Mueller’s "Witch Hunt" Metric

George Rebane

According to Rebane Doctrine, there’s a definite way to hold Mueller accountable for an alleged witch hunt without affecting the current claim that his investigation needs to continue because he’s on to some developing evidence that could resolve the question he was commissioned to answer – Was there any criminal collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia that was either illegal and/or affected the outcome of the 2016 election?

1. Mueller puts all the evidence to date into an ‘envelope’ that supports his contention that he is being prudent and professional in continuing an investigation that to date has claimed no culpable evidence, or evidence relevant to his charter.
2. The ‘envelope’ is sealed and entered into escrow with a reliable third party not privy to what is being escrowed, say, a specific federal court. The escrow instructions state that the contents of the ‘envelope’ be made public when the Mueller investigation is formally concluded.
3. Inspection of said contents at the conclusion of the investigation will then either support Mueller’s current contention that he has probable cause to continue the investigation, or show that he had nothing culpable to that date, and was simply proceeding on a ‘hail Mary’ basis with the hope that something significant might later turn up – i.e. confirming that at least up to the present he really is continuing to conduct a witch hunt.
4. Depending on how the investigation ends and what verbal assurances (under oath?) Mueller makes upon entering escrow, his reputation and fate will be determined either by the court of public opinion or a court of law. Mueller has no reasonable basis for refusing to enter into such an arrangement given that he has conducted the commissioned investigation, and is continuing it because it shows some promise of producing evidence of criminal Russian collusion.
5. In any event, with such information in escrow, the investigation can now proceed under the explicit expectation that Mueller has something that constitutes a reasonable basis for continuing the investigation without the need to release any supportive and/or compromising intermediate results.

Comments

[Paul Emery]

George, you're creative solution is moot if you read the original document authorizing the special Council.

The Special Counsel is authorized to conduct the investigation confirmed by then-FBI Director James 8. Corney in testimony before the House Permanent Select Committee
Intelligence on March 20, 2017, including: any links and/or coordination bet ween the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump; and any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation; and any other matters within the scope of 28 C.F.R. § 600.4(a).

Here is a copy or the referenced code above 28 C.F.R. § 600.4(a).

"(a)Original jurisdiction. The jurisdiction of a Special Counsel shall be established by the Attorney General. The Special Counsel will be provided with a specific factual statement of the matter to be investigated. The jurisdiction of a Special Counsel shall also include the authority to investigate and prosecute federal crimes committed in the course of, and with intent to interfere with, the Special Counsel's investigation, such as perjury, obstruction of justice, destruction of evidence, and intimidation of witnesses; and to conduct appeals arising out of the matter being investigated and/or prosecuted."

https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/28/600.4

https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/967231/download

[George Rebane]

PaulE 1137am - Not at all Paul. Citation of this code does nothing to assuage the political charge of an ongoing witch hunt that has produced nothing to date that has to do with the nationally trumpeted reason (and the Left's fervently hoped for indictment of Trump) for commissioning a special prosecutor. You are missing the point.

[Paul Emery]

George

It's a work in progress that has turned up many stinky piles along the way. By the way, how long did the Benghazi investigation go on? At least four years I recall and they turned up nothing incriminating Clinton.

"House Select Committee on Benghazi issued its final report on Tuesday, finding no new evidence of culpability or wrongdoing by Hillary Clinton in the 2012 attacks in Libya that left four Americans dead."

this was a Republican House by the way. Four year investigation.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/29/us/politics/hillary-clinton-benghazi.html

[Don Bessee]

Good luck with that if you can not even convince Cuomo -

https://www.breitbart.com/video/2018/08/24/cnns-cuomo-says-hes-not-impressed-by-trump-campaign-finance-violation-charges/

;-)

[scenes]

Crickets: "By the way, how long did the Benghazi investigation go on?"

Translation: We can be as shitty as they can.

lol. What a way to run a railroad.

Normally I wouldn't care. Any Bush/Clinton/Obama crimes are pretty much par for the course. The difference at this point is that Trump has his thumb stuck in the dike (no, not HRC) against forces that want to bring down Western Civilization. For once, this all actually matters and I respect the fact the Team Blue is using any and all assets that they have. It's the kind of thing where our fledgling, and still defining itself, New Team Red is still trying to get it's feet.

George, I hope at some point that the conservatives, Republicans, Right, call them what you will, learn to organize and hit back just as hard as they are being hit. You might as well assume that it's going to be a dirty war.

[Paul Emery]

My goodness Scenes, do you actually believe that Trump is our last hope agaisn't " "forces that want to bring down Western Civilization"?

[George Rebane]

PaulE 1219pm - The Clintons are unindictable in this political climate. Hillary is on video lying about the cause of the Benghazi attack to cover up her ineptness as SecState to protect that outpost. And I refer you to Kim Strassel's piece in today's WSJ re the state of our justice system. You guys have the country by the balls.

