Tag: collusion

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Trump’s Epic Meltdown Over Mueller/Manafort/Wikileaks News

Donald Trump began his Tuesday ‘executive time’ by tweeting an epic rant over the latest news that Special Counsel Robert Mueller has announced former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort repeatedly lied to his investigators after receiving a plea deal.

Mueller now says any request for leniency for Manafort is off the table.

I’m telling you now – Manafort is pulling his shenanigans because Trump has promised a pardon.

This may have something to do with the state of the matter: The Guardian is reporting today that Manafort held secret talks with Julian Assange, inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London, in 2013, 2015 and in Spring 2016, around the time Trump named him as his convention manager.

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Top Trump Campaign Adviser Sought Social Media ‘Manipulation’ By Foreign Groups

Donald Trump

According to The New York Times, a top Trump campaign adviser sought help from foreign organizations to manipulate social media in Donald Trump’s favor in the 2016 election.

From The New York Times:

A top Trump campaign official requested proposals in 2016 from an Israeli company to create fake online identities, to use social media manipulation and to gather intelligence to help defeat Republican primary race opponents and Hillary Clinton, according to interviews and copies of the proposals.

The Trump campaign’s interest in the work began as Russians were escalating their effort to aid Donald J. Trump. Though the Israeli company’s pitches were narrower than Moscow’s interference campaign and appear unconnected, the documents show that a senior Trump aide saw the promise of a disruption effort to swing voters in Mr. Trump’s favor.

The campaign official, Rick Gates, sought one proposal to use bogus personas to target and sway 5,000 delegates to the 2016 Republican National Convention by attacking Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, Mr. Trump’s main opponent at the time.

Another proposal offered “a monthslong plan to help Mr. Trump by using social media to help expose or amplify division among rival campaigns and factions.”

Sound familiar?

Hit the link above for much more.

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Former Trump Attorney Pleads Guilty To 8 Counts, Former Trump Campaign Chair Found Guilty Of 8 Counts

Former Trump attorney Michael Cohen (L), former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort (R)

 Well, the folks in the White House have got to be serious shook at this point.

In a single afternoon, Donald Trump’s former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, pleaded guilty to 8 counts

From The New York Times:

Michael D. Cohen, President Trump’s former fixer, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to breaking campaign finance laws and other charges. He made the extraordinary admission that he arranged payments to two women “at the direction of the candidate,” referring to Mr. Trump, to secure their silence about affairs they said they had with Mr. Trump.

Mr. Cohen told a judge in United States District Court in Manhattan that the payments were “for the principal purpose of influencing the election” for president in 2016.

Mr. Cohen also pleaded guilty to multiple counts of tax evasion and bank fraud, bringing to a close a monthslong investigation by Manhattan federal prosecutors who examined his personal business dealings and his role in helping to arrange financial deals with women connected to Mr. Trump.

Of course, the most stunning news here is that Cohen said, under oath, that he committed a crime at the direction of Donald Trump.

Prosecutors promised Cohen a prison sentence of between 43 to 63 months, although the judge isn’t bound by that agreement.

Cohen also did not agree to a cooperation deal regarding the Special Counsel’s ongoing investigation, but he could in the future. Robert Mueller could, in exchange, recommend a lesser sentence for Cohen.

At almost the same time, 250 miles south of New York City, Trump’s former campaign chair, Paul Manafort, was found guilty of 8 counts of the 18 he was charged with. The judge declared a mistrial on the other ten counts leaving the door open for a retrial on those charges.

Also from The New York Times:

The verdict was a victory for the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, whose prosecutors built a case that Mr. Manafort hid millions of dollars in foreign accounts to evade taxes and lied to banks repeatedly to obtain $20 million in loans.

Mr. Manafort was convicted of five counts of tax fraud, two counts of bank fraud and one count of failure to disclose a foreign bank account. The jury was unable to reach a verdict on the remaining 10 counts, and the judge declared a mistrial on those charges.

Kevin Downing, a lawyer for Mr. Manafort, said his client was “evaluating all of his options at this point.”

