This is why they are lying. No other reason.

[triron]

Link to tweet

[Eliot Rosewater]

1. And Putin deals with informants differently than most in our country.

[crazytown]

13. +1 +1000

Nice family you’ve got there Paul.

[SammyWinstonJack]

25. Right?

[calimary]

24. Yep. And nobody is more acutely aware of that than Paul Manafort.

[CatMor]

2. With that picture of trump ...

it looks like there is nothing behind his eyes but empty space. Vlad looks like the cat who ate the canary.

[RKP5637]

3. Yep, same thoughts here. They just lie far too much. I think it's far bigger than we or at least

I had thought. The tRump cult is definitely a coup IMO.

[triron]

4. I once thought that the idea of a coup was perhaps far fetched. No longer.

[RKP5637]

6. Yep, I had thought it was an overreaction way back, but now it's pretty clear this is major. n/t

[pangaia]

14. Not that I am any smarter than anyone else, far, far from it...

but I felt coup d'etat in Nov 2016.... earlier, even.....

[c-rational]

22. Ditto, I said it was a silent coup d'etat on election night in 2016.

[triron]

32. You were very prescient.

[luvallpeeps]

36. Ditto! n/t

[OMGWTF]

29. There ws another coup when McConnell refused Merrick Garland a hearing

[subana]

39. if you think back to Watergate,

during Watergate, in the beginning many people thought something fishy was going on & republicans were involved but we had no idea that so many were a part of it!! Eventually we realized that it not only involved republicans but it also included the president, his administration, the committee to re-elect Nixon & the entire dept of justice!!! And it was done so that Nixon could win an election that he was already supposed to win anyway!!!

It's almost always much bigger than people can imagine.

[Talitha]

41. Spot on, subana... spot on!!!!

Fiddling with elections has been going on longer than we care to imagine.

[subana]

43. thanks, it's what republicans do!

I find it completely ridiculous that, instead of choosing policy positions that voters want, they seem to prefer lying, cheating & stealing elections!

[RKP5637]

46. Yep!!! n/t

[world wide wally]

5. Onviously ... to get away with doing something wrong

[genxlib]

7. This is true but it has a further benefit

It allows their co-conspirators in the media and Congress to provide cover for them by repeating the lies and using terms like "Process Crimes" and "Perjury Trap", etc.

[Botany]

8. Among many things you had Cohen going to Prague in the late summer of 2016 to meet w/Russian ...

... Agents and to pay $50,000 to some hackers for their work in the upcoming elections according
to the Steele Dossier and now we have solid reports that Cohen's cell phone was active in that area
and that he had been given $50,000 from some Trump fund prior to his alleged trip to the Czech
Republic.

The size and scope of what happened, all the different players, and the # of crimes is so big it
will be almost impossible to get your head around all of it.

[kag]

9. Yup. n/t

[Leith]

10. There's more...

if any of them so much as hint as to what's going on, they know that they or loved ones are within reach of Russian operatives and could be poisoned. They know the names of Sergei and Yulia Skripal.

[subana]

40. true!!

if they don't try to help, Putin may try to kill them. He's killed people for much less before!!

[Augiedog]

11. The Republican Party has become an organized crime spree.

[BamaRefugee]

12. "STILL THEY PERSISTED" Nothing is stopping them and I'm not sure anything WILL stop them.

Everybody high fiving each other over Nancy's clap or AOC's smackdowns or Ted Liu's tweets are just whistling past the graveyard of Democracy.
Snark can't bring down this kleptocracy, and every day, more and more judges and other officials of heinous character are filling more and more offices, to do the bidding of tRump and by extension Putin. It will take decades of Democratic rule to erase this stuff.

I pray that it can be done.


There are no atheists in the foxholes of Democracy

[pangaia]

15. "every day, more and more judges and other officials of heinous character are filling more and more

+10000000000000000000

or rather
-1000000000000000000

[RKP5637]

47. And this is the worst, most dangerous part ...

"every day, more and more judges and other officials of heinous character are filling more and more offices, to do the bidding of tRump and by extension Putin"

[cp]

16. Also polonium

Prison might be safer (maybe).