[fish]

Posted by: Paul Emery | 24 August 2018 at 12:49 PM

My goodness Scenes, do you actually believe that Trump is our last hope agaisn't " "forces that want to bring down Western Civilization"?

He does and he’s right.

Really Punch is it possible for you to post and not sound like somebody’s spinster aunt!

......my goodness! (Clutches pearls)

[scenes]

Crickets sez: "do you actually believe that Trump is our last hope agaisn't ""forces that want to bring down Western Civilization"?"

Our last hope? No, at least I don't think so.

The primary one at this point in time? Yes, I'm afraid that rather flawed dude is the point man. I can put up with a lot of crazy from him

If people were merely bitching about health policy or tax law, it wouldn't matter much. Just listen to your own verbiage over time, it's never about the details of running a country, it's all a word salad with an emotional undertone. There's a sort of messianic destructive cast to it all.

Don't you have a statue to knock down or something? If nothing else, do a bit of research on South Africa and get back to us.

[Paul Emery]

Don't get you're point Fish. By the way, you also are agreeing that Trump is the last hope for Western Civilization, unlike Scenes.

[fish]

Posted by: Paul Emery | 24 August 2018 at 04:31 PM

I know you don’t Punch. There’s just so much you don’t get.

[Robert Cross]

" The Clintons are unindictable in this political climate." Wrong... the Clinton's are simply not guilty anything that anyone can find. Please list all of the felonies for which they have been found guilty. Then list all of the felonies that trump cronies have been found guilty of. Then make a list of all of the felonies trump will be found guilty of. Make a chart and call it the Prison Metric.

In other news: the Trump Organizations CFO, Alan Weisselberg, was also granted immunity. Maybe we, the people, will get to see his tax returns after all.

[Todd Juvinall]

Weisberg was granted immunity in the Cohen issues, not the Trump issues.

[Bill Tozer]

Mr. Robert Cross: you are joking, right.? Just Hillary storing State Department documents on an unapproved server and the violations resulting from that act awould take two pages here to fill with only very brief explanations. Records Act, Esponisage Act, and on and one it goes, not to mention letting staff, her maid, and lawyers go through and read them, not to mention e-mail chains to persons without security clearance.

But, knock yourself out. Comey’s exoneration statement was written before the key 17 witnesses were even interviewed and months in advance. Then, to keep Clinton’s mutiple violations from ever ever being forwarded to the Justice Department (that’s what the FBI does) or ever being put before a grand jury or prosecuted (that’s what Justice does), Comey commandeered the whole process by ripping that baby our of Lady Justices arm and squelched the whole thang on the spot.

Yep, the Clintons are unindictable in this political climate. Period. Think the last time a Clinton was indicted, Bubba caught lying to a Federal judge and convicted of perjury.

[Robert Cross]

Bill, you may espouse whatever right wing conspiracy theories you want, but according to wikipedia Clinton was impeached and acquitted. Where did you hear that Comey’s exoneration statement was written in advance? I haven't seen that one.

Todd: Trump issues and Cohen issues are now the same because Cohen fingered trump. Weisselberg is the accountant who filed Trump’s tax returns. He also signed the checks for Trump’s fake university that was fined $25 million for defrauding students. And he was named treasurer of the Donald J. Trump Foundation, which is currently under investigation by the New York attorney general for fraud. So my guess is Weisselberg is saving his own ass and with immunity can now talk about anything he wants including trump's financial deals. Don't forget that Clinton was being investigated about Whitewater and it turned up Monica and the impeachment was based on Monica not Whitewater.

[Don Bessee]

Ignorant trolls are always good for a laugh-

Where did you hear that Comey’s exoneration statement was written in advance? I haven't seen that one.

;-)

[Bill Tozer]

Robert Cross.

I cannot believe you have not even read or heard the docs that Comey had written the exoneration in advance. He told Peter he wanted Hillary extoneriated and thus began working on the language, but Comey was working on it himself well in advance of changing the language. But, it’s in the reports released. Do your own research, I did. Hmmm. Strike the first sentence. Not surprised you never heard of such a thing.
And yes, no impeached President has ever been convicted, all two of them. You asked for felonies the Clintons have been convicted of and I stated one. You challenged if anyone Ato find any felonies the Clintons committed and I jgrabbed a several off the top of my head the felonies that Hillary committed per the evidence and statues regarding putting anything on a unauthorized server.

But, that ain’t the point, is it? Ok, we are talking impeachment. Why didn’t you say so? I thought you were disagreeing with the statement that in this political climate, the Clintons are unindictable. Silly me.

