[Maru]

Rosenstein Tells Trump He’s Not a Target in Mueller, Cohen Probes
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...-mueller-probe

Rosenstein Tells Trump He’s Not a Target in Mueller, Cohen Probes

• Trump told associates he no longer needs to fire either man
• Deputy attorney general volunteered assurance last week

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein told President Donald Trump last week that he isn’t a target of any part of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation or the probe into his longtime lawyer, Michael Cohen, according to several people familiar with the matter.

Rosenstein, who brought up the investigations himself, offered the assurance during a meeting with Trump at the White House last Thursday, a development that helped tamp down the president’s desire to remove Rosenstein or Mueller, the people said.

After the meeting, Trump told some of his closest advisers that it’s not the right time to remove either man since he’s not a target of the probes. One person said Trump doesn’t want to take any action that would drag out the investigation.

The change in attitude by the president comes after weeks of attacks on the special counsel and the Justice Department, raising questions about whether he might take drastic steps to shut down the probes.

The shift gives some breathing room for Mueller, as well as Rosenstein, who has been criticized strongly by House Republicans for being slow to comply with requests for classified documents. Last week’s meeting was set up in part to allow Rosenstein to assuage Trump’s frustration with his decisions.

U.S. stocks pared their decline on the news. The S&P 500 Index closed down 0.6 percent in New York trading after an earlier slump of as much as 1 percent.

Rosenstein’s message may have been based on a technicality. Trump may not officially be a target, but Mueller hasn’t ruled out making him one at some point in the future, according to a U.S. official with knowledge of the unfolding investigation.

‘Fairly Standard’

“I don’t know what it means. It is a fairly standard part of any investigation -- trying to decide whether a person you’re encountering is a witness, a subject or a target,” former FBI Director James Comey, who was fired by Trump, said Thursday on CNN when asked what Rosenstein’s assurance to Trump means at this point.

A target is someone about whom an investigation and a grand jury “developed significant evidence -- evidence sufficient to charge,” Comey said.

Trump, who still hasn’t ruled out removing Rosenstein and Mueller at some point, signaled his shift in approach to them on Wednesday, responding to a reporter’s question about their fate by saying they are “still here.”

“They’ve been saying I’m going to get rid of them for the last three months, four months, five months,” Trump said at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida. “And they’re still here. We want to get the investigation over with, done with, put it behind us. And we have to get back to business.”

The expectation that the investigation will wrap up soon was underscored by former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who’s joined Trump’s personal legal team. Giuliani, a former federal prosecutor, said in an interview Thursday that he was taking a “very brief” leave of absence from his law firm in an effort to get Mueller “what he needs to wrap it up” and to “try to negotiate a way to get this over with.”

The Justice Department declined to comment on Rosenstein’s meeting with Trump, which was also attended by White House General Counsel Don McGahn, FBI general counsel Dana Boente, and White House Chief of Staff John Kelly.

The moment echoes another conversation early in Trump’s presidency, when he spoke with then-FBI Director Comey.

Comey’s Book

Back in March 2017, Comey told Trump he wasn’t a target in the FBI’s investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 election. Comey wrote in his new book, “A Higher Loyalty,” that Trump repeatedly asked him to help lift “the cloud” hanging over him by publicly announcing he wasn’t under investigation.

Comey refused to make a public announcement, writing that “the FBI and Department of Justice had been reluctant to make public statements that we did not have an open case on President Trump for a number of reasons, most important that it would create a duty to correct that statement should that status change.”

Ever since FBI agents raided Cohen’s home and office earlier this month, Trump has been egged on by some of his strongest supporters to strike back at Mueller.

Court papers filed after the raid revealed that the U.S. attorney’s office in the Southern District of New York has been investigating Cohen for months, following a referral from Mueller. That referral was approved by Rosenstein, according to a person familiar with the matter.

In his remarks Wednesday, Trump called the Mueller-led investigation “a hoax” created by Democrats “to soften the blow of a loss.”

“As far as the investigation, nobody has ever been more transparent,” he said during a news conference with visiting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. “I have instructed the lawyers, ‘Be totally transparent.”’

[Maru]

[Twosugars]

Maru, have you read Comey's book yet?

[Maru]

Originally Posted by Twosugars

Maru, have you read Comey's book yet?

No, there didn't appear to be anything in his book that we don't know already about the investigation. So didn't think any point to reading it...

[Twosugars]

yeah, besides all the juicy bits have been covered by the media.
...I might try though, just to get the flavour.

[Maru]

Originally Posted by Twosugars

yeah, besides all the juicy bits have been covered by the media.
...I might try though, just to get the flavour.

There's been no shortage of interviews with him either. He's in love with the spotlight, that much is obvious... and he's now said the book is ultimately not about Trump?... and now he also said Trump is, in his opinion, an legitimately elected president as well... which is a really awkward statement to make when there's a major investigation under way into 'collusion'.

The comment is around 1:50ish.

Youtube video

[Twosugars]

thank you for that

[Maru]

Democratic Party sues Russia, Trump campaign for allegedly disrupting 2016 election
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-u...-idUSKBN1HR2BE

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Democratic Party sued Russia, President Donald Trump’s campaign and WikiLeaks on Friday, charging that they conspired to disrupt the 2016 U.S. presidential election, a court filing showed.

The party alleges in the federal lawsuit in Manhattan that top Trump campaign officials conspired with the Russian government and its military spy agency to hurt Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and tilt the election to Trump by hacking Democratic Party computers.

