Donald Trump preparing for possible interview with Robert Mueller. More popcorn?

Courtesy of CNN:

President Donald Trump has begun the initial steps of preparing for a possible interview with the special counsel, a White House official and a person familiar with the situation said Friday, a sign the President's legal team is intensifying its deliberations over whether to allow him to come under Robert Mueller's questioning. 

One source familiar with the proceedings stressed the preparation efforts is "in its infancy." 

The preparations have been short and informal and included going over potential topics with the President that Mueller would likely raise in an interview, the people said. 

The President has not formally agreed to sit for an interview with Mueller. 

But word of early preparations is the clearest sign yet that Trump and his team remain open to an interview with Mueller, despite concerns from some people close to the President that such an interview could expose him to possible charges of perjury.

Okay I am going to admit to being a little conflicted about this.

Part of me is convinced that Trump will NEVER voluntarily agree to be interviewed by Mueller and his team. After all it would be political suicide.

However then I remember how completely fucking arrogant this POS is and I think there is no way he will NOT volunteer to be interviewed, just to demonstrate his courage and intellectual prowess.

Ultimately I think that Mueller WILL interview him one way or another.

Just not sure exactly how that will come about.

Robert Mueller turns his attention to Russian contacts during the Republican convention.

Courtesy of Reuters:  

Investigators probing whether Donald Trump’s presidential campaign colluded with Russia have been questioning witnesses about events at the 2016 Republican National Convention, according to two sources familiar with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s inquiries. 

Mueller’s team has been asking about a convention-related event attended by both Russia’s U.S. ambassador and Jeff Sessions, the first U.S. senator to support Trump and now his attorney general, said one source, who requested anonymity due to the ongoing investigation. 

Another issue Mueller’s team has been asking about is how and why Republican Party platform language hostile to Russia was deleted from a section of the document related to Ukraine, said another source who also requested anonymity. 

Mueller’s interest in what happened at the Republican convention in Cleveland, Ohio in July 2016, is an indication that Trump campaign contacts and actions related to Russia remain central to the special counsel’s investigation.

Personally I think that at this point the whole Republican party should be under investigation for obstructionism, and possible collusion with the Russians. 

They are either complicit with what Trump did during the campaign, or they were purposefully ignorant, adopting a kind of Sergeant Schultz attitude.

Sadly for the GOP that  is not an excuse that will go over well with Robert Mueller and his investigators.

So there is a possibility that even if Robert Mueller is never fired we will never see his final report.

Courtesy of Vox: 

President Donald Trump spent the weekend publicly bashing special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, raising new fears that the president might take the extreme step of actually firing Mueller in an attempt to end the probe. 

But even if the Mueller investigation survives, the public may never get to hear most of what he ultimately finds. 

That’s because Mueller is only required by law to deliver a confidential report to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who oversees the investigation. And Rosenstein has no obligation to send the report to Congress or tell the public about it. Which means much of what Mueller uncovers may remain a secret. 

Now, Rosenstein could choose to make some or all of the report public, but he’s only required to notify Congress if Mueller proposes some action that is “so inappropriate or unwarranted” under Justice Department rules “that it should not be pursued.” So unless Mueller does something Rosenstein finds objectionable, he can keep the report secret. 

Mueller certainly knows this, which is why he’s using his indictments to reveal part of what he’s finding. “He is telling a story through the indictments that he files in court, which are painting a vivid picture of Russian efforts to interfere in the election,” Jens David Ohlin, the vice dean of Cornell Law School, told me. 

And because of the way the special counsel is set up, that picture may end up being the closest thing the public ever gets to a full accounting of what happened between the Trump campaign and Russia.

Well this is completely unacceptable.

After all of this time we need, no we DESERVE, to read that final report.

I'm hoping that even if Trump's Justice Department tries to bury this report that some intrepid Democrat will simply choose to leak it, or that there will be enough new liberal members of Congress elected in 2018 that they will vote to make this public despite Trump's efforts to quash it.

Of course admittedly that is less important to me than that Congress read the report and use it as justification for starting impeachment proceedings against Trump.

Robert Mueller may delay bringing obstruction charges against Trump and his associates, until he has also completed his collusion and conspiracy investigations.

Courtesy of Bloomberg:

Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into whether President Donald Trump obstructed justice is said to be close to completion, but he may set it aside while he finishes other key parts of his probe, such as possible collusion and the hacking of Democrats, according to current and former U.S. officials. 

That’s because Mueller may calculate that if he tries to bring charges in the obstruction case -- the part that may hit closest to Trump personally -- witnesses may become less cooperative in other parts of the probe, or the president may move to shut it down altogether. 

The revelation is a peek into Mueller’s calculations as he proceeds with his many-headed probe, while pressure builds from the president’s advisers and other Republicans to show progress or wrap it up. 

