During "Meet the Press' interview James Comey dismisses report by House Intelligence Committee and suggests that Trump will lie under oath.

Courtesy of NBC News: 

Former FBI Director James Comey on Sunday dismissed the findings of a GOP report claiming there is no evidence President Donald Trump’s campaign colluded with Russians during the 2016 election. He added that, as a former prosecutor, he has “serious doubts” about Trump’s credibility as a potential witness. 

Comey called the recently released report by Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee “a political document” during an interview on “Meet The Press.”

“That is not my understanding of what the facts were before I left the FBI and I think the most important piece of work is the one the special counsel's doing now,” Comey added.

Asked whether the committee has served a good investigative purpose overall, Comey said, “not that I can see.” 

The former FBI director also said politicization has “wrecked the committee, and it damaged relationships with the FISA Court, the intelligence communities. It's just a wreck.”

Yeah it's hard to argue with Comey on this.

The House Intelligence Committee with Devin Nunes in charge was NEVER going to find anything problematic about Trump's interactions with Russia.

Comey also weighed in on Trump's seeming inability to tell the truth:

“I have serious doubts about his credibility,” Comey said of Trump, adding that he worries about whether the president would be truthful under oath or not.

“Sometimes people who have serious credibility problems can tell the truth when they realize that the consequences of not telling the truth in an interview or in the grand jury would be dire,” Comey said. “But you'd have to go in with a healthy sense that he might lie to you.”

In other words Trump will almost certainly lie under oath, and that will essentially be his undoing.

Which is something that probably EVERYBODY knows, with the possible exception of Trump himself. 

Hitherto unknown meeting between Michael Flynn and his son with Russian Ambassador revealed in House Intelligence Committee report.

Courtesy of TPM: 

The House Intelligence Committee’s report from its Russia investigation published on Friday revealed another meeting former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn had with the Russian ambassador before he joined the Trump campaign. 

Flynn and his son, Michael Flynn, Jr., met with Ambassador Sergey Kislyak at his Washington, D.C. residence on December 2, 2015, according to emails reviewed by the House Intelligence Committee. Flynn’s son described the meeting as “very productive” in an email to the Russian embassy, according to the committee’s report. According to the report, “emails indicate that the meeting was arranged at the request of General Flynn or his son.” Neither Flynn sat with the committee for an interview, leaving congressional investigators with few details about the rendezvous. 

The meeting with Kislyak took place about a week before Flynn traveled to Moscow to speak at the Kremlin RT news organization’s annual gala. Flynn sat next to Vladimir Putin at the dinner and was paid by RT to attend the event. 

Flynn’s December 2015 meeting with Kislyak also came after he met with President Donald Trump for the first time, but Flynn did not formally join the campaign until 2016.

So between the time that Flynn met with Donald Trump for the first time, and this event took place...

...Flynn also met with this guy?

And that doesn't seem like collusion to the House Republicans?

Interesting.

Flynn's son certainly was quick in his attempt to play it down.

The #fakenews media is a joke.....

friggin @TMZ 2.0 pic.twitter.com/L9cvfxdnKr

— 🇺🇸MFLYNNJR🇺🇸 (@mflynnJR) April 27, 2018

You know I am not sure if these House Republicans could recognize collusion if it were delivered to them under their tree on Christmas morning.

The House Intelligence Committee led by Devin Nunes released the report on their Russia "investigation" yesterday, and guess what? No collusion!

Courtesy of CNN: 

The House Intelligence Committee on Friday released a redacted version of the Republican report on the committee's year-long Russia investigation, in which GOP members say they found no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia and disputed the intelligence community's assessment that Russian President Vladimir Putin tried to help elect Donald Trump. 

The committee released the report with redactions from the intelligence community, along with a redacted Democratic dissent. saying collusion exists and that there were key aspects of the probe Republicans failed to investigate. 

The report's release marks the conclusion of a yearlong committee investigation that devolved into a partisan brawl between Democrats and Republicans, fighting over the decision by House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes to step aside from the probe, the subpoenas that were and were not issued and dueling memos over a surveillance warrant for a former Trump campaign adviser.

The committee ended its investigation into Russia's 2016 election meddling last month, concluding they found no evidence that Trump's team had colluded with Russians. 

"We found no evidence of collusion, and so we found perhaps some bad judgment, inappropriate meetings," (Rep. Mike) Conaway said when they submitted their report for declassification.

Of course Trump was also quick to jump on this. 

Just Out: House Intelligence Committee Report released. “No evidence” that the Trump Campaign “colluded, coordinated or conspired with Russia.” Clinton Campaign paid for Opposition Research obtained from Russia- Wow! A total Witch Hunt! MUST END NOW!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 27, 2018

However anybody who actually thought this Devin Nunes led investigation was interested in getting to the truth must have their head shoved so far up their ass that they can watch their food digest.

And as the Democrats on that committee point out, the investigation was nowhere near complete.

