The Mueller Report Thread

[seemslikeadream]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8gAYUupm2k

WITHOUT OBJECTION. I'M GOING TO TURN TO OUR WITNESSES, THE SUBJECT OF THE HEARING TODAY. BEFORE I DO, AND AS YOU HAVE

CHOSEN, INSTEAD OF ADDRESSING THE HEARING, TO SIMPLY ATTACK ME, CONSISTENT WITH THE PRESIDENT'S ATTACKS, I DO WANT TO

RESPOND IN THIS WAY. MY COLLEAGUES MAY THINK IT'S OKAY THAT THE RUSSIANS OFFERED DIRT ON THE DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE FOR

PRESIDENT AS PART OF WHAT WAS DESCRIBED AS THE RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT'S EFFORT TO HELP THE TRUMP CAMPAIGN. YOU MIGHT

THINK THAT'S OKAY. MY COLLEAGUES MIGHT THINK IT'S OKAY WHEN THAT WAS OFFERED TO THE SON OF THE PRESIDENT AT A PIVOTAL

ROLE IN THE CAMPAIGN, THAT THE PRESIDENT'S SON DID NOT CALL THE FBI, HE DID NOT ADAMANTLY RE ADAMANTLY REFUSE THAT

FOREIGN HELP. NO, INSTEAD THAT SON SAID THAT HE WOULD LOVE THE HELP OF THE RUSSIANS. YOU MIGHT THINK IT'S OKAY THAT HE

TOOK THAT MEETING. YOU MIGHT THINK IT'S OKAY THAT PAUL MANAFORT, THE CAMPAIGN CHAIR, SOMEONE WITH GREAT EXPERIENCE IN

RUNNING CAMPAIGNS ALSO TOOK THAT MEETING. YOU MIGHT THINK IT'S OKAY THAT THE PRESIDENT'S SON-IN-LAW ALSO TOOK THAT

MEETING. YOU MIGHT THINK IT'S OKAY THAT THEY CONCEALED IT FROM THE PUBLIC. YOU MIGHT THINK IT'S OKAY THAT THEIR ONLY

DISAPPOINTMENT AFTER THAT MEETING WAS THAT THE DIRT THEY RECEIVED ON HILLARY CLINTON WASN'T BETTER. YOU MIGHT THINK

THAT'S OKAY. YOU MIGHT THINK IT'S OKAY THAT WHEN IT WAS DISCOVERED A YEAR LATER THAT THEY LIED ABOUT THAT MEETING, AND

SAID IT WAS ABOUT ADOPTIONS, YOU MIGHT THINK IT'S OKAY THAT THE PRESIDENT HAS REPORTED TO HAVE HELPED DICTATE THAT LIE.

YOU MIGHT THINK THAT'S OKAY. I DON'T. YOU MIGHT THINK IT'S OKAY THAT THE CAMPAIGN CHAIRMAN OF A PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN

WOULD OFFER INFORMATION ABOUT THAT CAMPAIGN TO A RUSSIAN OLIGARCH IN EXCHANGE FOR MONEY OR DEBT FORGIVENESS, YOU

MIGHT THINK THAT'S OKAY. I DON'T. YOU MIGHT THINK IT'S OKAY THAT THAT CAMPAIGN CHAIRMAN OFFERED POLLING DATA. CAMPAIGN

POLLING DATA TO SOMEONE LINKED TO RUSSIAN INTELLIGENCE. I DON'T THINK THAT'S OKAY. YOU MIGHT THINK IT'S OKAY THAT THE

PRESIDENT HIMSELF CALLED ON RUSSIA TO HACK HIS OPPONENTS' E-MAILS IF THEY WERE LISTENING. YOU MIGHT THINK IT'S OKAY THAT

LATER THAT DAY, IN FACT, THE RUSSIANS ATTEMPTED TO HACK A SERVER AFFILIATED WITH THAT CAMPAIGN. I DON'T THINK THAT'S OKAY.

YOU MIGHT THINK THAT IT'S OKAY THAT THE PRESIDENT'S SON-IN-LAW SOUGHT TO ESTABLISH A SECRET BACK CHANNEL OF

COMMUNICATIONS WITH THE RUSSIANS THROUGH A RUSSIAN DIPLOMATIC FACILITY. I DON'T THINK THAT'S OKAY. YOU MIGHT THINK IT'S

OKAY THAT AN ASSOCIATE OF THE PRESIDENT MADE DIRECT CONTACT WITH THE GRU THROUGH GUCCIFER 2 AND WIKILEAKS THAT'S

CONSIDERED A HOSTILE INTELLIGENCE AGENCY YOU MIGHT THINK IT'S OKAY A SENIOR CAMPAIGN OFFICIAL WAS INSTRUCTED TO REACH

THAT ASSOCIATE AND FIND OUT WHAT THAT HOSTILE INTELLIGENCE AGENCY HAD TO SAY IN TERMS OF DIRT ON HIS OPPONENT. YOU

MIGHT THINK IT'S OKAY THAT THE NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER DESIGNATE SECRETLY CONFERRED WITH A RUSSIAN AMBASSADOR

ABOUT UNDERMINING U.S. SANCTIONS AND YOU MIGHT THINK IT'S OKAY HE LIED ABOUT IT TO THE FBI. YOU MIGHT SAY THAT'S ALL OKAY.

YOU MIGHT SAY THAT'S JUST WHAT YOU NEED TO DO TO WIN. BUT I DON'T THINK IT'S OKAY. I THINK IT'S IMMORAL. I THINK IT'S UNETHICAL. I

THINK IT'S UNPATRIOTIC. AND YES, I THINK IT'S CORRUPT. AND EVIDENCE OF COLLUSION. NOW, I HAVE ALWAYS SAID THAT THE QUESTION

OF WHETHER THIS AMOUNTS TO PROOF OF CONSPIRACY WAS ANOTHER MATTER. WHETHER THE SPECIAL COUNSEL COULD PROVE

BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT THE PROOF OF THAT CRIME WOULD BE UP TO THE SPECIAL COUNSEL AND I WOULD ACCEPT HIS

DECISION, AND I DO. HE'S A GOOD AND HONORABLE MAN AND HE IS A GOOD PROSECUTOR. BUT I DO NOT THINK THAT CONDUCT CRIMINAL

OR NOT IS OKAY. AND THE DAY WE DO THINK THAT'S OKAY IS THE DAY WE WILL LOOK BACK AND SAY THAT IS THE DAY AMERICA LOST ITS

WAY. AND I WILL TELL YOU ONE MORE THING THAT IS APP-- I DON'T THINK IT'S OKAY THAT DURING THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN MR.