The obstruction portion of the probe could likely be completed after several key outstanding interviews, including with the president and his son, Donald Trump Jr. The president’s lawyers have been negotiating with Mueller’s team over such an encounter since late last year. But even if Trump testifies in the coming weeks, Mueller may make a strategic calculation to keep his findings on obstruction secret, according to the current and former U.S. officials, who discussed the strategy on condition of anonymity.

Mueller may have concerns that if he moves forward with the obstruction charges that Trump will pull out all of the stops in shutting him down.

Apparently while Trump still has some small hope of vindication, he is less likely to freak out.

However that freak out is definitely coming.

Courtesy of Raw Story: 

Special counsel Robert Mueller and his prosecutors have invoked an unusual "conspiracy to defraud the government" charge to ensnare a Russian cyber network and could use the same legal strategy to go after President Trump and his associates, even if the conspiracy is not linked to a criminal act.

Last month, Mr. Mueller, a Republican and former FBI director indicted 13 Russian nationals connected to the Internet Research Agency (IRA) Russian "troll farm," accusing the IRA of interfering in the 2016 U.S. presidential election by spreading fake news stories through U.S. social media. The same approach was employed in securing a plea deal last month with Rick Gates, the aide for former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort. 

What has attracted attention in legal circles is the underlying legal theory behind the indictments, accusing the Russians of essentially committing a crime by preventing agencies of the U.S. government from carrying out the duties. Mr. Mueller appears to be leveraging the theory "into a powerful instrument with respect to both foreign and domestic actors," according to a recent article on Lawfare, a national security blog by the Lawfare Institute and Brookings Institution. 

Emma Kohse, Harvard International Law Journal editor-in-chief, Benjamin Wittes, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and the Lawfare blog's top editor, argue that, based in the language of the indictments and the legal precedents behind them, the "conspiracy to defraud the government" charge provides the Mueller team with significant flexibility in trying to build a case against Mr. Trump and members of his 2016 campaign.

Yeah, at this point the noose must be so tight that it is starting to cut off Trump's circulation. 

Paul Manafort pleads not guilty of conspiracy, tax and bank fraud charges. Stumbles away wearing two ankle monitors.

WATCH: Heckler throws a Russian flag at Paul Manafort as he exits after court appearance. pic.twitter.com/6sdjJNc2lB

— NBC News (@NBCNews) March 8, 2018

Courtesy of NPR:  

Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort pleaded not guilty to conspiracy, tax and bank fraud charges in an Alexandria, Va., federal courtroom Thursday afternoon. 

Judge T.S. Ellis set a trial date for July 10. 

Manafort faces a separate federal trial on Sept. 17 on other charges also brought by special counsel Robert Mueller's office in a Washington, D.C., case. 

For the Virginia case, Manafort will be fitted with a second electronic monitoring bracelet (he is already wearing one related to the D.C. case) and will be allowed to meet with lawyers, attend church services and make emergency medical trips as needed.

Two, count them TWO, ankle monitors.

I guess that is in case Manafort goes all feral coyote and chews off one of his legs.  

The prosecution has between 20 to 25 witnesses ready to testify against Manafort, not to mention all of that evidence that the Mueller team was able to dig up.

I think if you look up the word "fucked" right now there is a picture of Paul Manafort right next to it.

Donald Trump has been asking witnesses what they told Robert Mueller. Oh, that's a no no.

Courtesy of the New York Times:  

The special counsel in the Russia investigation has learned of two conversations in recent months in which President Trump asked key witnesses about matters they discussed with investigators, according to three people familiar with the encounters. 

In one episode, the president told an aide that the White House counsel, Donald F. McGahn II, should issue a statement denying a New York Times article in January. The article said Mr. McGahn told investigators that the president once asked him to fire the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III. Mr. McGahn never released a statement and later had to remind the president that he had indeed asked Mr. McGahn to see that Mr. Mueller was dismissed, the people said. 

In the other episode, Mr. Trump asked his former chief of staff, Reince Priebus, how his interview had gone with the special counsel’s investigators and whether they had been “nice,” according to two people familiar with the discussion. 

The episodes demonstrate that even as the special counsel investigation appears to be intensifying, the president has ignored his lawyers’ advice to avoid doing anything publicly or privately that could create the appearance of interfering with it.

Yeah, because he is TERRIFIED of what they might find.

And as it turns out he should be terrified.

Courtesy of WaPo: 

Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III has gathered evidence that a secret meeting in Seychelles just before the inauguration of Donald Trump was an effort to establish a back channel between the incoming administration and the Kremlin — apparently contradicting statements made to lawmakers by one of its participants, according to people familiar with the matter. 

