General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhat happened to last Friday's Huge news from Mueller, as breathlessly predicted by Chuck Todd,
based solely on the "rule" that "though shalt not interfere with a Election between Labor Day and Election Day? So HAD to be Friday...ya see.
Come a Friday...crickets.
As for the "rule", a pure fiction pulled out the stroked asses of corporate media, symbiotically attached to each other's narratives like vipers in a pit.
Which vipers, by the way, gave a huge pass to Comey for blowing that "rule" asunder forever, as I vaguely recall. Mists of time and all that...media has the same problem.
Not to mention Citizens United and the paper tigers of the FEC and broadcasting authorities have kinda made a wasteland of electoral law. But we should stick with the artificial election conventions, should we? Corporate media is surely not the enemy of the people but they sure are the enemy of full truth and full logic.
Fuck that noise. Announce and indict away, Mueller, the only rules now are yours.
DonViejo
(60,536 posts)https://www.democraticunderground.com/100211077193
fallout87
(819 posts)?
Hardly.
beachbum bob
(10,437 posts)indicted...under the same DOJ policy
manor321
(3,344 posts)Remember when Scott Dworkin said he was "hearing" that Trump Jr. would be indicted last week?
Yet people keep posting Scott Dworkin's endless crap.
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,836 posts)than it initially appeared to be. That was the guilty plea of Sam Patten. He's another sleazy lobbyist who pled to serving as an agent of Konstantin Kilimnik and Serhiy Lyovochkin without registering under FARA - but what's important is what he copped to in exchange for cooperating. That includes acting as a straw purchaser for Russians of $50K worth of tickets to the inauguration, which is also illegal. This is important because it's likely that the investigation will find more straw purchasers directing money to Trump and his campaign. In exchange for his cooperation Patten was also not charged for lying to the Senate Intelligence Committee - which he did. This tells us the investigators will use lying to Congress as leverage to get cooperation. Don Jr. lied to several committees. If he isn't worried yet, he should start worrying now.
Fred Sanders
(23,946 posts)upcoming direct link to 🇺🇦 trial, probably. Turning one caught rat so as to turn another screw into another potential rat.
Plea agreements revealed in full to the defence and filed in court before the trial is probably not uncommon, the actual deal having been made much earlier.
C_U_L8R
(45,020 posts)That's not news
Fred Sanders
(23,946 posts)13. "If the rule you followed brought you to this, of what use was the rule?" -- Anton Chigurh. That's the question we have to ask the establishment. The rules they followed brought us here, and now they want us to return to those rules.
highplainsdem
(49,034 posts)This coming Friday, NOT last Friday.
But since Donald Trump ISN'T up for re-election, I'm not sure it should apply anyway.
If Mueller is planning to keep as quiet as possible for 60 days, though, I'd expect indictments between Tuesday and Friday.
Fred Sanders
(23,946 posts)about this week before a Friday...but the window is not closed after, for any reason.
Also Manafort trial 2 in 3 weeks is gonna be front burner stuff!
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,836 posts)...
First, the policy is most critical when the Justice Department action directly relates to someone who is a candidate in the upcoming election. Thats not the case here: The president is not on the ballot, nor are any of the other people who could potentially be in Muellers crosshairs.
The concerns underlying the policy also are heightened when the Justice Department actions would be a surprise, an unexpected bombshell that reshapes the political landscape. But the details of Muellers investigation are widely known, and any potential implications are probably baked into the election already. Short of indicting the president himself, its hard to imagine much Mueller could do that would dramatically alter the current picture.
...
Finally, the concerns about Justice Department action should be most pronounced when there is a risk the prosecution could seem politically motivated; if a prosecutor from one party could appear to be trying to take down a politician from the other. But despite the presidents repeated tweets about angry Democrats investigating him, Mueller is a Republican, and any steps he takes will be approved by Trumps own Republican deputy attorney general.
Realistically, Mueller probably will follow the policy and lay low. But don't buy the Trump/Giuliani line that he is required to or that there's a deadline.
highplainsdem
(49,034 posts)panader0
(25,816 posts)It may not have been what Todd had in mind. I think Chuck was just
making a generalization about the supposed due date of Labor Day.