Courtesy of WaPo:  

The GOP report does address that Trump Tower meeting, allowing that it showed “poor judgment” on the part of the Trump campaign. As we learned from Trump Jr.’s emails, those top Trump campaign officials went to the meeting in the full expectation of receiving dirt on Hillary Clinton, supplied by the Russian government. But the GOP report brushes this off, concluding there was “no evidence that the Trump campaign colluded, coordinated, or conspired with the Russian government.”

But the Democratic response fills in some extremely important context — and it may involve the president himself, though we cannot know one way or the other right now. 

According to the Democratic response, right after Trump Jr. set up the specifics of the meeting, he had two calls with a number in Russia belonging to Emin Agalarov. Between those two calls, the Democratic response recounts, Trump Jr. received a third call from a blocked number. Who might it have been? 

Democrats wanted to find out, but Republicans blocked it from happening, according to the Democrats’ response. 

“We sought to determine whether that number belonged to the president, because we also ascertained that then-candidate Trump used a blocked number,” Schiff said during our interview. “That would tell us whether Don Jr. sought his father’s permission to take the meeting, and [whether] that was the purpose of that call.” 

Schiff added that Democrats asked Republicans to subpoena phone records to determine whose number it was, but Republicans “refused,” Schiff said. “They didn’t want to know whether he had informed his father and sought his permission to take that meeting with the Russians.”

Okay exactly WHY would the Republicans stop the Democrats from accessing those phone records unless they already knew to whom the blocked number belonged?

But do you know who probably already has that information?

Robert Mueller that's who.

This whole House Intelligence Committee "investigation" was nothing but a distraction to keep the public from focusing on the real investigation which is ACTUALLY looking for the truth.

And that truth is coming, whether Donald Trump and Devin Nunes want it to or not.

Jill Stein refuses to fully cooperate with Senate Intelligence Committee's Russia investigation. Hmm.

Courtesy of The Intercept:

The Jill Stein campaign is refusing to comply fully with a Senate intelligence committee request for documents and other correspondence, made as part of the committee’s probe into Russian activities in the 2016 election, according to a letter to be delivered Thursday to the panel by an attorney for the campaign. 

The Green Party campaign will agree to turn over some documents, but raised constitutional objections to the breadth of the inquiry, which was first made in November 2017, arguing that elements of it infringe on basic political rights enshrined in the First Amendment. 

In the letter responding to committee chair Richard Burr, R-N.C., and ranking member Mark Warner, D-Va., Stein’s campaign has now said it will refuse some of the requests, calling them “so overbroad in reach as to demand constitutionally protected materials.”

The article goes on to say that the Stein campaign did provide documents pertaining to communications between them and "Russia media outlets."

However they are balking at providing the campaign's policy discussions regarding Russia, claiming it infringes on their First Amendment rights.

Personally I think that having access to those documents could prove very enlightening, and hope that both the Senate Intelligence Committee and the Mueller investigation get their hands on them.

I have not trusted Jill Stein from the word go, and I would not be at all surprised to learn that she was deeply involved in the Russian interference in our 2016 presidential election.

House Intelligence Committee ends it's "investigation" and, surprise surprise, finds no evidence of collusion. Update!

Courtesy of NBC News:  

House Republicans investigating foreign interference in the 2016 election say they have found no evidence that Russians colluded with any members of the Trump campaign and dispute a key finding from the intelligence community that Russia had developed a preference for the Republican nominee during the election. (Holy shit that's a lot of stupid.)


Those are the initial conclusions of a 150-page report from GOP members of the House Intelligence Committee, who are formally bringing the panel’s year-long investigation to an end over the fierce objection of Democrats. 

Lawmakers had been telegraphing that last week’s committee interview with former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski was likely to be the last of dozens conducted since the committee launched its Russia probe last March.

Yeah you could see this result coming from a mile away.

The Republicans would not be able to see collusion in this case if collusion if it his them right in the face.

This report was apparently written without any input from the Democrats on the committee, and in fact they did not know it had already been written.

In fact there are still witnesses that the Democrats wanted to call. 

Once again the Republicans in Congress prove that they can see no wrong doing unless it concerns a Democrat, and they invent it all by themselves.

And Fox New is already using this to undermine all of the investigations.

Hmmm... This banner on @FoxNews... "CASE CLOSED." pic.twitter.com/WxnzoTyLQ0

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) March 12, 2018

Nice try assholes.

Update: Well you knew this was coming.

THE HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE HAS, AFTER A 14 MONTH LONG IN-DEPTH INVESTIGATION, FOUND NO EVIDENCE OF COLLUSION OR COORDINATION BETWEEN THE TRUMP CAMPAIGN AND RUSSIA TO INFLUENCE THE 2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 13, 2018

And typed in all CAPS which reminds us that first and foremost Donald Trump is an online troll. 

Hope Hicks finally testifies before the House Intelligence Committee. Decides to pull a "Bannon."