In January 2017, Erik Prince, the founder of the private security company Blackwater, met with a Russian official close to Russian President Vladi­mir Putin and later described the meeting to congressional investigators as a chance encounter that was not a planned discussion of U.S.-Russia relations. 

A witness cooperating with Mueller has told investigators the meeting was set up in advance so that a representative of the Trump transition could meet with an emissary from Moscow to discuss future relations between the countries, according to the people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters. 

George Nader, a Lebanese American businessman who helped organize and attended the Seychelles meeting, has testified on the matter before a grand jury gathering evidence about discussions between the Trump transition team and emissaries of the Kremlin, as part of Mueller’s investigation into Russian efforts to interfere with the 2016 election.

So, yet another former Trump campaign operative has lied to the Special Counsel. 

And this one lied about trying to set up a secret communication pipeline between Trump's White House and the Kremlin.

Gee, that seems a tad suspicious.

Keep in mind that Prince is the brother of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos whose husband's medical facility was repeatedly communicating with a computer in the Trump Organization during the campaign. (By the way the only other group contacting that computer over and over again was the Russian Alfa Bank.)

Now if you do not think these two things are connected in some way I have a bridge in hurricane devastated Puerto Rico to sell you. 

So Kellyanne Conway kinda broke some laws.

Courtesy of CNN: 

The US Office of Special Counsel announced Tuesday that White House aide Kellyanne Conway violated the Hatch Act on two occasions by "advocating for and against candidates" in last year's Alabama Senate special election. 

In a new report, the OSC special counsel, Henry Kerner, pointed to Conway's TV interviews conducted in her "official capacity" in November and December of last year. The agency said Conway "impermissibly mixed official government business with political views about candidates in the Alabama special election." 

One of the two interviews was on CNN's "New Day," and the second was on Fox News' "Fox & Friends."

In a letter to President Donald Trump, Kerner said he is referring her violations for the President's "consideration of appropriate disciplinary action." 

Look at that, the Special Counsel is giving Donald Trump the opportunity to do the right thing.

How do you think that went over?

Yep, you are correct:  

In a statement, White House deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley said Conway was expressing the President's position for lawmakers who support the administration's agenda. 

"Kellyanne Conway did not advocate for or against the election of any particular candidate," Gidley said. "She simply expressed the President's obvious position that he have people in the House and Senate who support his agenda. In fact, Kellyanne's statements actually show her intention and desire to comply with the Hatch Act -- as she twice declined to respond to the host's specific invitation to encourage Alabamans to vote for the Republican."

Of course the problem here is that there is video evidence of Conway breaking that law.

Kellyanne Conway was breaking the law live on television pic.twitter.com/BC79NBGRpf

— NowThis (@nowthisnews) March 7, 2018

See?

Stay tuned. 

Donald Trump ordered the firing of Robert Mueller back in June of last year only to be thwarted when White House counsel threatened to quit.

Courtesy of the New York Times:  

President Trump ordered the firing last June of Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel overseeing the Russia investigation, according to four people told of the matter, but ultimately backed down after the White House counsel threatened to resign rather than carry out the directive. 

The West Wing confrontation marks the first time Mr. Trump is known to have tried to fire the special counsel. Mr. Mueller learned about the episode in recent months as his investigators interviewed current and former senior White House officials in his inquiry into whether the president obstructed justice. 

Amid the first wave of news media reports that Mr. Mueller was examining a possible obstruction case, the president began to argue that Mr. Mueller had three conflicts of interest that disqualified him from overseeing the investigation, two of the people said.

First, he claimed that a dispute years ago over fees at Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Va., had prompted Mr. Mueller, the F.B.I. director at the time, to resign his membership. The president also said Mr. Mueller could not be impartial because he had most recently worked for the law firm that previously represented the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Finally, the president said, Mr. Mueller had been interviewed to return as the F.B.I. director the day before he was appointed special counsel in May. 

After receiving the president’s order to fire Mr. Mueller, the White House counsel, Donald F. McGahn II, refused to ask the Justice Department to dismiss the special counsel, saying he would quit instead, the people said. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they did not want to be identified discussing a continuing investigation.

"Dispute over fees at Trump National Golf Club?" Really?

According to sources McGahn quite rightly said at the time that firing Mueller would have a "catastrophic effect on the Trump presidency."

Gee, ya think?

As it turns out Kellyanne Con-job was asked about this very thing back in August and she had this to say.

FLASHBACK: AUGUST 6

Q: Does the president commit to not firing Mueller?
KC: The president has not even discussed that. The president is not discussing firing Bob Mueller—
Q: But will he commit not to fire him?
KC: He has not even discussed— he’s not discussed firing Bob Mueller pic.twitter.com/sbrMZ3Nmor

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) January 26, 2018

Of course she had to know that she was lying, but when did that make any difference to anybody associated with this presidency?

