Kevin's Watch

Remember when it was a "smoking gun" proof of collusion to find that Trump Jr agreed to meet with a Russian to get dirt on Hillary? Well, we finally know who funded the Fusion GPS dossier which started the entire "Trump-Russia collusion" story: the Hillary Campain and the DNC. No wonder members of Fusion GPS pleaded the 5th to avoid questions from Congress, and why they refused to release their bank records to hide their funding! They were protecting the fact that this was Democrat propaganda from the beginning.

Not only was this funded by Hillary and the DNC, but it contained info from Russian "informants" who were also paid with this money. So Hillary was doing exactly what everyone thought Trump Jr was doing, i.e. getting dirt on her opponent from the Russians!

And not only did she fund this research operation to hurt Trump in the election, but the dossier was turned over to Obama (while still in power) and used as the sole piece of "evidence" to begin investigating Trump while he was running for President--an investigation that never came up with a shred of evidence of collusion, despite over a year of investigating.

And now we have learned that the Meuller's special counsel investigation is turning its focus to the deal that gave Russia control of 20% of America's uranium supply--a deal approved by Hillary's State Department during a time when the Russia uranium brokers gave 150 million to her foundation and doubled Bill Clinton's speaking fee to $500,000 to speak to them. Meanwhile, the FBI (led by Mueller!) knew at the time that Russia was engaging in a massive extortion/bribery campaign to gain access to our uranium market--but Hillary's State department approved the deal anyway.

We also know that Manafort was working for the Podesta Group on behalf of the Russians! Meuller is now investigating Tony Podesta, brother of Clinton campaign chairman John.

The entire Russian conspiracy theory is backfiring on the Dems.

Hashi, I know this may sound naive, but I believe the media has dug in so deep with the Russia story--emphasizing Russia as the biggest threat to our democracy--I don't see how they can back off from all these connections between Russia and the Dems. This isn't a Fox News theory or a Republican distraction. All this stuff is coming out of the Special Counsel investigation that they demanded.

I don't see how Russia getting control of 20% of our uranium (through bribery, extortion, threats, contributions to the Clinton Foundation and payoff to Bill) is not a bigger story than Russia spending $100 grand on some Facebook ads. They actually think that people reading stuff online is more dangerous than our chief geopolitical foe gaining access to our uranium? Why is there no alarm for the latter, but sheer panic for the former?

It's all manufactured outrage. People are such sheep.

It's funny hearing Dem apologists trying to spin the DNC/dossier funding as "merely opposition research." Apparently, Hillary and the Dems getting the dirt from Russians is okay, but Trump getting dirt from the Russians is treason.

Never before has Democratic hypocrisy been so obvious. If Trump had done any of the things the Dems have done (as outlined here), he'd be impeached by now.

Hashi Lebwohl wrote:Russia bought targeted political ads on social media in places like Wisconsin and Ohio, which wound up voting for Trump? Is that a Russia problem or is it a Facebook problem?

Nah, it's a voter problem if people let themselves be influenced by ads.

--A

Facebook is where I find out about what is in my friends' lives. I don't pay too much attention to the adds.

But if I did, I would note that the "trending" header calling out GHWB for groping (when hovered over) had a picture of Bush Sr. The one about Hillary funding Russian Dossier had one of Trump. Republican President mentioned by name in scandal -- his picture. Democratic Popular Vote winner mentioned by name in scandal -- Picture of Trump.

Kinda sums it up for me.

In both the DNC server hacking and the unverified "Trump-Russia collusion" dossier, the FBI relied upon 3rd parties retained by Hillary's lawyers. That's right, even though the Russian hacking into the DNC has been described as an "act of war" by the Dems, they didn't let the FBI inspect their servers, and the President didn't issue subpoenas forcing them to turn over this extremely relevant evidence for such a monumental an act of "war." [Remember: the entire premise that Russia hacked those servers comes from this cyber forensics company (Crowdstike). We learned later that the data transfer rates from the servers eliminates the possibility of a hack.]

And then the FBI used Hillary's campaign opposition research--generated by Fusion GPS, which was retained secretly by her lawyers (which they've falsely denied for over a year) to open an investigation and spy on Trump during the election, trying to flesh out an allegation of a Russian connection which originated entirely from her own allies.

Unbelievable. Why does the FBI need to outsource national security investigations to entities paid by Hillary? We've got a serious FBI problem.

In addition, Hillary may be in legal trouble for hiding this from the government, because campaign finance laws require her to disclose in her campaign's expenditures. And, there is the legal issue of paying foreign nationals for helping in her win a Presidential election.

It wont matter. Stinking Clinton's are like improved teflon. Nothing sticks to them. Heck the FBI is probably scared that they their investigators would start "committing suicide", or being the victim of a random robbery that leaves them dead with nothing stolen. Its hard to turn evidence against them. All too often those that do end up dead

DoctorGamgee wrote:Kinda sums it up for me.

That's advertising.

--A

Is the entire Trump-Russia collusion narrative the result of a Clinton set-up?

The dossier was compiled by the notorious firm Fusion GPS, which also worked for Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, the very woman who met with Donald Trump Jr. in a meeting deemed pivotal to the case for Trump-Russia "collusion."

The Fusion GPS connection raises a supremely interesting question: Did the Clinton campaign actually orchestrate the meeting between Trump campaign officials and Veselnitskaya?