Courtesy of WaPo:

Hope Hicks, one of President Trump’s closest aides and advisers, met Tuesday with House investigators probing Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election. But she refused to answer any questions about events and conversations that occurred since Trump took office, according to a Republican lawmaker who was there during the proceedings. 

Emerging from the meeting with Hicks, panel member Rep. Chris Stewart (R-Utah) said that “there are some questions that she’s not going to answer,” adding that Hicks was not willing to detail anything from the inauguration forward. 

Her refusal to answer questions about the Trump administration’s tenure suggests lawmakers will have a difficult time learning her side of a key story: the drafting of a misleading statement to explain an un­or­tho­dox meeting at Trump Tower between top Trump campaign members and a Russian lawyer.

According to at least one Democrat on the committee to say "We got Bannoned."

However at least one interesting tidbit was revealed during the testimony:

Hope Hicks, the White House communications director, told House investigators on Tuesday that her work for President Trump, who has a reputation for exaggerations and outright falsehoods, had occasionally required her to tell white lies. 

But after extended consultation with her lawyers, she insisted that she had not lied about matters material to the investigations into Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election and possible links to Trump associates, according to three people familiar with her testimony. 

The exchange came during more than eight hours of private testimony before the House Intelligence Committee. Ms. Hicks declined to answer similar questions about other figures from the Trump campaign or the White House. 

One has to wonder if she means "white lies" in the sense that they were harmless in nature, or just that they were okay because white people were telling them.?

Once again while I want as many investigations as possible looking into the Russia issue, I simply do not trust this House committee to actually get to any truth.

In fact I heard that they have already started writing their final report with several witnesses still to see. (Well to be honest it's the Democrats who want to see many more witnesses, as far as the Republicans are concerned Hicks was the last one.)

I am actually more interested in what Hicks might tell Mueller.

And I imagine that Mueller will not allow little miss orange stained thighs to pull any of these shenanigans on him or his investigators.

The Republicans will not share the Devin Nunes created memo that everybody is talking about with the FBI. Gee, why not?

Courtesy of Daily Mail: 

The FBI has not been permitted to see the memo Rep. Devin Nunes and his staff wrote about alleged abuses by the intelligence community, The Daily Beast has learned. 

"The FBI has requested to receive a copy of the memo in order to evaluate the information and take appropriate steps if necessary. To date, the request has been declined,” said Andrew Ames, a spokesperson for the FBI. 

Reached for comment, Nunes’ spokesperson Jack Langer said, "The Daily Beast has become America's foremost publication for regurgitating the Democrats' talking points." 

Nunes, who heads the powerful House intelligence community, put together the four-page memo based on intelligence the FBI showed him and a few of his staff, as well as Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the committee. More than 150 members of the House have seen Nunes’ memo. Scores are calling for its release, while Democrats say it is “a misleading set of talking points attacking the FBI.” 

The fact that Republicans refuse to show the memo to FBI, which characterizes the intelligence they shared with Nunes, has Democrats concerned. One aide told The Daily Beast it means Nunes’ efforts are just politics. 

“If this is about FBI abuses, why wouldn’t they share it with the Trump-appointed director who wasn't at the bureau when the abuses supposedly occurred?” the aide said. “If this is about cleaning up the FBI like they claim, wouldn't they want Wray as an ally?”

Boy, there's a good question for you. 

The House Intelligence Committee also blocked an attempt by the Democrats to release a minority report about the intelligence contained in the memo.

You may remember that Nunes was also behind all of that cloak and dagger stuff back in march, during which he accused the FBI of secretly wiretapped.

That was also a nothing burger, but the Republicans promoted it as proof that the intelligence agencies were working against the Trump presidency from the get go.

Nunes was also supposed to step down as the head of the intelligence committee, but clearly he has been involved in derailing the Mueller investigation all along.

Devin Nunes returns with a vengeance to undermine the Russia investigations.

Courtesy of WaPo:  

Rep. Devin Nunes, once sidelined by an ethics inquiry from leading the House Intelligence Committee’s Russia probe, is reasserting the full authority of his position as chairman just as the GOP appears poised to challenge special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation of possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Russian officials. 

The California Republican was cleared in December of allegations he improperly disclosed classified information while accusing the Obama administration of exposing the identities of Trump affiliates on surveillance reports. Since clearing his name, Nunes has stepped up his attacks on Mueller’s team and the law enforcement agencies around it, including convening a group of Intelligence Committee Republicans to draft a likely report on “corruption” among the investigators working for the special counsel.

Though Nunes has not officially wrested his panel’s Russia probe back from the Republicans he deputized to run it, the chairman’s reemergence as a combative Trump loyalist has raised alarm among Democrats that the future of the investigation may be clipped short or otherwise undermined. Even some of Nunes’s GOP allies have expressed concern about his tactics, prompting rare public warnings that he should temper his attacks on federal law enforcement.

Nunes has already signaled his decision about the legitimacy of the probe.

