All Purpose News and Politics Thread Part IV: The Center Cannot Hold

[worstblogever]

Speaking of GOP corruption, a report is out that the NRA illegally coordinated the Senate campaigns of Ron Johnson, Corey Gardner, and Thom Tillis in 2014 and 2016.

The latter two are up for re-election in 2020, and the NRA is more being looked at as a Russian asset.

[jetengine]

Speaking of GOP corruption, a report is out that the NRA illegally coordinated the Senate campaigns of Ron Johnson, Corey Gardner, and Thom Tillis in 2014 and 2016.

The latter two are up for re-election in 2020, and the NRA is more being looked at as a Russian asset.

Remember its not the National Rifle Association its the National Russian Allies

[Kirby101]

[SquirrelMan]

Giuliani got subpoenaed.

[SquirrelMan]

That says P Ya A

[worstblogever]

Giuliani got subpoenaed.

He's going to try to invoke executive privilege... or attorney client privilege, even though he's never worked for the White House directly, and has already said his role in Ukraine was not as Trump's lawyer.

He might end up in jail before he shows up.

[BeastieRunner]

Lordy, there is a second whistleblower.

And this one is about his taxes.

I saw the OIG complaint last week and there are 6 more coming, one involved Bolton as the reporter.

Money is on a Clinton-esque BJ will come out, too.

[Tami]

Trump Pressed Australian Leader to Help Barr Investigate Mueller Inquiry’s Origins

WASHINGTON — President Trump pushed the Australian prime minister during a recent telephone call to help Attorney General William P. Barr gather information for a Justice Department inquiry that Mr. Trump hopes will discredit the Mueller investigation, according to two American officials with knowledge of the call.

The White House restricted access to the call’s transcript to a small group of the president’s aides, one of the officials said, an unusual decision that is similar to the handling of a July call with the Ukrainian president that is at the heart of House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry into Mr. Trump. Like that call, the discussion with Prime Minister Scott Morrison of Australia shows the extent to which Mr. Trump sees the attorney general as a critical partner in his goal to show that the Mueller investigation had corrupt and partisan origins, and the extent that Mr. Trump sees the Justice Department inquiry as a potential way to gain leverage over America’s closest allies.

And like the call with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, the discussion with Mr. Morrison shows the president using high-level diplomacy to advance his personal political interests.

President Trump initiated the discussion in recent weeks with Mr. Morrison explicitly for the purpose of requesting Australia’s help in the Justice Department review of the Russia investigation, according to the two people with knowledge of the discussion. Mr. Barr requested that Mr. Trump speak to Mr. Morrison, one of the people said. It came only weeks after Mr. Trump seemed to make military aid to Ukraine contingent on Mr. Zelensky doing him the “favor” of helping Mr. Barr with his work.

In making the request, Mr. Trump was in effect asking the Australian government to investigate itself. The F.B.I.’s counterintelligence investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election began after Australian officials told the bureau that the Russian government had made overtures to the Trump campaign about releasing political damaging information about Hillary Clinton.

Australian officials shared that information after its top official in Britain met in London in May 2016 with George Papadopoulos, a Trump campaign foreign policy adviser who told the Australian about the Russian dirt on Mrs. Clinton.

Mr. Papadopoulos also said that he had heard that the Russians had “thousands” of Mrs. Clinton’s emails from Joseph Mifsud, an academic. Mr. Mifsud, who was last seen working as a visiting professor in Rome, has disappeared. Trump allies, like the president’s personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani, have put forth an unsubstantiated claim that Western intelligence agencies planted Mr. Mifsud to trap Mr. Papadopoulos.

[Kirby101]

That says P Ya A

It's a visualization of the truth. Most see it for what it means and won't take it litterally.

[Sacred Knight]

But it was...it was...completely legitimate. Completely legitimate. Australia and I had the best...the most wonderful conversation....in the history of the United States. Never before...has any president had such a wonderful conversation. It was beautiful. And it was all legitimate.

[worstblogever]

Trump Pressed Australian Leader to Help Barr Investigate Mueller Inquiry’s Origins

The floodgates are about to open.

[GindyPosts]

Hey, WBE... Remember a recent Stupid Republican entry?

Stacey Dash arrested for assaulting a man at a Florida nightclub

It is often strange that Right Wing Guest Pundits For Hire always condemn "the left" for abhorrent behavior whenever somebody acts out of line, but watch as the next time she appears as a guest pundit (for hire), she'll spin the announcement of her arrest as an assault on her image when people are just... reporting she got arrested for scratching a guy and then got released from a county jail the next morning without further incident.

[Tami]

Trump Pressed Australian Leader to Help Barr Investigate Mueller Inquiry’s Origins

Bill Barr asked Trump for introduction to leaders in Italy, Australia and Ukraine so he could investigate Mueller probe: report

There are now three different countries caught up in the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump.

“As a part of his review of the origins of the investigation into members of President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign, Attorney General William Barr asked President Trump on several occasions to initiate introductions between him and the leaders of Australia and Italy, among other countries, a Department of Justice official with direct knowledge of the calls told ABC News on Monday,” the network reported Monday.

Trump has spoken to Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte as recently as September 5th, according to White House readouts.

“The official told ABC News that Barr’s visit to Italy last week was related to that review, but did not further characterize who Barr met with or why he would personally travel to a foreign country as a part of the review,” the network reported.

----------------

Attorney General Barr personally asked foreign officials to aid inquiry into CIA, FBI activities in 2016

Attorney General William P. Barr has held private meetings overseas with foreign intelligence officials seeking their help in a Justice Department inquiry that President Trump hopes will discredit U.S. intelligence agencies’ examination of Russian interference in the 2016 election, according to people familiar with the matter.

Barr’s personal involvement is likely to stoke further criticism from Democrats pursuing impeachment that he is helping the Trump administration use executive branch powers to augment investigations aimed primarily at the president’s adversaries.

But the high level Justice Department focus on intelligence operatives’ conduct will likely cheer Trump and other conservatives for whom “investigate the investigators” has become a rallying cry.

The direct involvement of the nation’s top law enforcement official shows the priority Barr places on the investigation being conducted by John Durham, the U.S. attorney in Connecticut, who has been assigned the sensitive task of reviewing U.S. intelligence work surrounding the 2016 election and its aftermath.

Barr has already made overtures to British intelligence officials, and last week the attorney general traveled to Italy, where he and Durham met senior Italian government officials and Barr asked the Italians to assist Durham, according to one person familiar with the matter. It was not Barr’s first trip to Italy to meet intelligence officials, the person said. The Trump administration has made similar requests of Australia, these people said.

[GindyPosts]

Oh, really?

I assume the Trumpster is looking at Marvel's Civil War, by which I'm referring to the movie and not the first version of the comic book storyline, and clearly not the actual American Civil War, which was fostered by southern hostility towards the north dominating virtually everything in American commerce and them having the gall to not want slavery legal in the new states being admitted. That's the only way I believe he looks at history, as it's clear books are boring to him and he's too lazy to look up Wikipedia.

[Sacred Knight]

What would happen is exactly what happened when Nixon resigned in disgrace before he could be officially tried and convicted. Some would probably be mad, most would be relieved that the nightmare was over, and we'd pick up the pieces and move on. But in his head an actual war would result. There's no stronger metaphor to illustrate is ego and narcissism.