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Investigation into Trump was well justified.

  

Category:  Op/Ed

By:  john-russell  •  5 years ago  •  18 comments

Investigation into Trump was well justified.
The point of all this is that the Trump campaign had reason to believe that Russia was behind the wikileaks releases in the summer and fall of 2016.

Rudy Giuliani was on with CNN's Jake Tapper this morning. One of his main points of course, is that there was no reason for the FBI or other intelligence agencies to investigate Donald Trump's campaign over "collusion" with Russia to defeat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election. 

The Mueller report says that the weight of the evidence is that Trump asked James Comey to stop investigating Michael Flynn. If Flynn was "innocent" why would Trump need to worry about an investigation?

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The Democratic Party and a campaign assistant of Hillary Clinton had their private information stolen by a foreign government, which then prevailed on an anti-American anarchist agency, WikiLeaks, to release the information in a strategic way intended to damage Clinton's candidacy, and as a result, get trump elected. 

By Jun 9th of 2016 , at the latest , Donald Trump knew that the Russians wanted to help him win. Or at the very least , he had reason to suspect that. That is the date his son met with representatives of the Russian government, the purpose of which meeting was to provide dirt on Clinton to the Trump campaign, presumably if the Trumps met the quid pro quo of promising something in return. As it turned out, evidently there was no meeting of the minds that day, since Mueller couldn't find any evidence of that. Of course there could have been an agreement reached at that time for a tacit understanding that Russia would help Trump in return for lifting of sanctions on Russian oligarchs, including Putin. There is no record of what was said at that meeting. 

A few days later Trump said there would be "big news" about Hillary Clinton's "corruption". That news never materialized at the time Trump promised. In other words, Russia and WikiLeaks did not , at that time, follow through with what the Trumps thought would be forthcoming. 

When the leaks of the emails and documents stolen from the Democratic National Committee were released by Wikileaks just before the Democratic convention, it was almost immediately traced back to Russia. More confirmation that the Russians wanted to help Trump. 


The report includes an image of Papadopoulos' handwritten notes that show he spoke with Sam Clovis, Trump's national campaign co-chairman, and Walid Phares, a campaign foreign policy adviser, about the three of them attending "potential September 2016 meetings in London with representatives of the 'office of Putin.'" The delegation would meet "without the official backing of the Campaign ('no official letter/no message from Trump')," according to the notes. The report said the notes were consistent with emails and Papadopoulos' recollection of events. http://www.tucsonsentinel.com/nationworld/report/042019_mueller_russia/factcheck-what-mueller-report-says-russian-contacts/

The inference is that Papadopolous told Clovis , and perhaps others, at some point that he knew that the Russians had "dirt" on Clinton. Clovis had an interest in it, but no trip to Russia was ever authorized. Clovis, by the way , was a high up in the Trump campaign. 

The point of all this is that the Trump campaign had reason to believe that Russia was behind the wikileaks releases in the summer and fall of 2016. They had reasons independent of third party analysis of the DNC hacking which implicated Russia mid summer 2016. 

So how did Trump respond to the leaks about Clinton in July of 2016? His response to Russia, even then presumed as the number one suspect in this tampering with the election,  was "keep 'em coming" ( “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing, I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.”) Again, at the time Trump made that request he knew that Russia had been credibly accused of being behind the hacking, and he knew that Russia had offered to help him. Trump then affirmatively asks Russia to continue. 

Given these known facts, it would have been a failure by the FBI to have not investigated the Trump campaign. In other words, the idea that the investigation was "a hoax" is provable nonsense. 

On it's face , there seemed to be something hinky about Trump's relationship to Russia. 

It is inaccurate to say there was no collusion, and in fact the Mueller report never says there was no collusion. It says that Trump Jr. was not knowledgeable enough about law to know what he was doing was illegal. 

The Trump Tower meeting was collusion, and the report absolutely does not say otherwise. 

Trump asking Russia to hack Clinton, when it was all over the news that Russia was behind the initial hacking, was collusion. On the same day Russia tried to hack Clinton's computers. 

We can accept that Mueller did not conclude that the Trump campaign conspired with Russia to the extent that it represented a criminal offence. 

What the Mueller report and previous reporting shows is that the Trump campaign was aware in the summer of '16 that Russia was tampering with the election. Trump did not denounce Russia, he did the opposite, he said keep 'em coming. 

This is conduct completely unbecoming a president of the United States. 

There was no "hoax", there was an attempt to find out what happened. 


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JohnRussell
Professor Principal
1  author  JohnRussell    5 years ago

I do hope that the right and conservative media does not continue to embarrass themselves by alleging conspiracy theories about the investigation. 

Trump was his own worst enemy, because of his big mouth and hubris and lack of intelligence. He was begging for an investigation into his behavior, and got it. 