Tony Podesta stepping down from lobbying giant amid Mueller probe

Democratic power lobbyist Tony Podesta, founder of the Podesta Group, is stepping down from the firm that bears his name after coming under investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller.

Podesta's decision to leave the firm came on the same day that former Donald Trump campaign aides Paul Manafort and Rick Gates were indicted on multiple charges ...

Podesta Group Plays Key Role In Manafort Indictment

Manafort and Gates chose two companies, identified as Company A and Company B in the indictment, to lobby on behalf of the European Centre for a Modern Ukraine, a European nonprofit that officials say was created as a mouthpiece for_the Party of Regions. Previous news reports have indicated that the two companies are the Podesta Group and Mercury LLC.

The head of the Podesta Group, Tony Podesta,_resigned_from the group on Monday amid increasing attention from special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian influence operations. Tony's brother, John Podesta, served as Hillary Clinton's campaign chair during the 2016 election.
The two companies were aware that they were lobbying on behalf of the Ukrainian government and worked with Manafort to conceal their foreign lobbying activities from the public, according to the indictment.

Maddow mocks Trump for not knowing the meaning of "collusion," while showing little understanding of the term herself.

Technically, President Trump's standard line of defense in the Russia probe - we did not collude - suffered a bit of a blow Monday. In a plea deal with the special counsel unsealed Monday (at about the time Trump was tweeting the phrase "there is NO COLLUSION!"), Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos admitted the Trump adviser had contacts with Russians offering the Trump campaign Hillary Clinton's emails and other "dirt," and he tried to arrange meetings with Russian officials.

That's pretty much the dictionary definition of "collusion."

So having contacts with Russians and trying to arrange meetings with Russian officials is the dictionary definition of collusion? Every major candidate and politician meets with foreign officials, including Russians. The Democratic lobbying group, The Podesta Group, actively lobbied on behalf of Russian interests, which required having Russian contacts (via Manafort). That's not collusion, it's politics.

In terms of a legal definition, collusion is this:

2. Law. a secret understanding between two or more persons to gain something illegally, to defraud another of his or her rights, or to appear as adversaries though in agreement:

Getting dirt from the Russians on Hillary is no more illegal when members of Trump's campaign attempted (but failed) to do it than when Hillary's campaign and the DNC paid $9 million to actually obtain dirt from the Russians on Trump (i.e. the infamous dossier). Nor would doing so defraud anyone of her rights.

Trump did not get dirt from the Russians. Hillary did. In fact, Hillary turned over this Russian dossier to the FBI, which launched the entire investigation into Trump that has dominated the news and derailed his Presidency. Hillary's acquired dirt has produced actual harm against the sitting President, while Trump was unable to get any dirt, much less harm her with it. If the Russians were actually colluding with Trump, why didn't they give him any dirt on Hillary? Why did they give her dirt on Trump? What did the Russians get for their alleged collusion with Trump?

Nothing about this Dem myth/witch hunt makes any sense. The Russians would have been much better off with Hillary as President, since she had already proven that she was willing to help Russia with the uranium deal, not to mention the weakening of our foreign policy regarding Russia during the Obama administration.

Russian actors sought to undermine Trump after election

Top lawyers from Facebook and Twitter said Tuesday that Russian-linked posts and advertisements placed on the social networks after Election Day sought to sow doubt about President Donald Trump's victory. Facebook general counsel Colin Stretch told a Senate Judiciary panel that content generated by a Russian troll farm known as the Internet Research Agency after Nov. 8 centered on "fomenting discord about the validity of [Trump's] election." That's a change from Russia's pre-election activity, which was largely centered on trying to denigrate Hillary Clinton, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said in a January report.

During the election, they were trying to create discord between Americans, most of it directed against Clinton. After the election you saw Russian-tied groups and organizations trying to undermine President Trump's legitimacy.

...

James Lewis, an international cyber policy expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the revelation about Russian anti-Trump activity on social media post-election fits with typical Kremlin information-warfare efforts.

"Their goal is to create confusion and dissent. The target is the U.S. and NATO, not any particular candidate. They just want chaos," Lewis said. "It went from being a grudge match against Clinton to what they thought was a priceless opportunity to inflict harm."

All this time, the Dems have been interpreting Russian interference in our election as a sign of collusion between Trump and Russia to win the Presidency. But there has always been another, more likely explanation that they never saw, because of their anti-Trump blinders. Dems assumed that because Trump won, this was the intended purpose of the Russians. But what if they were undermining Hillary with the same exact expectation that everyone else had? What if they expected her to win, and wanted to damage the incoming President, rather than help Trump win? If they actually wanted Trump to win, why would they undermine him after the election? Maybe they didn't really care who won, as long as the sitting President was weakened by his/her own countrymen in the opposition party?

Hey, Dems, wake up! You are doing Russia's bidding by accepting this phony Russian conspiracy theory! Your hatred of Trump is causing you to play right into their hands by weakening our President! You are being punked by Putin, letting yourself be his pawns.

Sessions considering a second special counsel to look into Hillary's dealings with Russia.

About damn time.

Wow.

So no collusion?

There is no evidence of collusion between Trump and Russia, if that's what you mean. The only person who used Russian help to try to win the election was Hillary, who paid for the dossier (which contained Russian misinformation) that was used to get a FISA court warrant to spy on the Trump campaign.

Read Cail's article. The investigation against Trump is the very definition of a corrupt, partisan witch hunt.