Senate Intel Committee: Intel Community's Russia/ Trump Assessment Accurate

BOOM!  This should (but won't) be the end of it:

A bipartisan investigation by the Senate Intelligence Committee has validated the January 2017 U.S. intelligence assessment describing Russia interference in the 2016 presidential election — including Russian efforts to help Donald Trump — describing it as accurate, thorough, and untainted by political bias.

"The Committee found no reason to dispute the Intelligence Community's conclusions," said Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C.

The CIA and other spy agencies produced the assessment during the final weeks of the Obama administration, and a version of it was made public on Jan. 6, 2017. It told a story of a Russian covert operation designed to undermine American democracy that evolved into an attempt to help Trump win.

The new report by the Republican-run committee — which examines how the assessment was put together — undercuts criticisms by some of President Trump's supporters that the spy agencies overstated Russia's activities. A long-running theory on the right holds that the assessment was "rigged" by a cabal of hand-picked intelligence analysts led by then-CIA Director John Brennan, who has become a vocal Trump critic.  [snip]

That conclusion is significant, because it comes as a prosecutor appointed by Attorney General William Barr is said to be examining Brennan's role in the assessment, which was written based on intelligence gathered by the CIA, the FBI and the National Security Agency, among others.  (our emphasis)

This is what history (not to mention any court of law) will take as its text, not the self-serving lies from Putin puppet Donald "Impeachable Me" Trump and his rotted- out lickspittle William "Low" Barr.

We'll see if this stands a chance of breaking through the coronavirus news of the day.

(Image: democraticunderground.com)

QOTD -- His Master's Voice

“Putin told me.”  -- Donald "Tovarich" Trump, providing the rationale for his belief that Ukraine, not Russia, meddled in the 2016 election, a conspiracy theory debunked by the U.S. intelligence community.

BONUS:  Their master's voice --


(Attribution: democraticunderground.com)

DOJ IG: No Political Bias In Origins Of Trump-Russia Investigation

Before Attorney General William "Low" Barr, Trump's Roy Cohn, has a chance to alter its findings, here's what the forthcoming Department of Justice Inspector General report has to say about the origins of the FBI's investigation of Russian collusion with the Trump campaign:

The Justice Department’s internal watchdog is expected to find in a forthcoming report that political bias did not taint top officials running the FBI investigation into possible coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign in 2016, while at the same time criticizing the bureau for systemic failures in its handling of surveillance applications, according to two U.S. officials.

The much-anticipated report due out Dec. 9 from Inspector General Michael Horowitz will allege that a low-level FBI lawyer inappropriately altered a document that was used during the process to renew a controversial warrant for electronic surveillance of a former Trump campaign adviser, the officials said. The inspector general referred that finding to U.S. Attorney John Durham, and the lawyer involved is being investigated criminally for possibly making a false statement, they said.

But Horowitz will conclude that the application still had a proper legal and factual basis, and, more broadly, that FBI officials did not act improperly in opening the Russia investigation, according to the officials, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive report.

The report generally rebuts accusations of a political conspiracy among senior law enforcement officials against the Trump campaign to favor Democrat Hillary Clinton while also knocking the bureau for procedural shortcomings in the FBI, the officials said. On balance, they said, it provides a mixed assessment of the FBI and Justice Department’s undertaking of a probe that became highly politicized and divided the nation. (our emphasis)

Clearly, there are people in the DOJ who anticipated what Barr would do prior to the report's public release and wanted to make sure the main findings weren't tainted by his fat little fingers.  Bravo.  Nevertheless, the Orange Buffoon and his flying media monkeys will be cherry- picking and distorting the fact that it was a low- level FBI attorney who altered an email used to renew a surveillance warrant for Trump nut and Russian useful idiot Carter Page.  That's it.  That's all they got.

This is one of two investigations of the origins of the investigation of Russian collusion with the Trump campaign, the other being the criminal one being run by Durham, who appears to be more willing to take direction from the corrupt Barr.  But the findings of the IG, a Trump appointee, will be hard to ignore, unless the "mainstream media" decides it covers old ground and lacks "pizzazz."  Lay your bets down.

