Yates Says Comey Went ‘Rogue’ On Flynn

All real crimes except the campaign contribution thing related to Trump's NDA (what you all call hush money). That was not a crime, but Cohen pleaded guilty to it anyway to get a better sentencing on the other real crimes. Happens more often that many want to admit. Flynn being the next best example. A third of curious interest is Mueller's pit bull Weissmann getting a guy to plead guilty to a crime that he didn't do and was not even a crime in an Enron trial. That one even had the judge openly scratching his head.

 

Who are the "you" who call it hush money?? I forgot the details of the campaign irregularities but if what you call "hush money" is sourced from campaign contributions and campaign contributions are used to fund the NDA that sounds like a crime to me. Actions such as failure to report certain contributions or moving them around incorrectly would be a non criminal campaign irregularity.

I just do not buy the claim that Mueller used coercion or that Weismann did anything illegal.

The way that Barr filtered out important damning things from the Mueller report still pisses me off. Yet not surprised since Barr is Trump's personal attorney and fixer.

 

What you and the NYT has ignored is what has been discussed for the last two years. First, the FBI could not verify the Steele Dossier. Recently released documents have shown that the Primary Source in the Steele dossier was a US Citizen that was feeding Steele a third and fourth hand rumors. He wasn't even a Russian as Steele Claimed. He was an American that one published a paper called "Putin stole on Dissertation."
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/...stopher-steeles-anti-trump-dossier-identified

Another source was a fake news website called CNN/ireport.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/16/politics/steele-information-dossier/index.html

Now, maybe you should stop replying on fake news NYT from two years ago, and catch up with the rest of America.

 

Should Judge Sullivan Be Disqualified from Flynn Case? An Appeals Court Is Asking.​

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D.C. Circuit judges disturbed by the degree to which Judge Sullivan has exhibited bias in Flynn’s case.

The Washington Post contended that “there are ample grounds in the actions the district court has already taken for the appeals court to order that the government’s motion to dismiss be heard by a different judge, and it should so order.”

Looks like a solid.

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020...d-from-flynn-case-an-appeals-court-is-asking/

Court judges that they are supposed to remain umpires in these contests, not become one of the players. Sullivan will either disqualify himself, or be disqualified, and his replacement will dismiss the case.

 

None of that changes the fact that you were wrong and cannot even attempt to defend your statement...

 

In an ideal world, that is how it should happen. Unfortunately, we are talking about Washington D.C. here and that has not happened for about 75 years. Do you think Robert Kennedy served at the pleasure of the President or for the pleasure of the President?

 

If you haven't heard the hush money charge you have been living in a cave. 1. NDAs are legitimate campaign expenses. 2. A candidate can spend his own money all and in any way he wants. 3. Having a third party like Cohen handle transactions is as common as getting up in the morning. Cohen arranged the NDA with Stormy Daniels and paid the money. Trump reimbursed Cohen plus a multi-thousand dollar attorney fee. 4. There was a question if it was irregularly not reported as a campaign expense. But when the trial was over the SDNY told the judge they were no longer looking into ot because they didn't find any wrong doing. (Of course the Manhattan district attorney decided to give it another political go, but that's another story.)

Of course Mueller, Weissmann, the SDNY, and most every prosecutor in the country uses and used coercion. However, unless it is egregious (you know, beatings and torture, etc.) it is hardly ever found to be illegal, even if, like Flynn's example (though probably not Weissmann and Cohen), it is highly unethical. The judges in the Weissmann Enron case knew full well that the accused was pleading guilty to a crime that wasn't committed or, in Cohen's case, was likely not committed. In Cohen's case the prosecutors asked and was granted that the sentencing for all 8 counts be combined so that any sentence for the one non-crime got buried and hidden.

Every legal report made public always redacts personal non-probative information and information regarding on-going investigations. If that pisses you and Nadler off, that is just tough doodoo.

 

Sounds like the old playground AM NOT argument.

 

The bold is absolutely not true.... SDNY stopped the process after Cohen because of the DOJ opinion they couldn't indict Individual 1, so they handed it over to the closest State entity... That also incidentally shuts down the pardon capability.