Nunes, meanwhile, appears to have made up his mind about the House Intelligence Committee probe into the allegations surrounding Trump and Russia, expressing his convictions in an interview with Fox News. 

“We have no evidence of Russia collusion between the Trump campaign” and Russia, Nunes said. 

Yeah so much for letting the evidence lead to a conclusion.
 
This to me also indicates the fear that Trump and his supporters feel about the Russia probes, and their growing realization that it may end the Trump presidency.

And we should also consider that Nunes himself may be a target of the Mueller team for his bizarre and transparent attempts to sabotage the Russian investigations in their earliest days.

The top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee says the evidence he has seen makes the Russia investigation "the most important thing" he will ever work on.

Courtesy of Raw Story:  

The ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee suggested he’s seen damning evidence in the investigation of Russian campaign interference — but he hinted special counsel Robert Mueller had even more proof. 

Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) said he’s more convinced than ever that the investigation is crucial to preserving U.S. democracy, according to Axios. 

The Virginia Democrat told the website that, “based on witness testimony and documents that he has seen behind closed doors, the Russia probe is ‘the most important thing I will ever work on.'” 

But Warner said the special counsel investigation had likely uncovered even more conclusive evidence linking the Trump campaign to Russian interference. 

“I feel that more strongly today than even a year ago, and we don’t even have near the tools that Robert Muller has in his investigation,” Warner said.

I happened to watch a little Fox News yesterday and was immediately struck by the immense effort they are putting into downplaying this investigation, and poo pooing the idea that Trump would have any reason to have Robert Mueller fired.

There was a whole panel present and they all mocked the idea that there was anything to this investigation, or that Trump would ever do anything silly like undermine the Special Counsel or start firing people to protect himself, almost as if they had never heard of James Comey.

To me it smacked of a desperate attempt to tamp down fears, and to lull the viewers into a false sense of security before Trump launched his own Saturday Night Massacre.

The noose is getting tight, I cannot imagine that Trump does not have some trick up his sleeve.

Nor can I imagine that Robert Mueller is not prepared for it.

Democrat on Senate Judiciary Committee says that they have shifted focus off Russia probe to "peripheral issues." Yes, it's about Hillary Clinton.

Who is this Republican Senator "nudged" by the White House? Is this why full Judiciary hearings have veered in this direction instead of Russia/obstruction? pic.twitter.com/q7gcr49Pvo

— Sheldon Whitehouse (@SenWhitehouse) December 1, 2017

Courtesy of Business Insider:  

Senate Judiciary Committee Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse told the committee's chairman, Sen. Chuck Grassley, in a letter Friday that he does not think the panel is "presently on a path" to help defend against potential Russian interference in the 2018 midterm elections — and beyond. 

That is because the committee is elevating "peripheral issues," Whitehouse said, such as Hillary Clinton's relationship with the opposition research firm Fusion GPS. Fusion hired a former British spy during the campaign to investigate President Donald Trump's ties to Russia.

Though Senator Grassley was not names in the article pointed out by Whitehouse, he IS one of the Senators currently calling for a second Special Counsel to investigate Hillary's connection to Fusion GPS and relationship with Russia.

Grassley also called the insinuation by Whitehouse that a Senator had been "nudged" by the White House to be "baseless."

Which is exactly how you would expect somebody who was nudged by the White House to respond.

And of course the House Intelligence Committee, supposedly also investigating the Russian interference, has also wandered way off target:  

The House Intelligence Committee has only issued one subpoena to a financial institution in the 11 months since it opened its investigation into Russia's election interference and potential collusion between President Donald Trump's campaign team and Moscow. 

The subpoena wasn't to Deutsche Bank — which was fined last year over its involvement in a major Russian money-laundering scheme and has been the Trump family's bank of choice for decades. Rather, the subpoena was delivered to the primary bank for the Washington, DC-based opposition research firm Fusion GPS. 

Republican Rep. Devin Nunes, the committee's chairman, stepped aside from the Russia probe in April amid an ethics investigation into whether he'd disclosed classified information in a press conference. But he was cleared earlier this month, and has spearheaded a months-long investigation into who paid Fusion for its work during the 2016 election. 

Sounds like the Republicans in Washington are about to go all Benghazi again. 

The Senate Intelligence Committee turns its attention to Jill Stein.

Courtesy of Buzzfeed:  

The top congressional committee investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election has set its sights on the Green Party and its nominee, Jill Stein. 

Dennis Trainor Jr., who worked for the Stein campaign from January to August of 2015, says Stein contacted him on Friday saying the Senate Intelligence Committee had requested that the campaign comply with a document search. 

Trainor, who served as the campaign’s communications director and acting manager during that time, told BuzzFeed News that he was informed of the committee’s request because during his time on the campaign, his personal cell phone was “a primary point of contact” for those looking to reach Stein or the campaign. That included producers from RT News, the Russian state-funded media company that booked Stein for several appearances, Trainor said. 

