Just before the stroke of midnight on September 20, 2016, at the height of last year’s presidential election, the WikiLeaks Twitter account sent a private direct message to Donald Trump Jr., the Republican nominee’s oldest son and campaign surrogate. “A PAC run anti-Trump site putintrump.org is about to launch,” WikiLeaks wrote. “The PAC is a recycled pro-Iraq war PAC. We have guessed the password. It is ‘putintrump.’ See ‘About’ for who is behind it. Any comments?” (The site, which has since become a joint project with Mother Jones, was founded by Rob Glaser, a tech entrepreneur, and was funded by Progress for USA Political Action Committee.)
The next morning, about 12 hours later, Trump Jr. responded to WikiLeaks. “Off the record I don’t know who that is, but I’ll ask around,” he wrote on September 21, 2016. “Thanks.”The messages, obtained by The Atlantic, were also turned over by Trump Jr.’s lawyers to congressional investigators. They are part of a long—and largely one-sided—correspondence between WikiLeaks and the president’s son that continued until at least July 2017.
The messages show WikiLeaks, a radical transparency organization that the American intelligence community believes was chosen by the Russian government to disseminate the information it had hacked, actively soliciting Trump Jr.’s cooperation. WikiLeaks made a series of increasingly bold requests, including asking for Trump’s tax returns, urging the Trump campaign on Election Day to reject the results of the election as rigged, and requesting that the president-elect tell Australia to appoint Julian Assange ambassador to the United States.
......
Though Trump Jr. mostly ignored the frequent messages from WikiLeaks, he at times appears to have acted on its requests. When WikiLeaks first reached out to Trump Jr. about putintrump.org, for instance, Trump Jr. followed up on his promise to “ask around.” According to a source familiar with the congressional investigations into Russian interference with the 2016 campaign, who requested anonymity because the investigation is ongoing, on the same day that Trump Jr. received the first message from WikiLeaks, he emailed other senior officials with the Trump campaign, including Steve Bannon, Kellyanne Conway, Brad Parscale, and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, telling them WikiLeaks had made contact. Kushner then forwarded the email to campaign communications staffer Hope Hicks. At no point during the 10-month correspondence does Trump Jr. rebuff WikiLeaks, which had published stolen documents and was already observed to be releasing information that benefited Russian interests.
First off Wikileaks "guessed" the password to a progressive anti-Trump website?
Yeah, right.
And secondly, Wikileaks was echoing the message from the Kremlin trolls for Trump to refuse to concede even if he lost the election?
Interesting.
Thirdly, gotcha Junior!
For his part Don Junior has already confirmed that these emails exist, though I am not sure he understands how devastating they will turn out to be for his father's claim there was no collusion with Russia.
(There! Happy now? I gave you the emails.)Here is the entire chain of messages with @wikileaks (with my whopping 3 responses) which one of the congressional committees has chosen to selectively leak. How ironic! 1/3 pic.twitter.com/SiwTqWtykA— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) November 14, 2017
For instance Junior somehow got his father to tweet about the hacked Podesta emails 15 minutes after Wikileaks asked him to.
We've now updated the story with @ByronTau's great catch: @realDonaldTrump tweeted about the release of Podesta's emails *15 minutes* after @Wikileaks wrote to @DonaldJTrumpJr about it. https://t.co/pVGEBqmB9O pic.twitter.com/pOszShJ7JY— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) November 13, 2017
— Byron Tau (@ByronTau) November 13, 2017As we now know the American intelligence community recognizes Wikileaks as an agent for the Kremlin.
In other words, smoke meet gun.
Comments working?
ReplyDeleteYep.
DeleteJust checking.
They were not working yesterday - I thought something was wrong w/my computer!
DeleteGlad to see you available for commentary again today, IM! Love your blog and check it daily - sometimes commenting and other times not.
'These Are Not The Actions of an Innocent Man'
ReplyDeleteTrump’s after-the-fact complicity in Russia’s election meddling is abundantly clear.
