Monday, May 29, 2017

You undoubtedly saw this coming, White House staff may have deleted information critical to Russia collusion investigations.

Courtesy of Politico:

Unlike the White House, which is subject to federal recordkeeping requirements, campaigns aren’t bound to preserve documents. But staffers may have some emails still backed up on their phones or computers, or documents — including calendars and other records that could wind up being critical for investigators.

Trump’s campaign, said a former senior aide, didn’t do much in the way of establishing a backup plan to preserve those digital records. “You’d be giving us too much credit,” said the former staffer. “The idea of document retention did not come up. The idea of some formal structure did not come up.” 

The White House declined to comment when asked what staff have been told about preserving documents related to the ongoing investigations. In March, The Associated Press reported that White House counsel Don McGahn instructed White House staff in late February to save all materials that could potentially be relevant for investigations into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. The AP report noted that the memo also applied to materials belonging to White House staffers who worked on the campaign.

I think it is safe to predict that investigators will find that much of what they want to see is no longer available.

In fact I have little doubt that this information started to get deleted the minute that news broke with the first mention of a possible investigation.

The Trump White House is already attempting to blame any loss of data on the widespread use of apps like Confide, Signal and WhatsApp. But that seems just a little TOO convenient.

Remember back in February when Sean Spicer gathered up staff cell phones so he could check for security leaks? Do we really think any information helpful to these investigators was left untouched?

I think the only real hope that the investigators will have is that there are clearly members of Trump's staff, both campaign and White House, who are upset and frightened by what they have seen.

Those are the folks most likely to have preserved data on their devices, or uploaded it to their home computers, that would be of the most help to those involved in the Russian probes.

45 comments:

  1. Anonymous8:34 AM

    In a few minutes be prepared to read trump's tweet about how many more spectators were there to see him. That he had more fans at The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier than President Obama did?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous8:39 AM

    Trump, Pence and Trump's cabinet members attended the ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery.

    Who is Trump's Designated Survivor?

    I did not see Secretary of Education Betty DeVos there.

    Dear Lord please tell us it is not her, Trump's Designated Survivor.


    In the United States, a designated survivor (ordesignated successor) is an individual in the presidential line of succession, usually a member of the United States Cabinet, who is arranged to be at a physically distant, secure, and undisclosed location when the President and the country's other top leaders (e.g., Vice President and Cabinet members) are gathered at a single location, such as during State of the Union addresses and presidential inaugurations. This is intended to guaranteecontinuity of government in the event of a catastrophic occurrence that kills the President and many officials in the presidential line of succession, such as amass shooting, bombing or attack. If such an event occurred, killing both the President and Vice President, the surviving official highest in the line, possibly the designated survivor, would become the Acting President of the United States under the Presidential Succession Act

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous8:59 AM

      https://www.facebook.com/TheOther98/videos/1839795046031465/?autoplay_reason=user_settings&video_container_type=0&video_creator_product_type=2&app_id=2392950137&live_video_guests=0

      Delete
    2. My Mom and I were watching Designated Survivor on TV and she turns to me and asks "Who is our Secretary of Housing and Urban Development?" (the position Keifer Sutherland held as the designated survivor.) "Ben Carson" I answered.

      Dead silence.

      Yeah, I think Betsy DeVos would be worse than Ben Carson, but not by much.

      Delete
  3. Anonymous8:45 AM

    Is that why Ivanka and Jered left President Trump's first overseas travel? Did they despose of their home computers?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous8:59 AM

    Ivanka usually stands next to or behind her father during special events.

    Ivanka or Jared was not at Arlington National Cemetery today as far as I could see.

    Maybe Ivanka and Jared are President Trump's Designated Survivors?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous9:19 AM

    DELETING FILES? Sombody's TRIGGERED!!!

    Yeah...that would explain this:

    NSA in Unprecedented Hunt for KremlinGate Evidence

    http://observer.com/2017/05/mike-rogers-nsa-issues-preservation-order-kremlingate-russia-trump/

    America’s most important spy agency pulls out all the stops in its investigation of Russian interference in 2016
    By John R. Schindler • 05/29/17 8:02am

    ☮ ✋

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Good luck with that. That is sure to trigger a spate of deletions and damaged/lost phones.

