Trump: Donald Jr. did nothing illegal in Russian meeting over Clinton 'dirt'
38 replies, posted
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/08/05/donald-trump-son-did-nothing-wrong-2016-meeting-russian/909876002/
This was a meeting to get information on an opponent, totally legal and done all the time in politics - and it went nowhere. I did not know about it!
Trump, today
The president directed that Trump Jr.’s statement to the Times describe the meeting as unimportant. He wanted the statement to say that the meeting had been initiated by the Russian lawyer and primarily was about her pet issue — the adoption of Russian children.
Trump, last year
Here it is, the first absolutely naked lie and cover-up about the Russia investigation. Trump continues to maintain he 'knew nothing about the meeting' yet still maintains expert knowledge and opinions about it and dictated the response to it, now stating even more intimate knowledge that can't be rationalized against 'knew nothing about it'.
His statement is morphing to that he didn't know it had happened and he will pretend like that's what he meant the whole time. Importantly, however, whenever this news was first coming out Trump was asked about it and he said he 'knew nothing about it until months after it occurred'. There's a problem with that, however: Michael Cohen is telling people Trump didn't just know about it but that he personally approved it - and if Cohen knew about it it's likely other people knew about it as well.
Cohen is willing to testify to it, Trump penned a letter on boarding the plane hours after the meeting denying it, and here he is trying to squirm out from under it; ironically making the case against him only tighter. Today, I'm sure Robert Mueller is sitting at his desk smiling because Trump has sent yet another gift-wrapped demonstration of corrupt intent - which clearly shows the President attempting to mislead the public and obscure truth.
Other 'hanging chads' about this which don't or didn't mesh up with the New Trump Narrative which is constantly shifting, just to keep folks apprised:
The President didn't draft the statement stating that meeting was about 'adoptions'
Sekulow defended it stating that 'he wasn't involved in the drafting at all and neither was the President'
Trump's legal team later admitted that 'the President dictated a short but accurate response to the NY Times on behalf of his son, which his son then followed up on'
Nobody on the Trump team has talked to Russians
"It never happened. There was no communication between the campaign and any foreign entity during the campaign." -Hope Hicks, 2016
"Of course not. Why would there be any contacts between the campaign?" - Vice President Pence, 2016
(1) Trump Tower meeting with Russian lawyer tied to Putin. (2) AG Jeff Sessions meeting with a Russian ambassador. (3) Erik Prince meeting in the Seychelles with a Russian close to Putin to set up back channels of communication.
Trump didn't stay overnight in Moscow in 2013
Comey has stated Trump denied two occasions he stayed overnight in Moscow during the 2013 Miss Universe pageant, which is where purportedly the 'compromising video footage' of him was made.
Trump denies the existence of said tape; states that if Russia had that tape, they would've released it already.
Flight records indicate Trump's plane was in Moscow from Friday to Sunday morning -- meaning he stayed over at least one night.
Trump team didn't know about National Enquirer/Karen McDougal payment (story about alleged affair with Trump)
"We have no knowledge of any of this" Hope Hicks, 2016
Trump spoke with Cohen about buying the rights to the story in September 2016. This is proven with public evidence Cohen released on tape; even if he didn't know the full details of the situation, he did not have 'no knowledge'.
Trump didn't know about payment(s) to Stormy Daniels
"He (Trump) wasn't aware of any of it." Schwartz (Cohen's lawyer), March 2018
Trump denied knowing about the 130k payment to Daniels and he stated he doesn't know where Cohen got the money to make that payment. (See 4b)
Giuliani eventually stated Cohen 'funneled it through a law firm, and the president repaid it'. Trump then confirmed it.
Methinks the tyrant doth protest too much
Every time I think he can't get dumber, he goes and accidentally sells out his son for conspiracy against the united states.
Totally legal and done all the time
https://youtu.be/Ojlcvn42rb0?t=92
i definitely didn't do this thing, no sir, there's no reason for me to do it, and if i did do it then it must've had a good reason to happen
Al Gore proven to know more about the law than the President. Here's a small sample of the laws the President just potentially criminally exposed himself and his son to (and at least some of which Gore himself dodged by reporting what was given to him rather than accepting and keeping it):
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/371
https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/11/110.20
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1030
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2381
(Regarding the above, the Justice Department as recently as 2006 indicted for 'aid and comfort' to our enemies - the form of collusion most people would regard as 'treason')
I think seeing Jr behind bars would be almost as satisfying as seing the big guy himself there, ever since he used halloween candy as an analogy to communism I kinda have a fierce hatred for this turd, he's like a more competent but even more absurd Trump.
the meeting never happened, i never heard about it, and if it did it wasn't illegal
He can of course continue to say these things, but his lawyers filed it in court that the meeting did happen, he personally penned a statement about it, and now he admits it was illegal while simply stating 'it's not illegal'. I doubt he'll ever admit the truth of the matter.