“Every time he sees me he says, ‘I didn’t do that,’ and I really believe that.”—Donald Trump on Vladimir Putin, en route to Hanoi, November 11, 2017.
So, to put it bluntly: At this point in the proceedings, there can be no innocent explanation for Donald Trump’s rejection of the truth about Russian meddling in last year’s elections. Earlier, it may have been suggested, sympathetically, that the case had not yet been proven. That Trump’s vanity blocked him from acknowledging embarrassing facts. Or—more hopefully—that he was inspired by some Kissingerian grand design for a diplomatic breakthrough. Or that he was lazy. Or stubborn. Or uninformed. Or something, anything, other than … complicit. Not anymore.
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/11/trump-putin-russia-election/545651/
‘Despicable Beyond Words’
ReplyDeletehttps://www.mediaite.com/online/steve-schmidt-tees-off-on-terrible-donald-trump-jr-over-wikileaks-despicable-beyond-words/
The Republican Roy Moore Problem Gets Massive as 60% Of Voters Want Him To Drop Out
ReplyDeleteA new Morning Consult/Politico Poll has found that majorities of Democratic and Independent voters, along with 50% of Republicans want Roy Moore to drop out of the Alabama Senate race.
The key findings via Morning Consult, “60% voters indicated that Moore should drop his bid for U.S. Senate. This includes 72% of Democrats, 62% of Independents, 50% of Republican voters and 49% of Trump voters. 60% of voters believe the sexual allegations are credible – including 49% of Republican voters.”
http://www.politicususa.com/2017/11/14/republican-roy-moore-problem-massive-60-voters-moore-drop.html
Alabama pastors turn on Roy Moore after he’s caught faking endorsement letter
Deletehttps://shareblue.com/alabama-pastors-turn-on-roy-moore-after-hes-caught-faking-endorsement-letter/
@10:46 "the religious right — a dominant political force in Alabama — remains steadfastly loyal to him. And polls have indeed shown that white, conservative evangelical support for him is still disturbingly high."
Delete"For decades, Roy Moore has been an immovable rock in the culture wars ― a bold defender of the ‘little guy,’ a just judge to those who came before his court, a warrior for the unborn child, defender of the sanctity of marriage, and a champion for religious liberty.
But less than a day after the letter was published, it was revealed that this was simply a copy of a letter posted to Moore’s campaign website during the Senate primary, before he was accused of being a pedophile — with three new sentences deceptively added to make it look like it was about the general election."
"two of the pastors on the list immediately demanded to be removed: Tijuanna Adetunji of the Fresh Anointing House of Worship in Montgomery, and Thad Endicott of the Heritage Baptist Church."
"For Moore and his wife to edit an endorsement letter, and then tout it without the permission of the pastors who are supposedly endorsing him, is yet another new low in a Senate race that seems to have no bottom."
"Moore is bearing false witness."$ickO wifey tOO!
Are those just likely voters in Alabama or is that a nationwide poll. Because only those likely to vote in Alabama count. And there are still plenty of gullible Deplorables willing to put the sexual predator in the Senate. After all, they put one in the White House. It all comes down to party. They won't vote for a Democrat and they won't risk that seat so they'll vote for any Republican on the ticket, even if it is Molester Moore.
DeleteThe way this story is unfolding we will soon learn Julian Assange is Donald Trump's love child.
ReplyDeleteCould be true...
DeleteLove? I doubt he's capable.
DeleteGadsden locals say Moore's predatory behavior at mall, restaurants not a secret
ReplyDeletehttp://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2017/11/gadsden_residents_say_moores_b.html
Locals Were Troubled by Roy Moore’s Interactions with Teen Girls at the Gadsden Mall
...“The general knowledge at the time when I moved here was that this guy is a lawyer cruising the mall for high-school dates,” one of the officers said. The legal age of consent in Alabama is sixteen, so it would not be illegal there for a man in his early thirties to date a girl who was, say, a senior in high school. But these officers, along with the other people I spoke to, said that Moore’s presence at the mall was regarded as a problem. “I was told by a girl who worked at the mall that he’d been run off from there, from a number of stores. Maybe not legally banned, but run off,” one officer told me. He also said, “I heard from one girl who had to tell the manager of a store at the mall to get Moore to leave her alone.”