TRUMP SOUGHT THE KREMLIN'S HELP TO CONSUMMATE A DEAL THAT WOULD MAKE HIM A FORTUNE, HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF

DOLLARS, I DON'T THINK IT'S OKAY HE CONCEALED IT FROM THE PUBLIC. I DON'T THINK IT'S OKAY THAT HE ADVOCATED A NEW AND MORE

FAVORABLE POLICY TOWARDS THE RUSSIANS, EVEN AS HE WAS SEEKING THE RUSSIAN'S HELP, THE KREMLIN'S HELP TO MAKE MONEY,

YOK IT'S OKAY THAT HIS ATTORNEY LIED TO OUR COMMITTEE. THERE'S A DIFFERENT WORD FOR THAT. THAN COLLUSION. AND IT'S CALLED

COMPROMISE. AND THAT IS THE SUBJECT OF OUR HEARING TODAY.

[seemslikeadream]

Olga Lautman
‏
MSM should stop framing the Russians reaching out the to Trump campaign during the election as if it was an isolated incident during election and start discussing Trump’s almost 4 decades of dealings with Russian officials and mafia in US and abroad. So overlooked

For instance the Trump Tower meet wasn’t Russians peddling dirt on Hillary. It was a meeting between trusted friends. Trump partnered w Agalarov for Miss Universe and kept contact after that including arranging the meet (although I think trump met Agalarov earlier than 2013)

The Russian lawyer Veselnitskaya represented Prevezon and lev Leviev who is involved in Prevezon knows Kushner and Trump for a long time. In fact Leviev was involved w Kushner in the NYT building in 2015. Trumps camp/family knew all these people for years
‏
Same w Trump Tower Moscow. Trump has been attempting to launch Trump Tower Moscow since 1987 and other Trump projects in former Soviet countries decades. Although I think there is more to these projects w mafia officials than actual buildings. Probably more money laundering

Media should really focus on the well documented Russian mafia, spies, and oligarchs who used Trump Tower properties for decades to launder money and stage global criminal operations
https://twitter.com/olgaNYC1211/status/ ... 8263465985

Seeking Full Mueller Report, House Democrats Prepare to Vote on Subpoena

April 1, 2019
Representative Jerrold Nadler, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said Congress required the complete special counsel report without redactions.Sarah Silbiger/The New York Times


Representative Jerrold Nadler, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said Congress required the complete special counsel report without redactions.Sarah Silbiger/The New York Times
WASHINGTON — The House Judiciary Committee has scheduled a vote on Wednesday to authorize a subpoena that Democrats can use to try to force the Justice Department to hand over an unredacted copy of the special counsel’s report and underlying evidence.

The move on Monday by Representative Jerrold Nadler of New York, the committee’s chairman, made clear that Democrats are not satisfied with Attorney General William P. Barr’s assurances on Friday that he will produce a full, albeit redacted, copy of the nearly 400-page report to Congress by mid-April.

“As I have made clear, Congress requires the full and complete special counsel report, without redactions, as well as access to the underlying evidence,” Mr. Nadler said in a statement. “The attorney general should reconsider so that we can work together to ensure the maximum transparency of this important report to both Congress and the American people.”

The committee’s announcement came a day ahead of a deadline set by Mr. Nadler and five other House committee leaders for Mr. Barr to voluntarily hand over the material collected by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III.

Mr. Barr appeared all but certain to miss it.

The urgency among Democrats came, in part, because they mistrust Mr. Barr’s assessment of the report in a four-page letter he sent to Congress late last month. The letter said that Mr. Mueller had not found that the Trump campaign conspired with Russia to subvert the 2016 election, and that although Mr. Mueller did not offer a prosecutorial judgment on whether Mr. Trump obstructed justice, Mr. Barr had determined the president’s actions were not illegal.

Democrats control the Judiciary Committee by a sizable margin and most likely will not need Republican support to approve the subpoena. If approved, it would be up to Mr. Nadler to determine when and if to issue it — effectively increasing pressure on Mr. Barr to meet Democrats’ demands.

The committee’s top Republican, Representative Doug Collins of Georgia, appeared to oppose a subpoena on Monday, saying Democrats had grown “desperate” despite Mr. Barr providing “transparency above and beyond what is required.”

“Judiciary Democrats have escalated from setting arbitrary deadlines to demanding unredacted material that Congress does not, in truth, require and that the law does not allow to be shared outside the Justice Department,” Mr. Collins said in a statement.

Indeed, in his Friday letter to Mr. Nadler and other congressional leaders, Mr. Barr wrote that the Justice Department and special counsel’s team were scrubbing the report to redact secret grand jury testimony, classified material and information about other continuing federal investigations. He also agreed to testify publicly in early May about his handling of the case.

In addition to authorizing a subpoena for the Mueller report, the Judiciary Committee will vote on Wednesday on subpoenas for five key witnesses in its investigation into possible obstruction of justice, abuse of power and corruption within the Trump administration.

The individuals are Donald F. McGahn II, a former White House counsel who spoke extensively with Mr. Mueller’s investigators; Stephen K. Bannon, the president’s former chief strategist; Hope Hicks, a former White House communications director; Reince Priebus, the president’s first chief of staff; and Annie Donaldson, a deputy of Mr. McGahn who took detailed notes on the president’s behavior during key episodes in his administration.

The five were among 81 individuals, companies and government entities from which the committee requested documents last month to kick-start its investigation. Mr. Nadler said he would not have to use the subpoenas if the witnesses changed course and complied voluntarily.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/01/us/p ... poena.html

[seemslikeadream]

Before the morning is over, the House Judiciary Committee will have voted to hand unilateral subpoena power to Chairman Jerry Nadler with respect to the Mueller report, and Nadler can be expected to put it to good use almost immediately.


Jim Sensenbrenner: When I was Chair of the Committee under a GOP Administration, I never subpoenaed the Administration, which says something about the kind of oversight I offered.

Speaking in the House just now, Rep. Louie Gohmert says Democrats are only pursuing more info on the Trump/Russia investigation because the "facts" show that it was "Democrats who colluded with foreign agents."


