First Charges Filed in Mueller Investigation

[Deaconblue]

The buzz going in was that they were going to try to make Rick Gates the fall guy. Guess they realized that was ridiculous.

Better to say nothing and let Rick Gates look like an opportunistic crook.

 

[PhDeac]

Better to say nothing and let Rick Gates look like an opportunistic crook.

At worst, Gates is a crook who stole from a crook.

 

[Newenglanddeac]

CNN) Special counsel Robert Mueller's team last year made clear it wanted former Trump campaign deputy Rick Gates' help, not so much against his former business partner Paul Manafort, but with its central mission: investigating the Trump campaign's contact with the Russians. New information disclosed in court filings and to CNN this week begin to show how they're getting it.

In a court filing earlier this week, the public saw the first signs of how the Mueller team plans to use information from Gates to tie Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman, directly to a Russian intelligence agency. Mueller's team alleges that Gates was in contact with a close colleague of Manafort's who worked for a Russian intelligence agency -- and that Gates knew of the spy service ties in September and October 2016, while he worked on the Trump campaign. Gates would have to talk about the communication with the man if prosecutors wanted, according to his plea deal.

That's in line with what prosecutors told Gates months ago during high-stakes negotiations, CNN has learned. They told him they didn't need his cooperation against Manafort, according to a person familiar with the investigation, and instead wanted to hear what he knew about contact between the Trump campaign and Russians.

The extent of Gates' knowledge about any such contact or what he told prosecutors hasn't been made public.

As part of Gates' agreement to cooperate with the special counsel a month ago, he earned a vastly reduced potential sentence and had several charges dropped in two criminal cases against him.

 

[Newenglanddeac]

This morning, Trump is once again raging at Mueller on Twitter, calling for his probe to be shut down. Uh-oh. His base will march in lockstep with him on this, and that’s all that matters! He’s flooding the media zone!! We are doomed to helplessness while his mighty social media presence mesmerizes the electorate!!! He’s winning!!!!

Except … no, he isn’t. A new CNN poll finds:

-Only 34 percent of Americans approve of Trump’s handling of the Russia investigation, vs. 55 percent who disapprove.
-58 percent say this is a serious matter that should be investigated, vs. only 37 percent who think it’s mainly an effort to discredit Trump.
-56 percent say Trump has interfered with the investigation, vs. only 38 percent who say he has not.
-Only 37 percent say the things Trump has said publicly about the investigation are true, vs. 56 percent who say they are false.
-70 percent say Trump should testify to Mueller, vs. only 25 percent who say he should not.
-57 percent say Trump knew about contacts between his campaign operatives and Russians, vs. only 36 percent who say he did not.

Trump is losing every single public argument about the Mueller probe.

His latest, in a tweet citing Judicial Watch, is that the firing of former FBI agent Peter Strzok, who authored texts critical of Trump, shows that the “fundamental underpinnings of the investigation were corrupt.” This is a lie: The inspector general’s report into all this actually found that the FBI decision not to prosecute Hillary Clinton was untainted by bias or politics, completely laying waste to Trump’s narrative. Regardless, this is only the latest in a long string of things that was supposed to “give Trump fodder” to disqualify the investigation, to use that deeply misleading and self-reinforcing journalistic cliche.

But the fodder is failing, and so are all his lies. Only small minorities believe the probe is a witch hunt; think he hasn’t interfered in it; believe he’s telling the truth about these matters; and don’t think he should testify. And those minorities are largely dominated by Republicans: In all these cases, independents — who matter in midterms — are tilted against him, a trend that other polls have also demonstrated.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/amph...s-lies-are-failing/?__twitter_impression=true

 

[PhDeac]

His base is falling lockstep with every lie. That’s dangerous. Those are the ones losing respect for democracy by the hour. And they’re the ones with the guns.

 

[WakeForestRanger]

 

[ChrisL68]

The "deep state" is just the extension of the "red scare". The idea that a bunch of career republicans are part of some massive conspiracy against the right would be laughable if there weren't so many idiots that believed it. Gotta maintain the "us vs them" to support a corrupt piece of shit like Donald Trump even when Pubs are in power across Washington.

 

[marquee moon]

The "deep state" is just the extension of the "red scare". The idea that a bunch of career republicans are part of some massive conspiracy against the right would be laughable if there weren't so many idiots that believed it. Gotta maintain the "us vs them" to support a corrupt piece of shit like Donald Trump even when Pubs are in power across Washington.

Ok Shillary

You keep thinking that

 

[ChrisL68]

Like I said it would be laughable if there weren't so many idiots who believed it.

 

[ImTheCaptain]

Ok Shillary

You keep thinking that

you have nothing else to go on. trump is a disaster. keep clutching your pearls

 

[WakeandBake]

Ok Shillary

You keep thinking that

Remind us of the motive to undermine a candidate that would give them everything they ever wanted in exchange for nothing but loyalty and admiration.

 

[JuiceCrewAllStar]

you have nothing else to go on. trump is a disaster. keep clutching your pearls

moonz doesn't give a fuck about trump

he's of the pwn the liberal ilk, the type who are in it for the trolling, whose dominant demographic is a third his age

 

[WakeandBake]

Yeah but this Sailor guy is for realsies. I really want to know what he believes the motivation would be for career FBI and government to want to undermine a presidential candidate, especially one who would give them everything they need and probably whatever else they wanted in exchange for their loyalty. It's the silliest goddamn conspiracy theory Ive ever heard.

 

[WakeForestRanger]

 

[RJKarl]

CNN said jurors are not allowed to have the transcript of the trial during deliberations. It seems to me this is the one thing they should have access to while making such important decisions.

If this is true, why don't they?

 

[deacondamo]

CNN said jurors are not allowed to have the transcript of the trial during deliberations. It seems to me this is the one thing they should have access to while making such important decisions.

If this is true, why don't they?

Probably expense. I've been in a number of trials no jurors are entitled to that. The instruction is generally, "Your collective recollection controls regarding the substance of the testimony" or something like that.

 

[RJKarl]

I would think they would have at least one master copy to refer to.

 

[PhDeac]

Probably expense. I've been in a number of trials no jurors are entitled to that. The instruction is generally, "Your collective recollection controls regarding the substance of the testimony" or something like that.

There is a transcript though, right? How would it be expensive to make it available?

 

[deacondamo]

There is a transcript though, right? How would it be expensive to make it available?

There is no transcript unless asked for. A court reporter has to transcribe it all. Otherwise, it's just recorded. This is a high profile case, but most aren't. They don't just have them available. Daily transcripts cost like $1k or something like that.

Think of the expense of transcribing all of the testimony that goes on throughout the country when most of it will probably never be used.

 

[RJKarl]

Why would they ever cost that much? They are already being taken down. Even if each day produced 500 pages, it wouldn't cost that much to reproduce something that already exists. Hell, they could put onto a computer file and give the jurors a laptop or other device and not have to print it.