Ah, but you cannot send a hand grenade to prison. You can only send people to prison! CHECKMATE, SDNY
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A federal pardon won’t shield Rudy from state prosecution.
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The criminal probe into Giuliani is being led by U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York.
Deep state stalwarts workin’ on the wild man.
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And he’s also got a massive ax to grind as he wasn’t allowed to nuke iran, again.
If he’s one of the big bean-spillers behind the scenes to the media, certainly he can be twisting the knife a few more times with some careful testimony.
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Can it be?
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And if he wants to preserve that possibility for himself, what do you think he will do if asked to testify?
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With this gang? Shit, anything’s possible. After we have three people picked up skipping country last week, would you doubt it?
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Will Beech and Gong show up Thursday?
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Let me preface this by saying it’s dangerous to over-analyze people from afar. John Bolton has absolutely idiotic ideas, but he is fundamentally a competent person. (Again, competent at doing bad, stupid things. Don’t misread this as a defense.) He seems to me like the sort of person who would particularly relish destroying an abject fool who crossed him.
Your mileage, as always, may vary.
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I think he’ll go in for closed-door testimony like the rest. Then pick and choose which topics he decides are executive privilege based on which things he wants to stick a shiv in for vs. which ones are dangerous to himself.
That’s about my read… Total side question, the letters after “t” in your moniker don’t happen to be “rump”, do they? (just curious about spies on the board and all that)
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Ah, so you’re saying he was on the Austrian Air flight out yesterday evening from Dulles. Makes sense.
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The picture emerging is that Rudy’s consulting business is a front for a political influence and bribery/kick back operation for the benefit of his main client, Donald Trump.
SDNY is looking at the relationships Rudy built in Ukraine with folks who are members of or friendly to the pro-Russian UKR parties (party of regions and their offshoots) and who are generally opposed to greater integration with Europe (b/c it means you have to be less corrupt. no gravy train for the Firtash types).
SDNY is looking at how Rudy leveraged those relationships to ‘lobby’ for them to get the ear of the Trump Administration. This came in the form of access buying via fundraising. So he may well be a part of the Parnas/Fruman scheme to raise donations for Trump/GOP and to push to GOP politicians to support the ‘UKR agenda’ of his ‘clients’. (In truth, his clients are backed by or aligned with the interests of the Russian mob and the Kremlin).
But this is SDNY completely ignoring the other piece of the Venn diagram, and that’s the demands Trump would push back to the Ukrainians to help him illegally woo and pressure their gov’t to do his bidding. Some, like Letsenko, were willing participants to a point. Others, like Zelensky and his gov’t, had to be pressured. These clients of Rudy were used as part of Trump’s conspiracy to push the origins of the Mueller investigation story, and dig dirt on Biden while conditioning aid as the leverage point.
The intersection point is Marie Yovanovitch. The pro-Russian UKR types wanted her out b/c she favors a less corrupt UKR. The Trumpers wanted her out b/c she wouldn’t let a shakedown of an important ally occur.
SDNY has to stop ignoring the other piece of the Venn diagram, acknowledge the intersection point and open up that criminal investigation that the ICIG recommended, work with the House Intel run impeachment inquiry and investigate and prosecute everyone that they recommend for criminal charges.
SDNY must also shut Barr out and force his recusal.
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Why is Giuliani still running around free? Throw him in jail and let’s begin the countdown until he pulls an Epstein.
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Only a bad (or sick!) loser spells it with a ‘c’, so the TPM braintrust is safe this time.
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“Giuliani, who has served as President Trump’s personal lawyer”
“He was never my lawyer. He’s a very good lawyer, but I never hired him. Rudy who?”
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Possible, depending (in part) on who his lawyers are.
My point was simply this: I’m not sure we should expect him to just Tell All.
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Looks to me that the Impeachment Investigation is severely hampered by Barr. But, in dealing with someone like Barr, the key to him has always been the people he either suborns or is enabled to suborn.
And that is extremely frustrating and dangerous to anyone literate enough to even casually read daily headlines in any news source.
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I’ve been musing on this over my second cup this morning. On the one hand Bolton is a hard right warmonger advocate for executive power.
On the other hand he’s an egotistical posturing buffoon overly concerned with his “place” in history.
In a battle between policy and ego…I think we can count on the worst Angels of his nature. The chance for vindictiveness regarding Trump might triumph.
Going out for more popcorn.
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No doubt his travels are being monitored by various law enforcement and intelligence services. Some tripwires certainly are in place if and when he ever decides to leave the country. He won’t be stopped, but his destination and everyone he comes in contact with will be duly noted and fodder for further inquiries.
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