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7_WeCv-fBY

WITHOUT OBJECTION, THE RESOLUTION IS CONSIDERED AS READ AND OPEN FOR AMENDMENT AT ANY POINT. I WILL BEGIN BY RECOGNIZING MYSELF FOR AN OPENING STATEMENT. IN LATE 1973, THE NIXON ADMINISTRATION HAD AN IDEA. WHEN SPECIAL COUNSEL ARCHIBALD COX ASKED THE WHITE HOUSE TO TURN OVER RECORDINGS OF CONVERSATIONS PRESIDENT NIXON OFFERED INSTEAD TO PROVIDE THE TAPES TO SENATOR JOHN STENNIS OF MISSISSIPPI, NIXON PROPOSED THAT STENICE WHO WAS HARD OF HEARING WOULD LISTEN TO RECORDINGS HIMSELF AND PROVIDE SUMMARIES OF THE TAPES TO THE SPECIAL PROSECUTOR. THE NIXON JUSTIFIED THE PROPOSAL AS A MEANS TO PROTECT SENSITIVE INFORMATION THAT WOULD NOT ORDINARILY BE MADE PART OF THE RECORD. IN HINDSIGHT, OF COURSE, WE KNOW THAT PRESIDENT NIXON HAD ULTERIOR MOTIVES. IN ANY EVENT, COX HAD A JOB TO DO. THAT JOB REQUIRED HIM TO EVALUATE THE FULL RECORD FOR HIMSELF AND HE REFUSED THE PRESIDENT'S OFFER. PRESIDENT NIXON ORDERED HIM FIRED THE NEXT DAY. THE DYNAMICS OF THE COMPROMISES BECAME KNOWN SHOULD SOUND FAMILIAR TO US. THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION HAS AN IDEA. THEY WANT TO REDACT THE MUELLER REPORT BEFORE THEY PROVIDE IT TO CONGRESS. THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE SAYS THE PROPOSAL IS A MEANS TO PROTECT SENSITIVE INFORMATION THAT WOULD NOT ORDINARILY BE MADE PART OF THE RECORD, BUT WE HAVE REASON TO SUSPECT THIS ADMINISTRATION'S MOTIVES. THE MUELLER REPORT PROBABLY ISN'T THE QUOTE TOTAL EXONERATION, UNQUOTE, THE PRESIDENT CLAIMS IT TO BE. AND IN ANY EVENT, THE COMMITTEE HAS A JOB TO DO. THE CONSTITUTION CHARGES CONGRESS WITH HOLDING THE PRESIDENT ACCOUNTABLE FOR ALLEGED MISCONDUCT. NOT THE ATTORNEY GENERAL'S SUMMARY, NOT THE SUBSTANTIALLY REDACTED SYNOPSIS, BUT THE FULL REPORT AND THE UNDERLYING EVIDENCE. THE ATTORNEY GENERAL PROPOSES TO REDACT FOUR CATEGORIES OF INFORMATION FROM THE MUELLER REPORT. GRAND JURY INFORMATION, CLASSIFIED INFORMATION, INFORMATION RELATED TO ONGOING PROSECUTIONS, AND QUOTE INFORMATION THAT MAY UNDULY INFRINGE ON THE PERSONAL PRIVACY AND REPUTATIONAL INTERESTS OF PERIPHERAL THIRD PARTIES CLOSE QUOTE. THE DEPARTMENT IS WRONG TO TRY TO WITHHOLD THAT INFORMATION FROM THIS COMMITTEE. CONGRESS IS ENTITLED TO ALL OF THE EVIDENCE. THIS ISN'T JUST MY OPINION. IT IS ALSO A MATTER OF LAW FOR A PRECEDENT OF THREE OF THE FOUR CATEGORIES, WE NEED TO LOOK NO FURTHER THAN THE SUMMER OF 2016 WHEN PURSUANT TO CONGRESSIONAL SUBPOENA, THE DEPARTMENT AND THE FBI BEGAN TO TRANSFER MORE THAN 880,000 DOCUMENTS RELATED TO THE CLINTON INVESTIGATION TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. THAT INCLUDED CLASSIFIED INFORMATION WHICH WE HELD IN OUR SECURE FACILITY AND WHICH WE HANDLE EVERY DAY. IT INCLUDED INFORMATION RELATED TO ONGOING INVESTIGATIONS AND IT INCLUDED INFORMATION RELATED TO NUMEROUS THIRD PARTIES. MANY OF WHOM THIS COMMITTEE LATER INTERVIEWED AS PART OF THE REPUBLICAN INVESTIGATION INTO THE INVESTIGATION. THE OTHER CATEGORY OF INFORMATION THE ATTORNEY GENERAL PROPOSES TO REDACT IS GRAND JURY INFORMATION. NORMALLY PROTECTED UNDER RULE 6 E OF THE FEDERAL RULES OF CRIMINAL PROCEDURE. MANY WHO SEEM EAGER TO KEEP THIS INFORMATION FROM CONGRESS ARGUE THAT THE LAW DOES NOT ALLOW GRAND JURY INFORMATION TO BE SHARED OUTSIDE THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT. THAT ANALYSIS IS INCOMPLETE, IF NOT OUTRIGHT INCORRECT. IT IS TRUE THAT RULE 60 ORDINARILY PROHIBITS THE DEPARTMENT FROM SHARING GRAND JURY INFORMATION WITH THE PUBLIC. IT IS ALSO TRUE THAT WITH PROPER AUTHORIZATION AND UNDER COURT ORDER, THE DEPARTMENT MUST SHARE GRAND JURY INFORMATION WITH THIS COMMITTEE. THAT WAS THE CASE IN 1974 WHEN JUDGE SERICO RELEASED THE WATERGATE ROAD MAP AT THIS COMMITTEE AT THE REQUEST OF SPECIAL COUNSEL LEON JAWORSKI. AND IT WAS THE CASE IN 2008 AND 2009 WHEN THIS COMMITTEE WENT DIRECTLY TO THE GRAND JURY TWICE TO GET INFORMATION RELEVANT TO OUR INVESTIGATION OF JUDGE THOMAS -- ON MULTIPLE