[shanti]

23. Yup

Polonium and/or the deaths of their family members.

[Roadside Attraction]

17. Could be . . .

. . . they know if they rat out the Russians, Putin has ways of making your life very difficult . . . or even come to an end.

[notKeith]

18. Maybe one other reason..

We see what Putin's gang does to those who "get in their way" - you know, accidents, like falling out of windows, getting poisoned, etc.. I suspect Manafort (at least) is far more fearful of Russian mobsters than he is of prison.

[DirtEdonE]

20. +1

manafort has no safe harbor from pootin. Not in prison. Not in public. Not anywhere.

And that is somehow perfect justice.

Now, all we have to do is take care of pootin the way he likes to take care of his detractors.

I wonder what that abject coward trump would do if he saw his master and lord on a slab? LOL

Or hung like Saddam. On video. On the internet.

Knowing he's next.

[calimary]

28. Welcome to DU, notKeith!

I suspect that's why he lied his ass off. He wasn't playing to anybody but the proverbial "audience of one": some dude named Vladimir...

[DirtEdonE]

19. It's a plain as the noses on our faces

If we'd just get our heads out of our asses and take a look.

[saljr1]

21. The most troubling thing about Helsinki was that shit-ass grin of Putins' as they

emerged from the backroom approaching the podium. The grin of Putin says I got this guy in my back pocket and there is not a thing he can do.

[calimary]

27. Welcome to DU, saljr1!

As a longtime student of body language, I'd say you just nailed it.

[calimary]

26. MAN OH MAN is that ever a study in body language!

Putin, standing tall and proud and pleased as punch, looks like the cat that just ate the canary, the chicken, the pheasant, AND the turkey, with a side of expensive caviar-stuffed koi for dessert.

trump, all slumped over, looks like he either just got beaten up or he just looked in the mirror and saw the Grim Reaper breathing down his neck. Or both.

Which of these two looks like he just got EVERYTHING he could ever have dreamed of - and it's not even Christmas? Who got the real live pony under the tree and who found only a steaming pile of horseshit under there?

[OMGWTF]

31. Whenever Traitor Tot shakes Putin's hand, his hand is always palm side up and Putin is on top.

It's not a regular handshake. TT is clearly the "bottom" in their relationship.

[OMGWTF]

30. I spent the morning at the Mob Museum in Las Vegas

Today is the 90th anniversary of the St. Valentine's Day massacre and they were displaying the two Tommy guns used. It's an amazing place with four floors of history and artifacts related to organized crime -- https://themobmuseum.org/

I kept seeing pictures of the Gambino crime family and reminded myself that Special Counsel Robert Mueller took them down. Then, all I could think of was they're going to need a new wing to document and house all of the crimes Trump and ilk have committed.

[Talitha]

42. Hopefully we'll all get to see the results of the Mueller investigation.

Love your username, btw.

OMGWTF... it's perfect!!!!

[Achilleaze]

48. The KGOP republican wing will open as soon as

the frigging kremlin give the corrupted repubes a go-ahead.

[WiffenPoof]

33. Pretty Solid Theory

And one I agree with.

[Pachamama]

34. They are more worried about the consequences of snitching that Putin gave the orders than they are

....about lying to Robert Mueller and the courts....

[Blue Owl]

35. McConnell is in that photo too

Just below the bottom crop line, kissing Putin's ass...

[Baltimike]

37. knr

[subana]

38. oh yes!

they're obviously lying because, as bad as it is to go to jail for lying to the FBI, the truth is much, much worse!!!

I'm watching Brian Williams' show on MSNBC. He just said that Trump didn't think North Korea had the ability to launch missiles because Putin told him so!! And like the moron he is, he believed him!!!

[UCmeNdc]

44. K&R

[mwb970]

45. Just look at how stupid trump looks in that picture!

It is maddening to have such a coarse, blundering, ignorant nincompoop in charge of MY country.