Also, it wasn't Trump's money when payment was made at the time. Reimbursements after the fact don't count. If Trump HAD spent his own money and reported it accurately, this wouldn't have been a problem. And all with only 2 weeks until the election too...

 

Sorry... when dealing with 8 year olds, you often have to resort to methods they understand... I'm sure even you know that Crossfire Hurricane wasn't started with the Steele Dossier...

 

AFAIK Crossfire Hurricane, the internal DOJ and FBI project to defeat Trump, began before the dossier was at least important. Though, IMO, the argument is over a triviality.

 

It was Obama's ssanction policy to push Russia into escalating tensions? Why would he want to do that?

 

Most arguments on here are, but facts matter (to non conservatives anyway)

For instance, I fully disagree with your characterization of Crossfire Hurricane above... The FBI simply could not ignore the reports they were receiving about the 4 men that caused the investigation to open, not realizing at the time all roads would lead directly to Trump.

 

It's was Obama's sanction policy that were a very weak attempt to punish Russia for their election efforts, which automatically escalated tensions. Would you suggest America roll over for that??

Heh Heh... look who I'm asking? Trump has had Putin scratching our bellies for 4 years...

 

NEWS FLASH: The SDNY is part of the DOJ. You are trying to refute my claim by agreeing with my claim. "Not finding any wrong doing" is exactly the same as "can't get an indictment." I know of no action that can shut down any pardon capability, other than a constitution amendment..

You seem to not comprehend that probably 99% of all campaign or candidate expenditures go through a third party. Once in a while that is done circuitously to launder the money, like the Clinton campaign paying for the dossier, but it was wide open in Cohen's case.

 

"Not finding any wrong doing" is NOT remotely the same as "can't get an indictment" when the one person in the country who cannot be indicted (by opinion) is involved... The Cohen documents said Individual 1 ordered the payments and Cohen confirmed Trump was Individual 1... that used to be considered "wrong doing" by the "law and order" party.

A presidential pardon is shutdown when it's a state crime charged...

And while I'm glad you seem to understand the Cohen payment to Stormy was a campaign expenditure, was it reported as such?

A = No, because the amount exceeded the maximum allowed.

I won't even attempt to correct you on the distraction of the Clinton campaign/dossier, other than reassure you any money the Clinton campaign spent on the dossier was covered in their campaign finance reports.

 

individual 1 didn’t do anything wrong

 

Your song and dance is getting silly. This whole discussion was about Cohen, not Trump. The SDNY and I never said anything about Trump.

There is an question about the presidential pardon powers, but you are likely correct that he can't pardon state convicted criminals. But, this to has nothing to do with the Cohen discussion.

I don't know if the NDA agreement money was reported as a campaign expenditure or not, or even it it was a campaign expenditure. Would not be a crime in any case (not withstanding what the Manhattan DA might drag or dream up).

I didn't claim the Clinton campaign did not report the expenditure. They did, not as an expenditure for the Steele opposition research, but for normal unidentified legal costs so that the money got laundered through their law firm, Fusion GPS, to Steele, et al.

 

According to reports: Flynn asked Kislyak to not retaliate.

Flynn didn't have any ability to remove, or reduce, any sanctions. Therefore, Russia was being punished. Therefore, Flynn did not interfere with any policy of punishing Russia.

If Flynn was undermining Obama's policy, it had to have been Obama's policy to push Russia into retaliating; as that was the only interference being reported.

 

"According to reports"??

FFS, read the call transcripts...

I fully understand WHY Flynn said what he did, but it doesn't change the fact that it's not his place to ask for nothing more than "reciprocal" actions in Dec 2016, not to mention his abject failure to even mention the reasons behind the sanctions in the first place....

And none of that changes that he almost certainly lied to the FBI and 100% certainly lied to Pence about discussing sanctions in the first place (which led to his firing).

I really need to give up talking about Flynn, since it's apparent that none of you get the ramifications..