To be candid, I see no use of going after Hillary herself. There is an open investigation into the Clinton Foundation. Now that the Russian Collusion with the Trump Campaign is behind us and Meuller has passed off the digging into the Trump Organization (business structure) pre election to others, I would love to dig into Russian influence on the election...besides FB posts in Russian and some ads on social media, lol.

Seriously, I want to see the FISA warrant application. When did our intel agents first start a counter-investigation in this long standing issue. April, 2016, March 2016? Peter worked on it for 10 months before joining the Meuller team. A counter-Intelligence investigation is an intelligence gathering operation, not a criminal investigation. The CIA and NDI do not do criminal investigations. Let’s see the FISA application about Russian hacking into our election. What did the FBI agent (informant) have to say? Should have nothing to do with digging around into Trumps paying off fine ladies to keep quiet and would not jealordize the Meuller probe in the least. And Trump likes them fine looking ladies, no doubt. No dogs allowed. No fat chicks either.

Getting information on what triggered this whole Russian influencing our election, my good woman Mr. Cross, is what Dr. Rebane’s post above is all about, IHMO. There can be ways to protect the Meuller probe and methods and means. In fact, the Congressional committee has asked for only about 17 pages of the 400 pages to be unredacted. Willing to work with the spooks. Just when did it start, how much did the FBI pay Steele....nothing to do with the actual probe.

Another thing I would like to see that has nothing to do with Trump was this unmasking of US citizens. That is a huge 5 alarm fire in and of itself, if you care about civil liberties and violations of privacy laws and even the protections contained within the controversial Patriot Act..
Dr. Rebane’s idea of putting some things unrelated to the Meuller witch hunt in escrow (whether it flies or not) sounds like a reasonable idea.....especially when considering that Meuller is handing off things to DOJ district court prosecutors and having the Russian Collusion story behind us and all. Who did the unmasking? Who ordered Clapper to start digging? When? Nothing to do with the Meuller probe. Did CIA Director become involved in a criminal investigation instead of just collecting intel as per the CIA’s mandate? These are things that have nothing to do with the Special Counsel.

[Todd Juvinall]

I see BoobieC is ignorant as usual . Peter Strzk and Comey were the authors of the exoneration months before she was interviewed (and not under oath). Well reported for many months. For someone who thinks he is informed you failed the test roundly.

Cohen and Trump are not tied together as you think. What Cohen did was to cop to a plea though what he copped to is not a crime. And Trump can pay those broads a billion dollars and that is not a crime. But your partisan liberal glasses keep you ignorant. Which tells us where you get your information.

[Gregory]

Cohen, Trump's longtime fixer, signed a deal, copping a plea to a number of charges, AFTER changing his lawyer to Lanny Davis, longtime fixer for the Clintons. A classmate at Yale.

In other words, Clinton's lawyer put the deal for Cohen together.

Sweet.

[Gregory]

Boobie 647pm

My my, Boobie, you seem to be mixing Clintons.

The Clinton who was successfully impeached by the House but not removed from office by the Senate was Bill. He was the one elected President in the '80's.

The Clinton who Comey wrote an exoneration long before he interviewed her during a sham of a criminal investigation was Hillary, who will never be President.

[Paul Emery]

Looks like Cohen got a good lawyer Gregory. More power too him. Trump should have hired him instead ot the circus clown Gulianni

[Paul Emery]

Biker Bill claims "Bubba was caught lying to a Federal judge and convicted of perjury.

Posted by: Bill Tozer | 24 August 2018 at 06:27 PM "

Convicted or perjury??? No he was impeached for perjury but the Senate found him not guilty.

[Bonnie McGuire]

Someone sent me a thought provoking email today about "The New Me" confusing mentality changes over the last eight years. It stimulated me to find a couple of interesting YouTubes showing why things are the way they are now. Many years ago when Sirhan Sirhan assassinated Bobby Kennedy I remember thinking he seemed to be under hypnosis or mind control. Eventually I bought an old book about hypnosis...and began to wonder about television and electronic capability, especially when we were told that subliminal messages were illegal for advertising on television. Hmmm....And then a heard a Parent Teacher Association lecture by a pschycologist
who at attended a world gathering of doctors in Russia to see how they did things, because Russia was the world leader in Pschycology. That was years ago, but the beginning of where we are today with our opioid problems, school shootings etc. I remember seeing a news clip of the movie theater shooter in Court. He was totally drugged. Did you know 1 in 6 Americans are using pschycotropic drugs? Anyway, this well done documentary is an eye opener to what has been going on. Listening to the media stirring modern society's drugged mentality to hate definitely looks like the new pschycological method of warfare.... from within...replacing standard war.
This interesting YouTube documentary showing the experiments, hypnosis etc. that's been going on.
http://youtu.be/p_7LRrwjmYk

Here's a video showing Sirhan Sirhan's lack of memory concerning the shooting....Investigators guestion the gun used. They say more bullets were fired than what his gun held.
http://youtu.be/CjFpVhiZy_I
It's pathetic what's been going on in America.

