are rumblings again about Mueller’s possible removal…

See

Well, we gird against more cr#p coming our way…and #persist. :statue_of_liberty:

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#224

And what do we think about this…? @anon95374541

She does a great job of parsing out a lot of details…(but have done my WTF time for today) :sleeping:

Trump wanted Rod Rosenstein to include Russia in the reasons he should fire Comey

The order to Rosenstein was one of the predications for the investigation into Trump

McCabe describes the genesis of the obstruction and the counterintelligence investigation

About the Two Investigations into Donald Trump | emptywheel

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#225

@dragonfly Great article!

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#226

Adding William Happer to the Climate Change panel is bonkers. He is a denier…:see_no_evil:

Despite evidence from its own intelligence community and the Pentagon that climate change poses a threat to national security, the White House has created a panel to examine that very question, and is set to put a climate change skeptic at its helm.

According to a document obtained by The Washington Post, the Trump administration intends to use an executive order to create a panel tasked with assessing the potential harm of climate change.

Citing a memo dated February 14, The New York Times reported the committee, called the the Presidential Committee on Climate Security, will consist of 12 individuals, including William Happer, who is slated to head the team. Appointed to the National Security Council as the senior director for emerging technologies, the Princeton physicist is a known climate change denier, who once compared the “demonization of carbon dioxide” to the "demonization of poor Jews under Hitler."

In 2015, Happer made news after undercover members of the environmental campaign group Greenpeace posed as oil company representatives and persuaded him to write a scientific paper, The New York Times reported. He assured them it would be an unpaid “labor of love.”

Happer told the Greenpeace members, whom he believed were from an unnamed oil company: “More CO2 will benefit the world. The only way to limit CO2 would be to stop using fossil fuels, which I think would be a profoundly immoral and irrational policy.”

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