The Republicans Fake Investigations

[elleng]

Source: nyt

A generation ago, Republicans sought to protect President Richard Nixon by urging the Senate Watergate committee to look at supposed wrongdoing by Democrats in previous elections. The committee chairman, Sam Ervin, a Democrat, said that would be “as foolish as the man who went bear hunting and stopped to chase rabbits.”

Today, amid a growing criminal inquiry into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, congressional Republicans are again chasing rabbits. We know because we’re their favorite quarry.

In the year since the publication of the so-called Steele dossier — the collection of intelligence reports we commissioned about Donald Trump’s ties to Russia — the president has repeatedly attacked us on Twitter. His allies in Congress have dug through our bank records and sought to tarnish our firm to punish us for highlighting his links to Russia. Conservative news outlets and even our former employer, The Wall Street Journal, have spun a succession of mendacious conspiracy theories about our motives and backers.

We are happy to correct the record. In fact, we already have.

Three congressional committees have heard over 21 hours of testimony from our firm, Fusion GPS. In those sessions, we toppled the far right’s conspiracy theories and explained how The Washington Free Beacon and the Clinton campaign — the Republican and Democratic funders of our Trump research — separately came to hire us in the first place.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/02/opinion/republicans-investigation-fusion-gps.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-right-region&region=opinion-c-col-right-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-right-region

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'BREAKING,' on Rachel show, OP ED just released by NYT.

[Satch59]

1. The jig is up GOP...

This is great... If those transcripts aren't released now, they'll look even more complicent...if that is possible. Works well with the drunken Papadopoulis news.

[YessirAtsaFact]

19. This plus Papadoupolos drunk bragging to the Australian official

Completely destroys all this hoax and howaboutism coming from the right.

Indeed, the jig is up.

We’re at the point where it’s such a stretch to deny collusion that the Republican base might start to crack.

When that happens, tRump is toast.

[dalton99a]

2. Kick

[underpants]

3. Bookmarked and Rec'd

Excellent and thorough

[ffr]

4. It once again sounds like things are getting to critical mass

[turbinetree]

5. Anyone have a list of the GOP traitors on this issue

I can think of Nunes, Goodlette, McCarthy, Grassley, and the head cheese himself Paul Ryan..................

[dchill]

6. Shorter list: those who are not compromised.

Treason weasels.

[BigmanPigman]

7. Didn't Rohrabacher go see Assange in London?

[turbinetree]

8. Yepper, spot on

and then there is a bunch more, besides Gomert that just came to mind, then there is the jerk from Florida, maybe two of from there.

Can't keep count......................

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

20. Are you sure Gomert ...

... is in on it? I wouldn't let him know when happy hour is at the local roadhouse.

[lark]

17. McConnell seems to be at the top of the chain.

He took over 2.5 million from a person tied to Russia, stonewalled, unconstitutionally, the selection of SCOTUS justice feeling certain of a repug win. How could he be so certain, despite polls, that his guy would win? He very much seemed to know that the vote was hacked and knew Russia was spending billions to elect drumpf. Oh yeah, there's also Sessions who was a former GOP legislator.

[turbinetree]

18. Jeff Beauregard Sessions, lets go back to some of the video's on file.............

Hey Sessions, its not a story any more, its conspiracy to commit treason.........................you spoke to Russian spy at the convention dumb shit.......................



Then the country has the asshole Grassley..............................given a extra three minutes.............................whoopee


Hey Sessions all you had to do was call the FBI, you failed asshole..................

[Gothmog]

9. Powerful article

[byronius]

10. Pretty damn damning.

[DeminPennswoods]

11. Source inside the Trump camp?

We don’t believe the Steele dossier was the trigger for the F.B.I.’s investigation into Russian meddling. As we told the Senate Judiciary Committee in August, our sources said the dossier was taken so seriously because it corroborated reports the bureau had received from other sources, including one inside the Trump camp.

Last night when this part was read on Maddow's show, she said this confirmed the NYT story about Papadopolous. It wasn't Papadopolous who contacted the FBI, though, but the Australian ambassador/govt. The sentence reads to me as if someone inside the Trump camp contacted the FBI. I immediately thought of Woolsey who I recall abruptly resigned from Trump's campaign although I can't recall if any detailed explanation why was given.

Or is this just a poorly constructed sentenance that I'm reading incorrectly?

[wishstar]

14. I think they are referring to Papadopolous as source (albeit through Australian ambassador)

Papadopolous was indirect source so guess that's what sentence means.

James Woolsey would not be the source since he only joined Trump team in Sept 2016 due to his staunch pro-Trump and anti-Clinton stance because of Trump's promise to increase military spending. He claims he was never actually advising the Trump team and never sat in on their meetings. As a militaristic neocon hawk, he allowed his credentials to be exploited by Trump campaign but when he found out about Flynn plotting with Turkey to kidnap the cleric and the Trump/Russia contacts (he has acknowledged Russian role in hacking in campaign), he distanced himself. He has had crooked unethical business dealings profiting from his former government position, but did not want to be tainted and swept up in fallout from the actions of Flynn and others in Trump circle who crossed the line even for Woolsey.

[4rivers]

12. nice opinion piece.

is it raining some where?

[riversedge]

13. As usual, Maddow did a great segment on this article.

[Botany]

15. And how much did the GOP spend on their unending and unneeded hearings into HRC?

From the article.

"We told Congress that from Manhattan to Sunny Isles Beach, Fla., and from Toronto to Panama,
we found widespread evidence that Mr. Trump and his organization had worked with a wide array
of dubious Russians in arrangements that often raised questions about money laundering. Likewise,
those deals don’t seem to interest Congress."

[groundloop]

16. Big difference between then and now - repubs have the majority in both houses

They can do pretty much whatever they want, whatever their ultra-rich benefactors will let them get away with.