Discussion: Firm That Funded Trump Dossier Urges Congress To Release Testimony

TPM Article Topics
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Just to point out one passage:

What came back shocked us. Mr. Steele’s sources in Russia (who were not
paid) reported on an extensive — and now confirmed — effort by the
Kremlin to help elect Mr. Trump president. Mr. Steele saw this as a
crime in progress and decided he needed to report it to the F.B.I.

We did not discuss that decision with our clients, or anyone else.
Instead, we deferred to Mr. Steele, a trusted friend and intelligence
professional with a long history of working with law enforcement. We did
not speak to the F.B.I. and haven’t since.

It is criminal that the GOP is not taking this seriously. I am beginning to think it quite likely that the conspiracy touches parts of the RNC much deeper than just Trump and his administration. Just keep in mind Priebus was head of the RNC before joining the Trumpites.

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Thanks randy but our democracy has enough problems:

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“The intelligence committees have known for months that credible allegations of collusion between the Trump camp and Russia were pouring in from independent sources during the campaign,” the continued. “Yet lawmakers in the thrall of the president continue to wage a cynical campaign to portray us as the unwitting victims of Kremlin disinformation.”

Is it that cynical to believe that the entirety of the GOP is truly that intellectually deformed? Honestly! Does their lust for power supersede their recognition of reality? Dotard T rump is not alone in being mentally compromised.

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Not just “parts” of the RNC. A whole lotta GOP Reps and Sens took $$$$ from Russia. They’ve been closely coordinating their efforts to elect the GOP over Dems for years.

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That would need the acquiescence of a great many Republicans in Congress. It would also require the judicial system to inflict punishment in the face of much resistance from many parties of all political and legal persuasions. I can even see many Democrats saying, upon his removal from office, “Just let the f**ker go away, it’s enough we’re rid of him, a year of courtroom drama really isn’t needed right now.” Which was exactly Ford’s logic in pardoning Nixon.

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I love to have a beer with Duncan!
I love to have a beer with Dunc.
We drink in moderation,
and we never, ever, ever get rolling drunk.
We drink at the Town and Country,
where the atmosphere is great!
I love to have a beer with Duncan,
'Cause Duncan’s me mate!

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This part of the editorial is not getting enough attention: “As we told the Senate Judiciary Committee in August, our sources said the dossier was taken so seriously because it corroborated reports the bureau had received from other sources, including one inside the Trump camp.”

Schindler perhaps because of that but also for other reasons had this to say:

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My question is why the Republicans including Senator McCain (who gave a copy of the dossier to the FBI) and therefore evidence of Trump’s crimes, allowed him to become the nominee.

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As a firm that does opposition research for a living, Fusion GPS is probably a bit tired of being played as a political football and not convinced that they have to sit still and take it.

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The leak about Papadopoulos’s meeting with the Australian came from them and not his lawyers, as was guessed earlier?

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I can’t see this just going away. The crimes are too dire, to cynical in my view. It also involves the intrusion of a foreign state and the corrupting of our election system as well as our system of government in general. As someone said, “this is the ending of the beginning”. I cannot see us addressing the problems and dangers involved while letting Trump walk away easy.

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In his dossier Steele noted that Putin was opposed to passage of the TPP and the US initiative to strengthen relations with our Asia-Pacific allies and trading partners.

We also know that China was opposed, as they embarked on a similar, rival initiative that excludes the US – as well as any protections for human rights, labor, and environment.

We also know that Trump cancelled the TPP three days after being sworn in, and that he’s failed to initiate any bilateral trade agreements. His attempt to renegotiate NAFTA has been a hot mess.

We are now seeing the results of Trump’s folly: some TPP nations are moving ahead without us, and some are making trade deals with other nations that will further sideline us.

Congress now needs to consider the strategic aspects of the TPP, especially now that Trump is antagonizing our allies and trading partners and further isolating us on the world stage.

The prime minister of Singapore, just before Trump was sworn in last year, said that failure to pass the TPP would raise doubts about the willingness of the US to continue its leadership role in the region. He also noted that protectionism would lead to isolation and conflict.

But maybe you are OK with the crisis in Korea, our deteriorating relations with the Philippines. Maybe you think there are simple answers to these complicated issues.

Maybe you don’t realize that we are in competition with other nations, and that the TPP would have created a framework for countries to commit to ethical standards.

Or maybe Trump’s blustery, bullying stance with our allies and trade partners resonates with your glib tough-guy working class hero schtick.

One thing is for certain: neither you or Trump have come up with an alternative to the TPP. And that makes you a useful idiot.

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Trump confessed to sex crimes, into a live mic, and the entire nation heard it. He slandered McCain as essentially a coward. He insulted a Gold Star family. He was confronted by a large number of credible accusers of sexual misbehavior. He libeled a respected jurist and citizen of Mexican heritage to no detriment. Despite all this he rolled through the nominating process. I imagine Republicans were like the tourists standing on the beach as a tsunami was ready to crash upon them. They felt powerless to stop him and just accepted their fate.

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His attempt to (insert anything you want to here) has been a hot mess.

FIFY

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I’m not so sure that they are not taking it seriously. I think there is a concerted effort to appear to shrug it off, in the hopes that this gets lost in the daily tsunami of BS, lies, and subterfuge. If they are (all or most) in on it, which is beginning to feel more and more likely, then they are hoping we lost sight or drown in the toiletbowl of the Drumpfie Misadministration.

It’s whistling past the graveyard.

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I question the choice of the word “useful” in your comment.

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The feeling I get from reading this editorial is that shit just got real. This is the info I have been waiting for. I remember when the Watergate hearings, despite everything that had been revealed, seemed like they were going to plod along forever and not really accomplish a takedown. Then someone revealed the existence of the White House taping system. This feels a little bit like that to me. It feels like a turning point. I have never been a big fan of the collusion stuff (vague and hard to prove), but I am dying to know what Trump has been doing financially with the Russian oligarchs for the last 2 decades.

Prediction for 2018 - we are all going to start hearing endless mini-lectures on how money laundering works.

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One could simply say the TPP was like most everything Obama’s fingerprints were on. It was heavily compromised to favor corporations but at the same time adding some benefits like labor protections for the little people. We don’t know if those labor protections had any real enforcement mechanisms behind them. If those protections were written as sloppily as the ACA’s language on federal exchanges and etc, I’d guess they were mostly for show.

ETA:
One thing the Obama administration did well on was the CFPB. I’m guessing that was because of Warren’s efforts

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The message is: Trump is the inevitable payoff of Ford’s disregard of law.

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“We don’t believe the Steele dossier was the trigger for the F.B.I.’s investigation into Russian meddling. As we told the Senate Judiciary Committee in August, our sources said the dossier was taken so seriously because it corroborated reports the bureau had received from other sources, including one inside the Trump camp,” they wrote.

I think they get that. There are merely corroborating the NYT piece and extending it a bit.

And actually, its the “one inside the Trump camp” that is the most interesting piece here.

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