Indictment-O-Rama Megathread: Mueller indicts 13 Russians

[Yank2133]

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Finally showing some balls here.

[Gass3268]

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[Landslide Lyndon]

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Finally showing some balls here.

It's amazing what a challenge from the left can do sometimes.

[Crumpets]

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Finally showing some balls here.

I'm speed reading this, but one thing that stands out is that there are a number of redactions about seemingly innocuous stuff. For example, when talking about the staff at Fusion GPS, there is a line: "Another one of our managers is xxxxxxxxx, and he is a xxxxxxxxxl." Maybe they're just being polite and not trying to unmask name people in the deposition whom they haven't talked to, or don't want to thrust into the spotlight for no reason?

[The Other Castro]

Matea Gold‏ @mateagold
NEW via @devlinbarrett @thamburger: Fusion GPS founder told Senate investigators the FBI had a whistleblower in Trump's campaign

https://twitter.com/mateagold/status/950799628911501312

[swf541]

Matea Gold‏ @mateagold
NEW via @devlinbarrett @thamburger: Fusion GPS founder told Senate investigators the FBI had a whistleblower in Trump's campaign

https://twitter.com/mateagold/status/950799628911501312

Nuclear Elmo time?

[GeorgiaModerate]

Matea Gold‏ @mateagold
NEW via @devlinbarrett @thamburger: Fusion GPS founder told Senate investigators the FBI had a whistleblower in Trump's campaign

https://twitter.com/mateagold/status/950799628911501312

Nuclear Elmo time?

Got to be Papadopolous, right?

[The Other Castro]

Jim Sciutto‏ @jimsciutto
#FusionGPS Transcript contradicts GOP argument #SteeleDossier was a political document. First, Steele went to FBI himself concerned Trump being blackmailed, fearing “national security threat” said Simpson 1/

2/When Steele met with FBI in Sept 2016,  @FBI told him they had similar intelligence from “an internal Trump campaign source”, that is a “whistle-blower” inside Trump organization.

3/ #FusionGPS’s Simpson told Senate Judiciary that Steele reached out to FBI on his own and he alone selected content of the dossier, not DNC or Fusion

https://twitter.com/jimsciutto/status/950803976500449280


Also: WTF

Kyle Cheney‏ @kyledcheney
!!!

Glenn Simpson's lawyer said someone has been killed as a result of the Steele dossier being published.

https://twitter.com/kyledcheney/status/950804971632635904

[Crumpets]

Just some notes as I'm reading along:

- Steele was hired by Fusion GPS in May-June 2016. Simpson states there was no reason for his hiring beyond his Russian expertise, and the desire of the investigation to learn why certain business dealings between the Trump organization and Russia had never come to pass despite Trump expressing his interest in Russia, and travelling there several times. They also hired similar investigators for Latin America, Scotland, and possibly other locations.

- Steele worked at a company in London called Orbis and Associates, and appears to have brought some people along with him from there to help him work on the dossier.

- Someone named Ed Baumgartner was working on researching Paul Manafort separately from Steele's investigation into Trump, and I think I'm missing some background here, but it appears that he was the member of the team who had previous connections to Natalia Veselnitskaya.

- It sounds like what Buzzfeed published of the Steele dossier was pretty much word-for-word what Simpson had seen of it beforehand. If there's a credibility issue with the dossier, it comes from Steele and Fusion GPS, not Buzzfeed.

- Simpson testified that neither he nor anyone at Fusion GPS gave the dossier to Buzzfeed, but it is strongly implied that he does know who sent it, but that he declined to answer.

Also: WTF

Kyle Cheney‏ @kyledcheney
!!!

Glenn Simpson's lawyer said someone has been killed as a result of the Steele dossier being published.

https://twitter.com/kyledcheney/status/950804971632635904

This was actually reported a while back, although it wasn't (and really still isn't) known whether his connections to the dossier were what got him killed: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/01/27/mystery-death-ex-kgb-chief-linked-mi6-spys-dossier-donald-trump/

[Landslide Lyndon]

Matea Gold‏ @mateagold
NEW via @devlinbarrett @thamburger: Fusion GPS founder told Senate investigators the FBI had a whistleblower in Trump's campaign

https://twitter.com/mateagold/status/950799628911501312

Nuclear Elmo time?

Got to be Papadopolous, right?

No. Papadopoulos started cooperating last July, long after the Steele dossier and the opening of the FBI investigation.

[The Mikado]

Matea Gold‏ @mateagold
NEW via @devlinbarrett @thamburger: Fusion GPS founder told Senate investigators the FBI had a whistleblower in Trump's campaign

https://twitter.com/mateagold/status/950799628911501312

Nuclear Elmo time?

