My condolences to Tierney, who has to try and figure out what is going on here. Even the judge, who listens to the curated narratives of prosecutors and defense attorneys all day long can’t seem to figure out what’s happening, or has he?
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Is Driscoll threatening to quit because she’s about to flip on Erickson and/or the NRA?
Does the judge suspect Driscoll is not representing her best interests?
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Has Butina been offered a joint defense agreement?
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i don’t see why rudy can’t help out.
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When will she find out she was really working for SPECTRE instead of SMERSH?
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Did you get the Lektor?
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There’s no other way to advance this case without somehow dealing with the the fact that Driscoll is entirely within the palm of Oleg Deripaska.
AOT, there appears to a sound basis for concluding that Driscoll is actually more of a witness than anything else.
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Somewhat OT, but Butina is supposed to only be 30 years old. It looks like she’s aged another 20 in the past couple of months.
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According to the indictment, Maria Butina worked with an American later identified as George O’Neill, a Rockefeller heir who has been active in right-wing causes. O’Neill was also, within the past few years, co-chairman of an organization called ComeHomeAmerica, along with one Kevin Zeese, Nader’s press secretary in 2004, who was an advisor to the Jill Stein campaign in 2016. (By 2015, Nader was arguing for an alliance of right and left, in a book for which Grover Norquist, of all people, contributed a jacket blurb.)
In August 2016, Zeese published an article in the Guardian arguing that since it was now utterly impossible for Trump to win, progressives had no excuse for withholding their votes from Jill Stein. Neither Zeese nor the Guardian informed readers that Zeese was part of the Stein campaign.
Immediately after the election, Jill Stein announced that she was collecting money with which to call for a recount of the results in some states. She did nothing of the kind, and instead used the money to pay the bills of lawyers fighting inquiries into her connections to the Russians.
Was O’Neill, perhaps through his co-chairman Zeese, a conduit for funds from the Russians, the NRA, or anyone else to the Stein campaign? This is an area in need of exploration.
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I actually logged in just now to share that very same article. It’s a major eye-opener in context to the Butina case, isn’t it?
What makes it even more intriguing to me (although not mentioned even once in that article), is the other connection to Russia it mirrors; the alleged funds they funneled into the NRA. Butina ties right into that.
If it turns out that Russia was funneling funds into the NRA, which were then used in coordination with (or even helping to fund) the Trump campaign, the whole “collusion” thing blows up in a big way. (And how much of that $30 million the NRA spent came from Russia, do you suppose?)
That is now a much more likely scenario, given the details in this MJ article. I hope Mueller has already drilled down into all this. If not, he sure has a new trail to blaze. I wonder if MJ would be willing to share the details of some of those thousands of FEC documents they scoured through to make all these connections…?
The noose continues to tighten. Trump is going down, and going soon I suspect. And, based on Pence’s multiple lies declaring “no interaction with Russia whatsoever” and other misleading statements, he’s going down with Trump. Which would leave us with Madam President Pelosi.
Wouldn’t that be something…
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Edit required…
“A [serious] of mysterious events in the case of Maria Butina”
reckon an orange jumpsuit will do that to a person
the judge either on his own or was persuaded that the court needs an insider to determine if her lawyer(s) are behaving properly.
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I imagine the Judge appointed the PD to look out for Butina’s interests. Her case is drenched in politics so it’s possible she’s not getting council entirely dedicated to her. There’s a way the Trump folks would like this to end, which may not be what’s best for Butina, but with an impartial PD checking things out it will be harder for her council to steer her defense in that direction.
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“…Butina’s boyfriend, American GOP political operative Paul Erickson,”
Isn’t boyfriend a bit strong? I don’t want to make him sympathetic or anything but wouldn’t dupe or mark be more appropriate. At least put quotes around it.
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NRA Red Sparrow compromat lets Mueller drive probe right into bowels GOP… Follow the $$$. Think, this scandal now has A BLUE DRESS!
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They are looking for other ways out. Wouldn’t look too good to pardon a spy now, would it? Or maybe spy pardoning is part of ‘cleaning the swamp’?
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That’s like what I was wondering, generally if your lawyer is provided by your employer the lawyer’s interests are not yours, and it is good to get your own lawyer for you. Would she have asked for the PD or would the judge have seen how things were progressing and appointed one?
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There’s the understatement of the year. In fact I highly doubt she is getting representation focused on her in the least, considering the [assumed] source of the defense payments. The biggest consideration is likely avoiding political embarrassment, but I’ve always been an optimist. Makes me almost feel sorry for her.
But Nahhh.
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Serious? Yes. If we cut to the chase on Butina, that she was sent here to facilitate the laundering of Russian money through the NRA to be used in the effort to elect Trump, it’s as serious as it gets. There’s a bunch of folks from Sam " that’s not true" Alito to Trump himself that want to keep this shit buried. If it turns out the slackening of the law brought about by the Citizens United scam set this up that ruling could be subject to overturn.
It’s very serious to the GOP.
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