Monday, March 27, 2017

Mother Jones assembles a lengthy timeline of the Trump/Russia scandal.

You really do need to read the whole thing, but here is just what has happened in the last five days or so:

March 20:  

The House intelligence committee holds its first public hearing on its investigation into Russia's interference in the US election. Responding to the committee's questioning, FBI Director James Comey confirms that the bureau has since July been "investigating the nature of any links between individuals associated with the Trump campaign and the Russian government, and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and Russia's efforts." Both Comey and NSA Director Admiral Michael Rogers dismiss Trump's claim that Obama wiretapped him during the election. 

- In response to questions from Mother Jones' David Corn, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), chair of the House intelligence committee, tells reporters he has never heard of key figures connected to the Trump-Russia scandal, including Carter Page and Roger Stone. 

 - Spicer tells reporters that Paul Manafort, who ran Trump's campaign from April 2016 to August 2016, "played a limited role" on the campaign "for a very limited amount of time." 

March 22: 

The Associated Press reports that, starting in the mid-2000s, Manafort worked on behalf of Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska to "influence politics, business dealings and news coverage inside the United States, Europe and the former Soviet republics to benefit the Putin government." The news service quotes a 2005 strategy memo authored by Manafort, who writes, "We are now of the belief that this model can greatly benefit the Putin government if employed at the correct levels with the appropriate commitment to success." Manafort denies working on behalf of Russian interests. 

- Mother Jones reports that Manafort tried to help Deripaska secure a visa to the United States. The aluminum magnate had been denied entry to the United States at various points because of suspected ties to the Russian mafia. 

- Rep. Devin Nunes, without briefing Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), his Democratic counterpart on the intelligence committee, or other members of the panel, calls a surprise press conference, announcing that he has seen evidence that the intelligence community "incidentally" picked up communications by Trump transition officials in the course of lawful surveillance on foreign parties. He claims that the names of Trump officials were "unmasked" and that "none of this surveillance was related to Russia." 

- In a remarkable departure from intelligence committee norms, Nunes visits the White House to brief Trump on his findings. The president later says he feels "somewhat" vindicated by the information Nunes shared. 

- Schiff releases a statement expressing "grave concerns" about Nunes' actions and casting doubt about whether a "credible investigation" can be conducted under these circumstances. 

- Schiff tells MSNBC's Chuck Todd that there is "more than circumstantial evidence now" of potential collusion between Trump officials and Russian operatives. - CNN, citing "US officials," reports that the "FBI has information that indicates associates of President Donald Trump communicated with suspected Russian operatives to possibly coordinate the release of information damaging to Hillary Clinton's campaign." 

March 23: 

The Associated Press reports that US Treasury Department agents have obtained records of "offshore financial transactions" by Paul Manafort, in conjunction into an ongoing anti-corruption investigation into his work in Eastern Europe. According to the new service, "As part of their investigation, U.S. officials were expected to look into millions of dollars' worth of wire transfers to Manafort. In one case, the AP found that a Manafort-linked company received a $1 million payment in October 2009 from a mysterious firm through the Bank of Cyprus. The $1 million payment left the account the same day—split in two, roughly $500,000 disbursements to accounts with no obvious owner." 

- Rep. Nunes apologizes to Democratic members of the intelligence committee for failing to brief them on the new information he obtained and instead taking it straight to the White House, but he won't explain why he took this unusual action. 

 March 24: 

Rep. Devin Nunes holds a press conference, where he announces that Paul Manafort has volunteered to testify before the House intelligence committee. 

What is not mentioned in this timeline, but equally important, is that Devin Nunes has now backtracked on his claim that Trump and associates were incidentally monitored by US Intelligence agencies.

I swear even though we have all just lived through all of this, seeing it laid out like this is jaw dropping.

At this point you would have to be an idiot, ie Trump voter, not to see that Donald Trump is in deep, deep trouble here.

I can only imagine what new damaging information this week will reveal.

11 comments:

  1. Anonymous5:32 AM

    This is only the public information. There will be so much more to come out. I won't ever forget Trump's delight in the hacking and not caring if Russia interfered in our election dismissing it as fake news.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous5:40 AM

    http://crooksandliars.com/2017/03/representative-nunes-has-got-some

    The Daily Sabah, a Turkish daily newspaper, is reporting that disgraced former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn met with the Turkish foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu on January 18th of this year. The breakfast meeting was held at Trump's new Washington D.C. hotel. Cavusoglu even attended the inauguration just a few days later.

    That's all very interesting but, the real news is that the Daily Sabah is also reporting that a certain someone who is currently leading a congressional investigation into to the Trump administration was present as well - Representative Devin Nunes!


    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/27/us/politics/senate-jared-kushner-russia.html

    Until now, the White House had acknowledged only an early December meeting between Mr. Kislyak and Mr. Kushner, which occurred at Trump Tower and was also attended by Michael T. Flynn, who would briefly serve as the national security adviser.

    Later that month, though, Mr. Kislyak requested a second meeting, which Mr. Kushner asked a deputy to attend in his stead, officials said. At Mr. Kislyak’s request, Mr. Kushner later met with Sergey N. Gorkov, the chief of Vnesheconombank, which the United States placed on its sanctions list after President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia annexed Crimea and began meddling in Ukraine.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous6:07 AM

    I wonder how many Trump supporters believe Trump's lies that all of this is fake news.