The second officer went further. “A friend of mine told me he was banned from there,” he said. He added, “I actually voted for Moore. I liked him at one time. But I’m basically disgusted now, to be honest with you. Some of the things he’s said recently, I’ve changed my tune completely about this guy.” He went on, explaining why Moore no longer appeals to him. “When I heard what he said on ‘Hannity’ the other night,” he said, referring to an appearance Moore made on Sean Hannity’s radio show last Friday, “I almost stood straight up. The thing about how he’s never dated anybody without their mother’s permission, that appalled me. That made me want to throw up. Why would you need someone’s permission to date somebody? I’m probably gonna write in Luther Strange.”
https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/locals-were-troubled-by-roy-moores-interactions-with-teen-girls-at-the-gadsden-mall
Roy Moore's new accuser is different
...The words of Beverly Young Nelson were devastating.
Not just to Senate candidate Roy Moore - and they were a body blow to him - but a blow to his state and his party and to all who cling to him because he loudly proclaims a Christianity they'd like to believe.
Because the words were, above all else, believable.
Compelling.
Uncomfortable.
The words of Beverly Young Nelson, streamed live across the world today, were brutal, and personal, and gripping in every detail, and they hit Moore right where he lives: In his righteous piety.
Her words went even beyond the stunning stories reported by the Washington Post last week that detailed four instances of Moore pursuing teenage girls, including a then-14-year-old who said Moore stripped to his underwear and tried to make her touch his parts.
Which would be lecherous and creepy and criminal. But this, this is beyond even that. What Nelson told through tears today was a story of a predator who laid in wait, who eyed her and desired her, who took advantage of her, physically hurt her as he tried to sodomize her. She told of a man who dumped her in the parking lot and peeled away.
But not before warning her that she was a child, who had just turned 16, and he was an Etowah County district attorney.
Devastating.
http://www.al.com/opinion/index.ssf/2017/11/roy_moores_new_accuser_is_diff.html
Jeff Sessions on Roy Moore accusers: 'I have no reason to doubt these young women'
http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2017/11/jeff_sessions_on_roy_moore_acc.html
Our view: Roy Moore grossly unfit for office
ReplyDeleteRoy Moore simply cannot be a U.S. Senator. Even if his party and many of its adherents still think it possible, it is unthinkable -- for his state, and his country.
Last week, four women described Moore's unseemly taste for dating high school girls when he was a single man in his 30s. Another described what can only be seen as a sexual assault on her when she was 14. In a radio interview last week, Moore himself suggested that he may have dated teenage women during his 30s, though he vehemently denied the claims made by these women.
Today, even as those women face disgusting attacks on their motives and credibility, a fifth brave Alabama woman stepped forward and described how when she was 16, Moore violently sexually assaulted her in his car. She said she felt it to be an attempted rape, and that it ended with her bruised from either falling from or being pushed from the car, with Moore warning her he was a powerful man and that no one would believe her if she told anyone.
The seriousness of these incidents cannot be overstated. They should not be parsed with talk of statutes of limitations or whether proof exists. Proof beyond a reasonable doubt is a consideration for the courtroom, not the ballot box. When choosing our representative before the rest of the world, character matters.
http://www.al.com/opinion/index.ssf/2017/11/our_view_roy_moore_grossly_unf.html
No, Christians Don't Use Joseph and Mary to Explain Child Molesting Accusations
http://www.christianitytoday.com/edstetzer/2017/november/roy-moore.html
They say politics makes strange bedfellows. But somehow I don’t think they meant a 32-year-old assistant district attorney fondling a 14-year-old girl in nothing but his tighty-whities.
https://www.newamericanjournal.net/2017/11/politics-makes-strange-bedfellows-but-jesus-not-this/
Latest Roy Moore poll: 60 percent think Senate candidate should drop out, national survey shows
ReplyDeletehttp://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2017/11/latest_roy_moore_poll_60_perce.html
http://www.politicususa.com/2017/11/14/republican-roy-moore-problem-massive-60-voters-moore-drop.html
Kayla Moore, wife of Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore, shared a letter on Facebook over the weekend indicating support from more than 50 Alabama pastors. Not all the pastors said they gave permission for their name to be be used on what appears to be a recycled letter from before the GOP primary, however.
http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2017/11/53_pastors_sign_letter_of_supp.html
It's a NATIONAL survey.