If it comes to it, I imagine Trump will simply reject the law, so stating that the law is the thing that's wrong - not him - because he only did what was right for America. In short:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMt8qCl5fPk
So wait did he just admit it
He admitted he blatantly lied about many aspects of this meeting directly to the public.
Ya number 2 is the part that is patently illegal. Like you can argue collusion till the cows come home but they were attempting to obtain aid (compromising materials) from russian nationals or the russian government itself. That is a crime, that is illegal.
Yep. Specifically, the law in question states that they don't even need to accept the gift itself -- merely the promise of valuable things or even the implication of valuable things is enough to be in violation of the law. It's more or less built up that 'if you're a political campaign and some foreigner offers you anything, you do not wait, you immediately tell them no and you go immediately cover your ass by yelling at the FBI that you were offered that valuable thing'. Otherwise, you could be found to be in a conspiracy to defraud the US by way of knowingly violating the FEC and failing to report that contact.
From Trump's own statements on this, we know that the chief topics discussed in this meeting were Russian sanctions (specifically, the Magnitsky Act), Russia's support of Donald Trump's presidential campaign, and Russian "dirt" on Hillary Clinton.
If the conditions for receiving Russian "dirt" on Clinton involved Donald Trump easing the Magnitsky Act and/or other sanctions against Russia, and Trump agreed, then we have proof positive of a criminal conspiracy that is nothing short of treason -- compromising our national security and encouraging acts of war against our country in exchange for assistance stealing the presidential election.
Him personally dictating a false narrative on Air Force One, and then lying about it, and then admitting the real purpose of the meeting on Twitter establishes a pattern of obstruction all by itself, independent of the many other things that've happened that I haven't mentioned.
Yup. Trump's tweet today has backed him into a corner where every possible explanation for the events and statements surrounding the Trump Tower meeting is a criminal one.
As I've been saying he would do since the day he fired Comey: now that his personal criminal liability is impossible to deny and there is no legal argument that can save him from prosecution in a court of law, he is shifting the narrative from denying that he has ever committed these crimes, to attempting to rationalize and justify the crimes. His base has been conditioned to accept that Donald Trump did criminally conspire with Russia, but that the conspiracy was normal, acceptable, and even commendable.
Donald Trump did what was necessary to save America from Clinton.
https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1025773355427921920
Boy, that's something I've heard before.
Also, Jay Sekulow asks a stupid question and gets fucking told by a reporter what any competent lawyer should know.
http://thehill.com/homenews/sunday-talk-shows/400441-trump-lawyer-sekulow-downplays-potential-trump-tower-meeting
"The question is how would [the meeting] would be illegal," Sekulow said on ABC's "This Week." "You have to look at what laws, rules, regulations, statutes are purportedly violated here."
'"Well, they've actually pointed to several, including conspiracy to defraud the United States," host George Stephanopoulos retorted. "That would be one of the possible charges, aiding and abetting conspiracy."
The entire Republican strategy is telling their voters to their faces that they're stupid enough to believe this shit, and the response is "yes we are".
When can we lock these clowns up already?
When you can get 3/4s of Congress in such pain and intense public scrutiny that they are forced to impeach or risk being drug from their chairs.
This would give any Republican before 1991 an aneurysm.
I'm willing to bet these fuckers couldn't string together a coherent sentence for why they'd rather be russian than democrat.
I keep thinking "How do these cultists not realize what they're doing" but then I remember "Oh right, cultists"
I gotta hand it to the KGB, they're really fucking good at psyops. In 6 years they changed the American Right from calling Russia "a threat to global peace" to being so strongly pro-Russia that they are willing to trust the Putin over the Democrats.
TL;DR: He's fucked
Better red than dead.
Remember when supporting messed up shit was not just political suicide, but also meant everyone except a select few would hate you?
Congratulations; identity politics have become so bad that Americans rather associate with hostile foreign nations than the opposition party.
Спасибо, Трамп.
Goddamn I need a drink.
"a meeting to get information on an opponent, totally legal and done all the time in politics"
This is one of those things that's technically true, if you ignore literally every other bit of info we have on this meeting. It was with people tied to the Russian government, who openly announced they were part of said government, who then talked about the Magnitsky Act. They laid out what they wanted in return for the info on Clinton. Calling this "collusion" is like saying Donald Trump struggles with the truth. It's an understatement on the best of days. It's outright conspiracy, if not treason.
If Trump was smart he would have shut the fuck up a very, very long time ago with the tweets, but he has done the exact opposite, to an absolutely absurd degree.
And the big frosting here is that his tweets are directly being investigated and he knows it.
He has no self control at all.
I think what is terrifying now is that there will be now other alt-right political leaders climbing for the top positions, and they know they will have the support.
and they wont be complete morons like trump.
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