1. Special Counsel's Russian indictments
Thirteen Russian nationals and three Russian entities were indicted on Friday, “accused of violating U.S. criminal laws in order to interfere with U.S. elections and political processes,” according to the special counsel’s office.
According to ABC, President Donald Trump was briefed about the indictments by FBI Director Christopher Wray and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.
The Justice Department indicted the Russian troll farm the Internet Research Agency, two Russian organizations that funded the election interference operations — Concord Management and Consulting and Concord Catering — and 13 individuals accused of working with those groups.We wonder how Cadet Bone Spurs reacted to the briefing. Look for him and his lickspittles to concoct some distractions toot sweet.
Raw Story has the full 37- page indictment embedded here. It should make your blood boil. Also, Digby wonders about how this might ultimately involve Jared "Mr. Ivanka Trump" Kushner, the Rump campaign's "cyber" czar.
2. Trump associates flipping out
Special counsel Robert Mueller may be close to flipping another former Trump staffer.
Rick Gates — Paul Manafort’s longtime junior business partner, and a 2016 Trump campaign staffer — is “finalizing” a plea deal in which he’d cooperate with the Mueller investigation, CNN’s Katelyn Polantz and Sara Murray report. Gates has been in negotiations with Mueller’s team about cooperating for over a month, their report says, citing sources familiar with the case. [snip]
The biggest question, though, is whether Gates’s possible flip is mainly bad news for Paul Manafort concerning those lobbying and money laundering charges ... or whether it would have even bigger implications for the investigation into Russian interference as a whole, and into President Trump specifically.
Because if Manafort were to know of anything that could implicate Trump in connection with Russia, it seems quite plausible Gates would know it, too.Another small, but potentially important fish, Richard Pinedo, was flipped today as well. Mueller is just methodically going through this collection of jamokes like a hot knife through butter.
3. Move over, Stormy!
Donald Trump conducted an extramarital affair with a former Playboy playmate while married to his current wife, according to a new report — and the National Enquirer helped him cover it up.
Karen McDougal, a former “Playmate of the Year,” documented the relationship in an eight-page note that one of her friends shared with the New Yorker‘s Ronan Farrow. [snip]
Trump had been married to his third wife for nearly two years at that point, and Melania had just given birth to their son.
McDougal claimed she and Trump had sex — and she said the future president offered her money afterward.
“I looked at him (+ felt sad) + said, ‘No thanks – I’m not ‘that girl.’ I slept w/you because I like you – NOT for money’ – He told me ‘you are special.’,” she wrote.
The Wall Street Journal reported just four days before the 2016 election that National Enquirer publisher American Media, Inc., paid $150,000 for the exclusive rights to McDougal’s story — which it never published.
AMI chairman David Pecker describes Trump a “personal friend,” and he’s been known to buy damaging stories about the president that he then sits on, which is called “catch and kill” in the tabloid industry.Not only was Cadet Bone Spurs having an affair with McDougal, he was shtupping porn star Stormy Daniels during the same timeframe. Must've been a lot of "executive time" back then. Also note the involvement of the aptly named David Pecker in shielding Cadet Bone Spurs from the scandal. Since Republicans long ago lost any moral compass they might (might) have once had, this will end up as another footnote -- albeit a salacious one -- unless what amounts to that pecker Pecker's hush money gave him some leverage over Cadet Bone Spurs that he could exchange for favors, etc.
That noise you hear is the world laughing at us.
BONUS: Apropos of items 1 and 2 above (click to enlarge):