DeleteOnly likely voters in Alabama count.
The View crushes Roy Moore: ‘If you can’t shop at the local mall maybe you shouldn’t be in the Senate’
ReplyDeletehttps://www.rawstory.com/2017/11/the-view-crushes-roy-moore-if-you-cant-shop-at-the-local-mall-maybe-you-shouldnt-be-in-the-senate/
One Alabama man spent five years in jail for less than what Roy Moore is accused of doing to 14-year-old
https://www.rawstory.com/2017/11/one-alabama-man-spent-five-years-in-jail-for-less-than-what-roy-moore-is-accused-of-doing-to-14-year-old/
The Republican Party’s Roy Moore catastrophe, explained
ReplyDeletehttps://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/11/13/16643422/roy-moore-republican-party
Alabama media have whispered about Roy Moore's alleged behavior for years, as this 2002 article shows
Deletehttp://www.washingtonexaminer.com/alabama-media-have-whispered-about-roy-moores-alleged-behavior-for-years-as-this-2002-article-shows/article/2640595
https://www.newspapers.com/image/?spot=15109033&fcfToken=6673567154376470466a35672b57635a64785431594c5031612f416d52676269586e4c7a36724b574d4e423274736c587a6b7969354d5450434d785166594a757541472b6771684c6941773d
Breitbart declared war against the Washington Post… and lost
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/politics/presidential/roy-moore-alabama-senate-sexual-misconduct-breitbart-steve-bannon-20171113.html
Yeah, there’s a new reality coming to bear here for Republicans, the White House — the president in particular, when he gets back here to the United States — that will have to be addressed. There is no hiding from this. There’s no placating it, there’s no more excuse-making, ‘if but when then.’ You’re either definitively clear that Roy Moore should not be seated as a United States senator — as I am and many other Republicans are — or you’re going to backslide your way in making excuses, and to be honest with you, we have no use for that in the Republican Party.
Deletehttps://shareblue.com/cowardly-republican-senate-candidates-are-deafeningly-silent-on-moore/
Why Alabamans Are Defending Roy Moore
Deletehttps://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/11/12/alabama-slow-to-condemn-roy-moore-senate-215819
Roy Moore held a defiant 90-second press conference. It did not go well.
A new report says he was banned from a mall for trying to pick up teenage girls.
...“[Moore’s] eyes crawled over our shirts and our backsides. He was so open about it that I would try and handle his order as quickly as possible,” Victoria Beverstock, a former waitress in Gadsden, said. “When you didn’t smile and flirt back with him, give him an opening, he became rude and demanding.”
https://thinkprogress.org/roy-moore-press-conference-74a9972fcecb/
@10:59 Hummm
Deletenot available @ this time
https://www.newspapers.com/image/?
Donald Trump Jr.’s leaked private messages to WikiLeaks, explained
ReplyDeletehttps://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/11/13/16646310/donald-trump-jr-wikileaks-messages
Good old Ronnie Jr,even if he didn't answer,why didn't he block them,delete the account and contact the FBI?
ReplyDeleteBecause they wanted the dirt on Hillary even if it came from the enemy!
Lock the traitors up!!!
" “Spy vs. Spy” comics in Mad Magazine."
ReplyDelete" “Russia 2.0” replete with Twitter and Facebook accounts. Russia then lobbed millions of propaganda rounds at an unsuspecting USA electorate in 2016 who – unthinking – clicked “likes,” “hearts,” “shares,” and “retweets,” in an anonymity-induced social media frenzy. Russia loaded its distortions in the chamber; Americans pulled the T-riGger."