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,836 posts)Patten has been cooperating since May. He wouldn't have gotten such a good deal if he didn't have information to deliver.
Crutchez_CuiBono
(7,725 posts)kurtcagle
(1,604 posts)He insists only upon loyalty to him. He encourages others to break the law ... it adds to the smokescreen.
Crutchez_CuiBono
(7,725 posts)PoindexterOglethorpe
(25,895 posts)of Mueller or Sessions or both on a weekly basis since early last year. Sometimes unreliable sources are quoted. Sometimes it's just a generic "It will happen in the Friday news dump" nonsense.
The constant predictions have long since become meaningless.
Crutchez_CuiBono
(7,725 posts)And nothing happened so that dt couldn't say 'no collusion' everyday of his life. Hire more people Mr Mueller and lets get it initiated. We can fill in the gaps later. The world is heating up. Our country is being poisoned and pillaged. If that's not cause for some urgency, i dunno.
Grasswire2
(13,571 posts)Seth Abramson says it is key information that leads him to believe that Sessions has been cooperating with Mueller in an agreement.
The key has to do with the meeting of March 31 2016. Here are a few of Seth's tweets on the topic. And see below for more.
Seth Abramson
?Verified account @SethAbramson
19h19 hours ago
NOTE/ My own opinion? It's likely that no assurances have been made by Mueller to Sessions, but that based on Mueller's interview with Sessions it's clear to both men that Sessions has liability here for perjury and moreso Sessions stays on in order to maintain leverage to deal.
24 replies 366 retweets 1,620 likes
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Seth Abramson
?Verified account @SethAbramson
19h19 hours ago
PS/ Yes, I realize the possibility Sessions is a cooperating witness would suggest a stunning answer to my question from last week ("Why doesn't Sessions just resign?" : because Mueller has told him *not* to.
A crazy thoughta cooperating witness protecting his prosecutor's job.
54 replies 441 retweets 1,826 likes
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Seth Abramson
?Verified account @SethAbramson
19h19 hours ago
10/ The only question is why Papadopoulos persists in saying he told no campaign official of the hacked emails Mifsud alerted him tobut *did* tell the Greek Foreign Minister, who the campaign sent him to meet. Impossible. I suspect it's a fact it's been agreed he won't disclose.
17 replies 250 retweets 1,228 likes
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Seth Abramson
?Verified account @SethAbramson
19h19 hours ago
9/ Major media reports that *three witnesses*people who attended the March 31, 2016 meetingconcur with what Papadopoulos says, so calling it the "theory of the case" for Mueller and his team is no stretch (particularly given who says something else happened, and their motives).
9 replies 302 retweets 1,297 likes
snip
Seth Abramson
?Verified account @SethAbramson
19h19 hours ago
4/ Papadopoulos positions Sessions in particular as one of two things: either a current cooperating witness in the Mueller probe *or* a target of that probe. And he positions Trump as the target of the collusion probenot merely the coverup after the offense. I was right about...
12 replies 426 retweets 1,733 likes
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Seth Abramson
?Verified account @SethAbramson
19h19 hours ago
3/ Simply put (and we need to be *clear*, as this is shattering information): Mueller believes Trump and Sessions approved a Russian backchannel in March 2016; he believes both of them have lied about their actions since then (Sessions under oath), and he has a case against both.
25 replies 750 retweets 2,398 likes
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Seth Abramson
?Verified account @SethAbramson
19h19 hours ago
2/ If Trump, Sessions, Gordon, and two other members of the National Security Advisory Committee (the Trump-Russia scandal's CREEP-equivalent unit) were willing to lie about what happened at that meeting, it's to cover their involvement in things that came *after* that meeting
................................................
mythology
(9,527 posts)gibraltar72
(7,511 posts)Gets us at doorstep of Bannon, Cambridge Analytica and Trump inauguration committee. I believe it opens new doors. I think it has big implications. I said on day 1 if it gets to Mercer it is legitimate.