Trump himself was asked about this just today while he was attending that conference in Davos, and he responded with this:

"Fake news, folks. Fake news," Trump said when questioned about the revelation as he entered the World Economic Forum in Davos. 

"Typical New York Times," he added.

Unfortunately for Trump this Times story has now been confirmed by a number of other news outlets, including Fox News.

So much for the claim of "fake news."

As journalist Natasha Bertrand points out there is a clear pattern of behavior here:

To recap: Trump asked Comey for loyalty; asked him to drop the Flynn probe; fired Comey; pressured Sessions not to recuse; pressured Sessions to fire McCabe; pressured Coats, Rogers, Pompeo &multiple congressmen to say he wasn’t under FBI investigation; and tried to fire Mueller.

— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) January 26, 2018

I don't think it comes as a surprise to anybody that this petulant child tried to get Mueller fired.

Of course he did.

The only real surprise is that anybody had the guts to try and stop him. 

Man who emerged victorious from a lawsuit filed against him by Donald Trump, explains why he is doomed when Robert Mueller gets a hold of him.

Courtesy of Bloomberg News: 

Trump sued me for libel in 2006 for a biography I wrote, "TrumpNation," alleging that the book misrepresented his business record and understated his wealth. Trump lost the suit in 2011, but during the litigation my lawyers deposed him under oath for two days in 2007. We had the opportunity to ask Trump about his business and banking practices, his taxes, his personal finances and his professional relationships. 

Trump's attorney then was Marc Kasowitz, who also briefly represented the president when the Justice Department investigation first got rolling in Washington. My attorney was Mary Jo White, a former federal prosecutor steeped in many of the same legal traditions and courtroom experiences as Mueller. It didn't go well for the future president. 

Hammered by White and her deputies, Trump ultimately had to admit 30 times that he had lied over the years about all sorts of stuff: how much of a big Manhattan real estate project he owned; the price of one of his golf club memberships; the size of the Trump Organization; his wealth; his speaking fees; how many condos he had sold; his debts, and whether he borrowed money from his family to avoid going personally bankrupt. He also lied during the deposition about his business dealings with career criminals. 

Trump's poor performance stemmed in part from the fact that he was being interrogated by shrewd attorneys wielding his own business and financial records against him. But there were lots of other things that went wrong as well. 

Trump is impatient and has never been an avid or dedicated reader. That’s OK if you’d rather play golf, but it’s not OK when you need to absorb abundant or complex details. Lawyers typically prepare binders full of documents for their clients to pore over prior to a deposition, hoping to steel them for an intense grilling. My lawyers did that prior to my own deposition in the Trump lawsuit. But Trump didn’t appear to be well prepared when we deposed him, a weakness that my lawyers exploited (and that Mueller surely would as well). 

This is why Trump's lawyers, and friends are in a panic over Trump suggesting that he is "looking forward" to being interviewed by Robert Mueller.

It would appear that Trump's overwhelming arrogance and exaggerated confidence in his own intellect have convinced him that he is Mueller's equal.

That is clearly not true.

And I can hardly wait to see what happens when Trump comes to that realization as well.

Because guaranteed it will either be during, or immediately after his interview.

Pre-post update: About an hour before this was to post I learned that Trump's attorney John Dowd is now saying that, despite what Trump may have said, no decision has yet been reached on whether he will  voluntarily agree to an interview.

Sounds like the lawyers are perfectly aware that once Trump sits down with Mueller it is game over.

We are DEFINITELY going to need more popcorn.

Trump lawyer says that his client is "very eager" to speak to Robert Mueller, but expresses concern it might be a "perjury trap."

Courtesy of CBS News:  

President Trump's attorney Ty Cobb says the president is "very eager" to speak to special counsel Robert Mueller for his Russia investigation. In an interview with CBS News' chief White House correspondent Major Garrett on this week's "The Takeout" podcast, Cobb said Mr. Trump wants to put the matter to rest, and he told Garrett there are "active discussions" about a special counsel interview, but no formal request has yet been made. 

It is Cobb's belief that the Mueller investigation will ultimately be immaterial to Mr. Trump and his presidency. Cobb said he expects it to be wrapped up in 4-6 weeks. 

"There's a big difference between a shooting star and a planet," Cobb told Garrett, referring to the big headlines for the legal issues of Papadopoulos, Manafort and Flynn. Cobb said he believes these pleas and indictment will not impact the president. 

"I think it's more than appropriate for the Mueller people to explore anything they're interested in," Cobb said. Cobb said he is focused on "getting the facts out." 

But despite this, he said he considers the investigation to be a drag on the presidency. "It's very difficult for him to do anything other than to fight for his place in history," Cobb said. 

Cobb said if Mueller did interview Mr. Trump, it could be a perjury trap -- that is, a situation in which his story does not match the evidence -- something Cobb said "foolish" was not to consider. But Cobb said he has known Mueller for a long time, and doesn't believe that is his aim.