    ReplyDelete
  4. So do you think Kushner is about to negotiate our National Debt Limit? I suspect we are gonna be in for a real good time if this begins. Now really, do you think Trump understands the importance of the US not going into default?
    http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/03/12/what-is-the-debt-limit/98906704/

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous7:50 AM

    OT?
    http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2017/03/26/trump_has_gone_to_a_golf_course_at_least_13_times_in_nine_week_presidency.html

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous8:05 AM


    Devin Nunes Met Source On White House Grounds Day Before Claiming Trump Team Was Surveilled

    The House Intelligence Committee chairman’s allegations about the Obama administration’s spying operations keep getting weirder.

    House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) met an unnamed source on White House grounds last week, one day before he alleged that President Donald Trump and his team were subjected to surveillance during the final months of the Obama administration.

    Nunes met the source on White House grounds in order to view sensitive information in a “secure location,” Jack Langer, Nunes’ communications director, said Monday in a statement. Langer did not respond to a question about why Nunes and his source did not use a sensitive compartmented information facility ― known as a SCIF ― on Capitol Hill instead.

    Only individuals with specific approval can enter White House grounds.

    The revelation about Nunes adds to speculation that he coordinated with Trump’s team before making allegations about the previous administration’s information-gathering.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/nunes-white-house-source-surveillance_us_58d92967e4b02a2eaab61087?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous8:06 AM

    Report: judge-granted FISA warrant defined Donald Trump as a Russian agent of influence

    https://www.palmerreport.com/politics/report-judge-granted-fisa-warrant-defined-donald-trump-as-a-russian-agent-of-influence/2075/

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous8:08 AM

    Don't rush to assumptions. FBI Flynn deal could be nothing. But it is causing distress in the West Wing already.

    https://twitter.com/RoguePOTUSStaff/status/846354470917341185

    EXCLUSIVE: My new report on Boris Epshteyn and the #FISA leaks and obstruction of @DevinNunes.

    https://patribotics.blog/2017/03/27/boris-epshteyn-named-in-july-fisa-application-did-nunes-obstruct-justice/

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous8:18 AM

    Nunes had to share his TS "bombshell" with Trump on Wednesday after seeing it at...the building next to the WH the night before. Sure, Dev.

    Gotta say that Team Trump is pretty awful at the whole try-to-hide-the-conspiracy thing. "Meet me on the WH lawn after dark" -- Really?

    https://twitter.com/20committee/status/846392049175859200

    Andrea Mitchell pointing out right now that Trump seemed to know the content of Nunes first presser despite not seeing it.

    https://twitter.com/westwasthebest/status/846392985914789888

    Bad News: Nunes' clumsy WH water-carrying killed HPSCI's investigation of #KremlinGate. Good News: He sure gave #FBI lots to work with!

    https://twitter.com/20committee/status/846386543900155904

    It is curious that Flynn and Kushner did a lot of transition outreach to Russians, yet Flynn not called by Senate.

    https://twitter.com/NoahCRothman/status/846343634458939394

    Unless, of course, you desperately wanted to make sure nobody on YOUR OWN committee saw this "bombshell" "evidence"

    https://twitter.com/20committee/status/846381630134652928

    https://twitter.com/20committee/status/846393842576363520

    https://twitter.com/20committee

    Hahaha! Just got blocked by @wikileaks by calling them out as a front for Russian intelligence.

    https://twitter.com/DemocracyValues/status/846359375157641217

    http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/03/27/intel-chair-nunes-met-source-new-surveillance-documents-white-house/99685382/

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous8:26 AM

    The only way that Devin Nunes could make his activities any more obvious is if he shows up at the next House Intelligence Committee hearing wearing a Make America Great Again hat. Nunes is working for Donald Trump to kill this investigation. There are plenty of security meeting areas in the House. Nunes could have held his meeting on Capitol Hill.

    He went to the White House the day before his big revelation because his information came directly from the White House. The Trump administration is attempting to use a member of Congress to sabotage a congressional investigation.

    The whole inept cover-up is falling apart. Nunes must be removed from the House Intelligence Committee by Speaker Paul Ryan. The Legislative branch of the US government is now implicated in Donald Trump’s Russia scandal.

    Nunes has got to go, and an independent investigation has to be conducted because House Republicans have demonstrated that they can’t be trusted to do their oversight jobs and objectively investigate the Trump/Russia scandal.

    http://www.politicususa.com/2017/03/27/devin-nunes-admits-met-wiretap-intel-source-white-house-grounds.html

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anonymous8:31 AM

    REVEALED: Jared Kushner met with head of Russian bank that hosted spy ring busted by Preet Bharara

    http://www.rawstory.com/2017/03/revealed-jared-kushner-met-with-head-of-russian-bank-that-hosted-spy-ring-busted-by-preet-bharara/

    Senate Committee to Question Jared Kushner Over Meetings With Russians

    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/27/us/politics/senate-jared-kushner-russia.html

    http://www.rawstory.com/2017/03/jared-kushner-flew-to-aspen-same-day-as-one-of-putins-closest-confidants-whose-wife-is-pals-with-ivanka/

    ReplyDelete

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