OCCASIONS I HAVE ASKED ATTORNEY GENERAL BARR TO WORK WITH US, TO GO TO THE COURT AND OBTAIN ACCESS TO THE MATERIALS THE DEPARTMENT DEEMS COVERED BY RULE 6 E. HE HAS SO FAR REFUSED. I WILL GIVE HIM TIME TO CHANGE HIS MIND. IF WE CANNOT REACH AN ACCOMMODATION, WE WILL HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO ISSUE SUBPOENAS FOR THESE MATERIALS. AND IF THE DEPARTMENT STILL REFUSES THEN IT SHOULD BE UP TO A JUDGE, NOT THE PRESIDENT AND NOT HIS POLITICAL APPOINTEE TO DECIDE WHETHER OR NOT IT IS APPROPRIATE FOR THE COMMITTEE TO REVIEW THE COMPLETE RECORD. THE RESOLUTION BEFORE US TODAY AUTHORIZES SUBPOENAS FOR TWO CATEGORIES OF INFORMATION. FIRST, THE RESOLUTION AUTHORIZES SUBPOENAS FOR DOCUMENTS AND TESTIMONY RELATED TO THE FULL AND UNREDACTED REPORT OF SPECIAL COUNSEL MUELLER. I BELIEVE THE COMMITTEE MUST HAVE ACCESS TO THIS INFORMATION IN ORDER TO PERFORM ITS CONSTITUTIONALLY MANDATED RESPONSIBILITY. THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES AGREED WITH THIS PROPOSITION WHEN LAST MONTH IT VOTED 420-0 IN SUPPORT OF A RESOLUTION THAT DEMANDED THE RELEASE OF THE FULL REPORT. SECOND, THE RESOLUTION AUTHORIZES SUBPOENAS FOR DOCUMENTS AND TESTIMONY FROM CERTAIN FORMER WHITE HOUSE EMPLOYEES. EACH OF THESE INDIVIDUALS HAS HAD MORE THAN A MONTH TO PRODUCE DOCUMENTS TO THIS COMMITTEE VOLUNTARILY. WE BELIEVE THAT THESE INDIVIDUALS MAY HAVE RECEIVED DOCUMENTS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE IN PREPARATION FOR THEIR INTERVIEWS WITH THE SPECIAL COUNSEL. WE ALSO BELIEVE THAT THESE INDIVIDUALS MAY HAVE TURNED THIS INFORMATION OVER TO THEIR PRIVATE ATTORNEYS. UNDER APPLICABLE FEDERAL LAW, PRESIDENT TRUMP WAIVED HIS CLAIMS TO EXECUTIVE PRIVILEGE ONCE THIS INFORMATION WAS TRANSMITTED TO OUTSIDE COUNSEL. BECAUSE WE MAY HAVE TO GO TO COURT TO OBTAIN THE COMPLETE TEXT OF THE SPECIAL COUNSEL'S REPORT, AND BECAUSE THE PRESIDENT MAY ATTEMPT TO INVOKE EXECUTIVE PRIVILEGE TO WITHHOLD THAT EVIDENCE FROM US, IT IS IMPERATIVE THAT THE COMMITTEE TAKE POSSESSION OF THESE DOCUMENTS AND OTHERS WITHOUT DELAY. YESTERDAY THE PRESIDENT PRESENTED ME WITH THE HIGH HONOR OF NOT ONE, BUT THREE SEPARATE MENTIONS ON TWITTER. HE ALSO TALKED ABOUT OUR RELATIONSHIP WHICH GOES BACK SEVERAL YEARS IN A PRESS CONFERENCE YESTERDAY AFTERNOON. PRESIDENT TRUMP SEEMS TO THINK IN 1998 I WAS OPPOSED TO PUBLIC RELEASE OF THE STARR REPORT AND THAT HE HAS CAUGHT ME CHANGING MY MIND ON THE SUBJECT. LET ME SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT. IN 1998, THE DEBATE WAS NOT ABOUT CONGRESS RECEIVING EVIDENCE. CONGRESS HAD ALREADY RECEIVED THE FULL 445 PAGE REPORT, AND 17 BOXES OF ADDITIONAL DOCUMENTS INCLUDING GRAND JURY MATERIAL. WE ARE OWED THAT SAME OPPORTUNITY TODAY. IN 1998, THE CENTRAL DEBATE WAS ABOUT THE PUBLIC RELEASE OF SOME OF THE MATERIALS ACCOMPANYING THE STARR REPORT. MATERIALS THAT CONGRESS ALREADY HAD. AND THAT DESCRIBED PRIVATE SEXUAL ACTS IN LURID DETAIL. CONGRESS HAS NO BUSINESS BROADCASTING GRAPHIC ACCOUNTS OF THE PRESIDENT'S SEX LIFE. IT WAS INAPPROPRIATE IN 1998. IT WOULD BE INAPPROPRIATE TODAY. OUR FOCUS SHOULD BE ON THE LAW. THAT IS WHERE OUR FOCUS WILL REMAIN, SO LONG AS I AM CHAIRMAN. WE ARE DEALING NOW, NOT WITH THE PRESIDENT'S PRIVATE AFFAIRS BUT WITH A SUSTAINED ATTACK ON THE INTEGRITY OF THE REPUBLIC BY THE PRESIDENT AND HIS CLOSEST ADVISERS. THIS COMMITTEE REQUIRES THE FULL REPORT AND THE UNDERLYING MATERIALS BECAUSE IT IS OUR JOB, NOT THE ATTORNEY GENERAL'S TO DETERMINE WHETHER OR NOT PRESIDENT TRUMP HAS ABUSED HIS OFFICE. AND WE REQUIRE THE REPORT BECAUSE ONE DAY, ONE WAY OR ANOTHER, THE COUNTRY WILL MOVE ON FROM PRESIDENT TRUMP. WE MUST MAKE IT HARDER FOR FUTURE PRESIDENTS TO BEHAVE THIS WAY. WE NEED A FULL ACCOUNTING OF THE PRESIDENT'S ACTIONS TO DO THAT WORK. ACCORDINGLY, I URGE MY COLLEAGUES TO SUPPORT THE RESOLUTION. I NOW RECOGNIZE THE RANKING MEMBER OF THE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE, THE GENTLEMAN FROM GEORGIA, MR. COLLINS, FOR HIS OPENING STATEMENT.

