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We try, we really do try, to sort through the increasingly problematic “Russian collusion” narrative and establish a timeline of sorts—and figure out what’s real and what’s nonsense. Do we succeed? Give a listen.
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I so agree about Comey. Plus all this hand wringing about wanting or not wanting to sway the election is disgusting. What the heck has that got to do with their sworn duty? Just do your darn job and let the chips fall where they may.
I had to stop listening at the surreal moment when John incredulously asked “can you IMAGINE what would happen if Hillary Clinton had asked for dirt about Trump from Russia?”(paraphrased)
Actually John, I don’t have to imagine, since it happened. Not only did it happen, but Russia provided that dirt. They even packaged it up in a “dossier”. You might have heard of it. They got it from Russian intelligence sources through Fusion GPS, which had already operated as a Russian PR/smear shop, and which has connections with… wait for it… wait for it… Veselnitskaya.
And of course, to top the whole thing off, that dossier was then used as pretext to spy on the Trump campaign… because it might have connections to Russia.
So yeah, criticize Donald Trump if you want for being willing to receive oppo research from the Russians (although I think this is less of big deal than you make it out to be), but don’t insult our intelligence and pretend the Hillary campaign didn’t do all that Trump was accused of and more.
They guy who called this operation “Crossfire Hurricane” is no longer permitted name things.
Good effort in sorting out the events to date. I agree it’s hard for the public to follow. It is for me anyway. The only thing I had trouble with was your conclusion that this Indonesian Hotel compromises Trump. There’s no proof he is involved in day to day activities. He clearly made that a pledge of his campaign, and after he was elected. And, presumably, others run the show.
Naturally the name of the Trump organization remained the same. If an entity thinks it can gain access to the presidency by using the name Trump how is that evidence of a violation of the Emoluments Clause by the President?
If the Trump name is such an attraction, why is it that the Trump name has been deleted from a number of his buildings in NYC?
And even if he didn’t put his assets in a blind trust it doesn’t mean his engaged in the hotel business. The idea of a blind trust was discussed to death after the election and dismissed on the grounds it was not feasible given the structure of his holdings.
You can view this as sketchy business, but I see no legal jeopardy to Trump.
The one thing that strikes me, is that everything that Trump was saying in 2016-17 has been roughly borne out, and yet he’s the one in trouble? Where is the investigation into the investigation? Trump maybe out of office after the next election, and the mater would either be dropped, declared to be covered by the statute of limitation or just swept away. Those who perpetrated the largest political dirty tricks campaign in American history – bar none – will not be prosecuted and such tactics will be come the new normal.
Not just using government assets to harass and prosecute opponents, but also to have paid counter demonstrators to protest (riot) at your opponents appearances and rallies. The democrats have given up on persuasion, and are trying out coercion.
I expect the Commentary guys to still be hedging their bets on Trump’s culpability in some sort of Russian collusion even as Team Obama (ie: Brennan, Clapper, Comey, et al.) cop to guilty pleas for misusing their counter intelligence powers to abuse the constitutional rights of United States citizens.
BTW: Devin Nunes has more stones in his balzsak than the all the Commentary guys combined. If it were not for Nunes this debacle would safely bottled up and no one would be the wiser …. nothing to see here … move along folks …. it’s a national security matter don’t you know…..