When asked Monday what the committee was looking for from the Stein campaign, North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr, the committee’s chairman, responded, "collusion with the Russians." Burr said that the committee is "just starting" its work investigating two campaigns, but did not elaborate. 

Stein did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

I have long believed that Stein was a Russian asset and now I am very interested in what an investigation of her connections to the Kremlin will reveal. 

I'm going to need a whole new batch of popcorn for this one.

Rep. Adam Schiff says that we know that the Russians offered help, the Trump campaign accepted that help, and Donald Trump made full use of that help.

Here is what we know:

The Russians offered help.
The Campaign accepted help.
The Russians gave help.
The President made full use of that help.

That's pretty damning. pic.twitter.com/kRo9NrdQq4

— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) December 10, 2017

Courtesy of the New York Post:  

The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee said the evidence mounting in the Russia probe against President Trump’s campaign is “damning.” “We do know this,” Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” 

“The Russians offered help. The campaign accepted help. The Russians gave help. And the president made full use of that help. And that’s pretty damning, whether it is proof beyond a reasonable doubt of conspiracy or not.”

I think most of us have realized this awhile ago, but to have the top Democrat on the house Intelligence Committee, which is currently investigating all of this, say it out loud is still pretty huge. 

Now we just need that top Republican in that committee agree and we are essentially off to the races.

My hope is that the 2018 mid term election will be a bloodbath for the GOP, and that we send so many new Democrats to Washington that there will be no choice but to proceed with impeachment proceedings.

If I have one Christmas wish, that would be it.

Over the summer Donald Trump repeatedly urged Senate Republicans to end their Russian investigation.

Courtesy of the New York Times:  

President Trump over the summer repeatedly urged senior Senate Republicans, including the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, to end the panel’s investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, according to a half dozen lawmakers and aides. Mr. Trump’s requests were a highly unusual intervention from a president into a legislative inquiry involving his family and close aides. 

Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina, the intelligence committee chairman, said in an interview this week that Mr. Trump told him that he was eager to see an investigation that has overshadowed much of the first year of his presidency come to an end. 

“It was something along the lines of, ‘I hope you can conclude this as quickly as possible,’” Mr. Burr said. He said he replied to Mr. Trump that “when we have exhausted everybody we need to talk to, we will finish.” 

In addition, according to lawmakers and aides, Mr. Trump told Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, and Senator Roy Blunt, Republican of Missouri and a member of the intelligence committee, to end the investigation swiftly.

Well my friends that smells an awful lot like  obstructionism to me.

And don't forget that Trump fired James Comey for refusing to end the FBI investigation, and that Devin Nunes has been working to sabotage the House investigation, as well.

It seems like every single day there is more evidence to support impeachment.

Carter Page's testimony before the House Intelligence Committee is....enlightening.

Courtesy of NBC News: 

Former Trump campaign volunteer Carter Page, who has come under scrutiny in the investigation of Russian election interference, told a House committee that he sought permission for a July 2016 trip to Moscow from senior Trump campaign officials, and reported to other Trump officials about the trip when he returned. 

It’s long been known that Page traveled to Moscow in July 2016, but he has said it was in his private capacity, unrelated to his role with the Trump campaign. 

Page, whose sworn testimony was released Monday night, told the House Intelligence Committee last week that he sought permission to make the trip from campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, and also notified Hope Hicks, who is now the White House communications director. 

Lewandowski told Page he was clear to go on the trip as long as the travel was not associated with his work on the campaign, Page told the committee.

However as it turns out Page was kind of representing the campaign to some degree on the trip, and he DEFINITELY talked with Russian government officials about the campaign.  So that sort makes it feel that it WAS associated with his work on the campaign.

Reporter Natasha Bertrand also points out that some of Page's testimony reinforces the documentation in the Christopher Steele Russian dossier.

Steele dossier panning out: Page met w/ both the head of investor relations for Rosneft AND members of Russia’s PA while in Moscow last July pic.twitter.com/k2mCTLIGUP

— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) November 7, 2017

Courtesy of Business Insider: 

Page revealed during his testimony that he met with both members of Russia's presidential administration and with the head of investor relations at the state-owned Russian oil giant Rosneft during his trip to Moscow last July. 

He also congratulated members of the Trump campaign's foreign policy team on July 14 for their "excellent work" on the "Ukraine amendment" — a reference to the Trump campaign's decision to "intervene" to water down a proposed amendment to the GOP's Ukraine platform. 

The original amendment proposed that the GOP commit to sending "lethal weapons" to the Ukrainian army to fend off Russian aggression. But it was ultimately altered to say "provide appropriate assistance" before it was included in the party's official platform. The dossier alleges that the campaign "agreed to sideline" the issue of Russia's invasion of Crimea and interference in eastern Ukraine in exchange for dirt on Hillary Clinton. 

Apparently Page was a confounding witness who attempted to plead with Fifth in response to some questions and then became quite chatty in response to others. 

