Discussion: WaPo: Mueller Told Seychelles Meeting Was Another Russia Backchannel Effort

TPM Article Topics
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No pardon for you, Trump.

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Oh, I’m with you there. Who wants to be known in the history books as the person who pardoned a proven traitor and criminal?

I’m telling ya, Nixon looks like a saint next to his fat counterpart.

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“He [Prince] said he met with Dmitriev by chance, on the Emiratis recommendation.”

On Seychelles? Sure you did. A total coincidence.

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Yes. It seems to me that this is a clear violation of law as well–Trump was not yet President.

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The Sig Int–It will get you every time!

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Nixon was no saint. He famously said he wasn’t a crook. However, compared to Trump, Nixon made crooks look good.

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If it came from or was solicited (of Nader) by the Special Counsel’s office, it may be a strategic disclosure rather than a leak. If. May.

Let it hit the wires and see what lights up. This is not only a criminal investigation, counterintelligence concerns will sometimes be in the driver’s seat. (Within the scope of Constitution and law.)

Or, it originated elsewhere.

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Fucking Prince of Darkness

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Let’s see if Bannon lawyers up. That would be a tell.

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As I noted in my earlier posts about Erik Prince’s testimony to Congress, he’s lying. Erik Prince is…well I believe the technical term is f***ed.

George Nader is singing like a canary.

If Mueller can prove this was a back channel to evade USIC, and Kushner/Bannon/Flynn organized the back channel, it implies a lot of things:

  • George Nader is exposed as an unregistered foreign agent. I suspect this is the hook that Mueller used to get him to cooperate.

  • Erik Prince would be exposed for making false statements, lying to Congress, and obstruction of justice since he intentionally misled investigators on direct questioning.

  • To the extent that the discussions were about sanctions, it would be a violation of the Logan Act, much like Flynn’s situation with the Kislyak call on sanctions on 12/29/16 and his back channels to Mar a Lago.

  • To the extent that Mueller has established that sanctions were a key part of the election conspiracy, and that this meeting represented part of a continuing chain of that conspiracy to pay the Russians back for election assistance, that would be part of a charge of conspiracy to violate federal election laws.

  • The secret back channel, which was intentionally used to avoid USIC, the FBI/DOJ, may also constitute conspiracy against the US, because Team Trump prevented the enforcement of US laws on espionage, FARA, the Logan Act, and other laws relating to sensitive information.

  • Jared Kushner would have exposure if he left these and other meetings off his SF-86 forms (which he did).

  • To the extent that personal financing for the Kushner or Trump co’s were discussed leveraging the Transition (which is a gov’t entity) then this would violate public corruption & bribery statutes.

  • The Transition entity itself could be indicted for a number of these crimes, which would put Mike Pence, the head of Transition, under scrutiny. WTF was he doing during all of this nonsense?

  • If Mueller has similar evidence relating to the Kushner-Flynn-Gorkov & Kushner-Flynn-Kislyak meetings, many of the same charges apply.

  • If these Trumpers offered to trade confidential information to foreign entities in exchange for other favors, that would also violate certain of laws.

There are other implications, but these are some initial quick thoughts.

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Les make a bet… How will be Erik Prince poisoned?

a) Ricin
b) Polonium
c) Nerve Gas
d) Rat Poison

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Another question to ask is why are we hearing about this? Is Nader making this public to warn Prince and Trump? Does Mueller care? Does this mean Mueller has an indictment of Prince in hand? Is Prince being questioned by the Special Counsel?

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Bannon hired William Burck in January.

Burck represents Priebus and McGahn as well.

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When the movie comes out, Bradley Cooper has to play Eric Prince!

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Transition teams are set up as non-profits, nowadays usually under 501(c)4.

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Nixon (ably helped by Henry Kissinger) still has the highest world-wide body count, an estimated 4 million dead. This defining number is not lost on the cold eye of history.

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I keep hoping Nunes’ name will crop up somewhere.

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  1. I find it hard to believe a principled conservative like Erik Prince would engage in such under the table shenanigans /snark
    Too true, with such principled antecedents as Mary Chenault, Cap Weinberg, Ollie North and Dick Cheney, it’s hard to imagine where anyone on the right could have found the impetus for putting party ahead of country.
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We really have to come up with signage on that.

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