Tweets Of The Day -- No Collusion, No Collusion, You're The Collusion!

NEW: The private Instagram account of Lev Parnas reveals new clues about his access to the Trump family and his close relationship with Rudy Giuliani.

https://t.co/oXcW96zdhb
w/ @emmatscott @LaurizzleK @WSJVideo pic.twitter.com/Z6XNZhMfkh

— Shelby Holliday (@shelbyholliday) October 21, 2019

It really hasn't gotten enough attention that Parnas and Fruman were members of Trump's legal team, according to their attorney John Dowd. https://t.co/miSShvz0Js

— Matthew Miller (@matthewamiller) October 21, 2019

Does this mean that Trump had people on the payroll of the Russian mob working on his defense against charges of Russian collusion? https://t.co/lTMJEeOKQs

— Michelle Goldberg (@michelleinbklyn) October 21, 2019

It does! https://t.co/8QjTF5HRIp

— Matthew Miller (@matthewamiller) October 21, 2019

And you know when you're talking Russian mob, you're talking chief thug Vladimir Putin.  What an amazing set of completely unconnected dots!

Trump "Inadvertently" Advances Russian Interests Again

"Inadvertently":

U.S. President Donald Trump’s sanctions against Iran and Venezuela have inadvertently increased demand for a Russian brand of crude oil, boosting revenues for the nation’s exporters.

Russian oil companies received at least $905 million in additional revenues between November and July, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The calculation is based on difference between the Urals spread to the Brent benchmark over the period compared to the five-year average.

The sanctions added to a jump in demand for Russian crude in the wake of output cuts from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and their partners. As a result, Russia’s Urals blend of crude has started to regularly trade at a premium to Brent.

“There is a shortage of competing heavier, sourer crude right now as a result of sanctions on Iran and Venezuela, but also because of OPEC+’s current production cut agreement,” Konstantsa Rangelova, analyst at JBC Energy, said by email. “Urals in the Mediterranean is at an all-time high.”  (our emphasis)

We doubt it was "inadvertent" for nitwit bumbler Donald "Rump" Trump's handler in Moscow, who is doubtless delighting in how the useful idiot is lining his pockets by steering business to Mother Russia.  Thug kleptocrat Putin is also sending Russian warships into the Caribbean, just as an additional "FU" to show who's really in charge in the relationship:

The Russian military has signed a deal that would allow it to send military ships to Venezuela, expressing support for the Latin American country. The U.S. has been critical of current Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, and has backed attempts to replace him.

Trump (code name: Kompromat) may be the most dangerous and incompetent person ever to occupy the White (Supremacist) House, but he sure is good at doing what's best for Putin.

Mueller Testimony Postponed

This is getting ridiculous:

Former special counsel Robert Mueller’s highly-anticipated Capitol Hill testimony will be delayed one week under a tentative arrangement he reached with House Democrats, according to multiple sources briefed on the discussions.

Although it’s unclear why Mueller’s testimony was delayed until July 24, lawmakers familiar with the matter said one reason was an ongoing negotiation about how long lawmakers would have to question the former special counsel.

The Democrats are (supposedly) in charge.  They (supposedly) set the rules.  Allowing malicious, Trump- enabling Republicans on the Committee to drag this out and have any significant say in how the testimony is staged is an absolute travesty (rhetorical question: would they extend the same courtesy to Democrats if the were in charge?). If there are prima donna Dems demanding their time on camera, that needs to be reined in, too. Dems need to show some courage, discipline and imagination.

Former Maryland Democratic Rep. Donna Edwards makes great points in a WaPo op/ed today, suggesting the Democrats change the rules and format for the hearing, and that they play to win. If they can't get their act together on this basic level, we're really up shit creek without paddles.

Robert Mueller's Statement On The Russia Probe

“If we had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said that.” -- Robert Mueller, once again for emphasis.

BONUS:

Devastating.

