Russian lawyer at center of that notorious Trump Tower meeting during the 2016 campaign, says that Donald Trump Jr. asked for dirt on the Clinton Foundation.

Courtesy of NBC News: 

Donald Trump Jr. asked a Russian lawyer at the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting whether she had evidence of illegal donations to the Clinton Foundation, the lawyer told the Senate Judiciary Committee in answers to written questions obtained exclusively by NBC News. 

The lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, told the committee that she didn't have any such evidence, and that she believes Trump misunderstood the nature of the meeting after receiving emails from a music promoter promising incriminating information on Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump's Democratic opponent. 

Once it became apparent that she did not have meaningful information about Clinton, Trump seemed to lose interest, Veselnitskaya said, and the meeting petered out.

Now the only way that this Natalia Veselnitskaya, could have obtained any inside information about Hillary Clinton's campaign, or the Clinton Foundation, would be by way of those Russian hacks that Junior was well aware took place.

This means that Junior was asking for data illegally obtained by a long time foreign adversary in order to win an election.

I'm sorry, what is the definition of "collusion" again?

Or have we now moved to the more appropriate definition, "conspiracy?"

Well Junior will get the opportunity to answer questions about this when he appears before various committees.

Courtesy of Mother Jones: 

Donald Trump Jr. will face questions from two congressional committees in coming weeks about his multiple meetings with Russian representatives and his efforts to obtain damaging information on Hillary Clinton from the Kremlin. 

Trump, the president’s eldest son, will meet Wednesday with members of the House Intelligence Committee. He is also scheduled to appear this month before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Senator Richard Burr (R-N.C.), the committee’s chairman, told Mother Jones. Committee aides declined to specify the date of the Senate interview. Alan Futerfas, Trump Jr.’s lawyer, did not respond to questions. 

The interviews, both of which will occur behind closed doors, come as investigations into the Trump campaign’s contacts with Russia last year accelerate in the wake of special counsel Robert Mueller’s charges against four Trump associates, including former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort. Trump Jr. will face questions on at least three aspects of the campaign’s suspected coordination with Russia.

I still do not have a lot of confidence in the House Intelligence committee, but the Senate committee seems popcorn worthy.

Donald Trump has stated that he does not intend to go after Hillary Clinton because of her e-mail server, but that does not mean he is done punishing her yet.

Courtesy of the New York Post:  

Foreign governments will be encouraged to investigate the Clinton Foundation’s finances, as many are already turning off money spigots to the scandal-scarred group, The Post has learned. 

A source close to President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team told The Post that the new administration plans to pressure the US ambassadors it will name to bring up the foundation with foreign governments — and suggest they probe its ­financial dealings. 

Trump said last week that he would not order an investigation of Hillary Clinton’s private e-mail server or her role in the foundation. 

But Trump’s statement didn’t preclude the backroom moves to investigate the group. 

“Haiti and Colombia will be key diplomatic posts for this ­because of all the money ­involved,” said the source.

So I guess when Donald Trump said, “I don’t want to hurt them. They’re good people,” that was just one more lie to add to the pile?

I think just like the Benghazi investigation and the e-mail kerfuffle this will turn out to be a great big nothing burger.

But once again it adds stress to the lives of the Clinton family, and very likely endangers the survival of the Clinton Foundation.

Wasn't it Omarosa who said that Trump was keeping a list of his enemies?

Why yes it was.

John Aravosis of Americablog destroys the AP's story of Hillary Clinton's so-called "pay for play."

You probably heard about this AP story, or at least about the fallout from the story, that while Secretary of State Hillary Clinton provided access to big donors to the Clinton Foundation.

The Right Wing erupted in orgasmic delight after reading it and serious media outlets took it and ran with it.

Except, like most Clinton smoking guns, it is all smoke and no gun.

To make this point John Avarosis took to Twitter to point out the holes in the story.

1) Clinton campaign is rightfully slamming AP for refusing to correct an outright lie about the Clinton foundation. https://t.co/Iv665DU8Pz

— John Aravosis (@aravosis) August 24, 2016

2) AP claimed in blockbuster story that HALF of Hillary's meeting while secretary were w/ Clinton foundation donors. pic.twitter.com/s7zIwEzRR4

— John Aravosis (@aravosis) August 24, 2016

3) AP then gave numbers: 85 of 154 people who met or talked by phone with Hillary were donors. More than half! pic.twitter.com/zmYlQT3JT3

— John Aravosis (@aravosis) August 24, 2016

4) Then you think about it. In 4 years as Sec of State, Hillary only met or talked to 154 people? Really?