Interesting term "perjury trap."

Is it a "trap" to ask somebody a question to which they then provide a false answer?

Because the simple solution to that is to not fucking lie to the Special Counsel.

But apparently Cobb realizes that his client cannot be expected to do that, so of course he is worried that he will perjure himself.

And do you know what? He is undoubtedly correct.

Talks are underway for Robert Mueller to interview Donald Trump. More popcorn anyone?

Courtesy of NBC News: 

Anticipating that Special Counsel Robert Mueller will ask to interview President Donald Trump, the president’s legal team is discussing a range of potential options for the format, including written responses to questions in lieu of a formal sit-down, according to three people familiar with the matter. 

Lawyers for Trump have been discussing with FBI investigators a possible interview by the special counsel with the president as part of the inquiry into whether Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 election. 

The discussions were described by one person with direct knowledge as preliminary and ongoing. Trump’s legal team is seeking clarification on whether the president would be interviewed directly by Mueller, as well as the legal standard for when a president can be interviewed, the location of a possible interview, the topics and the duration. But the president’s team is also seeking potential compromises that could avoid an interview altogether, two of those interviewed told NBC News.

With the possibility now looming that the president himself could be subject to an interview by the FBI or Mueller’s investigators, Trump’s legal team has been debating whether it would be possible to simply avoid it. One individual familiar with the strategy said those internal discussions within Trump’s legal team began shortly after the president’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, was indicted in late October for money laundering in connection with his business dealings with Ukraine.

Yeah, you bet your ass Trump's attorneys want to avoid having him sit down for a direct interview with Mueller, or one of his prosecutors.

There is video of Trump giving a deposition online, and he does not do well under that kind of scrutiny, and he is all but guaranteed to perjure himself.

However there is almost no chance that Mueller will let Trump avoid this.

Justice Department veterans cast doubt on the possibility that Mueller, who served as FBI director for 12 years, would forgo the chance to interview the president directly. 

“Prosecutors want to see and hear folks in person,” said Chuck Rosenberg, former U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia and chief of staff to FBI Director Comey. “They want to probe and follow up. Body language and tone are important,” said Rosenberg, now an NBC News analyst. “And they want answers directly from witnesses, not from their lawyers. The odds of prosecutors agreeing to written responses are somewhere between infinitesimally small and zero."

My feeling is that once Mueller gets Trump into a room to answer direct questions, that it is game over for Trump. 

And I think Trump's legal counsel is all too aware of that fact.

New York Times reporting that Donald Trump sent top White House lawyer to stop Jeff Sessions from recusing himself from the Russia investigation.

Courtesy of the New York Times:  

President Trump gave firm instructions in March to the White House’s top lawyer: stop the attorney general, Jeff Sessions, from recusing himself in the Justice Department’s investigation into whether Mr. Trump’s associates had helped a Russian campaign to disrupt the 2016 election. 

Public pressure was building for Mr. Sessions, who had been a senior member of the Trump campaign, to step aside. But the White House counsel, Donald F. McGahn II, carried out the president’s orders and lobbied Mr. Sessions to remain in charge of the inquiry, according to two people with knowledge of the episode. 

Mr. McGahn was unsuccessful, and the president erupted in anger in front of numerous White House officials, saying he needed his attorney general to protect him. 

Mr. Trump said he had expected his top law enforcement official to safeguard him the way he believed Robert F. Kennedy, as attorney general, had done for his brother John F. Kennedy and Eric H. Holder Jr. had for Barack Obama. Mr. Trump then asked, “Where’s my Roy Cohn?” He was referring to his former personal lawyer and fixer, who had been Senator Joseph R. McCarthy’s top aide during the investigations into communist activity in the 1950s and died in 1986.

Smelling more and more like obstructionism all of the time, don't you think?

The president is absolutely NOT supposed to interfere in an investigation, especially one directed at himself.

And yet here we have Trump trying to force Sessions to stay in control of the Russia probe, and then firing James Comey for continuing forward with the FBI investigation.

The reason that Trump feared an expanded investigation into his dealings with Russia is becoming increasingly clear.

Courtesy of CNN: 

The Trump Organization has provided documents on a range of events, conversations and meetings from President Donald Trump's real estate business to investigators probing Russian election meddling, according to three people familiar with the matter. 

The bulk of the information is focused on the period between June 2015, when Trump announced his candidacy, and his January 2017 inauguration. 

The information provided in 2017 to special counsel Robert Mueller's team and congressional investigators so far involves the activities of the company's executives as well as meetings and events, including emails and calendar entries, mostly connected to campaign-related matters, according to two of the sources.