Mike Memoli

House Judiciary Committee meeting to authorize subpoena for Mueller report is underway



Chairman @RepJerryNadler: "The Constitution charges Congress with holding the President accountable for alleged official misconduct. That job requires us to evaluate the evidence for ourselves – not the Attorney General’s summary, not a substantially redacted synopsis."


Nadler: "For precedent ... we need look no further than the summer of 2016—when, pursuant to congressional subpoena, the Department and the FBI began to transfer more than 880,000 documents related to the Clinton investigation to the House of Representatives."


Nadler: "That production included classified information, which we held in our secure facility, and which we handle every day. It included information related to ongoing investigations. And it included information related to numerous third parties."


Nadler: "Yesterday, the President presented me with the high honor of not one, but three separate mentions on Twitter." Now addressing his view on Starr Report


"In 1998, the debate was not about Congress receiving evidence. Congress had already received [it]. ... In 1998, the central debate was about the public release of some of the materials accompanying the Starr report ... that described private sexual acts in lurid detail."

Nadler: "One day, one way or another, the country will move on from President Trump. We must make it harder for future presidents to behave this way. We need a full accounting of the President’s actions to do that work."

Ranking member @RepDougCollins says, quite rapidly, that Starr report was handled under different guidelines, and Barr already pledged to deliver what is appropriate. "This is reckless, this is irresponsible, and this is disingenuous."

Collins also attacking Dems for again seeking a preemptive subpoena for individuals who have already been cooperating with their requests. Compares to throwing dynamite in a fishing pond. "This committee can do this better."

Republicans now engaging in some delaying tactics, forcing clerk to read full text of resolution - a step that's usually waived.

Note: NATO secretary general addresses joint meeting of Congress at 11


The Republican who forced the delay: Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.). Yesterday, he and Nadler had a testy back-and-forth during a hearing in which Buck accused Nadler of a "cheap shot." "No, it was a real shot," Nadler said.

"We will go to court," Nadler says. "We will do whatever is necessary, whether it is subpoena or in the courts" to get Mueller report.

Nadler, defending himself from GOP hypocrisy claims over Mueller vs. Starr. "I was right 21 years ago, I am right now. And it's totally consistent"


. @RepRatcliffe raising Q about Dems desire to release a full report, which could have implications for classified info.

It's not on the same scale -- calls for resignation. But Republicans on Judiciary are trying to make Nadler an issue today just as GOP on Intel made Schiff an issue last week.
https://twitter.com/mikememoli

Breaking News: House Democrats authorized a subpoena to get a full copy of the Mueller report, setting up a confrontation with the Justice Department

House Dems authorize subpoena for full Mueller report
KYLE CHENEY04/03/2019 10:37 AM EDT
Jerry Nadler
The vote gives House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler the discretion to issue a subpoena at any time to Attorney General William Barr, a move that likely would launch a legal confrontation between Congress and the Justice Department. | M. Scott Mahaskey/POLITICO
The House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday authorized Chairman Jerry Nadler to issue a subpoena for special counsel Robert Mueller's full report and all of the underlying evidence Mueller collected.

The vote gives Nadler the discretion to issue a subpoena at any time to Attorney General William Barr, a move that likely would launch a legal confrontation between Congress and the Justice Department.

But Nadler indicated that he won't issue the subpoena right away. Rather, he said he intends to give Barr "time to change his mind" about redacting the report before submitting it to Congress.

The party line committee vote authorized Nadler to issue subpoenas for five former senior aides to President Donald Trump as part of a broad obstruction of justice and corruption probe, including former chief of staff Reince Priebus, former adviser Steve Bannon, former White House counsel Don McGahn, McGahn's former deputy Ann Donaldson and former communications director Hope Hicks.

The authorization for subpoenas puts Congress on an aggressive footing while Barr reviews Mueller's report and redacts several categories of information. Barr has indicated he intends to redact classified information, grand jury testimony, material relevant to ongoing investigations and "reputational" information that could be harmful to "peripheral third parties."

Democrats have argued that Congress should have access to all of that information even if it is blacked out of the version of the report Barr makes public. They note that Republicans received material in all four of these categories when they demanded documents from the Justice Department over the last two years.

In a recent letter to lawmakers, Barr said he intends to provide the redacted version of the report to Congress by "mid-April" or sooner. He also offered to testify before Congress in early May. House Democrats have rejected this offer as insufficient and demanded him to testify immediately.

Republicans on the Judiciary Committee ripped the subpoena effort as a partisan push to attack the president. Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.), the ranking Republican on the panel, said Democrats are asking Barr to violate laws and regulations to include unredacted information.

"As much as the chairman and I may want to view this material ... we cannot," Collins said. "In the face of laws and rules he finds inconvenient the chairman asks our nation’s top law enforcement officer to break the rules and the law."

Collins also suggested that some of the Trump aides Democrats authorized subpoenas for indicated willingness to cooperate. He called the effort "political theater" intended to get reporters to write about subpoenas for close aides to the president.

Nadler repeatedly invoked the investigation of President Bill Clinton by former independent counsel Kenneth Starr as an example of why Mueller’s report should be released. Though Nadler was a harsh critic of Starr at the time, he emphasized Wednesday that Starr provided Congress voluminous material that Barr now proposes to redact.

Some Republicans urged Nadler to go to court and ask that a judge lift the restriction on sharing grand jury material. Nadler indicated he intends to do that but wants the committee should issue a subpoena first.

"These investigations should end. We should move on. We shouldn’t be issuing subpoenas today," said Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Texas). But Ratcliffe said if the committee intends to issue subpoenas, "Let’s issue one for Bob Mueller. Let Bob Mueller come and let’s ask Bob Mueller whether he thinks the report that he created should be disclosed without considerations of classified national security information or without redactions for grand jury information."

Republicans repeatedly indicated that Mueller’s report found no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia and made no conclusion on obstruction of justice, prompting sharp rejoinders from Democrats who noted none of them had seen the report yet.

“Why are we here? It seems to me we’re here because the Mueller report wasn’t what the Democrat thought it would be,” wondered Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).

“Have you seen it?” replied Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.).

“I’ve seen the principal findings from the attorney general,” Jordan said.

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/04/ ... rt-1251685

The House Judiciary Committee also voted (24-17) to authorize subpoenas for testimony and documents from five former WH officials:

-Reince Priebus
-Don McGahn
-McGahn's former deputy Ann Donaldson
-Steve Bannon
-Hope Hicks

[seemslikeadream]

Rick Gates, who served as Trump’s deputy campaign chair, told investigators that the Republican National Committee had “non-public information” about the timing of the Wikileaks releases, but “did not specify who at the RNC knew this information.”
Mueller Report Secret Memos [302s]: Manafort was pushing the unfounded conspiracy theory—now part of the Trump impeachment inquiry—that Ukraine hacked the DNC's emails as early as 2016.

