In a court filing yesterday, the US Attorney prosecuting Giuliani associate Lev Parnas claimed that he was being paid by the Russians, too, and that he was hiding the money in his wife’s name. He received a cool $1 million from them in September. They have asked the judge to revoke Parnas’ bail and jail him.
More manure on the giant Trump manure pile.
His Orangeness’ tweet storm this morning:
Look at that second tweet. As Trump rants about “Presidential Harassment”, “Fake News”, “Witch Hunt Hoax”, he also makes a Freudian slip saying, “And now Russia disappeared because I had nothing to do with Russia helping me to get elected.” Trump has just acknowledged that indeed it’s true that Russia assisted him into office. Trump is now in an interesting position…he has denied Russian involvement since it happened, but now he’s saying that it did, but he’s not going to do anything about it. That can only mean that he’s hoping the Russians do it again. I don’t believe that statement quite meets the standard of “protecting and defending the Constitution of the United States”, but that’s just me.
I’m getting close to changing my mind on impeachment of this son of a bitch, but not yet.
Today, Christopher Wray, Trump’s own appointee as FBI Director, warned that the Russians were continuing their efforts to interfere in the 2020 presidential election, even announcing that he’s transferred other agents from their normal duties to counter intelligence to stop the effort to meddle. Wray said in a statement,
“We recognize that our adversaries are going to keep adapting and upping their game. So we are very much viewing 2018 as just kind of a dress rehearsal for the big show in 2020.”
Trump has stubbornly and continuously ignored the problem, fearing that acknowledging it would make it obvious that his election in 2016 was illegitimate. He’s even cut budgets to stop the Russians from interfering. If anyone has any doubts about Trump’s allegiance to the Russians, one only need listen to and read his words. He’s not going to do a damn thing to stop the Russians, because he knows that their interference is the only way he has a prayer of winning again in 2020.
It’s hard for me to believe that I’m even typing these words that the Fucking President of the United States is conspiring with a hostile foreign power to cement his own victory to maintain power. The damage that he has done to our nation (especially our judiciary) will take decades to repair, if we even can. In the meantime, I have a bottle of champagne set aside that we’re going to crack open when we see this treasonous son of a bitch walked out of the White House, hopefully in handcuffs.
As JJ pointed out this morning, Trump’s Rump Nosers are going after Adam Schiff with a vengeance, especially after His Orangeness demanded that he should somehow be forced to resign over the Mueller report that no one outside of the Justice Department has seen. Fortunately, Schiff is having none of it, and dropped the hammer on said Nosers during the House Intelligence Committee meeting today. It’s worth the time watching the whole thing:
As we await the Barr Report on the Mueller Report, Trump’s TeeVee Howlers are proclaiming “nothing to see here”, and “the witch hunt is finally over”. We all know, though, that it’s not over, not by a long shot. Mueller sending his report to Justice is just the end of the beginning. The Dems are already talking about subpoenaing Mueller to testify before the House Intelligence Committee in their own investigation. The State of New York has multiple criminal investigations against Trump’s “charity”, his real estate company, and against individuals tied to him like Roger Stone and Michael Cohen. The most ironic investigation is the one of Trump’s inaugural committee where ACTUAL collusion with foreign powers is pretty apparent with evidence of using straw donors to launder money into the Trump’s coffers.
Trump, who usually spends his nights and weekends tweet-raging, is uncharacteristically quiet this weekend, hiding and playing golf in Mara Lago. You know that Barr has already reported Mueller’s findings to him; also, he has not yet provided the promised summary of the findings to the public. That his attorneys are with him his no surprise. The White House is claiming there is no war room set up in Trumpland, but you know that’s bullshit, and that his legal team is all hands on deck.
With 37 indictments, 8 guilty pleas, prison sentences and multiple trials in various stages, my guess is that the contents of this report is not nothing. This is just the end of the Mueller investigation, which is just the beginning of a multi-front legal and political battle.
File under You Can’t Make this Up, the almost new Attorney General, Bill Barr, has a son in law named Tyler McGauhey is leaving the Justice Department to avoid conflicts of interest with Barr when he’s confirmed. Where’s he going, you ask? To the White House, of course, to work for White House counsel to fight off the Russia investigation. That’s right, folks, the new Attorney General’s son-in-law will be helping Trump…against the Justice Department.