The Trump Organization produced records that include information related to the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting, the billionaire Agalarov family of Russia, head of the US-based Russian American Chamber of Commerce Sergei Millian, a paid speech Donald Trump Jr. gave in October 2016 to a Russia-friendly policy think tank in Paris, Trump's foreign policy address in April 2016 at Washington's Mayflower Hotel and communications regarding WikiLeaks, two of the sources said.

Yeah, I BET he wanted Jeff Sessions to maintain control over all of this. 

Speaking of lawsuits, Paul Manafort also filed one against Robert Mueller.

Stop it, stop it, stop it!

Courtesy of the AP:

President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman sued special counsel Robert Mueller and the Justice Department on Wednesday, saying prosecutors had overstepped their bounds by charging him for conduct that he says is unrelated to Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. 

The lawsuit by Paul Manafort, filed in federal court in Washington, is the most direct challenge to date to Mueller’s legal authority and the scope of his mandate as special counsel. It comes amid Republican allegations of partisan bias among members of Mueller’s team, which for months has been investigating whether the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia to influence the outcome of the U.S. election. 

The lawsuit also takes aim at Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who is overseeing Mueller’s investigation and recently said he was satisfied that the former FBI director was staying within the scope of his authority.

This is a "Hail Mary" pass that will definitely get thrown out.

However it illustrates how desperate Manafort is to keep his business dealings secret.

And I would not be at all surprised that he is also doing this on behalf of Donald Trump to help keep HIS business dealings secret.

These assholes are terrified of what's coming, and that only makes me more excited for the final reveal.

The Special Counsel's investigation is rapidly reaching a critical stage.

Courtesy of Yahoo News:  

As described by sources familiar with various aspects of the investigation, the Mueller probe is fast approaching a critical crossroads. The president’s lawyers, Ty Cobb and John Dowd, are pressing Mueller to wind down the investigation and exonerate their client, which they have assured the president will happen by early next year. 

But the sources familiar with the probe say that such a rapid conclusion is — as one put it — “fanciful.” Mueller and his team, they say, are pursuing new leads, interrogating new witnesses and collecting a mountain of new evidence, including subpoenaed bank records and thousands of emails from the campaign and the Trump transition. 

In just the last few weeks, his prosecutors have begun questioning Republican National Committee staffers about the party digital operation that worked with the Trump campaign to target voters in key swing states. They are seeking to determine if the joint effort was related to the activities of Russian trolls and bots aimed at influencing the American electorate, according to two of the sources. 

In what is potentially another ominous sign for the White House, the lawyer for Jared Kushner, the president’s son in law and senior adviser who was in charge of the campaign’s digital operation, recently began searching for a crisis public relations firm to handle press inquiries — a step frequently taken by people who believe they may be facing criminal charges. (Kushner has denied all wrongdoing, and his lawyer, Abbe Lowell, has said he is cooperating with the Mueller investigation.)

And then there is this:

The investigation will reportedly seek to determine whether the Trump campaign and the RNC worked in conjunction with Russian-backed social media accounts that posted false or inflammatory political content. Business Insider's Natasha Bertrand pointed out that Russian hackers reportedly stole private voter records from several state and local election boards throughout the United States during the 2016 election. Curious minds in Congress have wanted to know about the fate of those stolen records since June. 

Now, Mueller is reportedly considering the possibility that the Trump campaign and the RNC coordinated their voter outreach in swing states using Russian-acquired information. "Investigators have been looking into whether Russia provided the campaign with voter information stolen by Russian hackers," Bertrand explained, "and whether the Trump campaign helped Russia target its political ads to specific demographics and voting precincts." 

This of course explains why the Trump supporters have come out en masse to try and discredit the FBI, Mueller, and this investigation.

I cannot even imagine what Trump will do when his handlers are no longer able to placate him and convince him that everything will be alright in the end.

Trump is going to lose what little is left of his mind, and that really could put this country in grave danger.

I had kind of hoped that the Republicans would at some point recognize that protecting this president, while attacking the intelligence and law enforcement agencies that are supposed to protect us, was an untenable position to take.

However if Mueller uncovers evidence that the RNC colluded with Russia, I can no longer hold out any hope of that realization ever occurring.

Jeff Sessions orders the State Department to examine the connection between Hillary Clinton and the Uranium One deal. Can you say distraction?

Seriously, this again?

Courtesy of NBC News:  

On the orders of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Justice Department prosecutors have begun asking FBI agents to explain the evidence they found in a now dormant criminal investigation into a controversial uranium deal that critics have linked to Bill and Hillary Clinton, multiple law enforcement officials told NBC News. 

The interviews with FBI agents are part of the Justice Department's effort to fulfill a promise an assistant attorney general made to Congress last month to examine whether a special counsel was warranted to look into what has become known as the Uranium One deal, a senior Justice Department official said.

Jesus, the Trump Administration and the Republicans are getting really desperate now.