“Voice of America”
" When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, America’s cultural war against communism turned inward. Newt Gingrich and his ilk declared, remarkably, that America’s Democrats are the new enemy. Talk radio’s emergence became a conservative weapon of choice aimed at fellow Americans! Cable news became Faux News, also a weapon to demonize the political other. As this new weird war emerged so too did the internet buoyed by fiber optics, bandwidth, and misinformation."ditch the word “hack.” What Russia did, and cheaply, was to exploit America’s freedoms against itself"~IT~’s Cold War 2.0 –
and we are NOT winning."
https://www.rawstory.com/2017/11/people-are-misunderstanding-a-key-fact-about-what-russia-did-to-us-in-2016/
Sessions Throws Cold Water On GOP Fever To Appoint New Special Counsel
ReplyDeletehttp://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/sessions-special-counsel-basis-jim-jordan
Jim Jordan Screams For Special Counsel To Investigate Hillary
Rep. Jim Jordan spewed enough Uranium One and HRC conspiracy theories during the House Judiciary hearing that even Attorney General had no stomach for it?
Rep. Jordan's shtick is to be the angriest man in Congress when the cameras are on. He knows his voters only watch Fox, and his job is to generate dramatic footage of a Republican in pursuit of "the truth about Hillary."
...But that news didn't satisfy Jordan, who used his time to try and force the DOJ to actually do the unthinkable. Use a book of oppo research funded by Steve Bannon, that holds no real conclusions or facts except for vicious innuendo to attack ones political rivals with.
He then read off his list of items pulled straight out of the Breitbart / Infowars fart jar of Hillary hate, that included James Comey, Loretta Lynch, Bill Clinton and of course the Steele dossier.
...Again he asked, "What's it gonna take to get a special counsel?"
AG Sessions actually shut him down, saying, "It would take a factual basis that meets the standards of the appointment of a special counsel."
Facts, Mr. Jordan, facts.
Sessions said, "You can have your idea but sometimes we have to study what the facts are and to evaluate whether it meets the standard required a special counsel."
Rep. Jordan whipped himself into a frenzy after he said, "What's it gonna take to get a special counsel?"
"Looks like there is not enough of a basis to appoint a special counsel."
PS. Vanity Fair has suggested this is all for show, and this "investigation" talk
...“Like clockwork, just as we learn of damning details of Donald Trump Jr.’s contacts with WikiLeaks, the Trump administration is firing up the fog machine to distract from the Mueller probe,”
http://crooksandliars.com/2017/11/rep-jordan-gets-rebuked-sessions-after
.#JeffSessions now recalls what he didn't recall, by not recalling what he recalled he didn't recall. Recalling his recollections is what he believes his recollections are recalling in his belief that he doesn't recall.... As he believes he recalls.
ReplyDeleteOn Aug. 3 of last year, just as the US presidential election was entering its final, heated phase, the Russian foreign ministry sent nearly $30,000 to its embassy in Washington. The wire transfer, which came from a Kremlin-backed Russian bank, landed in one of the embassy’s Citibank accounts and contained a remarkable memo line: “to finance election campaign of 2016.”
ReplyDeleteThat wire transfer is one of more than 60 now being scrutinized by the FBI and other federal agencies investigating Russian involvement in the US election. The transactions, which moved through Citibank accounts and totaled more than $380,000, each came from the Russian foreign ministry and most contained a memo line referencing the financing of the 2016 election.