[Paul Emery]

Todd writes

" What Cohen did was to cop to a plea though what he copped to is not a crime." So now Todd is a lawyer. Here's the scoop on whether it was crime. He plead guilty and the judge accepted his plea. The prosecutors were ready to indite him and he plead guilty without an indictment. It was a crime in many ways. Here's a look at in from the Wall Street Journal.

"Mr. Cohen pleaded guilty to willfully causing an unlawful corporate campaign contribution and making an excessive campaign contribution. Each of those counts carries a maximum of five years in prison. With the banking and tax counts, he could have faced up to 65 years in prison. Under the deal, he would be sentenced to no more than five years in prison, with a fine of $20,000 to $1 million. He was released on $500,000 bond.

The facts of the first count are that Mr. Cohen arranged for American Media Inc. to pay $150,000 in August 2016 to former Playboy model Karen McDougal. She claimed to have had an affair with Mr. Trump a decade earlier (denied by Mr. Trump’s representatives), and the AMI payment precluded her from going public with her story. Prosecutors consider that payment an in-kind contribution to the campaign.

Corporations are prohibited from making any donations to campaigns, either directly with money or “in-kind” by providing something of value.

The facts of the second count are that Mr. Cohen personally paid $130,000 to a second woman, Stephanie Clifford, a former adult-film actress known professionally as Stormy Daniels, in October 2016, to prevent her from talking about her claim of having an affair with Mr. Trump a decade earlier, something Mr. Trump has denied.

Under the law, individuals are restricted to giving a total of $5,400 to a candidate’s campaign for the primary and general elections.

In his guilty plea, Mr. Cohen admitted to those two campaign-finance violations and said under oath in court that he arranged for the payments at the direction of Mr. Trump."

https://www.wsj.com/articles/q-a-the-law-behind-michael-cohen-case-1535053651

[Bill Tozer]

@ 8:44 pm.
You get an A. Been waiting for someone to point out the irony of Clinton fixer Lanny being Trump fixer Cohen’s counselor and spokesperson. Those old Clintoninstas never die, they just look like it.

Yep, Lanny was the fixer, not the Clinton bagman. The Clintons always used Terry McAuliffe as their bagman. During the run up to Election Day in 2016, I checked daily Hillary and Trump’s schedule. Trump was flying all around like a madman on a daily basis, while Hillary’s schedule was a public appearance a couple of times a week and the rest were private fund raisers. I remember seeing she was doing a private fundraiser for a PAC controlled by Terry McAuiliffe. Hmm. Seeing the election was only a couple of weeks away, it seemed odd to do a PAC fundraiser, not a campaign fundraiser.. Then I read they pulled in 650k that night.
What’s the point? Well, Terry the bagman took most of that money and gave 500k to the wife of the guy who was in charge of the Hillary e-mail investigation. The FBI Department official in charge of Hillary’s e-mail investigation o drive the point home. The one Peter reported to. The one Lisa talked about and was in his office a lot. Andy. Andy McCabe.
Boy, was jon smith and Punchy pissed the way that mean ole Trump fired the honorable man so close to his retirement. Despicable the way Trump fired McCabe after the IG report came out.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/clinton-ally-aids-campaign-of-fbi-officials-wife-1477266114

Yep, I don’t know how many folks Meuller will get convictions on, but I do know the list of top FBI officials and top DOJ officials have been fired, demoted, or forced into early retirement keeps growing. Comey, Andy, Peter, not to mention all those DOJ officials like Bruce and Sally “Logan Act” Yates and the CIA Director and the NSA and the DNI and.....

Wonder which list is longer, Meuller’s or fired corrupt Deep State actors.
Hmm again. If Hillary pulled in 650k that night for Terry’s PAC, where did the other 150k go? We will never know in this charged one sided political environment.

[Don Bessee]

The po'ol' sad excuse for a fakenewsman says 'Convicted or perjury??'

There was a finding that led to slick will being disbarred for cause. But that did not stop him from sucking on the Russian tit to the tune of what, 3, 4 hundred million for him, madam liar liar pantsuits on fire, the kid and her scum bag grifter of a hubby.

Anyone remember the uranium or Haiti?

;-)

[Bill Tozer]

Punchy, Punchy, Punchy.

There was no “in kind” nothing. That issue was settled in the John Edwards love child payments case involving campaign funds.

