***Official Political Discussion Thread***

[Nike Jordan]

John McCain gave us Meghan McCain and Sarah Palin.

I don't know who's worse.

 

[gry60]

 

[nawghtyhare]

John McCain gave us Meghan McCain and Sarah Palin.

I don't know who's worse.

which gave us "nail'n sarah palin"
so id say meghan mccain is much worse

 

[Belgium]

His team actually admitted to meeting with Russians with the intent to get dirt on his opponent. His team sent poll numbers to Russian officials and somehow, no one could prove collusion. He’s outright admitting it this time, and there’s still a question whether this is an impeachable offense. Trump has skated from one controversy to the next with little time in between and with no consequences. He should have been impeached years ago. I don’t believe anything is going to happen and I’m close to saying he’ll be re-elected. True democracy has been on its last leg for a while and gets closer to death with each elected republican overlooking his lies and corruption. Crazy times we in.

Collusion is too vague of a term and does not exist as a legal statute in that situation. It was a good strategy from Trump's legal team to strictly focus on whether or not there was 'collusion', as the Mueller report would never contain any finding of collusion one way or the other.

That being said, Manafort's actions are certainly something that could be described under that term. Manafort is just a crook rather than a spy but he basically performed the duties of the latter.

As an example, I'll replace Manafort's name with "the spy."

The spy gets appointed as Trump's campaign manager and quickly reaches out to Konstantin Kilimnik, a previous business associate who now worked as some type of liaison for Oleg Deripaska.
Kilimnik is a former GRU officer and Rick Gates believed him to be a spy, as did some of Kilimnik's former Ukrainian business associates. The FBI assessed that he had active Russian intelligence ties in 2016.

The spy emails Kilimnik to ask if "the OVD operation" (Oleg V. Deripaska) had seen the articles about his appointment as Trump's campaign manager.
He then asks Kilimnik "how do we use to get whole?", referring to leveraging his position to pay off his debt to Deripaska.
Later, the spy also emailed Kilimnik to offer providing Oleg Deripaska with "private briefings" on the Trump campaign.

On multiple occasions throughout the campaign, the spy accesses and transfers internal Trump campaign polling data to Kilimnik. He did this with the understanding that Kilimnik would in turn provide the data to Oleg Deripaska and 2 pro-Russian Ukrainian oligarchs the spy had previously worked for, Lyovochkin and Akhmetov.

On August 2, Kilimnik arrived in NY to attend a clandestine meeting at the NY Grand Havana Club with the spy and Rick Gates. Prior to the meeting, Kilimnik emailed the spy that he had talked to Oleg Deripaska for several hours and wanted to discuss this in person.
At the meeting, the spy gave Kilimnik a full detailed walkthrough of the polling data. Additionally, the spy briefed Kilimnik on the Trump campaign's private strategies for a number of key states such as Michigan. The spy and Rick Gates took op-sec measures and both left via different exits.
The next day, Kilimnik flew back to Moscow.

On August 9, Deripaska was spotted alongside Yevgeni Prigozhin, who was indicted by Mueller for playing a key role in the Internet Research Agency disinformation campaign to interfere with the election.

When the spy entered a plea deal with the Special Counsel, Trump maintained a joint-defense agreement (JDA) with him. The likes of Flynn, Rick Gates and Cohen revoked their JDA's upon starting their cooperation with prosecutors. While the spy was cooperating, he was also lying repeatedly to those prosecutors. During this time, Giuliani admitted that the spy's attorney Kevin Downer was briefing them on the interactions with Mueller's prosecutors.

The JDA was maintained in spite of the spy's felony convictions and pleading guilty to conspiring to obstruct the Mueller investigation, in coordination with Kilimnik, by attempting to tamper with witnesses regarding the spy's illegal foreign lobbying for the Ukrainian Opposition Bloc party.
Additionally, Trump stated that a pardon was still on the table after the guilty plea, his felony convictions and during the spy's cooperation agreement.

The spy sabotaged his own plea agreement by repeatedly lying to prosecutors about several topics, particularly his interactions with Kilimnik involving the polling data transfers and a Ukraine peace plan that involved lifting sanctions.
Due to the spy's obstruction, prosecutors were unable to determine what exactly Kilimnik did with the polling data back in Russia. What prosecutors did know largely came from Rick Gates spilling the beans on his involvement and knowledge.

To date, Trump has yet to criticize the spy. In fact he dangled a pardon to him during his cooperation and publicly praised him for "refusing to break, unlike Michael Cohen."

 

[nawghtyhare]

Collusion is too vague of a term and does not exist as a legal statute in that situation.

let it be a black man
collusion wouldnt be a vague term

 

[Belgium]

which gave us "nail'n sarah palin"
so id say meghan mccain is much worse

 

[Fozz]

Let's see what happens...Not expecting much.

 

[elpablo21]

So he/she is ready to be prosecuted? The only way the whistleblower could have gone directly to Congress was if the IC Inspector General determined the complaint was not credible.

The DOJ is covering Maguire's violation of the statute but the whistleblower would almost certainly face prosecution.


The Acting DNI is actually required to obstruct now due to the DOJ's intervention. Executive branch employees must comply with the DOJ Office of Legal Counsel opinions, and that office opined that Maguire should not turn over the whistleblower complaint.

Is that the WB's only move left at this point? to bypass them and face prosecution?

 

[Fozz]

which gave us "nail'n sarah palin"
so id say meghan mccain is much worse

Which wasn't bad.

Prime Lisa Ann.

 

[Belgium]

Is that the WB's only move left at this point? to bypass them and face prosecution?

Or leak to the press and hope prosecutors can't prove the whistleblower leaked it. Leaking would actually be the safer option.

The IC Inspector General also pointed out the gap in the Intelligence Community Whistleblower Protection Act. The statute states that when the ICIG determines a whistleblower complaint to be credible, the DNI shall provide the Intel committees with the complaint within 7 days after receiving it.
Because Maguire is refusing to do so, it exposes the gap in the law.

There are 2 exemptions that allow a whistleblower to go directly to Congress.
The whistleblower can do so if the ICIG determined the complaint was not credible or if the DNI turned over an altered, incomplete, ... version of the complaint to Congress.
For the latter exemption to apply, it requires the DNI to turn over at least some version of the complaint to Congress.

Unfortunately for this whistleblower, neither exemption can apply.

 

[IATT]

 

[IATT]

 

[IATT]

 

[Belgium]

Fun fact: Knowingly issuing or publicizing a falsified government weather report is a crime.
18 U.S. Code § 2074

 

[aepps20]

I'm glad that the wheels of impeachment are rolling. I was on the fence for impeachment but now I am fully on board. You can only take so much conjecture and innuendo before you have to put a stop to things. The fact that this administration deals in falsehoods and lies was bad enough but the brazen support of RustyShackleford was just too much. Coal Gang has drafted articles of impeachment against Methodical Management. Jrose5 will be the acting administrator of this site until further notice. #NT4TRUMP

 

[IATT]

 

[Belgium]

 

[Wargames]

Oh what a time to be alive!

 

[RustyShackleford]

Can't wait for dwalk31 to waddle back in here to talk about the Dems engaging in due process to hold Trump accountable, actually violates due process.

 

[dwalk31]

Let's see what happens...Not expecting much.

 

[sonoftony]

I'm not believing **** until this fool is dragged out the White House

 

[IATT]

 

[aepps20]

You also support Roy Moore for what it's worth.

 

[elpablo21]

 

[IATT]