Adam Schiff Asking Carter Page Whether He's Invoking The Fifth Amendment Is Something Else. pic.twitter.com/aNchV7MnTG

— Chris Geidner (@chrisgeidner) November 7, 2017

He also provided testimony which often seemed to contradict itself, and he probably perjured himself on several occasions.

Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff confronted Page with an email he wrote on July 8 from Moscow to Trump campaign adviser J.D. Gordon saying that he had received "incredible insights and outreach from a few Russian legislators and senior members of the presidential administration here." 

Former British spy Christopher Steele wrote in the dossier that an "official close to Presidential Administration Head, S. IVANOV, confided in a compatriot that a senior colleague in the Internal Political Department of the PA, DIVYEKIN (nfd) also had met secretly with PAGE on his recent visit." 

According to that official in the dossier, Diveykin told Page that the Kremlin had a dossier of kompromat on Hillary Clinton that they wanted to give to the Trump campaign. 

In his congressional testimony, Page denied meeting with Diveykin and said the "senior members of the presidential administration" that he had referred to in his email was actually just "a brief, less-than-10-second chat with [deputy Prime Minister] Arkadiy Dvorkovich." 

He said his mention of "legislators" was a reference to "a few people who were shaking hands" with him in passing. 

Like I said, "enlightening." 

The House Intelligence Committee is going to interview Trump's former Oval Office Operations director.

Courtesy of CNN:

One of President Donald Trump's closest confidantes is speaking privately next week to congressional investigators looking into Russia meddling, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter. 

Keith Schiller, a long-time adviser to Trump who left the White House in September after serving as director of Oval Office Operations, is expected to appear next Tuesday before the House intelligence committee, according to two of the sources. Schiller had long been by the President's side, and was the aide dispatched by Trump in May to deliver the news to the FBI that James Comey had been fired as bureau director. 

The Russia interviews -- at least a half-dozen this week and next -- show that the committee's probe, which has often been marred by partisan squabbles, is still chugging along through its witness list. The witnesses coming before the panel include Trump administration and campaign officials, former Obama administration officials and one of the eight individuals who was present for the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting between Donald Trump Jr., a Russian lawyer and several others, according to the sources. 

Rep. Mike Conaway, the Texas Republican who is leading the probe after House intelligence chairman Devin Nunes stepped aside earlier this year, has said he wants to wrap up the inquiry as quickly as is feasible. But California Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the panel, has accused Republicans of trying to rush certain witnesses so the investigation can end.

Schiller has worked for Trump for almost two decades.

He was also the one who accompanied Jared Kushner on his trip to Iraq, and delivered the note to James Comey telling him that he was fired.

So yes, he knows stuff. Possibly a lot of stuff.

However I am not at all confident that being interviewed in private will do anything to move the investigation forward, and I have zero confidence in the House Intelligence Committee's ability to do this job effectively.

I would much prefer having Schiller interviewed by the Mueller team and I hope that is something that has already happened, or is scheduled to happen in the near future.

Thanks to New York Times article the Senate Intelligence committee would like to have a few words with Donald Trump Jr.

Susan Collins on Don Jr.: "Our intelligence committee needs to interview him and others who attended the meeting." https://t.co/kecgMISPmO pic.twitter.com/QZH1zSmutw

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) July 10, 2017

Courtesy of the AP:  

A senior Republican on the Senate Intelligence committee says the panel should interview President Donald Trump’s eldest son about a meeting he and other Trump associates had last year with a Russian lawyer to hear information about former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. 

Sen. Susan Collins of Maine told reporters on Monday that “our intelligence committee needs to interview him and others who attended the meeting” as part of the panel’s probe into Russian interference in last year’s election and possible collusion between Russian officials and the Trump campaign. 

Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort accompanied Donald Trump Jr. to the Trump Tower meeting with Kremlin-linked lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya.

Junior says bring it on:

Happy to work with the committee to pass on what I know. https://t.co/tL47NOoteM

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) July 10, 2017

Oh yes, this is a GREAT idea!

Literally every time this smarmy POS opens his mouth he makes things even worse.

Must be a family trait.

I'm not so sure that Junior is as cavalier about all of this as he would like us to believe. Especially since he lawyered up almost immediately. 