Now, if Cohen used campaign funds, that is not good. Trump using private or corporate funds to reimburse his fixer for fixing things is not against the law. Unlike Congress, Trump did not use taxpayer monies to pay out hush money. No crime. In fact, what Cohen pleaded guilty to was not a crime. He pleaded guilty to what the prosecutors called a crime, what the prosecutors charged him as a crime, and the judge accepted it. The court did not rule it was a crime, just accepted his plea to committing a crime of campaign finance law with no evidence submitted. The judge never ruled it was a crime or on the validity of the charges. Plea deal. No evidence given. They had over 20 big charges to lay on him, which made Cohen agree to do a little time and walk. He was facing at least 65 years. just on what was presented. Probably 200 years with what they were holding. It’s not like he cheated on his taxes, he paid no taxes, lol. No getting around that.

Anyway, we simply disagree. You can spin your wheels til they come off. And yes, Clinton was convicted of perjury After he left office. The very next day....or same day. The day he left office, Bubba already had his own plea bargain in the works and was disbarred from practicing law because he plead guilty or no contest of lying to a Federal judge under oath, Sherlock. Thus his law license got yanked as punishment.

Now, the confusion arises because Cohen plead guilty to a crime he did not do. Part of the Hail Mary to impeach Trump since Meuller has spent two years and all that money and has come up with Jack Diddley and his brother Squat. Now, if Cohen actually did what he plead guilty to, that would be a horse of a different color and I would agree. But Cohen plead guilty to a crime which he did not do. Non Disclosure Agreements are not crimes, are not campaign expenses, are not in kind services. Me almost done, burp

Not even in my wildest dreams or on LSD-25 would I ever expect you to wrap your head around the idea. What Cohen plead guilty to is a crime. What Cohen actually did is not crime. Around ad around the mulberry bush, the monkey chased the weasel...

[Bill Tozer]

If one was to feel sorry of Cohen, it is because he will lose his law license. He can be a promoter or spin doctor or write a book to support his family when he gets out of the slammer. Probably end up doing 18 months in the slammer and 6 months on house arrest.

Off topic, but Scooter Libby lost his license for lying to the FBI. But, when a judge looked into how he got railroaded and the trial transcripts, the Judge reinstated his license to practice law.

Now, who hacked the Podesta e-mails? Who stole the election from Hillary? I got it! When one of Trump’s one or two hundred businesses held that Miss Universe Pagnet in MOSCOW, that is where it all started. Trump e-mailed Putin an invite to come hoping to meet the man, but Putin did not show. Vlady had a conflict in scheduling or politely declined....or did he? Hmmm. How do we know Trump did not meet with Putin in the back of a Limo and hatch the evil plan when he was in MOSCOW not far from the KRELIM? Any proof they did not meet in secret? Oh baby, hot on the trail.

The plot thickens. The guy who promoted the Miss Universe Bikini Contest was the same dude who called Junior the Greaser out of the blue and said, “Hey, remember me, the promoter for the Binkini contest in MOSCOW? Yeah, that’s right. Doing fine, thanks. I got some people who have dirt on Hillary and want to meet up with you at Trump Towers. Your open tomorrow? Good. Can’t be there myself, but let’s do lunch soon. I’ll have my secretary call your secretary about lunch next time I am in New York. Chao.”

And the rest is history.

[Todd Juvinall]

Paul Emery thinks he is a lawyer now. Wow! I think all his advice would put the innocent in the hoosegow. Anyway, Cohen pled to a "crime" that was not a crime. And Trump is in the clear as the transaction for the two babes was not illegal. You might want to listen to renowned liberal lawyer and Law Professor Alan Dershowitz before you embarrass yourself even further.

[Bill Tozer]

Oh Todd.

You can’t blame the Popinjay. That is all he is being feed. The natives are restless as the drums are pounding louder and faster and louder and faster. The jungle is filled with the building crescendo of our Lord of the Flies boys drinking the booga booga juice and dancing around the burning stake with Trump’s head on it chanting “Kill the Beast, Kill the Beast, Kill the Beast”, working themselves into a feverish frenzied trance. The witch hunt is on. Kill the Beast, Kill the Beast.

That’s all the Popinjay is given to drink. The booga booga juice. No one is offering him a nice cool drink of water from the Fountain of Refreshing Enchantment. The booga booga juice has consumed their minds and they see only things that are neither there or real. It’s not his fault. Remember Salem 1692? This time they will get will make sure they get them all

The whole thing is one big waste of time. The Senate ain’t going to convict any President on campaign finance laws or bookkeeping things done prior to ascending to the Presidency. Like, how silly would that be? The charade parade will march right on by. It’s rather amusing at times. Kill the beast, kill the beast. They are but English choir boys.

[Todd Juvinall]

Funny how the democrats and their mouthpieces in the media don't understand impeachment and how it works. That is how they run the government when they are in charge as well.