Manafort faces a maximum of 80 years in prison for the 8 guilty counts. One legal scholar on MSNBC just said the sentencing guidelines would call for between 8-10 years in prison, possibly more since the judge can consider the other 10 charges in terms of sentencing if the evidence was considerable.

Plus, we don’t know if the prosecutors plan to retry the ten remaining counts.

However, I’ll state right now – you can count on Donald Trump to pardon Manafort.

Watch.

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Report: Trump Adviser Boasted Of Dinner With WikiLeaks Founder Same Day He Foretold Of “Devastating” Email Leaks

Roger Stone

Remember – the Special Counsel investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election is looking into whether ANYONE from Team Trump colluded with Russian actors to affect the election.

Roger Stone, longtime adviser to Donald Trump foreshadowed upcoming WikiLeaks disclosure on Alex Jones’ “InforWars” show the same day he emailed Trump adviser Sam Nunberg that he had had dinner with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

You see where this is going, right?

From CNN:

On the August 4, 2016, InfoWars show, Stone described the soon-to-appear WikiLeaks disclosures. He also mentioned that he spoke with then-Republican nominee Donald Trump on August 3 — the day before the interview. InfoWars is a fringe media outlet run by Alex Jones, who is known for spreading conspiracy theories.

Stone wrote to former Trump adviser Sam Nunberg on August 4, 2016, that he had dinner with Assange the night before, according to a source familiar with the email exchange. The email was first reported by the Wall Street Journal on Monday. The Journal also reported that special counsel Robert Mueller is examining the exchange.

Stone has said the email about the dinner was sent in jest and that he has never met or spoken with Assange.

That email Stone says he sent in “jest,” acting like a big man, is exactly what’s jacking him up right now.

Trump has said repeatedly that “there was no collusion.”

It’s very possible Trump didn’t know his advisers were in contact with foreign actors interfering in the election. But that doesn’t mean someone in his camp wasn’t “colluding.”

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Donald Trump Jr. Tweets Email Chain With “Russian Government Attorney” Promising Dirt On Hillary

Donald Trump Jr.

Holy collusion, Batman!

After being told that the New York Times had his emails and were preparing to release them, he jumped and released himself.

Donald Trump Jr. tweeted out what he says constitutes the email exchanges involved in his June 9, 2016, meeting with a “Russian government attorney” that promised to provide incriminating information on Hillary Clinton.

In other words, Junior attended a meeting that he was told would be with a Russian operative who was offering dirt on his dad’s opponent.

From the New York Times:

The June 3, 2016, email sent to Donald Trump Jr. could hardly have been more explicit: One of his father’s former Russian business partners had been contacted by a senior Russian government official and was offering to provide the Trump campaign with dirt on Hillary Clinton.

The documents “would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father,” read the email, written by a trusted intermediary, who added, “This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.”

If the future president’s elder son was surprised or disturbed by the provenance of the promised material — or the notion that it was part of a continuing effort by the Russian government to aid his father’s campaign — he gave no indication.

He replied within minutes: “If it’s what you say I love it especially later in the summer.”

Four days later, after a flurry of emails, the intermediary wrote back, proposing a meeting in New York on Thursday with a “Russian government attorney.”

Donald Trump Jr. agreed, adding that he would most likely bring along “Paul Manafort (campaign boss)” and “my brother-in-law,” Jared Kushner, now one of the president’s closest White House advisers.

On June 9, the Russian lawyer was sitting in the younger Mr. Trump’s office on the 25th floor of Trump Tower, just one level below the office of the future president.

The emails reference “the crown prosecutor of Russia.” The NY Times clarifies:

There is no such title as crown prosecutor in Russia — the Crown Prosecution Service is a British term — but the equivalent in Russia is the prosecutor general of Russia.

That office is held by Yury Yakovlevich Chaika, a Putin appointee who is known to be close to Ms. Veselnitskaya.

Natalia Veselnitskaya was the Russian attorney Junior, Manafort and Kushner met with on June 6, 2016.

Below are the images of emails the Don Jr. tweeted out today. Click the images to enlarge.