Just to help things along MSNBC has put together an updated timeline:  

• June 7: The 2016 primary season essentially concludes, with both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton as the presumptive party nominees 
• June 9: Donald Trump Jr. — along with Jared Kushner and former campaign chair Paul Manafort — meets with Kremlin-connected lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya. 
• June 9: Trump tweets about Clinton’s missing 33,000 emails 
• July 18: Washington Post reports, on the first day of the GOP convention, that the Trump campaign changed the Republican platform to ensure that it didn’t call for giving weapons to Ukraine to fight Russian and rebel forces 
• July 21: GOP convention concludes with Trump giving his speech accepting the Republican nomination 
• July 22: WikiLeaks releases stolen emails from the Democratic National Committee 
• July 25: Democratic convention begins 
• July 27: In final news conference of his 2016 campaign, Trump asks Russia: “If you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing” 
• August 4: Obama CIA Director John Brennan confronts his Russian counterpart about Russia’s interference. “[I] told him if you go down this road, it's going to have serious consequences, not only for the bilateral relationship, but for our ability to work with Russia on any issue, because it is an assault on our democracy,” Brennan said on “Meet the Press” yesterday. 
• October 4: WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange says his organization will publish emails related to the 2016 campaign 
• October 7: Department of Homeland Security and the Director of National Intelligence release a statement directly saying that Russia is interfering in the 2016 election 
• October 7: WikiLeaks begins releasing Clinton Campaign Chair John Podesta’s emails 
• October 31: “This WikiLeaks is like a treasure trove,” Trump says on the campaign trail 
• November 4: “Boy, I love reading those WikiLeaks,” Trump says from Ohio.

I swear the more pieces we find, the clearer the picture of collusion becomes.

Why do I get the feeling that Trump Jr. is about to add even more pieces to the puzzle?

Senator Dianne Feinstein just opened a can of Whoop ass on Donald Trump.

Here is the Senator's complete press release: 

“I’m growing increasingly concerned that the president will attempt to fire not only Robert Mueller, the special counsel investigating possible obstruction of justice, but also Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein who appointed Mueller. 

“The message the president is sending through his tweets is that he believes the rule of law doesn’t apply to him and that anyone who thinks otherwise will be fired. That’s undemocratic on its face and a blatant violation of the president’s oath of office. 

“First of all, the president has no authority to fire Robert Mueller. That authority clearly lies with the attorney general—or in this case, because the attorney general has recused himself, with the deputy attorney general. Rosenstein testified under oath this week that he would not fire Mueller without good cause and that none exists. 

“And second, if the president thinks he can fire Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein and replace him with someone who will shut down the investigation, he’s in for a rude awakening. Even his staunchest supporters will balk at such a blatant effort to subvert the law. 

“It’s becoming clear to me that the president has embarked on an effort to undermine anyone with the ability to bring any misdeeds to light, be that Congress, the media or the Justice Department. The Senate should not let that happen. We’re a nation of laws that apply equally to everyone, a lesson the president would be wise to learn.”

In other words, "Don't try any of your bullshit shenanigans because we are watching everything you do and there is no place for you to run."

As CNN reports Feinstein is on both the Senate intelligence and Judiciary Committees so there is likely NOTHING about those investigations of which she is not fully aware.

And if she drops an ultimatum like this she has the means to back it up.

In other news Robert Mueller is hiring his own platoon of lawyers.

Courtesy of TPM:

Special counsel Robert Mueller has hired 13 lawyers for his probe of Russian meddling in the 2016 investigation and plans on hiring “several more,” a spokesman for Mueller told Talking Points Memo on Friday. 

“In addition to Mr. Mueller, we have 13 attorneys on board, with several more in the pipeline,” Mueller’s spokesman, Peter Carr, told TPM in an email. “The number of people will be determined by the needs of the investigation.”

Man I would love to be a fly on the wall inside that White House right now.

It must be similar to a mental hospital which has depleted its supply of anti-psychotic medications.

I just imagine a building filled with people overcome with paranoia and starting to see things out of the corner of their eyes creeping ever closer to them.

I await the days when through the windows we see furniture stacked up against all of the exits, while Donald Trump, with his long red tie wrapped firmly around his forehead, screams out to the gathering mob that "Dammit this is a witch hunt, why won't anybody understand that?"

Attorney General Jeff Sessions WILL testify during an open hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee tomorrow. Popcorn anyone?

Uh oh.

Courtesy of Politico: 

Attorney General Jeff Sessions will testify in an open hearing Tuesday before the Senate Intelligence Committee on his role in the unfolding Russia investigation, according to congressional and Justice Department officials. 

Sessions informed Congress over the weekend that he will appear before the intelligence committee, rather than before previously scheduled hearings regarding funding for the Justice Department. 

The attorney general is facing increased scrutiny from lawmakers after former FBI Director James Comey testified last week that he knew details about Sessions before his recusal from the Russia probe that would make his involvement in the investigation “problematic.”

Oh man this is great news. 

If Sessions perjures himself before the entire country, the pressure will be immense for him to be fired.

Well I know what I'm going to be doing.

Yep.

James Comey Senate Testimony Open Thread! Update!

Today James Comey will give perhaps the most anticipated testimony since Watergate.

Or at least since Hillary Clinton's eleven hours of testimony during the Benghazi witch hunt.

If you are in a bar in Washington DC you might be enjoying free drinks.

Or you may have called in sick to work.

Whatever the case I am sure that you, like me, can barely concentrate on anything other than what may or may not be said during this hearing.