[Gregory]

The Arrrrrkansan judge who disbarred Bill Clinton had been appointed to her position by then Governor Clinton and, had she not held off on that until after the senate failed to remove President Clinton after his impeachment by the House, many expect the Democrats in the Senate would have had a number of defectors (none voted to remove Clinton) and he would have been tossed out of the oval orifice.

Yes, he did lie under oath to save his ass in a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by (bimbo alert) Paula Jones, who, for some reason, was chosen by state troopers to deliver to Governor Clinton for a pole polishing session. They guessed wrong.

["M"]

,,,Why is this Mueller Metric rigamarole necessary??? The Whitewater Witch Hunt set the precedent for the Mueller scope of investigation which to some fearful of what Mueller might find out could be worrisome

Mueller's scope includes both Rooskie interference and possible trumpski collusion,,,or whatever else Mueller stumbles upon!!!

from Wiki,,,

The ongoing Special Counsel investigation is a United States law enforcement and counterintelligence investigation of the Russian government's efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election,

including an investigation of any possible links and/or coordination between Donald Trump's presidential campaign and the Russian government, "and any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation."

The scope of the investigation reportedly also includes potential obstruction of justice by Trump and others.[1] The investigation, since it began May 17, 2017, has been conducted by the United States Department of Justice Office of Special Counsel, headed by Robert Mueller, a former Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Mueller's investigation took over several FBI investigations including those involving former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, both of which started after the 2016 presidential election.[2]

["M"]

Tozer is drunk on orange cool aid again at 1155pm,,,maybe meth also

Why would Cohen's lawyer let him plead to a crime that is not a crime???

What an idiot!!!

#Truth isn't Truth!!!

["M"]

,,,Rooskie Troll Hunter,,,

https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2018/08/10/declassified-russian-bots-fake-accounts-josh-russell-orig-jl.cnn

[George Rebane]

M's 1131am highlights exactly what the public is concerned about such special prosecutor investigations. What else may be labeled and looked at as a witch hunt other than an open-ended (in both time and money) probe into someone's affairs with the imprimatur to include the original charter, "and any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation."

That is the classical definition of a witch hunt which it was called upon its launch. Nothing has changed since its launch, not the hopeful salivations of the Left, nor the distress of the Right. For how many of us could withstand such a detailed and inexhaustible look into our shorts, and come away unscathed?

Were we to be told that Mueller has nothing now, but wants to keep digging without any definite end in mind other than to discover some dirt, then how many of us would say, 'Sure go ahead, that sounds like a good thing for our government to engage in'? And while we're at it, let's have other special prosecutors take some open-ended looks at a few more names who we'd like to see pilloried should something turn up.'

Does that sound like any way to use the power of the government gun? For those of us who answer NO to such initiatives, we would like to know if Mueller is doing exactly that today, so that we could then hold him accountable along with those who launched and could have restrained him.

[Don Bessee]

Why would Cohen's lawyer let him plead to a crime that is not a crime???

Well lets see, the lawyer in question is Lanny Davis of Clinton infamy.
Getting a deal on the real charges if you give your elocution as you are told.
A pass on the big penalties.
What's not to like from Lanny's world view.

;-)

[scenes]

"M's 1131am highlights exactly what the public is concerned about such special prosecutor investigations."

To be fair, on the smaller scale it's obvious what kind of trouble you can get into with a highly aggressive district attorney's office.

Not only is justice partisan, just witness the weaponization of the DOJ by the DNC, but somewhat arbitrary.

The only saving grace is that there's nothing new here. Building a completely non-corrupt law enforcement system looks darned hard.

["M"]

,,,why do the trumpski believers/collusion deniers refuse to acknowledge the Whitewater Witch Hunt as precedent.

,,,almost as blind to the double standard of refusing a sitting president to nominate a Supreme Court Justice,,,and thinking it is fine to nominate Special K just before an election that might result in a different Congressional makeup that might not be in their favor.

,,,it is always two sets of rules with the pubbers,,,it is A OK for us to do '''X''' but it is not OK for you to do '''X'''

[Paul Emery]

George

Please show me where Mueller has exceeded his mandate. Cohen has plead guilty to 8 felonies and the Judge accepted his guilty plea so everything he plead to was indeed a felony. It's in the books signed and sealed. So legally Trump requested and Cohen followed his direction to commit a felony. It's a done deal.

[scenes]

",,,it is always two sets of rules with the pubbers,,,"

By 'pubber' you mean Republican I assume.

I can't say that they exist anymore, something new is being born right now but I'm not sure what it'll become.

Let's call it 'Deplorables' or 'Clingers' for now, as your leadership so charmingly referred to traditional Americans. The problem I see is that they (we?) don't have institutional power right now. Who runs the schools? media? government bureaucracy?

That should be pretty obvious.

