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Obstruction Inquiry Shows Trump’s Struggle to Keep Grip on Russia Investigation

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https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/04/us/politics/trump-sessions-russia-mcgahn.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

Drip...Drip...Drip...

More evidence for obstruction.

Obstruction Inquiry Shows Trump’s Struggle to Keep Grip on Russia Investigation

By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT
JAN. 4, 2018

WASHINGTON — President Trump gave firm instructions in March to the White House’s top lawyer: stop the attorney general, Jeff Sessions, from recusing himself in the Justice Department’s investigation into whether Mr. Trump’s associates had helped a Russian campaign to disrupt the 2016 election.

Public pressure was building for Mr. Sessions, who had been a senior member of the Trump campaign, to step aside. But the White House counsel, Donald F. McGahn II, carried out the president’s orders and lobbied Mr. Sessions to remain in charge of the inquiry, according to two people with knowledge of the episode.

Mr. McGahn was unsuccessful, and the president erupted in anger in front of numerous White House officials, saying he needed his attorney general to protect him. Mr. Trump said he had expected his top law enforcement official to safeguard him the way he believed Robert F. Kennedy, as attorney general, had done for his brother John F. Kennedy and Eric H. Holder Jr. had for Barack Obama.

Mr. Trump then asked, “Where’s my Roy Cohn?” He was referring to his former personal lawyer and fixer, who had been Senator Joseph R. McCarthy’s top aide during the investigations into communist activity in the 1950s and died in 1986.
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And this:

The special counsel has received handwritten notes from Mr. Trump’s former chief of staff, Reince Priebus, showing that Mr. Trump talked to Mr. Priebus about how he had called Mr. Comey to urge him to say publicly that he was not under investigation. The president’s determination to fire Mr. Comey even led one White House lawyer to take the extraordinary step of misleading Mr. Trump about whether he had the authority to remove him.

The New York Times has also learned that four days before Mr. Comey was fired, one of Mr. Sessions’s aides asked a congressional staff member whether he had damaging information about Mr. Comey, part of an apparent effort to undermine the F.B.I. director. It was not clear whether Mr. Mueller’s investigators knew about this episode.
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Trump also asked Mike Rogers of the NSA for help in the Russia probe, in a way similar to that of Comey.

Trump Tried to Convince NSA Chief to Absolve Him of Any Russian Collusion: Report
A recent National Security Agency memo documents a phone call in which U.S. President Donald Trump pressures agency chief Admiral Mike Rogers to state publicly that there is no evidence of collusion between his campaign and Russia, say reports.

The memo was written by Rick Ledgett, the former deputy director of the NSA, sources familiar with the memo told The Wall Street Journal. Ledgett stepped down from his job this spring.

The memo said Trump questioned the American intelligence community findings that Russia interfered in the 2016 election. American intelligence agencies issued a report early this year that found Russian intelligence agencies hacked the country’s political parties and worked to sway the election to Trump.
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There's so much obstruction of justice and abuse of office, it's already massively bigger than Watergate. Now let's see if the douche can avoid lying under oath to a grand jury.
 
He sure does seem nervous about any investigation of "this Russia thing."
 
Trump's gonna plead insanity. He'll probably get off on it. Trump's either insane or flat out evil. Either way he might be fitted for a straight jacket when he goes for his physical. And mental. Very mental.
 
Yeah so there's so many bombshells in this NYT article...

- President Trump sent McGahn to prevent Sessions from recusing himself on Russia so that Sessions could protect him. (Gee, why would he need protection?)
- One of McGahn's deputy lawyers misled President Trump on his authority to fire Comey in an attempt to prevent the action because the lawyer thought it would force the DOJ to appoint a special counsel. Oh, and this deputy was a former DOJ lawyer.
- One of Sessions deputies went to a congressional aide to ask for dirt on Comey.
- Priebus reportedly took notes detailing how President Trump urged Comey to publicly state that the president was not under investigation.
- Rosenstein had a letter written by President Trump and Steven Miller over a weekend at Bedminster detailing justification for firing Comey on the basis of the Russia investigation being both fabricated and political. (Gee, why would he feel the need to go to these lengths to defend himself from "fabricated" allegations?)
- When McGahn failed to prevent Sessions' recusal, President Trump "erupted in anger" saying that he needed protection from the AG.
- When President Trump tried to dictate the Don Jr statement from Air Force One, his lawyers considered it an explicit attempt to throw sand into the gears of the investigation.

This isn't a smoking gun, it's a smoking crater. It's rather hard to imagine a more ironclad case for obstruction of justice.
 
The lost souls that work in the West Wing are no longer called staff. Their new title is witness. Witness for the prosecution.
 
I'm thinking the media should be reporting this leaked stuff to Mueller instead of splashing it all over the media.

Oh...wait...maybe it's MUELLER who is leaking this stuff?
 
Mycroft said:
I'm thinking the media should be reporting this leaked stuff to Mueller instead of splashing it all over the media.

Oh...wait...maybe it's MUELLER who is leaking this stuff?
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Mycroft said:
I'm thinking the media should be reporting this leaked stuff to Mueller instead of splashing it all over the media.

Oh...wait...maybe it's MUELLER who is leaking this stuff?
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It doesn't matter who's leaking it. What's interesting is what isn't being leaked. Why do you think it is that republican congresspeople are refusing to release the testimonies of the FusionGPS founders?
 
Glen Contrarian said:
Hmph. Trump could be holding a smoking AK47 while standing over a body riddled with bullets, and y'all would STILL be saying it's a nothingburger....
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And some unnamed source could claim he saw Trump paying hookers to piss on a bed and you'll believe it's god's own truth.
 
Khayembii Communique said:
It doesn't matter who's leaking it. What's interesting is what isn't being leaked. Why do you think it is that republican congresspeople are refusing to release the testimonies of the FusionGPS founders?
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Why should contents of closed hearings be leaked? Oh...wait...because Schiff does it, it's okay?

In any case, it's not just up to Republicans whether testimony is made public. Maybe you should be asking why the Democrats on the committee won't release the stuff.
 
Tanngrisnir said:
Smell that? It's fear.

And fear is ****ing delicious.

This will be a glorious year.
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Not fear...boredom.

If I were you, I'd be more worried about the investigations into the Obama DOJ and FBI.
 
Mycroft said:
Not fear...boredom.

If I were you, I'd be more worried about the investigations into the Obama DOJ and FBI.
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Ha! Why would I worry about things that don't exist?

Your fear is like a grilled cheese sandwich.

Everyone can eat it, and the Russians play tug-ball with you.

Delicous beyond all reason
 
Greenbeard said:
He sure does seem nervous about any investigation of "this Russia thing."
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You mean that same investigation that will find no collusion, that he mentioned 16 times in the NYT interview? :lol:

Everybody knows it. Everybody knows there's no collusion.
 
Tanngrisnir said:
Ha! Why would I worry about things that don't exist?

Your fear is like a grilled cheese sandwich.

Everyone can eat it, and the Russians play tug-ball with you.

Delicous beyond all reason
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You think the Congressional investigations into the Obama DOJ and FBI don't exist? Do you also deny the DOJ OIG investigation into the Obama FBI doesn't exist?
 
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