We did get a preview yesterday of Comey's opening remarks, the rest we will have to learn in real time.

I will try to liveblog this as it goes along, and you can also follow me on my Twitter page for updates.

I will also post Trump's Twitter reaction, if there are any.

Let's get this party started.

Update: Oh I love this news.

President Trump will dispute he asked James Comey for loyalty https://t.co/etzFZySVpV

— TIME (@TIME) June 8, 2017

Update 2:

James Comey: Trump Admin ‘Defamed’ Me and the FBI With ‘Lies, Plain and Simple’https://t.co/dztDq8ULfB pic.twitter.com/RyFbU6pihd

— Mediaite (@Mediaite) June 8, 2017

Not a good idea to piss off the former head of the FBI.

Update 3: Comey did not feel this way about President Obama.

Comey: “I was honestly concerned that he might lie about the nature of our meeting” https://t.co/6jHeMTcq9R

— Mike Allen (@mikeallen) June 8, 2017

Update 3: Apparently rather than tweeting from either of his two official accounts Trump is working through his kid.

Washington DC at its finest. This is what America rallied against, but the DC elite don't get it or know any other way. https://t.co/H5SszE4uL4

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) June 8, 2017

It's sad that the left today would rather see America suffer and fail than to see it succeed with @realDonaldTrump at the helm. #maga

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) May 12, 2017

Trump is such a little snowflake.

Update 4: If Trump has tapes Comey would like them released.

Comey, asked about the possibility that Trump recorded their interactions: "If he did, my feelings aren't hurt. Release all the tapes." pic.twitter.com/Pbs229SRzX

— POLITICO (@politico) June 8, 2017

Let me second that.

That would be AWESOME!

Update 5: 

"I was fired to change in some way the nature of the Russia investigation." And there it is.

— George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) June 8, 2017

Yep.

Update 6: That was just fucking sad.

My response to @SenJohnMcCain attempting to suggest that there was a double standard with how Comey treated Hillary as opposed to Trump. pic.twitter.com/vD9BYEeoqK

— Gryphen 2009 (@Gryphen2009) June 8, 2017

Update 7: Wait! It's over?

How come nobody ever sits for an 11 hour hearing like Hillary was forced to endure?

Okay what did we learn? The following:

• Comey was pressured to drop the Flynn investigation. 
•  Comey did not want to be in the same room alone with Trump, just like every woman on the planet.
•  Comey could not answer whether or not there is any evidence of collusion between  Trump and Russia.
• Comey thinks Trump is a liar.
• And Senator John McCain may have slipped into dementia right before our eyes.

I wanted more, but it sounds like in order to get it I would have to listen in on the closed hearing that is happening next. That one sounds as if it will be much more entertaining. 

Donald Trump threatens James Comey over possibility of taped conversations.

James Comey better hope that there are no "tapes" of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 12, 2017

Holy shit! Is this man actually threatening the man he just fired as the head of the FBI?

This has to be in response to the New York Times article that claims Trump asked Comey for a pledge of loyalty:  

As they ate, the president and Mr. Comey made small talk about the election and the crowd sizes at Mr. Trump’s rallies. The president then turned the conversation to whether Mr. Comey would pledge his loyalty to him. 

Mr. Comey declined to make that pledge. Instead, Mr. Comey has recounted to others, he told Mr. Trump that he would always be honest with him, but that he was not “reliable” in the conventional political sense.

By Mr. Comey’s account, his answer to Mr. Trump’s initial question apparently did not satisfy the president, the associates said. Later in the dinner, Mr. Trump again said to Mr. Comey that he needed his loyalty. 

Mr. Comey again replied that he would give him “honesty” and did not pledge his loyalty, according to the account of the conversation. 

But Mr. Trump pressed him on whether it would be “honest loyalty.” 

“You will have that,” Mr. Comey told his associates he responded. 

Damn!

To me this sounds as if Trump was trying to pressure Comey into sabotaging the Russia probe and to instead agree to protect Trump from possible prosecution or impeachment.

Of course the White House is denying this account. (Of course.)

One has to wonder if part of Trump's concern is over the fact that Comey has been invited to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee nest Tuesday?

Sen. Mark Warner says he and Chmn. Burr have invited James Comey to testify before the Senate Intel Committee on Tuesday. — via @MSNBC pic.twitter.com/4zmnh8vQWs

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) May 10, 2017

Courtesy of Second Nexus: 

A day after being fired by Donald Trump, FBI Director James Comey was invited to testify in closed session in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee next Tuesday, May 16. The invitation was extended by both the committee’s Republican Chair, Senator Richard Burr, as well as its Democratic ranking member, Senator Mark Warner.

I am hoping like hell that Comey takes them up on this.

Clearly he has much to share, and now without the constraints of being the actual director of the FBI he might be a little more forthcoming than he was during his last appearance before the Senate.

I still assume that he cannot share classified information, however he should feel more free to share information about conversations he had with Trump, or with Trump associates.