Yes, Dotard tRump And Vladimir Putin Colluded!

The iconic New York Times writer William Safire referred to [Bill Barr] not as "Attorney General" but, instead, as "Coverup-General", noting that in another scandal—having to do with Bush selling weapons of mass destruction to Saddam Hussein—Barr was already trying to cover up for both Bush, himself, and his friends ~ Quote excerpted from Thom Hartmann's 1/17/2019 article "William Barr's shady track record of covering up the crimes of a Republican president".

The following is an excerpt from the Monday (3/25/2019) airing of The Stephanie Miller Show in which host Stephanie Miller and Malcolm Nance (via phone) discuss the summary of Special Council Robert Mueller's report on the Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections provided by AG William Barr.

Stephanie Miller: ...so you tweeted this morning, "maybe I was wrong when I said "There is no way Barr will commit he greatest scandal in history to cover-up the greatest scandal in history". It looks like it just happened". Ah, nothing to see here, just a regular day in Washington. It is hard to get your head around him injecting himself like this. With his ridiculous 4 page book report.

Malcolm Nance: Now that I realize that he was the Attorney General during the Iran-Contra scandal, and he apparently did the exact same thing for Ronald Reagan... Now it doesn't surprise me anymore. But the thing that surprised me the most... is the question of conspiracy or collusion. I've said this about 20 times since yesterday - I've seen this with my own eyes.

Donald Trump stood on a stage and said "Russia, if you're listening, please release Hillary Clinton's emails". He called on a foreign power to work with [his campaign]. His son had a meeting where he agreed saying "I love it", and sat down with agents of the Russian government. That happened. Then the White House, one year later, formulated a cover-up letter, saying that this did not happen [the meeting was about Russian adoptions, not collusion]. There were over 100 contacts with 19 of his staff with Russian agents.

Someone who was on a radio program that I appeared on earlier this morning said, "...I think that the Mueller report will show that they didn't meet the complete perfect legal definition of conspiracy beyond a shadow of a doubt. Not even a reasonable doubt. But I believe they were collusion-curious". Well, they were more than collusion-curious.

The only thing that was missing was where this investigation stopped. ...Roger Stone's [indictment] was the last one and the next one would logically be WikiLeaks and Julian Assange - the bridge to the Trump team. This investigation abruptly ended. So, I'm starting to believe that Bill Barr was brought in to put the knife into the investigation.

Stephanie Miller: Thank you! How do we know Bill Barr didn't stop this?

Malcolm Nance: [the end of the investigation could have come about if] ...Robert Mueller said, "we won't be able to get these guys beyond a reasonable doubt". In the US intelligence community, you are taken away, polygraphed, and you are brought up to consider if you should have criminal charges filed against you by the FBI - if you even cross one of the lines that these people crossed by the hundreds. So, explain to me, what was the legal standard for conspiracy. Because all the conspiracy I've seen with my own eyes - anybody else in the US government would be considered an agent of a foreign power at that point.

Stephanie Miller: Well, you tweeted, "this is absolutely impossible. Technically they ignored every contact between the campaign [and Russia] and couched conspiracy as only tacit or expressed agreement. In other words, no oral or signed FSB contract, no crime". That's a ridiculous standard.

Malcolm Nance: It's an impossible standard. Look, and I tweeted a little later, "here's trump's signed contract" - and I put up the BuzzFeed photograph of the signed letter of intent for Trump Tower Moscow. That is your contract. Trump, from 2012 on, talked about Trump Tower Moscow with his Russian contact. Especially at Miss Universe. From 1987 on he has been trying to build Trump Tower [Moscow]. This is the only thing that explains his slavish devotion to Vladimir Putin.

...I've seen all the evidence over the last two years. Both from the Russia side - and I'm glad this report validates everything I've ever said about the Russian intelligence operation. That the United States was not openingly attacked. But you cannot tell me, that if this was the government of Iran and the Obama administration, and there were 100 secret meetings with them - trying to get them nuclear power plants [as Trump did re Saudi Arabia], that we would not be having treason trials right now. So, I'm sorry, that standard is going to have to apply to each side.

