Whispers seem to be pointing the finger toward Kushner

https://www.bloomberg.com/view/artic...contact-russia

Also a bit of sleight of hand happens with "it's not collusion" which slides into "there's nothing illegal" going on here. The part that's not illegal IS the collusion. So saying that Trump colluded with Russia, but that, for whatever reason, that's not illegal could be said, but usually those saying "nothing here is illegal" do it as a way to sidestep admitting collusion.

I'm not going to relitigate this, so I'll write this and you can have the last word:

He promised to keep Congress informed on the progress of the investigation. And he has a legal obligation to tell Congress if his testimony was no longer accurate. Two separate things. Either could justify sending the letter.

1) The letter detailed that the FBI learned of the existence of emails that appeared pertinent to the investigation they had already concluded, which didn't contradict his original testimony. Supplemental evidence that emerges after the case doesn't mean the testimony he gave at the time was inaccurate. So the case to send the letter based on the fact his original testimony was inaccurate is specious.

2) And sure, he has the obligation to keep Congress updated. Two days before the election, the FBI says they the emails didn't change its conclusion that Clinton should not face charges.

Why not wait until AFTER the FBI investigates the emails to determine if they actually contained any incriminating information BEFORE sending the update?

This is a beaten to death story, but he had no legal need to update his original testimony at that specific moment and he could have updated Congress after investigating the emails, not as he discovers them but before he investigates them. WHY did he feel compelled to update Congress that he learned of the existence of new emails but before he could conclude anything from them?

I'll let you answer.

Wouldn't be surprised but I do know it's not Trump and certainly not Pence. I keep saying to wake me up when someone has information saying that Trump or anyone contacted Russian in June July August September or October in 2016. Until then nobody other than far left nut jobs has any interest in this junk

There is, and it's 18 USC 953, as previously cited.

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/953

Without the authority of the United States, represented by the serving President at that time, such contact would appear to be unlawful. The special prosecutor and his team have exercised leverage over Lt-Gen Flynn in the matter, and he has turned federal witness against those who ordered him to make that contact, which implies that the prosecutor and Flynn's own counsel believe there was a legal breach.

I don't think anybody is going to be waking you up from your self-induced coma.

BMOL thinks Flynn is taking a plea deal to get out of charges for non-existent crimes he didn't commit. Oh, big news about Flynn pleading guilty to lying to the FBI? LOL silly liberals, they got a plea out of him even though there were no crimes at all!

The gaslighting is real.

lol this kid

conspiring with a foreign and hostile nation, with the goal of hacking the election (a criminal act)

its ****ing treason man

nutsack, in a live, televised campaign rally, he implored the russians to hack hillary's emails


guess thats not enough for you

I've been trying to explain to Chiefsplanet how plea deals work all morning to no avail.

Right wingers: gonna be a boring day in court listening to Flynn testify about all these legal things. Boy is everyone's face gonna be red when they discover this is all legal, says morons on internet. Too bad Flynn took a plea deal here, if he had just talked to BMOL and the other internet lawyers he'd have discovered there was no need because no crimes were even committed.

We seem to be giving ground a bit. First it was "these meetings were with low level employees who didn't have anything to do with the campaign" now we're up the for former National Security Advisor (!) and top campaign aid and possibly the (unelected) son(!) and obvious top 2 campaign adviser to Donald Trump. There's not any reason to think that Trump hadn't heard of these things or gave the order himself.

Never mind how this makes Trump look if he didn't hear about all this stuff going on. It makes him look like a puppet of Flynn and Kushner (assuming Kushner did direct Flynn and not tell Trump)

Since you KNOW what happened you should go talk Mueller and let him know he's wasting his time...

Any info on where Pence was on 12/29/16?

Flynn, sitting behind the witness stand, looking sternly at a federal grand jury: Donald Trump told me to contact the Russi...

<BMOL33 bursts through the courthouse doors, sweat dripping from his brow>

BMOL33: Everyone does realize there is nothing illegal about it even if Flynn says Trump told him to contact the Russians?

<everyone looks around dazzled, confused, shocked>

Grand jury: we're sorry for your trouble here Mr Flynn, you can leave now

Mueller: curses!

lol bmol

#justdoinghisjob

Really enjoying Cobb's statement and fox talking heads emphasize the point that all that happened today was Pence admitted he was guilty and we already know he was a liar.. which is true. But it's like they are just purposely ignoring the fact that Mueller is is never ever letting Flynn off this light if Flynn hasn't flipped in a manner that ends up with an indictment on someone else. It's like they think a plea deal is agreed to before the prosecutor knows what the new state's witness knows rather than the complete other way around

You are right that this shouldn’t be a huge discussion now but it should be pointed out that Comey testified that he was told that there was no chance an update could be made before the election. He then said that they were only able to sort through the emails to make that judgment because of some innovative thinking or something.

So he felt his choice was between concealing there was new information (that they hadn’t made a judgment on) or doing what he did.

BMOL reminds me of those internet libertarian types who run around saying there is positively no legal obligation WHATSOEVER to pay incomes taxes because the 16th Amendment was ILLEGALLY ratified because Ohio wasn't really a state until 1953 or some completely ludicrous bull****.

And then you poke around a bit and ask these people if they pay taxes. "Well of course I do," they say. "This is all true, but I'm no dummy, and not paying your taxes is a bad idea" they say.

So is BMOL not familiar with the Watergate saying "It's not the crime, it's the cover up"?

Even if there is a legal argument to be made that it's totally OK to get oppo research from a foreign government, Trump seems to be going to an awful lot of trouble to prevent anyone from finding out about it, including firing the FBI director.

Edit: Even if the inevitable outcome of the FBI investigation would have been that no crime was committed, asking the FBI director to go drop the investigation into Flynn and then firing him shortly after seems to be obstruction, no? The only reason it's taken this long to get here is because it's 2017 and nothing matters anymore.

I feel like we're losing our international legitimacy

https://www.indy100.com/article/dona...muslim-8084426

Was coming here to say this. 1 count of false statements is really light compared to what Manafort was hit with. Usually when a plea deal involves a light sentence, either the prosecutor doesn't have much if a case, or the witness has a lot to offer. The only info Flynn could have that justifies that leniency is handing over Trump on a platter.

Absolutely none of this matters unless and until congress decides enough is enough.

Congress will never decide enough is enough until most of their people care more about this than putting the browns back in their place, owning the libtards, and making it safe to say Merry Christmas again.

And even in the absolutely impossible event that happens, we get Pence.

Trump should have fired Mueller 4-6 weeks ago. I'm not sure why he didn't to be honest.