First they suggest appointing a Special Counsel to investigate Hillary Clinton's connection to Fusion GPS to deflect from Mueller's Russia investigation, and now they are suggesting the need for one to investigate Hillary's connection to a 2010 uranium deal that she had nothing to do with personally.

Hell even Fox News deflated this conspiracy theory back in November.

This is just another taxpayer money wasting Benghazi investigation.

Clearly the point is not to discover any actual wrongdoing, but to distract attention away from the Mueller investigation which is freaking Donald Trump and his supporters out big time.

Rep. Jackie Speier says there is a rumor on the Hill that Trump plans to fire Robert Mueller on December 22nd while Congress is in recess.

Courtesy of The Hill: 

Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) said Friday that "rumors" on Capitol Hill suggest President Trump could fire special counsel Robert Mueller before Christmas, after Congress leaves Washington for the winter recess. 

“The rumor on the Hill when I left yesterday was that the president was going to make a significant speech at the end of next week. And on Dec. 22, when we are out of D.C., he was going to fire Robert Mueller," Speier told California's KQED News. 

Speier, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said that Trump was trying to shut down the committee's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, pointing to the lack of interviews scheduled for the new year. 

"We can read between the lines I think," Speier said. "I believe this president wants all of this shut down. He wants to shut down these investigations, and he wants to fire special counsel Mueller." 

Well there you have it. The idea that Trump might be planning to fire Mueller has been talked about for months, but to have an actual date bandied about is especially chilling.

I think it is smart for Speier and the Democrats to repeat rumors like this and to get people agitated about a potential Mueller firing, because ultimately Trump is a coward and it might make him think twice about a plan like this if he thinks everybody is just waiting for a reason to take to the streets in protest.

Trump lawyer claims that Robert Mueller has finished questioning White House witnesses, expects investigation to be over soon and the president to be exonerated.

Courtesy of Politico: 

Special counsel Robert Mueller on Tuesday completed interviews with the last in a slate of about two dozen current and former White House witnesses he’s initially requested as part of the investigation into Russia's actions in the presidential election, White House attorney Ty Cobb said. 

It’s unclear if Mueller will seek follow-up interviews or seek to question additional people beyond the initial batch of witnesses, but the completion of this round of questioning tracks with the goal Cobb has long stated publicly that President Donald Trump’s White House was cooperating with the Russia investigators in search of a speedy resolution to the probe. 

White House attorneys have declined to name specific staffers interviewed, but sources tracking the investigation said people questioned have included former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus, presidential spokesman Sean Spicer, White House communications director and former campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks, and current White House counsel Don McGahn. 

Cobb had previously said he expected the interviews to wrap up by Thanksgiving but, as the holiday approached, he backed away from that timeline. Cobb has also said he was looking for Mueller to issue a statement by the end of the year exonerating the president. 

Mueller’s office declined to comment on Cobb’s characterization of the special counsel probe. 

But longtime observers of special counsel cases have cast doubt on Cobb’s timeline.

Cobb has to know that his rosy scenario is pure bullshit, and that most people know it, which indicates to me that his statements are for an audience of one.

I think Cobb is blowing smoke up Donald Trump's skirt just to keep him calm while Mueller finishes the investigation that will end his presidency.

He may know that once Trump realizes how much trouble he is in, that he will completely lose his shit. 

Trump's legal team wants to appoint a second Special Counsel to investigate the investigators.

Jay Sekulow.

Courtesy of HuffPo: 

President Donald Trump’s legal team says it’s fed up with the Justice Department and FBI “witch hunt” into whether his campaign colluded with the Russian government. 

One of Trump’s lawyers said the president’s legal team wants a second special counsel ― one to investigate the investigators ― after a Fox News report unearthed what the lawyer called a conflict of interest in the Department of Justice. 

Fox News reported late Monday that Nellie H. Ohr, the wife of a senior Justice Department official who was demoted last week for not being forthcoming about meetings with Fusion GPS, the firm behind the anti-Trump dossier, worked for Fusion for a part of last year. The dossier reportedly contains salacious but unverified allegations against Trump. 

″The Department of Justice and FBI cannot ignore the multiple problems that have been created by these obvious conflicts of interests,” Jay Sekulow, one of Trump’s lawyers, told Axios on Monday night after the Fox report. “These new revelations require the appointment of a special counsel to investigate.” 

Trump has repeatedly complained Mueller’s probe into Russia and Trump’s campaign is a “witch hunt” and reportedly has considered firing the special counsel. 

Nevertheless, the president’s legal team said they trust Mueller and want to “get to the finish line” with him. They said they plan to fully cooperate with Mueller’s investigation, confident that Trump will be cleared of wrongdoing. 