Stephanie Miller: Um, Malcolm, ...Joy Reid said to you yesterday, "sounds like the seeds of a cover-up" and you said, "Bill Barr is one guy. There are secretaries that have to handle these documents, the secretaries and FBI agents who did the work themselves". I sure hope there is some patriot out there [will leak the report if Barr suppresses it].

Malcolm Nance: This morning Donald Trump made it clear that he is now going to use the Justice Department and the Senate to start investigating everyone. ...they're talking about going after Hillary Clinton. Everyone who was in the FBI - Comey, McCabe, Strzok, Page, all the judges on the FISA court, and President Barack Obama. John Brennan. They're talking about literally attacking anyone who looked into Trump. This is the mafia tactic that they're going to use. They have now weaponized this. He is planning not to just get away with it, but to go to war with everyone who is opposed to him. The Democrats.

*skip*

Stephanie Miller: OK... I want to get your take on something [from last week] [reading] ...Adam Schiff maintained that the counterintelligence investigation was far more urgent to national security concerns than the investigation into Trump's potential criminality. What Americans should be concerned about is whether the president's Russia policy is not dictated by our national interests, but is dictated by his desire to make 100s of millions of dollars in Moscow. He also noted the limits of indictments in revealing whether someone is compromised by a foreign power. In fact, most counterintelligence probes don't end with indictments because criminality is difficult to prove, and the information involved is often too sensitive to make public".

..."Schiff is concerned that the question of foreign influence on Trump through his finances may not have been fully explored by Mueller, if at all. From what we can see, publically or otherwise, it is very much an open question. ...he added, "the red line Trump drew at Mueller investigating his personal finances is not a line that can be observed and still protect the country".

Malcolm Nance: They've got to go through his finances. You don't know whether there actually has been a payoff. We don't know whether the Trump Tower meeting involved some exchange of cash. We do know that he did offer a bribe to Vladimir Putin of a 50 million dollar penthouse. ...Sara Sanders right now is saying that Robert Mueller has fully exonerated him. No he hasn't at all.

Stephanie Miller: ...[reading a tweet] because so many Americans have so many questions and we are entitled to answers - why did Paul manafort share highly confidential polling data with Russian intelligence? ...which states and Americans were targeted with that data...?

Malcolm Nance: What I want to know is why all these people in jail or will be going to jail - like Mike Flynn, lying about his Russian contacts? Papadopoulos, lying about his Russian contacts. Maria Butina is going to prison if she isn't exchanged in a spy swap. ...this is impossible [that there was not collusion]. I want to see all the FBI 302s, I want to see the intercepts. You're telling me that the Trump campaign contacts were all just coincidence? ...you know what I say about coincidence - it takes a lot of planning.

Watergate Figure John Dean Suspects Barr May Be Hiding Something "Fairly Ugly" https://t.co/hyxaj0dFIH

— The_News_DIVA🎀 (@The_News_DIVA) March 25, 2019

SWTD #413

Biased Judge Gives tRump Russia Colluder Manafort Light Sentence

Manafort's Judge, T.S. Ellis, Is a "Caesar" in His Own Rome ~ title of an 8.9/2018 NYT article by Emily Cochrane and Sharon LaFraniere.

tRump campaign chairman and Putin stooge Paul Manafort was sentenced yesterday to 4 years by Reagan-appointed Virginia Judge T.S. Ellis III. When the Mueller team recommended that he get at least 19 and a half to 24 years!

IMO this Legislative Branch appointee did not judge impartially based on the LAW but ruled that Manfort should receive far less time than Special Counsel Robert Mueller recommended based on his own biases.

As per Mr. Mueller, "Manafort acted for more than a decade as if he were above the law, and deprived the federal government and various financial institutions of millions of dollars". But according to Judge Ellis, Mueller lead an "otherwise blameless life". Huh?

"Dropping all the way from 19 years to four years is absurd", Barbara McQuade (a former United States attorney who teaches law at the University of Michigan) accurately observed (as per the NYT).