— John Aravosis (@aravosis) August 24, 2016

5) AP would like us to believe that Hillary has fewer than one meeting or phone call per week as Sec of State? Uh, no.

— John Aravosis (@aravosis) August 24, 2016

6) In fact, Hillary met over 1,700 people as Secretary. And if only 85 were donors to foundation, that's pretty lousy rate of pay-for-play.

— John Aravosis (@aravosis) August 24, 2016

7) Oh but it gets worse for AP. AP devoted 1/3 of the story to Muhammad Yunus. He's their big smoking gun.

— John Aravosis (@aravosis) August 24, 2016

8) probably because the AP reporters had no idea who Yunus actually is. He's huge. Done more than anyone alive to alleviate poverty.

— John Aravosis (@aravosis) August 24, 2016

9) Yunus won the Nobel peace prize for founding the Grameen bank and pioneering concept of microlending to women in LDCs.

— John Aravosis (@aravosis) August 24, 2016

10) no shit the Secretary of State met with Yunus. He's global poverty's Mother Teresa. That's AP's big smoking gun.

— John Aravosis (@aravosis) August 24, 2016

The tweets continue on until they reach 24.

I will not post all of them here, but I will include that 24th tweet.

24) it's only corruption when you're a Democrat. It's only corruption when you're a Clinton.

— John Aravosis (@aravosis) August 25, 2016

This is what I meant the other day when I said that Hillary Clinton is held to a higher, and I would argue unattainable, standard.

Small, almost insignificant issues like private e-mail servers, clumsy explanations about Benghazi, and even her personal health is put under a high powered microscope and examined for any hint of scandal that can be used against her politically.

Yes other politicians receive scrutiny from the press, but nothing compares to what Hillary Clinton has had to face. Or for that matter President Obama.

P.S. You can read the AmericaBlog post that goes along with these tweets right here.

State Department has no plans to review donations to the Clinton Foundation. Well this is certainly going to cause some conservatives to pull their hair out.

Courtesy of HuffPo: 

The State Department said Thursday it has no plans to review previously undisclosed donations to a branch of the Clinton Foundation that some say raise questions about potential conflicts of interest during former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's time in office. 

Department spokesman Jeff Rathke said the contributions in question, made to the Clinton Health Access Initiative by private donors, would not have been reviewed even if they had all been disclosed under the terms of ethics agreements Clinton signed before she took office. That's because only donations to the foundation from foreign governments or speaking fees for former President Bill Clinton were subject to vetting. 

The agreements did require that private donations be made public and the health initiative has acknowledged it did not do so in all cases. Rathke said the State Department welcomes the steps the foundation and its arms are now taking to address the issue and won't pursue the matter. 

"The State Department has not and does not intend to initiate a formal review, or to make a retroactive judgment about items that were not submitted during Secretary Clinton's tenure," Rathke told reporters, rejecting suggestions that the undisclosed donations might raise ethics red flags.

Oh man you KNOW that is going to drive conservatives around the freaking bend, and it will inspire Right Wing news outlets to assume all kinds of behind the scenes deal making between the Clintons and the Obama administration.

Not that it makes any difference how much door slamming and tantrum throwing they do, since it seems fairly certain that Hillary is going to be in charge of state department at some point in the near future.

This from Politico: 

On Nov. 8, 2016, Clinton will start — start — with a minimum 247 of the 270 electoral votes she needs to win. If you give her Colorado and Virginia — which many political strategists would, given the Hispanic population in one and the rising influence of the northern-centered population in the other — she'll start with 269. That means Clinton doesn't need Ohio or Florida. She just needs one small state like Iowa, Nevada or New Hampshire to put her over the edge. And because she's got a boatload of money and no viable primary challenger, she'll have plenty of time and resources to lock up at least one of those states.

Benghazi, e-mail-gate, Clinton attack books, none of it is going to amount to a hill of beans compared to the reality of what the Clintons have in their warchest.

And now that Jeb has openly identified his brother George W. as a close adviser on foreign policy, which I think takes him right out of the race, who do the Republicans actually have that can give Hillary a run for her money?

Anybody?