Zoe Tillman

BREAKING: Here's The First Batch of Memos From Robert Mueller's Russia Inquiry https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ja ... et-memos-1 …

Stay tuned, we'll be updating with details as we read through the documents.
https://twitter.com/wendysiegelman?lang=en

The Mueller Report’s Secret Memos
BuzzFeed News sued the US government for the right to see all the work that Mueller’s team kept secret. We've published the first installment.

Jason Leopold
Posted on November 2, 2019, at 12:08 p.m. ET

The 448-page report issued by then–special counsel Robert Mueller last March was the most hotly anticipated prosecutorial document in a generation, laying out the evidence of Russia's interference in the 2016 election and the Trump administration’s efforts to obstruct the inquiry. That report, however, reflects only a small fraction of the billions of primary-source documents that the government claims Mueller’s team may have amassed over the course of its two-year investigation.

Those documents are a crucial national legacy, a key to understanding this important chapter in American history. But the public has not been allowed to see any of them. Until now.

[Read the documents here.]

Beginning last April, BuzzFeed News has pursued five separate Freedom of Information Act lawsuits to pry loose all the subpoenas and search warrants that Mueller’s team executed, as well as all the emails, memos, letters, talking points, legal opinions, and interview transcripts it generated. In short, we asked for all the communications of any kind that passed through the special counsel’s office. We also requested all of the documents that would reveal the discussions among Attorney General Bill Barr, former deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein, and other high-ranking officials about whether to charge President Donald Trump with obstruction.

Justice Department lawyers said the volume of records at issue could total 18 billion pages and could take centuries to produce.

[Make more work like this possible: become a BuzzFeed News member today.]

At a hearing earlier this month, US District Court Judge Reggie Walton was not sympathetic. “It shouldn’t fall on the backs of the citizens to wait years to find out what the government is up to,” he said. If the Justice Department couldn’t handle the request in a more timely fashion, he added, it should ask Congress for money to hire more help.

Today, in response to a court order, the Justice Department has released the first installment of documents: 500 pages of summaries of FBI interviews with witnesses, available here for the first time. Another installment will be released every month for at least the next eight years.

[We want your help! If you see something in these memos you can email reporter Jason Leopold at jason.leopold@buzzfeed.com or reach us securely at tips.buzzfeed.com.]

Known as “302 reports,” these summaries of interviews — which have been conducted with people such as former White House counsel Don McGahn, former attorney general Jeff Sessions, and Trump’s former fixer and lawyer Michael Cohen — are some of the most important and highly sought-after documents from Mueller’s investigation. They reveal what key players in the campaign told FBI agents about Russia, Trump, his business dealings, and his attempts to impede the special counsel’s investigation.

Matt Topic, the lawyer who argued these cases for BuzzFeed News, said the controversies surrounding Mueller’s report made the fight for these documents particularly urgent. “The reason we have a Freedom of Information Act is to make sure that the government is accountable to the people,” he said. Without it, people are powerless “to determine whether the government is telling us the truth or lying to us, whether it is playing favorites or playing fair, whether, as the president claims, the Justice Department engaged in an illegal, treasonous witch hunt or, as others have claimed, the president engaged in obstruction of justice and was given a free pass by the attorney general.”

After years of speculation and accusation, these documents offer a chance for everyone to view a key function of American democracy. That opportunity — hard-won, but enshrined anew with each additional FOIA release — commences today. It will last long after all the players have departed.

Some takeaways so far:

Manafort was pushing the conspiracy theory that Ukraine hacked the DNC as early as 2016


Page 14: In an April 2018 interview with the special counsel’s office, Rick Gates, who had served as deputy Trump campaign chair and long been Paul Manafort’s right-hand man, told investigators that after the campaign learned the DNC had been hacked, Manafort pushed the theory that Ukraine, not Russia, had orchestrated the attack. It’s a conspiracy theory that’s persisted in right-wing circles, even after the US Intelligence Community concluded Russia was involved, and one that Trump brought up in his July 2019 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

In a written memorandum of the July call released by the White House, Trump at one point says to Zelensky, “I would like you to find out what happened with this whole situation with Ukraine, they say CrowdStrike… I guess you have one of your wealthy people… The server, they say Ukraine has it.”

Read more on this.

Michael Cohen "had to keep Trump out of the messaging related to Russia"


From Page 74: "COHEN learned the message to have the Russia investigations end early from discussions with TRUMP, SEKULOW" and a third person who's name is redacted.

The document:


DOJ
From page 77, "Cohen has to keep Trump out of the messaging related to Russia" in preparation for his Congressional testimony.

The document:


DOJ
After the hacked DNC emails Trump told Gates "more leaks were coming"

Page 42, Rick Gates' 302:


DOJ
Manafort was advising the Trump campaign up until days before the election

Bannon’s emails show that Manafort was still advising the Trump campaign three days before the Nov. 8, 2016 election — despite having been fired in August — and the campaign’s need to hide that fact.

Manafort emailed Kushner on Nov. 5 and wrote that he was “feeling really good about our prospects on Tuesday.” He said that he was focused “on preserving the victory” and had sent Kushner “a memo deal[ing] with this concern.” Manafort wrote that he had sent the memo to “Reince” and “briefed Rick Gates and Hannity.”

Kushner forwarded the email to Bannon the same day and asked him what he thought.

“We need to avoid this guy like the plague,” Bannon said in an email to Kushner dated Nov. 5. “Paul is nice guy [sic] but can’t let word get out he is advising us.”

“They are going to try to say the Russians worked with wiki leaks [sic] to give this victory to us.”

Related document on page 238, email from Steve Bannon to Jared Kushner:


DOJ
Page 29, Rick Gates's 302:

Gates said Trump's "Russia if you're listening" line was an "ad lib" and that he recalled "staff meetings conversations about 'someone out there has to have the missing emails.'"

Related document:


DOJ
Page 122, Stephen Bannon's 302:

"Bannon described Cohen as the kind of guy who thought it would be a good idea to send $130,000 to Stormy Daniels."

Page 230:

Trump supporter and associate Ted Malloch emailed Bannon before the first debate and said Trump should start by handing Hillary Clinton a "writ of indictment."