 
 
 
Greg Jones
Professor Participates
1.1  Greg Jones  replied to  JohnRussell @1    5 years ago

The Obama administration was well aware of what the Russians were attempting to do early on and said and did nothing, hoping to cut off the Trump campaign right at the start. Trump and his associates decided not to play along. The Dems then started the disinformation campaign to discredit him, which led to the Mueller investigations.

The whole investigation was started on false premises and was a waste of time and money that will forever tarnish the reputation of what's left of the going far left Democrat party.

I liked the way Giuliani chewed up and spit out Chris Wallace this morning on Fox. It appears that Wallace has gone more and more over to the dark side lately. The left wingers should be happy that the system worked as intended and that no wrong doing was found on the part of the Trump Administration.

 
 
 
JohnRussell
Professor Principal
1.1.1  author  JohnRussell  replied to  Greg Jones @1.1    5 years ago

What in my article do you believe is untrue? 

 
 
 
MrFrost
Professor Expert
1.1.2  MrFrost  replied to  Greg Jones @1.1    5 years ago
The Obama administration was well aware of what the Russians were attempting to do early on and said and did nothing

Wrong. 

Trump AND Obama were both given a briefing stating clearly that Russia had attacked the USA with the intent of disrupting our election process. Within 48 hours, Obama kicked the Russian diplomats out of the country. Donny, on the other hand, 2 YEARS down the road is STILL saying he doesn't believe Russians attacked us. Also, congress approved sanctions on Russia regarding cyber-attacks that Trump refused to approve. 

Next time you should do some fact checking before you blame Obama for what Trump has done, or not done in this case.

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Obama expels 35 Russian diplomats in retaliation for US election hacking

The Obama administration on Thursday announced its retaliation for Russian efforts to interfere with the US presidential election, ordering sweeping new sanctions that included the expulsion of 35 Russians.

US intelligence services believe Russia ordered   cyber-attacks on the Democratic National Committee   (DNC), Hillary Clinton’s campaign and other political organizations, in an attempt to influence the election in favor of the Republican candidate, Donald Trump.

In a statement issued two weeks after the president   said   he would respond to cyber-attacks by Moscow “at a time and place of our choosing”, Obama said Americans should “be alarmed by Russia’s actions” and pledged further action.

“I have issued an executive order that provides additional authority for responding to certain cyber activity that seeks to interfere with or undermine our election processes and institutions, or those of our allies or partners,” Obama said in the statement, released while he was vacationing with his family in Hawaii.

“Using this new authority, I have sanctioned nine entities and individuals: the GRU and the FSB, two Russian intelligence services; four individual officers of the GRU; and three companies that provided material support to the GRU’s cyber operations.

“In addition, the secretary of the treasury is designating two Russian individuals for using cyber-enabled means to cause misappropriation of funds and personal identifying information.” He also announced the closure of two Russian compounds in the US.

Obama added that more actions would be taken, “some of which will not be publicized”.

On Thursday, Trump, who has previously dismissed reports of Russian interference in the election, said in a statement: “It’s time for our country to move on to bigger and better things.”

He added, however, that “in the interest of our country and its great people, I will meet with leaders of the intelligence community next week in order to be updated on the facts of this situation.”

In a conference call with reporters, senior White House officials said the president-elect’s transition team was informed of the sanctions before they were announced on Thursday. Trump and Obama spoke on Wednesday, they said.

The officials added that the actions were a necessary response to “very disturbing Russian threats to US national security”.

 
 
 
XXJefferson51
Senior Guide
1.1.3  XXJefferson51  replied to  JohnRussell @1.1.1    5 years ago

All of it.  

 
 
 
XXJefferson51
Senior Guide
1.1.4  XXJefferson51  replied to  MrFrost @1.1.2    5 years ago

Obama knew all that well before the election but didn’t take action against the Russians until after the election.  Then and now they knew that there was no coordination or collusion between the Russian effort and any American.  

 
 
 
MrFrost
Professor Expert
1.1.5  MrFrost  replied to  XXJefferson51 @1.1.4    5 years ago
Obama knew all that well before the election but didn’t take action against the Russians until after the election.

Because if he had come out and said, "the Russians are trying to help trump win the election", what would you have said? "Obama is trying to swing the election to Hillary!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" In other words, no matter what he did, the regressive right wing fake news main stream media is going to complain. Thanks for proving the lefts point. 

 
 
 
The Magic 8 Ball
Masters Quiet
2  The Magic 8 Ball    5 years ago
Investigation Into Trump Was Well Justified.

actually no it was not. but the investigation that just started into how that all began is well justified.

thanks to admiral rogers ratting out obamas admin spying on trump?  we will not be living in a country where the left abuses the power of govt to go after political opponents, overthrow elections, and remove sitting presidents.   that crap is straight out of the communist playbook and people are going to pay dearly for the last +2yrs of bs

 
 
 
Greg Jones
Professor Participates
2.1  Greg Jones  replied to  The Magic 8 Ball @2    5 years ago

 people are going to pay dearly for the last 2yrs of bs

They surely are going to pay dearly and for a long time for this unlawful sham of an investigation.