Mueller just clearly declared that he didn't bring obstruction charges *not* because the evidence didn't point that way, but because of DOJ policy, and because there are other processes for holding a president accountable for misconduct.

Over to you, Democrats.

— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) May 29, 2019

Robert Mueller: “When a subject of an investigation obstructs that investigation, or lies to investigators, it strikes at the core of the government’s effort to find the truth and hold wrongdoers accountable.” pic.twitter.com/7ZoxzB8Nwr

— Bobby Lewis (@revrrlewis) May 29, 2019

BONUS II:  CNN's side-by-side of lying, corrupt Trump defense attorney William Barr talking about the special counsel report, and Mueller's remarks today:

Barr Gets Extraordinary Power To Shape False Russia Investigation Narrative

Very Extremely Stable Genius and Putin toady Donald "Not Exonerated" Trump is, of course, desperate to spin a false narrative that the investigation into his campaign's ties with Russia was illegal and "treasonous" (heavy duty projection there).  He's now empowered his toady Attorney General personal lawyer to declassify (or more likely, selectively declassify) documents related to the origins of the Russia investigation:

President Trump took extraordinary steps on Thursday to give Attorney General William P. Barr sweeping new authorities to conduct a review into how the 2016 Trump campaign’s ties to Russia were investigated, significantly escalating the administration’s efforts to place those who investigated the campaign under scrutiny.

In a directive, Mr. Trump ordered the C.I.A. and the country’s 15 other intelligence agencies to cooperate with the review and granted Mr. Barr the authority to unilaterally declassify their documents. The move — which occurred just hours after the president again declared that those who led the investigation committed treason — gave Mr. Barr immense leverage over the intelligence community and enormous power over what the public learns about the roots of the Russia investigation.  (our emphasis)

Hmmm.  The power to cobble together their own self- serving narrative that protects not only themselves, but Russian interests, to the detriment of our own intelligence community and national security, while at the same time hiding the un- redacted Mueller report and its supporting documents, and stonewalling efforts to find out what financial leverage the Russians have on Trump ... what could possibly go wrong?

There's a specific set of intelligence that the toadies would like to get their hands on (and spill to their handler in Moscow):

One official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss classified matters, said previously that Mr. Barr wanted to know more about what foreign assets the C.I.A. had in Russia in 2016 and what those informants were telling the agency about how President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia sought to meddle in the 2016 election.  (our emphasis)

Make no mistake:  Trump and the Stormtrumpers continue to act as agents of a foreign adversary, who they see as essential for keeping them in power.  It's a dagger pointed at the heart of our democracy.

Barr Appoints U.S. Attorney To Investigate The Investigators

We're in banana republic territory now:

Attorney General William P. Barr has tapped John H. Durham, the U.S. attorney for the District of Connecticut, to investigate the origins of the special counsel’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Barr picked Durham in recent weeks to work on the review, which is designed to ensure the U.S. government’s “intelligence collection activities” related to the Trump campaign were “lawful and appropriate,” a person familiar with the decision said.

This would be the third investigation of the origins of the Mueller probe into Russian interference. But that's not the point. The point is to give Putin puppet Donald "Rump" Trump something to lie about between now and November 2020 (since Durham is said to work very slowly), and just the fact that there's an "investigation" goes a long way toward legitimatizing Trump's vicious "deep state coup" blabber for his base and other low- information voters.

Once again, toady Barr is doing the bidding of the would- be autocrat and undermining the Justice Department and the rule of law.  Surprise.

Trump's State Of The World

The president of Freedom House writes about how the noxious effects of Trumpism have migrated beyond our borders:

The president’s attacks on the judiciary and the media, his resistance to anticorruption constraints and his unfounded claims of voting fraud by the opposition are tactics familiar to foreign autocrats and populist demagogues who seek to subvert checks on their power. 

Such leaders take heart from Trump’s bitter feuding with the United States’ traditional democratic allies and his reluctance to uphold the nation’s collective defense treaties, which have helped guarantee international security for decades. The president has refused to advocate American democratic values overseas, and he seems to encourage the forces that oppose them. His frequent praise for some of the world’s worst dictators reinforces this perception.