The money wound up at Russian embassies in almost 60 countries from Afghanistan to Nigeria between Aug. 3 and Sept. 20, 2016. It is not clear how the funds were used. At least one transaction that came into the US originated with VTB Bank, a financial institution that is majority-owned by the Kremlin.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/jasonleopold/secret-finding-60-russian-payments-to-finance-election
Mike Pence gets tangled in another lie: This time it’s Don Jr. and WikiLeaks
ReplyDeleteSupposed straight-shooting VP looks foolish again after misstatements about Donald Trump Jr. and WikiLeaks
https://www.salon.com/2017/11/14/mike-pence-gets-tangled-in-another-lie-this-time-its-don-jr-and-wikileaks/
MIKE PENCE DENIED TRUMP-WIKILEAKS COLLABORATION THE SAME DAY DONALD JR. SPREAD INTEL
http://www.newsweek.com/mike-pence-donald-trump-jr-wikileaks-russia-dms-denial-711395
The clear timeline suggesting Donald Trump Jr. coordinated with WikiLeaks
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/11/14/the-clear-timeline-suggesting-donald-trump-jr-coordinated-with-wikileaks/
The Secret Correspondence Between Donald Trump Jr. and WikiLeaks
The transparency organization asked the president’s son for his cooperation—in sharing its work, in contesting the results of the election, and in arranging for Julian Assange to be Australia’s ambassador to the United States.
https://www.theatlantic.com/amp/article/545738/
First Flynn, now this?
DeleteLooks like Pence may not make Prez once Donald is eliminated. Ryan may have problems as well.
That gives us.....eww... Orrin Hatch.
“It was rigged by Donald Trump, Vladamir Putin, Wikileaks.” Dem lawmaker nails Trump team
ReplyDeleteSpeaking to CNN’s Don Lemon, Speier made it plain that last year’s election results are now tainted and that the Republican Party openly colluded with outside, hostile forces to swing the presidential results.
https://shareblue.com/it-was-rigged-by-donald-trump-vladamir-putin-wikileaks-dem-lawmaker-nails-trump-team/
Don Jr-coordinated w/Wikileaks Roger Stone-coordinated w/Wikileaks Cambridge Analytica-coordinated w/Wikileaks Bannon & Kushner-knew Don Jr was in touch w/Wikileaks Eric Trump-supported Wikileaks Trump-supported Wikileaks The conspiracy is unraveling.
DeleteThe big problem with Donald Trump Jr.’s excuse for collaborating with WikiLeaks
ReplyDeleteThe timeline is more incriminating than he'd have you believe.
...Donald Trump Jr. seems to think that the direct messages he exchanged with WikiLeaks aren’t particularly incriminating. On Monday night, Trump Jr. tweeted out what he claims were his “entire chain of messages” with WikiLeaks, and he dismissively wrote that his messages consisted of a “whopping 3 responses.”
According to those direct messages, Trump Jr.’s last message to Wikileaks was sent on October 3, 2016 — four days before the Department of Homeland Security and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence on Election Security released a joint statement publicly accusing WikiLeaks of being a Kremlin front.
“The recent disclosures of alleged hacked e-mails on sites like DCLeaks.com and WikiLeaks and by the Guccifer 2.0 online persona are consistent with the methods and motivations of Russian-directed efforts,” the statement said. “These thefts and disclosures are intended to interfere with the US election process… We believe, based on the scope and sensitivity of these efforts, that only Russia’s senior-most officials could have authorized these activities.”
While Trump Jr. could argue he stopped sending messages to WikiLeaks as soon as U.S. intelligence agencies publicly accused it of being a Kremlin front, his willingness to collaborate with WikiLeaks seems to have extended past the statement’s release on October 7.
On October 12, WikiLeaks sent Trump Jr. a message lauding Trump Sr. for “talking about our publications” during campaign rallies, and suggested “your dad tweets this link if he mentions us.”
https://thinkprogress.org/the-big-problem-with-donald-trump-jr-s-excuse-for-collaborating-with-wikileaks-f2ee3759c73d/
BIG QUESTION: Does anyone believe WikiLeaks "guessed" the password of a left-wing PAC? They hacked the website, folks: a crime. Then they as good as told Trump Jr. they'd done so. What did he do? Accessed the hacked site using the hacked password.
ReplyDeletehttps://twitter.com/SethAbramson/status/930309049022894080
Poetic justice.trump taken down by his son.
ReplyDelete