What you might think of as 'pubbers' is scarcely allied with this new thing that's feeling it's way to the light. Pubbers would largely consist of large corporations, at least those that didn't simply pay off Obama (banks for instance), most career Republican elected officials, Republican newspaper columnists, and the like. Mostly a form of globalist corporate backed power (to sound like Alex Jones for a second).

This new party seems to consist of Trump, some fairly radical folks salted around here and there, and a whole lot of voters. Voting power, but not much else. Thus the ability for the DOJ and Facebook to run roughshod over the Deplorables.

Simply my own theory, but there you have it.

[George Rebane]

PaulE 230pm - You again misunderstand. Never said he exceeded his mandate, only that his mandate was unlimited - hence his investigation qualifies as a witch hunt. Please study my 1222pm.

[Bill Tozer]

Interesting thing about a Special Counsel. I am taking all politics out of it right now. Here is the catch phrase.

.....and the Russian government, "and any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation."

Ok, “any and all matters.” That is in essence, unlimited authority with the full force of the US Government behind it. An authority granted that is greater than the powers of the Executive or the Congress. An unelected 4th branch of government.

We elect the President. We elect each member of the Senate. Sure, there are temporary cases where a governor appoints a temporary Senator to replace a sitting one who resigns or such. Stuart Smiley comes to mind. But even in those temporary cases, the Governor who appoints the temporary Senator is elected to his/her office. Each Congressperson is elected to their office. Each Supreme Court Justice is confirmed by the Senate. The Attorney General and other top cabinet officials is appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate.

Now, this is what troubles me about Special Counsels in today’s world. Formerly an Independent Counsel (former name for Special Counsel) was appointed by a 3 judge panel from the Circuit Courts. All confirmed by the full Senate. Not so today. The AG (or second in line if the AG recuses himself) appoints a Special Counsel and gives that person unlimited authority. And unelected unconfirmed person from outside the government. Not confirmed by the Senate, an elected official, or a panel of judges previously confirmed by the Senate. Nope. A person appointed by an appointee (AG) with powers greater than the US Senate, The House of Representatives, and even POTUS. Yes, he can be fired by a President, but answers only to the AG and the handbook of DOJ rules, procedures, and practices. Answers only to the AG that provides he/her with everything they need. Everything and an unlimited budget. When the investigation has concluded, the Special Counsel’s report is sealed and delivered to the AG who can do with it as he pleases. He can redact portions or even shelve it if he chooses. And all the while, the DOJ has fought tooth and nail in many matters against its Congressional Oversight.

I find this whole thing troubling, taking all politics out of it. ”Any and all matters that may arise directly out of it.” If you understand chain e-mails or even chain migration, over time that would be millions upon millions of people, places, and things. Quasi unlimited powers given to someone outside of government who has not been confirmed by the Senate or Judicial Branch and appointed by an appointee.

Now, to add politics to the mix......In 2003, during the George W. Bush administration, Patrick Fitzgerald was appointed special counsel to investigate the Plame affair by Deputy Attorney General James Comey after the recusal of Attorney General John Ashcroft.

[Bill Tozer]

Moi @ 4:51 pm

“Now, to add politics to the mix......In 2003, during the George W. Bush administration, Patrick Fitzgerald was appointed special counsel to investigate the Plame affair by Deputy Attorney General James Comey after the recusal of Attorney General John Ashcroft.”

Fitzpatrick knew within a short time of taking on the role of special counsel that Novak outed Plame. Movak came out and said so. Fitzgerald knew that well before walking into the courtroom. Everybody knew. But, remember the times. Their hatred for Cheney was reaching the crescendo levels that we are seeing today with Trump. BDS was running amok as well. Chants of “Bush lied, people died “ was heard across the Democrat landscape. The lamestream press led by the NYT went into the daily barrage of attacks. Cheney and Rumsfield really got them unhinged. It built and built and built up into Bush was worse than Hilter and the rouge evil Cheney was behind it all. Karl Rove was the brains behind dumb Bush, but Cheney was the evil war mongering puppet of the Secret Cabal. And Bush lied! The election was a year away....but they were going after war criminal Cheney and then on to war criminal Bush. Cheney Derangement Syndrome was equal to of if not worse than BDS. Cheney was the target.

Yet, knowing that Valerie Plume was outed by Novak, Patrick Fitzgerald (a close friend of Comey on a professional and personal level) started the witch hunt.

Interesting side note: When Comey wrote his “personal memos” around the time Trump fired him, James Comey gave those memos to a professor acquaintance in hopes of kicking off a Special Prosecutor....Special Counsel into Trump. The professor Comey gave the memos to is the best friend (BFF) ) of one Patrick Fitzgerald.
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2018/04/comey_fitzgerald_mueller_partners_in_crime.html

The witch hunters wear familiar masks.