Freedom House ranks the United States in its "Freedom in the World 2019" report in the same league as Mongolia, Croatia and Belize, and below France, Germany and the UK.  MAGA!

The Washington Post is also reporting something sentient humans here and abroad have observed for some time -- that Putin puppet and laughing stock Donald "Rump" Trump is out to wreck the Western Alliance:

As President Trump prepares to deliver his second State of the Union address, the leaders of the United States’ closest allies in Europe are filled with anxiety. 

They are unsure of whom to talk to in Washington. They can’t tell whether Trump considers them friends or foes. They dig through his Twitter feed for indications of whether the president intends to wreck the European Union and NATO or merely hobble the continent’s core institutions. 

Officials say Trump, by design or indifference, has already badly weakened the foundation of the transatlantic relationship that American presidents have nurtured for seven decades. As Sigmar Gabriel, a former German foreign minister, put it: “He has done damage that the Soviets would have dreamt of.”  

European leaders worry that the next two years could bring even more instability, as Trump feels emboldened, and they are filled with fear at the prospect that Trump could be reelected. The situation has left the continent facing a strategic paradox no one has managed to crack. 

“We can’t live with Trump,” Gabriel said. “And we can’t live without the United States.” (our emphasis)

At this late date, to pretend that all of this is pure coincidence, or that the ignoramus simply has no understanding of  how our democratic alliances have functioned for a century, or that he simply enjoys creating chaos, is to ignore what we can see in plain view and are certain investigators are well on their way to proving:  that this compromised POS is being leveraged by Russia to act in its best interests rather than those of the United States and its allies.  As we've said before, we think some of the "what" will be reported by the Special Counsel and some of the "why" will be in the form of indictments issued through the Southern District of New York's investigation into Rump's organization and financing (including Rump's inaugural committee, which is being subpoenaed for documents as this is written).

Herr Gabriel, we can't live with Trump either.

(Photo:  Trump's the only one happy to see Putin -- "Am I doing o.k., boss?")

It's Friday -- Time For Some More Mueller Indictments?

It's always risky to speculate (but fun), and so there are some caveats in this observation about four new sealed indictments in the docket of DC's U.S. District Court:

Last Thursday, updates to the docket for the U.S. District Court in Washington DC strongly implied that Special Counsel Robert Mueller had just indicted someone under seal. Sure enough, the next morning, Roger Stone was arrested. In turn, the wording and nature of Stone’s unsealed indictment suggested that Mueller was suddenly accelerating his pace for Trump-Russia arrests.

As of this evening, the DC docket lists four new sealed items. Let’s be clear here: these could be from any criminal cases going on in the entire DC court, and are not necessarily related to Robert Mueller’s cases. But indictments are only sealed like this when there’s a specific reason prosecutors don’t want the public – or perhaps the target – to know who’s being targeted. So at the least, these four sealed items involve cases and/or defendants in the public view. There are additional clues here.

These are the four sealed items on the docket: 19-cr-24, 19-cr-25, 19-cr-28, and 19-cr-29. Legal experts have explained to Palmer Report that the bunched up numbers tend to indicate multiple indictments against the same targets, while the gaps tend to indicate separate targets. In other words, 19-cr-24 and 19-cr-25 could be two indictments against one person, while 19-cr-28 and 19-cr-29 could be indictments against a different person.

Again, there’s a chance these sealed items have nothing to do with Robert Mueller. But this same process played out on the docket last Thursday in the same DC court, and the result was Roger Stone’s arrest the next day. So there’s a decent chance these are Mueller’s indictments. Even if so, that doesn’t necessarily mean arrests tomorrow morning. Sealed items can remain sealed indefinitely. 

A "decent chance" these are Mueller indictments.  We'll take that.

A Twitter spasm last night by a certain Individual 1 also might be a clue to what's coming:

Huh. Pretty late for him. Something’s got him wound up. Maybe those four indictments will be news tomorrow? https://t.co/eAUEsju7ZH

— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) February 1, 2019

Monday Reading

As always, please go to the links for the full articles/ op eds.

