kpete

kpete's Journal

March 29, 2018

John Dingell: "Ill take Colluders for $1000, Alex."

https://twitter.com/JohnDingell/status/979162090429665280

@EricTrump
Always fun being a #jeopardy question. 🛎: Who is “brother in law.”

https://twitter.com/EricTrump/status/979137378051817472

March 29, 2018

Meltdown! Cohens' zeal to keep Trump off hook for a hush money payment essentially just voided NDA

Michael Cohen’s zeal to keep Trump off the hook for a hush money payment essentially just voided the basis of her NDA.

I don’t know what the hell Cohen’s lawyer is doing here but @MichaelAvenatti is popping champagne corks. Cohen’s lawyer just admitted that Trump not only never signed the hush agreement but he wasn’t even aware of it. Trump has no agreement with Stormy that I can see. None.

VIDEO:
Here is Michael Cohen's lawyer and spokesman saying categorically that Cohen negotiated agreement w/o ever telling his client DJT anything abt it and made him a party to the agreement w/o any intention of telling him abt it or having him sign it.

https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/979164320339845120

https://twitter.com/tribelaw/status/979169871576621059

https://twitter.com/BradMossEsq/status/979166465634045957

March 28, 2018

Trump's lawyer, John Dowd, discussed pardons for Manafort & Flynn with their lawyers last Summer

Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump's lawyer, John Dowd, floated the possibility last year with lawyers for former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort that the President might issue pardons for both men, The New York Times reported on Wednesday, citing three individuals with knowledge of the discussions.

The conversations happened as special counsel Robert Mueller "was building cases against both men," the Times reported, which raises "questions about whether the lawyer, John Dowd, was offering pardons to influence their decisions about whether to plead guilty and cooperate in the investigation" into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Dowd resigned from the President's legal team earlier this month. In a statement to the Times, Dowd denied the report. "There were no discussions. Period," he said, according to the Times. "As far as I know, no discussions."

In a statement, White House counsel Ty Cobb said he has "only been asked about pardons by the press and have routinely responded on the record that no pardons are under discussion or under consideration at the White House." White House press secretary Sarah Sanders referred to Cobb's statement when asked about the Times' report at a briefing Wednesday, later adding that pardons are "not currently" under consideration.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/28/politics/dowd-flynn-manafort-pardons/index.html?sr=twCNN032818dowd-flynn-manafort-pardons0309PMVODtop

https://twitter.com/nytmike/status/979045466603126784

March 28, 2018

If it's not titled, "I'm Sorry For Sarah Palin" then I'll pass

McCain penning 'no-holds-barred' memoir
Jennifer Hansler
By Jennifer Hansler, CNN

Washington (CNN)Sen. John McCain is penning "his most personal book in years" to be released this May, his publisher announced.

In "The Restless Wave: Good Times, Just Causes, Great Fights, and Other Appreciations," the Arizona Republican will offer "his no-holds-barred opinions on the current developments coming out of Washington," according to Simon & Schuster.

The memoir, co-authored by McCain's longtime speechwriter Mark Salter, will cover the 2008 election through the present and will discuss domestic and foreign relations challenges facing the US.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/28/politics/john-mccain-restless-wave-memoir/index.html
http://www.eschatonblog.com/2018/03/nothing-but-straight-talk.html

March 28, 2018

Special Counsel: Gates was having substantive conversations with ex-Russia intel officer in 2016

Former Trump aide Rick Gates was having ‘substantive’ conversations with ex-Russia intel officer in 2016: special counsel

https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/4424919/3-27-18-US-Sentencing-Memo-Van-Der-Zwaan.pdf

Rick Gates, the former Donald Trump campaign adviser who pled guilty in February to conspiracy against the United States and making false statements, was “having substantive conversations” with someone he knew was a former Russian Intelligence Officer in 2016, according to a new filing by special counsel Robert Mueller.

The 30-page sentencing memorandum filed by the special counsel alleges that Gates was communicating with “Person A,” who is described as “a former Russian Intelligence Officer with the GRU”—the foreign military intelligence agency of the Russia federation. According to the document, Gates was aware of “Person A’s” connection to Russian intelligence services.

The memorandum was filed with the United States District Court for the District of Columbia in the case U.S. v. Alex van der Zwaan.

Van der Zwaan—the son-in-law of Russian oligarch German Khan, who is suing BuzzFeed News over its publication of the Trump-Russia dossier—pleaded guilty in February to lying to the special counsel. According to the sentencing motion filed Tuesday, van der Zwaan’s lies “were material” to the special counsel’s investigation, and directly involved communications with Gates and “Person A,” a former GRU officer.

“That Gates and Person A were directly communicating in September and October 2016 was pertinent to the investigation,” the special counsel argued in its sentencing memo. ”Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agents assisting the Special Counsel’s Office assess that Person A has ties to a Russian intelligence service and had such ties in 2016.”

“During his first interview with the Special Counsel’s Office, van der Zwaan admitted that he knew of that connection, stating that Gates told him Person A was a former Russian Intelligence Officer with the GRU,” the special counsel alleges.

https://www.rawstory.com/2018/03/former-trump-aide-rick-gates-substantive-conversations-ex-russia-intel-officer-2016-special-counsel/

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