The lawsuit also names Donald Trump Jr., Trump associate Roger Stone and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, as defendants.

The lawsuit alleges that Trump’s campaign “gleefully welcomed Russia’s help” in the 2016 election.

The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Trump has repeatedly denied his campaign colluded with Russia. Russia has denied meddling in the election.

The Republican National Committee, the Trump campaign, Trump campaign manager Michael Glassner, WikiLeaks, Stone and attorneys for Donald Trump Jr., former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, Manafort associate Rick Gates and former campaign aide George Papadopoulous also did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The lawsuit, should it go forward, seems likely to help keep the spotlight on the issue of Russian election interference and possible collusion by the Trump campaign. Both are being investigated by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

Through the process of legal discovery, lawyers for the Democratic Party could force the defendants to produce documents bearing on the collusion issue.

[Oliver_W]

Originally Posted by Maru

Democratic Party sues Russia, Trump campaign for allegedly disrupting 2016 election
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-u...-idUSKBN1HR2BE

In case they want help, here's a list of all of the evidence of direct Trump-Russia collusion:

Spoiler:

.

[The Slim Reaper]

Originally Posted by Oliver_W

In case they want help, here's a list of all of the evidence of direct Trump-Russia collusion:

Spoiler:

.

This may end up being the case after the investigation has finished it's work, but you currently have no idea what evidence there is or isn't.

The fact that Manafort, Paige, Papadopolus all have ties to Russia, and were given roles beyond their CV's on the Trump campaign should be a red flag, as should jr's meeting with Russians in trump tower as an example. That's without even mentioning the Steele dossier, so maybe don't jump the gun just yet, eh?

[Maru]

Source: https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-mic...143516069.html

Trump: Michael Cohen will never flip on me

President Trump’s simmering anger over the criminal investigation of his personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, finally found an outlet Saturday: an article in the New York Times suggesting that Cohen’s loyalty to the president might break under the threat of an indictment.

In a series of tweets starting around 6 a.m. ET, Trump attacked a front-page Times article headlined (in the print edition) “Punching Bag for President Has New Clout,” and (on the website): “Michael Cohen Has Said He Would Take a Bullet for Trump. Maybe Not Anymore.” Trump fired off the tweets from his Mar-a-Lago estate in South Florida, where he has spent much of the week.

Both versions make the point that Cohen, who, according to the article, has been the object of Trump’s bullying, now may be in a position to give prosecutors evidence they could use against Trump in court. The article cites Trump’s confidant Roger Stone as saying: “Donald goes out of his way to treat him [Cohen] like garbage.”

Trump has reportedly been told he is not a “target” of the investigation in the Southern District of New York, and it is not known what Cohen might be able to tell prosecutors, or what was seized in the April 9 FBI raid of his home and office. The raid is believed to have focused on Cohen’s role in paying off the adult actress Stormy Daniels not to discuss her relationship with Trump. However, Cohen has been a high-ranking executive in the Trump Organization and describes himself as the president’s “fixer.”

Aides to the president have described him as furious over the search of Cohen’s records and obsessed with the case. His tweets began with an attack on one of the reporters on the story, claiming he doesn’t speak to her.

In fact, the reporter, Maggie Haberman, has been one of the reporters Trump has spoken to the most, including an on-the-record Oval Office interview.

Cohen hasn’t been indicted for anything (although his own lawyer said Friday he expects he will be), so the issue of cooperation with the government presumably hasn’t arisen. But a number of people close to Trump, including his former lawyer Jay Goldberg and the legal scholar Alan Dershowitz, warned the president in the past week not to count on Cohen’s loyalty in the face of a possible jail term.

In referring to Cohen as “a businessman for his own account,” Trump seemed to be attempting to distance himself from Cohen’s affairs. Cohen does have his own interests in real estate and taxi medallions, but he was deeply involved in deals for the Trump Organization, including its efforts to build a tower in Moscow as recently as 2015.

The president didn’t specify who he meant by a “drunk/drugged up loser who hates Michael,” but in a tweet a few hours later, Haberman offered her opinion that he was referring to his former aide Sam Nunberg. It was also unclear why Trump claimed to have “nothing to do with” Haberman, who covers the president regularly for the Times. Her colleague Michael S. Schmidt tweeted this photo, showing Haberman with the president, shortly after Trump’s tweetstorm:

[The Slim Reaper]

The best part about this story is that none of his supporters and close allies are out here saying that Trump has never done anything dodgy because he ran a professional business, their only comment is whether or not people flip on him.

[Alf]

Big developments in the witch hunt.

Got any news for us Arista?

[arista]

[The long-awaited Mueller report into alleged
collusion between Donald Trump
and Russia has been submitted.
The confidential file has been sent to
Attorney General William Barr,
who will send a summary to Congress.
The report is looking into Russian
interference in the 2016 presidential
election and possible collusion
with Mr Trump's associates.
The Associated Press says that
the report is not recommending
any further formal charges.
Other findings are unknown at
this stage and it will be up to
Mr Barr to decide how much
will be made public.]


https://news.sky.com/story/mueller-r...neral-11672965


Yes its due to come out over this weekend

[Alf]

Originally Posted by Alf

Big developments in the witch hunt.

Got any news for us Arista?

No further indictments
No interference with the investigation
No collusion

[Beso]

Back to pussy grabbing accusations.