Vox's Dara Lind writes about the very specific, odd reference demagogue racist Donald "Rump" Trump has been making about women being smuggled into the US:

Donald Trump’s rhetoric about the border is built on a lie: the idea that the US-Mexico border is a lawless place where American citizens are constantly in grave danger, and where criminals are able to smuggle drugs and people without any risk of apprehension. That big picture — as Vox and the rest of the media has made clear again and again — bears very little resemblance to the truth. 

But the claim about women gagged with tape and packed into vans has attracted particular attention because it’s quickly become a centerpiece of Trump’s rhetoric — according to the Post, as of Friday he’d made 10 references to it in 22 days — without anyone knowing exactly where Trump got it from. 

Border experts have told the Post and other reporters that they’ve never heard anything like what Trump’s talking about.

The Border Patrol has now been on a mission to find out what Rump is talking about, hustling to find "evidence" to back up the moron's fever dream.

(Steve M. at No More Mister Nice Blog has a plausible explanation as to how this particular bug entered the big brain of the Very Stable Genius:  "I wonder if someone at the White House is showing Trump stock footage and insisting to Trump that it's real."  Steve provides a clip that could've been used to fool the fool.)

Michael Tomasky writes about the prospect of "Nancy and Chuck" owning Rump for the duration, and looks back briefly on the Rump manhood wall debacle:

It’s worth chortling again for a few paragraphs over how ridiculous and weak they made Trump look. Remember, this is a man who spent years, going way back before he started campaigning in 2015, saying over and over and over how easy being president would be. Bring the Chinese to heel? Very easy. Make Middle East peace? Please. Get Mexico to pay for the wall? Piece of cake. He’s been saying these things in books and television appearances for years. 

I can’t imagine who believed him—and if anyone out there was a big enough idiot to do so, that’s their problem. But the point is that he believed it. He actually thought being president would be easy (and the way he does it, watching TV for hours a day and calling Sean Hannity and ignoring 95 percent of what the government under him does, it sort of is, but that’s another matter). 

For two years, it was kind of easy. But in January, he met reality.

And as we all know, reality bites (if you're Rump).

Steve Benen wonders if Republicans have learned anything about Rump as a result of the Trump shutdown fiasco:

[W]hat’s of interest at this point is what, if anything, Republicans have learned from their recent experience. Both Senate Republicans offered specific and unambiguous predictions based on what they assumed to be true about the president, his plans, and his capacity for following through. 

Do they now know better? Shouldn’t they?

With that in mind, consider some of what Trump’s GOP should understand now, even if they were unclear before the president’s surrender on Friday afternoon.

Benen goes on to list 5 things about Rump that they should realize by now. "Should."

Meanwhile, on the keeping- Putin- happy front:

The U.S. Treasury Department on Sunday officially lifted sanctions on businesses tied to the Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska. 

The department said in a news release that the Office of Foreign Assets Control lifted sanctions on EN+ Group Plc and EuroSibEnergo JSC, noting that each company has reduced Deripaska's "direct and indirect shareholding stake in these companies and severed his control." [snip]

Democrats in Congress attempted to block the move. But Senate Republicans were able to defeat the measure and prevent it from advancing to a floor vote earlier this month.  

The agreement the Treasury Department reached with Deripaska included having him cut his direct and indirect share ownership for each company below 50 percent.  

But The New York Times reported last week that Deripaska and his allies are set to retain majority ownership the energy company EN+. 

There is no way -- none -- that this is not a cave to Putin, fully supported by the rotted out Republican Party.

Finally, please do yourselves a favor and check out Infidel 753's link round- up for much more than we have the energy to dig up here.  It's the best round up of "interesting stuff" on the planet.

Compromised

The reality is finally sinking in:

According to the [Politico/ Morning Consult] poll, 57 percent believe it’s likely that Russia “has compromising information“ on Trump, compared to 31 percent who don't think it's likely.