DOJ
Page 118, Bannon's 302:

"Bannon had been working on a proposal to move the Israeli capital to Jerusalem, the Christian right movement, putting money into a 501(c)(4) using UAE money or "those guys"which didn't end up happening, and putting together a security conference over in the Middle East in the Spring/Summer of 2017. Bannon last saw Nader 2 to 3 months ago. Bannon had too much going on with the C4 and life in general. Bannon had seen that the Special Counsel' s Office had called Nader to the Grand Jury, but Nader had not reached out to Bannon.

Page 109, Bannon's 302:

"Bannon knew Kushner was on vacation off the coast of Croatia with a Russian billionaire when Bannon took over the campaign. Kushner was with Wendy Deng, the Russian billionaire, and the Russian's girlfriend. Bannon said his friends in the intelligence community said the girlfriend was "questionable." Bannon called Kushner and told him to come back from vacation. They had 85 days to go, no money and they needed Kushner to come back and firePaul Manafort."

Page 111, Bannon's 302:

Bannon first met Trump in August of 2010. Their first meeting was approximately 2 hours long. David Bossie was present and said that Trump was thinking of running for president in 2012 . Bannon said "for what country?"

Page 265, Cohen's 302:

Regarding Donald Trump Jr.'s meeting with a Russian lawyer at Trump Tower in 2016:


DOJ
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ja ... et-memos-1

ATTORNEY GENERAL BILL BARR HAS A HIGHER OPINION OF GEORGE PAPADOPOULOS’ DIRT THAN STEVE BANNON DOES

November 2, 2019/17 Comments/in 2016 Presidential Election, 2020 Presidential Election, Impeachment, Mueller Probe /by emptywheel
I’m working my way through the Mueller 302s that Jason Leopold liberated. But given current events, I thought it worthwhile to elevate this passage from a February 14, 2018 interview Mueller’s office had with Steve Bannon.

Bannon never worked with Papadopoulos on setting up the meetings despite Papadopoulos’s offers through email. Bannon would generally blow off Papadopoulos and thought to himself “I don’t need this guy.” Flynn would be on the hook for the meetings Papadopoulos was suggesting, and Bannon did not need Papadopoulos. Papadopoulos never told Bannon about the Russians having dirt on Clinton, and Bannon never heard Papadopoulos tell anyone else in the campaign, such as Sam Clovis, that the Russians had dirt on Clinton. Bannon had all the dirt he needed from Clinton Cash and Uranium One, he didn’t need any more dirt. Bannon didn’t need any more dirt from “clowns” like Papadopoulos and Clovis. (PDF 125)

Bannon, who remembered virtually nothing about his extensive interactions with Erik Prince (whom he admitted to respecting), remembered distinctly that he blew off all George Papadopoulos’ offers to help set up a meeting with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, even though he admitted knowing he had to find a way to make Trump look credible as a Commander in Chief.

After stating (months after Papadopoulos’ plea deal was announced) that he didn’t remember hearing anything about Papadopoulos offering dirt, Bannon then said he didn’t need dirt from Papadopoulos, as if it had been offered.

Anyway, Steven Bannon, who hangs out with some pretty dodgy types, calls Papadopoulos and his investigative leads a “Clown.”

That would mean that the Attorney General of the United States, who has been traveling the world on a wild goose chase for something — anything!! — that might corroborate Papadopoulos’ conspiracy theories, has a higher estimation of Papadopoulos’ dirt than Steve Bannon.

https://www.emptywheel.net/2019/11/02/a ... ve-bannon/

Michael Flynn offered to use his intelligence contacts to get Hillary Clinton’s emails: Mueller memos
Published 14 hours ago on November 2, 2019 By Matthew Chapman

The newly released cache of memos from former special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into President Donald Trump’s contacts with Russia contained several new startling facts — one of which was that, according to political consultant Rick Gates’ testimony to federal prosecutors, former Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn suggested he could use his connections to the intelligence community to get Hillary Clinton’s supposedly “missing” emails, then an obsession of Trump’s.

“Gates recalled a time on the campaign aircraft when candidate Trump said, ‘get the emails,'” said the memo. “Flynn said he could use his intelligence sources to obtain the emails.”

The memo went on to say that Flynn “was adamant the Russians did not carry out the hack” of the Democratic National Committee or Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta, and “to support this theory Flynn advised, based on his experience, the United States Intelligence Community (USIC) was not capable of figuring it out.”


all the work while crying
@Pasha_Spider
· 17h
Replying to @renato_mariotti
I bet @pwnallthethings and @emptywheel will find this interesting re: General Flynn's bragging he could "find the emails" ... https://twitter.com/renato_mariotti/sta ... 6042497024 …
View image on TwitterView image on Twitter
Renato Mariotti
✔
@renato_mariotti
"Gates recalled a time on the campaign aircraft when candidate Trump said, 'get the emails.' Flynn said he could use his intelligence sources to obtain the emails." https://twitter.com/ZoeTillman/status/1 ... 4756149249 …

all the work while crying
@Pasha_Spider
(relevant section, p 17) https://www.documentcloud.org/documents ... ocument/p4 …
View image on Twitter

17
12:18 PM - Nov 2, 2019
Twitter Ads info and privacy

See all the work while crying's other Tweets

Gates pleaded guilty to conspiracy against the United States and making false statements to investigators, and went on to testify against his former associate, Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, now serving a seven-year prison sentence for bank fraud and tax evasion.

Flynn, who briefly served as Trump’s National Security Adviser, initially cooperated with prosecutors after pleading guilty to false statements himself, but later unsuccessfully tried to challenge the legitimacy of the Mueller investigation in court. His sentencing is scheduled to take place in December.
https://www.rawstory.com/2019/11/michae ... ler-memos/

DIRT
Trump’s Ukraine Conspiracy Theory Came From Paul Manafort During His 2016 Campaign: Mueller Notes
The trove of emails stolen by a Kremlin-linked hacker were embraced by Trump’s campaign as a helpful distraction, but his then-campaign chairman blamed Ukraine from the get-go.

Scott Bixby
National Reporter
Updated 11.02.19 9:12PM ET
Published 11.02.19 6:43PM ET

Scott Olson/Getty
President Donald Trump’s obsession with obtaining emails hacked from the Democratic National Committee’s servers in 2016 was a topic of near-constant conversation at the highest levels of his campaign, a massive tranche of documents relating to the special counsel investigation reveals.

