thinking…thinking… oh, Aretha Franklin used to work for Trump. According to Trump.
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Is this a felony? Tell me for sure this is a felony.
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another Russian who will never visit the US again
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Ah it’s time for the Honey Cone!
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This is a very significant foundational indictment in my view. What this firmly establishes is that Natalya Veselnitskaya was a Russian agent who was running a sophisticated intel operation in the United States to lift Magnitsky Act sanctions, target Putin’s enemies, and to find allies within the US who would help Russia achieve its goals through a series of bribes and other inducements.
Putin turned the Prevezon money laundering case into his own intel operation. The Russian government was instructing Veselnitskaya on how to answer these responses, and it’s through these court filings at issue that Putin laid out Russian propaganda about Browder and other enemies and made one of many attempts to build a political climate to lift sanctions. While Veselnitskaya was litigating this case, she was also making inroads with US politicians to lobby to lift the Magnitsky Act sanctions. She worked with Rohrabacher, but we also know that Manafort and Gates were also working lobbying groups for the same purpose. You might recall Veselnitskaya making it to a congressional hearing on this matter sitting right behind our Ambassador Michael McFaul. How do you think she got that seat?
Veselnitskaya was in NY for the Trump Tower meeting because of her role in this case. That’s how she got into the country. She was working with Fusion GPS and had dinner with them and the TT meeting participants either the day before and/or the day after the TT meeting in NY.
When Veselnitskaya went to the TT meeting, she was there to run an intel operation. She offered a dangle to Junior, campaign dirt on Hillary Clinton, in exchange for favorable policy changes, particularly on lifting Magnitsky sanctions and targeting Putin’s enemies: Bill Browder and the Ziff Brothers. She offered, on behalf of Putin, actual campaign dirt tying the Ziff Brothers to the Clintons and suggested a way to tie false accusations of Russian tax evasion by the Ziff Brothers to campaign contributions for Clinton. The way the argument went is like this: “the Ziff Brothers had a scheme to avoid paying taxes on profits earned in Russia. They funneled those ill-gotten gains into the Clinton campaign. Therefore, Clinton got foreign money and she has guilt by association.” One can easily see how a Fox or Breitbart would run with that.
Junior rejected the dirt offered, not because he thought it was illegal, but because it was not the right kind of dirt. They wanted emails. A few weeks later, they got emails (released through DC Leaks and later through Wikileaks, but you get the point. It was all for the benefit of the Trump campaign).
So when Junior met with Veselnitskaya, Junior met with a Russian agent, not some random private Russian attorney. When Junior was told by Rob Goldstone that the meeting was part of the Russian gov’t’s support for the Trump campaign, Junior knew he was meeting with an agent of the Russian government. This indictment helps to establish those facts. By taking that meeting and accepting the essential bargain of campaign dirt for policy changes, Junior engaged in a conspiracy to violate federal election campaign laws.
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NYT says it’s believed she is back in Russia.
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True, but Obama did it too, and it was a minor civll case settled with a fine. No collusion!!
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When Junior and the Trump campaign are indicted, they can put that statement in a legal filing.
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Yes, it’s a felony. No, she won’t be leaving Russia to stand trial and go to prison. Add her to the list.
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Maybe with an Animal House reference!
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How about NY State election laws? (I realize it was a Fed election but there must be some State oversight?)
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Add another target to the drone strike list if that Russian pig ever sets foot out of that parasite nation. Russia needs to fucking pay if we ever get rid of this orange traitor.
Trump will have to double down now and insist the Magnitsky Act be rescinded.
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No snark or wisecracks out of me, today.
Just a person, like @srfromgr, who wants dem sommu dem INDICTMENTS. 
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this indictment is a total, for sure, BFD mic-drop moment.
I can’t wait for the denials to start oozing out of Fat Nixon, Rudy the Clown and other bit players. I also hope the big dick toilet salesman, our acting AG, gets reamed by the dotard for not being able to “control” SDNY.
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Full speed ahead!
but a couple of side questions … just wondering …
Trump’s tax returns? kinda wonder if they - by themselves are sort of like Capone’s vault - not much there … Have to figure Mueller knows what is in them - or more important what is NOT … and more likely he is scouring the world for the things that are not - yet should have been - but if they had been - would have swiftly smothered Trump under thousands of indictments.
also wonder if this investigation starts to sniff out a trail to the mother lode - at what point does Trump try to shoot his way out / throw the Hail Mary by instantly firing Mueller and sending in Secret Service to seize & destroy files - Many are saying Oh he would never do that - but that is what he counts on - doing the unthinkable before anyone has a chance to preempt him.
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There have been dozens of events in the last 2-1/2 years that were BFD mic-drop moments, and every single one faded into obscurity as the next day’s firehose of tweets and crimes came at us.
You walk into a gymnasium and encounter one abused, starving, sick child, a victim of parental neglect. You sort of know what to do, or at least feel you can effect some help and make a change in that child’s life. Now, walk into the same gymnasium and there are 500 children in the same condition. That’s what it’s like waking up in TrumpWorld.
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Great point.
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Trump does not yet have that kind of power to create facts, and probably will not acquire it. If anything, he is losing power as the Democrats take over the House, and his cabinet disintegrates.
Very OT, but am I missing something here with John Judis’s editorial argument (Hitler v. Trump)?
The way I see it, Trump creates facts on a daily basis, for example the 4000 terrorists on the southern border cited within the editorial.
Theoretically, Trump is losing power with Dems in the House, but until McConnell coughs up a spine, the power is still Repub (including SCOTUS), especially if Trump declares Emergency Powers tonight.
Trump’s cabinet has been disintegrating for 2 years. Doesn’t bother him. He considers it consolidation.
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Does the filing of faked-up documents offer an opportunity to revisit the settlement?
We knew she was an agent, but I’d figured there were more cut-outs between her and the government…
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