Following her curb stomping of Individual 1, Speaker Nancy Pelosi turned immediately to the question at hand:

What does Putin have on @realDonaldTrump, politically, personally or financially?

— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) January 26, 2019

Some of the kompromat is already in plain view (Putin knowing Individual 1 lied about his continuing to pursue a hotel deal in Moscow during the campaign, for example), some is just waiting to be exposed (his shady financial dealings with Russians going back decades), and some is only hinted at by the fact the FBI smelled enough smoke to open a counterintelligence operation on a sitting President in 2017.

Since Individual 1 is a) a moron and b) has never been held to account in his entire bottom- feeding life, he often hasn't bothered to cover his tracks.  The indictments so far have been telling a story.  The Special Counsel team's focus has largely been on the "what" of the connections between Individual 1 and Russia.  The Southern District of New York team's parallel investigations have been focused largely on the "why" of Individual 1's affinity for Russia.  Keep an eye on the investigations ripening quickly and for the actions of both teams to be coordinated in a flurry of indictments that will be the political equivalent of "shock and awe."

BONUS:  Here's the Speaker's full statement on the arrest of Individual 1 partner in crime Roger Stone, and the question of Individual 1's being compromised by Putin.

Roger Stone Arrested: "FBI! Open The Door!"

Here's the feed from CNN showing the moment FBI agents raided the Fort Lauderdale residence of longtime Trump crime family associate Roger Stone early this morning.  Listen for the beautiful sound of "FBI! Open the door! FBI warrant!"



Stone was indicted on 1 count of obstruction of an official proceeding, 1 count of witness tampering, and 5 counts of false statements.  You can read the 24- page indictment here.  Marcy Wheeler has a good dissection of the indictment here.

BONUS:

A source confirms that the FBI has also raided Roger Stone’s apartment in Manhattan on 117th street.

— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) January 25, 2019

BONUS II:

Oops https://t.co/IdBrrClqRX

— Norman Ornstein (@NormOrnstein) January 25, 2019

BONUS III:

God bless every FBI agent who arrested Roger Stone despite not being paid.

— William LeGate (@williamlegate) January 25, 2019

BONUS IV:

Who else could this be other than Donald J. Trump?

Who gets to direct a senior Campaign official?

"a senior Trump Campaign official WAS DIRECTED to contact Stone about any additional releases and what other damaging information" Wikileaks had#RogerStoneIndictment pic.twitter.com/yr3TKwa8zc

— Ryan Goodman (@rgoodlaw) January 25, 2019

Who indeed but "Individual 1"?

"The Core Of Buzzfeed's Story Is Correct"

Rachel Maddow had a good explainer last night on the latest twists in the Buzzfeed report about Putin puppet Donald "Rump" Trump suborning perjury by Michael Cohen, and the Special Counsel office's highly parsed pushback.

The bottom line, as stated by former senior DOJ official Chuck Rosenberg, is that the core of Buzzfeed's story is correct, as evidenced by the Special Counsel's own court filing.

You can also add this episode to the file of "mainstream media pecksniffs more interested in shivving competitors rather than doing their jobs" (see Mock Paper Scissors).

Reactions To Report Trump Suborned Perjury

We're going to start with some reactions on Twitter to the report that Putin puppet Donald "Rump" Trump (Individual 1) suborned perjury by directing Michael Cohen to lie to Congress:

If Trump told Cohen to lie to Congress, who else did he tell to lie to them? Did he tell anyone to lie to Mueller & the FBI? And why did the President need to have lies told? These are the questions prosecutors have been asking & undoubtedly answering.

— Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) January 18, 2019

Mueller has receipts... "The special counsel’s office learned about Trump’s directive for Cohen to lie to Congress through interviews with multiple witnesses from the Trump Org and internal company emails, text messages, and a cache of other documents." https://t.co/OgxaFjSrfH

— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) January 18, 2019

"If a President...suborns perjury, or induces a witness to change testimony, or commits any act deliberately impairing the integrity of available evidence, then he, like anyone else, commits the crime of obstruction." — William Barr https://t.co/LziXcdoaTQ

— Justin Miller (@justinjm1) January 18, 2019

After last night, anyone connected to the WH who was involved in the TT Moscow coverup should call Mueller &/or Congressional Democrats & beg them to listen if they haven't started talking already. It's a matter of time before Trump tries to throw them under the bus with Cohen.