The documents, the result of a pair Freedom of Information Act lawsuits filed by BuzzFeed News and CNN, show that the Trump campaign was “very happy” with the public release of the emails, the hacking of which was eventually traced by the U.S. intelligence community to the Kremlin.

But even as early as 2016, a top Trump aide placed the blame for the hack on Ukraine—echoing the same conspiracy theory recently revived by Trump and his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, to justify their pressure campaign on that country’s leaders.

According to notes from an April 2018 interview with Rick Gates, a former deputy chair of Trump’s campaign, then-Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was insistent in 2016 that Ukraine—rather than Russia—was behind the hacking of the DNC servers, a baseless accusation that Trump has recently used to apparently explain away his request for Ukrainian authorities to investigate the 2016 election and his political opponents.

That request, captured in a July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in which Trump reminds the new Ukrainian leader of America’s generosity before asking for a “favor,” is currently at the center of an ongoing impeachment inquiry.

According to Gates, Manafort said that the hacking was “likely carried out by the Ukrainians, not the Russians,” a theory also advocated by Manafort associate Konstantin Kilimnik, as well as Flynn, whom Gates described as “adamant” that Russia was not involved in the hacking.

The newly released documents suggest that the Trump campaign embraced the release of the stolen emails. At times, members of the Trump campaign were so impatient waiting for the potential release of more emails that they floated names of potential staffers who could be tasked with pursuing them personally.

“[Michael] Flynn said he could use his intelligence sources to obtain the emails,” investigators wrote after interviewing Gates, who said that Flynn “had the most Russia contacts of anyone on the campaign,” and was therefore “in the best position to ask for the emails if they were out there.”

Gates also recalled an instance on the Trump campaign airplane when Trump urged his staffers to “get the emails,” and name checked a veritable who’s who of Trumpworld figures who had expressed an interest in obtaining the emails, ranging from campaign staffers Paul Manafort, Corey Lewandowski, and Sam Clovis to members of Trump’s own family, including Donald Trump, Jr. and Jared Kushner.

Jeff Sessions, who would eventually serve as Trump’s long-suffering attorney general and who would eventually be forced to recuse himself from overseeing the Russia investigation, “expressed interest in obtaining the emails as well,” according to investigators’ notes.

“Trump was frustrated the releases weren’t happening,” according to investigators’ notes after interviewing Gates.

The 274-page, partially redacted cache of documents—part of a motherlode of interview summaries, memos, emails, transcripts, and legal opinions generated by Robert Mueller’s investigation into potential links between the Trump campaign and attempts by the Russian government to interfere with the 2016 presidential election—is the first installment of dozens set to be released by the Justice Department over the next eight years in response to a court order.

"Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney takes questions during a news briefing at the White House in Washington, U.S., October 17, 2019. REUTERS/Leah Millis - RC1C1500D100"
Mulvaney Admits Trump’s Ukraine Quid Pro Quo: ‘Get Over It’

More Potential Whistleblowers Are Contacting Congress
The first installment is composed of summaries of interviews with key figures within Trump’s campaign and presidential administration, including former White House adviser Stephen Bannon, former Trump Organization attorney and convicted felon Michael Cohen, Gates, and others.

The interview summaries provide an unvarnished look at the inner workings of the Trump campaign, which was almost singularly fixated on the DNC email hackings—and how best to exploit them for Trump’s political gain.

According to the interview summary of investigators’ conversation with Gates, the campaign viewed the hacked emails as, at a minimum, as a “mode of deflection” after Trump accused former opponent Sen. Ted Cruz’s father of potential involvement with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Following the release of some of the emails by Wikileaks, Gates said, Manafort and another redacted person “were happy from a communications team perspective” for the distraction from Trump’s comments that Cruz “never denied” that his father was pictured by the National Enquirer at breakfast with Lee Harvey Oswald three months before the president’s murder.

Gates also noted that he anticipated additional leaks to come after Trump himself said that “more leaks were coming.”

Trump wasn’t the only one who claimed to have advanced knowledge of coming email leaks. Gates told federal investigators that the Republican National Committee, too, indicated that they knew the timing of future email drops. “Gates did not specify who at the RNC knew this information,” the interview notes say. “Gates said the only non-public information the RNC had was related to the timing of the release.”

Gates also told investigations that Manafort told him to “periodically call” a certain someone to “ check in on where the information was and when it would be coming,” though that person’s name has been redacted in the released documents.

In 2018, Gates pleaded guilty to conspiracy against the United States and to making false statements to investigators, part of a plea bargain that required full cooperation with Mueller’s investigation. He has not yet been sentenced.

Trump’s conspiracism extended to the Russia investigation itself, according to interview notes from a sit-down investigators conducted with Bannon. In the interview, Bannon told investigators that Trump had told him about “issues” involving Mueller and Trump’s golf course in Virginia, which Trump later suggested were an indicator of anti-Trump bias by the man at the head of the investigation into his campaign’s connections to the Kremlin.

Manafort—who is currently serving an eight-year prison sentence on charges of tax fraud, bank fraud, failure to disclose foreign bank accounts, and conspiracy—is also revealed in the documents to have been advising the Trump campaign long after he left his position as campaign chair following questions about his connections to former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and other pro-Russian Ukrainian politicians.

Manafort was fired, according to Bannon’s interview with the FBI, after Kushner and wife Ivanka Trump were recalled from a vacation off the coast of Croatia with a Russian billionaire to do so. Bannon told investigators that friends in the intelligence community had called the Russian billionaire’s girlfriend, who was on the vacation, “questionable.”

According to an email to Kushner three days before Election Day, Manafort wrote that he was feeling “really good about our prospects on Tuesday,” and that he had sent Kushner and RNC chair Reince Priebus a memo on “preserving the victory” in the election. According to the email, he had also briefed Gates and Fox News host Sean Hannity, a figure who appeared in the Trump campaign offices “often,” according to Gates’ interviews.

In response, Bannon told Kushner that the campaign needed to avoid Manafort “like the plague.”

“Paul is nice guy but can’t let word get out he is advising us,” Bannon wrote. “They are going to try to say the Russians worked with wiki leaks to give this victory to us.”

—with additional reporting by Kelly Weill
https://www.thedailybeast.com/get-the-e ... ref=scroll