      Delete
  6. Anonymous9:24 AM

    I'm sure someone is mirroring his
    Tweets...for posterity. ;)

    Thread of Trump's 'patriotism'!

    https://twitter.com/Spicerlies/status/869238844096491521

    ☮ ✋

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous9:28 AM

    Is this Trump showing the world his junk is big?


    Showdown: U.S. Moving Third Carrier Strike Group Near North Korea

    GORDON G. CHANG
    05.28.17 2:40 PM ET

    The U.S. Navy, in an unprecedented move, is sending a third carrier strike force to the Western Pacific.

    The Nimitz group, Carrier Strike Group 11, will leave Naval Base Kitsap-Bremerton on Thursday to join the strike groups centered around the Carl Vinson and Ronald Reagan.

    Read more at the Daily Beast

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:31 AM

      http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/05/north-korea-fires-missile-test-weeks-170529031431787.html

      Delete
  8. Anonymous9:31 AM

    what an idiot
    trump mouths the words of the anthem and wiggling his body while patting his chest at Memorial Day Service Before Delivering Speech on Memorial Day, Arlington 5/29/2017
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjI3EakOy-s

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:34 AM

      Weeblw Wobble waggle $peed Junkie

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:48 AM

      Did you expect decorum, 9:21 AM?

      Delete
    3. He does that when he's bored or his focus has wandered. You know, like little children do.

      Delete
  9. Anonymous9:52 AM

    Americans are sick of these liars and con artist. It is time to throw them out of our buildings and charge them with obstruction of justice, treason and espionage. All of them are guilty and criminals against our great nation. To hell with them.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:19 AM

      That means Melania will be home with Barron for about 10 tears without Donald. But then again Trump mught be released early for medical reasons or old age or dementia if he has that?

      Delete
    2. Anonymous11:12 AM

      Boo Hoo, Melania!
      No one pays attention to her.

      Delete
  10. Anonymous9:56 AM

    I thought that even though things are deleted by those putting in the information (Trumpettes) that the owners/source/companies still have the information and it can be accessed for legal use.

    Like emails for example - we can delete them all we want, but the written words are still out there and can be found!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, that is true.

      However I am not as sure the same is true of these new apps that the staffers are using.

      Which to me should mean that they are not allowed to be used by White House staff or campaign workers.

      Delete
    2. If they're on White House servers....well....who is in charge of those? Yeah, they'll be wiped too.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous5:54 PM

      Of course they deleted information, however a forensics investigator might be able to retrieve some it.

      If they are deleting the backups from the servers, there will be a log record of it.

      Delete
  11. Anonymous9:58 AM

    Trump, Pence, Paul Ryan and many others need to be tried for treason and either executed (as they have done in the past) or serve the rest of their miserable lives in jail. I detest every one of them!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous1:41 PM

      Yep. Sick of all of them. Traitors!

      Delete
    2. Anonymous1:54 PM

      Wow, reporters, journalist trying to talk to anyone who can tell stuff, we need to know. Just like Scientology lies, stories need to be told.

      Delete
  12. Anonymous10:50 AM

    You knew this was coming...

    Trump Says He Does Not Know
    Jared Kushner Very Well


    http://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/trump-says-he-does-not-know-jared-kushner-very-well

    “He’s someone I would see around the office and who, I guess, was working for me,” Trump told reporters on the last leg of his foreign trip. “Beyond that, I couldn’t tell you much about him.”

    Trump acknowledged that he had spoken to Kushner at times during the 2016 campaign. “I’d pass him in the hall and say hello,” he said. “He seemed like an O.K. person. I never got much of a sense of the guy.”


    ☮ ✋

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous12:13 PM

      This is a satirical column, so not meant to be taken seriously. Even so, it seems very plausible with this man.

      Delete
    2. Andy Borowitz is a national treasure.

      I think he lifted this verbatim from Trump's distancing himself from Paul Manafort.

      Delete
  13. Anonymous11:10 AM

    I seriously doubt that the Trump administration is interested in any of the federally required White House record keeping. Trump owns everything. It's his house, isn't it?
    Beaglemom

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:46 AM

      They don't even keep records of who is entering the White House anymore! Trump is a dictator and trying to hide his illegal doings!