Yeah this has nothing to do with undermining the Mueller investigation just like Trump's tweet this morning had nothing to do with suggesting that Kirsten Gillibrand was willing to trade sexual favors for  campaign contributions.

Can you say "deflection?" I knew that you could.

Robert Mueller abruptly reverses decision to support bail for Paul Manafort after learning of planned op-ed co-written with man who has ties to Russian intelligence.

Courtesy of Business Insider:

Special counsel Robert Mueller has abruptly reversed course on a bail agreement his office struck with Paul Manafort's legal team last week that would have allowed him to be released from GPS monitoring. 

Manafort evidently failed to tell the government that he was ghost-writing a draft op-ed about his work in Ukraine as late as November 30. He was working on it with his longtime protege Konstantin Kilimnik, who is believed to have ties to Russian intelligence, according to the special counsel's court filing. 

The government said that the court had initially "admonished" Manafort's lawyer for making public statements to the press about the case and on November 8 had barred both "the parties and counsel from making statements that could interfere with" a fair trial. 

"Even if the ghostwritten op-ed were entirely accurate, fair, and balanced, it would be a violation of this Court’s November 8 Order if it had been publish," the government argued. "The editorial clearly was undertaken to influence the public's opinion of defendant Manafort, or else there would be no reason to seek its publication." 

The filing continued: "Because Manafort has now taken actions that reflect an intention to violate or circumvent the court's existing orders ... the government submits that the proposed bail package is insufficiently reasonable to assure his appearance as required. The government's prior general consent to the bail package presupposed that Manafort was complying with the Court's existing orders."

It has been clear to me for months now that Special Counsel Robert Mueller is not fucking around here. 

Apparently Manafort did not get that memo and did not understand that Mueller would drop the hammer on him if he even pushed a pinky over the line.

One thing I can say with some confidence is that this is definitely going to send a chill down the spine of everybody already targeted by the Mueller team, as well as those who believe their number will come up at any time.

If I were Jarred Kushner, Donald Trump Jr., or even Trump himself, I would probably have to sleep with the night light on tonight.

Donald Trump learns that one FBI agent is not a fan, decides to use that to attack and undermine entire Mueller investigation.

So yesterday the New York Times posted this story: 

The special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, removed a top F.B.I. agent this summer from his investigation into Russian election meddling after the Justice Department’s inspector general began examining whether the agent had sent text messages that expressed anti-Trump political views, according to three people briefed on the matter. 

The agent, Peter Strzok, is considered one of the most experienced and trusted F.B.I. counterintelligence investigators. He helped lead the investigation into whether Hillary Clinton had mishandled classified information on her private email account, and then played a major role in the investigation into links between President Trump’s campaign and Russia. 

But Mr. Strzok was reassigned this summer from Mr. Mueller’s investigation to the F.B.I.’s human resources department, where he has been stationed since. The people briefed on the case said the transfer followed the discovery of text messages in which Mr. Strzok and a colleague reacted to news events, like presidential debates, in ways that could appear critical of Mr. Trump. 

“Immediately upon learning of the allegations, the special counsel’s office removed Peter Strzok from the investigation,” said a spokesman for the special counsel’s office, Peter Carr.

So pretty cut and dried, right?

And keep in mind that the FBI has dozens of agents, investigators, and prosecutors working on this case.

However Donald Trump smells blood in the water and retweets the following.

BREAKING: top FBI investigator for Mueller--PETER STRZOK--busted sending political text messages bashing Trump & praising Hillary during the 2016 campaign. STRZOK actually LED the Hillary email probe & recommended clearing her; then was tapped to SUPERVISE the Trump Russia probe!

— Paul Sperry (@paulsperry_) December 2, 2017

Wray needs to clean house. Now we know the politicization even worse than McCabe's ties to McAuliffe/Clinton. It also infected his top investigator PETER STRZOK, who sent texts bashing Trump & praising Hillary during campaign. Strzok led Hillary probe & supervised Trump probe! https://t.co/0y403oeqvX

— Paul Sperry (@paulsperry_) December 2, 2017

And then follows that up this morning with this:

Tainted (no, very dishonest?) FBI “agent’s role in Clinton probe under review.” Led Clinton Email probe. @foxandfriends Clinton money going to wife of another FBI agent in charge.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 3, 2017

After years of Comey, with the phony and dishonest Clinton investigation (and more), running the FBI, its reputation is in Tatters - worst in History! But fear not, we will bring it back to greatness.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 3, 2017

Report: “ANTI-TRUMP FBI AGENT LED CLINTON EMAIL PROBE” Now it all starts to make sense!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 3, 2017

So now the anti-Trump sentiment expressed by one FBI agent indicates that not only is the Mueller case clearly a witch hunt, but that the outcome of the Hillary email case was prejudiced in her favor by his participation.

That is quite an impressive leap of logic right there.