With the obvious exception of the WH and reliable Trumpsters like FAUX News, the legal experts seem to agree that this admission has just moved the needle pretty dramatically toward the impeachment/indictment end of the scale.
Riiiiiiiiiiight â the meeting was about wrongdoing by Hillary, see? Donny Jr. was a whistleblower, see? He was a hero! My wife Morgan Fairchild told me so!
soâŚto get this straight, the Russian lawyer wanted to speak about adoptions, which essentially relate to policies regarding sanctions at a time when no-body thought that Trump had a real chance in the general election. Thereâs no point in taking a risk to talk to a candidate about this, unless you think he can win and why talk to him so many months before the election. What leverage could they have then that they wouldnât have after being elected. It is really hard to frame this in any way where this isnât attempted collusion, if not frank collusion.
âIn my view, this is much ado about nothing. During this busy period, Robert Goldstone contacted Don Jr. in an email and suggested that people had information concerning alleged wrongdoing by Democratic Party front-runner, Hillary Clinton, in her dealings with Russia,â Futerfas told the New York Times.
Futerfas continued, âAnd of course Don Jr. was incensed to hear this, as he told me: âNobody engages in wrongdoing in their dealings with the Russians but us! Only the Trump Team! If this is true, I will put an end to it!ââ
Cooperation, not collusion.
To-may-to, to-mah-to⌠
Donât think the tired âsmoke but no fireâ line can be used anymore.
Adam Schiff, Josh, Seth Abramson and others are correctly focusing on the timeline. Per Schiff, the Russians completed the hack of the DNC before the date of this meeting, so they had new stuff to use. They may not have revealed it in the Veselnitskaya meeting at Trump Tower in June '16, but they were fishing to see if the Trump folks would take the bait.
We now know that they did take the bait by taking the meeting. They were bluntly told through a 3rd party intermediary that the purpose of the meeting was to talk about ways the Russians wanted to help the Trump campaign. By taking the meeting, the Trumpers showed interest, which is itself legally suspect. They also discussed what the Russians wanted, hence establishing the quid pro quo: Trump wanted campaign help. Russians wanted changes in sanctions policies. That Veselnitskaya may have limited her focus to the Magintsky Act was again a teaser for more demands.
But then look what happens within weeks to 3 months of that meeting:
- Trump tweets about missing 30k emails on the day of the meeting (June 9)
- Putin gives direct order to intervene in the US election to help Trump win
- Substantial increase in server pings/traffic between Alfa bank (RU) and Trump Tower
- Phony RU intel memo shows up at FBI at the tail end of Comeyâs Clinton email investigation (this one needs more corroboration)
- Carter Page trip to Moscow
- Release of hacked DNC emails
- Watered down Ukraine measure added to GOP platform at convention
- Trump has presser asking Russians to hack and find âmissing 30k emailsâ
- Constant and accelerating stream of Russian bots (human and code) plastering FB and Twitter with anti-HRC/pro-Trump posts
- RU hacker groups start talking to pro-Trump groups connected to Flynn about the 30k HRC missing emails.
- Timed news dumps on bad news cycles/polling days for Trump
- Cooridnation of messaging appearing in Russian news sites like Sputnik with Trumpâs stump speeches.
- Constant Russian hack attempts into US elections systems
This is one meeting. The Mayflower Hotel was another meeting (April '16). There were likely others. But the trend is clear. From this meeting we can find the makings of a cooperative agreement between Russia and the Trump campaign followed by heightened activity indicating that both sides were acting in furtherance of a plan. There is strong evidence of a conspiracy.
One other thing I would add is that Trumpâs finance team met at TT that same day. It is likely that the principals from Jrâs meeting attended the finance meeting. Did they discuss the Veselnitskaya meeting at the Trump cmpgn finance team meeting? Is that why Trump started tweeting that same day? Is that also why Trump hasnât yet defended Jr on Twitter?
Though I am not a criminal defense attorney, I think cases have gone to trial on less evidence than what we presently know. In addition, we can also surmise that the IC has a lot more evidence than what weâve seen.
If itâs true that the Trump campaign approached Natalia V, perhaps through the old Miss Universe Pageant friend Goldstone, then we will again be in the situation: Do we believe a Russian? Or do we believe a Trump? Lately, Iâve found the Russians more credible. Remember, too, that there are some indications that Manafort is making a deal with Mueller - that could be a problem for not only Jr. in this instance. (âTrump told me to go to the meeting with Jr. and Jared so the kids wouldnât fuck it up.â)
A freaking email! I love that, yes I do!
Nope, youâre behind on your Trump lies. Now this Russian lawyer wanted to give Junior some incriminating info on how the Russian government was funding and supporting ⌠Hillary and the DNC!
Yep, itâs the switcheroo defense.
Story just got super juicy. Last few days arenât drips - these are full-on burst pipes.
[quote=âcentralasiaexpat, post:8, topic:58829, full:trueâ]
Cooperation, not collusion.
[/quote]Standard procedure. Perfectly Normal. Everybody does it. And thatâs why we lied about, denied, changed stories, and tried to hide every meeting or communication that everyone on the campaign and transition had with Russians - not representatives of all countriesâŚjust Russians.
âAfter pleasantries were exchanged, the woman stated that she had information that individuals connected to Russia were funding the Democratic National Committee and supporting Ms. Clinton,â Trump Jr. said in a Sunday statement.
Ah, the old switcheroo defense. Always a devastating comeback on the playground, but not sure itâs going to get the same traction in the adult world.
âHer statements were vague, ambiguous and made no sense. No details or supporting information was provided or even offered. It quickly became clear that she had no meaningful information.â
So ⌠there wasnât evidence that it was really Hillary that was colluding with the Russians?
JFC, these morons canât even switcheroo correctly.
Iâm beginning to understand why Daddy Trump is sticking to his story about Russian espionage. His crime family has been co-opted.
Nasty Woman
[quote=âkhyber900, post:10, topic:58829â]
But then look what happens within weeks to 3 months of that meeting:
[/quote]Those Russian orphan kids can sure inspire people to do a lot of wonderful things.
It is very alarming how the Republican controlled House and Senate are always the last oneâs to find out very important information affecting our nation - itâs like they think the end (Republicanâs winning) is more important than following and upholding the US Constitution OR holding Trump to the oath of office that he swore to uphold and has continually trashed.
Is Putin more dangerous to our Democracy than the Republican Communist Party?
The Republican party policies are straight from the Communist USSR book: invest in military and police and prisons, restrict the press, rig the voting districts and the system, tax the poor and middle class into poverty while making the central committee richer and richer, allow giant state sponsored monopolies (Exxon, Boeing, Verizon, AT&T, Goldman Sachs) to control and dominate their industries, and on and on it goes.
The Republicans are NOT conservatives: Conservatives follow and uphold the US ConstitutionâŚthey are trashing it and especially our individual rights and freedoms and especially for women and minorities and religions they trump up as evil.