For the record, Manafort pled guilty to filing false tax returns (5 counts), failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts (1 count) and bank fraud (2 counts) (details here). It is possible that Manafort could still have up to 10 years added to his sentence.

Manafort will be sentenced next week in a DC court presided over by Judge Amy Berman Jackson, where he has pled guilty to an additional 7 charges in DC (he had the option of combining the charges into one trial in DC, but passed).

Note that none of the charges have anything to do with the collusion he participated in with Konstantin Kilimnik that involved Manafort handing over tRump campaign internal polling data. Data that allowed Russia to deploy microtargeting and swing the election to tRump [1].

As per a 10/1/2018 New Yorker article by Jane Mayer (How Russia Helped Swing The Election For Trump), "a meticulous analysis of online activity during the 2016 campaign makes a powerful case that targeted cyber attacks by hackers and trolls were decisive".

In other words, YES, there absolutely was collusion! My guess is that Mueller does not want to tip his hand yet. Not when he can nail Manafort for his many other crimes. Revealing the evidence of collusion NOW would probably get his investigation shut down ASAP. Instead the lying Orange Turd (and his defenders) can continue to claim that Manafort's crimes have nothing to do with Dotard tRump. BTW, when Dotard says that Judge Ellis declared that there was no Russian collusion, he lies.

Collusion is not a delusion, a hoax or a witch hunt. The tRump Tower meeting (attended by Manafort) and the Julian Assange/Roger Stone phone call Michael Cohen overheard (because it was on speaker/tRump was in the room) are 2 other notable acts of collusion we are aware of.

When the Mueller report comes out proof of many more will likely (IMO) be revealed. More (and concrete) evidence that the tRump campaign colluded with Russia (directly and via the Russian cut-out WikiLeaks) and Dotard tRump was aware (and approved) of what was going on.

What I think SHOULD happen then is that Dotard should be taken into custody and Hillary Clinton should be sworn in as the duly elected President. Unfortunately, since the Constitution has no provision for this situation, that is not possible. Even though Dotard should absolutely be indicted. The Justice Department may have a "policy" of not indicting a sitting president, but the Constitution does not forbid it.

Lawrence Tribe: To imply presidential immunity without simultaneously excluding... pre-inaugural crimes that were committed in order to become president would be manifestly unjust. It would create a perverse incentive structure, telling those seeking the presidency that the more successful they become in fraudulently obtaining and holding onto it, the less likely they would be to be held fully accountable for their perfidy. (Yes, the Constitution Allows Indictment of the President. Lawfare 12/20/2018).

Yet it seems that most professional political pontificators believe tRump will not be indicted because the DOJ says he can't be. Which is, as the article by Harvard Law School professor Larry Tribe points out, ridiculous.

As for Paul Manafort being sentenced to 4 years for a decade of criminal activity. Hopefully Judge Jackson will add another 10 years to his sentence. Which would put him away for 13 years (instead of the 29 he should be getting). Although the Orange Turd can still pardon his partner in collusion. Also, if Mueller does indict (unlikely), that case would go to the Supreme Court (where his ringer Blackout Brett would very likely rule in his favor).

Remember, however, that these are Federal crimes that Manafort (who lied when he said he'd cooperate with Mueller. But apparently Ellis does not care) has been convicted of. State crimes being charged are still very much a possibility (for which tRump could not pardon). So, despite the shameful biased ruling of Judge Ellis, Manafort will probably get at least 10 years... and possibly a lot more, God willing. And deservedly so.

Footnote
[1] In regards to Manafort's 8/2/2016 meeting with Konstantin Kilimnik at the Grand Havana Room at 666 Fifth Avenue... prosecutor Andrew Weissmann told judge Amy Berman Jackson that "This goes, I think, very much to the heart of what the special counsel's office is investigating", suggesting that Mueller's office continues to examine a possible agreement between Russia and the Trump campaign (In Closed Hearing, a Clue About "the Heart" of Mueller's Russia Inquiry, NYT).

SWTD #412