Newly Released Mueller Probe Docs Show Manafort Blamed Ukraine For Dem Hacks | Talking Points Memo

[discobot]

BuzzFeed News on Saturday saw the first fruit of its ongoing legal battle to obtain public records from former special counsel Robert Mueller’s office.

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This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1259746

[castor_troy]

Things really seem to be coming together, finally. Took a while, but that bonfire is finally taking off.

[ralph_vonholst]

The involvement of the RNC is not surprising, but it’s quite damning. We don’t know the full extent of involvement by GOP congressmen and Senators, but I have a good feeling that we will, in time and it too will not be surprising.

[emiliano4]

I expect there to be a substantial outpouring of thanks to Buzzfeed…and an awareness of the importance of good Journalism in a free society…and an appreciation and discernment of the difference between Journalists and Propagandists.

@mattinpa

[castor_troy]

Semi-O/T: Republicans are getting desperate…

A growing number of Senate Republicans are ready to acknowledge that President Trump used U.S. military aid as leverage to force Ukraine to investigate former vice president Joe Biden and his family as the president repeatedly denies a quid pro quo.

In this shift in strategy to defend Trump, these Republicans are insisting that the president’s action was not illegal and does not rise to the level of an impeachable offense as the Democratic-led House moves forward with the open phase of its probe.

The pivot was the main topic during a private Senate GOP lunch on Wednesday, according to multiple people familiar with the session who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the meeting. Sen. John Neely Kennedy (R-La.) argued that there may have been a quid pro quo but said that the U.S. government often attaches conditions to foreign aid and that nothing was amiss in Trump’s doing so in the case of aid to Ukraine, these individuals said.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/growing-number-of-gop-senators-consider-acknowledgingtrumps-quid-pro-quo-on-ukraine/2019/11/01/72084a3e-fcc4-11e9-9534-e0dbcc9f5683_story.html

[ronbyers]

Manafort worked for a Russian linked Ukrainian Oligarch who ultimately lost. Is anybody surprised at his conclusion? His conclusion doesn’t make it so. The important thing about this is Mueller actually investigated who hacked the DNC servers.

[ralph_vonholst]

And Buzzfeed was the first to highlight the Steele Dossier, for which they were roundly dismissed by their “big time” colleagues. This is what “freedom of the press”, looks like.

[castor_troy]

@ralph_vonholst

I have a good feeling that we will, in time and it too will not be surprising.

And will go a long ways towards explaining how MoscowMitch earned his nickname, how Mz. Lindsey flipped sides over the course of a golf game, and that shocked and angry look that Justice Kennedy gave to Trump…

[emiliano4]

Barr must have a cape.

Neither Clark Kent nor Supe had a criminal record and I am running out of ways to explain why Barr is not in a Supermax 8X8 right NOW.

[irasdad]

Not to be that guy, but…

“Rudy Giuliani, in his ongoing quest to dig up fabricate politically useful dirt for Trump, has acknowledged speaking to Manafort about the former campaign chairman’s plight, specifically Manafort’s belief claim that a ledger showing off-books payments to him was manufactured.”

Words matter, and there’s no need for journalism to repeat absurd GOP narrative uncritically.

[inversion]

Donald Trump is his boss.

[ralph_vonholst]

emptywheel (emptywheel)

I’m shocked, shocked!

Q. How, in what manner, were the Xtian extremists getting money from the UAE.

[emiliano4]

Before the BuzzFeed story I could almost see the Trump strategy regarding the Call to Zelensky.

• Get Eisenberg to Stonewall all the way up to the Firm of Thomas, Alito, Roberts, Gorsuch & Kavanaugh

• Roll out 128 different versions of alterations to the record of the Call to confuse things

We seem to be in a different space here.

[bankerpup]

If the RNC was involved up to its collective neck in this, it helps explain why Reince Priebus was tapped to be Trump’s first CoS.

Speaking of Reince, why hasn’t he been indicted?

[emiliano4]

Another one who is jump-suit-ready.

[dr_coyote]

three-three-three.

and more besides.

[bcgister]

@castor_troy

A growing number of Senate Republicans are ready to acknowledge that President Trump used U.S. military aid as leverage to force Ukraine to investigate former vice president Joe Biden and his family as the president repeatedly denies a quid pro quo.

If what seems to be coming out about RNC holds water, they may have finally chosen Drumpf as their scapegoat.
Fair enough, though: they’re just playing Donnie’s game against him.
Hopefully they won’t be able to unshackle themselves from him.

[lastroth]

And maybe Senator Kennedy(R-LA) would like to give examples of past Presidents getting a foreign country to do something that was only of interest and benefit of the President, and not a stated policy position from the President’s administration or political party.

[civik]

I mean, they’re not wrong that conditions are usually attached. But that’s usually in the bill and NOT held up to benefit an individual to the detriment of US policy.

At least I’d hope not.

[quickq]

@bankerpup

If the RNC was involved up to its collective neck in this, it helps explain why Reince Priebus was tapped to be Trump’s first CoS.

and Don McGahn in the White House Attorney slot