Weaponizing the FBI and DOJ for purely political reasons is against everything our country stands for.

 
 
 
MrFrost
Professor Expert
2.1.1  MrFrost  replied to  Greg Jones @2.1    5 years ago
Weaponizing the FBI and DOJ for purely political reasons is against everything our country stands for.

Then why does donny think the DOJ is his personal lawyer by appointing an AG that is clearly a partisan hack? 

Again, you are blaming Obama for things donny has done. Another term for that is the Goebbles Rule, "Always blame your enemy of that which you are most guilty". Trump literally thinks that the FBI, DOJ and CIA are there for HIM and him only. They work for the American people, not donny and his own bloated ego. 

They surely are going to pay dearly and for a long time for this unlawful sham of an investigation.

Clinton: 9 investigations over 4.5 years. Not one charge, not one indictment, not one prison sentence and not one guilty plea.

Trump: 1 investigation over 2 years. 34 indictments, 4 prison sentences, 7 guilty pleas, 199 total criminal charges. 

.

Tell me Greg..which one of those two investigations was a "sham", in your opinion?

We'll wait. 

 
 
 
XXJefferson51
Senior Guide
2.1.2  XXJefferson51  replied to  Greg Jones @2.1    5 years ago

Your comments and the last one in particular can’t be said often or loudly enough to sink into the minds of those who aided and abetted that.  

 
 
 
JohnRussell
Professor Principal
3  author  JohnRussell    5 years ago

Many of the same people who are on this forum yelping about an anti Trump conspiracy are the same people who believed that a young DNC employee named Seth Rich was the source of the stolen material from the DNC, and that Barack Obama was born in Africa. 

(Muller definitively established that Russians, not Seth Rich, the subject of a right wing conspiracy theory, stole the DNC material)

 
 
 
JohnRussell
Professor Principal
4  author  JohnRussell    5 years ago
Here is, as Bill Barr might call it , “the bottom line”:

The Mueller Report describes, in excruciating detail and with relatively few redactions,

a candidate and a campaign aware of the existence of a plot by a hostile foreign government to criminally interfere in the U.S. election for the purpose of supporting that candidate’s side. It describes a candidate and a campaign who welcomed the efforts and delighted in the assistance. It describes a candidate and a campaign who brazenly and serially lied to the American people about the existence of the foreign conspiracy and their contacts with it.

And yet, it does not find evidence to support a charge of criminal conspiracy, which requires not just a shared purpose but a meeting of the minds.

Here is the other bottom line: The Mueller Report describes a president who, on numerous occasions, engaged in conduct calculated to hinder a federal investigation. It finds ample evidence that at least a portion of that conduct met all of the statutory elements of criminal obstruction of justice. In some of the instances in which all of the statutory elements of obstruction are met, the report finds no persuasive constitutional or factual defenses. And yet, it declines to render a judgment on whether the president has committed a crime.

Now, the House must decide what to do with these facts. If it wants to actually confront the substance of the report, it will introduce a resolution to begin an impeachment inquiry.

Of course this justifies impeachment. It is a no brainer. 

 
 
 
XXJefferson51
Senior Guide
4.1  XXJefferson51  replied to  JohnRussell @4    5 years ago

It will be a totally partisan event that like Obamacare not one Republican will support.  The public will view it as a partisan witch hunt and the democrats will have to choose between continuing to divide the country or actually participate in governing and helping to work on issues affecting our exceptional America led by an exceptionally great President that we will literally go to the mat along with him defending him against his domestic enemies come what may no matter the cost.  

 
 
 
MrFrost
Professor Expert
5  MrFrost    5 years ago
Rudy Giuliani was on with CNN's Jake Tapper this morning.

Yep, I watched it...and when it comes to Rudy, I think trump should probably pay Rudy 130k to stop incriminating him on national TV. 

Oh yea, and lets not forget this little gem...

"Truth isn't truth." 

512

 
 
 
XXJefferson51
Senior Guide
6  XXJefferson51    5 years ago

The bottom line is that the soft coup failed and has been exposed.  The issue for the opposition is will they wait for the 2020 election to achieve their desired results or will they move on from the failed soft coup to attempt a hard one?  Inquiring minds want to know.  

 
 
 
The Magic 8 Ball
Masters Quiet
6.1  The Magic 8 Ball  replied to  XXJefferson51 @6    5 years ago
will they move on from the failed soft coup to attempt a hard one?

the military  admiral rogers shut down their soft coup and our rightwing military will not allow a hard coup either.

the left is now shit out of luck, and insurance policies.

 

also,  let me give a shout out to my new stalker jrSmiley_100_smiley_image.jpg

 
 
 
Tacos!
Professor Guide
7  Tacos!    5 years ago
If Flynn was "innocent" why would Trump need to worry about an investigation?

Because legions of talking head TV pundits and elected officials called him an agent of Russia and a traitor before the evidence was in. That means he has no reason to trust that investigators will be fair. That's why.

 
 

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