— Mimi Rocah (@Mimirocah1) January 18, 2019

In summary,

BOOM!https://t.co/QDkUMaEa7M pic.twitter.com/9kcZZ8m1gt

— Benjamin Wittes (@benjaminwittes) January 18, 2019

BOOM! Trump Instructed Cohen To Lie To Congress

According to a bombshell report in Buzzfeed, Putin puppet Donald "Rump" Trump (Individual 1) suborned perjury by his then- personal attorney Michael Cohen in testimony to Congress, and the Special Counsel has corroborating evidence:

President Donald Trump directed his longtime attorney Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about negotiations to build a Trump Tower in Moscow, according to two federal law enforcement officials involved in an investigation of the matter. [snip] 

Cohen pleaded guilty in November to lying about the deal in testimony and in a two-page statement to the Senate and House intelligence committees. Special counsel Robert Mueller noted that Cohen’s false claim that the project ended in January 2016 was an attempt to “minimize links between the Moscow Project and Individual 1” — widely understood to be Trump — “in hopes of limiting the ongoing Russia investigations.” 

Now the two sources have told BuzzFeed News that Cohen also told the special counsel that after the election, the president personally instructed him to lie — by claiming that negotiations ended months earlier than they actually did — in order to obscure Trump’s involvement. 

The special counsel’s office learned about Trump’s directive for Cohen to lie to Congress through interviews with multiple witnesses from the Trump Organization and internal company emails, text messages, and a cache of other documents. Cohen then acknowledged those instructions during his interviews with that office. 

This revelation is not the first evidence to suggest the president may have attempted to obstruct the FBI and special counsel investigations into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. 

But Cohen's testimony marks a significant new frontier: It is the first known example of Trump explicitly telling a subordinate to lie directly about his own dealings with Russia.  (our emphasis)

We'll be posting on new developments and reactions to this as the day progresses.

Senate Republicans Lift Sanctions On Putin Oligarch

When they're not busy keeping government closed, they're colluding with Putin and his puppet Donald "Rump" Trump:

Senate Republicans, led by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, defeated a bipartisan bid to keep sanctions in place against companies owned by Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska. The Trump administration announced last month it was planning to remove the sanctions targeting the energy and mining magnate, who has close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Three of Deripaska’s companies were sanctioned last April by the Treasury Department as part of an effort to target Deripaska and six other oligarchs. At the time, the administration said this action was in response to the Russian government’s involvement with “malign activity” around the world and the reality that oligarchs “profit from this corrupt system.” Deripaska has emerged as a key figure in the Russia scandal, primarily through his connections with former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort.

Only eleven Republicans voted with Democrats to allow a vote on maintaining the sanctions.  Among the majority of Republicans who voted to lift the sanctions was (wait for it) media darling and man of character Sen. Willard "Millionaire Mitt" Romney (R- Ghost of Flake).  Always the slick weasel.

WWPPD? (What Would Putin's Puppet Do?)

Really, now, does he have to have Putin's face tattooed on his orange forehead to make his treachery any clearer?

There are few things that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia desires more than the weakening of NATO, the military alliance among the United States, Europe and Canada that has deterred Soviet and Russian aggression for 70 years. 

Last year, President Trump suggested a move tantamount to destroying NATO: the withdrawal of the United States. 

Senior administration officials told The New York Times that several times over the course of 2018, Mr. Trump privately said he wanted to withdraw from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Current and former officials who support the alliance said they feared Mr. Trump could return to his threat as allied military spending continued to lag behind the goals the president had set. 

In the days around a tumultuous NATO summit meeting last summer, they said, Mr. Trump told his top national security officials that he did not see the point of the military alliance, which he presented as a drain on the United States.

