"The discussion ended up reportedly being centered around adoption and Russia sanctions."
OMG, does anyone actually believe adoptions occupied more than about 17 seconds of this meeting? TPM states as fact the meeting evolved chiefly into a discussion about them (and sanctions). WTF?Anybody wanna bet that any “transcripts” got damaged in the recent fire that killed a Trump Tower resident?
Seriously: does anybody (save Grassley) actually believe 1) that there are in fact transcripts ,and 2) if there are transcripts, that they were written at the time and contain an accurate description of what actually went on?
Thought not…
There are transcripts, but there’s an 18 1/2 minute gap in the middle.
Will the transcripts contain the notes of the meeting Manafort took on his phone that are now in the possession of the FBI?
…on a 19 min tape.
Russian adoption restrictions are retaliation for American Magnitsky act sanctions against Russian oligarchs. When Russians talk about adoption, they are talking about lifting sanctions against Putin and his friends.
The article seems to suggest that transcripts exist, that Grassley has seen them and that they must be redacted for public consumption. All news to me! Who transcribed the meeting? Did someone record it on his phone? Why does Grassley want to release them? Is the material to be redacted classified information? Does Grassley think it will exonerate the Dotard? Does his committee have the material that Veselnitskaya gave them at the meeting? More information please!
The transcripts in question are from interviews with Don Jr and others by the Judiciary Committee about the Trump Tower meeting, not transcripts of the Trump Tower meeting.
Ahhhhh…that makes sense.
Of course, that means those transcripts are, well, iffy at best, coming from a slew of people who were madly backpedalling and trying to cover their patooties. Which means Grassley will take them as gospel.
Grassley is going to do his job, I guess he is next up to say he isn’t running for reelection.
WE know that, all of us here. We read about these issues. When Trumpland protests meetings with Russians are for some sort of humanitarian “Save the orphans” purpose they know they’re duping the rubes. Although Donnie himself my swallow it just like his base does, I doubt he knows why much of anything is done, for any reason.
I don’t think Grassley is “going to do his job” in the meaning of “going to do what is right.”
I strongly believe he knows perfectly that these “transcripts” are just a collection of lies, deceptions and diversions by the miscreants who were at the meeting, all of whom have multiple reasons to cover up their actions.
Grassley is trying to head off the ever more closely circling Mueller investigations and indictments by giving the rubes something that they will see as “proof” that there was never any collusion (or obstruction or anything at all suspicious).
It’s a diversionary tactic.
If I have a meeting with a Russian lawyer closely connected to Putin and our conversation needs redaction, that’s a problem right then and there.
Looking at Grassley’s behavior, I would expect he considers that the transcripts from the senate meeting would exonerate donald.
“…as soon as redactions are completed…”
And all facts obscured.
Register people to vote then get to the polls in November.
All this crap CAN be stopped if Congress had a spine and a conscience.
VOTE!
So after the real discussion they had the cover story discussion, and Grassley wants to release the transcript of the cover story discussion with the real discussion redacted.
This might be a good spot to bring this up. The last 7-10 days have been pretty big on the legal front.
- Mueller let it be known in a court filing that when the FBI raided Manafort’s home last summer, they were looking for information relating to the Trump Tower meeting. My guess is that Mueller has much more details about this meeting which he has kept from the public. He questioned Rinat Akhmetshin before the grand jury around the same time. He has likely spoken with Ike Kaveladze. Natalia Veselnitskaya, who is the subject of a big article in today’s NYT based on hacked emails demonstrating her role as an informant to the Russian public prosecutor (AG equivalent), Yuri Chaika, has been chomping at the bit to be interviewed by Mueller. Why, you ask? IMHO, it’s because she wants to spread gossip, misinformation and reasonable doubt as to what happened in that meeting. Mueller hasn’t called on her because he already knows everything.
- Speaking of that Veselnitskaya piece in the NYT, the NYT failed to note two key facts: that Yuri Chaika is specifically named in the Rob Goldstone email to Donald Trump Jr. setting up the Trump Tower meeting on 6/9/16. Chaika sent Veselnitskaya there because she was already planning to be in NY for the Prevezon Holdings money laundering case. Another important fact: Glenn Simpson of Fusion GPS dined with Veselnitskaya and Akhmetshin the night before and the night after the TT meeting, as his company was working for Prevezon over the same time period that they had just hired Christopher Steele to investigate #trumprussia contacts! My point is that this is all public information and all the NYT had to do was search its own emails to make that connection between Chaika and Veselnitskaya.
- Mike Flynn Jr is being investigated by the Special Counsel. This is big because it ties to his work with the Flynn Intel Group. Flynn Intel Group played a role in working with Russian hackers to find missing or stolen HRC emails. They also worked with Peter Smith, who commissioned his own group of hackers. Peter Smith’s death has always been a mystery. In addition, Flynn Intel Group worked for Turkish interests and Flynn Sr. was asked by the Turkish government to kidnap Fetullah Gulen and to try to help release Reza Zarrab (a Turkish national who was convicted of evading US sanctions on Iran by laundering money for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard). Incidentally, it was Rudy Giuliani and Mike Mukasey who attempted to intervene in that Zarrab case to get him extradited before he could face trial (as a favor to their clients in Turkey and blessed by Trump), but were admonished by the Judge. This strikes me as a potential conflict of interest if Flynn JR is also being investigated for matters relating to Turkish lobbying efforts.
- Flynn Jr also stated on Twitter that his dad did not lie to Mike Pence with respect to the meeting with Russian Ambassador Kislyak on 12/29/16. While that is obvious from the Flynn statement of offense as it states that Flynn was in direct contact with several Trump team members at Mar a Lago to coordinate a response to the Russians following Obama issued sanctions, it’s one of those stories that the MSM has forgotten about. When Trump and Pence both claimed that Flynn lied to Pence, that is a false cover story. They threw Flynn under the bus to avoid a broader investigation into Russian contacts. Trump then leaned on Comey to stop the investigation into Flynn. This is a big deal. I think it represents an Achilles heel in the entire #trumprussia coverup. Once it gets further exposed, the Trumpers will be in big trouble (they might be already b/c Mueller knows all of this).
- And then of course we have Michael Cohen pleading the 5th, and Trump being confounded as to how to protect his docs from federal seizure and distance himself from Cohen. He’s messing it up. He has put himself and Cohen at the precipice of criminal liability in a separate matter. It will also likely result in the unraveling of Trump’s money laundering operations for the past decade and a half.
Pretty big stuff.
Ahhh, OK. Then they won’t be revealing of much of anything (except maybe the redacted parts …)
Inquiring minds want to know!