Got to be Papadopolous, right?

Can't be. Papadopolous wasn't cooperating with the investigation until his arrest last summer. This whistleblower was apparently active in September 2016.

E: sorry, Landslide Lyndon

[KingSweden]

So apparently it was sorta George Paps. The “walk-in” was the Australian diplomat he blabbed to when blacked out

[Pouring Rain and Blairing Music]

So apparently it was sorta George Paps. The “walk-in” was the Australian diplomat he blabbed to when blacked out

Kind of a strange way of phrasing it, isn't it? It's not like the diplomat was part of the campaign. He just was there was drunk Papadopoulos ran his mouth off.

[KingSweden]

So apparently it was sorta George Paps. The “walk-in” was the Australian diplomat he blabbed to when blacked out

Kind of a strange way of phrasing it, isn't it? It's not like the diplomat was part of the campaign. He just was there was drunk Papadopoulos ran his mouth off.

Very strange phrasing, but based on everything I’ve seen that’s who Simpson was referencing

[Frodo]

If congressional Republicans prematurely close their Russian collusion investigations before the midterm elections this year, Democrats should reopen them the moment they take control of both houses of Congress, and redo those investigations the way they ought to have been done from the outset:

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https://www.politico.com/story/2018/01/10/trump-inner-circle-russia-hearings-329900?lo=ap_a1

[Virginiá]

If congressional Republicans prematurely close their Russian collusion investigations before the midterm elections this year, Democrats should reopen them the moment they take control of both houses of Congress, and redo those investigations the way they ought to have been done from the outset:

Republicans have given Democrats a pretty good argument in restarting everything with substantially more resources, so I'm guessing Democrats will do that. They aren't going to let this go easily. Also I wouldn't be surprised if investigations start popping up for all sorts of other issues, such as the numerous conflicts of interests surrounding Trump and his family/associates. This is why losing any chamber of Congress would be a huge blow to Trump. His inner circle and a handful of cabinet officials would probably spend most of the 2 years between the 2018 and 2020 elections testifying in front of Congress, and aside from whether any of those investigations uncovers criminal actions, it'll hurt Trump in the 2020 election.

[Gass3268]

Daily Beast: Mueller Adds Veteran Cyber Prosecutor to Russia Probe Team

[GeorgiaModerate]

Daily Beast: Mueller Adds Veteran Cyber Prosecutor to Russia Probe Team

Interesting.  I wonder if they might try to go after Wikileaks or the Russians directly.

[Silent Hunter]

Daily Beast: Mueller Adds Veteran Cyber Prosecutor to Russia Probe Team

How many prosecutors does he have now?

[pbrower2a]

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Finally showing some balls here.

I'm speed reading this, but one thing that stands out is that there are a number of redactions about seemingly innocuous stuff. For example, when talking about the staff at Fusion GPS, there is a line: "Another one of our managers is xxxxxxxxx, and he is a xxxxxxxxxl." Maybe they're just being polite and not trying to unmask name people in the deposition whom they haven't talked to, or don't want to thrust into the spotlight for no reason?

That is how classified documents are altered before they are declassified before publishing them to keep foreign moles and our own agents from being exposed -- and likely killed.  

[pbrower2a]

So apparently it was sorta George Paps. The “walk-in” was the Australian diplomat he blabbed to when blacked out

Kind of a strange way of phrasing it, isn't it? It's not like the diplomat was part of the campaign. He just was there was drunk Papadopoulos ran his mouth off.

Australia is our friend. Papadopoulos may be a traitor.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Trump sounds guiltier by the day:
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/trump-seems-unlikely-i-ll-need-speak-mueller-n836566

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Given Trump's habitual lyring and projection, I don't think he could sound any more guilty, even if he confessed.

[GeorgiaModerate]

LOL:

http://www.cnn.com/2018/01/10/politics/chuck-grassley-trump-doj/index.html

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Let's see...the investigations are being run by:

The House Judiciary and Intelligence committees (the House is controlled by Republicans).

The Senate Judiciary and Intelligence committees (the Senate is controlled by Republicans).

Special Counsel Robert Mueller (a registered Republican, and appointed as FBI Director by a Republican President).

Have I missed any?

[Silent Hunter]

Mueller reports to Deputy AG Rosenstein, appointed by a Republican President.

[Obama-Biden Democrat]

Steve Bannon Plans to 'Fully Cooperate' with Robert Mueller: Report

https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/steve-bannon-plans-fully-cooperate-robert-mueller-report