This, of course, comports with a long line of words and actions by Putin puppet Donald "Rump" Trump (Individual 1).  Every moment of every day that this treasonous rat is in power is a clear and present danger to the United States of America.  But the Quisling party got its wealthfare tax cuts and right- wing judges, so move along, nothing to see here.

BONUS: Speaking of "clear and present danger," the former head of the FBI's counterintelligence division, David Laufman, had this to say last night on Maddow:

“I think there’s a culmination of things we can point to in the public record now, the unbelievable acquiescence to Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, that was positively shocking to those of us who worked in the national security, all of the charging documents, people associated with the president, all of those point to a reasonable inference — and it’s a painful anguishing thing to acknowledge — that the president of the United States is a clear and present danger to the national security of the United States." (our emphasis)

Monday Reading

As always, please go to the links for the full articles/ op eds.

Jon Chait on Friday's New York Times report that the FBI opened a counterintelligence investigation on Putin puppet Donald "Rump" Trump early in his regime, and specifically what Special Counsel Mueller has been investigating:

... An agent is not the same thing as an asset. An asset can describe a wide range of relationships, but in Trump’s case, it would mean that he is subject to sexual or financial blackmail, along with possibly some form of back-channel propaganda. We know for a fact that Trump is vulnerable to sexual blackmail, but that kind of leverage, if it exists, would be difficult for Mueller to obtain. (Sexual blackmail is only useful if you keep it locked up tightly.) It’s far more likely that Trump’s financial vulnerability opened him up to Russian leverage. And that is the kind of information American investigators can access. [snip] 

The Times report tells us that collusion is only part of the story. The relationship between Trump and Putin did not merely rest on their mutual interest in the Trump campaign defeating Clinton, but indicates some deeper connection. From the very beginning of this story, pundits have underestimated the full extent of Trump’s ties to Russia and how much deeper the story might yet go. Now we already know Mueller is not merely looking into crimes, but trying to ascertain the foundational loyalties of the President of the United States.  (our emphasis)

It should be carved in stone by now: Follow the money.

We flag this problem often, and E.J. Dionne, Jr., writes about the media's obligation to our democracy not to repeat its grievous errors from 2016:

... When reason is in retreat and when candidates are given strong incentives to stir up ugly passions, we have a problem. 

This is where we are now, and President Trump is both the product of this crisis and its apotheosis. He brought home just how nonsensical and dishonest our politics have become with his assertion on Thursday about Mexico paying for his border wall: “Obviously, I never said this, and I never meant they’re going to write out a check.” 

This was shocking, even from an unrepentant liar. Trump denied ever saying something that, as David Nakamura reported in The Post, he did say “at least 212 times during his campaign and dozens more since he took office.” 

This points to the media’s major shortcoming in 2016: its continuing commitment to “both sides are equally flawed” journalism, which led to its failure to portray Trump as the moral aberration he is...

Unfortunately the media, as an institution, bends toward superficiality and moral neutrality when it comes to politics (as opposed to the "look at people doing good things" fluff that takes up so much time in print and broadcast media). Here's one discouraging, but entirely predictable, example.

A chilling reminder that there's more than one nut in the White House:

President Trump’s National Security Council asked the Pentagon in September for military options against Iran, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday. 

The request was made shortly after an attack near the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, which the White House blamed on Iranian proxies in Iraq. 

The request from the National Security Council troubled many at the Pentagon and State Department, especially given that the attack caused no casualties and little damage. 

“It definitely rattled people,” one former senior U.S. administration official told the Journal. “People were shocked. It was mind-boggling how cavalier they were about hitting Iran.” 

Months later, it remains unclear whether the proposed military actions were provided to President Donald Trump, and even whether he knew that the request was made.

The shaky hand of National Security Advisor and neocon wild man John "Snowball" Bolton is at play here.  This is looking more and more like their "wag the dog" option for distracting from Rump's ballooning problems.

Finally, please do yourselves a favor and check out Infidel 753's link round- up.  It's a great way to start the week.