[Gregory]

"Looks like Cohen got a good lawyer Gregory. More power too (sic) him. Trump should have hired him instead ot (sic) the circus clown Gulianni (sic)"

Posted by: Paul Emery | 24 August 2018 at 10:00 PM

A good defense lawyer doesn't have his client roll over and play dead. And Lanny Davis is a big Hillary supporter like the Mueller team, made up of lawyers who were (and are) Hillary supporters.

A good lawyer looking out for the best interests of his client wouldn't plead out a charge that, for example, a great lawyer like Dershowitz said isn't against the law. And it's doubtful a Dershowitz would work for the money Cohen can afford at this time since Cohen has had heavy expenses defending himself.

This is how the FBI and Justice Dept. wins cases that they *want* to win.

[Gregory]

There is a plausible claim floating around that the two counts a'gin Cohen that he implicates Trump in... he was pressured to sign by a threat to prosecute his wife for income tax fraud since they filed married filed jointly.

Anyway, to continue:
-punchy yesterday
"So legally Trump requested and Cohen followed his direction to commit a felony. It's a done deal."

No, Paul, that Cohen pleaded out that Trump killed Col. Mustard in the Library with the Candlestick is not a done deal in any way. It's just a claim by Cohen.

[George Rebane]

How does some defendant's guilty plea incriminate another, especially when there is no proof that there is agreement for a criminal act, and most certainly not any evidence for it?

[Gregory]

GR 915pm

Of course, it doesn't. Cohen could have implicated Trump in the murder of Jimmy Hoffa and that also would also have no direct legal impact on Trump.

Former prosecutor and Gov. Chris Christie on ABC's Sunday talking heads on This Week With Bill Clinton's Former Chief of Staff made a point of saying that if you look at the other guilty pleas Cohen made, those were his admitting he was a liar, a fraudster and a thief, and that when Christie was a prosecutor he did put people like that on the stand... but only when there was a ton of corroborating evidence that wasn't from the mouth of a notorious liar.

[Bill Toze]

Recommended.
Witch Hunt? I report, you decide. Ah, forget that noise. It’s a witch hunt.
Tne mysterious “missing” Maltese Professor.

“Documents I obtained from sources show Mifsud told the FBI in February 2017 that his contacts with Papadopoulos a year earlier, during the 2016 presidential campaign, were mostly innocuous. He made that point both in an FBI interview and a follow-up email to agents.

He described the contacts as an academic exercise in pursuit of peace, not a global plot to hijack the election. And he went out of his way to say there was no talk of sinister cybersecurity intentions such as a plot to hack Hillary Clinton’s emails.

“I reaffirm that the content of our conversations was always on wide geo-strategic issues,” he wrote FBI agents on Feb. 11, in an email that was quickly sent to the very top of the FBI’s counterintelligence division. Mifsud sent the email just hours after agents interviewed him.

He said the conversations mostly centered around “how the Trump then-campaign team looked to develop a conversation on Europe/UK … and with Russia” and “the fallout in policy in the deteriorating relationship between the major countries in the world today.”

Geez, sounds more like a topic for a Miss Universe contestant’s essay on world peace than the opener of a James Bond movie........

The mere fact Mifsud felt compelled, after his FBI interview, to write a follow-up email — repeatedly insisting that his contacts with Papadopoulos were innocuous — is an indication he didn’t like the way the FBI portrayed events.

In fact, at one point in his email, he bold-faced a single sentence for emphasis: “Cybersecurity was never the direct object of any of our communications.”

“A ‘new’ possible relationship of the U.S. with Europe, the UK, Russia, the Middle East and energy diplomacy was always the focus of our discussions as international affairs experts,” he wrote in the final line of an email to the FBI.

Mifsud even told the FBI that, after his interview, he went back to his documents to make sure there wasn’t something more sinister: “The issues that you specifically asked me about in your questions this morning did not feature in any of our email conversations as far as I can see.”

The Mueller team’s indictment paints this very differently.

Mueller’s prosecutors recently urged the court to send Papadopoulos to prison, saying his false statements “impeded the FBI’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.”

More specifically, the prosecutors argued: “The defendant’s lies undermined investigators’ ability to challenge the Professor or potentially detain or arrest him while he was still in the United States.”

There’s just one problem with that argument.

The FBI had known for months — at least since July 2016, when an Australian diplomat reported it — that Papadopoulos boasted about the Russian dirt on Clinton. And agents knew before they interviewed Mifsud in February 2017 that Papadopoulos had gotten that information from the professor.

So the bureau had plenty of time to question Mifsud about the claims. Furthermore, it easily could have called the professor back and interviewed him anew, if it had doubts; after all, an Italian news outlet had no problem locating Mifsud and interviewing him last November.

http://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/404275-what-professor-really-told-fbi-about-trump-russia-and-papadopoulos