 

You love playing semantic games. So, let's get specific. The original target of the FBI investigation was George Papadopoulos. He was approached several times by Mifsud, who had ties to the Russians. Mifsud claimed that the Russians had dirt on Hillary Clinton. The FBI investigated this, but found that Papadopoulos had not committed a crime. The only thing that they got him on was making false statements to the investigators. He served a whopping 12 days in jail, and 12 months supervised probation. That should have been the end of it, but then enters Christopher Steele and his fake dossier. The FBI used the fake Steele Dossier to obtain a FISA Warrant against Carter Page. Page at the time was acting as an agent of the CIA. Yet, an attorney working on this witch hunt altered documents to hide the Page's real role. As a result, the FBI was granted the first of four Warrants to spy on the Trump Campaign. (note: According to Jay Sekulow, there were three FISA Applications turned down by the FISC before the first one was approved. I can find nothing to back Sekulow's claim.) When the first Warrant Application was submitted, that was when Crossfire Hurricane became Spygate.

When you put these facts with the text messages between Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, you can easily prove that Operation Crossfire Hurricane was nothing short of an attempt to spy on the Trump Campaign. No different then what G. Gordon Libby and company did at the Watergate Hotel in 1972.

To recap: Operation Crossfire Hurricane was started because a so-called agent of the Russians approached George Papadopoulos claiming they had dirt on Hillary Clinton. It turned into Spygate when they FBI started trying to get FISA Warrants to spy on the Trump Campaign. The FISA Warrants that were approved were supported by the Steele fake Dossier. Now, are we clear? Or do you need to wait until some liberal tells you what to think?

 

Good enough... you backtracked your ridiculous claim in there twice...

However, one other thing you are completely getting wrong that I need to point out. The BS claim of "Spygate" came after the Halper revelations about trying to talk to Coffee Boy, not the Steele Dossier

If you google the word "Spygate", it almost exclusively returns links to the NE Patriots scandal, so you cannot even claim remote originality there.

GIGO

 

You really do have trouble with the English Language, don't you?

I have not backtracked anything. I merely explained to you how my statements were accurate. Operation Crossfire Hurricane started with the report that Mifsud had approached Papadopoulos claiming that the Russians had dirt on Hillary Clinton. The name Crossfire Hurricane came from the FBI's code name for Papadopoulos while he was working for the Ben Carson Campaign. That code name was "Crossfire Typhon". The operation did not uncover any crimes. Yet, the operation was expanded, without changing the name, to include Carter Page. The FISA Warrants were obtained using the Steele Fake Dossier. The warrants were used to spy on the Trump Campaign. The taped phone conversations were then forwarded to several members of the Foreign Intelligence teams who worked to unmask the speakers. One of those people was Susan Rice who had strong ties to the Hillary Clinton Campaign.

My original statement "Spygate (aka Hurricane Crossfire) started with a fake Dossier" is in fact accurate. Spygate was started when the FBI used the fake Dossier to obtain FISA warrants to spy on the Trump Campaign. That was a part of Crossfire Hurricane. Stefan Halper was working for the FBI to investigate the Trump Campaign, but those conversations were noting but a side note of what happened. The fact that Papadopoulos lied to Halper does not mean anything. Papadopoulos had no requirement to provide Halper with any accurate information. Halper was nothing more then a rodent. He was sitting on the outside of the campaign trying to weasel his way inside.

What you keep running from is the fact that the FBI used a fake dossier to obtain warrants to spy on the Trump Campaign. They did this even after learning that the primary source for the dossier was not a Russian with ties to the Russian Government. He was a US Citizen that was paid to provide Steele with rumors and fourth hand information.

Here is the kicker. Both Rosenstein and Yates stated that they never would have signed off on the FISA Applications if they had known what Comey, McCabe and Strzok knew. That the dossier was fake. Further, it was just revealed that the FBI also lied to the Congress and Senate about the nature of the Steele Dossier.

Now, when you come to terms with all that, then let me know. Otherwise we have nothing to talk about.

 

Barr ~ “Well, you know, people sometimes plead to things that turn out not to be crimes,” Barr told CBS News.

“And the Department of Justice is not persuaded that this was material to any legitimate counterintelligence investigation. So it was not a crime.”

 

You might as well quote Daffy Duck as Bill Barr to me...

One day... maybe one day, you will understand that a counterintelligence investigation may not always involve a statutory crime...