      He so needs to be impeached!

      Delete
  14. Anonymous11:14 AM

    Oh shit, is Jared Kushner falling on Donald's sword to save the president?

    Or is Trump throwing Jared under the bus?



    Washington Post:
    Jared Kushner is losing clout in Trump's White House, report says

    ... Kushner tried to create a secret, secure channel of communication between Trump and Moscow last December, according to a report published Friday.

    That allegation may be one of the last straws for Trump and Kushner. The president has tried to distance himself from negative reports by pulling away from Kushner in private, but remaining warm in public, according to a new reportin the New York Times. Trump even praised Kushner in a statement released Sunday night, just two days after the latest finding dropped....

    http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/jared-kushner-is-losing-clout-in-trumps-white-house-report-says/article/2624393

    ReplyDelete
  15. Anonymous11:20 AM

    In a few minutes be prepared to read trump's tweet about how many more spectators were there to see him. That he has more fans at The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier than President Obama did?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous5:57 PM

      I am sure there were more people at Kennedy's tomb than little donnie fans.

      Delete
  16. Anonymous11:26 AM

    OMG! At Arlington National Cemetery, the Tomb Of The Unknown Soldier, the band was playing the National Anthem and everybody next to President Trump were standing still showing respect to our flag and to the cemetery event while President Trump started moving and swaying around like he had to pee or dance. Then President Trump started singing the National Anthem and the whole world watched Trump stop singing towards the end where people gets the words wrong, well President Trump who refuses to learn, stopped singing as the band kept playing. How embarrassing the Commander In Chief forgot the words to the National Anthem.

    If the band played the the tune to Money Money Money from his reality show, you can bet he would not have forgotten the words and stopped singing his theme song.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:44 AM

      I just don't see the asshole Donald Trump having ANY empathy for the fallen veterans. He comes across as having zero knowledge of anything involved w/our government. He does NOT represent me and never will.

      He's a failure already to the majority of our voters and is mocked around the world. If I were his kids, I'd disappear as quickly as I could. They are as stupid as he and the "Trump" name is fraudulent!

      Delete
    2. Sundowning.

      He could have noticed no one else was singing. He certainly forgot the words. Or his mind just wandered on to other things.

      He can't go out in public for too much longer. They can't rely on him to be in the here and now long enough to complete whatever the event is.

      Bet they start pre-taping his written speeches too. They can't even rely on him to read the speech without birdwalking off on a tangent or losing his train of thought.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous6:00 PM

      President Trump started moving and swaying around like he had to pee or dance.
      =========
      My father, a veteran of two wars, was disgusted by the draft dodging morons disrespect today.

      Delete
  17. Anonymous11:28 AM

    Ivanka, daddy is turning Jared into his scapegoat

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:32 AM

      No trump is not turninging Jared into his scapegiat. Jared is just a good soldier and willing to look like a Russian spy.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous1:23 PM

      Trump will quit when Iwanka and justJared bail and go back to NYC to their liberal friends who have snubbed them.

      Delete
  18. Are you kidding? Verbal (non-traceable) instructions were given to all staff to delete everything from the campaign.

    Now, a disgruntled or cautious staffer would be smart to back up that phone on their home computer, then buy a second phone and use that back-up to restore the new phone. Then lock that cloned phone in a very safe, secure location. One never knows when one might need some leverage to cut an immunity deal.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous1:20 PM

      Kinda hard to prove innocence if you claim you have no record,but other countries have record proof of your conversations.

      Delete
  19. Anonymous1:50 PM

    The White House was/is also using a phone app that deletes messages as soon as their are read.
    Maybe ok is private business, illegal to do so, if you are the government.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous6:10 PM

      Can the fact that they are not keeping proper records as required by the federal government be construed as obstruction of justice?

      Apps that delete everything, I thought I read something the other day that they could be charged with a crime.

      Anyway their defense is Hillary had a private server!!!

      Delete
  20. Anonymous11:04 PM

    However, data can be recovered from servers, phones, and computers. If suddenly all those things were replaced with brand spanking new ones, it will look very suspicious.

    ReplyDelete

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